#osharu

Oh how I've missed my evil scientist sea slug alien~

Old unfinished piece for a zine project that fizzled out. Just decided to go ahead and finish it up now anyway!

(art by tukuart1 on DeviantArt)

When one looks up at space, one’s eyes are drawn to the stars, the celestial bodies, and everything that is, well, visible.

But the truth is, there is an unfathomable vastness between each of those lights. Even the closest ones like our moon are agonizingly out of reach save by the most extreme and powerful methods. And in a traditional fantasy and science fantasy setting like the Lost Omens and Pact Worlds eras of the unified setting of the two games, such vast emptiness is home to things that expand and distort mortal conception of what is possible, and more often than not is hazardously indifferent or outright cruel to “normal” life.

In Pathfinder and Starfinder’s core settings, Desna is the goddess of the stars, but many fans of the lore will also remember her dim reflection, Black Butterfly, who presides over those vast empty stretches and acts as a warrior against the depredations of great old ones, outer gods, and other horrors that shun the light and prey upon life that orbits stars.

While Black Butterfly has her own worshippers, one of her more notable organizations of devotees in the Pact Worlds are the disciples of stillness, a tradition that originated with the kasatha people, who seek to achieve ascetic emptiness and reject worldly attachments in order to hone themselves to fight against the evils between the stars as their goddess does. For their efforts, they achieve techniques and powers associated with that goal.

Now obviously, you don’t have to be a kasatha or even be a worshipper of Black Butterfly to take this path, and while many of her devotees remain at her temple aboard the Idari, others travel abroad or settle down, teaching the next generation. Additionally, many also take vows of silence, celibacy, or abstain from other pleasures in their pursuit of enlightenment. Like all paths to better self-understanding, there is no one path.

But let’s take a look at what benefits these ascetics gain from their choice!

Like the paladins of old, Black Butterfly blesses these ascetics with the ability to sense evil, a handy tool indeed when many horrors beyond the stars are difficult to see with the naked eye or wear inconspicuous shapes.

Their training also mirrors the monks of old, giving them a physique capable of greater speed with any and all traversal methods.

The prayers of these warriors are silent, and with a bit of resolve they can even use them to center themselves and recover a bit of their stamina, albeit only once a day. With even more resolve they also gain some additional reserves of vitality on top of that.

The most powerful among them though are able to achieve a supernatural state of absolute stillness, becoming as dark as the shadows between stars. Effectively, light bends around them as they slow their heart rate, breathing, and metabolic processes, making them invisible and undetectable to most senses and mechanical sensors. What’s more, their bodies become almost like inert matter despite still being able to move and act, becoming immune to frailties of the flesh for the full two minutes that this state typically lasts. (Fun fact, this ability is outright banned in Starfinder Society liveplay, and it’s easy to understand why. Getting so many blanket immunities on top of incredible stealth in a format where you only fight in like, three combats at most and then have everything fully recharged for the next scenario with the implied time passage is a bit broken. It’s actually pretty rare to see an ability that you’re not allowed to use in Society Play.)

Blending a little bit of paladin with some monk is nice, as it getting a minor stamina heal and a high level neat ability. Naturally, soldiers, solarians, and vanguards are a decent choice whether you go unarmed or not, and those classes are outright mentioned by name in the archetype’s lore blurb. However, don’t think you’re limited to just martial classes here. Imagine a mechanic seeking enlightenment alongside their AI partner, or any number of mages seeing such introspection as a good complement to their own studies of their mystical abilities. Indeed, this archetype’s mobility and healing is just as good at playing keep away with foes as it is with rushing into combat.

Truly, archetypes like this demonstrate how many different ways there are to exist and be. There are plenty of ascetic groups in Starfinder, but the fact of the matter is, the Disciples of Stillness don’t seek such enlightenment for purely their own benefit. Instead they use it to open their minds so as to not crack under the strain of the strangeness of the horrors they must face, and of course, gaining the skill and might to do just that. Some might not call it a pure journey, but I don’t think the people so elitist as to say things like that are actually seeking enlightenment themselves, not in a way that matters.

