Ryphorian Heritages

Whether you were born on the planet Triaxus or in a military facility far off in the Vast, your family has been part of the Skyfire Legion for generations. This massive mercenary company has been your extended family your whole life, and its concepts of honor and brotherhood are foundational to you. These military traditions have had a greater role in your early development than even the normal seasonal cycles that influence most ryphorians' lives. You've trained hard to make yourself ready for a life of discipline and battle, even if you eventually chose a path outside the legion.

You gain the Armor Proficiency feat. If your class makes you trained in all types of armor, you instead become trained in Athletics (or a skill of your choice if you're already trained in Athletics) and gain the Shield Block skill feat.

You were born during the brief spring or autumn seasons of Triaxus's eccentric orbits. You demonstrate a blend of both summerborn and winterborn traits. Before the advent of modern gene therapy and spaceflight, liminal ryphorians were even rarer than they are today and were viewed with awe and mystery. Even in present times, they're afforded status akin to that of a minor celebrity in some of Triaxus's more rural districts.

You gain a +1 circumstance bonus to saves against all cold and fire effects, which increases to +2 when you reach 13th level. Additionally, you reduce the flat check DC to end persistent cold and fire damage you're currently taking from 15 to 10, which is reduced to 5 with appropriate assistance.

The birth of the Newborn, and the buildup to that cosmic event prior to the planet Aucturn's destruction, had a massive impact on the Pact Worlds solar system as well as the galaxy at-large. The psychic shock waves from this divine occurrence also did something thought to be unthinkable: it broke the connection some ryphorians have with the seasonal cycles of the planet of Triaxus. While you no longer carry any of the telltale signs of your connection back to your ancestral home world, you've developed a psychic predisposition toward feeling the emotions of others that makes it easier to trust your allies and suss out your enemies.

The circumstance bonus you gain from your notched ears feature applies even when you can't hear and to creatures who make no noise, but it doesn't apply when the creatures are both silent and immune to mental effects. Additionally, you gain the Sympathetic Bond feat.

You were born during one of Triaxus's long summers. Typically dark-skinned, wide-eyed, and with completely hairless bodies except for their inner ears, summerborn ryphorians have a reputation for being more artistic, flighty, and progressive than their winterborn kin. You can also secrete fine oils through your skin that protect you from the worst of heat dangers and give you an attractive, glistening appearance popular in galactic media periodicals. To augment their bodies, many summerborn ryphorians are known to sport tattoos.

You gain fire resistance equal to half your level (minimum 1). You treat environmental heat effects as if they were one step less extreme (incredible heat becomes extreme, extreme heat becomes severe, and so on).

You're one of the ukara battleflowers from the continent of Ning, warrior-celebrities who leave their families, social standing, and even their genders to train from an early age for extravagant and ritualized combat performances that stun audiences around the galaxy. Being representatives of Ning's culture and mercantile prowess, they're both stoic and fabulous at the same time.

You become trained in Performance. If you would automatically become trained in Performance (from your background or class, for example), you instead become trained in another skill of your choice. Choose one simple or martial melee weapon or, if you're already trained in all martial weapons, one advanced melee weapon of your choice. While you wield the chosen weapon, it gains the professional (Performance) trait.

You have thicker skin than your summerborn cousins, topped with layers of white fur. In addition, your eyes are noticeably narrower so to avoid becoming snow-blind. Winterborn ryphorians are traditionally known to be gruff but loyal to a fault, especially when it comes to promises and oaths sworn to others. Some of these stereotypes are just that, and just as many winterborn progressives dye their fur out of artistic expression rather than to exist solely in a stodgy, stark-white state.

You gain cold resistance equal to half your level (minimum 1). You treat environmental cold effects as if they were one step less extreme (incredible cold becomes extreme, extreme cold becomes severe, and so on).

You've returned from the brink of death as a borai— at once both living and undead. You gain the borai and undead trait, in addition to the traits from your ancestry. Unlike other undead, you don't gain void healing. You're healed by vitality effects and damaged by void damage, as if you were a living creature. Likewise, you can be stabilized, healed, and brought back to life as if you were a living creature, save that you always return to life in your normal undead state (as a borai). You gain low-light vision, or you gain darkvision if your ancestry already has low-light vision. You can choose from borai feats and feats from your ancestry whenever you gain an ancestry feat.

You are a reanimated corpse. Your undead nature might physically manifest in gray or pale skin, eyes that turn solid black or white, or an unnatural elongation of the fingernails (or similar appendages). You gain the corpsefolk and undead traits, in addition to the traits from your ancestry. You gain low-light vision, or you gain darkvision if your ancestry already has low-light vision. You can choose from corpsefolk feats and feats from your ancestry whenever you gain an ancestry feat.

The Gap has subsumed some part of you and left you with weird powers and jarring existential issues, while giving you a unique ability to perceive the history obscured by the Gap. You gain the Gap-touched trait, in addition to the traits from your ancestry. You can choose from Gap-touched feats and feats from your ancestry whenever you gain an ancestry feat. You gain the Additional Lore general feat for Gap Lore. You gain a +1 circumstance bonus to saving throws against mental effects.

You have an innate connection to the Drift. You gain the prismeni trait, in addition to the traits from your ancestry. While you're in the Drift, you can automatically pinpoint the location of Drift beacons, Drift lanes, Drift engines, and other Drift-related technology within a 100-mile radius. If you're Piloting a starship that doesn't have a Drift engine, you can serve as a connection between the Drift and that starship. This is a 1-minute activity that has the concentrate trait, and it allows the starship you're Piloting to enter or exit the Drift. Once within the Drift, the starship travels via conventional thrusters, as normal. When you get a critical failure on a Piloting check to Navigate or Plot Course through the Drift, you get a failure instead. You gain low-light vision, or you gain darkvision if your ancestry already has low-light vision. You can choose from prismeni feats and feats from your ancestry whenever you gain an ancestry feat.

You're a constructed version of a non-human ancestry. You gain the android trait, in addition to the trait associated with the ancestry you resemble. You gain the constructed ability but not the low-light vision ability of androids. In addition, your size category and reach changes to match the chosen ancestry. You can select from android feats up to 13th level, any of the feats of the ancestry you resemble, or xenometric android feats whenever you gain an ancestry feat. Choose a heritage from your ancestry, but you don't gain its mechanical benefits. The xenometric android heritage shouldn't be taken by a member of a constructed ancestry, such as android, or a human.