Leaves of Sapphire

Humans

The Humans that inhabit the world of Safyr are descendants of three physiologically distinct tribes that came with the Avatars and were left behind when the Avatars retreated into seclusion behind the City of Lights.

Multiple generations of inter-tribal breeding and warfare for the dwindling resources they arrived with as they adapted to the world have left Humans relatively homogenous in their physiological makeup and devoid of knowledge of their history.

Even without the dilution of the various Human bloodlines, no Human nor their Farangian and Safyrian offshoots know where their species as a whole came from, despite it being obvious to them that they were not native to the planet, their ancestors having arrived with the Avatars a blank slate with no recollections of their past.

Humans stand between 5 and 6 feet tall with skin, hair and eye colors ranging from pale to dark brown. They mature at around 18 years old and can live up to 90 years.

Reflavor from the following official lineages:

• Human (Base) : PHB
• Human (Variant) : PHB

Or use the following:

• Ability Scores. Choose one of: (a) Choose any +2; choose any other +1 (b) Choose three different +1
• Size. You are Medium.
• Speed. 30 ft.
• Adaptable. You can add half your proficiency bonus (round up) to any Intelligence check you make that doesn’t already use your proficiency bonus.
• Cooperative Spirit. You are inclined to work with others to face the dangers of the world. You and any friendly creature within 10 feet of you have advantage on saving throws against being frightened when you are within range of each other.
• Endurance. You have advantage on Constitution saving throws against extreme environments, and fatigue.
• Human Determination. When you fail an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw, you can reroll the die and take the new result. You cannot use this trait again until you complete a long rest.
• Languages. You can speak, read, and write two languages that you and your DM agree is appropriate for your character.

Fey

Descended from the children of the Iluvidae who once walked the world ten thousand years ago, the Fey, commonly also known as Elves are some of the most successful species on the surface of Safyr, with many large cities primarily raised by Fey communities.

Fey stand between 5 and 7 feet tall and generally have the same complexions as Humans, but with sharper features and sharp elongated ears. Elves generally mature by the time they are 30 years old and can live for as long as 200 years.

Fey are renowned in the artistic sphere, their natural grace and fine motor skills generally creating great works of art, music and dance known far and wide.

• Ability Scores. Choose one of: (a) Choose any +2; choose any other +1 (b) Choose three different +1
• Size. You are Medium.
• Speed. 30 ft.
• Children of the Old Gods. You know the guidance cantrip. You can cast feather fall a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus with this trait, but you can target only yourself with it, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
• Earthly Grace. Your natural agility allows you to weave around attacks with grace. While you are not wearing medium or heavy armor, as a reaction, you can reduce bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage that you take by a number equal to your proficiency bonus. You can use this trait a number of times equal to half your proficiency bonus (round down), and you regain all expended uses on a long rest.
• Limber. You have advantage on saving throws against being paralyzed.
• Muse. You are proficient in the Acrobatics, and Performance skills.
• Languages. You can speak, read, and write two languages that you and your DM agree is appropriate for your character.

Dwarves

Dwarves are descended from the children of the Tarfiinian gods that walked the world ten thousand years ago. They built great cities and fortresses underground to mine the precious Rudamite that their gods so desperately craved as fuel and materials for their projects. When the Tarfiinians left, the Dwarves continued their work for generation after generation expecting to fulfill their gods’ backlog for when they would one day return, but eventually forgot the reasoning for it beyond its importance.

Dwarves stood around 4 to 5 feet tall and had short, stout bodies and strong lungs. They generally had pale skin and eyes attuned to living and seeing underground, with coarse hair on their heads, faces and bodies that protected their skin while moving around the sharp rocks and tight tunnels of the underground.

Dwarves take around 25 years to mature and most live upward of 150 years.

Reflavor from the following official lineages:

• Dwarf (Hill) : PHB
• Dwarf (Mountain) : PHB
• Duergar : MPMM

Lagocavians

Lagocavians are a collection of rodent-like species native to the mountains of Safyr. They are no larger than 3 feet tall with squat bodies. They mature at 3 years old and live no longer than 30 years. Lagocavians are obligate herbivores.

They bear a striking resemblance to the mice, rats, rabbits and guinea pigs native to Terra that Humans had brought with them.

Lagocavians are natural prey to many larger creatures both sapient and non-sapient that reside in the same mountain ranges that they do, and they have developed a natural ability to blend into their environment and hide in plain sight.

