Orocoran
Source Galactic Ancestries pg. 162
Since the destruction of their home world, some orocorans have freed themselves from the influence of Aucturn's foul, eldritch fluids. To these orocorans, while life remains a struggle, they've emerged from their recent hardships newly born, with eyes wide open and minds sharp, to discover a life of possibility and potential.
Orocorans are an ancient people who have lived on Aucturn since time immemorial and are thought to predate even the Dominion of the Black. Despite their storied past, orocorans experienced tragedy long ago, when they became addicted to the foul fluids seeping from their home planet of Aucturn— in truth, the birthing fluids of the Newborn godling gestating within its planetary womb. These fluids, called ichor, are a powerful and highly addictive biological narcotic that gave orocorans vivid hallucinations and psychically connected them with the Newborn, then dubbed the “womb mind.” Yet it also overwhelmed them, leaving them in a mind-numbed stupor, too delirious to speak or form coherent thoughts. For all recorded history, orocorans have existed as parasitic predators prone to cycles of violent feeding frenzies and sluggish delirium. Slothful, irritable, and unpredictable, they roused from their stupor only to sate their basic bodily functions while battling the unending hunger of addiction.
The birth of the Newborn from Aucturn changed everything. Orocorans were scattered, cast adrift in a galaxy with no home and no ichor. Many live as desperate predators, ceaselessly searching for fragments of Aucturn, drops of ichor, or any foul chemicals capable of replacing it upon which to sup. Those unable to find ichor, and who survived the ensuing withdrawals, became something different—something unrecognizable. Free from the noxious eldritch fluids and the overwhelming influence of the Newborn's thoughts and dreams, these orocorans discovered personal identity, emotion, focus, independence, and the ability to speak. Referring to themselves as “liberated” or “awakened,” they perceive the world with new eyes and a sharp, curious mind.
Without a home, liberated orocorans are travelers by necessity. They're cautious, unsure, insecure, and socially awkward, with little experience dealing with themselves, let alone others. Yet they're filled with a ravenous verve for life, enjoying new experiences, visiting new places, and learning new things. Many miss home—though not the life they left behind—and yearn for a sense of belonging, carefully searching for friends, a community, or a new home. They tend to keep busy to avoid dwelling too long on the past. Above all, orocorans are curious and desire knowledge. A whole new existence has opened up for them, with countless wonders to be discovered, secrets to be learned, and sights to be seen. While most acknowledge that this new life is full of hardships and challenges—and will take a lot of adjustment—they embrace their independence and freedom and chart their own course into the future.
If you want to play a curious outsider with a difficult past on a journey of self-discovery, you should play an orocoran.
The birth of the Newborn from Aucturn changed everything. Orocorans were scattered, cast adrift in a galaxy with no home and no ichor. Many live as desperate predators, ceaselessly searching for fragments of Aucturn, drops of ichor, or any foul chemicals capable of replacing it upon which to sup. Those unable to find ichor, and who survived the ensuing withdrawals, became something different—something unrecognizable. Free from the noxious eldritch fluids and the overwhelming influence of the Newborn's thoughts and dreams, these orocorans discovered personal identity, emotion, focus, independence, and the ability to speak. Referring to themselves as “liberated” or “awakened,” they perceive the world with new eyes and a sharp, curious mind.
Without a home, liberated orocorans are travelers by necessity. They're cautious, unsure, insecure, and socially awkward, with little experience dealing with themselves, let alone others. Yet they're filled with a ravenous verve for life, enjoying new experiences, visiting new places, and learning new things. Many miss home—though not the life they left behind—and yearn for a sense of belonging, carefully searching for friends, a community, or a new home. They tend to keep busy to avoid dwelling too long on the past. Above all, orocorans are curious and desire knowledge. A whole new existence has opened up for them, with countless wonders to be discovered, secrets to be learned, and sights to be seen. While most acknowledge that this new life is full of hardships and challenges—and will take a lot of adjustment—they embrace their independence and freedom and chart their own course into the future.
If you want to play a curious outsider with a difficult past on a journey of self-discovery, you should play an orocoran.
You Might…
- Miss your home world, even though you don't miss the life you had there.
- Feel like a stranger in your own body, newly discovering your emotions, personal preferences, morals, and independence.
- Be searching for a community you belong in, or a place to call home.
