Raptrosian (3.5e Race)

Raptrosians

“	Have you heard the good word of the rains of blood and fields of gore? If not, allow me to show you the promised land.	”
—Al'shathah, Raptrosian priest

Personality

The raptrosian mind is alien to that of normal people in the Material Realm. They are, at the end of the day, powerful outsiders. Similar to rakshasa, raptrosians are perceptibly evil. However, unlike rakshasa, raptrosians do not pursue things like wealth and typical influence. They are not shapechangers and instead embrace their otherworldly appearance, baring it to the world. Rather than disguise themselves or their deeds, raptrosians are exhibitionists who declare and revel in the chaos their messages create as a display of their devotion. Raptrosians are unaware if their deeds are truly evil, even, as they believe themselves to be instruments of an inevitable will connected back to a pantheon of grotesque and gruesome gods that sound an awful lot like the eldritch eldrazi. They did not enjoy suffering or tormenting the weak as rakshasa do. Raptrosians believe themselves to be harbingers of an awesome power that will bring bliss to all, even if they should reject it. As such, they are against hiding their activities and true natures. They disliked things like hierarchy, insisting that all will be equal beneath the flattening power of their god, and were chaotic in how they celebrated their faith.

While they did not pursue oppression or scheme in the dark like many evil or prideful creatures usually might, raptrosians were dangerously playful. Like destructive children, they have no qualms using violence to splatter the insides of those who speak ill of their gods or refuse their promise of bliss. As harbingers, raptrosians see themselves as the first of many signs that their gods are upon the world. They are their mouthpiece and hands, paving the way and singing their praises for all to hear and see. Gore and flesh are mediums of this expression, and raptrosians have often created gruesome "artworks" making a show of nonbelievers by splaying their guts out for others to witness. The power of a raptrosian affords them a lot of movement since they are stronger than most creatures, and crazier. They also do not see worldly rules as true law, as they only believe in the bliss-bringing of their god, and they do not fear repercussion unless by them. Their fearlessness is also able to be attributed to their alien mindsets, which perceive the world differently. The cries of their victim as they are being ruthlessly slaughtered could well be heard as a great laugh of revelation to a raptrosian, who praises the divine with them.

Physical Description

By Victoria Yurkovets

The shape and appearance of a raptrosian are that of morbid and grotesque beauty and horror. They appear to be humanoid, with similar limb arrangements to that of a human. However, they usually have two pairs of arms instead of one, as well as a flat tail. Their body, as some describe it, is as if one's insides became their outsides. Raptrosians appear to be gory and flesh-colored, with thin, membrane skin that exposes the network of veins beneath. The color of blood and purple viscera is most prominent in their heads, stomachs, hands, legs, and the underside of their tail. Tendrils like that of veins visibly loop about their body, and their musculature is exposed prominently. Small protrusions like hard, bony points and ropy cartilage adorn their body. Raptrosians have no hair, but they are known to have heads of bloody-colored threads, which appear like worms or liana. Their eyes are hidden on their head under a hardened sheath of keratinous flesh, with slits so they can see. This body part is referred to as a crown for females and a crest for males. Female raptrosians a special "train" and different feet. The train is an additional appendage attached to their pelvis and tail, fanning out and making a skirt-shaped covering of flesh and bone around their thighs. Their feet are angled like a raptor's, so they walk on the balls of their feet. The female raptrosian crown grows outward and encircles the head, much like a crown. Raptrosian males are much more muscular and heavy. Their crests are like a single horn that extends out from the sheath.

Raptrosians usually do not wear clothes, as they desire for others to see the horror of their body. This is akin to a sign from their gods and is used to test who raptrosians will favor. Those who come to be reverent of their alien beauty are to be inducted, while others are viable cattle to be slaughtered. Some who wear clothes do so only for short periods of time, and they will usually avoid letting other raptrosians seeing them do this. Valuables like jewelry do not have a lot of appeal to raptrosians. They prefer grotesque trophies, like teeth, ears, eyes, and organs, ripped fresh from victims. Because wearing these would result in rot, raptrosians usually just consume them. However, some females have been observed to hang the intestines of their latest kill on their train or crown.

Biology

The raptrosian life cycle is something akin to the life of a caterpillar, as they would describe it. Others would say it is closer to that of the horrid slaadi. They reproduce through conversion of other creatures, in a ceremony known as the Bloodbind. Raptrosians bind a willing acolyte within the embrace of their god, which results in a strange mutation of their flesh. Over the next few days, the host's body becomes melty and gooey, until they cease to maintain their original shape. This fleshy mass is usually moved to a place where it can be safely stored while it hardens into something like an egg made of flesh and bone. The process is not known to be painful, but that's because only raptrosians have experience and they speak of it as a highly revelatory rite of passage to become one of their own. It takes roughly two to three months before the egg hatches, depositing a fleshy humanoid that is a raptrosian. The egg is then absorbed into their body and becomes part of them. Raptrosians exist solely through their use of the Bloodbind to convert other creatures.

