Homebrew:Kaladeshi Vedalken: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 00:20, 8 December 2022

(OOC: This is an implementation of the vedalken race from Plane Shift: Kaladesh)

Vedalken have an unusual view of progress. They believe that nothing is perfect, nor can it ever be perfect— and they rejoice in this. Every imperfection is a chance for improvement, and progress is an endless march toward a state of perfection that can never actually be reached. Thus, pointing out imperfection is hardly an insult—which leads vedalken to note flaws and problems with an enthusiasm that members of other races sometimes find exasperating.

This enthusiasm extends to every aspect of vedalken work, both practical and theoretical. They are curious and excitable, and often become deeply engrossed in their labors. It’s not uncommon for a vedalken to spend hours on end caught up in the details of an abstract question or a minute engineering problem. Vedalken can be utterly oblivious to their surroundings while meditating on thorny issues, and they are prone to launching into lengthy explanations of their current research, since most find that talking about a problem often leads to a solution.

As a rule, vedalken are gregarious in conversation. However, they are quite circumspect concerning their personal lives, and they engage more with ideas than with people. They form close friendships based around mutual interests or compelling disagreements, and their interactions focus on their thoughts about those issues rather than their feelings about them. Emotional dynamics don’t particularly interest vedalken, either as a conversational topic or a field of study. When they talk about their feelings, it is primarily to provide information that might be helpful to others. For example, a vedalken might tell her colleagues, “I’m feeling irritated right now, so I might not be reacting appropriately. Perhaps we should continue this later.” But any questions about the cause of the irritation are likely to be brushed off as being irrelevant to the situation.

Vedalken Politics

Most vedalken care far more about invention and inquiry than about politics. They would rather unlock the hidden potential of aether-based devices than dwell on the question of how aether should be distributed to the Consulate’s citizens. For that reason, though vedalken are found both among the officials of the Consulate and among the renegades, their dedication to either cause often lacks the partisan fervor found in the members of other races.

Kaladeshi Vedalken Traits

Ability Score Increase

Your Intelligence score increases by 2 and your Wisdom score increases by 1.

Age

Vedalken mature at the same rate humans do, and most are expected to settle down into an adult life by around age 40. They can live 350 to almost 500 years.

Alignment

Vedalken are most often lawful and rarely evil.

Size

Vedalken are taller than humans but more slender. They average 6 to 6½ feet tall, but usually weigh less than 200 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Vedalken Cunning

You have advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws against magic.