Reflavor from the following official lineage:

• Harengon : MPMM

Or use the following:

• Ability Scores. Choose one of: (a) Choose any +2; choose any other +1 (b) Choose three different +1
• Size. You are Small.
• Speed. 30 ft.
• Duck for Cover. You can try to hide when you are lightly obscured from the creature from which you are hiding.
• Hard to Catch. You have advantage on ability checks you make to escape a grapple.
• Nimble Escape. You can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action on each of your turns.
• Tiny. You can fit through a space as small as 1 foot across, and you can move through the space of any creature that is of a size larger than yours.
• Languages. You can speak, read, and write two languages that you and your DM agree is appropriate for your character.

Skritlings

Skritlings are an insectoid species native to Safyr, specifically in desert biomes. They stand around 3 to 4 feet tall and have a thin chitinous shell on their backs that hide a pair of vestigial wings. Skritlings have a third pair of vestigial limbs just below their primary upper limbs that are too weak to operate or carry anything heavier than a few pounds. A pair of antennae and two beady eyes above a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth assist in their hunt for small prey and leftovers from larger predators.

Skritlings live and die fast, having a lifespan that rarely goes beyond a decade. In fact, the Skritlings have a peculiar life cycle where they begin as a non-sapient 32 legged centipede called a Nang. A small number of Nang will begin to spin a cocoon and undergo metamorphosis a year after they hatch, and half a year later, out pops a Skritling. Skritlings are unable to reproduce on their own, while the remaining Nang that do not become Skritlings, will break apart and become 10-16 eggs at the end of their lifespan that will birth more Nang.

Due to the lack of resources in their natural habitat and the eventual competition with other groups for them, as well as the intense heat during the day, Skritlings are incredibly agile in order to seek shelter from the beating sun or claim resources before another group can. Skritlings often express kleptomaniac tendencies.

• Ability Scores. Choose one of: (a) Choose any +2; choose any other +1 (b) Choose three different +1
• Size. You are Medium or Small. You choose the size when you select this race.
• Speed. 35 ft.
• Fear of Losing Out. You may add your proficiency bonus to your initiative checks.
• Hindering Opportunist. When a friendly creature makes an opportunity attack against a creature within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to use the Help action to have the attack be made with advantage.
• Quick-footed. When you use the Dash action, difficult terrain doesn’t cost you extra movement on that turn.
• Resource Guarding. You have proficiency in the Sleight of Hand and Survival skills.
• Languages. You can speak, read, and write two languages that you and your DM agree is appropriate for your character.

Avasa

The Avasa are not native to the world of Safyr, just like Fey, Dwarves and Human-related species. Their ancestors came to these lands as prisoners of the Avatars and were set loose to multiply and be hunted for sport by Humans and the Avatars when they still walked the land.

The vast majority of Avasa do not know the history of their species or where they originated from. However stories passed down by those that did spoke of a lush jungle world with air so light they could float on their wings and build cities out of rocks in the sky. The same stories also hinted at the Avatars’ use of powerful magics to wrench these memories from the minds of their ancestors, though it was apparent a few managed to resist the process.

The Avasa look like 3 to 4 feet tall, round, pudgy creatures with blue fur, a pair of beady eyes beneath a pair of horns that are larger in males. They have no arms or hands, but have a pair of diminutive wings that can propel them upwards in short bursts as they jump, as well as two prehensile tails behind them with which they manipulate objects with. Their short, stout legs end in 3 digit feet with mouths underfoot with which they use to graze on grass and other low lying plants.

The position of their mouths mean they are unable to speak, but the Avasa are able to communicate among themselves and with other organic beings telepathically, as well as accurately read emotions, making many of them astute in business.

• Ability Scores. Choose one of: (a) Choose any +2; choose any other +1 (b) Choose three different +1
• Size. You are Medium.
• Speed. 30 ft.
• Empath. You can cast the detect thoughts spell, requiring no spell slot or components, and you must finish a long rest before you can cast it this way again. Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this spell when you cast it with this trait (choose when you select this race).
  
  You also gain proficiency in the Insight skill.
• Lip Reading. If you can see a creature’s mouth while it is speaking a language you understand, you can interpret what it’s saying by reading its lips.
• Nonverbal Communication. You can perform the verbal components of spells even though you are unable to speak.
• Telepathic. You can speak telepathically to any creature you can see within 60 feet of you. Your telepathic utterances are in a language you know, and the creature understands you only if it knows that language. Your communication doesn’t give the creature the ability to respond to you telepathically.
• Languages. You can read, and write four languages that you and your DM agree is appropriate for your character.

Salimar

The Salimar are split into two distinct subspecies, one hailing from the frigid wastes of the north and the other from the depths of volcanoes. This amphibian-like species tends to be 5 to 6 feet tall, with rubbery skin and a tail for balancing upright.