The party has come across an unusual circumstance. When they took a mission with Disciples of Stillness to raid a rogue planet for relics stolen by the dark-dwelling horrors that live there, they did not expect to find a frozen cadaver in the vault, and certainly not that it would get up and talk to them. Turns out the undead creature is Reskaagyr, a powerful necrovite that sought undead to persist long enough to hunt and destroy the very same horrors the party now faces. While grateful to be freed from imprisonment, the monks can’t help but wonder if he can truly be trusted.

As professional negotiators, the party is used to dealing with disputes, but never one quite like this. On one side, an osharu research team eagerly studying a relic found drifting in an asteroid belt, and on the other, a kasatha enclave that want the object destroyed with extreme prejudice. Both claim a religious imperative for their  desires, and have compelling arguments on their side, with the osharu pointing out that studying the relic could give clues to better fighting the foes the kasatha are eager to defeat.

I've joined a Starfinder game; this is Mendel, an Osharu xenobiologist field researcher (Operative built for stealth, observation, and scientific skills)

distinguishing characteristics:

pale, almost translucent skin

weak, noodly limbs

plastic rain poncho present at all times, ready to deploy in dry weather to keep moisture in

religious

usually glued to phone facetiming with university buddies

(art by Julian-Faylona on DeviantArt)

The fun thing about science fantasy is that it lets you explore some truly impossible and incredible things that you couldn’t get in a more grounded setting.

One of those things is the idea of alien species that actually dwell inside of stars, rather than on celestial bodies orbiting such stars.

Now usually stories of creatures living in starts are typically of the elemental variety, or perhaps “lava snake but instead of lava it’s the even hotter celestial plasma of a star”, but occasionally you get stories, such as those found in Starfinder, of advanced alien species that dwell comfortably in cities within such blistering cosmic furnaces.

This is easy enough to explain with the likes of efreet or other immigrants from the Plane of Fire, but some are creatures made out of flesh and blood that is just as vulnerable to immolation and complete obliteration as you or I, which means their advanced technology has to protect them from the heat, gravity, and general lack of breathability of the atmosphere of plasma around them.

And why not? If you have the technology to enter a star and not die, it only makes sense to try making a home within such stars. You’ve basically got infinite energy and the ultimate defense against invaders. Just remember to not degenerate as a society and forget how to maintain the shields keeping your home from being vaporized. Some cultures might have lived so long in such fiery seclusion that they’ve come to think of stars as islands of habitability in the inky blackness of the void, with planetbound species being considered too vulnerable to cosmic attack from their perspective.

Of course, such insular intrastellar species don’t exactly go about sharing the details of their cultures with outsiders, leading to those outsiders having to speculate about the specifics of these so-called “Deep Cultures” from afar whether they are still living or dead civilizations.

I’ll be honest, I both love and hate the name “Deep Culture” because it’s simultaneously completely nondescriptive to someone unfamiliar, but also the exact sort of thing a fringe cryptoanthropology group would call these mysterious civilizations to make it sound more snappy and like it’s something they assume everyone knows and cares about.

Needless to say, these scientists and enthusiasts learn a few tricks in their pursuit of knowledge, so let’s take a look.

It is an unfortunate truth that the heat and light of a star are the bane of any archaeologist or anthropologist, since anything they would study tends to get blasted into atoms. As such, these researchers learn minor magic to read the past events of a location and to identify magical relics, though only within the context of stellar locations.

Their research into stars and the magic associated with them allows them to inscribe temporary runes of stellar fire onto weapons, altering them to scorch foes and even set them alight.

While not total, the dream of exploring star-dwelling civilizations motivates these knowledge-seekers to learn wards to protect themselves from extreme heat and radiation.