Aether Lore

Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check related to magic items or aether-powered technological devices, you can add twice your proficiency bonus, instead of any proficiency bonus you normally apply.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Vedalken. The Vedalken language is renowned for its technical treatises and its catalogs of knowledge about the natural world and the aether that pervades it.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-[[file:kaladesh elf.jpg|right|thumb|500px]]
+[[file:kaladesh vedalken.jpg|right|thumb|500px]]
-{{ooc note|This is an implementation of the elf race from Planeshift: Kaladesh}}
+{{ooc note|This is an implementation of the vedalken race from [[Plane Shift: Kaladesh]]}}
 __NOTOC__
-The movement of aether through the world is visible and obvious where it courses in glowing rivers across the sky, sweeps across sculpted plains, or pours through great urban pipelines. But the elves of Kaladesh are uniquely in tune with the flow of aether throughout the plane, both seen and unseen, and with the subtle ways it suffuses and influences all life. They call this flow the Great Conduit, and they believe that the only way to truly grasp it is to be a part of it, simultaneously shaping it and being shaped in return.
+Vedalken have an unusual view of progress. They believe that nothing is perfect, nor can it ever be perfect— and they rejoice in this. Every imperfection is a chance for improvement, and progress is an endless march toward a state of perfection that can never actually be reached. Thus, pointing out imperfection is hardly an insult—which leads vedalken to note flaws and problems with an enthusiasm that members of other races sometimes find exasperating.
-Thanks to this sensitivity, elves feel a deep connection to other living things. They engage deeply with the world around them, delighting in natural systems and social interactions alike. They revel in exploring the interconnectedness of nature and society, seeing the flow of aether from nature to invention, from person to person, from body to mind and heart.
+This enthusiasm extends to every aspect of vedalken work, both practical and theoretical. They are curious and excitable, and often become deeply engrossed in their labors. It’s not uncommon for a vedalken to spend hours on end caught up in the details of an abstract question or a minute engineering problem. Vedalken can be utterly oblivious to their surroundings while meditating on thorny issues, and they are prone to launching into lengthy explanations of their current research, since most find that talking about a problem often leads to a solution.
-Elves live in harmony with both nature and technology. They believe that nature inspires technology: each piece of artifice is an expression of natural laws and principles, and captures one element of aether’s flow in a sort of microcosmic system. Technology, in turn, can nurture the natural world, helping life grow and flourish in places and ways that would otherwise be impossible.
+As a rule, vedalken are gregarious in conversation. However, they are quite circumspect concerning their personal lives, and they engage more with ideas than with people. They form close friendships based around mutual interests or compelling disagreements, and their interactions focus on their thoughts about those issues rather than their feelings about them. Emotional dynamics don’t particularly interest vedalken, either as a conversational topic or a field of study. When they talk about their feelings, it is primarily to provide information that might be helpful to others. For example, a vedalken might tell her colleagues, “I’m feeling irritated right now, so I might not be reacting appropriately. Perhaps we should continue this later.” But any questions about the cause of the irritation are likely to be brushed off as being irrelevant to the situation.
-== Kaladeshi Elf Traits ==
+== Vedalken Politics ==
+Most vedalken care far more about invention and inquiry than about politics. They would rather unlock the hidden potential of aether-based devices than dwell on the question of how aether should be distributed to the Consulate’s citizens. For that reason, though vedalken are found both among the officials of the Consulate and among the renegades, their dedication to either cause often lacks the partisan fervor found in the members of other races.
+== Kaladeshi Vedalken Traits ==
 === Ability Score Increase ===
-Your Dexterity score increases by 2 and your Wisdom score increases by 1.
+Your Intelligence score increases by 2 and your Wisdom score increases by 1.
 === Age ===
-Although elves reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, the elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth to encompass worldly experience. An elf typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 and can live to be 750 years old.
+Vedalken mature at the same rate humans do, and most are expected to settle down into an adult life by around age 40. They can live 350 to almost 500 years.
 === Alignment ===
-Elves love freedom, variety, and self-expression, so they lean strongly toward the gentler aspects of chaos. They value and protect others’ freedom as well as their own, and they are more often good than not.
+Vedalken are most often lawful and rarely evil.
 === Size ===
-Elves range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium.
+Vedalken are taller than humans but more slender. They average 6 to 6½ feet tall, but usually weigh less than 200 pounds. Your size is Medium.
 === Speed ===
 Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
-=== Darkvision ===
+=== Vedalken Cunning ===
-Accustomed to twilit forests and the 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 shades of gray.
+You have advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws against magic.
-=== Keen Senses ===
-You have proficiency in the Perception skill.
-=== Elf Weapon Training ===
-You have proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow.
-=== Fey Ancestry ===
-You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.
-=== Trance ===
+=== Aether Lore ===
-Elves don’t need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such meditation is “trance.”) While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.
+Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check related to magic items or aether-powered technological devices, you can add twice your proficiency bonus, instead of any proficiency bonus you normally apply.
 === Languages ===
-You can speak, read, and write Common and Elvish. Elvish is fluid, with subtle intonations and intricate grammar. Elven literature is rich and varWild Wanderer Sidharth Chaturvedi ied, and their songs and poems are famous among other races. Many bards learn their language so they can add Elvish ballads to their repertoires.
+You can speak, read, and write Common and Vedalken. The Vedalken language is renowned for its technical treatises and its catalogs of knowledge about the natural world and the aether that pervades it.
+[[category:homebrew subraces|Vedalken]]
-=== Elf Culture ===
-The elves of Kaladesh don’t organize themselves into nations or tribes. Still, they recognize three distinct cultural groups among their kind—though in truth these groupings are more like attitudes or alignments with regard to the rest of society and the use of technology. Choose one of these cultures.
-==== Bishtahar and Tirahar ====
-Elves who dwell in the forest and countryside are known as the Bishtahar. Most live in isolated communities away from other races, though they still trade with them. In fact, much of Kaladesh’s food supply is grown by elves. Bishtahar cultivators grow food, decorative flowers, wood for building, and elaborate living sculptures in their meandering gardens and fields. They use the plane’s ubiquitous technology to foster the growth of plants and animals, utilizing automatons as gardeners and herders, and employing elaborate, nearly invisible systems controlling heat, water, and nutrients.
-A garden tended by elves seems to grow naturally in an aesthetically pleasing fashion. In fact, many of the forests and plains of Kaladesh are planted and tended by elves as well. What might appear at first to be wild countryside is more likely a carefully planned landscape designed to meet the needs of the people and
-animals that live there.
-Elves who forsake technology entirely are called the Tirahar. Some elves with Tirahar sympathies live within cities or farms, but most simply withdraw to the wilder areas of Kaladesh. No more than one in a hundred elves is counted among the Tirahar, and many members of other races are unaware that these reclusive elves even exist.
-; Fleet of Foot. : Your base walking speed increases to 35 feet.
-; Mask of the Wild. : You can attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena.
-==== Vahadar ====
-The Vahadar are elves who dwell in the cities of Kaladesh. They are comfortable with technology, and work as planners, architects, aether-seers, or inventors. Some of them use the techniques of Bishtahar cultivators to grow food on rooftops, towers, and greenways. The Vahadar are generally integrated into the rest of society on Kaladesh, living in cities dominated by the other races (though, as in Ghirapur, many of them live in specific garden-like neighborhoods) and engaging in trade.
-; Cantrip. : You know one cantrip of your choice from the druid spell list. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for it.
-; Extra Language. : You can speak, read, and write one extra language of your choice.
-[[category:homebrew subraces|Elf]]