Pahtra
Source Player Core pg. 62
Pahtras are a humanoid feline species from a nearby star system. They're highly competitive and known for their achievements in magic, music, and war. Their home world was recently freed from the Veskarium's occupation, and they've joined the Pact Worlds.
Pahtras evolved on a low-gravity jungle world called Pulonis, where they fought a long war for independence from their Veskarium conquerors. Recently, pahtra freedom fighters defeated the last Veskarium occupiers, then voted to join the Pact Worlds as a sovereign planet. Today, Pulonis is a lush, verdant world wracked by dangerous magnetic storms and scarred by the Veskarium's brutal invasion. The struggles of survival have influenced many pahtra traditions, leading to a culture of competitive war games, time-honored mysticism, and unorthodox technology. Music accompanies everything in pahtra culture, from popular entertainment to traditional battle tactics, with martial combat even categorized as a form of battle dance.
If you want to play a character who fights for freedom with grace and style, you should play a pahtra.
If you want to play a character who fights for freedom with grace and style, you should play a pahtra.
You Might…
- Enjoy friendly competition.
- Be a talented performer or cultured aficionado of a wide variety of music and dance genres.
- Hold true to your ancestral traditions and refuse to kneel to cruel despots.
Others Probably…
- Think you struggle with computers, vehicles, and other technology.
- Envy your musical talent.
- Assume you're looking for an excuse to prove yourself in a fight.
Physical Description
Pahtras are feline humanoids covered in fur. Their coats vary from black, white, blue, calico, bi-colored, and tabby, often possessing unique patterns of irregular shapes that seers traditionally use to divine an individual's potential. Their eyes vary across all colors of the visible spectrum. Typical pahtras stand between 6 and 7 feet tall, with elongated limbs and flexible joints. Their physiology is highly mutable, and families that leave Pulonis often find their children developing stockier and more muscular bodies as they adjust to higher gravity.
Pahtras have sharp teeth and retractable claws on their hands and feet. They have a unique set of sensory organs across their muzzles, with functions varying from individual to individual. The most common of these peripheral nerves include harmonic sensory apparatuses that can feel sound.
Pahtras have sharp teeth and retractable claws on their hands and feet. They have a unique set of sensory organs across their muzzles, with functions varying from individual to individual. The most common of these peripheral nerves include harmonic sensory apparatuses that can feel sound.
Society
Pahtra cultures are steeped in tradition and highly competitive, with individuals vying for recognition and resources in a struggle that mimics the harsh natural order of their planet. Before the Veskarium invasion, technological advancement on Pulonis stalled because of the world's unpredictable magnetic storms. Even today, Pulonian technological development focuses on ceramics, bioengineering, chemistry, and magic. After breaking from the Veskarium, residents of Pulonis's nation-states overwhelmingly voted to join the Pact Worlds, and they're still acclimating to this new political allegiance. The majority of pahtras are asexual. Most seek loving and life-long relationships with partners, but in modern times few commit to having children. Pahtras bear litters of six to eight children and prefer communal child-rearing, which allows parents to retain their individuality and shoulder responsibilities together.
Beliefs
Many pahtras cling fiercely to their ancestral Pulonian traditions in an effort to keep their cultures alive after enduring generations of oppression by the Veskarium. Pulonian culture values personal success and standing out from one's peers and views all existence as a great song, with each person, event, and action adding to the galactic symphony that began at the dawn of time. Most pahtras enjoy healthy and productive competition, believing that one's true potential can emerge only from struggle. Underhandedly sabotaging or blatantly disrespecting a rival who follows the rules of a competition is a grave offense and usually seen as a sign of weakness. Pahtras make an exception to this code when facing a dishonorable foe, such as invaders from the technologically advanced Veskarium. In such cases, any form of resistance is acceptable, and the use of “dirty” tactics is considered a wise counter to a foe's unfair advantages. Many religious pahtras pray to Meyel, an ancestral deity of dance, music, and battle worshipped on Pulonis.
Popular Edicts challenge yourself and your allies, perform music and dance daily, take pride in your accomplishments
Popular Anathema abandon your ancestral traditions, bow to tyrants, give up your identity
Popular Edicts challenge yourself and your allies, perform music and dance daily, take pride in your accomplishments
Popular Anathema abandon your ancestral traditions, bow to tyrants, give up your identity
Sample Names
Cahnex, Dae, Fetenekku, Hafoumei, Ifset, Ihrasara, Jeviish, Khieper, Lealorn, Mahdran, Miiyu, Onharaf, Rishir, Sanna, Tendris, Teoshanhi, Vokuvi, Voyenrel, Zamahaii
Pahtra Mechanics
Hit Points
8
Size
Medium
Speed
25 feet
Attribute Boosts
Charisma, Dexterity, Free
Attribute Flaw
Constitution
Languages
Common
Pahtra
Vesk
Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if it's positive). Choose from the list of common languages and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent on your home world).
Darkvision
You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.