Mallori

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Mallori

The brightest lights cast the deepest shadows.

Origins

Several centuries ago, there was a prosperous city in the pass of a mountain range that bridged the trade between two great nations. The city was caled Kael Ghalean, and its people were primarily humans, though a few other races shared the community.

One winter solstice, at high noon, a stranger strode through the city's welcoming gates, a large pack upon his back, his clothes travelworn, his face unshaven and a haunted look in his eye. No one paid him any mind, and he exchanged no words with anyone. He stopped in the city's central market square, and at precisely high noon, placed his pack upon the ground and removed a long-snouted plague mask from his pack and put it on.

Needless to say, the passers-by were concerned, and many asked him what he was doing. The wisest among them went immediately to fetch the town watch. But with no warning, no muttered statements about his goals or perceived wrongs he was somehow righting, the stranger reached once more into his pack and removed an orb.

The orb was large, nearly two feet in diameter, and more than being simply black, it pulled light into it hungrily. The stranger held it in his hands, his covered face betraying no emotions or motives.

The orb pulsed a single time at the strike of noon, and the town changed forever.

The winter sun overhead seemed to turn watery and its light seemed diminished and inconsequential. The air, a moment ago bitingly cold, now held not even a briskness. It was still cold, but it seemed somehow only nearby -- a rumor of cold.

The town's many buildings, proudly maintained, their whitewash fresh from the previous spring's Sunday celebrations, now stood hollow. The bright colors appeared to immediately fade into unsaturated spectrums, and their hearths lost their comforting warmth.

The roads, cobble and slate, maintained fastidiously at all times to promote the trade routes that kept the town alive, became as clay, their substance diminished, as if they could no longer be bothered to hold the world aloft on their strates.

And the people! The people blanched with pallor. Those nearest the stranger felt their panic wash out of them, to be replaced with a sense that there should be something more, but whatever that is, it was gone. The children stopped their play, the laborers set down their tools, and the whole city stared at this new colorless place and despaired.

Shortly thereafter, the inhabitants of Kael Ghalean abandoned it, many not even pausing to pack their cherished items or valuables once they saw how all lustre and sentiment seemed to have been stripped from them. Some packed provisions of flavorless foods or listless livestock, but everyone left the city within days. After a week, no one remained to explain the abandoned city and its pallid buildings and dismal parks. As travelers and tradesmen came, they wondered at the sort of folk who would willingly call such a place their home.

Of the stranger, there was no trace. No clue as to his intent, no indication if his plan turned out they way he had intended.

The people of Kael Ghalean spread into the neighboring lands, carrying their pale, sunken, expressionless hearts to lands they hoped would restore them somehow. And to some extent, they found new hope in these lands. They made new families, and bore children. They made friends and joined new communities. Their hands picked up tools once again, and labored to create and contribute.

But something was different. Something never came back. Something important.

They call themselves the Mallori (a Tenebri word which means 'homeless' or 'seeking hope', depending on its context) and their ties to the plane of shadow are unmistakable.

Culture

The cursed race of the Mallori still look quite similar to human. But in truth, they are one of the most alien of humanoid races, the bleakness and shadow that infuses them affecting their minds much more than it affects their bodies. To a Mallori, the world is a shifting array of shade, a billion and one shades of gray. Mallori can identify colors as easily as any other race, but to a Mallori it is the gradient and texture of the shadow that distinguises colors, not the actual color itself. Similarly, Mallori see much more in shadows than any other race. To a Mallori, light and darkness are completley different than they are to other races. Bright light and true darkness are both impenetrable to their vision, while they treat dim light and normal darkness as bright light.

Even more profound, a Mallori see's much more in shadows than other races. Mallori can explain the concept of 'depth of shadow' to non-Mallori, but cannot explain why a seven-deep shadow is better than a three-deep shadow. A Mallori can explain how the Umbra is different from the Penumbra, but cannot say why they seek the Umbra. Saturation and Chroma mean entirely different things to Mallori than they do to other races, and other races aren't even sure what mallori are seeing when they describe such things.

