Druzai

One of the most physically beautiful races in all of Halicker, the Druzai are a reclusive desert race, slow to trust others in the Halicker world. Druzai look human if encountered during the day, though the race’s typical garb has each member wrapped head to toe with only the eyes visible. These eyes never seem to focus, and do not blink. During the night is when the true nature of the Druzai are revealed. In their true form Druzai look like human shaped cutouts of the night sky, black silhouettes filled with small planets, stars, and other astral bodies. In this form, to the touch a Druzai feels cold and hard, as if the black shadow was made of some kind of glass that contains its amazing cargo. In human form a Druzai is of typical human dimensions but during the shift to true form the Druzai can range from two feet to twelve feet tall and possess any width from waif-thin to obese. Despite their varying proportions, the true form a Druzai will still weigh the same as its human form.

The exact reality behind the Druzais’ amazing physical makeup is unknown. What is known is that the race refers to themselves as “Wanderers”. At death a Druzai will immediately revert to its true form and slowly begin to float skywards until it disappears from view. If asked about the nature of this event a Druzai will only answer that the recently deceased is “returning home”.
The nature of a Druzai’s body, while unusual, is still a body. If injured a Druzai will bleed shining dust, and each of the main planets which make ups its body are believed to somehow act as internal organs. Most of what happens inside of a Druzai’s body is unknown though, as once detached from its owner a Druzai limb crumbles into the same shining dust that the race bleeds. For all intents though, a Druzai acts just like a regular race.
The race still needs to eat, which they do only in true form. It should be noted that a Druzai need not sleep, though they may do so by choice. The Druzai, are capable of dreaming like humans, but furthermore, some Druzai choose to sleep in order to encourage prophetic dreams. The Druzai possess distinct genders- the females identified by a feminine demeanor, a feminine outline of the body, and a star nebula in the stomach region of the true form. The males have male qualities, a manly demeanor and male figure form. The male Druzais’ true form features a black hole in their respective abdomens. As an interesting aside, during the moment of death, a male Druzai’s internal planets are consumed by the black hole while in the females’ bodies the nebula quickly collapse into itself and flashes into a star.

During actual play a Druzai character in human form plays exactly like a human. In true form the character can take advantage of a different body shape but no stat change occurs because of the change. Druzai are a “skinless” race like the Hubris and thus may take any and all body modifications that a Hubris can. Any internal body mods taken by a Druzai transform into astral bodies whilst maintaining any combat or RP effect. A Druzai does not take the same alchemical tattoos or markings that regular races have; instead they can modify the appearance of their internal planets. How they chose to do this is up to the player to decide and the Storyteller to approve.

Druzai are the only race which may start with its race’s material: Lodestone.

Material:
Lodestone: A light weight stone, with an odd propensity to hover around its owner in tight orbits as long as its owner has a capacitor energy source (Aquian crystal, Angel core, or the equivalent). This material comes in a wide selection of earth toned colors, and is carved like stone, instead of being cast or forged like metal.

Material bonus:
The stone is both strong and light-weight, making it very useful for brawlers and cutters alike. The material’s greatest strength comes from its ability to change formation at the will of the user. A typical Lodestone apparatus is made up of several hovering plates. At rest these plates separate and hover in tight rings around the owner’s body. Once activated these stones can be called by force of will into various shapes (swords, shields, hammers) at which point the plates can be pulled out of orbit to be wielded, or their orbit can be controlled to “puppet wield” the weapon. Other materials and upgrades can be attached to Lodestone plates, thus giving more formation possibilities.

Material problem:
Lodestone is not quasi-sentient and thus grants no stat bonus. A Whisper must be spent to do every formation change and the material has a 1/100 chance to short out for 1d6 rounds after every formation change.

Lodestone cannot be traded for, the only way for a character who is not Druzai to acquire some is to either kill a Druzai, go through grueling tasks to win the races trust, or buy Lodestone from an unscrupulous black market source. Druzai seem to know the origin or every piece of Lodestone they encounter and do not look all that kindly upon people who have harmed their kindred.