FA+
Shop
Custom Race - Vicissitals
by Miststalker
Trash Puppy
10 years ago
Misty's notes on the upload:
I've been pondering uploading all this for a while, so now I finally got my shizz together and did it. A whole new species I sketched up for a tabletop RPG campaign, and now, all cleaned up and presentable, it's here for my (and maybe your?) enjoyment. I'm really fond of them. I think the docx is a lot more easy to read than FA's 'wall of text' style formatting, but I'm gonna paste the whole thing here, in case you don't feel like downloading and opening stuff.
Tell me if it sparked your interest!Race description:
Vicissitals are a relatively young race of sentient and intelligent, self-replicating, quasi-mechanical constructs. Their fleeting life cycles determine their entire existence.
A new creature comes to life with a unique perpetuum mobile core being set into a synthetic body, both constructed by its sole parent and creator. Its mind is a blank slate and unbiased in conscious thought, but comes with lots of basic lexical information and subconscious preferences based on the parent's experiences. The body is also heavily influenced by the parent, but largely conforms to a uniform standard - probably because humanoid bodies continue to prove to be universal and advantageous.
Once the creature is online, it embarks on a dangerous, daring journey to collect as much experience and knowledge it can, and once it's decided to have formed a unique view on the world with unique ideals, it creates its own offspring. With its purpose completed and experiences immortalized in its new creation, its mind is completely wiped, starting the cycle over again.
Despite their apparent eagerness to reproduce, there is not a great many of Vicissitals. Their thrill-seeking lifestyle takes great toll on their numbers, and even so they don't collect experience blazingly fast; a single offspring in fifteen to thirty years is the norm.
They have no society to speak of - teaming up creates two similar creatures and successors, therefore it's avoided. Cooperating with other species on the other hand is very common, but never exceedingly long-term. They have no homeworld or even any form of settlement, since Vicissitals need constant stimuli stable communities can't provide. They view stability, traditions, safety and peace as poison to their people, a door to weakness and stagnation, so they can always be found where there is none of these can.
The race is likely rather young, most probably only a couple of centuries old, but there is no certainty. They keep no records themselves, and the currently active generations are recently created for the most part, as their lifestyles generally do not permit longevity. There is a possibility that they might even be ancient, but their existence has only been noticed and confirmed recently - their sparse numbers spread out over a large area simply weren't noted for gods know how long, or just explained as an escaped secret experiment of one kind or another.
Their origin is a complete mystery, there is no serious claim on creating them, by man or god. The first generation is probably completely lost already, and even if anyone would manage to find one of them, they likely began with no recollection either, and their memory would be erased many times over by this time.
One chance of finding out the truth about them would be finding a first-generation renegade - a Vicissital who, standing against its most basic directives, refuses to create offspring and wipe its mind, keeping memories and information from days long past. There are serious concerns for mental integrity if one decides to do so, as their minds are not designed to hold much more than a cycle's data. Other, properly functioning Vicissitals see these specimen as a threat to the species, and seek out to destroy them when encountered.
Vicissitals generally get along well with anyone not cleanly hostile, and few insults trigger them. Don't question their free will and individuality though, the greatest disgrace is being called a 'robot' or a 'hive-mind'. If you want to get on their good side, you have to appear independent and full of exciting new knowledge. If you want to get mauled, just convince them you are worth more experience dead than alive.Misty's notes:
Vicissitals were originally created for the homebrew Pathfinder campaign 'Counterblast'. I purged the base race description of anything relevant to that, to keep them more or less genre and system independent, but they will of course work best in straight up multi-species space operas or 'dwarven clockwork' style fantasy.
In Pathfinder, they are created true neutral, but they might shift along the course of their cycle.
They are a fifteen point race, with seven going to the Half-Construct subtype, the rest free to choose - after all, they are all very varied and unique, in composition, looks, or functions!
