Malaquian (3.5e Race)

Malaquians
Malaquians are a race of laid-back marine dwellers with little need to interact with the outside world. With a strong sense of community and matriarchal society, malaquians are passionate about their oceanic homes.

Personality
Malaquians can often be outsiders in groups or among the other cultured peoples, mainly because they are called "malaquians" when they prefer their true name, the ayawii. Their initially lackadaisical attitude can make them difficult to befriend. With time and patience they are very hospitable and giving. Malaquians are tolerant and welcoming, if untrusting toward strangers, willing to give others a chance. Malaquians become ill tempered and surly away from the sea, and usually carry keepsakes to remind themselves of the ocean, such as shells or coral and similar trinkets. Malaquians are prone to mood swings and outbursts when away from the water for long periods of time. If they can’t get to a body of water to relax themselves, a long bath, a good rain or a night of drinking will suffice.

Physical Description
Malaquians stand roughly 6' 6" to 7' 6" in height with broad shoulders, short compact chests with long muscular arms and legs. Their heads are elongated toward the back. Their eyes are commonly dark and vividly colored. They are entirely hairless. Their skin ranges from light blue, purple, green and orange to dark navy blue, brown and gray. They have darker splotches of color on their heads, shoulders and backs. Malaquian women are more common than men and are slightly shorter and less bulky than their male counterparts. Malaquian women also have larger, more sylvan ears than their men.

Their clothes, often restrictive under water, are typically minimal, tending toward light shirts, short pants and sandal-like footwear. Most malaquians carry pouches for gathering supplies, as well as weapons to defend themselves or hunt for food when the opportunity arises. Their weapons and armor are often made from a magically reshaped and tempered pearl with a strength suitable for use. Though when on land, they adopt whatever clothing and equipment is available to them.

Relations
Malaquian settlements establish friendly trade with coastal cities, commonly humans and deeka, but they also deal with aquatic elves and merfolk from time to time.

Malaquians typically export renewable sea resources, such as fish with their thriving fisheries. Some cities mine and export deep-sea stone from great quarries.

Alignment
Malaquians tend toward neutrality, with their relaxed culture. They find it difficult to muster the enthusiasm required to have strong moral and ethical outlooks, though some malaquians believe in neutrality as a natural state of existence and aim for it on purpose.

Lands
Malaquian cities are often in coastal areas, along islands or in lagoons, but rarely in waters deeper than 90 feet. These cities usually extend above the water in places and are built from stone, coral and pearl as metalworking and wood are improper materials for use in the ocean. Occasional freshwater settlements exist and rarely, a few island or land-bound cities. Their cities are ruled by a Royal Matriarch, who bears as many children as possible during her reign. Royal heritage is important to many malaquians, and once every six months a contest is held for all eligible males, in which they compete for rights to breed with the Matriarch. Within their society, swords are only allowed to be used by those with royalty in their pedigrees. With their blood's strange effects upon diversity and breeding, pedigrees are researched and maintained by malaquian clerks at the behest of their cities. With the exception of those who have been banished or exiled, tracing a particular malaquian's ancestry back several ages is done so with a fair bit of ease, though family trees can become quite large. Multiple births are common with twin births nearly as common as single births.

When fighting in the competition for mating rights to the matriarch, the great staff is their weapon of choice. This weapon is crafted from blue-green pearl instead of iron or steel, though it weighs the same (as the weight of the item is important to its use). In addition, it has a greater hardness and are often ornately decorated. These weapons pass from generation to generation as a source of familial pride.

Malaquians reach maturity by the age of 15 and are as long lived as humans. Malaquian pregnancy lasts only half as long as that of a human mother, at about 4 ½ months. A typical malaquian household consists of members in direct relation to the eldest members. During births and marriages, houses are expanded and can often hold a dozen families. Clan names warrant less importance than a lineage that can be proven in a pedigree marked with the royal seal. Births and deaths are recorded in stone at the hall of records by royal clerks.

Malaquian settlements that were built in ages past tend to be of finer craftsmanship, and may often show signs of their ancient culture, still preserved in huge blocks of stonework. Great seaways stretch along the seafloor, often encrusted with coral, leading the way to malaquian cities across vast stretches of deep and dark ocean, just as roads on land stretch through dangerous forests. The seaways protect travelers and provides shelter along its many secured coves and waypoints. Occasionally, the waypoints will be towers that extend up from the deep and cold waters to offer travelers a place to rest in the warmer waters above while still safe from the dangers of the open ocean.

Land-bound cities are agricultural, settling in lowland, coastal areas, often near river deltas that make water turbulent and cloudy. These cities typically grow brack-grass, a primitive wheat which thrives in overly salty soils where other crops would fail. These cities also sport many bathhouses, rain-buildings and pools.

Malaquians are remarkably adapted to live in either marine water or freshwater, being able to process excess salt rather easily, having no difficulty drinking salt-water. Most prefer freshwater, if only for taste.

Religion
They often worship and build temples to neutral good Gods, such as Ceila, or worship Gods who watch over the natural world or the ocean, such as Elnade, and assure peace and happiness for their followers. Malaquian cities are often adorned with small idols for worship.

Language
Malaquians speak Common and Ayawii. Though, it is difficult to talk underwater, hence the useful capacity that their minor telepathy provides. Though the Ayawii language is mainly spoken, components of it involve a few gestures, which are widely accepted among other cultures as well.

Since the word "malaquian" is already a bit of slang, they are also referred to in Common as "malaks" and "sea folk". In some regions, they are called "ahchiataii", though this is thought to be a mistranslation, archaic pronunciation or bastardization of "ayawii".

Names
Names often contain lots of vowels, especially the letter a.

Male Names: Aleyuo, Aureu, Beureu, Boyuo, Reuyu, Tanuren, Umeten, Uneo, Vastenen

Female Names: Alielie, Awabanya, Binooa, Caidea, Esaya, Lyroni, Maimai, Uleyo, Usima

City Names: Alahara, Aluonoha, Arlea, Coursia, Iblin, Naidu Daiketsu, Odimee, Raahe, Relitinioa, Usimara

Racial Traits

 * ,, : Malaquians are strong and smart, but lack in nimbleness.
 * : While malaquians live under water, they also breathe air and travel on land.
 * : As medium-size creatures, malaquians have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
 * Malaquian base land speed is 20 feet: Malaquians are slow for their size, but they also have a swim speed of 20 feet.
 * Amphibious : Although malaquians are aquatic, they can survive indefinitely on land. Malaquians can breathe equally well with either their internal gills or lungs.
 * Weapon Proficiency: Malaquians gain Martial Weapon Proficiency with the great staff. The weapon is culturally pervasive to the point that every common malaquian has had some training with it.
 * Mental Fortitude : Malaquians gain a +2 racial bonus on Will saves against mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, fear effects). A Malaquian's mental resilience affords him a resistance against such intrusions.
 * Toxin Prone : Malaquians suffer a −2 penalty on Fortitude saves against poisons and diseases as a malaquian’s sensitive skin and membranes makes them susceptible to sicknesses and toxins.
 * Marine Adaptation: Malaquians gain a +2 racial bonus on Survival and Knowledge (nature) checks made concerning nature under water as they are innately familiar with aquatic and marine life.
 * Telepathic Beacon : A malaquian is capable of generating a weak form of communication similar to telepathy. Creatures with at least 3 Intelligence that share a common language and are within 30 feet of him are able to understand mental communication and communicate back. As the communication is unfocused, all available creatures within the radius may "hear" his telepathy, but not necessarily understand it. Additionally, a malaquian may communicate telepathically via touch with any creature of at least 3 Intelligence that shares a common language. This requires that the malaquian maintain contact with the creature to allow wordless, silent communication between them.
 * Automatic Languages: Ayawii and Common.
 * Bonus Languages: Aquan, Celestial, Elven, Sylvan, Undercommon. See the Speak Language skill for other languages.
 * Favored Class:
 * Level Adjustment: +Level Adjustment::0
 * Effective Character Level: Effective Character Level::1

