Ijtikri

• Emotionally latch onto a mentor or community, endeavoring to be accepted.
• Adopt stray creatures into your own community, serving as a stern yet affectionate teacher.
• Explore a new object with all your senses, including passing it before your various eyes and crawling atop it for a taste.

• Believe you're fully amphibious and require immersion in water for good health.
• Make assumptions about your personality and abilities based on your shell's appearance.
• Struggle to understand where you're looking or what you're thinking.

Resembling terrestrial squids, ijtikris are intelligent invertebrates native to the warm, shallow seas of Vesk-2. Like a squid, an ijtikri has numerous, short arms and two longer tentacles, using the former like legs for locomotion and the latter to manipulate tools. Both sets of appendages have suckers that provide additional grip, allowing an ijtikri to stand up quickly or even lean almost parallel to the ground and scuttle rapidly without tipping over. Each ijtikri has seven eyes: one on either side of the lower portion of the head, another pair similarly situated on the top of their long head, and three eyes drawing a line between the two sets on the forehead.

Outsiders might be shocked to realize ijtikri settlements consist wholly of adults. That's no mistake; ijtikris undergo holometabolous metamorphosis, taking five different forms over the course of their life. They begin their life as a free-floating, acorn-sized egg that hatches into a wriggling larva that feeds on zooplankton. After roughly quadrupling in size, the larva migrates into shallow water and adheres to a solid surface, spending several years as a sessile filter feeder as they build up reserves of fat and trace minerals. Once ready, the larva hunkers down and pupates, emerging in their adult form with a pristine shell, lungs yearning for air, and barely functioning external gills that fall away shortly after the ijtikri reaches land.

Understandably, these metamorphoses leave little opportunity for childhood education. A newly metamorphosed ijtikri adult must navigate the surface world almost entirely by instinct—and those instincts prioritize finding a community as soon as possible. Guided by a cluster of ganglia called a skenoseen organ, the adult tracks the nearest ijtikri community by smell and other signs. Once welcomed, the newcomer's brain rapidly develops, absorbing every cultural, linguistic, and professional nuance they can from their adoptive family.

Upon maturity, an average ijtikri stands about 5 feet tall and weighs around 120 pounds, with their shell making up roughly a fifth of their mass. Unfortunately, as with the cephalopods they resemble, ijtikris' evolution didn't favor longevity. Ijtikri reproduction is— under natural circumstances—a once-in-a-lifetime event. Ijtikris couple periodically throughout their lives, swapping inert sex cells that they store in their bodies. These cells don't fertilize until the end of the ijtikri's life, when the creature wills their shell to fracture and their body to undergo one last metamorphosis. After several days of absorbing gases and stretching skin, the ijtikri becomes a leviathan—a blimp-like form that drifts with the winds until they're over open water, at which point they burst and scatter fertilized eggs across the ocean. Of course, this act ends the ijtikri's life. Self-sacrifice for future generations is a prominent theme in ijtikri art and literature. That said, by the time the Gap ended, ijtikri scientists had found ways to extract and fertilize eggs safely, allowing parents to procreate, carefully control their young's water quality, and even meet their children. However, these procedures remain uncommon, with most preferring the leviathan's pomp and finality.

Adoption is a core pillar of ijtikri society. The community that adopts a young ijtikri becomes that individual's source of morality, instruction, and belonging. Even if they later leave their community in search of other opportunities, the adoption mindset remains strong; an experienced ijtikri can be quick to take a vulnerable creature under their wing, almost to a fault—anything from signing on a hapless apprentice in the middle of a military campaign to adopting a gaggle of orphaned animals. Socially, ijtikris are just raised to pay it forward to the next generation of whatever wanders their way. Neurologically, the natives of Vesk- 2 seem wired to feel guilty for abandoning orphans and exalt in the dopamine from expanding their own family.

For most day-to-day behaviors, ijtikri society resembles a wet, tropical variant of vesk culture. The community expects hard work until a job is done, followed by extended rest and contemplation. Left to their own devices, ijtikri communities are fairly egalitarian and look to temporary leaders based on seniority and expertise, though the Veskarium's influence has instituted slightly more rigid and predictable hierarchies.

