The third piece in our week of the kasatha sees the
fleshing out of our random rolls from Monday. Some of the background
here uses what I’ve created for their culture in my Wednesday article People Out of Place. Our kasatha this week is quick, hardy and smart. To me his
minor charisma negative is more a lack of worldliness or understanding of
people in general. A prophesied birth and an encounter with a bizarre creature
are hallmarks of his upbringing. So who is this alien on Golarion? What is his
life like in the wastes of Numeria?
For class this week I chose rogue, specifically the
Numerian Scavenger archetype. As his starting traits, I went with prophesied,
starchild, and vagabond child. I took the third trait because I thought the
drawback family ties really suited this particular character. I know I usually
roll on a class table if one is available, but I’ll be honest, this week I
forgot.
“There are aliens among us”, they tell you. In Numeria
this statement is fact. Some alien lifeforms are known entities, like the
gearmen and the androids. In much of Numeria those aliens that are found
usually end up lynched by the superstitious kellids or on the dissection tables
of the technic. In fear for their life, many of these beings from the stars
hide in the Numerian wastes.
The small city of Hajoth Hakados breaks the mold of the
standard Numerian settlements. The trade city on the crusader road to Mendev
not only openly welcomes androids, but also a witchwyrd from the red planet
Akiton. For this reason, other alien creatures make Hajoth Hakados their home,
even if they continue to hide their presence. Such is the case for the Havala
clan of kastha.
The Havala clan consist of two small families. The rest
of the clan either remains on the kastha’s distant home world or died in the
crash that left them stranded here. None of the clansmen are sure how long
they’ve been here as they have only emerged from stasis chambers a little over
forty years ago. The survivors consisted of two mated couples, one of which has
a daughter with them.
Hassa was the first child born to the Havala clan. With
his birth the male of the other couple, a shaman proclaimed the first child of
the clan born in this land would lead them home. After his birth Hassa’s mother
took up the position of head woman. She further proved her fertility and thus
her power in the clan when she bore twins; a brother and a sister, Jaska and
Usula. New life, of course, means a small but growing clan.
For the first few years of Hassa’s life, the clan roamed
the badlands of Numeria just as they had roamed the sands of Kasath. With his
destiny to find a home he never knew, the boy took to watching the stars as if
drawn to them. By ten years old he knew each star by heart and with him in the
lead the clan was never lost.
To the kastha every creature of this world was a new
wonder, a wonder to be avoided at all costs. The mutated creatures of Numeria
were deadly, making hunting a momentous task. The humanoids were far more
dangerous than any beast and the Havala tribe made sure to avoid both the
kellid tribes and the technic wizards. To a young boy lost in the stars,
however, some things stand out. Although few, some of the Iobarian centaurs
remained as nomads in the Sellen Hills and young Hassa found the horsemen so
interesting he felt compelled to talk to them.
For months Hassa treated with the centaur tribe, leading
his own clan on a parallel migratory path to theirs. From one of their warriors
he learned much about the world and especially Numeria. When the centaurs swung
south and stopped in the city of Hajoth Hakados, the boy snuck away in the day
while his family slept to explore these new wonders. His friend in the centaur
tribe showed him a city accepting of all kinds of strange people. A city that
was as alien to Numeria as his people were.
Eventually centaurs roamed further than the kasatha tribe
was willing to go, even at Hassa’s urging, so they roamed the plains once more.
They did, however, add a few southern stops which allowed Hassa to sneak off
the Hajoth Hakados a few times a year. His love of the city grew and the boy
felt the call to explore other cities.
When the clan was near the metropolis of Chesed, Hassa
could no longer fight his urge to explore. Seeking to gain access to the city
he sought out what the humans called “adventurers” to get him in. Using thinly
veiled threats, he forced a woman encased in the shiny metal armor the humans
liked, to take him into the city. She did as asked but Hassa’s unsophisticated
disguise was seen through rather quickly.
Unlike Hajoth Hakados, Chessed was very much under the
control of the Technic League. When Hassa’s attempt to stay hidden was seen
through, they quickly came after him. Trapped in an unknown place, Hassa would
have assuredly been captured except unbeknownst to him, the adventurer he
cajoled was a crusader of Sarenrae heading to the worldwound. His would-be
victim stood against the technomancers and helped Hassa flee the city. The
young kasaha apologized profusely but the crusader understood the impatience of
youth having been a redeemed street rat herself.
These events left Hassa wary of the outside world. And at
thirteen, when his brother and sister were born, he sought nothing but to
protect them from all the horrors of this forsaken world. Whether in a city or
not, their alien nature made them targets. The Technic League had begun hunting
for them, unknown four armed aliens. Sometimes a member of the league would come
themselves and sometimes they would send vicious agents. It had become harder
and harder to escape them so Hassa brought the clan to the only place he knew the Technic League had no sway, Hajoth Hakados.
At first the clan refused to enter the city, but caring
for two infants and running was tiring to all of them. Being head woman Hassa’s
mother eventually saw the wisdom in his words and the clan moved to the trade
city. Hajoth Hakados was a place of wonder to the clan. Although they still
tried to go unnoticed, the fact they could move freely and mostly unmolested
came as a shock after years of avoiding the people of this planet.
The clan set themselves up in the Homeshore district.
Learning to stay settled was an even greater challenge for them than staying
ahead of the league. Hunting the plains was their only real skill, the men
would bring back hides that the women would than cure and trade or sew into
armor for even the most bizarrely formed creature. Hassa, ever inquisitive, began
to explore the city, although at first not understanding the idea of personal
property he had a bad habit of letting himself into people’s homes.
At thirty Hassa has reached the age of his “tempering”
and is time for him to travel the world and find himself. The clan will gather
and perform their ritual to Ji’d–who the people of Golarion call Jaidz–the
spirit of untested youth. Hassa will leave the clan until he feels he has
passed the tests of Ji’d and then will return to the clan as an adult.
The clan still believes he is destined to lead them
back to Kasath, but Hassa wonders; the prophecy just said “home” and maybe he
has already done that. Still his plans, as he leaves Hajoth Hakados, are to
search the wreckage of what he knows to have been a great spacefaring vessel
that is spread across Numeria to see if he cannot find some knowledge of where
his people came from.
There you have it, my take on Monday’s rolls. Is this
what you envisioned when you looked at the rolls? How did your character idea
differ? What is your kasatha’s prophecy? How do you reconcile following a
Golarion Empyreal Lord when he is an alien to this planet?
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