No Mallori has ever been able to explain dappling the way they perceive it, but dappling is critically important to Mallori because compatible dappling s required if they wish to spawn a new Mallori.

This last illustrates the depth of the alienness of the Mallori: They do not mate or marry, at all. When any two Mallori meet, there is a small chance that their dappling (whatever that is) is compatible. If they have compatible dappling, there will be a surge of shadows between them, and moments later a third Mallori will step from the shadows, fully grown.

Where this new Mallori comes from is a mystery. If asked, Mallori explain their childhood in vague terms of growing up in a shadowy city, until they stepped through the shadows and into the world. Mallori have no families, and no need for them either. If any two mallori share a shadow for a length of time, eventually there will be a third mallori, and so on.

Despite their wildly alien biology, Mallori are flesh and blood and they still eat and drink and breathe as normal, although they have no families nor any need of them. Mallori feel all emotions weakly, if at all, and suffer little from loneliness or melancholy, nor do they experience the heights of joy or happiness.

Growing Up Mallori

Mallori don't 'grow up' at all. They have no childhood, and do not age. The spend a few years after the appear in the world settling n and establishing their lives, as if they've just moved in from 'somewhere else', and then take up a profession or go adventuring. Mallori tend to clump together in loose bands, because they are so alien that there is nobody else to really talk to about the things that interest them most, which are shadows. Two Mallori can talk for hours about the shadows around them, a topic that is endlessly fascinating and infinitely variable.

Mallori in a settlement create new Mallori at a 'birth rate' roughly equivalent to Dwarves, namely, at widely spaced but fairly steady intervals. Each Mallori sets out on their own as of the instant of their creation, and is able to fully suport themselves from their very first moments.

Starting Height and Weight

Gender	Base Height	Height Modifier	Weight	Weight Modifier
Male	3 ft. 9 in.	+2d4 in. (3 ft. 11 in. - 4 ft. 5 in.)	150 lbs.	+(2d8×7 lbs.) (164 - 262 lbs.)
Female	3 ft. 7 in.	+2d4 in. (3 ft. 9 in. - 4 ft. 3 in.)	120 lbs.	+(2d8×7 lbs.) (134 - 232 lbs.)

Starting Ages

Adulthood	Intuitive	Self-Taught	Trained
40 years	+3d6 years (43 - 58 years)	+5d6 years (45 - 70 years)	+7d6 years (47 - 82 years)

PC's

Mallori have no class or alignment restrictions.

Standard Racial Traits

All Mallori have the following Standard Racial Advantages:

• Attributes: Mallori may choose to gain one of the following ability score bonus sets when creating their character. No ability score may ever be modified above a 20 or below a 7.
  • +2 to two different stats, -2 to one stat
  • +2 to one stat, +1 to three different stats, -2 to one stat
  • +4 to one stat, -2 to two different stats

• Size: Mallori are Medium creatures and thus receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size.

• Type: Mallori have the Shadow type, with the Native subtype.

• Base Speed: Mallori have a base speed of 30 feet.

• Languages: Mallori begin play speaking Common. Mallori with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: . See the Linguistics skill page for more information about these languages.

• Shadowsight: Mallori have extremely odd vision. They gain no use from True Darkness, like other races, but they are equally as blind in Bright Light. To compensate, they take no modifiers in dim light or darkness, treating both as bright light. Most Mallori that want to get along with normally sighted races wear smoked goggles during the day and have dim lanterns for the truly dark places of the world.

Major Racial Traits

Choose one of the following Major Racial Traits:

• Walk in Shadows,

• Shadowcloak,

• Negative resistance(1/level)

• Shading(bonuses to professional skills and masterwork items)

Minor Racial Traits

Choose one of the following Minor Racial Traits: