Bondo (3.5e Race)
Bondo
Personality
The bondo live in farming communities or cities on their island and are quite like a typical human environment. Perhaps, the most defining attribute of a bondo is their affinity towards the future. Since all bondo have the attribute to vaguely know what's to come of a decision they usually are able to make choices quickly and may be impatient with those who take too long to decide. Of course, a bondo would never show their impatience in order to maintain their diplomatic charisma.
The bondo race was birthed at a time known as the Great Sign. Three sets of twins (a set of boys, a set of girls, and one of both) were born all with white hair and white eyes. To their human mothers and fathers they were a sign from the gods and as they grew they learned of their powers in foresight.
Reaching adulthood they married each other and the bondo was born forming the three houses of the bondo clan. The first was the Bondog, Those With Words in Their Eyes, next the Bondow, Those Filled With Prophecy, and the last house was the house Bondolp, Those of Law and Power. When two not of the same house wed the man will enter the lady's house as is with their matriarchal society. Majestic Eye, the Bondom, is the master of the bondo race. She is granted the Sight of Prophets and is the most wise of all the bondo with the greatest ability to foresee the future. The Sight of Prophets is passed down randomly among the women of the bondo as the Bondoms die and is marked by the only feature to show on a bondo's eyes, the right eye has a faint, purple octagon.
Seeing a negative outcome if they did not wed within their own race they refuse to cross breed and thus a half-bondo is extraordinarily rare especially considering how uncommon the race is in the first place.
Due to their prophetic nature in making decisions and powerful foresight abilities, the Bondo people have not lost a war to this day though it is true their diplomatic nature has never brought an overwhelming power to their doorstep. They know, though, not to flaunt this fact to other races, especially those that always thirst to fight and conquer.
Physical Description
To the average observer, a bondo is hard to tell from their human relatives. Varying from 5 to 6 foot, the bondo race are typically trim in figure and can be of any skin color. Every bondo has naturally pure white hair that grows only slightly faster than a humans. They will wear it at any length they find suitable. One of the more noticeable features of a bondo is their eyes which are pure white and those who pay attention notice the lack of a visible pupil. The bondo anatomy varies very little resulting in not a single overweight bondo. In fact, they resemble the Elves in that manner as the bondo people have an air of natural beauty around them.
Relations
Bondo are typically used as diplomats to other nations as they are respected for their ability to see into the future. The bondo have very good relations with any race that managed to locate their island and landed peacefully. The few bondo that have gone traveling as diplomats to other races have extended every courtesy they could and are generally welcomed with warmth from nearly every benevolent race. Some peoples though, especially the elves, are jealous of the bondo's natural, magical connection with the future as well as their natural beauty in all members of the race. At worst, though, the elves would simply consider the bondo people as a friendly rival in physique and magic.
Alignment
The vast majority of bondo tend towards Lawful alignments. Of the approximately ten percent of whom that are not Lawful, most are at least Neutral. They do not show any particular tendencies for either Good or Evil.
The bondo people won't go out of their way to extend their Lawful alignment so much as most other races mostly because they do not want to leave their homelands alone and because there are so few of them.
Lands
Most of the bondo reside on a single tiny island known as the Isle of Prophets. They say that this island is where the gods created them during the time of the Great Sign. Due to this, the bondo are very protective of their lands. They don't mind visitors but try to keep traffic to a minimum so as to prevent an invasion from the inside.
The island itself is teeming with life. Mostly a grassy plains with fields of greens and yellows, two small lakes are located on the north and west of the island. Villages build up around lakes and the seaside but most of the bondo live in farming communities near the three castles of the three houses. A single forest lies on the southern tip of the island, which also happens to be the easiest landing point. It has been a crucial battleground for the two wars that the bondo have fought on their lands and some know of it as the Blood-Soaked Canopies.
Religion
Bondo typically worship Bahamut, Boccob, Nerull, and St. Cuthbert. Although they have been known to pray to a variety of other gods these four are by far the most common.
Language
Common, Celestial, and their cultural language Bonda are the three languages used most by the Bondo though the bondo people are open to the learning of any language.
The Bonda language sounds very close to Celestial, so much so that listeners who don't know Celestial have a 50% chance of mistakenly identifying it as Celestial.
Names
A particularly interesting tidbit about bondo is that nearly all of them share the same surname: Bondo. Bondo are typically given names that relate to nature, luck, and the stars. Girls' names tend to be about water, flowers, and softer things; boys' names are lean towards fire, earthiness, and harder sounding objects.
- Male: Comet, Blaze, Spark, Hill, Terran, Clay, Flint
- Female: Wish, Heaven, Haze, River, Blossom, Peach, Grace
Racial Traits
- +2 Wisdom, -2 Constitution. The bondo people have great insight but are frail of body.
- Humanoid (Human).
- Medium: As Medium creatures, bondos have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
- Bondo base land speed is 30 feet.
- Automatic Languages: Common, Bonda, Celestial. Bonus Languages: Elven, Dwarven, Gnomish, Draconic, Terran, Sylvan.
- Children of Foresight: All Divination school spells cast by a bondo that do not provide a saving throw for the target automatically succeed. Those that do provide a saving throw have their DC increased by 2.
- Moment's Notice: The bondo are blessed with the ability to occasionally see just a few seconds into the future in order to possibly fix a mistake. This gives the bondo the ability to re-roll a saving throw, skill check, or attack roll as many times per day as its wisdom modifier (minimum of 1/day). This also provides a +2 racial bonus to AC if the bondo is wearing no armor or a +1 racial bonus to AC if wearing light armor (their frail bodies cannot move quickly enough in heavier armor to take advantage of the short time they have to react to what they see).
- Level Adjustment: +1.
Sight of Prophets
The Sight of Prophets is most definitely not found in every bondo. In fact, it is an extremely powerful gift passed on randomly among the women of the bondo race. It is visible only as a purple octagon on the right eye. To this day there has never been a recorded male bondo that received the Sight of Prophets nor have their ever been multiple bondo that have the Sight of Prophets. It is possible for a mid-age or older bondo to receive it and it is only passed down, so far, through the death of the current Bondom.
It is not impossible for a male to be given the Sight of Prophets, it just hasn't yet happened. If a player character were to receive the true Sight of Prophets, it would give the following benefits.
- True Foresight: The Bondom is under the constant effect of the foresight spell as an extraordinary ability.
- Sight of Prophets: The Bondom may use the divination spell and greater scrying as spell-like abilities with casting times of 1 minute (divination's casting time is reduced while greater scrying's casting time is increased) and without material components or a focus. The results of greater scrying are displayed for others to view in the purple octagon of the Bondom's right eye.
This provides a +3 LA to the bondo that receives it. If a bondo wishes to unlock the inner potential within their race, they may do so through training in the White Eyes of Seeing racial paragon class (to be made).
Vital Statics
| Adulthood | Simple | Moderate | Complex |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 years | +1d4 | +1d6 | +2d6 |
| Middle Age1 | Old2 | Venerable3 | Maximum Age | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 35 years | 53 years | 70 years | +2d20 years | |
| Gender | Base Height | Height Modifier | Base Weight | Weight Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 5’ 0” | +2d10 | 120 lb. | × (2d4) lb. |
| Female | 5’ 0” | +2d10 | 85 lb. | × (2d4) lb. |
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