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Abyssals

Delving in Darkness

Once the ocean was vast and seemingly limitless, with depths beyond even the reach of the mythical Sun. These lightless depths were not a monstrous evil like the Dark, but simply a place its own. Abyssiria was born in this realm, said to be from the planet itself. She is a monstrous beast of a size only the ocean may support, covered in scales resembling teeth, sprouting horns and blades all over, and a powerful body shaped by muscle instead of bone. Though the ocean is of no size to allow her to move freely, Abyssiria sits and waits at the bottom of the world, anchoring a point where the Dark may not encroach, and above her is an upside-down spire filled with her worshipers and their society.

She gifted her blood willingly, though not as eagerly as some other patrons, and those that partook in it were changed to have her skin and hunger. Their own blood became teal-green, and their flesh a deep black that almost absorbs light. Their teeth sharp and predatory, with grooves to draw blood toward their throats. Unlike other horned folk, they have no set pattern, with their horns growing asymmetrically as much as being symmetrical, with the numbers varying from a single horn to as many as nine, though these horns only grow in a crown-like area from just behind their ears to across their hairline. Their tails are somewhere in the middle of all whiptails, lengthwise, but are by far the largest in size, due to the paddle-like fin for swimming. This fin is fatty tissue that almost resembles another tail simply stacked underneath their proper tail, with it being slightly longer in healthy individuals.

Abyssals are pale, nearly completely white, save for their extremities; starting mid-bicep for their arms, below the knee for their legs, and the final quarter of their tails, as well as the tips of their horns and ears. Though not as black as their flesh, these areas are inky in color and a stark contrast to the bulk of their skin elsewhere. Their eyes and tongues and nails are a teal color, though their eyes may have more green or blue in some cases. Their hair is also lightly colored, mostly gray but with slight pigmentation to turn it to a highly saturated purple, blue, red, or green, though it may also be inky black or stark white.

Aquatic Nature: The main settlement for Abyssals is in the ocean remnants, a vast spire built underwater and above where Abyssiria rests. It is through her blessing that Abyssals can breathe water as well as air, and those that fall to the Dark lose this trait much of the time (it is thought that those that retain it may still be saved, but those that cannot breathe water are beyond help). Due to their lives in the water, Abyssals rarely use fire, and instead developed alchemy to produce lights that require no air to shed light. Even upon land, they will use lanterns made from jars of seawater and cubes of treated algae in place of oil lamps and torches.

Friends and Family:

Abyssal Names: Abyssals avoid using actual words for their names, preferring to not tie themselves to a concept so concretely. As such, they rarely have any true meaning beyond identifying an individual, and rarely is the same name used twice or passed down through family. They generally end in -ras, -res, or -roos. This ending is taken upon reaching adulthood, and signifies if the individual is a "Spring" (-ras) or "Autumn" (-res), with those preferring not to disclose or making themselves unavailable using -roos.

+2 to one ability score, +1 to another of choice or +1 to three separate ability scores of choice
Medium Your size is medium

• Darkvision 60ft; While underwater, you have blightsight out to 10ft.
• Speed 30ft, Swim 40ft
• Amphibious You are able to breathe water as if it were air.
• Environmental Adaptation You can tolerate extreme cold and pressure, up to -15 °F and 20,000ft underwater, respectively.
• Natural Weapon (Bite) Your fanged bite is a natural weapon, which counts as a unarmed strike with which you are proficient. You add your Constitution modifier, instead of your Strength modifier, to the attack and damage rolls when you attack with this bite. It deals 1d4 piercing damage on a hit. While you are missing half or more of your hit points, you have advantage on attack rolls you make with this bite.

Racial Feats

You are able to keep watch even while asleep, due to being able to rest one side of your brain separately from the other. You gain advantage on saving throws to avoid being charmed.

You learn the water shaping geomancy, and cast any of its abilities once each without spending FP (you must still meet the minimum requirement to cast it as if you were spending FP), regaining the ability to cast in this manner after completing a long rest.

You gain blindsight out to 15ft even outside of water, and within water it increases to 30ft.

You gain a +1 increase to your armor class from your developing natural armor. You may reduce any slashing damage you receive by up to 3 points.

You gain resistance to cold damage, and you may reduce any bludgeoning damage you receive by up to 3 points.

You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls with your bite attack.

You may make a tail slap as an unarmed strike that deals 1d8 points of bludgeoning damage.

If you are not holding an item in one or both hands, you may make a claw attack as an unarmed strike that deals 1d6 points of slashing damage, or 2d4 points of slashing damage if you use both hands to make the attack.