Urban Fantasy: The Witch-Breeds

There's a lot of critters out there that don't really fit any categories. Attempting to categorize everything is a fruitless endeavor. However, this is Halloween so we'll have to talk about witches. But not the 'neo pagan fruitcakes' or the 'hot goth chick' style of witch. No, these are weirdos at worst and mortal spellcasters at best. Depraved or evil as some may be they retain their humanity.

Some spellcasters don't. And some become monsters long before they even learn the simplest trick.

The Witch-Breeds

There are many promises in magic: power and immortality tend to come up a whole lot due to basic human fear and needs. Supernatural powers, when acquired by mortals, always come at a price and some are more terrible than others. In certain era, where knowledge was rare and limited (or restrained), the more researched forms of magic remained beyond the reach of most individuals. In modern times, the same primordial urges and darkness remain and sometimes, even when readily available, the 'slow path' to power can be seen as not being enough. There is always greater sacrifice to be made. There is always more to offer to dark and chtonic powers if it mean more secrets revealed in less time. And then there are others who simply never know of another path, whose own wickedness and ambitions damn them so quickly they never find out about other means and paths to power.

These are the creatures which myths and folklore have recorded as Roogaroo, Obayifo, Soucouyant, Pricolici, Strega and Tlalicque. They are the witches and ogres which eat children.

Art by Larry Wilson.

Witch-Breed is a loose term to refer to a magical being which are similar in nature to Bogeymen, albeit one of human origin. They straddle the line between mortal, bogeyman, cryptid, demon and more but are none of these. Some vague power or cursed tied to primordial and terrifying things of the dark have imbued and transformed them into the evil witches of folklore, the type who look like hags with green skin covered in warts and eat children. They are monsters born of the meeting point between wickedness and the knowledge/desire for supernatural powers. They are evil and cursed beings, stunted in true arcane might but swollen with minor and dreadful abilities which make them the bane of ordinary folks. Like bogeymen they live in the shadows and are elusive even to modern technology.

In modern society, one would think that such beings have no place. This is untrue, in fact they have never flourished more! We live in an era where parents are deathly afraid of letting their children interact with strangers. We are hyper connected yet increasingly alienated from others. We love to paint ourselves as open-minded people, tolerant of what is different yet...how many of us have recoiled when they met an ugly old man or woman clearly suffering from some mental illness, muttering to themselves and reeking of alcohol? Or perhaps we've been scared of an unusually tall and broad man, with a misshapen face and scraggly beard, thinking he might be some violent brute. 

In most cases there are people like any other and we let out prejudice get in the way. But at the corner of our vision or in the shadows lurk creatures feeding off our mundane fear and spite. Many of them are hidden behind veils and illusions and we never know we've met them. Their magic is weak and flawed but its enough to foil people long enough to trick them. That they often resemble the dregs of our society, the mentally ill, the ugly, the outcasts and the poor is a useful trick for them. Many poor innocents have been framed as the killer when in reality, Jack the Hobo was the only one who saw that little girl being taken by the old lady with the monstrous shadow of a horned giant with the barbed tongue. He tried to help but it was too late. The old hag snatched the child and went down the sewers, leaving poor old man Jack with a bloody arm. There was no other evidence and he was condemned to death for the murder of that little girl. Such tragedies repeat themselves time and time again...

Modern Wicked Witches and Ogres

This is the archetype the Witch Breeds embodies. They are the wicked, warty children-eating witches and villainous kidnapping ogres of the modern era. Their origin, however, hints at the potential flaws in one's quest for arcane power, as Witch Breeds are either failed magicians who were weak and, in their craving for power, sacrifice too much for too little or they are those who never even considered the greater cosmic power (or weren't even aware of it!) and went straight to the part where their humanity is sacrificed. Some people are wicked and jealous and sometimes they might even attract equally vile patrons who care not that the bargain is inherently flawed and destructive.

