Big post warning. The reason this creature, or rather race of creatures, has a big description is because they play a rather important part in my campaign setting where they occupy an entire jungle region.
Cybrahisk
History: The Cybrahisk are a hive-minded race of planar entities that came to the Balmortis plane over fifty thousand years ago. The Cybrahisk are considered to be malevolent by most human standards, as their alien frame of mind has little consideration for compassion or honor. When the Cybrahisk first entered the plane, emerging from a small portal somewhere in eastern Tamara, they initially seemed to have no other goal than conquest. They would attack any non-Cybrahisk race they encountered and use their Seed Hives to expand rapidly across the lush jungle of Steth. The first organized resistance they encountered were the small goblin tribes making a living from foraging in the bog areas of the Steth jungle. The goblins, being unfamiliar with the strange and defensive tactic of the Cybrahisk, had great difficulties battling their new opponent. The goblins had primarily been warring with the zealous elves and the Thakulion church up to that point. Initially the goblins suffered grave casualties in the skirmishes between the two races, and they eventually decided to completely abandon the Steth jungle, to avoid stretching their forces thin when they still had the elves to deal with. The elves on the other hand had no qualms about engaging the Cybrahisk in open war when they encountered the new race, the Thakulion church calling for a crusade against the unwelcome visitors. The Prince of Scars himself is said to have spoken to the elven hero Ra Amoon, urging him to gather his flagellants to fight the intruders. The war between the elves and the Cybrahisk is said to have been one of the most unrelenting wars ever fought, as the elves fought their foes with a frenzy and devotion that only the followers of Thakulion could ever muster. The guerrilla tactics of the elves had an initial advantage over the inflexible and ponderous tactic of the Cybrahisk, yet the intruders were quick to adapt to their new foe and were eventually able to muster a competent defence against the elven armies. In the treacherous jungle of Steth, the war was fought to a standstill and eventually the elves had to retreat as Ra Amoon himself was wounded, fighting against a Cybrahisk Cantankor of unusual proves. For several millennia, the Cybrahisk were left to themselves to expand as they saw fit across the Steth jungle. The barren plains around the jungle acted as a natural barrier that the aliens were unable to cross and the elves found new problems to deal with in their own homeland.
The only faction that gave attention to the Cybrahisk was the Order of a Thousand Eyes. The order sent several of its finest biomagus to research the new species covertly. The order was remarkably successful in examining the workings of the Cybrahisk, and they were the first to distinguish between the four different factions found within the aliens. The order even managed to make contact with the most peaceful of the four factions, the inquisitive Innovatore. The Cybrahisk, realizing that their conquest was halted by the natural environment of Balmortis, were curious to learn more about the world that they had settled upon. Seeing as Order of a Thousand Eyes had no standing army, the aliens decided to use them to gain insight into the foes they had battles centuries earlier. The Innovatore even sent a Seed Hive as an envoy to Silmar island where it still stands today.
Many millenia has since passed, and the Cybrahisk have seen as much war as any race in Balmortis, yet no foe has ever been able to prove a threat to the intricate mesh of Seed Hives that make up the Cybrahisk nation. The aliens on the other hand have often proven to be a competent foe when they embark on a campaign from the comfort of the Steth jungle.
Psychology: The Cybrahisk have a psychology thoroughly alien to that of all the mortal races of Balmortis. The most dominant feature of the Cybrahisk mind is its capacity to communicate rapidly and accurately across great distances with others of its kind. While they do indeed have a hive-mind, the aliens are not completely without an individual will of their own. All Seed Hives as well as the more intelligent servitors have a mind of their own, with the ability to make decisions and desires not shared by the race as a whole. The Seed Hives are able to hide information from the network of Cybrahisk minds that make up the alien nation, yet they rarely choose to do so. Even though they have individual memories and needs, there has never occurred any betrayal or dissidence amongst the Cybrahisk. Another remarkable feature of the alien mind is that it seems to have very little empathy and compassion for non-alien races. While this was especially true in the beginning of the history of the race in Balmortis, the Cybrahisk have since evolved, probably from their contact with the Order of a Thousand Eyes, to develop a rudimentary set of emotions. Especially curiosity is an emotion that seems to have evolved well in the race, and they have become quite inquisitive about the world around them. In ages past, any trespasser into the Steth jungle would have been killed almost instantly, while now the Cybrahisk seem to favor imprisonment over termination when they encounter visitors. Stories even tell of prisoners being released from the aliens if they managed to provide the Cybrahisk with interesting information, and if they substitute no threat to the alien nation. Most visitors find the race highly disturbing to communicate with, as they seem completely unable to comprehend abstract ideas and advanced emotions. There also seems to be quite a tremendous difference in the mentality of the four different factions amongst the race.
