Wergard (3.5e Race)

Wergard
In the beginning, the god Oan looked upon the lifeless world of Cor, unshaped and barren. Wishing to turn it into a home for his yet unborn children, he breathed upon it and from mountains of stone carved he the first guardian of the land. With his avatar, he carved the islands, mountains, and oceans into shape, until the world was fit for beings to live. Grateful for his dutiful creation's work, as he let life sink into the newborn planet, and then let life sink into his former tool, and the first wergard was born. As time passed, the original Wergard's spirit split, taking the task as shaper of the earth and guardian of life. Summary::The wergard take the form of vaguely earth-elemental constructs, with a heart brimming of life, and great bodies that can grow to immense size. Not quite an elemental having more in common with constructs than elementals, yet more lively than your typical golem, wergards are ancient immortal protectors who have been granted free will.

Most wergards are advanced in the Wergard Paragon Class, and thus wergards as a whole are giant titans in their landscapes.

Personality
From one spark of life formed many, and now thousands of wergard lay across the land, but in comparision to other races they are extremely rare and low in number. Able to enter states of unfathomable hibernation, wergards almost universally are an introspective, philosophical lot. Nearly none of their original kind remain from the beginning of creation, but almost all are very old. Religious and dutiful, a wergard can be trusted unto a task for generations to come.

Physical Description
Wergards are formed from the earth, giants of stone, moss, and other debris seemingly pulled from their birth surroundings. They come in all shapes in sizes, from humanoid features to monsters of unfathomable shapes, though all possess a similar head, a cross of draconic and canine features, glowing eyes, and a one or more glowing runes marked upon their body, typically on their forehead. Only the oldest have truely monstrous features, either born in such shapes or adapted into them over time. For players, only humanoid shapes are available. Recently born wergard (recent being within the age of civilization) have even developed strange complex shapes and carvings in their body, making their appearance appear as if they have been formed from towers, buildings, and other artifical structures.

Deep within their body they possess a "heart", a core of positive energy which animates them, and spread trhough their body on tiny channels of light. When they bleed, they bleed a high pressure mist made of purest light. On death their spirits escape into the aether as an explosion of tentacles in all directions. It is ironically through death that wergard have increased their number. As time passes the lost energy returns stronger than before, the living "sparks" transfered to newly constructed bodies, and new wergard are born with fresh minds and strong hearts.

Relations
Born from service, they gained free will, but even with wills of their own, many wergard find themselves guarding the creations of life. The towering titans are but gentle giants as a whole. Some make their presence known, becoming benevolent local spirits to villages. Others do their work in secrets, and a few yet work within the city tirelessly, repayed only by shows of gratitude. Those who take a wergard's aid for granted soon find themselves without aid. For this reason wergard avoid interacting with more unpleasent races who do not respect their work.

Alignment
Wergard are usually good aligned, and often neutral, matching their creator diety's alignment. Their lawful sense of duty is canceled out only by a chaotic free will which drives it out to explore and find comfort. Evil wergards are rare, usually the result of mistreatment from others to an extent where their long patience has been eroded unto nothing.

Lands
Wergards have been scattered all across the world of Cor, and due to their unique construct traits, they can survive nearly anywhere as well. From hidden in the forests, buried in the desert, or even the bottom of the ocean, a wergard can take roost and stay for a million years, becoming part of the landscape until it decided to finally move and explore for its own.

Religion
Wergard universally recognize Oan as their creator god, but not all need worship him in a direct sense. Many revere nature and abstract concepts like druids, others "worship" a certain race, and some worship nothing at all. Rarely are the sources of their verneration ever evil.

Language
Wergard speak Celestial, Common, and Terran, born of elements of life and earth, and the newer ones having spent time with the races of the world. Ancient, non-player wergard may not speak common, or a dialect of common so old as to be unrecognizable.

Names
Wergard names are formed from the symbols unique to each wergard. Not even wergard completely understand the meaning of the symbols, which are placed on birth and as unique as a fingerprint. They do know it somehow relates to truespeach, and the words come out as primal sounds and notes which to many sound more like the grinding of rocks, the rumble of thunder, and the echo of a long hallway. Unspeakable and rarely written except in symbol form, most need to accept nicknames as a means to communicate with mortal folk.

