kelanari

Kelanari

The Kelanari are the people of the Violet Sea itself: the great inland ocean whose currents bind Kystriland, Inazria, and the southern reaches of the Veldt into one turning wheel of life. Kelanari society is among the oldest civilizations in Azergad. Its monuments are not towers, but cities grown and carved into living reef and sheer sea cliff; their flowing halls shaped so that the currents themselves move through them like breath. Kelanari art is made to be experienced in the water. Their sculpture is carved to sing as the current passes over it, and their greatest works of song are composed in three dimensions, performed by choirs drifting above and below their listeners. The coral courts of Azimar, the reef capital, have hosted the embassies of every Realm - yet, they remain to be seen by most outsiders.

The Kelanari’s famous political neutrality is longstanding tradition. When their Paragon, Calrien the High Shepherd, signed the Great Pact on behalf of the Violet Sea, the Kelanari inherited a peculiar position: just as the commerce of every Realm crosses their waters, so should their wars. The Courts of Corrindan resolved that the sea would belong to no alliance, harbor no navy, and take no side - and for thousands of years, they haven’t. Most Kelanari choose not to interfere with the quarrels of land-dwelling men unless the waters themselves are threatened. In the same spirit, Calrien holds no fixed court at all, wandering the wild reaches of Alore with her Shepherds, and her great lighthouses stand on Kelanari-charted rocks from the Inazrian coast to the Kystriland arcs.

Kelanari are lean and graceful, standing between 5 and 6 feet in height, with narrow, muscular builds adapted for swimming. Their skin ranges from deep blue-green to pale aquamarine, and includes subtle scale patterns along their arms and legs. Distinctive gill slits along their necks close when on land, and their webbed fingers and toes make them exceptional swimmers. Their large eyes are adapted for underwater vision and come in shades of deep blue, green, or silver. Most Kelanari have flowing hair in blues, greens, or silver-white that moves like kelp in water.

Their long lives - often reaching 250 years - grant the Kelanari patience and wisdom that proves invaluable in times of crisis. It is often the case that the other races of men, particularly those that are younger, grow tired of their passivity. Yet, the Kelanari view land-dwellers with caution rather than coldness, understanding the value of outside contact but preferring the safe domain of their underwater kingdoms. The few Kelanari that take to the roads of the surface world are the curious and the called: traders, rescuers, singers gathering the songs of the land, and the occasional envoy of the coral courts sworn to secrecy.

Traits

• Ability Score Increase: +2 Constitution
• Age: Kelanari mature by age 30 and can live just over 250 years.
• Size: Kelanari stand between 5 and 6 feet tall, with lean, muscular frames. Your size is Medium.
• Speed: Your base walking speed is 25 feet. You have a swimming speed of 40 feet.
• Amphibious: You can breathe both air and water.
• Darkvision: Adapted to the ocean depths, you can see in dim light within 60 feet as if it were bright light, and darkness as if it were dim light, but only in shades of blue and green.
• Natural Swimmer: Always add your proficiency bonus when you make a Strength (Athletics) check to swim, dive, or stay afloat.
• Storm Sense: You are naturally sensitive to the water and the air pressure around you. You always know whether a storm will strike your location before the next dawn, and you have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks made to predict the weather.
• Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common and Kelanari. Kelanari is a flowing, musical language that incorporates tonal elements mimicking whale songs and ocean currents.

Kaduran

The Kaduran make their homes in sea caves and tidal pools around the smaller Kystriland islands. Diplomatic and adventurous, Kaduran are the Kelanari most often seen on land living full lives amongst the other races. They are master craftspeople, creating intricate coral jewelry and sculptures that are highly prized by traders. Their settlements are semi-aquatic, with tide pools and channels that bring the sea directly into their homes. Generations of sun and salt have left them with warmer teal-to-copper skin than their deep-water cousins, hair worn shorter for work ashore, and eyes of green, amber, or sea-gray.

• Ability Score Increase: +1 Charisma
• Language: You can speak Kadurani, a mutually-intelligible dialect of Kelanari which incorporates many Kystri trade terms.
• Coral Crafting: You have proficiency with jeweler’s tools. Whenever you make an ability check to craft, repair, or appraise items made of coral, pearl, shell, or other sea-grown materials, you add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.
• Tidal Attunement: You always know the current state of the tide and the times of the next high and low tides. By studying a stretch of coastline for one minute, you can identify the safest places to land, anchor, or shelter a vessel, as well as any hazards hidden beneath the waterline.