- Enjoy new experiences and seek to learn everything you can about the Universe and the people in it.
Others Probably…
- Assume you're a vicious monster incapable of speech.
- Think you have insider information on the Newborn and its desires.
- Are wary of your psychic abilities, assuming you can read their mind or manipulate their thoughts.
- Come to you for answers about the occult and cosmic dangers.
Physical Description
Orocorans are ferocious in appearance, nearly 6 feet tall when standing upright, with a slender, lanky body and very long double-jointed limbs. Their flesh is pink, mottled with purple, blue, or black, like a fresh bruise. Bony crests and growths line their spine and joints. They have numerous pupilless eyes and a vertically slit mouth that unfolds like a flower to reveal rows of sharp teeth and a long, fleshy proboscis. In some orocorans, this proboscis is notably long and whiplike, though in most, it measures about a foot in length when protracted. Orocorans can adopt a quadrupedal stance for a burst of speed or to climb spiderlike along surfaces. Their stomach fluids are both caustic and toxic. They can spew these fluids from their mouths, projectile vomiting on command to attack their foes.
Orocorans have no gender. Mating involves two participants piercing each other's torsos with their proboscises to share genetic information, with both becoming pregnant. On Aucturn, a pregnant orocoran would then lay clutches of fertilized, slimy eggs in ichor-filled pockets, submerging their infants in these noxious fluids before they're even born, then abandon them completely. The few liberated orocorans who have chosen to procreate lay their clutches in crates or barrels and keep them close, slathering them in fluids they hope will provide a healthy upbringing—though with no knowledge of pre-ichor laying practices, this is as much an experiment as anything. Even among feral orocorans, there isn't enough ichor to spare for incubating eggs, and they're instead dumped in polluted waterways, toxic sludge, and whatever foul chemical mixtures their progenitors can scavenge.
Orocorans have no gender. Mating involves two participants piercing each other's torsos with their proboscises to share genetic information, with both becoming pregnant. On Aucturn, a pregnant orocoran would then lay clutches of fertilized, slimy eggs in ichor-filled pockets, submerging their infants in these noxious fluids before they're even born, then abandon them completely. The few liberated orocorans who have chosen to procreate lay their clutches in crates or barrels and keep them close, slathering them in fluids they hope will provide a healthy upbringing—though with no knowledge of pre-ichor laying practices, this is as much an experiment as anything. Even among feral orocorans, there isn't enough ichor to spare for incubating eggs, and they're instead dumped in polluted waterways, toxic sludge, and whatever foul chemical mixtures their progenitors can scavenge.
Society
Orocorans were scattered across the Pact Worlds when their home world of Aucturn hatched, birthing the Newborn. Many orocorans now live in the Gelid Edge, on the fringes of the Pact Worlds System, desperately clinging to fragments of Aucturn and its frozen fluids or building what structures and life they can from the wreckage. Others live on the nearby planet of Apostae, on the many moons of Bretheda and Liavara, and, of course, on Absalom Station—notably in the crowded districts of the Spike. Orocorans are naturally drawn to sites of occult significance, eldritch power, or great change.
Most liberated orocorans are travelers, living in secret in foreign communities thanks to deception, disguises, guile, stealth, or magical effects, or they stay on the fringes of societies in slums, sewers, junkyards, construction sites, and abandoned buildings. A few try to live openly among small communities but face challenges in doing so, as only feral orocorans are known to the galaxy at large, and they're stereotypically known for their vicious nature and drug-induced stupors. Yet these orocorans are the bravest and boldest among their kind; they chart a course forward for their people in the wider Universe one interaction and relationship at a time, fighting for their right to be acknowledged as citizens and independent people.
Suddenly aware of their place in an unimaginably vast reality, orocorans often feel overwhelmed, and they combat this feeling with knowledge. Orocorans seek social interaction and personal connection but are very wary of one another, keeping the orocoran masses at a distance to avoid temptation and exposure to thought-shattering ichor as well as to avoid being mistaken for a feral orocoran. Liberated orocorans circle one another with care, hopeful for a connection with one who understands them but cautious of being let down, led astray, or dredging up too many old memories—and worse, old habits.
On the whole, liberated orocorans struggle to adjust to a life of independence and freedom, acknowledging that change is challenging, but they embrace this new opportunity. Like the Newborn, orocorans have been newly born into a strange world, free from the influence of others. Their lives are full of promise and possibility, if only they're brave enough to seize their future and fashion it into something to be proud of.