Common Witch-Breed Abilities

Beyond their connection to the dark corners of the world and the human mind, as well as magic, few of these creatures share much in common. Their abilities are a wide and disparate lot and their unpredictability make up for their otherwise lack in truly powerful magic. These are not monsters which fight openly, preferring trickery and corruption most of the time.

Flawed Glamour

Most, if not all Witch-Breed end up twisted from a mixture of their inner darkness, the evil source of their powers or simply age. These creatures very commonly age more quickly yet also live longer than any human should and the more they age the worst they get as their bodies both break down yet also warp and twist. Skin become unnatural colors, nails grow thick and dirty, teeth lengthen while others rot and fall off. Eyes become swollen and bloody or clouded by cataracts yet somehow still see in pitch darkness. For others it is a subtle wrongness such as a creepy glare, a monstrous shadow or a foul smell. Their twisted from can be clouded with a simple Glamour at will but there is always a flaw to it.

D6	Flawed Glamour
1	The Witch-Breed’s human appearance is purely an illusion rather than a mixture of biological transformation and supernatural illusion and as such will appear distorted or even in their true form when viewed through other means (such as a mirror, a camera or cell phone). Note that, when it comes to recording devices they might still be able to have powers which negate/corrupt the recording, in which case it will only appear in its true form through ‘live’ footage from the device itself.
2	The creature’s true form can be exposed if it is touched by a specific category of people, such as men, women or children. Alternatively, this category could be ‘a legally recognized holy man/woman’ such a priest, a nun or a rabbi for example.  If touched by such an individual the Witch-Breed must immediately make a saving throw or temporarily (or until the end of the scene, depending on the creature) lose its disguise. Even if the effect is temporary, lasting a mere few seconds, it is enough to reveal it to be a hideous monster.
3	Specific materials or objects repel the creature and weaken its disguised. If touched by a specific material, such as salt, silver or iron, for example, the creature must immediately make a saving throw or recoil in pain/fear and temporarily lose its disguise. Even if the effect is temporary, lasting a mere few seconds, it is enough to reveal it to be a hideous monster.
4	The creature’s disguise is flawless...against human. Animals, on the other hand, always sense that something is wrong and will become agitated. Particularly large animals, such as a large dog, will become enraged and even vicious an attack the creature.
5	The disguise is seemingly flawless, safe for a telltale sign which is blatantly unnatural, such as causing milk to curdle in its presence or for its shadow to be that of its monstrous true form. Those who know what signs to look for can identity the creature for what it truly is.
6	The creature’s disguise cannot be used once the sun has set and it will always revert to its true form under the cover of the night. In some cases, such creatures might even be unaware of their monstrous form and live a double life.

Lesser Witchery

Providing an exact and complete list of powers such creatures can have is pointless. However, generally speaking the powers of Witch-Breed are weaker than high level spells and generally quite specific and situational. Most of them also Commit Effort for the day rather than scene.

• Animal Form: The Witch-Breed Commit Effort for the day and assume the form of an animal. Generally it is very likely this form is limited to a single creature type and requires some ritual/has some very specific drawback to assume this form or to revert from it.
• Lure Child: The Witch Breed Commit Effort for the day, select a child it has some view of and spend a minute enacting a ritual. At the end of the ritual the child is put into a daze and is compelled to trust the Witch-Breed. This power obviously can be modified to fit another category of people.
• Open The Path: The Witch-Breed Commit Effort for the day, selects a building and takes a full minute to enact whatever ritual she need. After the full minute of casting is complete, it can now walk through the walls of said building until the next sunrise.

Most Witch-Breeds are fairly average monsters in the 2 to 6 HD range, albeit with potentially an higher-than-their-HD's-average amount of Effort to fuel their abilities. Some of them are able to cast spells up to the 2nd level and usually know a number of spell equal to half their HD.