I didn't clean Aether's sheet up because its story is heavily based on the world of that fateful game. It's enough for you to know that the campaign is swords and sorcery in space. GDF are the faction strictly controlling space, and the Lancers are the terrorists/freedom fighters who ain't gonna have none of that.Example Character: Aether
Aether is a year-old Vicissital, and can barely be called a person at all. Its experiences are sparse and it operates mostly on base instinct and its hereditary memories, the one year only enough to make it more or less familiar with most environments, but specialize in none. It has chosen the path of the Magus, aiming to learn as much as it can, yet still being able to effectively defend itself and rip experience out of the throat of danger, often literally. Its affiliation is loosely connected to the Lancers, its opinion being that the GDF is a harmful entity eradicating chaos and promoting stagnation in the civilized Universe. With that said, it has no qualms against GDF-sympathisants, as long as they don't actively get in its way or are the targets for the job - this can't always be said the other way around.
The parent of Aether is - unsurprisingly - not known well. It is the latest and allegedly last offspring of a Vicissital of many cycles and resets. It inherited an even more neutral position on all affairs from this worn and jaded parent than others of its species, so it finds very hard to finally get into the groove and start its own existence, and the stiff, deeply ingrained primary objectives don't help in that regard either.
Aether itself looks very much like a mechanical cat-person; similar enough to be recognizable, but very far from being accurate or uncanny. It's covered with matte dark gray armor plating, looking stiff, hard, and mechanical. Its joints show some shiny little interlocking plates protecting the inside - it's a design with a natural range of motion. As of now, the shell is a little scratched and worn, but more or less new. It heals by itself at a normal rate, leaving blemishes, scars and welds behind. Beneath the plates run its delicate but powerful inner workings; any cut tubing inside would be dangerous and leak a white cooling agent, effects not at all unlike bleeding; similarly, heat buildup by overuse manifests as 'exhaustion'. The eyes are solid orbs of faintly glowing dark blue; the face is surprisingly expressive coupled with the natural nonverbal movements of the body and very well articulated voice.
Its most notable quality is its long, sinuous tail with three little 'fingers' on its tip - it's equally a workable weapon and an extra limb with dexterity.
With all the sleepless nights it spent as a nightwatch, Aether picked up amateur jewelcrafting in its abundant spare time. Its creations lack originality so far, but there are some who are fond of the geometrical simplicity, minimalism, and overall high attention to quality in its creations.
Currently Aether is just at the very edge of true distinctiveness and on the beginning of its first journey, extremely eager to move on.Misty's notes:
As I said, Aether is originally from Pathfinder, a custom race. There's a bunch of numbers below, if you enjoy that sort of thing.
The campaign itself lasted a long while, with GMs swapped a few times, and it was the last great hurrah of our RPG group; I truly enjoyed it through and through. Aether became rather powerful, wielding two bastard swords and having a bit of magic to support that - the prehensile tail came in pretty handy as well. It became far less reckless after a few close brushes with death that left lasting scars on its body, an avid collector of memorabilia, and a skillful craftsman. After the passing of a party member it grew attached and compassionate on its own way, and while not outright refusing its directives, it started questioning them, an unhealthy curiosity towards its own kind surfacing. At the very end it even gained a familiar - a 'broken' compsognathus it turned into a mechanical creature. The game ended before I decided what became of them, so that's a question still open - does Aether ultimately reproduce, or will it carry on indefinitely?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/112qzjkrv.....ether.xps?dl=0
7 Half-Construct
[+2 racial bonus on saving throws against disease, mind-affecting effects, poison, and exhaustion or fatigue; cannot be raised or resurrected; does not eat/breathe/sleep]
3 Slapping Tail
[attack of opportunity with a reach of 5 feet, natural attack 1d8+3]
2 Prehensile Tail
[can be used to carry objects; can retrieve small, stowed objects carried on person as swift action]
2 Natural Armor
[+1 natural armor bonus to Armor Class (doesn't apply against Touch attacks)]
1 Low-Light Vision
[can see twice as far as a race with normal vision in conditions of dim light]
Class/Archetype:
Magus/Myrmidarch
Feats:
Dodge
[+1 dodge bonus to AC, doesn't apply when DEX bonus doesn't]
Traits:
Excitable
[+2 trait bonus on all Initiative checks]
Pragmatic Activator
[may use INT instead of CHA on Use Magic Device checks]
Technologist
[+2 trait bonus to Spellcraft and Use Magic Device]
I've been pondering uploading all this for a while, so now I finally got my shizz together and did it. A whole new species I sketched up for a tabletop RPG campaign, and now, all cleaned up and presentable, it's here for my (and maybe your?) enjoyment. I'm really fond of them. I think the docx is a lot more easy to read than FA's 'wall of text' style formatting, but I'm gonna paste the whole thing here, in case you don't feel like downloading and opening stuff.