Crimeatore: The Crimeatore are the most numerous faction of the Cybrahisk, and the first faction to set foot upon Balmortis soil. They are generally considered to be militant and xenophobic, capable of any amount of genocide against other races. The Crimeatore believe that it is the destiny of their race to achieve total domination of all the worlds they can locate, that it is their birthright to be the victor in any war in which they engage. Of all of the factions, the Crimeatore are the ones least likely to accept visitors. So far, no humanoid has been able to enter Crimeatore lands and survive. To make matters worse, most of the border Seed Hives in the Steth forest originate from the faction, and it is therefore very unlikely for a visitor to the Cybrahisk lands to find a friendly Seed Hive with which to communicate. Only those visitors that know the location of the Innovatore Seed Hives will even be able to travel into Cybrahisk lands without being instantly attacked.
Agoratore: The Agoratore are considered amongst the most peaceful of the Cybrahisk along with the Innovatore. The main function of the Agoratore faction amongst the aliens is to provide the nation with a steady flow of the resources needed to maintain the Seed Hives and the more powerful minds in the Cybrahisk capitol. The Agoratore have therefore set up their Seed Hives in the lushest and most bountiful parts of the Steth jungle. The Agoratore are generally considered to be the least inquisitive of the aliens, as they care little for any matter besides the acquisition of resources. Visitors are closely monitored if they should enter Agoratore lands, yet rarely harmed unless they somehow threaten the production facilities of the faction. The Agoratore will hardly ever be interested in dialogue with visitors, unless the visitors provide them with some sort of tribute that they can use. The very few trades between the other races of Balmortis and the Cybrahisk have been done through the Agoratore.
Scoratore: The Scoratore were the second faction of the Cybrahisk to come through the Balmortis portal. The Scoratore were initially a specialized breed of the race, created to initialize a terraforming procedure once the plane had been conquered. As the conquest of the Cybrahisk came to a halt, the Scoratore had to find an alternate niche in the alien society. Being accustomed to adapting local lifeforms to the needs of the race, the Scoratore started researching the possibility of utilizing the native races of the Balmortis plane to further the goal of their own race. The Scoratore has since developed several specialized species of Cybrahisks that have become stable servitors to the Seed Hives, amongst them the two servitor drones, the Defenders and the Recreaters. The Scoratore are known for having the least amount of empathy for other races, as they see any visitor as a possible subject for study. To be studied by the Scoratore usually involves being torn slowly apart in specialized research chambers, so that the faction may learn all that it can from the body of the visitor. The Scoratore seems to have absolutely no interest in communicating with non-Cybrahisks.
Innovatore: The Innovatore are the smallest faction amongst the Cybrahisk, a special breed of the race created to research the arcane energy that the Cybrahisk have learnt to harness. When the Innovatore first came to Balmortis, the difference between the arcane energies permeating the homeworld of the race and the energies of the new world were too great for the Innovatore to properly utilize their arcane powers, and as a result the faction was rendered impotent for nearly a millenia. The Innovatore struggled to regain the power they had possessed back on the Cybrahisk homeworld, especially their ability to manipulate the sentient metal Gesh. When they finally regained their power, the Innovatore had to struggle once again, this time to retake their former position in the society as advisers and leaders of the arcane schools. Eventually, with the aid of the Order of a Thousand Eyes, the Innovatore regained their former power and have since grown in both size and influence amongst their race. It is by their power alone that the Cybrahisk have started communications with a select few of the Balmortis races. The Innovatore themselves are by far the most open-minded of their race, and they generally see favorably at any opportunity to engage in dialogue with non-Cybrahisk races. Especially spellcasters seem to interest the faction, and they will control their violent disposition that is otherwise a dominant aspect of their kind when given a chance to study a visitor. Despite their curiosity, the Innovatore are not to be underestimated and they will respond very violently to any threat to their race.
