Novian
Source Galactic Ancestries pg. 156
Novians are miniature suns—tiny flying motes of superheated plasma and flame, born from the death of a star. Incredibly dense despite their size, novians emit a powerful gravitational field, enabling them to move and manipulate objects and exert their force on others.
The life cycle of a star is measured in millions or trillions of years, inconceivably long yet limited nonetheless. When a star dies, it shapes systems and alters worlds. Sometimes they die slowly and release puffs of gas and dust known as nebulae while collapsing into white dwarf stars. Other times, they die suddenly in powerful explosions known as supernovas, blasting gas, plasma, and energy out in all directions as they collapse to form neutron stars or black holes. Regardless of the star, its classification, or its death throes, these dying stars release energy into the Universe. From among this mass of stellar ejecta, a handful of fragments develop sentience, becoming novians. Newly born novians drift agelessly through space, slumbering in stasis until they encounter foreign sensory stimuli, such as other creatures, technology, magic, danger, or stellar objects. They awaken as fully formed, mature novians—intrinsically capable of flight, speech, and complex reasoning.
Novians are bombastic narcissists who live for a millennium. They're proud and self-centered, with overinflated egos and plenty of attitude. Yet, they're also fun to be around, creative, exuberant, and entertaining. They thrive in the spotlight and take joy in storytelling, sports, and competition—particularly in tests of strength and mettle, where they can publicly show off their might. Novians consider themselves fearsome, powerful beings, and they're so long lived as to be beyond many mortal concerns. Cultural traditions and timekeeping are particularly challenging concepts for them to grasp. They're boastful and stubborn, often throwing insults and issuing challenges as much as they engage in conversation. They take pride in sharing tales of their hard-earned accomplishments, forging a legacy with every story, speech, and victory. While some novians unintentionally cross the line into being bullies, their efforts to intimidate are usually foiled by their tiny size and high-pitched voice, which make them seem more amusing than horrifying.
While novians enjoy being respected and pampered, they quickly grow bored of dotage, for it's the thrill of competition and striving for recognition that brings a novian true joy. Most novians have little interest in fame or riches and instead value experiences and relationships. They tend to find silent, isolated places comforting, with a few weeks drifting in the void of space akin to being pampered at a luxurious spa. Yet, at their heart, novians are gregarious and inevitably find themselves drawn back into the company of others.
If you want to play an egotistical ball of plasma with a fondness for competition and braggadocio, you should play a novian.
Novians are bombastic narcissists who live for a millennium. They're proud and self-centered, with overinflated egos and plenty of attitude. Yet, they're also fun to be around, creative, exuberant, and entertaining. They thrive in the spotlight and take joy in storytelling, sports, and competition—particularly in tests of strength and mettle, where they can publicly show off their might. Novians consider themselves fearsome, powerful beings, and they're so long lived as to be beyond many mortal concerns. Cultural traditions and timekeeping are particularly challenging concepts for them to grasp. They're boastful and stubborn, often throwing insults and issuing challenges as much as they engage in conversation. They take pride in sharing tales of their hard-earned accomplishments, forging a legacy with every story, speech, and victory. While some novians unintentionally cross the line into being bullies, their efforts to intimidate are usually foiled by their tiny size and high-pitched voice, which make them seem more amusing than horrifying.
While novians enjoy being respected and pampered, they quickly grow bored of dotage, for it's the thrill of competition and striving for recognition that brings a novian true joy. Most novians have little interest in fame or riches and instead value experiences and relationships. They tend to find silent, isolated places comforting, with a few weeks drifting in the void of space akin to being pampered at a luxurious spa. Yet, at their heart, novians are gregarious and inevitably find themselves drawn back into the company of others.
If you want to play an egotistical ball of plasma with a fondness for competition and braggadocio, you should play a novian.
You Might…
- Enjoy competing against tough adversaries and boasting of your hard-earned achievements.
- Have little patience for formal education, complex hierarchies, or bureaucracy, instead valuing oral traditions, hands-on training, lived experience, and clear leadership.
- Consider mortal timekeeping—hours, days, months, and perhaps even years—inconsequential, causing you to easily lose track of time, and regularly arrive late, early, or not at all.
- Periodically feel overwhelmed in crowded, noisy, or fast-paced urban centers and retreat to a quiet place for a few days to recharge—perhaps even in the void of space.
Others Probably…
- Consider you harmless, foolish, or adorable due to your tiny size or overlarge facial features.
- Assume you know all about astrophysics and astronomy.
- Find your apparent lack of emotional growth frustrating, perhaps even considering it willful ignorance.
- Feel inexplicably comfortable or soothed in your presence, particularly at night.
Physical Description
Novians are miniature suns who exist as tiny flying motes of stellar energy, with an internal composition that includes plasma, flame, and superheated gases. A novian's spherical body averages a foot in diameter and has a spongy, semisolid texture that shifts and reshapes to create humanoid expressions, most often with dramatic eyespots and a toothless mouth.
Novians emit light and a pleasant warmth, but few burn hot enough to cause harm or stave off the cold. Most glow in shades of yellow, orange, and red, though some novians have blue flames, green flames, or no flames at all, instead appearing as a dense, purple-black void that absorbs all light.
