Asherati

Asherati inhabit the dunes and sandy places of the desert. They are well-adapted to the heat and dry land of the Weird West.

  • Humanoid.
  • Medium: As medium creatures, asherati have no special bonuses or penalties due to size.
  • Asherati base land speed is 30 feet.
  • Asherati have the humanoid type.
  • Natural dryness (Ex): Ashetari drink water, but are adapted to a landscape with little drinking water. To survive, they need to drink only one-half the amount of water per day that humans of their size normally require.
  • Water Avoidance (Ex): Asherati are uncomfortable with the idea of large bodies of water, and panic if submerged in it. Asherati take a -4 penalty to swim checks in water, and must begin making constitution checks immediately to avoid drowning if submerged.
  • Cold Vulnerability: Asherati take 50% more damage from cold effects.
  • Sandskimmer (Ex): Asherati are accustomed to traveling over sandy areas. An asherati treats deep sand as shallow sand and shallow sand as normal terrain. In addition, anyone tracking an asherati in the sand treats the ground as one step harder than normal.
  • Scorpion’s Sense (Ex): An asherati’s antennae give it a limited measure of tremorsense. An asherati gains Scorpion’s Sense as a bonus feat, whether or not he meets the requirements.
  • Sandswim (Ex): An asherati can burrow and tunnel through sand, ash, dust, and dry mud at one half his land speed while wearing light or no armor and carrying a light load. His speed drops to 5 feet if carrying a medium load or wearing medium armor. An ashetari can not make any headway through the sand while carrying a heavy load or wearing heavy armor, though he can still conceal himself under the surface.
  • Heat Endurance (Ex): Asherati gain a +2 bonus on saving throws against fire effects. They can exist comfortably in temperatures up to 120°F without having to make Fortitude saves.
  • Naturally Psionic: Ashetari gain 1 bonus power point at first level. This benefit does not grant them the ability to manifest powers unless they gain that ability through another source, such as levels in a psionic class.
  • Automatic languages: Asherati and Desert Common.

Personality: Asherati are a quiet, serious people with a grim sense of humour. They are self-sufficient, but acknowledge the value of their seitch communities. They take their time in assessing people and situations, and may allow a few moments of silence before responding to a question. Strangers may find this a little off-putting, as the asherati take the measure of them with a stern, blue-eyed stare. However they always welcome merchants and traders, and will do business with them openly.

Asherati will assist anyone they find in need in the desert, but they are very careful about rationing their water. They have little sympathy for those who are liabilities to the community, however. Even the elderly strive to do their best to contribute to the tribe in some way. Those who can not or will not contribute are expected to leave the seitch and walk into the desert. If they do not leave, the asherati will eventually drive them out.

Asherati have sophisticated methods for extracting the water from air, ground, plants, and animals – including dead humanoids. An asherati who dies from violence (but not disease or dehydration) has his body’s water harvested for the tribe. They also collect the water from their enemies.

Physical Description: Asherati resemble humans, but their rusty orange skin appears stretched tight over a thin frame, a result of their very low body fat. A pair of antennae protrudes from the forehead of each asherati, and they have calloused skin with no body hair. They dress in clothing that holds tight to the body so as not to interfere with their sandswimming ability. An asherati’s eyes are entirely blue, with no visible whites or pupils. Asherati may wear close-fitting glass or gemstone jewelry.

Relations: Asherati welcome any merchants to their communities, but keep them under close watch. Traders make an effort to visit these communities to trade for the delicate sand sculptures and glass jewelry that they create, as well as the valuable spices that they harvest. They have some trade with the lizardfolk, raptorans, and frontier races. They have little interaction with the dusklings and goliaths, though, and would never have seen a darfellan. Asherati are not above raiding and thieving what they need if it can’t be obtained through trade. They find the frontier races a little foolhardy in their adventurousness, especially where it comes to their use of water and the gung-ho way in which they treat it. They find goliaths to be needlessly boisterous. Asherati would have trouble understanding a darfellan’s way of life.