Appearance: The Cybrahisk do not consist of a single type of creatures, instead they have developed over the course of their history to include a wide variety of creatures, each creature having been created to fulfill a very specific function in the hive society of the alien race. The core of their society are the so-called Seed Hives; Enormous, super-intelligent and powerful creatures that have the capacity to create all of the lower forms of Cybrahisk creatures, the servitors. All of the various creatures, including the Seed Hives, are described in detail below. Beyond the variation in appearance between the various creatures that make up the Cybrahisk race, there are also some variations depending on the faction. The Crimeatore have evolved to be more warlike than the other Cybrahisk races, and have therefore developed their chitin denser than that of the other races. This often makes the Crimeatore a bit cumbersome. The Agoratore on the other hand have evolved to become perfect gatherers, and this has caused them to grow large sacs on their body that they use to store nutrients in. It is even possible to see the large, green veins covering the body of the Agoratore, the veins their use to transport the resources they gather from the ground. The Agoratore also have a tendency to grow to larger sizes than the members of the other factions, as their bodies need to be large enough to contain complex digestion systems and storage facilities. The Scoratore on the other hand are more nimble than both the Crimeatore and the Agoratore, having no need for neither brute strength or an advanced digestion system. The Scoratore have developed a very unique feature that sets them apart from the other factions, a huge number of diminutive tentacles that cover their entire body. These tentacles are no larger than a human hair and act as a specialized sampling system for the Scoratore. The thin tentacles are able to penetrate through the skin of non-Cybrahisk races to allow the Scoratore to take samples of the living creatures they encounter. These samples are then stored and examined inside the bodies of the Scoratore. The Seed Hives of the Scoratore have an additional unique feature, the research chambers used to perform autopsies on the captives that the faction can get their hands on. The Innovatore share some similarities with the Scoratore, namely the tendency to being quite frail compared to both the Crimeatore and Agoratore. The Innovatore have developed a special feature to help them in their dealings with other races, a growth on their upper body that vaguely resembles a humanoid face. Normally, the Cybrahisk do not have mouth nor lungs, sustaining themselves by deriving nutrients from the soil, yet the Innovatore found that the capacity to communicate verbally was of paramount importance when dealing with the humanoid races of Balmortis. Therefore, they started to develop faces that could emulate humanoid emotions along with a host of diminutive mouths with which to communicate.
The Innovatore have at least five mouths or more that they use simultaneously, speaking in almost perfect harmony. Despite this, most people that talk to the Innovatore find their tone to be very eerie and alien, as it sounds more like a small flock of beings speaking at once more than it sounds like a single individual. Sometimes, when the Innovatore are talking to an especially important outsider, they will allow other members of their faction to assume control of one or more of their mouths through the hive-mind connection, allowing a whole council of Innovatore to talk through a single creature. Another special feature of the Innovatore is the Gesh metal, a sentient metal animated by arcane energy that the faction uses to furthers its goals. The Innovatore often clad themselves in an armor of the unique material, giving them a grey, metallic sheen.
Cybrahisk Traits
- Immunity to Disease and Poison.
- Adaptive Defence (Su): The Cybrahisk are natural plane-travelers, having evolved to become a highly adaptive race. This also gives them a defensive advantage, as they are able to quickly adjust their bodies to better dissipate the energy from enemy attacks. Whenever a Cybrahisk is attacked by a specific type of energy (such as Acid, Cold, Electricity, Fire and Force), the creature gains 5 points of resistance against the given type of energy, resistance that becomes active after the attack has caused damage. This damage resistance is increased by 5 points every time the Cybrahisk suffers damage of the given type, up to a maximum resistance of 25. The damage resistance stacks with other sources of damage resistance, but it will disappear again after 1 hour since the last attack. Even an attack that is mitigated by resistance will incur the effect of this special ability. If the Cybrahisk continues to suffer damage of the specific type, the damage resistance will remain, allowing the Cybrahisk to survive in very hostile environments. The reason that the resistance disappears is that it is quite expensive for the creature to sustain constant damage resistance against all types.
- Alien Mind (Ex): As the Cybrahisk brain works in ways that are totally alien to that of all other sentient creatures in Balmortis, it has proven to be very difficult to read their minds. The Cybrahisk are considered to have Spell-Resistance 20 + their HD against Mind-Affecting spells and effects. Even if someone is able to penetrate the mind of a Cybrahisk with magic, the resulting information will most likely be very cryptic and maybe even impossible to decipher. Cybrahisks are completely immune to fear effects.
- Detritivore (Ex): The Cybrahisk gains sustenance primarily by absorbing organic matter from the soil. Their whole body is capable of quickly adjusting to derive nutrients from virtually any organic matter, even matter that is alien to it. The Cybrahisk, in addition to the sustenance gained from the soil, also relies on photosynthesis to grow. If a specimen is deprived of access to soil, it will usually be capable of surviving for as long as two weeks on light alone, while a Cybrahisk that is separated from both soil and sunlight will only survive for three days. The Cybrahisks, deriving energy from sunlight, are slightly less effective if encountered in the dark. A Cybrahisk fighting in complete darkness suffers a -3 penalty to all attack and damage rolls. The movement speed of a Cybrahisk in complete darkness is reduced by 10 ft.
