The Runekar

You were born seeing threads that other people can't, the glittering web that holds stone to stone and steel to steel. Your people built the greatest machines the world has known and then broke the world with one of them. Humans have never forgiven you, and you have never quite forgiven them for being so slow.

Description. Runekar are a sapient people with a natural connection to the aetheric arts. Most can perceive and manipulate the threads of the aether, the web that binds reality together, from the day they open their eyes. The few who cannot are shunned by their own kind. Where a human sees a brass gear, a runekar sees the pattern that makes it a gear, and the knot that would make it something else. That gift makes them the finest engineers and aether weavers on the continent, and it made them responsible for the Dark Sunder.

Personality. Runekar are arrogant and see other species as lesser creatures, much as a master clockmaker regards an apprentice who keeps dropping springs. They are patient with problems and impatient with people. Generally speaking, they work for the good of the planet, even when that means working against the people living on it. Runekar tend to fall into three callings: engineers, who keep trying to bind aether to mechanical devices; protectors, who guard the world's natural resources; and academics, who devote their lives to research. A runekar can switch callings over a long life, but rarely changes the habit of being certain.

Physical Description. Runekar are small, standing about 4 feet tall on average, from 3 feet 8 inches to 4 feet 4 inches, and weighing 40 to 75 pounds. They are slender and sharp-featured, and they make up for their size with an unblinking stare that makes taller people feel slow. They have long pointed ears and dark hair worn cropped, shaved at the sides or braided tight against the head. Their most striking feature is around the eyes: fine, glowing lines like threads of the aether web run across the brow and cheekbones, in violet, blue or green, and their eyes are pale and bright. The lines brighten when a runekar works the web. Runekar dress for work rather than show. They favor dark leather, riveted brass plate, and belts hung with tools, gauges and vials of glowing fluid. They reach adulthood at about 80 and can live to 300 or more.

Relations. Humans blame the runekar for the Sunder and resent their condescension, but they still depend on runekar engineering. Runekar work alongside humans in the Tinkerer Guild and treat it as the one place humans are worth teaching. They regard the ashen bond as an insult to the aether, and they hate the malumtene as a reminder of their own worst history. They find the souldriven fascinating, and many runekar privately suspect what they're made of.

Outlook. Runekar believe in order the way an engineer believes in tolerances, and their loyalty runs to the world and the work more than to any nation. They have never stopped thinking of themselves as the oldest and wisest people on the continent, and the malumtene are proof of how far that pride can fall.

Runekar Lands. The runekar have no nation of their own. Most live in Adryae, close to its universities and libraries, or in enclaves along the runekar rail, which their ancestors built and which they still refuse to repair. Protectors keep to wild places that need guarding. Wherever they settle, they keep to themselves.

Religion. Runekar cannot wield flux. Most are skeptical of the Covenant's gods and prefer to trust what they can see in the aether web. A runekar who prays is usually doing it for a human's benefit.

Language. Runekar speak Common and their own language, Runic, a precise tongue full of technical terms that has a word for every kind of knot in the web. Runic script is used in aetheric inscriptions across the continent, which is why human engineers learn to read it badly.

Names. A runekar has a single given name, and adds the name of a mentor or great work when formality demands it. Male names: Aremmeth, Calmryl, Etharoen, Fintirrath, Firostyll, Flostindil, Oltethuran, Sethren. Female names: Aleiryn, Arellara, Eilaeryl, Fhaerellyn, Kyllynna, Niphraen, Sirielwin, Telilira.

History. During a dark period in runekar history, a small group tried to wipe out every other species to purify the world. Those who practiced destructive magic were shunned and, over generations, twisted into the malumtene. Later, the runekar joined in a monumental effort to build a teleportation network that would carry travelers instantly across the land. The first trial, near what is now Ashborne City, tore through dimensions and caused the Dark Sunder. In apology, the runekar built the rail, a floating track linking every major city on the continent, and many died building it. It was meant to be free to everyone, a way to unite the peoples the Sunder had divided, but the nations and the Sovereigni soon took control of it, charged fares and checked papers. When the nations turned the trains into troop transports during the War of Souls, the runekar swore off any more work on the system. They still refuse to teach anyone how it works.

