Selunari Race Packet
“Home is people and not a place. Life is a journey at a relentless pace.”
Selunari are a race with a strong connection to the stars. They are as numerous and bound together as those distant, benevolent lights, placing their familial connections above all else. To those within their family, both blood and adopted, their warmth is mirrored only by the sun and their care as constant as the North Star. Those who violate their trust will find great similarity between their retribution and the cold depths of the void between all those brilliant lights. This stellar connection manifests as gems upon the Selunari’s forehead.
Make Up, Prosthetics, and Roleplay
Selunari must wear prosthetic gems on their forehead. There must be at least three gems and they must be centered around the middle of the forehead. Gem color and shape are treated as a personal or close family expression, and therefore do not have any consistent meaning across Fortannis.
Racial Benefits
Selunari may purchase the Resist Curse ability. Their connection to the stars can be trained to the point where their spirits can reject earth magic based curses.
Racial Drawbacks
While Selunari do not suffer a specific mechanical weakness, there is a consistent cultural expectation within Fortannis that they will give preferential trust and respect to other Selunari, even from other lands within Fortannis. Conversely, it is expected that Selunari require higher than average means for a non-Selunari to earn their trust and respect. The betrayal or violence against the Selunari is taken very seriously, and viciously so if it is performed by an outsider.
Lifespan and Family
Selunari have a lifespan on par with Humans, living to roughly 70 to 80 years. Selunari consider themselves to be related to all other Selunari within Fortannis, with a network of cousins, siblings, parents and other honorific titles. Selunari children and the elderly are considered the responsibility of the entirety of the Selunari to raise, respect, and protect. Individual Selunari may choose to form families both within and beyond their kind, but any Non-Selunari partners and family are held coldly apart from the umbrella of Selunari family and protection.
We Are Not Our Past
The ascension of the Selunari is one that is within memory, but it’s blinding brilliance obscures their past. The history of what the Selunari were has been washed away in starlight and buried beneath the sands of time. Both heroes and villains alike were given a second chance and a clean slate when the Selunari became connected to the stars. Some Selunari have embraced this new beginning and have used it to forge a new peace with the rest of Fortannis, while others have exploited this fresh start for more nefarious purposes.
We Are Like Stars
The stars above Fortannis span vast distances beyond imagination. A non-Selunari may look to the night sky and see magic and mystery, but Selunari see family. This perceived comfort and casual association with what others find cold, distant, and terrifying has reflected on the Selunari with an alien and close minded reputation. While there is some truth in how the Selunari truly function compared to their reputation, many consider the veil of distrust between Selunari and outsiders to be an armor that protect the Selunari from harm.
The Stars are Our Home
The Selunari’s connection to the wandering stars has drastically altered their concepts of property, hearth and home. To the Selunari, the presence of their family is what makes a given place home and if those people move, so to does their home. This can put Selunari at odds with authorities that are based in the more traditional senses of territories and kingdoms. If Selunari can find solace so easily in one kingdom or another, what can be said of their willingness to protect or harm their former home?