Asherati keep careful watch on their lands for hostile intruders. Any who come near a seitch with bad intentions are likely to find themselves surrounded by asherati who burst out of ambush spots under the sand. The asherati also jealously guard their sources of water and the procedures for extracting it.

Alignment: Asherati can be of any alignment. They will help others in need if it is not a liability to the seitch, so they tend slightly toward good alignments.

Lands: Asherati inhabit the sandy wastes, living in underground communities inside rock outcroppings called seitches. These stone residences are usually covered partially or wholly by sand, making it difficult for invaders to penetrate. They live in communities of less than 200, all of whom receive survival and combat training from a very young age.

Family ties are very important to asherati, and they will often introduce themselves for the first time by giving a genealogy of three or more generations. They identify people by their relations, and will make assumptions about personality based on the personality of their forebears. Asherati who reject, shame, or rebel against their families are treated as outcasts.

Clerics who can create water have positions of high respect and authority among the asherati.

Religion: Asherati both respect and fear Pelor, the sun. They hold a strange set of opposing attitudes toward the sun, sometimes simultaneously. An asherati may curse the sun in one breath, and bless it in the next. They also have an extensive number of superstition and omens, the most fascinating of which is the sailing stones.

Language: Asherati language makes strong use of the b, d, f, g, l, r, s, and z consonant sounds, and the i and u vowel sounds. Many of their words combine consonants that sound odd to other races, such as bt, br, ft, lr, or bd. When speaking other languages, they tend to add a consonant to words where they don’t belong. Asherati use many phrases involving water, shade, sun, and dryness.

Names: Asherati usually give their first name followed by their seitch, followed by their personal name and then the names of their last three generations, at least in their first introductions. Later they go by their personal name only.
Seitch Names: Tabr, Artuk, Fahail, Azab.
Male Names: Abdar, Fajul, Dugarl, Lars.
Female Names: Alifa, Sabina, Galzini, Rubl.

Classes: Ashetari are naturally psionic, and are likely to become psychic rogues, psions, psychic warriors, soulblades, and other psionic classes. Many become rogues, fighters, barbarians, swordsages, or rangers. Asherati clerics are rare but well respected. Asherati are unlikely to become wizards, but may become sorcerers.

Adventurers: Asherati have legends of great oases hidden in the desert, and some set out to find these. Others set out in search of the riches left from ancient civilizations as told in their histories. Some set out to see the fabled “ocean.”

Character Options: Asherati are likely to take feats that supplement or complement their sand-related abilities, such as Sand Dancer, Sand Snare, Sand Spinner, and Scorpion’s Sense.

Firesouled template
Firesouled is an inherited template that can be applied to any asherati. Firesouled asherati revel in the heat of the day, drawing their power from the otherwise brutal sun. They appear similar to other asherati, but can cause their skin to heat and glow, and their eyes can be red instead of blue.

  • Firesouled asherati gain the fire subtype. As fire creatures, they are immune to fire and heat, but take 50% more damage from cold effects. This replaces the Heat Endurance ability.
  • +2 charisma.
  • Psi-like ability: 1/day – energy ray. An asherati always deals fire damage with this ability. An asherati may spend power points from his pool to augment this ability or to perform it more times per day. Manifester level is equal to half the character’s hit dice. The save DC is charisma-based.
  • Blind-Fight.
  • +2 Racial bonus on Move Silently and Hide checks when in sandy areas (can not hide while skin is glowing).
  • Sandstealth (Ex): An asherati can use the hide skill in sandy terrain, even if the terrain doesn't grant cover or concealment. By concealing himself under the sand using sandswimming, an asherati can use the hide skill even while being observed.
  • Body Lamp (Su): Asherati can make their skin glow at will, providing illumination out to 60 feet and shadowy illumination out to 120ft. Once per day, as a free action, an Asherati can bring his skin up to full brilliance so rapidly that is can dazzle all creatures within 30 feet for 1 minute. Creatures can avoid this effect with a successful Fort Save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the Asherati's level + his CHA modifier). An asherati can not hide while using this ability.
  • Level adjustment +1.
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