Crossbreeding
Malaquians occasionally interbreed with the other humanoid races. A few malaquians with either aquatic elf, aroghin, deeka or human bloodlines have been recorded in the past. Thorough and viable crossbreeding capabilities have not been fully researched. Malaquian bloodlines hold an ancient common ancestor race with the deeka and aroghin. Malaquians with deeka blood are known as whit hones. Occasionally this term is also used to describe malaquians with aroghin blood.

In the uncommon couplings of merfolk and malaquians, the resultant offspring are known as guromescai. These creatures are unlike either of their parent races.

Notes from Wandering Scholar Marza
“I met a young malaquian couple at the fish market while I was searching for crabs that the locals swore by as the most delicious crab anywhere. They overheard me asking a fish monger about my culinary quarry. I was sadly informed that they are out of season for the fishermen, as they moved off to deeper waters. Incidentally, the deeper waters are where the malaquians hunt them. As I didn’t want to have to wait 2 seasons just to eat a single meal, I inquired about what it would cost to have them shipped in from the nearest malaquian city. Once again, I was sadly informed. The malaquians don’t export these crabs lest they get over-fished.

My next question led me on a fair adventure with what I hoped at the end would be worth the trouble. Having recently come across a charm that allowed me to breathe underwater, I sought any excuse to use it to justify the expense, even if I am a terrible swimmer. So, with a small upfront payment, Reuyu and his wife Lyroni became my guides to the underwater realm of the ayawii. I had to remember to refrain from calling them malaquians, especially in their cities, lest I get beaten up or severely scolded and ridiculed.

We departed the next day at late morning for a several hour swim around a coastline with precarious stretches of coral reefs that make shipping hazardous. Swimming was gentle and easy, though often they slowed up to wait for me, which mildly surprised me, as they plod about so slowly on land. The sights underwater certainly were spectacular and enchanting. Oh, how I wish I could have been able to spend a few hours to sketch the things I saw darting about and the myriad of corals and feathery things.

Occasionally, their voices would chime into my head to tell me interesting tidbits or warn me about certain fish and pointy creatures that lurked in the reef. It’s mildly unsettling to hear a voices in your head tell you things, which is even more true if you’ve had any experience with fiends.

Gradually, the reef dropped away and the water deepened until we arrived at their city. As I clumsily swam, I nearly collided with a manta ray. Reuyu looked back and rolled his eyes. Lyroni chuckled to herself. As we swam between the stone houses carved and formed from stone and coral, they led me to their house to pick up their hunting gear, and even loaned me a mesh sack and a spear with a pearly tip honed to a razor’s edge. After a quick introduction to all twelve of their family members, we set off out of town, which was much smaller than I thought it would be. I suppose since everything was so closely packed in, there wasn’t much need to spread out. I was later informed that it was just a small town.

We headed west and down a gradual slope that flattened out into a sandy plain. The light was dim and the water was cold. My guides carried on with the search with no problem, poking around in the gray sand, obviously searching for some particular sign. I tried it too, poking about at random.

Within several minutes they had gathered several of the crabs each, and all I had managed to scour was a large snail shell, partly broken, but still with a nice coppery color. With patience and time, I finally dug up my first crab, which clawed angrily at my spear. I fumbled about undoing the drawstring of my sack as the crab scuttled away. In desperation, I lunged for it, where it clamped down firmly on my hand. I tried to scream, but only a few scarce bubbles twittered out. I dropped my spear and tore the blasted thing off my hand and dropped him in my sack. I was really looking forward to trying these crabs now. The crustaceous claw left only a minor cut, but the salt water irritated it with stinging and pruning. Unfortunately for me, the blood in the water attracted an enormous school of small silver fish within minutes. I was surrounded and I couldn’t see anything..."

The notes leave off here due to water damage.