Character Generation

Characters are generated using 73 attribute points. Half-genie races, as well as foreign characters, require gamemaster approval.

Initial Skills

A beginning character starts with a certain number of skills. These skills depend on his background and should be chosen to compliment that background. Each of these skills start with one rank. All characters start with all the skills listed as Universal, and in addition can choose any three other skills from the General list, or from the Urban/Rural lists, depending on upbringing.

All skills are from Earthdawn if not otherwise noted. AQ means the skill is fom Al Qadim. An asterisk before the name of a skill denotes a talent used as a skill.

Universal Skills

• Knowledge: Home Area
• Knowledge: (Any)
• Knowledge: (Any)
• Artisan: (Any)
• or Acting
• or Artist
• Read Language (Midani)
• or, for foreign characters, Speak Language (Midani)

In addition, each character knows his native language as an ability. This is not a skill.

General Skills

• *Melee Weapons
• *Spellcasting
• *Unarmed Combat
• Animal Handling
• Craftsman
• Ettiquette
• Fishing
• Flirting
• Read and Write Language
• *Seamanship (AQ)
• Speak Language
• *Swimming (AQ)

Rural Skills

Characters from the countryside can select from among the following skills.

• *Climbing
• *Missile Weapons
• *Survival (AQ)
• *Throwing Weapons
• *Trick Riding
• Hunting
• Tracking

Urban Skills

Characters from towns and cities can select from among thsese skills, as well.

• *Evaluate (AQ)
• *Haggle
• *Picking Pockets
• *Rumour Mill (AQ)
• Bribery
• Conversation
• Streetwise

Races of Zakhara

Ins (Namegiver Races)

The Half-Genie Races

Ins

Four races are generally recognised as ins or namegivers in Zakhara: Dwarfs, Elves, Humans and Orks. These four races, and their subgroups, clans and variants, make up the base of Zakharan civilisation. Other races are also sometimes classified as ins, including t'skrang, goblins, ogres and orks, but acceptance is not as automatic as for the four major races. There are some other intelligent races in Zakhara, notably the half-genies, but they play a much smaller part in Zakharan civilisation.

Dwarfs

Dwarfs are short, stubborn, conservative, hard workers and tend to form the backbone of society. There are three subtypes of dwarfs, the mountain dwarfs (simply known as dwarfs), the hill dwarfs (known as gnomes) and the plains dwarfs (known as halflings). The mountain dwarfs are the most reclusive and ÒdwarfishÓ of the dwarves, while the halflings are very gregarious and tend to mingle freely with other races. All are fully integrated into Zakharan society.

Mountain dwarfs tend to be dark and swarthy, plains dwarfs tend to be fair and ruddy, with hill dwarfs somewhere in between.

Elves

Zakharan elves vary hugely in length, from 4' to 7'. They can also be of various skin tones, including pastels like blue, violet, red, yellow, green and lavender. Elves tend to be extreme, with extreme views, extreme looks (either very ugly or very beautiful), extreme size (though almost all are thin) and generally extreme attributes. Because elves are so different from each other, they have the least sense of racial identity of all the ins.

Humans

Humans are in many ways the opposite of elves: they tend to be average in most ways. Average height, average build and average attributes. They can also be of any discipline and more humans than people of other races are multi-disciplined, though this is still rare.

Humans have differing skin tones, becoming progressively darker as you go south and progressively redder as you go west.

Orks

Orks are big, sturdy folk with powerful muscles. They work hard, but tend to be clannish, honouring local authority and leaders over centralised government. Unfortunately, many Orks are not so bright and self-confident, so they often fare poorly in cosmopolitan Zakhara. This fuels the Orkish tendency towards provincialism, as well as a general feeling of discontentment. Orks often find themselves on the fringes of society, as warriors, bandits or thieves.

Orks have an affinity for earth, and have a variety of earth-tones for skin. Brown, green and earth red is common.

Ogres

In most lands, ogres are big, ugly, greedy humanoids who live by ambushes, raids, and theft; not so in Zakhara. While still big and ugly by human standards, and sometimes greedy, Zakharan ogres are respected members of civilized society.