Tell me if it sparked your interest!Race description:
Vicissitals are a relatively young race of sentient and intelligent, self-replicating, quasi-mechanical constructs. Their fleeting life cycles determine their entire existence.
A new creature comes to life with a unique perpetuum mobile core being set into a synthetic body, both constructed by its sole parent and creator. Its mind is a blank slate and unbiased in conscious thought, but comes with lots of basic lexical information and subconscious preferences based on the parent's experiences. The body is also heavily influenced by the parent, but largely conforms to a uniform standard - probably because humanoid bodies continue to prove to be universal and advantageous.
Once the creature is online, it embarks on a dangerous, daring journey to collect as much experience and knowledge it can, and once it's decided to have formed a unique view on the world with unique ideals, it creates its own offspring. With its purpose completed and experiences immortalized in its new creation, its mind is completely wiped, starting the cycle over again.
Despite their apparent eagerness to reproduce, there is not a great many of Vicissitals. Their thrill-seeking lifestyle takes great toll on their numbers, and even so they don't collect experience blazingly fast; a single offspring in fifteen to thirty years is the norm.
They have no society to speak of - teaming up creates two similar creatures and successors, therefore it's avoided. Cooperating with other species on the other hand is very common, but never exceedingly long-term. They have no homeworld or even any form of settlement, since Vicissitals need constant stimuli stable communities can't provide. They view stability, traditions, safety and peace as poison to their people, a door to weakness and stagnation, so they can always be found where there is none of these can.
The race is likely rather young, most probably only a couple of centuries old, but there is no certainty. They keep no records themselves, and the currently active generations are recently created for the most part, as their lifestyles generally do not permit longevity. There is a possibility that they might even be ancient, but their existence has only been noticed and confirmed recently - their sparse numbers spread out over a large area simply weren't noted for gods know how long, or just explained as an escaped secret experiment of one kind or another.
Their origin is a complete mystery, there is no serious claim on creating them, by man or god. The first generation is probably completely lost already, and even if anyone would manage to find one of them, they likely began with no recollection either, and their memory would be erased many times over by this time.
One chance of finding out the truth about them would be finding a first-generation renegade - a Vicissital who, standing against its most basic directives, refuses to create offspring and wipe its mind, keeping memories and information from days long past. There are serious concerns for mental integrity if one decides to do so, as their minds are not designed to hold much more than a cycle's data. Other, properly functioning Vicissitals see these specimen as a threat to the species, and seek out to destroy them when encountered.
Vicissitals generally get along well with anyone not cleanly hostile, and few insults trigger them. Don't question their free will and individuality though, the greatest disgrace is being called a 'robot' or a 'hive-mind'. If you want to get on their good side, you have to appear independent and full of exciting new knowledge. If you want to get mauled, just convince them you are worth more experience dead than alive.Misty's notes:
Vicissitals were originally created for the homebrew Pathfinder campaign 'Counterblast'. I purged the base race description of anything relevant to that, to keep them more or less genre and system independent, but they will of course work best in straight up multi-species space operas or 'dwarven clockwork' style fantasy.
In Pathfinder, they are created true neutral, but they might shift along the course of their cycle.
They are a fifteen point race, with seven going to the Half-Construct subtype, the rest free to choose - after all, they are all very varied and unique, in composition, looks, or functions!
I didn't clean Aether's sheet up because its story is heavily based on the world of that fateful game. It's enough for you to know that the campaign is swords and sorcery in space. GDF are the faction strictly controlling space, and the Lancers are the terrorists/freedom fighters who ain't gonna have none of that.Example Character: Aether
Aether is a year-old Vicissital, and can barely be called a person at all. Its experiences are sparse and it operates mostly on base instinct and its hereditary memories, the one year only enough to make it more or less familiar with most environments, but specialize in none. It has chosen the path of the Magus, aiming to learn as much as it can, yet still being able to effectively defend itself and rip experience out of the throat of danger, often literally. Its affiliation is loosely connected to the Lancers, its opinion being that the GDF is a harmful entity eradicating chaos and promoting stagnation in the civilized Universe. With that said, it has no qualms against GDF-sympathisants, as long as they don't actively get in its way or are the targets for the job - this can't always be said the other way around.
