Cala'diel (5e Campaign Setting)/Races/Nezumi

Skaven

A skaven on the field of battle.

Skaven are twitchy, agitated creatures. Their metabolism allows them to burn energy at an incredible rate, boosting their agility and speed to unnatural levels. This effect also gives them an enormous hunger, which after heavy exertion can be so bad that the skaven visibly weakens and often times dies. As a result the skaven will feast on the dead of either side after a battle.

Physical Description

Skaven are usually around three to four feet tall when they stand up straight, although reports say the largest could reach five feet tall. Fur covers all of their bodies except for their ears, muzzles, hands and fleshy rat tails. Fur color indicates a skaven's role in their society. Most skaven are a dark brown or black. Dark brown indicates leadership, intelligence and especially magical ability. Those with black fur tend to be the largest and are considered to have the mark of a born killer, thus most black furred skaven become elite warriors or assassins. Nezumi never have black fur. Nezumi fur is always a light brown or tan.

Personality

Brown skaven with poison tipped weapons make their attack from the sewers at night.

The standard attitude of any skaven is that if the universe was as it should be, the skaven would be the master race and the specific skaven in question would be the ruler of everthing. This leads to most skaven being very paranoid. This paranoia is justified however since every skaven is out to get every other skaven, and they all know it.

Here are some suggested backgrounds designed for playing a skaven in Cala'diel. If playing a nezumi you might want to be a Street Merchant. If playing a any other type of skaven you might want to be a Sewer Dweller.

Relations

Skaven society is a lawless world where the strongest and most cunning rise to the top, while the weakest are eaten or enslaved. Every skaven is constantly fighting for supremacy, whether to advance, or to defend his position from would-be usurpers. Fights are usually not to the death, but any skaven who is maimed will quickly be dispatched by the victor. Treachery is not seen as dishonorable in any way, indeed it is the traditional way of advancing in skaven society. All this in fighting leads to skaven living in small tight knit clans. Clans are usually lead by brown furred skaven. The leader of a clan is called a warlord. Warlords gain this title by killing the old leader and then continually killing those who try to take over. Warlords rule over clanrats. Clanrats are usually black furred skaven and do anything the warlord demands. Clanrats rule over skavenslaves. Skavenslaves are all the other skaven in the warlords clan. These skavenslaves are the ones who gather food and breed.

Female skaven are rare and, at most, semi-intelligent but are capable of giving birth to huge litters very frequently. This means that the skaven are probably the most numerous of all the races.

Lands

Skaven originate from the continent of Eskzor.

Names

The language of the skaven, Queekish, is a chittering and hasty speech. Skaven dialogue is often littered with a hodgepodge of rapid squeaks and trills. Queekish words are short, clipped, and often repeated several times in a row in an effort to add emphasis to statements. Due to the speed with which Queekish is spoken, long sentences are often broken up into several fragments. As such, these fragmentary sentences must be pieced together to form coherent thoughts, especially during long stretches of dialogue.

The written form of Queekish consists of several thousand pictograms, each representing a single word or concept. Most skaven know the most important pictograms, while only a few can recite them all. As new discoveries are made, new pictograms are devised. Many are so similar they are indistinguishable to the untrained eye. Skaven do not use last names and their names do not denote gender. A name is a name to the skaven, no gender bias. Their names usually contain S's, K's and V's. The skaven are able linguists and many learn the common language so they may better deal with their slaves and enemies. Though they see other languages as inherently inferior to their own, they find they are valuable tools in the advancement of their cause. Their linguistic habits of repetition and quickly-spoken words carry over to the other tongues that they learn. A skaven’s voice is often high-pitched, squeaky, and displays a somewhat whiny character. When skaven speak common everything they say sounds nearly the same. Nezumi have adopted last names to better fit in with the other races society. They usually take a last name that promotes their business.

Skaven names: Sneelk, Skisqheel, Skrel, Stalk, Kralk, Zitch, Qilk

Nezumi names: Khet Loremaster, Vasqeek Magicseeker, Vit Weaponkeeper

Racial Traits

• Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2.
• Age. Skaven live to be around 40.
• Alignment. Most skaven tend to be true neutral or lean toward chaotic neutral.
• Size. Skaven are small and thin. They stand about three to four feet tall and average about 70 pounds. Your size is small.
• Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet.
• Poison Resistance. You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage.
• Strong will to survive. A roll of a 1 on a death saving throw does not count as 2 failures. It only counts as 1 failure.
• Darkvision. Accustomed to the twilit forest and night sky, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only in shades of gray.
• Languages. Queekish and Common.
• Subrace. You may select one subrace.

Black Skaven

Black furred skaven are considered to be born warriors. They are usually stronger than both the brown furred skaven and nezumi. Not usually the leader of a clan, these skaven are usually enforcers for the leader. Well trained assassins ard fighters, black furred skaven are treated as being the most dangerous skaven you can encounter.

• Ability Score Increase. Your constitution score increases by 1.
• Skaven Weapon Training. You have proficiency with daggers, light crossbows, and slings.
• Magical Cantrip. You know the poison spray cantrip.
• Disease Resistance. You have advantage on any saving throw or check relating to disease.
• Superior Darkvision. Your darkvision has a radius of 120 feet.

Brown Skaven

Brown furred skaven tend to be the leaders of a clan or are spell casting classes. These traits most likely come from the fact that they have a higher intelligence than the black furred skaven. They use this intelligence to build traps and outfit clan members with poison tipped weapons. Brown skaven are known to be more cunning than black furred skaven as well.

• Ability Score Increase. Your intelligence score increases by 1.
• Skaven Weapon Training. You have proficiency with daggers, light crossbows, and slings.
• Magical Cantrip. You know the acid splash cantrip.
• Poison expert. You have advantage on any wisdom (medicine) check made to identify any poison.
• Superior Darkvision. Your darkvision has a radius of 120 feet.

Nezumi

A Nezumi appraising items for some adventures on the docks of Jeuno.

Nezumi are skaven who have adapted to living above ground in cities with other races. Still viewed as "sketchy" by the other races, they earn a living running shops and collecting magic items. They are mostly found bartering with adventurers. Nezumi are much cleaner than skaven, a trait that is very noticeable when comparing the two. They have, for the most part, overcome the negative stereotype that skaven have earned. That stereotype being that skaven are murderous, cruel and disease-ridden.

• Nezumi Weapon Training. You have proficiency with daggers, short swords, and light crossbows.
• Identify Spell Mastery. You known the identify spell and can cast it twice per long rest. You do not have to use materials to cast it. If you chose to cast the spell more than twice per long rest you may do so. Follow the normal rules for spell casting except you still do not require materials.
• Magic Item Lore. You have advantage on any Intelligence (Arcana) checks to find details on any magic items or weapons.