Racial Traits

 * ,, , , : Strong and sturdy as rock and with minds long lived and and wise, they are nevertheless simple creatures, and are ill suited for "normal" interactions.
 * Type::Construct (Subtype::Earth, Subtype::Living Construct): Though made of stone and plant matter, their hearts are cores of positive energy beating deep within a complex river of life.  They are alive, much like warforged.
 * Size::Medium: As medium creatures, wergard have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
 * Wergard base land speed is 20 feet. However, wergard can move at this speed even when wearing medium or heavy armor or when carrying a medium or heavy load (unlike other creatures, whose speed is reduced in such situations).
 * Wergard have darkvision out to 60 feet.
 * Deep Sleep (Ex): A wergard is capable of entering a meditative trance over the course of 1 minute, in which they become only dimly aware of their surroundings and turn their thoughts to unknown deep dreams.  Used to hibernate and "skip" years, a wergard ages at 1/10th of his usual speed, preventing its body from decay and erosion.  They are aware of their surroundings up to 60 feet, but no further, and rouse only after a full round action, after which they are dazed for 1 round longer.  In this state they gain hardness 8, and gain a +10 bonus to disguise to appear as a pile of rock.  Often wergard forget themselves in the deep sleep, and may go on for a thousand years without moving, waking up only to find they have been buried alive or overgrown with moss.
 * Forged Body (Ex): Wergard are surrounded by chunks of stone and metal that form both skin and armor for the titan, often in the shape of buildings and towers, as if they were chess pieces.  This body grants them 25% fortification, and a +2 armor bonus to AC.  The armor may be enhanced as any masterwork suit of armor, and wergard qualify for warforged feats relating to the augmenting of their quasi-armor.  The armor does not count as armor for class features, has no max Dex or armor check penalty, and a 5% arcane spell failure chance.  At 5 HD, their fortification rises to 50%.  At 10 HD, it becomes 75%, and at 15 HD they have 100% fortification as the last of their weak points seal up.
 * Giant Sized (Ex): Wergards are giants amongst men, yet still medium creatures with a few larger than normal traits.  Whenever you receive a modifier based on your size on an opposed roll (such as during grapple and bull rush attempts), you are treated as one size catagory larger if that's advantageous to you.  You are also considered to be one size larger when determining whether a monster's special attacks based on size (such as improved grab or swallow whole) affect you.
 * Living Construct Traits (Ex): Unlike other constructs, wergard have a constitution score.  As a living construct it does not gain bonus hit points by size, but rather through constitution as other living creatures.  They do not have low-light vision, and are not immune to mind-influencing effects.  They have an immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion, and energy drain.  Unlike the similar warforged, they are saturated with positive energy and benefit from positive energy in a more dramatic way.  They heal damage naturally and are healed normally by both effects of the healing subschool and the repair series and other effects that work on constructs.  They are subject to critical hits (but see Forged Body), effects requiring a Fort save, death from massive damage, nonlethal damage, stunning, ability damage, ability drain, and death and necromancy effects.  When reduced to 0 hit points, a living construct is disabled, just like a living creature, and when its hit points is less than 0 and greater than -10 it is inert.  It is unconcious and helpless, but stable.  They may be raised and ressurrected as normal, and have no need to eat, sleep, or breathe, though they may benefit from consumables.  Though they do not need to sleep, they must still rest for 8 hours before preparing spells, as normal.
 * Sink Like A Stone (Ex): Wergard are heavy, dense creatures, and terrible swimmers.  They take a -10 penalty on all swim checks.  However, they need not breath and are immune to pressure damage from extreme, or lack of, pressure.  Often wergard end up walking along the bottom of the ocean to travel from land to land.
 * Stability (Ex): A wergard gains a +4 bonus on ability checks made to resist being bull rushed or tripped when standing on the ground (but not when climbing, flying, riding, or otherwise not standing firmly on the ground).
 * Wergard gain a +2 racial bonus on Craft and Knowledge History and Geography checks. Knowledge History and Knowledge Geography are always class skills for a wergard.
 * Automatic Languages: Common, Celestial, and Terran.
 * Bonus Languages: Auran, Dwarven, Giant, Gnome, Ignan, and Undercommon.
 * Favored Class:
 * Level Adjustment: +Level Adjustment::1
 * Effective Character Level: Effective Character Level::2