Kremen (3.5e Race)

Kremen
Summary::Silicon-based creatures from the planet Querkluftertz, the kremen are monstrous humanoids covered in thick quartz scales with keen minds powered by pulses of light.

Personality
Kremen are thinkers and philosophers, focused on the mind and intellectual pursuits. They tend to overanalyze their surroundings and may come off as critical of others not accustomed to their behavior. They seek the concept of enlightenment, and find themselves to be always in a quest to understand more. This has encouraged the race to be by-and-large peaceful and benign, willing to ally with others even as they find themselves ultimately outsiders, thinking too swiftly and born of different matter than the carbon-dominated universe.

Physical Description
Kremen are monstrous humanoid creatures covered in armored plates of quartz which grow all over their bodies with a softer, lower layer of typically lighter-toned skin beneath, large expressive eyes, no noses, and beaked mouths with sliding plates which assist in chewing, vocalization, and facial expressions. Their bodies come in various quartz-tones, typically white, silvery, dark gray, amethyst, citrine, or even a few shades of mint-green. Colors cloud over with age, eventually becoming utterly opaque. Transparent scales are rare and are effectively the albinos of the species. Eye color varies but all have chatoyancy, leading them to appear glossy, with black sclera instead of white, and white blood vessels. They survive on a diet of meat, plants, and minerals which they sometimes harvest from the rocks themselves. Their strong, sharp beaks and the crushing plates inside their throat pulverize stone. Stomach acid does the rest. When off-world, foods typically do not provide the mineral content required, and so they eat more rocks to compensate, leading others to believe that is the entirety of their diet.

Kremen respiration is unique due to their existence as silicon based creatures. Small bony vents cover their body on their elbows, shoulder, chest, back, hips, knees, head, and most prominently around the neck, where they resemble gills. In fact, this is what they are. Being silicon based creatures, the waste they produce is not carbon-dioxide but instead silicon-dioxide, which is solid. The sandy grit formed in these gills is ferried away into the body and expelled from the pores, forming great plates of quartz which make up most of the skin. Enzymes in the skin below the armor plates release trace amounts of hydrofluoric acid to regulate plate growth, leading them to slowly shed their own skin over a long period of time. In spite of their hard external surfaces, the rest of their body is a composite of layers of hard crystal bone and softer pulpy flesh. They have skeletons in spite of their external carapace, and are generally much tougher than a similar carbon-based creature. Their blood is white, and runs with a second important circulatory system of mucus which transports silicon dioxide around the body, considered to be part of their respiratory system. They do not have lungs but instead use their chest to hold their powerful hearts and a light producing organ known as the luxkardia which plays an important role in brain functions.

The nervous system of a kremen is not based on biochemical electric pulses, but instead pulses of light. Their bodies are lined with what is essentially natural grown fiber optic cables, with organic nodes receiving and releasing pulses of light. Likewise their brain has been likened to a large semi-crystalline substance flickering with photonic activity. It is this brain which allows them to think quicker than humans, reacting to things faster in spite of their relatively slow, clunky, and heavy bodies. While not visible normally, in pitch darkness, kremen bodies glow slightly with the faint haze of dozens of nerve endings. The luxkardia, located in the chest, is a major light producer/receiver and directly feeds energy into the brain, acting as the power source for what functions as an analog computer system.

Kremen have a humanoid system of reproduction, but lay eggs instead of live birth. Eggs must be kept hot, in temperatures of over 101 degrees, and grow to term over the course of 11 months. Newborns lack crystal plating on their body everywhere but their head and beak, usually possessing an egg tooth on their forehead to break from their shell. This horn falls off with age and is seem equivalent to outgrowing one's baby teeth.

Relations
The kremen are philosophical and scientific thinkers, always desiring to know beyond. This desire lead them to the stars, where they encountered other species. For sake of knowledge, it became important to treat other races with a modicum of respect, and so kremen appear benign and pasifistic, earning them many allies. In truth, the kremen are no more or less violent than humans, but try to choose their battles carefully, and then fight intelligently.

Alignment
Kremens are capable of any alignment. While they tend towards lawful societies, kremen are just as apt to apply their brainpower to more chaotic, personal efforts which invigorate the senses.