- No Breathing (Ex): The Cybrahisk do not breathe like normal creatures, even though they are alive. Instead, the Cybrahisk rely on nutrients derived from the soil for sustenance. They do therefore not have mouths or vocal cords, rendering them unable to speak. This is not a major issue to most Cybrahisk as they communicate telepathically. All spellcasters of the race are considered to cast spells that are automatically silenced, as their whole form of magic was developed to be cast without sound.
- Hive Mind (Ex): The Cybrahisk are all connected through a mental link that allows them to quickly and accurately transmit information to eachother. There seems to be no maximum range to the connection between Seed Hives, yet most servitors are only able to communicate a few miles. The Seed Hives will usually communicate all encounters with other races across the hive mind, especially encounters with hostile creatures. A few of the servitors have the ability to communicate further than a few miles, if so noted in their description.
Faction Specific Traits
Crimeatore
- Chitin Armor (Ex): The Crimeatore are all covered in a much thicker layer of armor than that of normal Cybrahisks. This provides them with a +3 bonus to their Natural Armor, and the extra weight gives them a +2 bonus to perform or resist Bull Rush, Grapple or Trip attempts. The extra weight also reduces their movement speed by 5 ft.
- Rage (Ex): Any Crimeatore Cybrahisk that suffers damage in combat will enter into a state of rage that will last untill the combat ends. While enraged, the Crimeatore gain a +4 bonus to Strength and Constitution, but a -2 penalty to Armor Class.
Agoratore
- Gatherer (Ex): The Agoratore are tasked with gathering nutrients for the Cybrahisk community, and have therefore been created with large storage depots inside their body. This allows them to survive for three times as long without sustenance as regular Cybrahisks.
Scoratore
- Biological Library (Ex): The Scoratore have stored all information they have gathered on the existing creatures of Balmortis in their Hive Mind. This means that whenever a Scoratore encounters a living creature, it will immediately know all capabilities of said creature as it accesses the Hive Mind. While this library provides no immediate bonus, it does mean that no racial ability will ever be able to surprise a Scoratore.
- Research Appendages (Ex): The Scoratore are covered in millions of diminutive tentacles that have the capacity to obtain samples of living matter when the Scoratore touches another creature. These samples are then processed inside the body of the Scoratore, giving the creature a good understanding of the anatomy and construction of the creature from which the sample was derived. When a Scoratore has touched another living creature, it starts a process of examining the sample, a process which takes 5 rounds. Once the 5 rounds have passed, the Scoratore has examined the target to such an extent that it is capable of directing its attacks far more accurately at the weak points of the target. The Scoratore will immediately transmit this information across the Hive Mind, giving all Cybrahisks a +2 bonus to attack and damage against that target. This effect is permanent, once the weaknesses of a target has been stored in the Hive Mind it will remain there indefinitely, available to all Cybrahisks. This effect only works against living targets.
Innovatore
- Arcane Library (Ex): The Innovatore have, as the Scoratore have with biological information, stored all information about magic they have come across. Through their cooperation with the Order of a Thousand Eyes, they have seen virtually any spell known. All Innovatore, no matter how lowly, has access to the Hive Mind where this information is stored. This grants the Innovatore a +10 racial bonus to all Spellcraft checks made to identify spells being cast, and all Innovatore can make Spellcraft checks as if though they had been trained in the skill, even if they possess no ranks in it.
- Gesh Shield (Su): All Innovatore have access to the special metal known as Gesh. This metal is a sentient material animated by arcane energy from the homeworld of the Cybrahisks. The metal is not only able to rapidly change from a solid to a liquid state, it is also capable of learning and adapting according to the wishes of the Cybrahisk that controls it. All Innovatore are surrounded by a shield of Gesh metal that will absorb a fixed amount of damage before the shield collapses. The amount of damage that can be absorbed by the Gesh shield is equal to the HD of the Innovatore times three. Once a shield has absorbed the amount of damage it can sustain, it will collapse, rendering the Innovatore vulnerable to damage. The Gesh metal will still be alive and active though, and it will take ten rounds for it to reform and create a new shield after it collapses. The Gesh shield will absorb all types of damage. While the Gesh shield is active, the Cybrahisk will appear to be covered in a flexible, thin layer of dull metal that will harden as soon as any object strikes it. A collapsed Gesh shield will appear as random patches of Gesh metal on the body of the Cybrahisk, constantly slithering across its skin as it reforms.
