#subraces

Goblin (Palerin)

The Palerin are the people of Rachinilea. Originally a tribe of goblins, they have become … slightly altered by the Ghostly Isle in the thousands of years since then. The Palerin are pale, chalky white, and some of their elders verge on the translucence of some of the other ancient Children of Derrinalina. Their lifespans are eccentric, guided by the whims of Rachinilea, and while some live only a few decades, others can live for several centuries. Almost all of them are painted and sometimes tattooed with girrish, the phosphorescent fungal daub of Rachinilea’s Pit, and there is considerable artistry and ritual attached to these marks. The Palerin are quite a lively people, however, despite Rachinilea’s dour reputation, and they produce as many traders, sailors, musicians and artisans as they do priests and oracles. Nor are they wholly bound to Rachinilea itself, and many travel the length and breadth of the Lightless Sea, though almost all of them return to Rachinilea in death. Even if they are already dead, and there is no one to bring their remains …

Ability Scores: Dex +2, Wis +1

Size: Small

Speed: 30ft

Age: Palerin age erratically depending on the whims of the Ghostly Isle. Their lifepans can be normal for a goblin (60 years), or rival those of dwarves (350 years), or even elves (750 years) if Rachinilea greatly favours them. Those with extended lifespans grow paler as they age, almost to translucency.

Alignment: Rachinilea’s unique nature tends its inhabitants towards … odd outlooks. Moral neutrality is very common among Palerin, with all the cultural patience of the dead, while opinions on order vs chaos tend to be more divisive and strongly held, given the weight of the Island’s traditions.

Superior Darkvision: Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Sunlight Sensitivity: You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.

Fury of the Small: When you damage a creature with an attack or a spell and the creature's size is larger than yours, you can cause the attack or spell to deal extra damage to the creature. The extra damage equals your level. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Nimble Escape: You can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action on each of your turns.

Touch of Rachinilea: You have resistance to necrotic damage. Palerin elders, those over three centuries, often have full immunity to necrotic damage, but only on Rachinilea itself.

Girrish Marked: You are ritually marked with luminescent girrish over parts of your body of your choice. While these marks are uncovered, you can emit dim light up to 15ft, and you have advantage on Wisdom (Insight) and Wisdom (Perception) checks as Rachinilea aids and alters your perceptions. However, you will have disadvantage to Dexterity (Stealth) checks while the marks are uncovered. Girrish luminescence is not visible through clothing and can by covered by bandages.

Languages: You speak, read and write Common, Goblin and Ysean Trade Tongue.

Dwarf (Durgen)

Despite the depths to which they have delved with Durgendelf, their own cavern city-state, the Durgen are actually a clan of surface dwarves, or at least they were originally. The Durgen histories say that they were originally mountain dwarves from a coastal mountain range. Their reasons for digging so deep are only speculated on, but it is possible that, as the Palerin heard Rachinilea’s call, so the Durgen might have heard Derrinalina’s. Certainly Durgenrath produces enough sailors to suggest a hint of sea-longing in the clan. It is not what they are most known for, however. The Durgen are primarily builders and growers. They specialise in the artificial growth of plants underground, and the creation, through magic and artifice, of objects that can produce true sunlight. No other dwarven clan can match them in this regard, and very few other races either. The Durgen have developed a great friendship with the Patient Ones during their time in Osh Derrinalina, though the wanderlust and adventurous nature of Durgenrath mean that they’ve also connected quite strongly with everybody else as well.

Ability Scores: Con +2, Wis +2

Size: Medium

Speed: 25ft

Age: Dwarves mature at the same rate as humans, but they're considered young until they reach the age of 50. On average, they live about 350 years.

Alignment: Durgen dwarves tend strongly towards neutral or good alignments. Those who live in Durgendelf tend more towards lawful alignments, but those who live in Durgenrath or who feel Derrinalina’s call often have more chaotic tendencies.

Darkvision: Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Dwarven Resilience: You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage.

Dwarven Combat Training: You have proficiency with the battleaxe, handaxe, light hammer, and warhammer.

Tool Proficiency: You gain proficiency with one set of artisan’s tools of your choice, or proficiency with the herbalism kit.

Stonecunning: Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check related to the origin of stonework, you are considered proficient in the History skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.

Gifts of the Suns: You grew up under the light of Durgendelf’s suns, among the bowers of the Growers. You know two cantrips of your choice from the druid’s spell list. When you reach third level, you can cast the Entangle spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so after a long or short rest. When you reach fifth level you can cast the Daylight spell once with this trait, and regain the ability to do so after a long rest.

Languages: You can speak, read and write Common, Dwarvish and Ysean Trade Tongue.