Adventurers. Runekar adventure to study artifacts, recover lost engineering, protect a threatened place, or make amends for their people's mistakes. Some simply find that the most interesting problems are the ones other people are trying to kill them over.

• +2 Intelligence, –2 Strength. Runekar have keen, analytical minds, but their small frames can't match a human's strength.

• Small: As a Small creature, a runekar gains a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks, but must use smaller weapons than humans use, and their lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of a Medium character.

• Runekar base land speed is 20 feet.

• Low-light vision: A runekar can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight and similar conditions of poor illumination, and retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.

• Aether Sight (Su): A runekar can see the aether web. As a standard action, a runekar can study the web around them, gaining the effects of detect magic for as long as they concentrate, up to 1 minute per character level. There is no limit on how often a runekar can use this ability. Aether Sight also reveals where the web has been altered by aetheric manipulation (transmutation, conjuration and illusion effects that affect matter), though not what the alteration does.

• Thread-Pulling (Sp): A runekar with an Intelligence score of at least 10 can use mage hand, mending and prestidigitation once per day each, as a 1st-level caster. Prestidigitation can't heal, harm or affect living tissue in any way, since the aether can't. The save DC, if any, is 10 + spell level + the runekar's Intelligence modifier.

• Web-Wise: +2 racial bonus on saving throws against illusions. A runekar sees the threads behind a false image, and is never fooled for long.

• Tinker's Hands: +2 racial bonus on Craft (alchemy), Craft (engineering) and Disable Device checks. Runekar grow up taking things apart. See Craft (engineering) below.

• Aetheric Scholar: +2 racial bonus on Spellcraft checks.

• Weapon Familiarity: Runekar are automatically proficient with the light crossbow and heavy crossbow, and treat light and heavy repeating crossbows as martial rather than exotic weapons. Runekar engineers designed the repeating mechanism, and they won't let anyone forget it.

• Blind to Flux: A runekar cannot use flux. They can never cast divine spells from any source, and can never take levels in votary or warden, or in any prestige class that requires divine spellcasting. A runekar ranger never gains spellcasting. A runekar can still receive divine healing and other beneficial divine spells from others.

• Proud: –2 racial penalty on Diplomacy and Gather Information checks made with anyone other than a runekar. Runekar condescension is hard to hide, and harder to forgive.

• Automatic Languages: Common and Runic. Bonus Languages: Any (other than secret languages). Runekar are scholars and pick up languages easily.

• Favored Class: Aetherian. A multiclass runekar's aetherian class does not count when determining whether they take an experience point penalty for multiclassing.

• Level Adjustment: +0.

A few runekar are born unable to see the aether at all. Their own people shun them, and many leave to live among humans, where nobody notices what they're missing. A webblind runekar loses Aether Sight, Thread-Pulling and Aetheric Scholar, and gains the following instead.

• Untouched by the Web (Ex): +2 racial bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities. Aetheric manipulation finds little to hold on to in a mind that never learned to see it.

• Hands Without Threads: The racial bonus from Tinker's Hands increases to +4. Unable to see the pattern, a webblind runekar learns the mechanism by touch.

A webblind runekar takes no penalty from Proud when dealing with humans, who can't tell the difference. Other runekar can tell at a glance, and the penalty with them increases to –4.

Craft (engineering) is an Eldriloch Craft skill for building and repairing mechanisms: locks, gears, springs, gauges, firearm actions, mechanoid parts and the brass housings that hold fibrolite. It follows the normal Craft rules for making items. The table gives typical DCs for repairs and for understanding a device you haven't seen before.

Working on any device that holds fibrolite also requires the character to see the aether web, through Aether Sight or a detect magic effect, or the DC increases by 5. Building a mechanoid or a souldriven requires item creation feats as well and is beyond the scope of this skill.