Godbound: Necrotitans In Ancalia

Continuing the theme of horror in October, some unique undead monstrosities to haunt Ancalia. A few of them are semi-identical monstrosities, close enough in appearance and behavior to warrant the same stat line while others are truly unique abominations. This is a part of an old post which I'd forgotten to finish before moving on to more generic Undead.

Necrotitans

At least three of these things have been sighted in Ancalia: away from cities, for now, fortunately. Their passage across the land is more noticeable than their surprisingly elusive actions. Each of these creatures is a monstrous undead giant, warped far beyond the size and shape of any ordinary human. They wander around, away from other Husk swarms, leaving behind gigantic footprint, collapsed bridges and destroyed ruins as they lumber from location to location.

• The Leviathan of Anderaccha: Rarely seen up close, the Leviathan appears to be a massive and bloated creature of slimy, clammy grey fused flesh that wanders in circles in the Anderaccha Lowlands. It frequently goes back into the Bay of Gojeb, which explain the barnacle and other sea life which is encrusting itself in its hide. Those who observe the creature up close will confirm that it is vaguely humanoid, but walking on all four due to it's bent shape. It's fingers are whole human torso and it's 'head' is made of a thousand fused jaws. It's motives are utterly unknown but it will attack anything it perceive as a threat.
• The Knight of the Tower: Formerly an Ancalian Knight of the Tilahun bloodline, the Knight of the Tower is a fallen hero driven mad by grief and despair which, rumors say, went to look for a cure to the Hollowing Plague in the dark corners of the world. Whatever happened, he is now a gigantic Energumen whose innate gift of great size and strength have become twisted even more in death. Seventeen feet tall but wiry, he is a creature of fused bone, metal and stone which carries a gigantic cleaver, it's face hidden behind its old helmet. The Knight goes around murdering specific people for reasons unknown, perhaps as part of some dark curse or covenant or as some mad attempt at curing the plague. He is the most intelligent and tactical of all the Necrotitans.
• The Plagued Matron: A hideous, corpulent abomination which was once a woman.  Monstrously swollen, obese and constantly growing new boils the size of a man's head. The Plague Matron is a monstrous giant undead with a strange desire to collect children as it move around Ancalia. As the smallest of the Necrotitans, a mere twelve feet, she is capable of surprising stealth, possibly through some miracle. She cannot speak and is mostly insane but, somehow, this creature can perceive children affected by the plague and seek them out...and eat them, crying and weeping as she does so.  She's been known to destroy entire settlements if their population of infected children reach critical mass, turning into a horrific beacon for the creature.
• There are rumors of a fourth, fifth and maybe even sixth Necrotitans going around Ancalia in the past two or three years. Their whereabouts, origin and nature is currently unknown. Only signs of their existence being sightings, hearsay and villages devastated by what appears to be a massive creature leaving vaguely human-like footprints of enormous size. Each description of the monsters, glimpse on the horizon, differ greatly. It is unclear if the creature's form is changing or if they are indeed different monstrosities.

Necrotitans are monsters with a range of HD between 13 and 18 HD. They have all abilities and traits of Ancalian Husks and their physical might is such that they count as having Bound the Words of Might and Endurance. In practice they never really create over miracles, preferring to use the power of their Word to display god-shaking might and an indestructible nature or to overcome the physical prowess of their enemies (usually a transhuman Ancalian Knight who will quickly regret trying to stop the monster!) with raw unholy size and bulk. Their movements are extremely slow and their AC tend to be low, however.

Tellus: On Geomancy And Planes

There have been many, many allusions so far in the writing for Tellus about 'elemental energies' and 'geomancy'. This may need some explaining, even if the idea is hardly original. The world of Tellus, this Planet (capital P) is a living and highly magical thing, as one would expect from a setting so steeped in drawing inspiration from the major JRPG franchises, especially Final Fantasy.

No True Outer Planes, But A Lot Of Odd Locales

Macalania Woods from FFX.

