Oread

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Oread

Standing like stone.

Origins

Oreads are an elemental race, a potent merger between the flesh creatures of the surface world and the mighty spirits of the Stone Beneath. Many ages ago, the first Oreads arose spontaneously during the Dawn Times. Some sages and scribes speculate that oreads arose as a consequence of the rise of Dwarves, and Dwarven tunneling activities in thos eons past essentially drove the Stone spirits to the surface. Regardless of the truth of this tale, Oreads and Dwarves have a rocky relationship at the best of times. Oreads live on the surface and feel that the Stone Beneath should be left undisturbed. Dwarves, obviously, live in the earth and dig and tunnel like no others. This leads to tensions aplenty, but Oreads are a rare race, while Dwarves are as plentiful as grains of sand in a bed of sandstone. So the Oreads usually simmer in discontent and let the affairs of Dwarves pass unremarked.

Culture

Of all the intelligent and civilized races, Oreads have the largest dimorphism between male and female. In most intelligent humanoids, the males are somewhat larger than the females. In Oreads, the males are much, much larger, and look quite different. Male oreads are towering things, extremely tall and massively muscled, with a typically rangy, craggy build like a rocky outcropping or a basalt stair formation. Female Oreads are much smaller, and as delicate as whiskers of crystal, combined with gently rounded contours like water-smoothed pebbles. Both genders express many stony features, with skin tones in males of rough granite, heavy basalt, refined jade (both green and mottled brown/white) and raspy sandstone, and in females skin tones resembling creamy marble, alabaster, jet, and most spectacularly, vivid turquoise or malachite. An oread's eyes are uniformly dull black, but few races notice because oread's eyes are phosporescent, giving off a mild glow in blue, green, yellow, or orange.

Oreads are quite alien, since they do not gain sustenance from food, as do other races. Instead, Oreads eat stone, the purer the better. A nice chunk of sandstone is a good meal, basalt is a little heavy, chert and flint are treats, coal and especially oil make them drunk, semi-precious stones are various intoxicating drugs, etc, etc. An Oread's stew is literally a pot of warm mud (clay is filling but a bit bland) mixed with pebbles and chunks of stone. An Oread's teeth are as hard as diamonds, but sadly (or luckily) have little to no value since they cannot be polished into beauty like gemstones can.

Oreads have no need for or attraction to soil, plants, or animals. They have no need of farms or herds, either. An Oread can eat normal food, and many oreads enjoy it, but they gain no sustenance from it. Oreads like bare stone lying exposed to the sky, and so they often live on barren rocky outcrops, stone deserts, and mountains, where there are few pesky plants to deal with. Oreads breathe air like normal, but Oreads do not drink water and do not need any liquids to sustain their lives. Oreads avoid water deeper than they are tall, since they sink like, well, stones. If oreads must deal with waterways, they build stone bridges over them of remarkable sturdiness and with very high railings. Weirdly enough, Oreads climb well, assuming whatever they are climbing can support their weight. Their hands and feet are so hard and strong they can find solid grips almost anywhere on almost anything.

Aside from their extremely weird physicality, Oread's are quite prosaic. They marry, have children, value family, all in the usual humanoid ways. Oread children are born from cairns of stone erected within a creche, usually excavated to the bedrock if they are not living on a stone outcropping already.

Oreads rarely live with other cultures, not because they are aloof, but because other races need water and plants and animals to live, which are all things oreads consider annoying clutter between them and the Stone Beneath. Where there are places close to or within cities that are good Oread habitat, they will cheerfully dwell close to other races and generally get along well with everyone except Dwarves. Oreads do not like Dwarves.

Starting Height and Weight

Gender	Base Height	Height Modifier	Weight	Weight Modifier
Male	5 ft. 9 in.	+4d6 in. (6 ft. 1 in. - 7 ft. 9 in.)	350 lbs.	+(2d8×30 lbs.) (410 - 830 lbs.)
Female	4 ft. 0 in.	+2d4 in. (4 ft. 2 in. - 4 ft. 8 in.)	120 lbs.	+(2d8×10 lbs.) (140 - 280 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

Oreads have no class or alignment restrictions.

Standard Racial Traits

All Oreads have the following Standard Racial Advantages:

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

• Type: Oreads have the Humanoid type, with the Oread subtype.

• Base Speed: Oreads have a base speed of 20 feet, but their speed is never modified by armor or encumbrance. Oreads cannot perform the Run maneuver, or jump or swim, at all. Oreads can never place ranks in Jump or Swim skill. However, oreads ignore all rough terrain.

• Languages: Oreads begin play speaking Common and Terran. Oreads with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Dolmen, Dwarven, Giant, Grum, Quell, Waug, and Yestermine. See the Languages page for more information about these languages.

• Senses: Oreads actually have quite poor vision, and all range modifiers are increased by fifty percent if they are targeting via sight. (IE, -3 per range band instead of -2.) Oreads do possess tremorsense. As long as they are in contact with bedrock, they have tremorsense to a range of twenty feet. If they are in contact with earth, soil, pavers, etc, they have tremorsense in their own square and all adjacent squares. The above ranges are increased by ten feet at tenth level, twenty feet at twentieth level and thirty feet at thirtieth level. Note that if an oread can target at range using tremorsense, they never take range modifiers at all.

Major Racial Traits

Choose one of the following Major Racial Traits:

• Elemental Affinity(add character level to effects with their element in it),

• elemental artistry

• Avalanch Base speed increased to thirty feet, add +2 to bull rush manuevers

Minor Racial Traits

Choose one of the following Minor Racial Traits:

• Stand like the Mountain