These are the final four playable races populating the world of PARS FORTUNA. My next task will be to preview some aspects of magic and a few of the spells.

The attractive quadruped on the crest of the hill is a Skathra. The Skathra look like centaurs with the lower bodies of antelopes and spiral horns atop their heads. They have light brown skin and darker, auburn fur with black markings on their faces and sides. A skathra stands about 5 feet tall from hooves to head. They are wise, though sometimes confounding, creatures who dwell in the wild, green hills. Skathra have a natural wanderlust, and a desire to see everything there is to see before they die.

In game terms, Skathra are one of our magic-using classes. They combine their magical abilities with a talent for archery, lightning quick reflexes, survival skills and a knack for divinatory magic.

Slinking down the hill next to the Skathra is a Vindlu. Vindlu resemble long, thin lions covered in scales of silver tipped with aquamarine. They have long “whiskers” like those of a carp. These whiskers are extremely sensitive, making vindlu difficult to surprise and allowing them some insights into the emotions of others. Their four legs end in clawed hands. Outside their home city, they live in tight-knit family bands, hiring themselves out as “problem solvers”.

In game terms, Vindlu are one of our skill classes. Vindlu are stalkers and pouncers, and have a talent for avoiding traps and getting into places they are not wanted.

In the middle of the group is a Tachi. The Tachi are intelligent macaques who live in lattice-work cities on the thickly forested southern coasts, west of the lands of the Cakrol (and often in competition with them). The Tachi are merchants, moneylenders and bankers extraordinaire, and are always looking for a new path to riches.

Tachi are another skill class. They can literally smell gold and silver, and couple their natural proclivity for finding treasure with a head for business and a silver tongue. Tachi make natural spokespersons for adventuring parties in PARS FORTUNA.

And so we come to the last of the races of PARS FORTUNA – the Oraenca. The Oraenca are a race of stout, heavy warriors with skin like scarlet sandpaper and bones of iron. They measure four to five feet in height and are broad and muscular. Oraenca have flat faces, golden eyes, nose holes set high in their faces and broad mouths filled with chisel-like teeth. They are egg-layers and amphibious, having evolved in a shallow sea that is now a dry, salty wasteland. Exiled from their homeland, they found a home in the Empire of Vex, and have served as the foot soldiers for that empire and its Ilel rulers, for generations.

Oraenca are the heavy warriors of the game – they can use any kind of weapon and armor, and their fighting skills are primarily defensive – they gain an increased bonus with shields and can apply that bonus to a nearby comrade. Unfortunately, they are natural followers, and suffer a penalty when saving against mind-control effects.

And there you have it, the race of PARS FORTUNA – from slightly different to what-the-heck!

Four more of the strange races in the PARS FORTUNA setting …

In the back of the pack we have a JAE. The Jae are clumps of walking vegetation that can assume a humanoid form by wrapping themselves around a skeleton of wood or metal. They use their morphic form and a little magic to make themselves appear to be members of other races – or even a person’s close friends or family. In their real form, the so-called kelpies can detach from their skeletons and move about almost like oozes – fitting into tight spaces and such. They are natural charlatans.

Jae are another spell casting race, with the added abilities of impersonating people and crawling around like an ooze when it suits them. They can communicate with plants.

Next to the Jae is a KYSSAI, also known as a ghost. The Kyssai are happy anarchists who view bodies of solid matter as prisons. Kyssai are capable of becoming ethereal for short periods, and are generally sneaky sorts. In the game setting, they are wanderers who pick up all sorts of useful information that a Referee might wish to introduce into game. They are the only race besides the Oraenca (see next preview) who can tolerate the Ilel – mostly for the spectacle.

Kyssai are another skill class, this time working as spies and scouts. They are good at sneaking about and surprising others and their power to become ethereal helps them infiltrate areas and escape with their lives. They are, alas, a bit emotionally stunted and have difficulty forming close relationships.

The bizarre creature that looks like a tentacled potato is an OLVUGAI. The Olvugai are nicknamed the visitors by the other races. They are, in fact, alien visitors to the setting, stranded on the strange world (dimension?) of PARS FORTUNA and dedicated to unraveling its mysteries.

Olvugai are a race of scholarly warriors. They are capable of attacking opponent in front and behind at the same time, and they are capable of becoming invisible for short periods of time. Olvugai have a knack for logical thinking and are skilled as sages.

In the foreground, we have a NIF, or wasp-woman. The Nif are the female counterparts to a mindless race of drones called the Nef. They dwell in hive-cities in the Cinnabar Flats, a desert of poisonous mineral springs. Each Nif belongs to a brood of sisters. The broods serve their queen mother and dote on their over-protective (and sentient) fathers until they get the call to strike out on their own. Nif have honey-colored carapaces marked with black patterns that they share with their brood-sisters.