Salimar hatch from a clutch of up to 24 eggs, maturing into adulthood by the time they are 1 year old and can generally live up to a century. Salimar tend to have poor eyesight but make up for it with a good sense of smell and hearing.

• Ability Scores. Choose one of: (a) Choose any +2; choose any other +1 (b) Choose three different +1
• Size. You are Medium.
• Speed. 30 ft., climb equal to your walking speed
• Amphibious. You can breathe air and water.
• Environmental Conditioning. Your ancestors hail from either volcanic depths or the frigid wastes. You gain a benefit based on one of the following options (choose when you select this race):
  • Pyrothermic. You have resistance to fire damage.
  • Cryothermic. You have resistance to cold damage.
• Sticky Fingers. You have a climbing speed equal to your walking speed. You are also proficient in the Sleight of Hand skill.
• Languages. You can speak, read, and write two languages that you and your DM agree is appropriate for your character.

Treefolk

The Treefolk are the product of experiments conducted by the Iluvidae and Tarfiinian gods ten thousand years ago when they walked the land. These living trees and plants were granted sapience when the gods brought the Blue Pine to the world of Safyr and spliced them with the local flora.

Treefolk comes in various sizes, some as short as a 3 feet tall shrub and others as tall as 15 feet. Treefolk generally begin as a flowering bud on their parent, sprouting and growing to the minimum size for independence at around 5 years before falling off, fully formed and able to live naturally for thousands of years.

Despite their outward appearance, having leaves, flowers and bark, the Treefolk instead have tan colored flesh, a distributed nervous system (multiple “brain” nodes) and a circulatory system with off white blood inside their bodies. They survive mainly off the sun, but infrequently require the sustenance provided by food for nutrients with which to grow and maintain a healthy form.

• Ability Scores. Choose one of: (a) Choose any +2; choose any other +1 (b) Choose three different +1
• Size. You are Medium or Small. You choose the size when you select this race.
• Speed. 30 ft.
• Plantlike. Your creature type is considered to be both humanoid and plant. While you remain motionless, you are indistinguishable from a normal tree or shrub.
• Leafspeech. You have the ability to communicate in a limited manner with Plants, and vegetation. They can understand the meaning of your words, though you have no special ability to understand them in return. You have advantage on all Charisma checks you make to influence them.
• Natural Armor. You have barklike skin. When you aren’t wearing armor, your AC is 13 + your Constitution modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield’s benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.
• Take Root. You do not need to sleep. Instead, you can root yourself in favorable soil, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day and absorbing nutrients from the soil. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep, and temporary hit points equal to twice your proficiency bonus. However, if the soil is not favorable you require a full 8 hours of rest to gain the equivalent of a long rest. As an action, you enter this state, rooting yourself into a patch of soft ground. While in this state your speed is reduced to 0 and you cannot be moved against your will through conventional means. You can end this state, uprooting yourself as a bonus action.
• Languages. You can speak, read, and write two languages that you and your DM agree is appropriate for your character.

Farangians

Farangians are the descendants of a specific tribe of Humans known as the Vaurenians, that had a unique organ on their forehead known as the Huun. The Huun was closely connected to the brain and could convey complex thoughts and emotions between individuals when they touched each other with it.

The Huun however were also used by old and dying Vaurenians to transfer their consciousness into a newborn child in a ritual reserved only for the greatest members of their communities that had earned the right and was otherwise an outlawed act.

Farangians evolved from Vaurenians when the tribe on Safyr used their Huun to transfer their consciousness into the bears, wolves, panthers and other similar beasts they brought with them in order to adapt to and survive in their new environment, eventually transforming into 7 to 9 feet tall bipedal half-beasts and losing their Huun in the process.

While Farangians retained their sapience in their new forms, they were however very much affected by the natural bestial instincts of the creatures they now inhabited. Farangians mature by 3 years old and don’t usually live more than 50 years.

• Ability Scores. Choose one of: (a) Choose any +2; choose any other +1 (b) Choose three different +1
• Size. You are Medium.
• Speed. 30 ft.
• Animalistic Resilience. When you are dropped to 0 hit points, you do not fall unconscious unless you are instantly killed. You remain conscious until you fail your first death saving throw or you are stabilized.
• Bestial Instincts. You have proficiency in one of the following skills of your choice: Athletics, Intimidation, Perception, or Survival.
• Commune with Beasts. You are able to cast the find familiar spell as a ritual with this trait, without requiring a material component. Your choice of familiar is limited to either a cat, or jackal, and they retain their type as beasts. Once you cast that spell with this trait, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest.
• Powerful Claws. Your claws are natural weapons, which counts as a simple melee weapon with which you are proficient. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier.
• Shielded Consciousness. You have advantage on saving throws against the charmed condition.
• Languages. You can speak, read, and write two languages that you and your DM agree is appropriate for your character.