The parent of Aether is - unsurprisingly - not known well. It is the latest and allegedly last offspring of a Vicissital of many cycles and resets. It inherited an even more neutral position on all affairs from this worn and jaded parent than others of its species, so it finds very hard to finally get into the groove and start its own existence, and the stiff, deeply ingrained primary objectives don't help in that regard either.
Aether itself looks very much like a mechanical cat-person; similar enough to be recognizable, but very far from being accurate or uncanny. It's covered with matte dark gray armor plating, looking stiff, hard, and mechanical. Its joints show some shiny little interlocking plates protecting the inside - it's a design with a natural range of motion. As of now, the shell is a little scratched and worn, but more or less new. It heals by itself at a normal rate, leaving blemishes, scars and welds behind. Beneath the plates run its delicate but powerful inner workings; any cut tubing inside would be dangerous and leak a white cooling agent, effects not at all unlike bleeding; similarly, heat buildup by overuse manifests as 'exhaustion'. The eyes are solid orbs of faintly glowing dark blue; the face is surprisingly expressive coupled with the natural nonverbal movements of the body and very well articulated voice.
Its most notable quality is its long, sinuous tail with three little 'fingers' on its tip - it's equally a workable weapon and an extra limb with dexterity.
With all the sleepless nights it spent as a nightwatch, Aether picked up amateur jewelcrafting in its abundant spare time. Its creations lack originality so far, but there are some who are fond of the geometrical simplicity, minimalism, and overall high attention to quality in its creations.
Currently Aether is just at the very edge of true distinctiveness and on the beginning of its first journey, extremely eager to move on.Misty's notes:
As I said, Aether is originally from Pathfinder, a custom race. There's a bunch of numbers below, if you enjoy that sort of thing.
The campaign itself lasted a long while, with GMs swapped a few times, and it was the last great hurrah of our RPG group; I truly enjoyed it through and through. Aether became rather powerful, wielding two bastard swords and having a bit of magic to support that - the prehensile tail came in pretty handy as well. It became far less reckless after a few close brushes with death that left lasting scars on its body, an avid collector of memorabilia, and a skillful craftsman. After the passing of a party member it grew attached and compassionate on its own way, and while not outright refusing its directives, it started questioning them, an unhealthy curiosity towards its own kind surfacing. At the very end it even gained a familiar - a 'broken' compsognathus it turned into a mechanical creature. The game ended before I decided what became of them, so that's a question still open - does Aether ultimately reproduce, or will it carry on indefinitely?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/112qzjkrv.....ether.xps?dl=0
7 Half-Construct
[+2 racial bonus on saving throws against disease, mind-affecting effects, poison, and exhaustion or fatigue; cannot be raised or resurrected; does not eat/breathe/sleep]
3 Slapping Tail
[attack of opportunity with a reach of 5 feet, natural attack 1d8+3]
2 Prehensile Tail
[can be used to carry objects; can retrieve small, stowed objects carried on person as swift action]
2 Natural Armor
[+1 natural armor bonus to Armor Class (doesn't apply against Touch attacks)]
1 Low-Light Vision
[can see twice as far as a race with normal vision in conditions of dim light]
Class/Archetype:
Magus/Myrmidarch
Feats:
Dodge
[+1 dodge bonus to AC, doesn't apply when DEX bonus doesn't]
Traits:
Excitable
[+2 trait bonus on all Initiative checks]
Pragmatic Activator
[may use INT instead of CHA on Use Magic Device checks]
Technologist
[+2 trait bonus to Spellcraft and Use Magic Device]
546
Views
0
Comments
5
Favorites
General
Rating
Category
Sub-Category
Species
Resolution
File Size
Story
All
Unspecified / Any
50 x 50
17.7 kB