Very few traces of any pre-Veskarium ijtikri culture have survived the millennia since conquest and integration into the vesk empire. Most ijtikris don't seem to mind, as they've become integral and trusted partners in vesk society, and they often don't view themselves as a demographic separate from their vesk neighbors. That said, Drift travel and outside perspectives have awoken some ijtikris' curiosity in their forgotten past. A handful of archaeological projects dot Vesk- 2, dredging up waterlogged ruins, rusting tools, and occasional inscriptions written in forgotten scripts. Each dig includes at least one Veskarium attaché, always wary that archaeologists might unearth something controversial; Vesk Prime can ill afford another Pulonis incident. That said, the finds thus far are innocuous, and ijtikris seem eager to reincorporate these lost traditions and symbols into their predominantly vesk-driven culture. If any harbor more rebellious, archaeology-driven ambitions, they've remained hidden.

In general, ijtikris adopt names from whatever culture they attach themselves to upon becoming adults. Thus, many ijtikris favor vesk names. Ijtikris nevertheless enjoy adding flourishes to their names in the form of siphon-boosted vowels— exaggerated long vowel sounds aspirated by an exhalation from their siphon, giving the name an almost musical quality that most species struggle to replicate.

Stone-Faced Shell

The first nub of an ijtikri's shell develops as they filter feed, a product of biomineralization as they apply laminated layers of protein and calcium carbonate around their mantle. The acidity, quality, and exact mix of trace elements play a major role in the shell's final appearance, with coloration ranging from gray and translucent to spectacular combinations of orange, green, red, and even metallic shades. These same minerals also activate various latent genes, subtly shaping an ijtikri's personality and interests. Like judging another's spoken accent, a worldly ijtikri can determine approximately where a stranger grew up based on their shell coloration. Ijtikris often customize their shells further with carved designs that resemble tattoos and commemorate important deeds, though it's widely considered taboo to modify one's shell color in dramatic ways.

That said, these shells do more than absorb minerals. The oceans of Vesk-2 (as well as many other worlds' waters) carry trace amounts of primal magic that can become trapped within the shell. In some cases, these traces just give the shell an otherworldly shimmer or remarkable stain resistance. In other cases, an ijtikri can excite the trapped magic to cast a cantrip, repel incoming magic, or repair fractures in the shell. Certain effects are most common in particular waterways, yet even two larvae who anchor within each other's reach might develop slightly different patterns and latent magical abilities.

Detaching from one's shell is nearly impossible; blood vessels connect to the shell's innermost layers. The shell even includes sparse nerve endings, letting the ijtikri sense danger or enjoy the occasional back scratch. What's more, the shell stores key minerals that an ijtikri can break down and recycle when malnourished, and a well-fed ijtikri can gradually heal a properly splinted broken shell. Even so, irreparable damage happens. Synthetic prostheses are common fixes for severe fractures. Closely bonded ijtikris sometimes donate parts of their own shells to each other or incorporate a fragment of a deceased friend's shell into their own, creating colorful patchworks that protect an ijtikri for the rest of their life.

Ijtikris greatly value their adoptive communities. This manifests as protectiveness toward their neighbors and the group's social identity and also as whatever internalized values their community considers virtuous. On Vesk-2, where most ijtikris mature, that means respect for authority, appreciation of structured societies, and a love of contact sports (often extending to military service) that befits their place in the Veskarium. However, those who grow up beyond the Veskarium's reach are cultural sponges ready to absorb any other society's values.

Naturally, their home planet also shapes their worship. On Vesk-2, many ijtikris revere the Veskarium's patron, Damoritosh, as well as other paragons of social order like Abadar or even Lissala. Hylax and Talavet resonate with their communal mindset, whereas those who crave novelty beyond their home often rely on Weydan to guide their paths. Four other deities boast noteworthy ijtikri followings that worry the Veskarium. Oras and the Newborn both embody metamorphosis, driving an ijtikri to change, challenge tradition, and become something wholly unique. Meanwhile, Meyel and Besmara fulfill an ijtikri's need for belonging, albeit in a rebellious way.
Popular Edicts honor your adoptive family (or families), shelter and adopt those without a family of their own
Popular Anathema break another's figurative shell without offering a fix, undermine your adoptive family's interests

Bozamn Zorbolo, Clyp Cryndo, Fodan Fano, Ojeni Boga, Selko Gra, Uroubituun, Vodo Zan

8

Medium

Swim 10 feet

Constitution, Wisdom, Free

Charisma

Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if 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 darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.

Your petrified shell shields your most vulnerable anatomy. You gain resistance to precision damage equal to half your level (minimum 1).