The Nif are our third magic-using class. Their carapaces make them slightly more durable than the Caledjula and their talents run to elemental spells rather than illusions. Nif are resistant to poisons and acids, have thick carapaces and a knack for chemistry.

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Our last preview of the races of PARS FORTUNA will appear next week, and include fire-loving lions, mercantile monkeys, wise antelope-centaurs and creatures with bones of steel.

A month back I hired Jon Ascher, a gentleman known on DeviantArt as Pachycrocuta, to draw the odd, randomly generated races that populate the world of PARS FORTUNA, and boy did he knock it out of the park. I had him draw the races in groups of 4 (there are 12 total) and have now received the inked drawings and want to share them with everyone, along with some brief descriptions of the races, how they will be presented in the game and where they fit into the rules and setting.

The tall “gentleman” is a BO’AL. The bo’al are a race of hermaphrodites with bluish-green to deep green waxy skin reminiscent of the skin of a dolphin. In the setting, they dwell on a wide prairie bisected by a great river and crisscrossed with hundreds of canals, locks and irrigated fields. Nicknamed the engineers, they are taught from a young age the disciplines of mathematics, physics and architecture. Bo’al respect hard work and personal liberty – they’re happy to come together for a cause, but dislike the concept of kings. They are usually jovial sorts, and intensely curious about how things work.

In game terms, bo’al are one of the “skill” classes – and by this, I mean you tend to have three sorts of classes in class-based games – the fighting classes (good attack bonus, best hit dice, worst saving throws), the magic classes (spells, low attack bonus, low hit points, good saving throws) and the skill classes, which muddle about in the middle. The bo’al get a bonus to detect sloping passages, sliding walls, secret doors and large, room-sized traps (most folk do it on a 1 in 6, they do it on a 2 in 6), as befits their skill in engineering. They also have some skill at disabling traps, setting traps and repairing damaged items. Adding to their usefulness, they can withstand a pretty good amount of damage – they get an extra hit dice at 1st level and can regenerate some damage after each battle. So, the bo’al is a skill class with a nod towards combat.

At the center of the group is an ILEL, nicknamed the imperials. The ilel are a race of clones – copies of a former marshal of the Empire of Vex grown in vats to form a personal guard for the emperor. They have skin the color of burnished gold, hair as black as night, solid black eyes and a well developed sense of megalomania – probably why they now run the empire they were hired to protect. Ilel are accomplished swordsmen, specializing in fighting with broadsword and a wavy-bladed dagger called a kris. They are haughty and arrogant, often treating their comrades as henchmen, and if not for their ability to cut a path of red ruin through their enemies, they wouldn’t be tolerated.

The ilel is a fighting class. They are mobile fighters, so less armor but a boost in initiative. They also have some bonuses when fighting with two weapons (higher bonus to hit and the ability to trade their bonus to hit for a bonus to AC round by round). Because of their commanding attitude (and admitted skill at command) they improve the fighting-ability of their henchmen (no, not the other player characters, even if the ilel treats them like henchmen) and can have one henchman more than their charisma score would normally allow.

Next to the ilel is a CALEDJULA. The caledjula’s claim to fame is their ability to fly without the need of wings. Caledjula have tawny to reddish fur, pupil less white eyes, huge ears and six fingers on each hand. Caledjula are natural tricksters, having an inborn ability to generate illusions. In the game setting, they dwell in the tall mountains that surround Fortuna’s Spire (the literal “tent-pole” dungeon of the setting) in cliff dwellings. They are nicknamed the aeolians.

Caledjula are one of the magic race/classes in the setting, filling the role of a trickster class. All of the spell casters in PARS FORTUNA use the same spell list (126 spells, level 1 to 9), but each magical race gets a small list of spells open only to them – illusions in the case of the caledjula. The caledjula can also work on people’s emotions with their deep, melodic voices (i.e. a bonus to reaction checks) and they have a bat-like radar sense that lets them operate in complete darkness.

Finally, the little scaly bugger is a CAKROL. The cakrol resemble humanoid pangolins. Nicknamed zealots, cakrol are devoutly religious folk who live in little villages on a lush peninsula covered by rain forest. They make their way harvesting tropical crops, carving wooden idols, trading in beautifully crafted sailing barques and doing their best to protect themselves from the evil spirits that infest their homeland. They are a clannish people, and possessed of a fearful anger when they feel their adopted clan / guild / adventuring band is being threatened.

Cakrol are primarily a fighting class – they have the good attack bonuses, the hit points and the ability to use any weapon. They come with their own armor, which can be supplemented. Adding to this, they have some ability to detect and repel evil spirits (not unlike a cleric’s turn undead ability) and the ability to go berserk in combat.

All of the races in PARS FORTUNA will be presented as races separate from classes, and as racial classes (the default for the setting). My hope is that even people not interested in playing a “PARS FORTUNA” are able to find something useful in the book for their own game.

Next Preview – A ghostly adventuress, a walking heap of kelp, something from beyond the stars and a waspy woman …