Kharakhan Racial Traits
+8 Str, +8 Con, +6 Wis, -4 Int, -4 Dex
Base speed is 40 feet
Large: Kharakhan have a reach of 10 feet (as opposed to the normal 5 for Medium-sized creatures), -1 AC size penalty, -1 size penalty to attack rolls; lifting and carrying limits are x2
+3 AC hide bonus
+3 racial bonus to perception checks
Automatic Language: Low Talislan (obscure dialect), Sign, read ancient glyphs
Favored Class: Barbarian
|
Kharakhan
A dying race of giants, these nomads wander the Wilderlands of Zaran in large wagons.
Personality: Kharakhan are gruff and crude by nature, with little knowledge of civilized customs or manners. A few make the effort to learn the ways of the “puny people” and can become wealthy beyond their wildest dreams as bodyguards to the rich and powerful. At heart, they are actually a sensitive people but they hide behind their gruff exteriors except when with others of their kind.
Physical Description: Kharakhan stand 10-15 feet in height and weight 1200 to 1500 pounds. They have a massive physique, dusky gray-black skin, black hair twisted into a bristly topknot, deep green eyes, and a savage countenance.
Relations: Kharakhan distrust just about everyone. Slavers hunt them mercilessly and they know that they are dying out. They tend to look out for themselves first and foremost, and will always want to know how doing something is going to be to their advantage. But, if paid well they stay bought. The Kharakhan have a deep and abiding hatred for all reptilian races which they attack on sight. They also attack the Farad on sight as they relentlessly hunt the giants for slaves.
Lands: Kharakhan are nomaic by necessity since they quickly exhaust all food in any area they stay in for too long. The Kharakhan Wastes in the Wilderlands of Zaran is their ancestral home, and they will attack any outsiders they find there. They wander the Wilderlands of Zaran in great battle wagons drawn by teams of ogriphants.
Religion: Kharakhan practice a form of ancestor worship. They have no formal clergy as such.
Language: Kharakhan speak an ancient and guttural dialect of Talislan which makes them sound even more savage and unsophisticated than they are to the ears of civilized Talislantans. However, they are the only race on Talislanta that can decipher the strange glyphs found engraved upon certain ruins in the Wasteland.
Adventurers: Kharakhan rarely travel alone as they are well aware that they are viewed as prime prizes by slavers. The Farad, in particular, pay well for captured Kharakhan. Thus they tend to be found either as part of a wealthy man’s retinue, in the Borderland Legion, or in the company of proven (and powerful) friends.
Roleplaying Notes: life is hard for you. You can never settle down without starving to death. You can never relax, even in slumber, knowing that enemies are all around. Your clannish, stoic personality is a natural response to your environment. You are an island unto yourself, not talking much even to other Giants - hand signals and grunts are often all you need.
A sense of honor is rooted deeply within you, and you never kill without a reason. Similarly, torture and cruelty are foreign to your nature. If you can aid someone in need, you will – but sad experience has taught you to be wary of bandits and slavers who pretend to be victims.
You have little enmity for other races, but likewise little love. Others hate you for your great size and strength. Therefore you have learned a harsh law of survival – take from others what you need, trust no outsider, and conceal your feelings. You deliberately let others think that you are brutish and hard of soul to prevent them from taking advantage of you.
|