Irken (5e Race)

Irkens

Physical Description

Irken elite

Irkens bear a similarity to the archetypal concept of stereotypical foreign astral beings or "aliens." They look like little, skinny green men. Irkens are light-green skinned humanoids with bulbous heads, solid-colored ruby eyes, and a pair of angular antennae atop their hairless heads between those eyes. They are generally somewhat short in comparison to the average human, usually between three to five feet tall and never over five feet. Their spines are genetically engineered to be able to grow like a bladed weapon when they should need it, and stow it away when they need not. These are called PAKs and also help irkens communicate with their hive brains, as well as feel and think in a collective manner.

History

A known interstellar race with highly advanced technology bent on conquering all of the astral plane and beyond, the irkens are an imperialistic race hailing from the planet Irk. Any who knew of these beings considered them to be bloodthirsty, tyrannical and dictatorial, which may has been true to an extent. The "Almighty Tallest" and "Control Brains" are the two driving forces behind the cold, calculating tactics of irken forces through thought policing. Despite this, they do have a brain capable of independent thought beyond this collective hive mind. The basic goal of the entire irken race is total universal conquest. To do this they have mostly attained this feat with the help of their vast armada, which aided in planetary destruction via a mysterious sort of special coup du grace called the Organic Sweep. This usually ends with the most elite ships of their armada blowing the planet to bits.

Alas, their empire fell apart due to mismanagement by the reign of the most recent Almighty Tallest, as well as the arrival of the notorious illithid race. Against these psionic beings, the irkens all but exhausted the resources of their empire. Their hive mind could not fully combat that of the illithids, and the intellect devourers found irkens very yummy. It is said the irkens today live only by the grace of a human hero named "Dib." Many of the disgraced irkens who remain alive today have since had to live on the worlds they intended to conquer. Others were evacuated with the last of their technology to entirely different planes, pining away for past glories or accepting this fate and going about their new lives. Most of the remaining few have formed small military style camps of their own, planning and plotting for their return to the world stage.

Society

Militaristic to a certain degree, irken society is best described as a hierarchy based solely on height. Tall individuals are respected and usually assigned to high-ranking jobs. Short individuals on the other hand, are looked down upon both figuratively and literally, and are usually assigned to menial labor. The tallest living irken, or irkens, should there be two of the same height, was selected to rule the irken Empire as the Almighty Tallest. Nowadays, they are usually focused on regaining any semblance of prior power besides this fixation on tallness. They generally prefer any technology there is to find as opposed to magic, although, due to the fall of their empire, many of them have come to see magic as a necessary resource to use. Today, their hive mind has been scattered into multiple Almighties and Brains, such that it would be difficult should they desire to re-amass their numbers. They live now in small, militarized groups, usually isolated from other beings.

Personality

Many of them are particularly arrogant and see other races as lesser to irkens as a rule of thumb and will compete with them for resources when they can. Irkens in adventuring groups tend to only follow the group as a necessary evil, rather than allies in most cases, because the group can help them complete their goals in some way or another. As a result of these reasons, irkens usually and actively try to take charge in a group and act as it's main leader, seeing themselves as superior to all other races. They particularly abhor illithids and the drows by association. Despite their bad temperaments, they are known to be reluctantly amicable with humans, due to the work of Dib. Insulting or playful nicknames are usually given to fellow party members or anyone an irken views as a 'friend' quite commonly.

Names

Irken names tend to be rather short, often 3 to 4 letters long. Longer names are usually harder for the tallest to remember, so they are rarely used.

Male: Zim, Irk, Si, Girk, Blek, Mek, Raz, Geem, Jim

Female: Ti, Lor, Isha, Fi, Graz, Teel, Sass, Tima, Karm, Tak

Irken Traits

Irkens tend to be fast and smart in a scientific sense.
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Intelligence score increases by 1.
Age. Irkens age at a much faster rate then humans but live much longer, living to about 500-800.
Alignment. Irkens are often lawful evil or neutral evil, though the fall of their empire has seen other alignments become more common, such as true neutral and neutral good.
Size. There are the rare irkens which can reach near 5 feet. However, the majority of irkens are just hitting four feet. Your size is Small.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet.
Tech Savvy. Whenever you make an Intelligence(History) or Intelligence (Investigation) check related to the workings of advanced technology, you are considered proficient in the skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.
Trance Of Doom. Irkens do not need to sleep. Although capable to do so without any issues, instead they fall into a deep thought over ways to better their techniques for total 'plane-tary' domination, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. While pondering deeply, you can day-dream in a fashion: such dreams are usually suggestive ideas put into the irken's mind via the PAK. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.
Irken Mind. Irkens are connected via the hive usually by their PAKs. You can communicate telepathically with any other irken within 100 feet of you.
PAK Blade. Your spine can be used as a handy tool or weapon, like a swiss army knife. As a bonus action, you can extrapolate your spinal blade or retract it. This blade is considered a natural weapon. If you hit with it, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength or Dexterity modifier.
Different Affections. It is said that while irkens can feel love, it is an emotion unlike other forms, meaning they have odd tastes that are not quite understood nor replicated. You have advantage in saving throws against being charmed.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and two languages of your choice.

Random Height and Weight

Base Height	Height Modifier*	Base Weight	Weight Modifier**
3′ 9''	+3d4	77 lb.	× (1d4) lb.
*Height = base height + height modifier **Weight = base weight + (height modifier × weight modifier)

Suggested Characteristics

When creating an irken character, you can use the following table of traits, ideals, bonds and flaws to help flesh out your character. Use these tables in addition to or in place of your background's characteristics.

d8	Personality Trait
1	I find all forms of magic fascinating forms of energy
2	I don't like humans as one of them destroyed the empire
3	I like all forms of food and eat constantly
4	I seek to serve the tallest member of my group
5	I often stare at the stars, as if a something will fly down from there
6	I tend to be arrogant, believing myself to be superior to those around me
7	I am quite skittish, believing everything is out to get me
8	I find other race's culture weird and make my own assumptions about it

d6	Ideal
1	I am not good at lying so I never lie unless necessary
2	I believe in the power of tall beings to rule over smaller ones
3	I seek to understand magic and combine it with science to study it
4	Conquering a race or place means we can show them the right path in life
5	I prefer to work alone if neccessary. Other servants just slow me down
6	I can lead to, I'm pretty tall

d6	Bond
1	The irken empire shall rise once again
2	My party members are my servants and shall be protected by me
3	I find the culture of another party member fascinating and seek to understand it
4	A god granted me power and I seek to serve it faithfully
5	My life is now to be used as I see fit
6	I want to be tall so I can lead others

d6	Flaw
1	I see other races as fools or useful idiots
2	I disdain magic as a whole, seeing it as for supersticious primitives
3	I am deathly afraid of bugs
4	I often long for the power to lead and can be quite demanding for it
5	I distrust humans remember how one ruined the empire
6	I don't understand why people fear being conquered

---

Back to Main Page → 5e Homebrew → Races

This page may resemble content endorsed by, sponsored by, and/or affiliated with the Invader Zim franchise, and/or include content directly affiliated with and/or owned by Jhonen Vasquez. D&D Wiki neither claims nor implies any rights to Invader Zim copyrights, trademarks, or logos, nor any owned by Jhonen Vasquez. This site is for non profit use only. Furthermore, the following content is a derivative work that falls under, and the use of which is protected by, the Fair Use designation of US Copyright and Trademark Law. We ask you to please add the {{needsadmin}} template if there is a violation to this disclaimer within this page.