Coretex

The Coretex are not organic lifeforms, but each entity a collection of interdependent machines that have come together and developed a consciousness. Their origins are unclear. All Coretex came from the Father, a massive entity of steel that fell from the skies a hundred years ago, burrowing itself into the ground and tunneling throughout Safyr while leaving individual Coretex modules behind in its wake.

Each Coretex entity can generally be as big as the sum of modules that make up its collective, but are optimally between 5 and 8 feet tall to maintain a sapient existence with minimal maintenance. Coretex entities have no definite lifespan as long as they have access to metal to repair themselves and ample sunlight to power their functions, however most begin to develop a form of psychosis and lose control of themselves as over time they accumulate experiences, memories degrade and a coherent sense of self is lost, often resulting in physically self destructive behavior.

Despite magic and psionics being understood to be the privilege of sapient, living creatures of Safyr, the Coretex entities have displayed a curious ability to mimic the same results instinctively, though in a rather “mechanical” manner.

Reflavor from the following official lineages:

• Warforged : ERLW
• Autognome : AAG

Giantkin

The Giantkin are one of the oldest species native to Safyr, hailing from the lowland plains of the world. Despite the proliferation and manifestation of Arcane and Psionic abilities among the world’s inhabitants when the Iluvidae and Tarfiinian gods brought and seeded Blue Pine trees ten thousand years ago, the Giantkin are uniquely resistant to its presence and their effects and are not capable of manipulating the Winds.

Giantkin stand between 9 to 12 feet tall and generally have rough skin in various shades of grey, blue or green. Most will mature around 25 years old and can live upward of 150 years.

• Ability Scores. Choose one of: (a) Choose any +2; choose any other +1 (b) Choose three different +1
• Size. You are Medium.
• Speed. 30 ft.
• Giant-blooded. As an action, you can call upon your giant bloodline. You have advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects, but you are unable to cast spells or activate magical items. This effect persists for 10 minutes. You can use this trait a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
• Lessons of our Forebears. You have proficiency in two of the following skills of your choice: Arcana, History, Medicine, Nature, Religion, and Survival.
• Powerful Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
• Stamina. When you roll a Hit Die to regain hit points, the amount of hit points regained is equal to the die roll plus twice your Constitution modifier (min. 2)
• Languages. You can speak, read, and write two languages that you and your DM agree is appropriate for your character.

Safyrians

Safyrians are the descendents of Human slaves and prisoners the Avatars brought to the world of Safyr to farm and harvest Resin from the Blue Pines that sparsely populate forests around the world. The multi-generational extensive and direct exposure to powdered Resin have mutated these stewards into their current irradiated form that endow them with a modicum of the Resin’s energetic properties.

With the retreat of the Avatars into seclusion within the City of Lights, Safyrians have mostly spread beyond and left behind many of the farms their ancestors once tended to for multiple generations.

Safyrians look like hairless humans 5 to 6 feet tall, their skin ranging from pale to shades of light blue and their bodies glow with a soft light. The Safyrians mature at around 18 years old, but live no longer than 60 years.

• Ability Scores. Choose one of: (a) Choose any +2; choose any other +1 (b) Choose three different +1
• Size. You are Medium.
• Speed. 30 ft.
• Inner Light. You permanently glow like a torch, providing dim light in a 20-foot radius around you.
• Energetic Manipulation. You can cast the absorb elements, and cure wounds spells with this trait. Once you cast absorb elements or cure wounds with this trait, you can’t cast that spell with it again until you finish a long rest. You can also cast either of those spells using any spell slots you have of the appropriate level.
  Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells when you cast them with this trait (choose when you select this race).
• Radioactive. You have resistance to radiant damage. Whenever you roll damage for a spell that deals radiant damage, treat any rolled 1s as being a 2.
• Languages. You can speak, read, and write two languages that you and your DM agree is appropriate for your character.

Coralaxi

The Coralaxi are a bird-like species native to the forests and jungles all around Safyr. They are a diverse group with varying feather patterns and colors and beak shapes depending on the region they hail from. But all Coralaxi are unified by their feathered wings that end with three fingers capable of prehensile movement.

Unlike most non-sapient birds of Safyr, Coralaxi have a tongue with which they enunciate words despite their rigid beaks. Most Coralaxi are between 3 and 5 feet tall and weigh very little to sustain their ability to fly.

Coralaxi begin life as eggs laid by a female parent, and hatch after 6 months. They eventually mature in 3 years time and can live up to a century.

Reflavor from the following official lineages:

• Aarakocra : MPMM
• Kenku : MPMM
• Owlin : SCC