Though tiny, novians are incredibly dense and exert a powerful gravitational field. They use these fields to manipulate objects and their surroundings, with some even capable of maintaining objects in orbit around their body like tiny satellites. A novian's arms are a manifestation of their gravitational field and appear as thin tendrils of energy or light. Novians often weigh hundreds of pounds, with those possessing notably powerful gravitational fields increasing exponentially in weight.
Novians emit light and a pleasant warmth, but few burn hot enough to cause harm or stave off the cold. Most glow in shades of yellow, orange, and red, though some novians have blue flames, green flames, or no flames at all, instead appearing as a dense, purple-black void that absorbs all light.
Though tiny, novians are incredibly dense and exert a powerful gravitational field. They use these fields to manipulate objects and their surroundings, with some even capable of maintaining objects in orbit around their body like tiny satellites. A novian's arms are a manifestation of their gravitational field and appear as thin tendrils of energy or light. Novians often weigh hundreds of pounds, with those possessing notably powerful gravitational fields increasing exponentially in weight.
Society
Novians have no family and consider themselves stellar forces rather than mortal beings. They take pride in the stellar phenomenon that created them and often brag about the size, density, and luminosity of their progenitor star and stellar explosion. Novians birthed by the same star view one another as rivals and constantly strive to outdo one another and prove themselves the “prime inheritor” of their stellar legacy—though they quickly band together in contests against non-novians.
While they enjoy silence and rarely get lonely or bored, novians are social, and most of their favorite hobbies and pastimes require the presence of others. Novians find structure and routine stifling, so they don't build settlements or otherwise set down permanent roots, preferring to wander unfettered, directed only by their interests and whims. They abhor being told what to do, often acting contrary out of spite, and are prone to shirking responsibility and flouting authority. They live among other societies and people but rarely try to fit in.
Most novians consider the trappings and rigid patterns of “modern life” a quirk of short-lived mortals, more confounding or quaint than something to strive to conform to. Instead, novians are unabashedly themselves, regardless of surrounding cultural mores and societal expectations. Many novians take frequent breaks away from urban centers, retreating to recharge in quiet isolation, preferably in places of natural beauty, like the void of space.
Novians craft fearsome names for themselves, usually accompanied by a moniker. They tend to favor long names with hard sounds. The bolder the better!
While they enjoy silence and rarely get lonely or bored, novians are social, and most of their favorite hobbies and pastimes require the presence of others. Novians find structure and routine stifling, so they don't build settlements or otherwise set down permanent roots, preferring to wander unfettered, directed only by their interests and whims. They abhor being told what to do, often acting contrary out of spite, and are prone to shirking responsibility and flouting authority. They live among other societies and people but rarely try to fit in.
Most novians consider the trappings and rigid patterns of “modern life” a quirk of short-lived mortals, more confounding or quaint than something to strive to conform to. Instead, novians are unabashedly themselves, regardless of surrounding cultural mores and societal expectations. Many novians take frequent breaks away from urban centers, retreating to recharge in quiet isolation, preferably in places of natural beauty, like the void of space.
Novians craft fearsome names for themselves, usually accompanied by a moniker. They tend to favor long names with hard sounds. The bolder the better!
Beliefs
Novians have a strong distaste for organized religion. Most consider solar deities, such as Desna, peers rather than beings worthy of veneration. They might respect gods whose purview includes stellar forces and processes, notably Ibra and the Devourer, and this respect sometimes blossoms into reverence. Likewise, they find kinship among faiths that encourage independence, competition, self-expression, and travel, such as Weydan, Besmara, or Lambatuin. Regardless of their religion, novians rarely devote time to better understanding their faith and its teachings; instead, they put their own outlook and spin on the faiths they adopt, shallowly focusing on what interests them and ignoring the rest entirely.
Popular Edicts boast of your accomplishments and accolades, compete against challenging opponents, surpass yourself, witness significant stellar events
Popular Anathema back down from a challenge, fail to give your best effort, give up when faced with a setback, interfere with natural stellar processes, lie about yourself
Popular Edicts boast of your accomplishments and accolades, compete against challenging opponents, surpass yourself, witness significant stellar events
Popular Anathema back down from a challenge, fail to give your best effort, give up when faced with a setback, interfere with natural stellar processes, lie about yourself
Sample Names
Chynor the Unwavering Brilliance of Stellar Glory, Destructicus, Devourer of Worlds, Grimdeath, Infernon the Fearsome, Koronis Garbed in Radiance, Lifethresher, Malisma the Prime Inheritor, Novexion the Annihilator, Sunscour, Tarizax the Terrible, Zendrior
Novian Mechanics
Hit Points
6
Size
Tiny
Speed
20 feet (Hover)
Fly 20 feet
Attribute Boosts
Strength, Charisma, Free
Attribute Flaw
Wisdom
Languages
Common
Pyric
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).
Gravitational Hands
You can direct your gravitational field to manipulate objects and interact with your surroundings. You have two hands with a reach of 5 feet, save that you use gravity to manipulate objects and your surroundings, rather than a physical appendage. These limbs appear as tangible tendrils of energy.