Introducing the second new player race for the Haunted World setting, the burunjhu.

BURUNJHU

Blessed with superior minds and bodies but cursed with the stigma of their fallen masters, these resilient warrior-sages still carry the might and pride of the dragons that created them.

RACIAL TRAITS

Average Height: 3’6”-4’2”

Average Weight: 85-95 lb.

Ability Scores: +2 Intelligence, +2 Strength or +2 to Constitution

Size: Small

Speed: 6 Squares

Vision: Low-Light

Skill Bonuses: +2 Endurance, +2 Acrobatics

Knowledge Hoarder: You gain either training in or a +2 racial bonus to one skill of your choice from the following list: Arcana, Nature, Dungeoneering, History, or Religion.

Languages: Common, choice of one other.

Soft Landing: You can use Hop Down

In ancient times, khitons lived in small clans of hunter-gatherers and thrived almost exclusively in harsh environments such as the amber forests, arid deserts, and rocky badlands; the more bountiful regions nearby were the territories of dragons, serpents, and other dangerous creatures.  Able to survive with what they had, the khitons did not seek more, and most of their development as a culture was in art, medicine, communication, and other activities to make daily existence more tolerable. When siln explorers discovered them, the khitons welcomed them humbly and with great curiosity. With the aid of siln magic, the two races traded information and goods, and several small packs of khitons returned with the siln to the lush wildernesses far from their native lands. These packs traded

Introducing the first of the three new non-human player races in the Haunted World setting: the khitons.

Khiton

Perceptive survivors who seek to preserve the world while they spread to its every corner. 

Racial Traits

Average Height: 5’4”-6’0”

Average Weight: 140-190 lb.

Ability Scores: +2 Wisdom, +2 Constitution or +2 Dexterity

Size: Medium

Speed: 6 squares

Vision: Low-light

Languages: Common, Khitonic

Skill Bonuses: +2 Perception, +2 Stealth

Eyes Aplenty: At the start of your turn, you can make a saving throw against one blinding effect that a save can end.

Perceptive Defense: You have the perceptive defense power.

Swift Glance: You gain a +1 racial bonus to AC and Reflex against ranged attacks from 5 or more squares

Player Races

Khitons

Humanity’s primary rivals for dominance of the world in the wake of the Patron War, khitons are a race of humanoids from a group of vaguely arthropod-like animals called tesserans. Their basic shape is similar to humans, with a head, torso, pelvis, two arms, and two legs, but all the details are typical of tesserans. They have four dark eyes, with one smaller set about an inch below the primary set, which provide them with excellent vision, especially in dim lights. Their jaws are lateral, like an insect’s mandibles, but internal, so that their lipless mouths are vertical. They are completely hairless, but males of the species grow prominent ridges above their brows and the sides of their head. Over most of their bodies, their skin is smooth and leathery

Human Mega-Cultures, Continued.

Here are the other two "mega-cultures" of humanity. It should be noted that, while humans and khitons have cultures that are attributed to them, today all mega-cultures have significant numbers of all four primary races in a variety of roles, and most cultures of any size have had at least some influence from other races or from serpents, dragons, and even more unusual sources. Moreover, the spirit world is part of daily life for every single culture, and some greater spirits are social, culture-building creatures, and sometimes even humanoids themselves.

The Masked

Deep in the inland jungles and forest steppes of the continent, the myriad Masked tribes once belonged to a single, unified culture said to rival the greatest modern cultures in sophistication.

As I developed the basic concepts of the Haunted World setting, I decided that while I wanted to ensure that players had an opportunity to make up whatever background they desired, the world itself presented distinct cultures with their own ongoing stories which the players could interact with or be part of. All four of the primary player races (humans, khitons, ulari, and burunjhu) will have multiple broad groupings of cultures I call "mega-cultures" for want of a better term. These mega-cultures exist to give players a place to start, but not as a strict limit. In the current age, mixing between mega-cultures is increasingly common and cultures with unique histories outside of the mega-cultures have always existed, with new cultures growing from the old.

In this entry, I will go over

As promised, here is some information on Jalan.

The monarchial city-state of Jalan, sometimes called the Crossroad Kingdom, is one of the world’s greatest trade hubs and cultural centers. The city itself rests on both sides of a wide, sluggish river that flows directly into the sea, and the two halves are linked by three great bridges and three deep tunnels built by burunjhu engineers who later founded the village of Six Bridge. Jalan’s massive Forestdrift Port handles goods from across the known world, and Jalan’s seaside entertainment and fresh supplies are considered vital to the success of longer voyages. Forestdrift Port is also home to Jalan’s great market, where law requires most goods to be sold. Deeper into the city, one finds the boundless creativity