Adult ogres stand as tall as ten feet and weigh 300 to 350 pounds. Their skin colors tend to be on the yellowish side, though a few individuals have a violet tinge to their skin, possibly indicating an ogre mage in their ancestry. Their eyes are purple with white pupils; they usually have orange claws and teeth. Hair color ranges from blackish-blue to dark green, and the hair is carefully tended and often braided. Even the curdled milk odor common to other ogres is but a subtle undertone usually masked with other scents.

Zakharan ogres usually speak Midani, but several also know their ancestral ogrish tongue and have expanded its vocabulary far past that used by their less intelligent cousins. Rightly so, they consider ajami ogres to be quite barbaric, and their language similar to that of a child.

Zakharan ogres have the same life span as regular ogres, with most able to live 90 years, and a few for over a century.

Even the most pampered and civilized ogres are quite strong. Most Zakharan ogres carry weapons. Because of their size, they can use large weapons (such as a great scimitar) with full benefits. Though not tactical geniuses, Zakharan ogres can fight in an organized manner, even without a leader present.

Zakharan ogres adapt their culture to the type of society nearby. Those in the cities live as Al-Hadhar, while those in the desert live as Al-Badia. Though not all consider ogres one of the ins, or Enlightened races, many ogres follow the Enlightened way and are as civilized and as honorable as any of their neighbors.

All Zakharan ogres share a few traits. They generally dislike ogre magi, though they follow the demands of honor and give them a chance to prove worthy of respect. Most shun ogrima, the offspring of ogre and ogre mage, for they are uncivilized brutes (described in Golden Voyages). Even violet-skinned ogres are outcasts because of their association with ogrima.

Al-Hadhar ogres have most of the same traits as other Al-Hadhar. These ogres tend to be calm and rational, and they are greatly prized as workers and warriors because of their strength. Many are members of mamluk societies. Ogre Mamluk eunuchs are popular as harem guards. Others are merchants or, rarely, sha'ir or pragmatists.

Al-Badia ogres are also similar to other Al-Badia, roaming the harsh areas of Zakhara, but living as free people. Al-Badia ogres must occasionally deal with prejudice from other races, for there are still occasional tales of ogres carrying away children. Thus, these ogres tend to be less social than other ogres. This attitude adds to the rumors. In addition, some of the more brutish Al-Badia ogres interbreed with ogre magi or ogrima. To compensate for this, and to prevent even more rumors of evil ogres, the more civilized Al-Badia ogres raid ogrima tribes, trying to kill them all.

Zakharan ogres have the same impact on the world around them as humans, dwarves, or elves do. Very few have any crafting skills.

Ogres have heat sight like dwarfs.

T'skrang

T'skrang are clever and eloquent lizard men. They are clannish but also roguish. Zakharan t'skrang can live in dry climes, but it makes their skin hard and wrinkled, so they prefer to live in moist climes.

T'skrang have a prehensile tail, as described in Earthdawn.

Goblins

Goblins are diminutive but clever humanoids, merely 3 to 4 feet high and usually with skin that is bright green, though blue, red and yellow goblins exist.

A variant of goblins known as kobolds exist. They are scaled and slightly reptilian, with short tails and horned heads. Kobolds are relatively rare, though.

Both goblins and kobolds are clever, but tend to idolise others and are very much subject to social influence because of their low self-esteem. Goblins often try to emulate others in the vicinity that they see as successful. Mostly, they fail, with hilarious results. But some goblins are very clever and successful.

Goblins have heat sight like dwarfs, but also suffer form a racial inferiority complex that gives them a –3 penalty on social defence. This almost guarantees them a low social position, even successful goblins tend to be swindled out of their wealth.

Half-Genies

Half-genies are not fully ins, nor fully genies. They live fully in this world, but have been influenced by elemental forces to such a degree that they assume an elemental aspect. Perhaps the half-genies are descendants of unions between ins and genies, perhaps they are the sprits of lost peoples or the altered remnants of the old namegiver population. They often live in areas where ins used to live, but that has now become utter wilderness. Sunken cities, empires lost to the sands and abandoned mountain fortresses are all typical half-genie strong points. Djinnlings are an exception, they live where the wind plays with the other elements, such as in windy gardens, islets at sea, mountain valley or almost anyplace windy.

