Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Voidjammer: Blueskins (Race)

The Blueskins of Wildspace are a widespread and varied race. They all possess blue or bluish colored skin, vivid eye-color, and features that are usually considered attractive to humans, elves and halflings. All blueskins share a natural skill with magic and arcane sciences, and so are amongst the most renowned magic-users and scientists in the Known Spheres. Blueskin ears naturally come to a point and continue to grow over their entire lives, potentially becoming quite large (and even bat-like in some cases). Most Blueskins trim their ears regularly, some allowing only a moderate point while others keep them rounded like human ears.
Blueskins  are graceful and slim, and stand about 5 to 6 feet tall. They count as medium-sized creatures and have a base movement rate of 40 feet per round. They have darkvision to a range of 120 feet and have a knack for picking pockets and trickery.
Blueskin's lithe form gives it a bonus of one point to its starting dexterity score. Their silver tongues also give them a one point bonus to their starting charisma score. Unfortunately, they lack in muscle mass and must deduct one point from their starting strength score. These ability modifications cannot increase a score above 18 or reduce it below 3.
Blueskins enjoy a +3 save vs. cold and cold spells. They have a +2 bonus to save vs. magic, and can see magical auras (per the detect magic spell). They enjoy a +1 bonus to hit with daggers and darts.
Blueskins speak Common and Drule (see below). They might also speak Celestial, Infernal, Elvish, Orc, Sylvan and Dragon.
Blueskins can multi-class as assassin/magic-users, cleric/scientists, cleric/sorcerers, leech/sorcerers, sorcerer/thieves or sorcerer/fighters.


BLUESKIN CULTURES
While many Blueskins intermix with other races freely, a few are culturally distinct and highlighted below.


THE DRULE (Voltron)
Commander Yurak. 
The Drule are a race of Blueskins who are widespread across the stars, with some Drule arrogantly claiming that the Drule are the original Blueskin people. Many ages ago, the Drule ruled over a vast empire that was shattered when their homeworld Drule was destroyed in a magical catastrophe. Now the Drule are a scattered people, and can be found virtually anywhere. Most Drule trim their ears as other Blueskins, and have red eyes that can be startling. While hair is predominant amongst the Drule, though many dye their hair out of a sense of style and vanity.
The New Drule Empire: One of the most powerful remaining aspects of the old Drule Empire can be found on the planet Galran in Doomspace, once an outpost for the Empire, it has now become a main center of that ancient Empire. Ruled by the cruel Daibazaal family (rumored to have some infernal blood in its veins), this "Doomite" Drule Empire is a growing threat to all peace-loving civilization. The Doomite Empire is very organized and employs particularly effective war monsters called "Robeasts" in its assaults, which have proven to be exceedingly difficult to stop.
Doomite Drule have e tendency towards yellow eyes and cat-like pupils, lending them a particularly frightening appearance. More than other Blueskin people, male Doomite Drule consider the cultivation of large pointed ears to be a sign of virility and power. And so warriors and nobles of accomplishment can be expected to have exaggerated ears.
DRULE CHARACTERS
Drule characters are created as standard Blueskins (see above), with all of the differences being thematic and cultural. Drule are viewed with awe and often a bit of fear even when they are heroic persons.


THE GAR (MOTU)
Shokoti.
The Gar are a species of blue-skinned humanoids who live on Eternia, possibly descended from Drule refugees. On Eternia the Gar created an advanced civilization on the island of Anwat Gar. The island sunk centuries ago, leaving the remaining Gar to live in isolated regions. The Gar are known on Eternia as a noble race of philosophers and craftsmen, and are still regarded with great awe for their past accomplishments. .
The Gar civilization collapsed due to infighting and constant political upheavals on Eternia, and the remnants of the Gar are quarrelsome and paranoid to this day. Whenever Gar surface onto the greater Eternian stage or in Wildspace, it is often a sign of something significant. Many who know of the Gar see them as an accursed race.
GAR CHARACTERS
Gar Blueskins are close kin of normal blueskins who dwell elsewhere in the multiverse. Their hair color ranges from yellow to a deep black and they are more muscular than other blueskins. Their clothing is in dark colors offset with splashes of bright color. Gar Blueskins have the same racial traits as normal blueskins, except that they modify their starting ability scores as follows: Str +1, Wis -1. Gar may multi-class as cleric/fighters, fighter/magic-users and fighter/thieves.


ZOTRIANS (Ulysses 31)
Zotrians are a peaceful offshoot of the Drule line, being a race of healers, spiritual leaders, and scientists. Zotrians, aside from blue skin, have snow-white hair, pointed ears and slanted eyes with cat-like vertical pupils; they are considered extremely beautiful.
Culturally, the Zotrians are reminiscent of of ancient Greek civilization, revering primordial deities either individually as specialty priests or as general "Lawful" Clerics. More humanocentric gods and goddesses are of little interest to the Zotrians.
There is no known Zotrian homeworld as this race prefers dwelling in beautifully crafted voidships, space-stations and on small moon-based colonies. They are revered as expert terraformers, though they rarely dwell for long on the worlds they nurture. Many Zotrians lead a nomadic life, travelling across the Spheres in "Space Caravans," generally keeping to the Cool Orbital Zone of a Crystal Sphere, visiting cool moons and asteroids.
ZOTRIAN CHARACTERS
Zotrian Blueskins are created as normal Blueskins (see above), except that they may multi-class as cleric/sorcerers, druid/sorcerers, leech/sorcerers, sorcerer/thieves or sorcerer/fighters.


4 comments:

Sable Aradia said...

Hey, not a bad collection! Don't forget about the Na'vi (Avatar,) the Andorians (Star Trek,) the Chiss (Star Wars,) and the Asari (Mass Effect.)

ArtMercenary said...

I wanted to avoid the big franchise choices, but those are all excellent examples. The Na'vi would be a very distant breed, perhaps mingled with giant blood.

Other examples from large franchises are the Kree (Marvel Comics) and Oans (DC). The list goes on and on.

Mike David Jr. said...

I gotta say that this is one of the funnest takes on Spelljammer I have seen in a long time!

ArtMercenary said...

Thank you! From you, that is a compliment indeed!

Have you seen my MOTU tributes? If not, scroll down. You won't be disappointed.

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