Orocorans favor long names with harsh or sibilant sounds. But many have shed their old names alongside their old lives like a snake sheds its skin, and have chosen a new name and new identity for themselves. Orocorans who have found a new home or a community to belong in often adopt the familial naming conventions of their local community, taking on a new surname, clan name, or moniker, or simply adding the name of their community to their own.
Most liberated orocorans are travelers, living in secret in foreign communities thanks to deception, disguises, guile, stealth, or magical effects, or they stay on the fringes of societies in slums, sewers, junkyards, construction sites, and abandoned buildings. A few try to live openly among small communities but face challenges in doing so, as only feral orocorans are known to the galaxy at large, and they're stereotypically known for their vicious nature and drug-induced stupors. Yet these orocorans are the bravest and boldest among their kind; they chart a course forward for their people in the wider Universe one interaction and relationship at a time, fighting for their right to be acknowledged as citizens and independent people.
Suddenly aware of their place in an unimaginably vast reality, orocorans often feel overwhelmed, and they combat this feeling with knowledge. Orocorans seek social interaction and personal connection but are very wary of one another, keeping the orocoran masses at a distance to avoid temptation and exposure to thought-shattering ichor as well as to avoid being mistaken for a feral orocoran. Liberated orocorans circle one another with care, hopeful for a connection with one who understands them but cautious of being let down, led astray, or dredging up too many old memories—and worse, old habits.
On the whole, liberated orocorans struggle to adjust to a life of independence and freedom, acknowledging that change is challenging, but they embrace this new opportunity. Like the Newborn, orocorans have been newly born into a strange world, free from the influence of others. Their lives are full of promise and possibility, if only they're brave enough to seize their future and fashion it into something to be proud of.
Orocorans favor long names with harsh or sibilant sounds. But many have shed their old names alongside their old lives like a snake sheds its skin, and have chosen a new name and new identity for themselves. Orocorans who have found a new home or a community to belong in often adopt the familial naming conventions of their local community, taking on a new surname, clan name, or moniker, or simply adding the name of their community to their own.
Beliefs
Still adjusting to their newfound independence, orocorans are wary of devoting themselves to religion and tend to approach faith with careful caution, either avoiding it entirely or trying out a few to see what faith feels like. Orocorans usually take years to settle on a faith if they choose to devote themselves to one at all, as they assess the surrounding religious community, churches, events, and leaders as much as they measure the gods and faiths themselves. Orocorans who do join a faith are incredibly pious and often become deeply involved in the community, viewing their fellow devotees as family.
Regardless of their opinions on faith, orocorans feel kinship with the Newborn—both were slumbering and have only now awakened to a new life in a strange world. Some treat the Newborn with fondness, opening their heart to promises of change and remembering lost memories of the god. Others transfer their anger and rage onto the Newborn, furious that its fluids kept their minds clouded and their souls chained. The Newborn is a part of them forever, whether they want this connection or not.
Popular Edicts embrace your individuality, explore the Universe, live free, try new things
Popular Anathema consume ichor or other harmful drugs, let fear of change imprison you, serve another without careful thought, stagnate
Regardless of their opinions on faith, orocorans feel kinship with the Newborn—both were slumbering and have only now awakened to a new life in a strange world. Some treat the Newborn with fondness, opening their heart to promises of change and remembering lost memories of the god. Others transfer their anger and rage onto the Newborn, furious that its fluids kept their minds clouded and their souls chained. The Newborn is a part of them forever, whether they want this connection or not.
Popular Edicts embrace your individuality, explore the Universe, live free, try new things
Popular Anathema consume ichor or other harmful drugs, let fear of change imprison you, serve another without careful thought, stagnate
Sample Names
Ashesh, Edrais, Dridapex, Krade, Otlo, Shosodax, Silisiv, Udrovare, Vixis, Zyshe
Orocoran Mechanics
Hit Points
6
Size
Medium
Speed
25 feet
Attribute Boosts
Dexterity, Wisdom, Free
Attribute Flaw
Constitution
Languages
Common
Aklo
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).
Darkvision
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.
Limited Telepathy
You can communicate mentally with creatures within 30 feet that share a language with you. This doesn't give you any access to their thoughts, and it communicates no more information than normal speech would.