A simple archetype, one that seems best suited for scholarly characters, but one that anyone might make use of. That being said, the fact that their earliest ability requires them to be on or in a star to function means that it’s also extremely specialized, to the point of getting no play if your campaign doesn’t center around exploring structures inside stars at all.

Despite being limited in what campaigns it shows up in, this archetype does present a useful template for homebrewing your own archetypes that follow the same formula.

As fringe as they are often regarded, it’s hard to imagine that the Stellar Society Study Group would turn away members, but such is the case with Tovanc Bruscadd, who is convinced that the person who murdered his wife disappeared into the star Heimus. It’s not that they don’t believe him, but rather his obsession with using their funds to hunt the killer down rather than study whatever cultures lie within is why they were forced to turn him away.

To hear him tell it, Professor Tubish has absolutely no interest in theoretical “Deep Cultures”. And yet despite this, the scholarly osharu finds his life’s work on the implanted horticulture from the ruins of Hokvar by leads traced back to the planet’s sun, suggesting that the ruins were created by one such culture. Of course he followed up on it all, but he isn’t happy about it.

(art by ArtxBite on DeviantArt)

Science fiction and fantasy have a long history of fuzzy-to-nonexistent borders, and that sometimes means you get knights in space, which is absolutely awesome.

Now, anyone can wear heavy armor and wield a mighty melee weapon at least some of the time, but being a knight implies some sort of higher calling or oath that these warriors adhere to, and such is the case with the Star Knight archetype.

In fact, the core setting goes as far as to give us not just the Knights of Golarion, but also various Hellknight orders, both seeking to bring order and law, but in different ways.

And so this archetype was among the first Starfinder archetypes that offered different options depending on what order you belonged to (as well as generic options for if you belong to a different order beyond what has officially been written down.)

As a result, these warriors boast a few common abilities but also unique ones, so lets have a look, shall we?

True to the iconic armor they wear, these warriors learn to work with better and better armor, as well as how to capitalize on it to sometimes negate potentially critical blows.

With a charge and mighty blow, these knights can strike fear into the hearts of their foes.

Those belonging to some other order learn how to keep their weapons safe in a fight when not going all-out.

Such generic knights also demonstrate tremendous willpower and discipline, making it hard to undermine them mentally.

Those last two are generic options, but there are also options available to the specific orders. These include The Order of the Chain teaching basic magic to inhibit enemy movement; The Order of the Furnace able to set their weapons alight; the Order of the Nail issuing magical commands; the Order of the Eclipses extinguishing light in an area; The Knights of Golarion infusing their weapons with holy might; The Order of the Pike giving melee weapons reach and fusing them with longarms; The Order of the Gate summoning loyal minions; and finally the Order of the Scourge compelling the truth.

And that’s just the level 6 ability options. At level 12, all Hellknight Orders can send foes reeling with an empowered condemnation. Meanwhile, Knights of Golarion can ward an ally, absorbing some of the damage they take for them.

Obviously combat classes are the logical pick here, but any class can benefit from this archetype, getting some better defenses out of it and lending their skills to their order. Consider how Hellknights have their own mages in the form of Signifers, as well as how skilled classes can provide all sorts of tactical tricks.

How these individual knights behave will of course vary by their order. Knights of Golarion definitely will place a lot of value on honor and chivalry and whatnot, while the various Hellknight orders will focus primarily on the rule of law as well as their specific specialization. An order of the pike start knight might focus on fighting monstrous aliens that threaten settlements on colony worlds, or even straight up fight kaiju in mechs and whatnot.

The stronghold of the Order of the Stars is said to be impenetrable. However, clearly this is not the case when someone manages to smuggle in a mature quicksilver drifter, an alien life form with poisonous and metal ruining spittle, into the compound as a distraction.

Knighthood seems like a strange fit for a timid and scientifically-minded people like the osharu, but Ser Tobrinog is as steadfast as any other knight in the Order, though they speak little of why they have chosen this path. Regardless, his compatriots are not complaining, as his serums and boosters prove a major boon in keeping his allies in the fight.