Cybrahisk
History: The Cybrahisk are a hive-minded race of planar entities that came to the Balmortis plane over fifty thousand years ago. The Cybrahisk are considered to be malevolent by most human standards, as their alien frame of mind has little consideration for compassion or honor. When the Cybrahisk first entered the plane, emerging from a small portal somewhere in eastern Tamara, they initially seemed to have no other goal than conquest. They would attack any non-Cybrahisk race they encountered and use their Seed Hives to expand rapidly across the lush jungle of Steth. The first organized resistance they encountered were the small goblin tribes making a living from foraging in the bog areas of the Steth jungle. The goblins, being unfamiliar with the strange and defensive tactic of the Cybrahisk, had great difficulties battling their new opponent. The goblins had primarily been warring with the zealous elves and the Thakulion church up to that point. Initially the goblins suffered grave casualties in the skirmishes between the two races, and they eventually decided to completely abandon the Steth jungle, to avoid stretching their forces thin when they still had the elves to deal with. The elves on the other hand had no qualms about engaging the Cybrahisk in open war when they encountered the new race, the Thakulion church calling for a crusade against the unwelcome visitors. The Prince of Scars himself is said to have spoken to the elven hero Ra Amoon, urging him to gather his flagellants to fight the intruders. The war between the elves and the Cybrahisk is said to have been one of the most unrelenting wars ever fought, as the elves fought their foes with a frenzy and devotion that only the followers of Thakulion could ever muster. The guerrilla tactics of the elves had an initial advantage over the inflexible and ponderous tactic of the Cybrahisk, yet the intruders were quick to adapt to their new foe and were eventually able to muster a competent defence against the elven armies. In the treacherous jungle of Steth, the war was fought to a standstill and eventually the elves had to retreat as Ra Amoon himself was wounded, fighting against a Cybrahisk Cantankor of unusual proves. For several millennia, the Cybrahisk were left to themselves to expand as they saw fit across the Steth jungle. The barren plains around the jungle acted as a natural barrier that the aliens were unable to cross and the elves found new problems to deal with in their own homeland.
The only faction that gave attention to the Cybrahisk was the Order of a Thousand Eyes. The order sent several of its finest biomagus to research the new species covertly. The order was remarkably successful in examining the workings of the Cybrahisk, and they were the first to distinguish between the four different factions found within the aliens. The order even managed to make contact with the most peaceful of the four factions, the inquisitive Innovatore. The Cybrahisk, realizing that their conquest was halted by the natural environment of Balmortis, were curious to learn more about the world that they had settled upon. Seeing as Order of a Thousand Eyes had no standing army, the aliens decided to use them to gain insight into the foes they had battles centuries earlier. The Innovatore even sent a Seed Hive as an envoy to Silmar island where it still stands today.
Many millenia has since passed, and the Cybrahisk have seen as much war as any race in Balmortis, yet no foe has ever been able to prove a threat to the intricate mesh of Seed Hives that make up the Cybrahisk nation. The aliens on the other hand have often proven to be a competent foe when they embark on a campaign from the comfort of the Steth jungle.
Psychology: The Cybrahisk have a psychology thoroughly alien to that of all the mortal races of Balmortis. The most dominant feature of the Cybrahisk mind is its capacity to communicate rapidly and accurately across great distances with others of its kind. While they do indeed have a hive-mind, the aliens are not completely without an individual will of their own. All Seed Hives as well as the more intelligent servitors have a mind of their own, with the ability to make decisions and desires not shared by the race as a whole. The Seed Hives are able to hide information from the network of Cybrahisk minds that make up the alien nation, yet they rarely choose to do so. Even though they have individual memories and needs, there has never occurred any betrayal or dissidence amongst the Cybrahisk. Another remarkable feature of the alien mind is that it seems to have very little empathy and compassion for non-alien races. While this was especially true in the beginning of the history of the race in Balmortis, the Cybrahisk have since evolved, probably from their contact with the Order of a Thousand Eyes, to develop a rudimentary set of emotions. Especially curiosity is an emotion that seems to have evolved well in the race, and they have become quite inquisitive about the world around them. In ages past, any trespasser into the Steth jungle would have been killed almost instantly, while now the Cybrahisk seem to favor imprisonment over termination when they encounter visitors. Stories even tell of prisoners being released from the aliens if they managed to provide the Cybrahisk with interesting information, and if they substitute no threat to the alien nation. Most visitors find the race highly disturbing to communicate with, as they seem completely unable to comprehend abstract ideas and advanced emotions. There also seems to be quite a tremendous difference in the mentality of the four different factions amongst the race.
