Cosmer (4e Race)

Cosmer

By Yanied

They came from the sky in a wash of mist, as if the heavens breathed them into existence in a cloud of glittering, starry gas.

Racial Traits

Average Height: 5'9" - 6'9"

Average Weight: 130 - 180 lbs.

Ability Scores: +2 Intelligence, +2 Charisma or Wisdom

Size: Medium

Speed: 7 squares

Vision: Normal

Languages: Common, Auran

Skill Bonuses: +2 Stealth, +2 Arcana or Perception

Immortal Origin: You are native to the Astral Sea. So you are considered an immortal creature for the purpose of effects that relate to creature origin.

Ethereal Body: Due to your slightly unnatural body, your biological processes are irregular. You only need to sleep for 4 hours to gain the benefits of an extended rest. While in this state of sleep, you are fully aware of your surroundings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal. You also can survive twice as long as a normal creature without food, water, or air (6 weeks without food, 6 days without water, and 6 minutes without air.)

Wispy Nature: Your ethereal body makes you a harder target to hit sometimes. You gain either a +1 racial bonus to your Reflex defense or a +1 racial bonus to your AC.

Airy Retreat: You can use airy retreat as an encounter power.

Airy Retreat	Cosmer Racial Power
Like air through one's fingers, you slip from danger to safety, turning gaseous and then rematerializing after you arrive to your destination.
Encounter  Teleportation
Immediate Interrupt	Personal
Trigger: You are immobilized, grabbed, or restrained
Effect: You teleport 5 squares and become insubstantial until the start of your next turn.

Cosmers are strange beings said to have descended from meteors that carried stardust with it. The residual materials took anchored forms of humanoids to walk the terrestrial world that is their new, alien home. At a time, they were mistaken for spirits like ghosts because of their trademark unstable appearance. Their bodies are partially immaterial, making them lightweight and always appearing as if they were smoking. Cosmers first made contact with elves and were recognized as an intelligent, non-hostile life form. They are known for their unique takes on astronomy, which differ from that in other racial conventions.

Play a cosmer character if you...

• Want to be an enigmatic being claiming descendance from the stars themselves.
• Like to be not be bound by commitments.
• Want to be able to get away from danger in a flash.

Physical Qualities

The cosmer appear as humanoids. Their bodies have a slight ethereal quality to them that makes them stand out. Most prominent of all is the glittering cloud of stardust that surrounds their heads all the time, obscuring their eyes and wisping out from their lips and nostrils. Cosmers often appear quite tall and thin, being lanky. Their skin tones look slightly ashen despite being quite fair. When they are enraged or showing great emotion, more of the ethereal stardust in their body leaks from other parts of them than just their head. They can manipulate these clouds somewhat to be different shades of colors. These colors can have ranges exceeding that of the usual perceived spectrum for races that can see them. Cosmer's are also known to be able to disperse their physical bodies momentarily in order to escape from danger.

Because of their ethereal bodies, cosmers do not like restrictive clothing. They prefer loose, open, breathable cloths that can flow as freely as dust does in fluid streams. They do sometimes take fancy to jewelry, particularly gold of different colors than its usual hue. However, cosmers hate to be weighed down, so they avoid heavy clothes as well as clunky armor and jewelry. Armor is a particularly complicated issue for cosmers, as they really do not like to wear it at all. Even for those who adventure, cosmers prefer magical robes to boost their defensive abilities than conventional armor.

Attitudes and Beliefs

Cosmers believe themselves to be fragments of the cosmos itself. It's not to say that they are arrogant, but they believe their very status to be a special thing, as well as their thoughts and culture. For one, cosmers are highly against any forms of assimilation and societal cohesion. They are extremely individualistic. Dwarves will say they are even more untrustworthy than elves because cosmers have such a free attitude of whimsy. They might commit to something for one second and then be bored in the next. Such is the caprice of the cosmer. For them, "commitment" is nothing more than a promise to be broken, as cosmers despise being tied down. People therefore usually hate to do business with cosmers, as they are liable to use trickery to get what they want or they might just steal. Laws and such mean little to cosmers. At the same time, this has attributed to their lack of a proper community, as cosmers cannot put aside themselves to come together. They prefer to drift as they please, much like the stardust they claim as their origin.

Cosmer Communities

As stated previously, cosmers are pretty much loners. They don't like to assimilate and adhere, thus making them averse to forming communal bonds. Every now and then, some cosmers might be able to converge on an understanding or long-term goal that will enable them to work together and live together. This often has to do with what they think to be preventing calamitous events from the stars, performing lengthy rituals, and such. However, once these arrangements bear fruit, they no longer have to work together. Why they haven't gone extinct is that cosmers are known to just form from natural fission in astronomical phenomena. Comets and meteors that fall to the land have chances of just spawning cosmers around the immediate area.

As for how cosmers are taken to by others, they are tolerated by some and absolutely hated by others. Their flaunting of laws is very abhorrent to more lawful races who see them as untrustworthy. Elves tolerate cosmer because they have esoteric knowledge that elves are somewhat interested in, but not always. Additionally, since cosmer do not like to honor nor enter contracts, they are seen as a merchant's nightmare. Cosmers are known to be bad customers, simple to say.