Tellus generally lacks Outer Planes of other settings. If there exist other realities, they are abstract. The Ethereal Plane, Plane of Shadow and Astral Plane exist because D&D spells are tied to their function but they aren't a distinct reality so much as another state of being/matter. The domain of deities and the eternal cycle of life and death are places no mortal can truly claim to have found. They are not places one can just teleport to.

Instead, since Tellus draws heavily upon JRPG it relies on specific locales where magical energies are (for whatever reason) naturally stronger and/or where they converge. There's a bit of a joke that JRPG have a bad habit (even today) of falling back on a very videogame-ey concept of 'the fire dungeon' and 'the ice dungeon'. This is mocked in the Grand List of Console RPG Clichés at number nine: "There's always a fire dungeon, an ice dungeon, a sewer maze, a misty forest, a derelict ghost ship, a mine, a glowing crystal maze, an ancient temple full of traps, a magic floating castle, and a technological dungeon." On Tellus, these areas are an expected part of the natural order. Some areas are naturally more attuned and imbued with raw elemental energies, creating some locales which would be wild and fantastical in other worlds. On Tellus they are relatively commonplace, even if their number is dwindling over time.

Harvesting Geomantic Locales

These Geomantic Locales are very similar in concept the Manifest Zones of Eberron: they are static locales which are known to be used by people to craft wonders of magic which are not found elsewhere. It is very common for settlements to have been built on weak Geomantic locales for the small benefit they bring and these are commonly integrated into the design of the town: giant trees are hollowed out and made into homes, a natural font of molten lava is turned into a great forge or the place where the energies of water and fire meet is used to harness steam-based technology.

There is a danger to the more potent locations: being a nexus of powerful energy makes them the natural home to creatures which, while not necessarily evil, are likely to be extremely hostile to anything that isn't native to the area. Many of these locales were once tamed and controlled by ancient civilizations but the march of history hasn't been kind to civilization and now many of these advanced magic acropolis have become nothing but twisted dungeons filled with monsters. How convenient.

Tellus: Character Concepts (Ulma Variants and Moon Folks Redux)

By default, the four major races available to players on Tellus are Ulma (Humans), Dragon Clans (Dragonborn), Sky-Folks (Siren) and Gigas (Firbolg and Goliath) with the possible fifth being the Moon Folks (originally Eladrin, but more on that in a bit...), who current write up predates the current version of that setting. Some groups of Ulma, while technically 'human' can exist having the stat blocks of other races. One thing with Tellus is that, beyond the basic core assumptions nothing is properly 'canon' until I run a game.

Moonfolks and Daeva (Aasimars)

Taking cues from D&D 4e and Vedic mythologies, the Daeva is a suitable replacement for the Aasimar stat block. Not so much the descendants of Celestials as a form of true Celestials themselves (albeit mortal), the Daeva work well with the many concepts highlighted in the last post, where Ulma are sometimes born touched by Divine powers or possibly reincarnations of great celestial souls.

Remember the Moon Folks and how sometimes a Moon Folk is born to a human? Well, forget the part where I said those were Eladrin: Moon Folks are now a sub type of Aasimar. These are a stable population of aloof Daeva-like beings who nearly always reincarnate in their celestial abode on the moon rather than being a form of Bodhisattva-like beings. The two, nonetheless, are higher souls with a strong inclination toward White Magic and extremely long lifespan. Of course, if there ever was a race of token oh-so-pure good guys who would produce an edgy bastard with delusion of Godhood and Justice it would be Daeva...

Mutated Ulma

Mera may not be very 'anime' but
she's still an example of 'pretty fish people'.

