Dodaem (3.5e Race)

Dodaem
Summary::The dodaem are ancient guardians of nature, the doaem race and culture have dwindled with the expansion of others. Now these gentle giants are slowly becoming more hostile to the incursions of civilization.

Personality
The dodaem are well known for calm emotions, thoughtful wisdom, and gentle voices but this is somewhat a misnomer. The dodaem is much like nature; self balancing and able to take shocks and spring back quickly. And yet shock too hard and ecosystems collapse and catastrophe ripples over the world. So to the dodaem, slow to anger but when enraged they are a fury unbound. Slow to friendship, but when swayed a ally unbreakable. This has worked well for them when they were the wise guardians of the world, but as they lose more and more land and the world is terraformed into an alien land around them they are slow to change and thus run the danger of irrelevancy. Even now, those that do change have responded with rage as more and more dodaem choose to fight back with violence, and their kind natures are being lost as they are painted as vicious savages.

Physical Description
They say that dodaem are the crossbreed of wood elves and forest giants, but their curious nature reveals a different and perhaps more primal origin. They are very tall and lanky humanoids standing 9 to 10 feet high, stretched out like the great trees, with small noses and slightly pointed and animal-esque ears. In face, their entire body is littered with a seemingly random assortment of features from various birds and beasts, with small tufts of fur, scales, small horns, fangs, claws, and other aspects. All of them also possess flexible cat-like tails, and powerful but gaunt muscles. They come in various earth tones and shades of green, while those which live close to aquatic sources take on more blue tones to blend in with the waters. Their hair is long and root-like and changes colors with the season, from vibrant greens and other natural colors, bright warm hues of red and orange in fall, to bone white, decayed black, or dull gray during the winter.

Dodaem reproduce as humanoids but have a very slow pregnancy and growth. Their children are held in secret groves and hidden spots in the world, and some even dip into the feywilds. Its said that the forests which many a dodaem have retreated to are indeed these secret raising grounds. In any case, it is rare to see a child dodaem, and few even know what they look like.

Relations
Dodaem were once regarded as wise oracles of nature, with a keen sense of their surroundings and a great deal of history in their words and deeds. However, they have fallen out of favor with all but rangers and druids and have retreated into myth like some legendary beast or yeti. They once tolerated and even embraced civilization, clearly human hives no less than an anthill or a beehive, but they continued to grow unchecked and by the time they acted to quench the growth it was far too late. The growth was unstoppable.

For this reason, dodaem are generally seen as unfriendly or hostile regardless of alignment to those of the civilized world. Those that have not given into their anger have buried deep and hidden away, and those that have stalk civilization and lash out when and where they can.

Alignment
Dodaem are almost universally true neutral, but when sufficiently pushed to an extreme they often stay at the extremes, even becoming the embodiment of the alignment extreme and being very difficult to bring back.

Lands
Dodaem were once found everywhere, especially in places of great natural worth, but most have retreated to ancient forests, wild mountains, and forgotten caves. Some even pass into fey territory, though they never stay for long.

Religion
Dodaem do not worship goes so much as worship nature, but those which do call out call out of deities associated with nature itself.

Language
Dodaem speak Common, Giant, and Sylvan.

Names
Dodaem names are often metaphors which, when translated into Common, seem nonsensical. Names like Seven Crow, Bright Hill, Falling Leaves in Spring, and Broken Arrow have much more meaning to them than the brute force literal translation. It seems their names are given after a certain age, probably when the adult wanders out of their secret raising grounds, and they have a secret child name which they never share.

Totem Abilities
Dodaem typically show aspects of their chosen totem animal, and some grant physical changes such as claws or horns. Though they are associated with certain animals, they can easily stand in for other animals. For example, the boar totem's horns can easily be an elephant tusks or elk's horns. Choose one of the totems below.

Bear Totem: You gain Improved Grapple as a bonus feat.

Boar Totem: You gain a gore attack which deals 1d8 damage, and deal +2 damage on a charge.

Eagle Totem: You gain feather fall (self only) at will, and may move up to 5 ft for every 10 ft you drop. All your jumps are considered running jumps.

Lizard Totem: You gain a +2 natural armor bonus.

Shark Totem: You gain a swim speed equal to your climb speed, and may hold your breath for 1 minute per point of Constitution.

Spirit Totem: Your connection with animal spirits grants you superior spell-like abilities. Your abilities change to: At will-calm animals, speak with animals; 1/week-commune with nature.

Tiger Totem: You gain two claw attacks which deal 1d6 damage.

Wolf Totem: You gain a bite attack which deals 1d8 damage, and adds 1 + 1/2 times Strength damage if it is the only attack made in the round.