#godwars

Fanart of Tsukuyomi, the Moon Goddess, from God Wars :)

History: Taneirths are a race that started as warrior-slaves of a mad god hellbent on conquering the world and drenching it in blood of all sentient races. Their society was led by the high priests and oracles of slaughter, hordes whipped into killing frenzy and marching under the cover of clouds that rained blood. They seemed unstoppable.

And then, their god died, and without him, the religious leaders of their race received no more guidance. Without the military genius of the divine intelligence, their hordes were easily scattered to the four winds by the armies of the civilized races, and taneirths were forced to accept defeat. Their time of glory was over. Now, few centuries after that great war, taneirths managed to build some relations with other races, although they aren’t healthy.

Physical description: Taneirths are universally tall and commonly leanly muscular, with no discernable difference between the sexes except for hidden genitalia. Average taneirth is about 6′4 and weights 240 pounds.

Their skintones range from clot-brown to vivid scarlet of arterial blood, their eyes have black sclerae and irises in various warm hues. Their most distinguishing mark are their bone growths, jutting out of their skin, covering their sensitive places in the bone-white plates as well as giving them fearsome natural weaponry in the form of wickedly sharp spurs that grow from their forearms. Their lack hair of any sort, but bony growths on their heads, cheeks and chins look similar enough, with symmetrical and long chin spurs being seen as an attractive trait.

Alignment: Back in the days of their race's campaign of terror, one would be hard pressed to find a taneirth that wasn't chaotic or evil. Their horde's culture emphasized the pleasures of violence and preached superiority of strong over weak, with taneirths being the strongest of all sentient races. With their god's ultimate defeat, and horde's breakdown into wandering, beaten down people, few trends emerged.

Those caught by slavers were treated just as any work animal would be, their already savage mind turning nearly completely feral. Though some individuals manage to hold on the shred of sanity and dignity in the sea of misery, most feral taneirths are chaotic evil.

Those free, marauding tribes live off plunder and sometimes of semi-legitimate protection rackets of secluded villages, where the rule of law doesn't reach. They serve as the closest thing such hamlets have to defenders, though, and some of them find gratitude a better payment than fear. They're more likely to be chaotic neutral, rarely chaotic evil, though relatively often chaotic good.

The 'civilized' taneirths, who sought refuge in the cities of their ancient enemies and accepted their subjugation, can be of any alignment, though the second-class citizen treatment they get from the 'goodly' folk rarely makes them eager to support any authority. They tend to be of any non-lawful alignment, though if there's a lawful taneirth, they're a cityborn.

Adventurers: All taneirths feel the need to shed blood, and it only grows the more powerful they get. A career as a wandering slayer of monsters is one of the more acceptable ways to sate this urge, and despite their bad reputation, taneirth fighters, barbarians, bloodragers and even an odd warpriest or oracle aren't uncommon amongst the adventuring party. They're uniquely disadvantaged when fighting most of the undead and constructs, though, as the bloodless creatures don't satisfy the taneirth need for bloodshed.

Names: Naming convention is simple. There are no 'feminine' or 'masculine' names, only adding to the confusion other races feel when trying to correctly guess what pronouns they should use. Names are either short, or easily shortened, and scratched markings on chest bone armor tell other taneirths all they need to know about one another's ancestry. Typical names include: Vargruka, Darmrana, Errat, Arazat, Akra, Dorna, Urmika, Tirrm, Inash.

Standard Racial Traits: Ability Score Increase: Taneirths are built for war. They gain +2 to Strength and + 2 to Dexterity, but suffer -2 to Intelligence Type: Taneirths are humanoid with taneirth subtype. Size: Taneirths are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size. Base Speed: Taneirths have a base speed of 30 feet. Languages: Taneirths begin play speaking Common and Taneirth. Taneirths with high Intelligence can select additional languages from the following: Gnome, Orc, Abyssal, Draconic and Giant.

Defense Racial Traits:

Bone Armor: Taneirths' bodies are covered with articulated plate of bone, strong enough to provide protection from blows, but allow for some flexiblity. They gain + 2 Natural Armor Class. Due to the spurs of bone jutting out of their skin and plates it is much harder for them to find armor that fits them - they cannot wear any armor that wasn't build or remade to fit them, requiring a visit to the armorsmith and paying the cost of the armor (for retrofitting) or twice the cost (for making a fitting armor). Strong Stomach: Taneirths gain +2 racial bonus to rolls to resist being Nauseated or Sickened by grisly scenes or effects that attempt to use blood, viscera or similar imagery to cause disgust in the viewers.

Offense Racial Traits:

Sharp Spurs: All taneirths gain 2 1d6  natural attacks in form of spurs of bone jutting out of their forearms. They're treated as 'attacking unarmed' for the purpose of all martial art feats and class features that demand for the character to be unarmed while using those spurs, as they specifically include training with them into their training regime.

Senses Racial Traits:

Limited Scent: Taneirths can use scent universal monster ability, except they only can track blood or bloodied targets. Darkvision: Taneirths can see in the dark up to 60 feet.

Weakness Racial Traits:

Bloodletting Urge: Taneirths suffer from a complusion to shed blood that is as psychological as is it physical. Every day, they must cause hit point damage equal to 2 times their Hit Dice to targets that can bleed - even to themselves, if there's no other target. Certain spells can produce blood to satiate this bloodlust but there are no means for the Taneirths to be completely freed of it.

Variant Racial Traits:

Feral: Some taneirths are even more savage than their bloodthirsty kin, whether is it because of their upbringing or inborn nature. They gain pounce and 2 rake attacks, as their foot claws grow stronger and tough enough to pierce flesh. However, their socialization suffer even further - they can only speak broken Common or Taneirth, and cannot write or read. This trait modifies the Languages and  Sharp Spurs racial traits.

Cityborn: At the counterpoint of the feral taneirths, their kin which lives within the civilized lands had forsaken much of their race's violent roots, but limited exposure to blood dulled their need for it. They only need to infict half the amount of hitpoints they usually would, and gain Knowledge (Local) as their class skill. This trait modifies Bloodletting Urge and replaces Scent racial trait.