Crimeatore: The Crimeatore are the most numerous faction of the Cybrahisk, and the first faction to set foot upon Balmortis soil. They are generally considered to be militant and xenophobic, capable of any amount of genocide against other races. The Crimeatore believe that it is the destiny of their race to achieve total domination of all the worlds they can locate, that it is their birthright to be the victor in any war in which they engage. Of all of the factions, the Crimeatore are the ones least likely to accept visitors. So far, no humanoid has been able to enter Crimeatore lands and survive. To make matters worse, most of the border Seed Hives in the Steth forest originate from the faction, and it is therefore very unlikely for a visitor to the Cybrahisk lands to find a friendly Seed Hive with which to communicate. Only those visitors that know the location of the Innovatore Seed Hives will even be able to travel into Cybrahisk lands without being instantly attacked.
Agoratore: The Agoratore are considered amongst the most peaceful of the Cybrahisk along with the Innovatore. The main function of the Agoratore faction amongst the aliens is to provide the nation with a steady flow of the resources needed to maintain the Seed Hives and the more powerful minds in the Cybrahisk capitol. The Agoratore have therefore set up their Seed Hives in the lushest and most bountiful parts of the Steth jungle. The Agoratore are generally considered to be the least inquisitive of the aliens, as they care little for any matter besides the acquisition of resources. Visitors are closely monitored if they should enter Agoratore lands, yet rarely harmed unless they somehow threaten the production facilities of the faction. The Agoratore will hardly ever be interested in dialogue with visitors, unless the visitors provide them with some sort of tribute that they can use. The very few trades between the other races of Balmortis and the Cybrahisk have been done through the Agoratore.
Scoratore: The Scoratore were the second faction of the Cybrahisk to come through the Balmortis portal. The Scoratore were initially a specialized breed of the race, created to initialize a terraforming procedure once the plane had been conquered. As the conquest of the Cybrahisk came to a halt, the Scoratore had to find an alternate niche in the alien society. Being accustomed to adapting local lifeforms to the needs of the race, the Scoratore started researching the possibility of utilizing the native races of the Balmortis plane to further the goal of their own race. The Scoratore has since developed several specialized species of Cybrahisks that have become stable servitors to the Seed Hives, amongst them the two servitor drones, the Defenders and the Recreaters. The Scoratore are known for having the least amount of empathy for other races, as they see any visitor as a possible subject for study. To be studied by the Scoratore usually involves being torn slowly apart in specialized research chambers, so that the faction may learn all that it can from the body of the visitor. The Scoratore seems to have absolutely no interest in communicating with non-Cybrahisks.
Innovatore: The Innovatore are the smallest faction amongst the Cybrahisk, a special breed of the race created to research the arcane energy that the Cybrahisk have learnt to harness. When the Innovatore first came to Balmortis, the difference between the arcane energies permeating the homeworld of the race and the energies of the new world were too great for the Innovatore to properly utilize their arcane powers, and as a result the faction was rendered impotent for nearly a millenia. The Innovatore struggled to regain the power they had possessed back on the Cybrahisk homeworld, especially their ability to manipulate the sentient metal Gesh. When they finally regained their power, the Innovatore had to struggle once again, this time to retake their former position in the society as advisers and leaders of the arcane schools. Eventually, with the aid of the Order of a Thousand Eyes, the Innovatore regained their former power and have since grown in both size and influence amongst their race. It is by their power alone that the Cybrahisk have started communications with a select few of the Balmortis races. The Innovatore themselves are by far the most open-minded of their race, and they generally see favorably at any opportunity to engage in dialogue with non-Cybrahisk races. Especially spellcasters seem to interest the faction, and they will control their violent disposition that is otherwise a dominant aspect of their kind when given a chance to study a visitor. Despite their curiosity, the Innovatore are not to be underestimated and they will respond very violently to any threat to their race.