They have a similar biological need to eat and drink as many other creatures. Raptrosians are solely carnivorous and cannot consume plant matter. They are known to integrate what they eat into their bodies, meaning they rarely need to excrete anything after digestion. Raptrosian consumption is necessary for their growth, as the flesh integration is what allows them to enlarge as though aging.

Relations

The raptrosians seek to add to their ranks, whether by coercion or mind games. They actively seek out humanoid settlements, like that of humans, elves, dwarves, and halflings. However, they are in no way discriminate about this. It is simply because these races are ample. In general, raptrosians just want to find people who have not heard the good word of the coming of their god and to tell them what is coming. Because of their gruesome activities, they are treated as utter outsiders who commit crimes. This is not denied by raptrosians, since they don't care how societies define their activities anyway. Because of their blindly wanton actions, even if raptrosians extend their hand in what they perceive to be help, most will want nothing to do with them unless they are secretly sympathizers of their bloody god. Even among other aberrant or outsider creatures, raptrosians are a bit of anomaly in their embrace of other worlds. They are not mindless, and rather eloquent, but their appearance is one of ill omen in the end, as the great and blood tendril of their deity looms near.

While they are known to be dangerous maniacs, raptrosians are not always feared in the same way. For sure, lesser protected settlements or places where more powerful warriors are not present will be highly susceptible to the advances of just a few raptrosian. However, there are plenty of stories within annals of military history that list the murders of many strange creatures deemed threats to the land, with raptrosians being among them. Their numbers are estimated to be low, and so they are not seen as large a threat as, say, a host of goblins or an orcish warband. Additionally, the observations that raptrosians are usually solitary wanderers lends to confidence that they can be felled with sufficient planning and numbers.

Alignment

One would be inclined to label raptrosians evil simply due to their maniacal and diabolical faith. This is certainly true to an outside view looking at raptrosians. However, raptrosians do not perceive their own actions as even remotely evil. To them, it is no different than how a priest proselytizes through revelations of signs and miracles as a mouthpiece for the divine. This can convince people that they are, at the very least, chaotic and insane rather than evil and scheming. Few would ever say raptrosians are good, though. At most, they are chaotically neutral or all shades of evil. The fact that they are powerful outsiders also reinforces the argument for evil, as most outsiders are generally not the friendliest neighbors in the Astral Sea. The seemingly malicious nature of their twisted and depraved religion, and the dangerous enigma that is their god, are also worrisome factors. Raptrosians, however, do not have such concepts of alignment, nor do they really care how others see them anyway.

Lands

Raptrosians are proud to say they will go anywhere to spread the gospel of their horrible gods and the beliefs it entails to worship them. They do not have lands of their own as a result, seeing themselves as mere visitors wherever they go. Usually, they only stay in one place while they see worth in it. They are relatively humble in this way, but they also see everything will eventually be claimed by their almighty deities. However, raptrosians are averse to some environments, specifically that of extreme cold or heat. They prefer temperate places, which also coincidentally also host most of the world's population usually. While they can be driven to locations like arctic tundras or heated deserts, they often venture around civilized places instead, with thick populations in established cities.

It should be noted that raptrosians are suspected to have origins from the Goror Bi-Plane, a place both distant and yet horrifically familiar. However, few have really seen the place. None can also attest to raptrosians entering from there via portals or summoning. It remains speculative.

Religion

The mysterious and gruesome pantheon to which the raptrosians subscribe are somewhat unknown. They are known to be associated closely with blood and grotesque body horror. Aside from that, their appearances are enigmatic, even more so than the already alien eldrazi. The numbers within this pantheon are also unknown. Raptrosians have a habit sometimes of mentioning either one or many, implying that they are perhaps one collective entity at times. Records of this enigmatic pantheon are scant. The most that even learned scholars of the multiverses can glean is that there is a Field of Slaughter, a plane that is one of blood and flesh. Some wonder if that is in fact a corpse of Moander, the Elder God of rot. However, raptrosians eschew this association, claiming their god to be one of fresh blood and flesh, an aesthetic they adhere to, opposed to what disgusting erosion the Darkbringer heralds.