Pelagoran

The Pelagoran live aboard great floating cities that drift with the currents of the Violet Sea. These wandering Kelanari are master navigators and known to guide their settlements away from areas they predict will be hit by storms. They are known for their epics, songs which are sung by entire communities in unison, that can be heard for miles across the water and sometimes used for communication and to guide lost travelers to safety.

• Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
• Language: You can speak Pelagorani, a highly unique language relying on various tones and clicks. It is common for different Pelagoran groups to have many differences in their language. Due to the many sounds required, it is a difficult language for non-Kelanari to learn.
• Guiding Song: You can sing with a power that carries for miles over open water. Any creature that hears your song can unerringly find its way to you, and speakers of Pelagorani can understand simple meaning woven into the verses.
• Master Navigator: You have proficiency with navigator’s tools and can never become lost at sea, barring magical effects. You have advantage on Survival checks made at sea.

Khemazi

The mysterious Khemazi dwell in the deepest parts of the Violet Sea, in cities built within underwater trenches and abyssal plains. These Kelanari have adapted to crushing depths and eternal darkness, developing enhanced senses and a more reserved, contemplative culture. Their trench-city of Zerakahm is raised upon ruins as old as Azergad itself: the drowned remains of the first Kelanari settlements, sunk into the deep in an upheaval that far predates the Great Pact and its records. The Khemazi keep the sealed vaults of those first cities, copying and guarding what was written before the deep submersion and safeguarding the rest of its contents forever. Even the Courts of Corrindan ask the Khemazi for answers rather than permission to look. They are sovereign scholars of the deep ocean’s secrets and the sole heirs of its ancient knowledge.

• Ability Score Increase: +1 Intelligence
• Language: You can speak Khemazi, the ancient language from which modern Kelanari derives. To outsiders, the language is poetic and formal.
• Abyssal Adaptation: You take no damage from water pressure and can survive at any depth.
• Deep Sight: Your darkvision extends to 90 feet, and you can see normally in complete darkness underwater.
• Lack of Storm Sense: Khemazi do not benefit from the Storm Sense racial ability.

Limnari

Far from the Violet Sea, in the freshwater lakes and slow rivers scattered across Zilwynbar and northern Azelliot, live the Limnari: the curious case of a Kelanari people found outside the sea itself. The Limnari are highly distinct from their cousins in the Violet Sea. Their relaxed attitudes combined with their simple villages within ponds, lakes and streams (standing quiet against the grandeur of Violet Sea cities) cause other Kelanari to half-jokingly question their kinship altogether. They are fishers, potters, and painters who primarily trade lake-sourced goods with the neighboring Lendolo, Aaldegar and Wendric peoples.

Yet, beneath the easy surface runs an ancient, solemn duty. The lakes of the Limnari open downward into the sunless, treacherous waterways that vein the earth below Azelliot and Zilwynbar - the same hidden waters credited for the astonishing fertility of both lands. It’s from down below that indescribable, horrible creatures are said to dwell, yet the surface world knows little of such things — and the Limnari keep it that way. The Limnari consider it their sacred duty to guard the surface world from such monstrous beasts. Limnari skin runs in soft olive, river-green, and silver-brown tones, brightest along the arms, and their eyes are warm amber, green, or brown; their hair is typically dark, worn loose in the water and bound with painted reeds and seaweed on land.

• Ability Score Increase: +1 Strength
• Language: You can speak Limnari, a slow, warm dialect of Kelanari full of lake-specific language and loanwords from Lendolo and Halfling. It keeps the tonal rises of Pelagorani, but takes its unhurried pace from the still water it was made beside.
• Delver of the Underlakes: Generations of tending the drowned passages beneath the lakes have made their darkness familiar. While underwater or within flooded caves and tunnels, you always know your depth below the surface and the direction to open air, and you cannot become lost in freshwater cave systems except by magical effects.
• Freshwater Dweller: You have proficiency in the Nature skill. When you make an Intelligence (Nature) check concerning freshwater plants, creatures, or waters (including whether water is safe to drink), you add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.
• Salt Strain: Your gills and skin are tuned to still fresh water. While swimming in salt water, your swimming speed is reduced by 10 feet.