It is rumoured that ins who spend to much time with half-genies and other magical phenomena will turn into half-genies themselves. Therefore, common folk often fear and loathe half-givers. The truth of the matter remains obscure.

Jann

Jann are half-genies of fire. They are creatures of the desert, living in abandoned namegiver settlements in the deep desert. Creatures of fire and mirage, they live by illusion. When a stranger visits, they are often treated to a grand feast, and becomes astonished at the luxury of peoples in the middle to the desolation. Their sumptuous lifestyle consists entirely of illusion, and the unfortunate traveller may soon find himself but dry bones. Janni don't do this out of malice, they simply see no difference between mirage and reality.

This has give the jann as a people a reputation as ghosts and murderers, and a jann that comes to civilisation can expect hostility as well as curiosity. Fortunately, they find it quite easy to suppress their fire aura, making them look somewhat like elves.

Illusory Reality: Jann are creatures of mirages, and to them, illusions are as real as the physical world. A Jann can never disbelieve or sense an illusion normally, and can die from illusory damage. If they learn special talents to disbelieve illusions, they can use these normally. But they also benefit fully from illusory effects: if they eat and drink an illusory meal, they will not hunger, even after the illusion's duration is up. They could also walk across an illusory bridge with no chance of falling.

Fire Aura: Jann are continually surrounded by a flaming halo. This is a mirage and feels hot, but does not burn. It makes them suffer no damage or dehydration from heat or fire, subtracting ten points of damage from such attacks, and illuminates like a torch. A Jann can suppress his aura, loosing all the benefits, but this takes conscious effort.

Pahari

Pahari are an aquatic race of female half-humans. There are no male pahari, instead they mate with male ins to propagate their species. The pahari make up for this with their long life spans, returning time and again to find a human lover and returning the children that are not of their kind. It is not unknown for a pahari to live on land, as a human, for the whole life of her mate, keeping her nature secret from the world. Pahari are secretive, and not even coastal populations know what they are or how they live.

Limited Shape Shift: Pahari can shape shift between three forms. Their natural form has a blue or green human upper body and the lower body of a speckled tropical fish. Their two alternate forms are fish and human. In human form, they still have a bluish or greenish cast to their skin that is invisible at night and can be concealed with a hood and veil. They retain their normal attributes. The fish form is very small. In this form they have a Strength step of one and all damage they take from physical attacks is doubled, but they are very hard to spot among other tropical fish.

Bestow Water Breathing: A pahari can breathe underwater in all forms, but they can also bestow this gift on another with a kiss. At a cost of a single point of strain, they can give another the ability to breathe water for 24 hours. When this ability fades, it does so gradually over one hour, giving the recipient a chance to seek out the pahari or at least return to the surface again.

Sea-sense: Pahari can sense movement in the water nearby, thus having a touch-like feeling for everything within a range equal to ten metres times their Perception step. This ability can even ÒfeelÓ what is around a corner, but such feeling become increasingly vague. Silent movement makes a person invisible to this sense.

Djinnlings

Djinnlings are half-genies of air. They appear as diminutive humanoids or humanoid-bird crossovers. Most Djinnlings are female. Some are completely humanoid, while others have one or several bird-features, such as wings, feathered tails, bird-heads et al. Some appear as birds with human heads, or even human voices only. Some are part flying insects (butterflies, dragonflies) instead of birds. They are always small and light, with a length of about one foot, weighing about 1 pound.

Dinnlings live among the clouds and in airy places that are not frequented by others. There they frolic happily, seemingly without a care in the world. They have an extremely short attention span, so this is literally true. Sometimes, however, a djinnling can sit mesmerised for days by seemingly simple things, such as wind blowing over a field.

Intensely curious, they often go forth alone to explore the world. Sadly, zakharans consider djinnlings unusual and beautiful. They are highly valued as pets or entertainment slaves. This makes djinnlings cautious around the other races, especially around large numbers of strangers. When in cities or around lot's of people, they will either stay hidden or tag along with a bigger companion. A Djinnling will never enter a strange building alone.

Djinnlings attach themselves to others. People are one of the few things djinnlings do not get bored with. In fact, djinnlings often get attached to particular ins, following them about for long periods of time, sometimes for that person's entire life. Such djinnlings appear very similar to gen and are often mistaken for such.