Field of Slaughter: All that can be said is that the Field of Slaughter is a place where blood rains eternally, supposedly from death caused across all worlds. The fields are made of bone meal, growing limber tubes of spinal, esophageal, and tracheal shapes, covered in bloody "soil," which is actually ground flesh. Entrails like intestines, nerves, and muscle fibers pulsate like roots under and above this soil, strewn across the land. It is supposedly a plane of blood and flesh, though not a true Elemental Plane. It is possible that it is simply a divine-made realm. It is considered one half of the Goror Bi-Plane.

Language

Raptrosian are capable of learning languages fairly well. This is attributed to their mastery of cerebral configurations. Newly "born" raptrosians are more or less mute, however. They do innately know Deep Speech, though it is a variety that is supposedly distinct from that of aberrants like mindflayers. This is not studied in length and there is thus no real proof. It is true though, that their Deep Speech is unable to be captured by Espruar script, which drow use to write down illithid communications. They say their version of Deep Speech is their god's mouthpiece in each of them, and is thus unique. It has some similarities to telepathy due to their muteness when immature, utilizing a frequency or mental wave that few can perceive. Raptrosians usually learn their first spoken language after contact with civilization, and they pick it from who they meet. Since Common is widespread, raptrosians do often learn this first. They prefer to learn something that will allow them to communicate with more people than less, and so exotic languages are less interesting to them than the mainstream sort.

Names

For raptrosians, names are primarily descriptors for a temporary appearance. When is born and when one dies, they will all be ultimately food for their god. Through this belief in the flesh, they do not need individuality, for they are one in beginning and end. Their brief time, in the eyes of infinity, as solo creatures are mere identities that will ultimately be discarded once their duties have finished. Their names, whilst they walk, are similar to that of illithids, but with emphasis more on harsh, grating sounds. These are represented by jumbles of consonants. These names usually come in two parts, separated by an aspiration, written as a hyphen. They do not have surnames or gendered preferences.

Names: Shrrg-Shlya, Sslth-Tirennss, Slinnths-Nul, Kkranshlss-Ossk

Racial Traits

Raptrosian characters possess the following racial traits:

• +2 Charisma, +2 Constitution: Raprosians are charismatic people who are hard to put down due to their enduring and tenacious religiosity for their grotesque faith. Their bodies are also robust to take on a variety of environments.
• Medium size.
• A raptrosian's base land speed is 35 feet.
• Blindsense out to 60 feet. Raptrosians do have sharp eyes, but the skin of their bodies is also naturally highly sensitive to their surroundings and minute changes around them, making them highly alert creatures.
• Racial Hit Dice: A raptrosian begins with 3 levels of outsider, which provide 3d8 Hit Dice, a base attack bonus of +X, and base saving throw bonuses of Fort +5, Ref +5, and Will +5.
• Racial Skills: A raptrosian’s outsider levels give it skill points equal to 3 × (8 + Int modifier). Its class skills are Appraise, Climb, Craft, Knowledge (Religion), Knowledge (Language), Knowledge (Cosmology), Jump, Listen, Search, and Spot.
• The naturally tough exterior of a raptrosian, with cartilaginous appendages and tough skin, give it a +2 bonus to Armor Class.
• Scent (Ex): Raptrosians are keenly attuned to sanguine essences and flesh. Your scent detection only applies to creatures of flesh and blood.
• Gorefication (Su): During a raptrosian's first turn after rolling initiative, they may perform Gorefication as a melee attack. On hit, the target must roll Fortitude (DC is 10 plus the raptrosian's Charisma modifier). If the target fails their Fortitude save, they are instantly slain if they are not immune to critical hits, otherwise taking 2d4 force damage. Targets slain in this way are considered thoroughly destroyed, as by disintegrate. Creatures immune to critical hits are immune to this trait.
• Pounce(ex.): A raptrosian may make a full attack action (with natural attacks only) while charging.
• Automatic Languages:Common, Raptrosian. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Undercommon, Elven, Dwarven, Ignan, Aquan, Terran, Celestial
• Favored Class: Sorcerer, Warlock, Paladin (choose one)
• Level Adjustment: ∞

Vital Statistics

Table:Raptrosian Random Starting Ages

Adulthood	Simple	Moderate	Complex
35 years	+ 2d6	+ 3d6	+ 4d10

Table: Raptrosian Aging Effects

Middle Age1	Old2	Venerable3	Maximum Age
250 years	500 years	800 years	+ 5d100's years
At middle age, −1 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha. At old age, −2 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha. At venerable age, −3 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha.

Table: Raptrosian Random Height and Weight

Gender	Base Height	Height Modifier	Base Weight	Weight Modifier
Male	6' 2"	+2d8	190 lb.	× ( 10 ) lb.
Female	6' 2"	+2d8	150 lb.	× ( 10 ) lb.

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