Leshy

• Seek to protect areas of natural beauty from pollution or excessive resource extraction.
• Be curious about the way that living beings interact and the emerging cultures and ecosystems that result from interstellar travel.
• Occasionally experience déjà vu or nostalgia tied to lost memories from your past incarnations.

• Assume that you prefer lush natural environments to manufactured ones like starships or supercities.
• Believe you have supernatural insights into the forces of nature or mystical wisdom from your past lives.
• Assume you are tied to the land of your home world and have limited experience with the cultures of other planets.

Leshy bodies are wildly diverse, with each having its own unique combination of substance and shape. They consist of organic material that can come from any plant or fungus and can potentially include material from multiple species. Their shapes tend to mimic those of humanoids or animals that are familiar to the person who performs their creation ritual. As a result, they're likely to superficially resemble creatures from their home world, though those created by intergalactic explorers might instead replicate fauna from faraway planets.

Leshies consider families to be groups brought together by common ideals or goals rather than kinship. As spirits who have taken many physical bodies throughout their numerous lifetimes, they rarely pay heed to superficial features like physical appearance. As such, leshies form communities with people of all ancestries.

There are some correlations between the personalities of leshy spirits and the physical vessels they inhabit. It's impossible to know how much of this connection comes from an inherent tendency of certain vessels to be more hospitable to certain leshy spirits, however, and how much of it comes instead from how people's preconceptions influence both how they treat an individual leshy and how they perceive that leshy's actions. One correlation that seems to hold true is a connection between a leshy's vessel and their gender, with leshies whose bodies correspond to fungi or plants with complex reproduction strategies being more likely have nuanced gender identities. That said, leshies of all types are more likely to be agender or have multiple genders than most sapient species. Leshies with a single gender tend toward the genders that can be found among other sapient ancestries on their home worlds.

Leshies typically maintain a close connection with nature, but their attitudes toward technological development play a significant role in how they choose to live. The leshies who are most averse to technology typically form small settlements in pristine and remote wilderness areas. More tech-friendly leshies tend to live in places that combine modern innovations with flourishing wildlife, such as rural settlements or terraformed cities with ample green spaces. On the most extreme end of the spectrum, some leshies make their homes in personal gardens they plant inside of starships.

Leshies typically follow primal faiths and philosophies connected to the life force of their planets rather than specific deities. They might also venerate natural forces, like the cycle of seasons or the twin stars that illuminate their home world.

Popular Edicts protect nature, connect with all that lives around you, be present in the moment, remember there's a season for growth and a season for reflection
Popular Anathema corrupt or despoil the environment, make snap judgments based on outward appearances

Cascading Rapids, Enduring Gleam of Three Moons, Ksarik's Tendrilsong, Petals in Starlight, Snowy Pine Branch, Verdant Taleweaver

8

Small

Constitution, Wisdom, Free

Intelligence

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).

You can see in dim light as though it were bright light, so you ignore the concealed condition due to dim light.

You gain nourishment in the same way that the plants or fungi that match your body type normally do, through some combination of photosynthesis, absorbing minerals with your roots, or scavenging decaying matter. You typically don't need to pay for food.

If you're photosynthetic, you can absorb energy from natural sunlight or artificial sources like full-spectrum LED lighting. Most starships and settlements have suitable light sources, and flashlights can be modified with LEDs at no cost to replenish your energy with 3 hours of exposure (or 1 hour for a tactical flashlight).