Appearance: The Cybrahisk do not consist of a single type of creatures, instead they have developed over the course of their history to include a wide variety of creatures, each creature having been created to fulfill a very specific function in the hive society of the alien race. The core of their society are the so-called Seed Hives; Enormous, super-intelligent and powerful creatures that have the capacity to create all of the lower forms of Cybrahisk creatures, the servitors. All of the various creatures, including the Seed Hives, are described in detail below. Beyond the variation in appearance between the various creatures that make up the Cybrahisk race, there are also some variations depending on the faction. The Crimeatore have evolved to be more warlike than the other Cybrahisk races, and have therefore developed their chitin denser than that of the other races. This often makes the Crimeatore a bit cumbersome. The Agoratore on the other hand have evolved to become perfect gatherers, and this has caused them to grow large sacs on their body that they use to store nutrients in. It is even possible to see the large, green veins covering the body of the Agoratore, the veins their use to transport the resources they gather from the ground. The Agoratore also have a tendency to grow to larger sizes than the members of the other factions, as their bodies need to be large enough to contain complex digestion systems and storage facilities. The Scoratore on the other hand are more nimble than both the Crimeatore and the Agoratore, having no need for neither brute strength or an advanced digestion system. The Scoratore have developed a very unique feature that sets them apart from the other factions, a huge number of diminutive tentacles that cover their entire body. These tentacles are no larger than a human hair and act as a specialized sampling system for the Scoratore. The thin tentacles are able to penetrate through the skin of non-Cybrahisk races to allow the Scoratore to take samples of the living creatures they encounter. These samples are then stored and examined inside the bodies of the Scoratore. The Seed Hives of the Scoratore have an additional unique feature, the research chambers used to perform autopsies on the captives that the faction can get their hands on. The Innovatore share some similarities with the Scoratore, namely the tendency to being quite frail compared to both the Crimeatore and Agoratore. The Innovatore have developed a special feature to help them in their dealings with other races, a growth on their upper body that vaguely resembles a humanoid face. Normally, the Cybrahisk do not have mouth nor lungs, sustaining themselves by deriving nutrients from the soil, yet the Innovatore found that the capacity to communicate verbally was of paramount importance when dealing with the humanoid races of Balmortis. Therefore, they started to develop faces that could emulate humanoid emotions along with a host of diminutive mouths with which to communicate.
The Innovatore have at least five mouths or more that they use simultaneously, speaking in almost perfect harmony. Despite this, most people that talk to the Innovatore find their tone to be very eerie and alien, as it sounds more like a small flock of beings speaking at once more than it sounds like a single individual. Sometimes, when the Innovatore are talking to an especially important outsider, they will allow other members of their faction to assume control of one or more of their mouths through the hive-mind connection, allowing a whole council of Innovatore to talk through a single creature. Another special feature of the Innovatore is the Gesh metal, a sentient metal animated by arcane energy that the faction uses to furthers its goals. The Innovatore often clad themselves in an armor of the unique material, giving them a grey, metallic sheen.
Cybrahisk Traits
- Immunity to Disease and Poison.
- Adaptive Defence (Su): The Cybrahisk are natural plane-travelers, having evolved to become a highly adaptive race. This also gives them a defensive advantage, as they are able to quickly adjust their bodies to better dissipate the energy from enemy attacks. Whenever a Cybrahisk is attacked by a specific type of energy (such as Acid, Cold, Electricity, Fire and Force), the creature gains 5 points of resistance against the given type of energy, resistance that becomes active after the attack has caused damage. This damage resistance is increased by 5 points every time the Cybrahisk suffers damage of the given type, up to a maximum resistance of 25. The damage resistance stacks with other sources of damage resistance, but it will disappear again after 1 hour since the last attack. Even an attack that is mitigated by resistance will incur the effect of this special ability. If the Cybrahisk continues to suffer damage of the specific type, the damage resistance will remain, allowing the Cybrahisk to survive in very hostile environments. The reason that the resistance disappears is that it is quite expensive for the creature to sustain constant damage resistance against all types.
- Alien Mind (Ex): As the Cybrahisk brain works in ways that are totally alien to that of all other sentient creatures in Balmortis, it has proven to be very difficult to read their minds. The Cybrahisk are considered to have Spell-Resistance 20 + their HD against Mind-Affecting spells and effects. Even if someone is able to penetrate the mind of a Cybrahisk with magic, the resulting information will most likely be very cryptic and maybe even impossible to decipher. Cybrahisks are completely immune to fear effects.
- Detritivore (Ex): The Cybrahisk gains sustenance primarily by absorbing organic matter from the soil. Their whole body is capable of quickly adjusting to derive nutrients from virtually any organic matter, even matter that is alien to it. The Cybrahisk, in addition to the sustenance gained from the soil, also relies on photosynthesis to grow. If a specimen is deprived of access to soil, it will usually be capable of surviving for as long as two weeks on light alone, while a Cybrahisk that is separated from both soil and sunlight will only survive for three days. The Cybrahisks, deriving energy from sunlight, are slightly less effective if encountered in the dark. A Cybrahisk fighting in complete darkness suffers a -3 penalty to all attack and damage rolls. The movement speed of a Cybrahisk in complete darkness is reduced by 10 ft.