Lands
Kremen originate from the planet Querklufterztz, in the Grain Cloch system. It is a 7 planet system, surrounding a binary star (Grain Cloch, an M-type star, and a smaller red dwarf known as Meso Cloch). The planet has one large moon which has been colonized, and much resembles Earth's Luna. The planet is large, twice the size of Earth, with a gravity of 1.5 Gs, a moderately strong magnetic field, high tectonic activity, intense storms, and temperatures higher than most humans find comfortable, even if the rest of the environment is suitable and the air breathable. The equator is banded with vast deserts, and near the poles in the only place ice may be found in small amounts. Greenhouse effects from water are kept in check by regular higher atmospheric pressures increasing the temperature requires to boil. Kremen often report Earth type planets as "cold and thin-aired, like living on top of a mountain".

Off-world, kremen live in colony ships, or on other planets. They prefer hot climates, even climates others would find far too intense to survive in.

Religion
Kremen celebrate the earth and the planet as a living creature, applying to Gaia theory. They revere stone as the great mother, and the sun as their father and bringer of knowledge. Their other sun, the smaller red dwarf, is personified as the manifestation of fire, energy, and destruction, the dark side of knowledge. However it is not evil, simply dangerous, and so they seek to understand so they know how to treat things. They treat other religions with respect, but grow wary around religions which ask for devotion and zeal over knowledge and patience.

Language
Kremen speak an alien dialect of Terran known as Kremen, which uses the Terran alphabet. It is a strong, sharp language with many clicks, grinding sounds, and guttural noises. They also speak Terran, as a result of frequent investigations into planar affairs, especially those of earth elementals.

Names
Kremen male names include Jett, Mica, Dumortierite, and Spinel. Female names include Jacinda, Chrysoberyl, Rutile, and Sillimanite.

Racial Traits

 * ,, : Their silicon based biologies grant them quartz armor which slows them down. Yet within their hard shells lies a potent mind of chemicals and light pulses, granting them fantastic mental prowess.
 * Type::Monstrous Humanoid (Subtype::Earth, Subtype::Xenoblooded): The kremen are made of large amounts of silicon and quartz, appearing almost as if alien earth elementals from the stars.
 * Kremen base land speed is 30 feet.
 * Body Armor : Kremen are coated in a layer of crystal armor grown from their pores. They possess +2 natural armor, and possess damage reduction/adamantine equal to 1/2 their HD (minimum 1). This damage reduction stacks with damage reduction granted by class features, but not items, spells, and similar effects.
 * Celerity Consciousness : Though their bodies are not fast, their minds are, allowing them to mentally react and be aware of dangers. Kremen may use their Int modifier for initiative checks instead of Dex.
 * Geosense : Kremen possess ferrous materials in their body, giving themselves an internal compass. They always know which way is north.
 * Heat Resistance : Kremen possess fire resistance 5, plus an additional +5 at 5 HD and every five levels beyond (10 HD, 15 HD, 20 HD, etc.)
 * Natural Weapons : Kremen have a powerful bite attack which deal 1d6 plus Str modifier in damage. Made of hard crystal, it is ideal for biting through rocks, ignoring half the hardness of stone.
 * Unusual Diet : Kremen need both normal organic food and mineral deposits while off-world, as many carbon-based creatures lack the silicon in their bodies needed for survival. Fortunately kremen are capable of eating rocks and dirt and extracting their requirements from there. They can survive on an all-dirt diet for 1 month before malnutrition kicks in and the kremen begins to starve. Some kremen have found eating certain rocks to be a form of delicacy.
 * Kremen are immune to petrification.
 * Kremen gain +2 on Concentration checks and any one Knowledge check (chosen on creation, always considered a class skill).
 * Automatic Languages: Kremen and Terran.
 * Bonus Languages: Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Giant, Gnome, Ignan, and Undercommon.
 * Favored Class: or Favored Class::WarbladeBo9S
 * Level Adjustment: +Level Adjustment::1
 * Effective Character Level: Effective Character Level::2
 * Level Adjustment: +Level Adjustment::1
 * Effective Character Level: Effective Character Level::2