Cosmer Adventurers

Given their tendency towards individuality, cosmers do tend to have a wanderlust quality to them. They seek out knowledge as esoteric as the movements of stars, even logging them as they go. Some cosmers have aims that are more material, like establishing certain connections for a certain favor, or gaining repute to aggrandize themselves. These tend to be a bit rarer, since cosmers are generally of a philosophy that they will someday, inevitably return to stardust. When that happens, whatever material gains they got will be useless. Some cosmers are like traveling storytellers or teachers, even. Just because they don't want to follow doesn't mean others can't follow them. Cosmers may have many goals and fancies at a time, and they can whimsically swap their priorities around on the road. To a team, this can either make them flexible, or just wishy-washy.

Binder Warlock: While a warlock doesn't intuitively seem to work with the individualistic nature of cosmers, binders are a bit different. Cosmers have a connection with the stars, so binder warlock cosmers will usually be of the star pact. Rather than obey a single master, binder warlocks bind the abilities of extraplanar powers to themselves! They are thus able to call on the abilities of more than one entity, essentially making them a masterful controller. Cosmers of binder warlock classes tend to be seeking answers to big questions that draw them into deep secrets of the stars and other reality-warping rabbit holes.

Bard: With their willowy bodies and a good imagination, cosmers can make entrancing visages in town. Liking for others to hear them out and seeing their own words as brilliant, cosmer bards seek to spread their knowledge through esoteric poetry and lecture.

Sorcerer: With their heavenly origins, cosmers themselves harbor powers beyond that of the mundane. These are fully awakened in cosmer sorcerers, who are probably the most popular class among cosmers. Most cosmer sorcerers have the cosmic magic spell source, with a few being of storm or wild magic. Cosmer sorcerers have the most freedom of the preferred classes for cosmer, and they like to utilize their skills as they wish, without any fear or steady direction.

Three sample cosmer adventurers are described below.

Aä'lyah is a cosmer bard taken to expressing herself through dance and music. She doesn't seek to preach, but rather to spread her own style of merriment, which runs against the local conservative culture. As such, she has joined some adventurers, using them as her "band" in order to travel the land and further her repute so that she may overturn the status quo.

Sshaa is a cosmer binder warlock that read of an unlucky portent in the stars of late. Worried of this development, Sshaa seeks to warn others of an impending danger. Few listened to him. The few who did now call him ally and travel with him to seek out the source of this danger brewing over the horizon. Sshaa is often staring off into space, mumbling to himself about sensations and whispers he claims to hear from the stars.

Izzu'h is a cosmer sorcerer that wants only to make his time in the world everlasting. For him, death is something that threatens his want to do a million things. So, he seeks immortality. What better way to do that than to join some adventurers who explore ruins teeming with powerful magic? Izzu'h is not a team player, however, and this often chafes at the nerves of his convenient allies.

Roleplaying a Cosmer

When creating a cosmer adventurer, here are a few points to consider.

Individualist Mind. Cosmers do not like to be conformists. They will usually speak their mind even against overwhelming odds. This does not mean they are contrarians, but they can be very difficult to persuade once their minds are made up.

Flighty. Commitments are a weakness for cosmer, as they cannot stand such rigid things. Stuff like deadlines or punctuality feel restraining to them. Cosmer like to show up at a party when they feel like it. As such, you won't hear of cosmers making wedding vows; and, if they do, they probably won't really honor it either. Such things are anathemas to the freedom that cosmers love.

Celestial Mystery. Cosmers are highly connected with the cosmic forces around them, even when others may ridicule them for it. As such, they are often seen brooding on their own. On clear nights, they may stare for hours for the movements of stars and answer questions in only cryptic messages.

Cosmer Characteristics: Enigmatic, noncommittal, individualist, outspoken, free, air-headed

Cosmer Names: Ssah, Izzul, Älyah, Ooru, Lash'mi, Fellah

Cosmer Feats

Heroic Tier Racial Feats

Name	Description
Star-Driven Targeting	The stars empower your hit to a more sensitive location on your enemy, making it deadlier.

Paragon Tier Racial Feats

Name	Description
Backdoor	Your starry composition allows you to better escape danger while hindering those who pursue you.

Epic Tier Racial Feats

Name	Description

Cosmer Utility Powers

When your Cosmer character gains a class utility power after 1st level, you can forgo taking a power granted to you by your class. Instead you gain a Cosmer utility power of the same level or lower.

Phase of the Moon	Racial Power
The calmness of the moon channels into you, granting you its protection in the shadow of enemies.
Encounter
Minor Action	Personal
Effect: You gain a bonus to AC equal to the number of conscious enemies adjacent to you until the end of your next turn.
Aftereffect: You also gain resist 5 to psychic damage until the end of this encounter.

Phase of the Sun	Racial Power
You generate a blazing aura, like the corona of the sun, around yourself to harm those foolish enough to approach you.
Encounter  Fire, Radiant
Minor Action	Aura 1
Effect: Until the end of the encounter, at the start of your turn, each enemy adjacent to you takes fire and radiant damage equal to your Charisma modifier.
Aftereffect: You also gain resist 5 to cold damage until the end of this encounter.

Phase of Stars	Racial Power
Your enemy's strike whiffles on the starry dust around your body as you gracefully appear in another spot.
Encounter  Teleportation
Immediate Reaction	Personal
Trigger: An enemy attack misses against you
Effect: You can teleport a number of squares equal to your Charisma modifier.
Aftereffect: You also gain resist 5 to radiant damage until the end of this encounter.

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