The vast majority of Ulma are of the basic, unmodified stock and only distinct among each others via variations in phenotype which don't really change much. Southerners, for example, tend to have darker skin and some groups have enough Dragon Clan blood to have more reddish hue to their hair and eyes or have slightly larger builds but these are still baseline Ulma. Having spread over Tellus for centuries, if not millennia by now, some of the Ulm have deviated from their original stock through exposure to the planet's energies or through contact with the beings native to the world. These races are human in ancestry and nature but they are physically and mentally distinct enough to be considered a separate race. Most of them are limited to a single population living in a specific area whose geomantic energies have infused the people more deeply.

• Dwarves, if they exist on Tellus, would be fairly similar to the stock D&D race. They would descend from ancient clans of hardy miners and metal smiths and indeed would have inspired the early development of the Sheradil Empire's technology. These Dwarves would be similar to the D&D race but have human-like lifespan. Indeed, Dwarves could be seen as almost an exaggeration of the best and worst Ulma traits, when compared to the other races: proud, industrious but also fearsome and war-like.
• Gnomes stats may be appropriate to the bizarre and stunted people of the chaotic land of Ysmin. The people there aren't really normal Ulma anymore by any stretch of the imagination, having become odd, small gnomish beings. They never seem to quite fully develop to adult size while paradoxically also appearing quite aged, leaving them as short and stunted weirdos with bulbous noses, busy eyebrows and crazy hair. Weird stuff.
• Triton are unique in that they are the only fully aquatic Ulma. Interestingly, they claim to not be Ulma and their own race in spite of looking just like Ulma but with gills and (usually) blue or green hair. They also don't lay eggs, birthing live young as all Ulma do. Even more puzzling, they seemingly do appear in the oldest records of the Sky-Folks suggesting they existed before modern Ulma. In addition, unlike baseline Ulma they can be Sorcerers.

Tellus: Character Concepts (Ulma)

Just me throwing around some crude characters ideas (for my JRPG-inspired setting) made up of one or two sentences so my potential players can use them. It might also double as NPC ideas, who knows? Many of these are taken from the excellent blog Middle Finger of Vecna.

Ulma

The term Ulma is fancy-pretentious-alternate-name for the 'Human' of Tellus. They fill the same setting niche as human in other settings. However, it isn't impossible to introduce rare variants of Ulm which are functionally another D&D race. These individuals tend to belong to a single clan or small nation and have become changed by exposure to magic. On the whole, Ulma are an ambitious lot and capable of producing great heroes and horrific villains in equal measures. They are the least innately magical race but that has never stopped them from producing many arch mages through sheer pluck and ingenuity. Visually most Ulma exist in this weird artistic style of looking indistinctly neither Asian nor Caucasian, as is often the case with JRPG characters but there are other tribes and nations which look different. They also take many of the ideas and concepts associated with Dwarves, such as clans and giant cities carved in stone. They, likewise, are the most technologically advanced race and have begun developing devices we would associate with 'magitek' or 'steampunk'.

Arcane Spellcasters

Etrian Odyssey Harbinger, aka
a good style for a JRPG-styled Warlock.

While Ulma are the least innately magical race, this hasn't remotely stopped them in attempting to master all forms of magic and inventing quite a few more in the process. Being the most common race also help in ensuring Ulma spellcasters remain plentiful, even if truly powerful individuals remain quite rare. The vast majority of Ulm spellcasters belong to the Black Mage or White Mage class. These are examples which deviate from this norm. These tend to be Bards or Wizards, as Sorcerer are nearly completely unheard of in Ulma barring the truly rare and unusual individual.

Wizards

The arts of the Wizards have developed alongside (or aside) from the modern Black Mages. Their magic is a tad more complex and unusual as it draws upon disparate sides and energies of magic. Many of their techniques and spells have since been absorbed by the standard Black Mage class in the modern age, leaving the more unusual Wizards to be seen as strange orthodox techniques passed down through a mentor and student relationship. Other Wizards are unusual because they come from rare and bizarre cultures.

