 Author's note: The Jetheriss are an optional race for use with the Aurorea: Land of Light campaign setting and players should not consider Jetheriss a playable race unless specifically permitted by the GM. While the race presented below should be balanced by Pathfinder RPG, this race is considered by many in Aurorea to be "villains by nature". Jetheriss characters may find themselves confronted by open animosity or hostility beyond even that harbored for the Gef'kani in many areas of the world. Bold and arrogant, the Jetheriss were one of the first races to awaken on the face of Aurorea. Possessing of innate magical talent and verve for life, the Jetheriss soon found themselves in a dominant position in the southern reaches of the world. Founding their Clutchland on the continent of Leo Sange, the Jetheriss as a race were a tightly knit people who saw the value in community and celebrated knowledge, creating an intricate written word and storing information in libraries of scrolls long before other races began to collect their own teachings. Unfortunately, this penchant for knowledge and spellcraft resulted in an arrogance that the Jetheriss embraced. Their haughty nature caused them to discard caution when dealing with dark eldritch rituals and created tension with other races, most notably the Durthu elves that shared Leo Sange with the Jetheriss Empire, and led to their downfall during the War of Ascension (see The Timeline: The War of Ascension for more details). Before The War of Ascension, when their race still commanded a position of respect, young Jetheriss would leave the Clutchland when reaching puberty and travel the world for a period of 5 to 10 years to learn of the lands of Aurorea and its people. This period of wandering would normally end as a Jetheriss entered adulthood and the individual would rarely leave the Clutchland again after their return. A ovoviviparous race far less genetically diverse than others, Jetheriss often look very similar to each other, with the pattern of tiny scales around their eyes and the propagation of feathers on their scalps being primary means of differentiation among individuals. For this reason, many Jetheriss adopt the process of using scale paint or dyes to create personal designs upon their face, head, and/or chest. Jetheriss group into large extended families called Lines, with the typical Jetheriss domicile built to house an average of 18 to 26 individuals. An individual’s name precedes their line name in introductions, e.g. Makh’arak of the line of Altan’sharak. The average Jetheriss adult will mate and have a clutch of between 3 to 7 eggs 0nly twice in their life. Of the young, only 1 to 4 will survive to puberty, most killed by their siblings within the first 7 years of their life. True Jetheriss young that are physically deformed or mentally stunted are culled by their line by the age of 3. This duty regularly falls to the eldest female of the line, who is seen as the protector of the line’s purity of blood. Despite this brutal elimination of Jetheriss young and their low birthrate, Jetheriss have adopted perverted magical rituals that are cast upon the eggs of the lowerst social lines, causing the eggs to develop and produce Jetheriss slave races such as the tiny Skinks and the massive Krant. Since
their position as a power on the world is waning, the Jetheriss are becoming
more and more insular, aware that they are a dying race that does not have
sufficient numbers to stave off extinction. While this has done little to curb
their famed racial arrogance, it has
caused more Jetheriss to leave the ruins of the Clutchland, or the safe haven
of cosmopolitan Jetharka, to look for something that might change the final
legacy of their race. Racial Properties: True Jetheriss stand between 4.5 to 6.5 feet tall, with fine scales covering them from head to foot. Some Jetheriss sport fine feathered plumage upon their scalp, or arms, but this is rare. Jetheriss stand upright, and are proportioned much as elves or humans, though rarely varying from their standard weight of 140 to 160 pounds. Body scales are normally two tone, with darker scales in the black to green variety along their backs and legs, while the belly, chest, and front of the neck is normally a much lighter color typically in the white and yellow ranges. Jetheriss eye color runs from red to gold, with varying shades of amber in between. Jetheriss hands have three fingers with an opposing thumb, all tipped with simple talons.
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