Elf (Starfolk)

The Starfolk were originally a tribe of elves from the surface or just below it, who were driven deeper and deeper into the stone by their enemies. They came to Osh Derrinalina as a close-knit band of grey-skinned, silver-haired refugees some fifteen hundred years ago, along the southern road. Records from before the Great Flight are fairly few and slim, based mostly on the memories of those who survived to reach the Lightless Sea, but the Starfolk do remember that they were once people of the surface, of the sky and stars, though that a long, long time ago. When they reached Ysea, and the promise of food and shelter if they could only bargain for it, they speak of the silver light of the silken bridges as an echo of that long-lost starlight. It was that, they say, that gave them true hope of building a life on the Lightless Sea.

As a consequence, many Starfolk also worship Ineia, the Weaver deity, revere her and give thanks to her for what she has allowed and helped them to build down here. They also worship a pantheon of their own deities, however, in particular one they call Surenine, the Lady of Shadows, who helped them evade and run from their enemies during the Great Flight. Ysea is their first city, though they live all across the cavern of Osh Derrinalina.

Ability Scores: Dex +2, Cha +1

Size: Medium

Speed: 30ft

Age: Although elves reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, the elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth to encompass worldly experience. An elf typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 and can live to be 750 years old.

Alignment: Starfolk borrow many cultural values from their neighbours and allies the Weavers, and so strongly value community and diplomacy, tending strongly towards good or lawful alignments.

Superior Darkvision: Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Sunlight Sensitivity: You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.

Keen Senses: You have proficiency in the Perception skill.

Fey Ancestry: You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can't put you to sleep.

Trance: Elves don't need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such meditation is "trance.") While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep. (If you meditate during a long rest, you finish the rest after only 4 hours. You otherwise obey all the rules for a long rest; only the duration is changed.)

Ysean Diplomacy: You have proficiency in the Persuasion skill.

Echoes of the Great Flight: The Starfolk are a people marked by centuries of hardship and flight before reaching Osh Derrinalina, and have trained for endurance as a legacy. You have advantage on Constitution saving throws.

Languages: You speak, read and write Common, Elvish and Ysean Trade Tongue.

Triton (Rachinilean Hadali)

The First Children of Derrinalina, the Hadali are a truly ancient submarine people of the Lightless Sea, the oldest inhabitants of Osh Derrinalina. In form, they are ink-black, translucent, bioluminescent merfolk, well adapted to living in the pitch-black depths of the Lightless Sea. Though they can breathe air if they have to, they distinctly prefer not to, and they do not speak surface tongues well. In the port city of Ysea, a trade language of hand signs and clicks was developed aeons ago to aid communication between the Weavers and Hadali, and it is still a commonly used language in Derrinalina. The Hadali worship Derrinalina itself as a living Mother Sea, and the strange behaviour of its waters in their defence cannot be denied. They are most commonly seen in their own city of Muarra and in the trading complexes of Ysea, though some are seen in the lower ports of Durgenrath and, much less commonly, Tchorit as well.

Some Hadali, however, are found on Rachinilea instead, for it does call them also. There are those of them who have left the Mother Sea’s embrace to dwell on the Ghostly Isle. Rachinilea has the power to grant them legs and breath, when it borrows them graciously from Derrinalina’s depths.  This is understood not as a theft, but as an exchange. What Rachinilea grants to Derrinalina in return is not known, but she does not disdain or despise those who answer the Ghostly Island’s call, and nor do her people. The Isle is as ancient in its way as Derrinalina. The Pit travels as deep as the Delve. It is a sacrifice, but not a shame, to answer Rachinilea’s call.

Ability Scores: Con +1, Wis +1, Cha +1

Size: Medium

Speed: 30ft, swim 30ft

Age: Rachinilean Hadali, as much as Palerin, age according to Rachinilea’s whims. Their lifespans vary between 200 and 800 years, dependant on the Island’s favour.

Alignment: Hadali who answer Rachinilea’s call often have a keen sense of sacrifice and tradition, so often tend towards lawful or good alignments, but the act of transitioning between them can often leave them bereft and between worlds, which can lead towards more neutral alignments either.

Superior Darkvision: The Hadali have a unique sort of sight. They emit a bioluminescent light that only they can see, allowing them to see in absence of any light sources. You have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Sunlight Sensitivity: You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.

Swim Speed: You have a swimming speed of 30 feet.

Amphibious: As a gift of Rachinilea, you can breathe air and water, and walk on two legs.

Gifts of the Mother Sea: Cradled by the depths of the Mother Sea since birth, you have resistance to cold damage, and can communicate simple ideas with beasts that can breathe water. They can understand the meaning of your words, though you have no special ability to understand them in return. In addition, Derrinalina will also shield you and up to five other creatures from sight within her waters, rendering you and your chosen companions invisible for up to ten minutes while submerged. However, she will not grant your companions the ability to breathe within her waters.

Marked by Rachinilea: You have resistance to necrotic damage.