• Each of the once-core Arcane Traditions of the Player Handbook could be chosen, with the player character and heir to this decayed and half-lost tradition. Potentially this could even make their form of magic nearly unique and at the heavy risk of being lost forever.
• In fact, Universalists are quite likely to be the more common type of Wizard, even if they are more likely to be found in exotic lands.
• War Magic is a new style developed by the many military schools of the Sheradil Empire. It fully embrace the idea of magic-as-weapon. They are likely to be distrusted and any defector will be hunted down and captured as to not spill the secrets of this new tradition.
• You are a Tattoo Mage, member of an exotic culture called the Chiwel. You were heavily influenced by the colorful markings found on the body of the Dragon Clan people, both natural and unnatural. Your odd bodily markings mark you as a foreigner wherever you go.
• You are a Chaos Mage (Kobold Press Chaos Magic) of the tradition of the School of Chaos. As a native of the bizarre land of Ysmin, you live in a particularly unstable region charged with unusually high amount of random energy. You are wacky, bizarre and probably a comic relief.

Warlock

Just because innate magical affinity is rare and set a birth doesn't mean there aren't other ways of obtaining power. The Warlock is just that. In-universe, most Warlocks are generally unique due to the nature of their pact.

• In a moment of despair you forged an Fiend Pact with a powerful Fiend. This experience has likely horribly scarred you (physically or mentally) and made you really, really edgy. You probably dress in all black and red! That said, odds are you aren't evil. Just mopey. Any kind soul might even manage to help you turn your powers toward the forces of good.
• The Hexblade is a suitable alternative to a Fiendish Pact but the details remain mostly the same. Alternatively, you are a Hexblade because you have bonded with some ancient cursed weapon from the distant past. This weapon isn't so much as a physical object as some metaphysical curse.
• Japan is generally less bothered by gambling, thus a Lady Luck Warlock is well suited to the setting as some dashing rogue with unusual luck. Backstory may or may not be irrelevant.
• Your Patron is a Feline Spirit and this has left its mark on you, complete with cat ears! Yes, its stupid. I know.

Other Options

Then there are some even more oddball cases:

• The Eldritch Knight, Arcane Trickster and Arcane Archer (cut from its Elven association) are all example of a magically-gifted character who turn his or her skills toward wielding magic in a way which complement their fighting style. Overall 'magic knights' are fairly common in JRPG.
• An alternate Hexblade from Vecna's Middle Finger also works as does their take on the Magus. They also have a Spellthief which is a valid archetype in its own right.

Divine-Aligned Characters

Paladin from Final Fantasy
Tactics Advance.

The faiths of Tellus are deliberately vague, given that most JRPG tend to either go into too much depth (because of plot relevance) or not enough depth (because its not relevant and they just want something vaguely like a D&D Cleric around) when it come to established and fleshed out religion. The general assumption is that, in addition to the lifestream-esque Animism and the Taoist aspects of duality implied by the magic system, there are Gods but they are not an active force. Gods, at least the way I see it right now, are an abstract force and made up of archetypal beings/forces within the natural magical energies of all living things. Thus Cleric and their ilk exist but at no point will a God pop into existence to solve a plot. That said, Ulma, as the main civilization in the current era of Tellus, provide many opportunities for characters with a religious background. It can be assumed most deities worshiped by the Ulma are of the usual stuff you'd expect to be praising: Gods of healing, protection, the light and all that stuff.

Cleric

Clerics are not ordinary priests but rather people with a stronger connection to these ill-defined archetypes which exist within the magical energies of all things. In addition to White Mages, they tend to form the spell casting elite of whatever local faith exist. Some are humble and pious individuals while others are self-serving dickheads. In general, the Gods have no direct power over their Clerics. A good example of a Cleric-like player character would be Yuna from FFX. She's well meaning and self-sacrificing...despite not even realizing the darker truths of her faith. Another good example would be Agnes Oblige from Bravely Default.

