Moldaren (5e Race)

Moldaren

Ageless creatures from beyond time, ever enduring and wise with age

Physical Description

current sketch version.

Moldaren are gigantic fungoid humanoids standing beyond seven feet tall. Despite their height, they are rather light due to their mostly fleshy fungus bodies and mostly hollow frame. They have no typical mouth and have a set of simple eyes along their head. Moldaren speak through vibrations of their neck projecting sound equally in all directions rather than focused forward. Moldaren come in countless colors, but almost all are very dull in tone with males being of darker tones, and females being of lighter tones and having slightly smoother skin. Moldaren are also referred to as the Archaic due to their immense lifespan. The moldaren are very slow to age, only becoming fully grown after roughly 200 years, easily living up to 3000 years, while rarely dying from natural causes or environmental effects. Moldaren do experience some signs of aging into the ends of their life but they seldom die from “old age”.

Moldaren often have colonies of other fungi that live benignly on them. However the wide array of fungal species that can live on them leads to a large degree of diversity between individuals, additionally, as the moldaren travel they may gain and lose fungal colonies vastly changing their appearance in the process. Though moldaren typically never die they also hardly ever breed. For moldaren to breed successfully they must seed a corpse filled with magical energy, in addition, they must find a moldaren of the opposite gender in close enough proximity to mate before the corpse decays too far or loses it’s magical energy.

Since moldaren don't need clothes they only place magical equipment over their most important part the central orb that lies within their chest, plate, leather, chain, or whatever type of armor they use is often exclusively placed over this spot as it holds nearly all of their vital organs.

History

The moldaren are an ancient race, predating the rise of the Precursors, and are often referred to as the Archaic for this reason. The moldaren don’t keep history in the same manner most races do, either keeping it in memory or passing it on to others. As such much of the moldarens perspective on history is lost to the ages, however, the moldarens are often present in the history of other races, and especially prominent in the writings of the Precursors. From what is known the moldaren were heavily involved in the development and advancement of the Precursor. However, after the invasion of the Void and subsequent fall of the Precursors, the moldaren decided to never make a joint effort to raise another civilization again. After these events, the history of the moldaren becomes obscure and even more poorly recorded. Occasionally appearing in the history and legends of other races, they are often called spirits of nature or by some other similar term of great respect by more primal or primitive races. More advanced nations and cities normally have no mention of the moldaren in their history and when they do it is often as a shameful or demonic deity from their ancient past or a monster, benign or otherwise.

Society

Moldaren are closely tied to nature and as such hold it with utmost importance. They are often unfriendly to larger civilizations as they are often mistaken for Ents or other similar monsters. They tend to have a better attitude to those is smaller civilizations or those of tribal heritage as they tend to be less hostile to such a large wandering creature.

Moldaren don't really have proper communities. Being both solitary and nomadic by nature they often find themselves traveling alone and wandering aimlessly for ages. Sometimes moldaren wander together but this seldom lasts as they stray by nature, though there are some exceptions. Most natural fauna tend to follow moldaren throughout their territory as their presence accelerates decay and thus new growth. While more bestial creatures tend to ignore them unless they feel threatened as moldaren are generally inedible. More primitive and tribal cultures often see the moldaren as living earth and spirits of life and death. More civilized people tend to see moldaren as wandering beasts either sending them off, ignoring them, or if the civilization is particularly hateful attacking the moldaren in question.

On occasion, religiously zealous groups will actively hunt moldaren down deeming them demons or unnatural beasts (due to how uncommon they are). In contrast bandits, raiders, and other outlaws tend to be friendly to moldaren Both because their knowledge of history and the landscape can often provide good information and a distraction, but also because the moldaren seldom carry anything of worth for the bandits to take.

Some moldaren oversee and help guide younger races, though mostly in smaller towns or among tribal people. This normally comes in the form of helping them cultivate food and guide their expansion over generations. This often leads to the moldaren becoming a sort of elder or oracle leading to them being embedded into the town's folklore, even long after the moldaren has left.

Due to the moldaren’s nocturnal nature, they often do their work and activities during the night sometimes choosing to influence from the shadows rather than directly interact. Leading to folklore of spirits wandering during the night to sow seeds, uproot weeds, or otherwise help the land.

Moldaren Names

Moldaren tend to have more primative and tribal sounding names, Though others have named themselves after things they've learned to like or view with fondness.

Names: Waruu, Eenon, Meeho, Uri, Batu, Nabab, Hena, Abo

Moldaren Traits

A long-lived and durable fungoid race.
Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.
Age. Moldaren are very slow to age reaching what would be considered childhood by about the age of 50 and is fully matured by the age of about 150. It is very hard to judge how old a moldaren is. Moldarens have been known to live for over a thousand years, being plant-based lifeforms they also don't suffer the effects of old age.
Alignment. Moldaren's tend towards true neutral but can easily be any alignment based on their particular goals.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet.
Darkvision. 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.
Inexhaustable. You have advantage on Constitution saving throws against exhaustion and diseases.
Teathering. You are a fungoid that tethers to the earth to revitalize themselves, and you cannot drown, though you can still suffocate. Rather than sleeping you can tether yourself into the earth or a corpse of at least Medium size, which is consumed, for 6 hours. When you do so you draw nourishment from the soil or corpse as if you had consumed a days worth of food and drink. You are fully aware of your surroundings and your speed is reduced to 0 for the duration of the rest.
Tough to Kill. When you roll a death save, and you roll a 1, you may re-roll the result but must use the new result even if it is a 1.
Fungoid. Your creature type is both plant and humanoid.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common.

Random Height and Weight

Base Height	Height Modifier*	Base Weight	Weight Modifier**
6′ 8''	+3d6	160 lb.	× (2d4) lb.
*Height = base height + height modifier **Weight = base weight + (height modifier × weight modifier)

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