Rules

Djinnlings have an extremely short attention span. When things are no longer interesting, they tend to fly away or do something else. They cannot be expected to stand guard or perform other long-term tasks. If the player wants to do the same thing for long, they may be required to perform willpower tests to se if they wander of.

Djinnlings are very small and physically very weak. They always have a Strength of 1, and neither spend points or receive points for their Strength attribute. A djinnling character thus only spends attribute points on five attributes. They can increase their Strength as they increase in circle, however. Djinnling carrying capacity is geared to their small size. Most types of equipment can be scaled down for them, and thus has only 20% of it's normal encumbrance value. This includes provisions, armour and most general gear. But some things, like treasure and weapons, cannot be scaled down and thus keeps it's original weight.

Because of their small size and ability to fly, djinnlings are very elusive targets. Beside their naturally high Dexterity rating, they also receive a +2 bonus to Physical Defence.

Djinnlings fly, whether they have wings or not. While flying, they are considered to be defensive. This applies as soon as they become airborne, and a djinnling can thus start a round on the ground, non-defensive (avoiding the initiative penalty), fly across a room defensively, land and then act normally. If a djinnling ends a round flying, they are considered defensive for the next rounds initiative roll, but can still land to act with no penalty.

Ghuls

The ghuls are earth elemental cousins of the jann, the most wicked of the half-genies. They haunt burial grounds and feed on offal and dead bodies, human or otherwise. They are usually female; all are beguiling and seductive shapechangers. Ghuls delight in devouring the flesh of their victims and then sucking the marrow from their bones.

Ghuls have thick hair and bushy eyebrows that often droop over their eyes. Their hands end in clawed fingers and their feet and sometimes their ears are those of a donkey. Their jutting jaws are powerfully muscled, their pale white skin cold and clammy. They have the hunched posture of normal ghouls. Because ghuls are aware of how their appearance repulses other creatures, they disguise themselves with magic, cosmetics, clothes, and jewellery.

Ghuls live in secluded ruins or caves found in the emptiest deserts or on the highest mountains. Because of their sharp claws and incredible strength, ghuls from the mountains are able to climb sheer rock walls that would daunt most mountaineers. Desert ghuls are not as adept at climbing, but can dig through sand or soft stones.

Ghuls serve the genies (when required), but tyrannise ghouls, whom they consider unrefined and unreliable. Although ghuls avoid contact with ins, they occasionally aid humans or others who come to them seeking help against genies. Sometimes they help humans in quests which the ghuls find interesting; they do this without expectation of reward. Because ghuls are feared by humans and despised by genies, even finding each other despicable, they rarely keep their own form, even when at home in their ruins or caves. Habitual shape shifters, they are excellent liars and actors.

Ghuls may even become sha'ir, thus gaining some measure of power over other genies. Ghuls who become sha'ir tend to be secretive; the other genies resent and fear the ghuls' power over them. Such ghuls are often destroyed when their homes are discovered. The most common magic among them is that of the Nethermancer and Sand Mage, though. Other ghuls study the magical provinces of flame and wind. Ghuls who study the magic of the sea are extremely rare. All ghuls are immune to the binding and capturing powers of the sha'ir.

Player character ghuls tend to be nicer than most, but still have an affinity for things of corruption such as offal, corpses and rotting meat. They often feel lonely, and try to form close ties with others, in order to feel loved and secure.

Rules

Claws: Ghuls attack with their feet, claws and teeth using unarmed combat for three additional damage steps.

Heat Sight: They have excellent heat sight, being able to discern the heat signature of a human at 500 yards. They can easily navigate in pitch-black tunnels.

Disguise Self talent: Ghuls can always learn the Disguise Self talent, regardless of discipline. If they belong to a discipline that could normally learn this talent, they instead receive a +3 bonus to the Disguise Self step. Disguise Self is always a discipline talent to them. When someone sees through the illusion, they first notice that their feet are those of a donkey. They often wear special boots or long robes to conceal this aberration, though it is really a magical effect.

As long as their disguise has not been penetrated, the ghul can use her Disguise Self step instead of her Charisma step to make interaction tests.