- No Breathing (Ex): The Cybrahisk do not breathe like normal creatures, even though they are alive. Instead, the Cybrahisk rely on nutrients derived from the soil for sustenance. They do therefore not have mouths or vocal cords, rendering them unable to speak. This is not a major issue to most Cybrahisk as they communicate telepathically. All spellcasters of the race are considered to cast spells that are automatically silenced, as their whole form of magic was developed to be cast without sound.
- Hive Mind (Ex): The Cybrahisk are all connected through a mental link that allows them to quickly and accurately transmit information to eachother. There seems to be no maximum range to the connection between Seed Hives, yet most servitors are only able to communicate a few miles. The Seed Hives will usually communicate all encounters with other races across the hive mind, especially encounters with hostile creatures. A few of the servitors have the ability to communicate further than a few miles, if so noted in their description.
Faction Specific Traits
Crimeatore
- Chitin Armor (Ex): The Crimeatore are all covered in a much thicker layer of armor than that of normal Cybrahisks. This provides them with a +3 bonus to their Natural Armor, and the extra weight gives them a +2 bonus to perform or resist Bull Rush, Grapple or Trip attempts. The extra weight also reduces their movement speed by 5 ft.
- Rage (Ex): Any Crimeatore Cybrahisk that suffers damage in combat will enter into a state of rage that will last untill the combat ends. While enraged, the Crimeatore gain a +4 bonus to Strength and Constitution, but a -2 penalty to Armor Class.
Agoratore
- Gatherer (Ex): The Agoratore are tasked with gathering nutrients for the Cybrahisk community, and have therefore been created with large storage depots inside their body. This allows them to survive for three times as long without sustenance as regular Cybrahisks.
Scoratore
- Biological Library (Ex): The Scoratore have stored all information they have gathered on the existing creatures of Balmortis in their Hive Mind. This means that whenever a Scoratore encounters a living creature, it will immediately know all capabilities of said creature as it accesses the Hive Mind. While this library provides no immediate bonus, it does mean that no racial ability will ever be able to surprise a Scoratore.
- Research Appendages (Ex): The Scoratore are covered in millions of diminutive tentacles that have the capacity to obtain samples of living matter when the Scoratore touches another creature. These samples are then processed inside the body of the Scoratore, giving the creature a good understanding of the anatomy and construction of the creature from which the sample was derived. When a Scoratore has touched another living creature, it starts a process of examining the sample, a process which takes 5 rounds. Once the 5 rounds have passed, the Scoratore has examined the target to such an extent that it is capable of directing its attacks far more accurately at the weak points of the target. The Scoratore will immediately transmit this information across the Hive Mind, giving all Cybrahisks a +2 bonus to attack and damage against that target. This effect is permanent, once the weaknesses of a target has been stored in the Hive Mind it will remain there indefinitely, available to all Cybrahisks. This effect only works against living targets.
Innovatore
- Arcane Library (Ex): The Innovatore have, as the Scoratore have with biological information, stored all information about magic they have come across. Through their cooperation with the Order of a Thousand Eyes, they have seen virtually any spell known. All Innovatore, no matter how lowly, has access to the Hive Mind where this information is stored. This grants the Innovatore a +10 racial bonus to all Spellcraft checks made to identify spells being cast, and all Innovatore can make Spellcraft checks as if though they had been trained in the skill, even if they possess no ranks in it.
- Gesh Shield (Su): All Innovatore have access to the special metal known as Gesh. This metal is a sentient material animated by arcane energy from the homeworld of the Cybrahisks. The metal is not only able to rapidly change from a solid to a liquid state, it is also capable of learning and adapting according to the wishes of the Cybrahisk that controls it. All Innovatore are surrounded by a shield of Gesh metal that will absorb a fixed amount of damage before the shield collapses. The amount of damage that can be absorbed by the Gesh shield is equal to the HD of the Innovatore times three. Once a shield has absorbed the amount of damage it can sustain, it will collapse, rendering the Innovatore vulnerable to damage. The Gesh metal will still be alive and active though, and it will take ten rounds for it to reform and create a new shield after it collapses. The Gesh shield will absorb all types of damage. While the Gesh shield is active, the Cybrahisk will appear to be covered in a flexible, thin layer of dull metal that will harden as soon as any object strikes it. A collapsed Gesh shield will appear as random patches of Gesh metal on the body of the Cybrahisk, constantly slithering across its skin as it reforms.