Engineered Familiar

Prerequisite: Runekar, ability to acquire a familiar, Craft (engineering) 4 ranks.

Benefit: Your familiar is a mechanical copy of a normal familiar animal, built of brass and powered by a chip of fibrolite. It has the same statistics and gains the same familiar abilities, but it doesn't need to eat, sleep or breathe, and it is immune to poison and disease. Healing spells don't affect it. Instead, mending repairs 1d4 points of damage to it, make whole repairs all damage, and an hour's work and a DC 15 Craft (engineering) check repairs damage equal to your ranks in the skill.

Special: If your engineered familiar is destroyed, you can rebuild it in one week at a cost of 200 gl × your class level, and you don't lose experience points for its loss.

Engineer's Eye

Prerequisite: Runekar, Int 13.

Benefit: You can take 10 on Craft and Disable Device checks even when rushed or threatened. You gain a +2 bonus on Search checks to find traps, hidden mechanisms and secret doors that open by a mechanism.

Fibrolite Artisan

Prerequisite: Runekar, Craft Wondrous Item or Craft Construct.

Benefit: When you create a wondrous item or a construct, the glim and XP costs are reduced by 10%. Runekar know how to store a pattern in fibrolite without wasting any of it.

Greater Thread-Pulling

Prerequisite: Runekar, Int 13, character level 3rd, Thread-Pulling racial trait.

Benefit: Add grease and make whole to your Thread-Pulling spell-like abilities, usable once per day each. Your caster level for all your Thread-Pulling abilities equals your character level.

Lasting Weave

Prerequisite: Runekar, Int 13, ability to cast 1st-level arcane spells.

Benefit: Three times per day, when you cast an arcane transmutation or conjuration (creation) spell, you can apply the Extend Spell feat to it without increasing its level or casting time. You tie off the threads of the web so they hold their new shape longer.

Rune-Etched Bolts

Prerequisite: Runekar, Craft (engineering) 4 ranks, proficiency with any crossbow.

Benefit: With an hour's work and 5 gl of brass and fibrolite dust per bolt, you can etch up to 10 crossbow bolts with aetheric runes. Etched bolts count as magic weapons for overcoming damage reduction. The runes fade after 24 hours, or as soon as the bolt is fired.

Thread Weaver

Prerequisite: Runekar, Aether Sight racial trait, ability to cast arcane spells.

Benefit: Your caster level for arcane transmutation spells increases by 1.

Unraveler

Prerequisite: Runekar, Aether Sight racial trait, ability to cast dispel magic.

Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on dispel checks. When you successfully dispel an effect, you learn its school and the caster level of the effect.

Choosing a Class. The aetherian is the obvious choice, and the runekar's favored class. Scholar aetherians use Intelligence, which also powers the runekar's own talents. Natural aetherians work the web by instinct and are common among protectors. Runekar also make the best engineers and fleshgrafters. Runners make the most of Tinker's Hands and Disable Device. Fighters and rangers who take up the repeating crossbow make deadly marksmen. Entertainers are rare, since runekar consider performing beneath them, which is exactly why nobody suspects a runekar entertainer. Divine classes are closed to runekar.

Working the Web. In Eldriloch, arcane magic is aetheric manipulation. Describe your spells as threads being pulled and re-tied, not as words and gestures. The aether can change matter but not living tissue, so transmutation and conjuration (creation) suit a runekar best. Ask the Game Master which arcane spells fit the aether's limits. See The Two Magics.

The Engineer's Life. Put ranks in Craft (engineering) even if you never plan to build anything. A runekar who can't fix a lock is a curiosity. Carry tools. Take things apart. When the party finds a mechanoid, a draisine or a nib, you're the one everyone looks at.

Roleplaying Pride. The Proud penalty is real, but it's also an invitation. A runekar who has learned to respect one human, and only one, is a better character than one who sneers at everyone. Decide who that person is.