Sycarion Diversions

One of the more creative OSR products I’ve seen lately is Pars Fortuna. As it explains in the description, take the rules of S&W and remove the standards fantasy elements like races, spells, etc.

In the same spirit of inspiration, I present two races that exist symbiotically, the Mellivora and the Examati. This post covers the Examati. The next post will detail the Mellivora.

Life Together

The Examati and Mellivora have existed together for hundreds of years. Members of each race are rarely seen without a member of the other. The Examati rely of the fierce Mellivora warriors for protection and acquiring more territory. Despite their great need for the them, the Examati subjugate the Mellivora with alien and fearsome magics. Despite their fear of the Examati, the Mellivora rely on them for crafting weapons and social structure. Without the Examati, the Mellivora would devolve into several warring factions eventually devouring each other. Without the Mellivora, the Examati would be quickly overrun by inhabitants of the surrounding territories.

Examati

The Examati are roughly human in shape and stand between six-and-a-half and seven-and-a-half feet tall. They have a thin, wiry build with disproportionally long arms and six-fingered hands. They range from off-white to a pale grey in complexion. Their elongated heads feature small ears. On each side of their nose, there are three eyes in a triangular formation. Instead of teeth, the mouth has two bony plates.

They are devoted to their complex pantheon of gods. Attempts to catalog their religion have proven fruitless by sages. The Examati believe that they are servants and masters of various other-worldly spirits. These spirits are invoked to generate magic that ranges from granting boons to demolishing cities. Each spell appears as a tear in extra-dimensional space with beings foul and fair emerging just long enough to create a specific magical effect. The effect of seeing an Examati spell cast is enough to shake even the most seasoned adventurer.

Outside of their own spirit-based magic, the Examati are distrustful of any other form of magic. In their minds, all other magic demonstrates an arrogance that someone would disturb this plane and the spirit plane without consulting the spirits themselves.

Under the protection of the Mellivora, the Examati has developed a large temple system that governs in all their cities. All Examati belong a one of fifty or sixty temple orders. Based on their membership and status with a temple, an individual Examati is entitled to certain rights such as land ownership, voting in councils, a domicile outside the temple complex, and the ability to keep servants.

Racial Abilities

Examati are experts at identifying angels or demons. All Examati have the skill Demonology at a level of 11, regardless of their character class. They also gain a +1 to hit bonus when using a hurled weapon like a javelin or sling. They begin with a move of 15. They suffer a -2 penalty when attempting to Hide in Shadows and or Moving Silently.

Class Abilities

In game terms, Examati gain a +1 to Wisdom and a -1 to Strength. They tend to be Priests of their own religion. Weapon restrictions are dependent upon their temple membership, though all Examati clerics favor some kind of missile weapon or javelin. Examati will never be Mages, though some will become Warriors (either Fighters or Monks). A few Examati become Thieves that specialize in Lockpicking, Sneak Attacks, Ventriloquism and Climbing

The Lakma

(thanks again to Stuart’s OSR Monk)

Examati that choose to become unarmed warriors or monks gain attacks as if they were weapon specialists. Using their long bodies for leverage, their kicks do 1d6 damage per attack. At first level, Lakma gain a -2 bonus to Armor Class and gain an additional -1 bonus on every odd level after that. At 9th level, the Lakma may cast the Examati Cleric spell Thanatic Strike (acts as Fireball spell cast at Lakma’s current level) once per day. At 11th level, they use their normal unarmed attacks at a range of thirty feet plus ten feet for every level above the 11th.

Next time, the Mellivora