• Your character is a shrine maiden, taking cues from Shinto beliefs. An inciting event is what drags your character into action, possibly against her will. This is the kind of character well suited to be 'the childhood friend' to someone else. Life or Light are suitable domain.
• You are a  Water-Keeper, a member of southern sects dedicated to the preservation of life and water. Born in the harsh desert environments of southern lands, you wield the powers of the Water domain. What was the inciting event/backstory element which made you travel from your homeland?
• An alternative/addition to the concept of the Water-Keeper is that you are an Elemental Priest, dedicated to one of the four Elements. Such power is generally associated with Black Magic but you are neither evil nor destructive: instead you harness the constructive and transformation aspects of each Element. Your magic is quite rare and poorly understood by the main civilizations of the world.

Other Divine Options

Not every Divinely-touched character is of the Cleric class. Some are even not directly empowered by divine energies so much as driven by Faith alone.

• Your character is a Sin-Eater Paladin and his class would likely be listed as a 'shinigami' in the game menus. The odds of you being a gloomy, misunderstood androgynous emo are relatively high but none can call you selfish. Your mission is to purify souls so they pass on and don't become fiends.
• Deeply driven by your faith, you fear that too many individuals abuse the sacred powers of magic and see it as nothing but a tool. Lacking any magic yourself, you have trained in the way of the Spellbreaker. Balance must be restored. Magic and faith are so much more than the tools of tyrants!
• As a Celestial Pact Warlock, your patron is a being associated with the (hopefully more positive sides of) the Light side of magic. You yourself lacked a proper connection to magic but nonetheless, faith, pluck and a desire to do good have imbued you with powers.
• As a Divine Soul Sorcerer you are an extremely rare being touched with a level of innate power very few, if any Ulma, naturally has. It is likely you bear some fancy mark, such as silver hair or something like that. Whatever the true origin of your power is, its bound to be linked to some major event. It is recommended to pick Good or Law as your Affinity.

In general, people with a connection to the Divine are rare. Even more rare than the one-in-several-hundred magically gifted individuals. Usually each major region will only see a few divinely-touched individuals per generation, of which most never have the potential to get past 1st or 2nd level in overall power. This has left the ranks of many churches and sects filled more with White Mages than proper Clerics. Some of the more exotic Divine Casters, such as Divine Souls, are believed to be tied to very specific cosmic events ill-understood by mortals or even be the reincarnation of ancient heroes and saints.

There are rare and ancient bloodlines which produce a much higher-than-average level of divinely-attuned individuals. Many of these can be traced back to ancient heroes and mighty kings. Several of these even predate the emergence of Ulma and were once Sky-Folks or members of long-lost races unknown to modern historians. Since Ulma can cross-breed with Sky Folks, these bloodlines may have some ancient and latent blessings beyond modern magical and scientific understanding. In time of great need, perhaps they act some sort of vessel to these ancient souls.

Eastern Flavor

Etrian Odyssey Ronin.

Wutai Rule: Most RPGs, no matter what their mythology, include a land based on ancient Japan. Full of pagodas, shrines, shoguns, kitsune, and sushi, this completely anachronistic place is the source of the entire world's supply of ninja and samurai characters.

-The Grand List of Console Roleplaying Game Cliches

Just about every JRPG out there, at least those from the NES to PS1 era had a tendency to feature ninjas and samurai no matter how heavily the setting was ripped straight out of Dungeons & Dragons. This, of course, make sense: these games were made in Japan. Not only that but Asian pop culture as a whole is replete with wandering swordsmen (be they heroes of Wuxia from Chinese novels or Ronin roaming Feudal Japan), spellcasters and assassins. Oh and monks who know kung fu.

• You are an exiled warrior or prince from some faraway Eastern land. Alternatively you are some morally dubious mercenary who is slightly older than the rest of the party (but still 'the old man' even if you're barely scratching forty!). Either way, you are a Samurai and most of the fanbase will think you're cool.
• Do I need to point out the entire Monk class?!