Talphi Heritages

Nearly all talphi pups experiment with artistry during their youth, be it learning to master symbols with glowing paints or building small sculptures and other tactile art pieces from stone, metal, and crystals easily found throughout Vesk-4's cave systems. Some talphis enjoy their work so much, or find they have such a knack for it, that they become semiprofessional artistic diplomats. They spend their days making beautiful gifts with no practical function but to be given to other groups as a means of starting relationships on the right foot. Rumor has it that a group of krregrs were able to prevent countless casualties during the initial Veskarium invasion through a series of well-designed gifts given to strategically chosen invading officers.

You become trained in Crafting. If you would automatically become trained in Crafting (from your background or class, for example), you instead become trained in another skill of your choice. With an hour of work, you can attempt a Crafting check at the standard DC for your level to create a beautiful trinket of negligible Bulk out of readily available materials, such as a piece of scrap metal or stone. You can use Crafting instead of Diplomacy to Make an Impression by giving your target your most recently crafted trinket; if the trinket was crafted with that specific individual in mind, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to this check. Unless the target refuses or returns the trinket, you'll have to Craft a new trinket if you want to present your most recently crafted trinket to a different creature.

Growing up under extremely high gravity has shaped the skeletons of talphi pups, giving them low-slung cylindrical bodies and limbs that naturally stay close to their sides. Some pups develop a wide stance and dramatically hunched shoulders, which makes them look even shorter than other talphis' average modest stature but gives them an extraordinarily stable center of balance. So-called lowcrawlers have found a niche in many talphi groups scouting through narrow and potentially unstable caverns, protecting their companions from risk of falling. The occupying Veskarium forces often employ lowcrawlers to scout hard-to-reach locations.

Your body is stouter than most, and you sit uncommonly close to the ground. Despite your light weight and small frame, it's a challenge to take you off your feet. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to your DCs against attempts to Shove or Trip you. This bonus also applies to saving throws against spells or effects that attempt to knock you prone. You also gain the Feign Prone action.

The tunnels of Vesk-4, much like the surface, are plagued with pockets of powerful, dangerous radiation. Often invisible to the eye, these pockets drift through talphi territory unpredictably, presenting a mortal threat to any explorers in the area, especially during mining trips to the lodelands. Already extremely sensitive in conventional ways, some talphi noses have developed a knack for detecting pockets of radiation before they present a direct threat. Those who have a natural aptitude for radiation detection are highly sought-after companions on Vesk-4, as their presence can be the difference between life and death.

Your nose is attuned to things beyond the normal olfactory spectrum. The papillae at the end of your snout give you radiation sense, an imprecise sense with a range of 30 feet that alerts you to the presence and severity of radiation and creatures that emit radioactivity but is blocked by 3 feet of dirt or wood, 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or any force field.

Furthermore, you're experienced in dealing with radioactive materials. You become trained in Physical Science Lore. If you would automatically become trained in Physical Science Lore (from your background or class, for example), you instead become trained in another skill of your choice. Additionally, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Fortitude saves against radiation.

Most talphis spend the better part of their lives, especially their formative years, in the darkness of tunnels deep below the ground. Some of these pups form a deep connection to the darkness itself, rather than the resonance of stone or the constant spinning of the planet's core. Even without glowing markers, they're at home in the shadows, trusting their noses to help them navigate the dark and to keep them safe. They often have darker fur coats than other talphis and sometimes use matte, non-glowing pigments to paint patterns upon their fur and clothing to stay concealed.

You've long felt at home in the dark, and you've adapted to use this tendency to your advantage. You gain darkvision, allowing you to see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can in bright light. However, in darkness, you see in black and white only.

Before the Veskarium came, talphis had easygoing relationships with shuzrians and ausyrs they shared the planet with, centered on their ability to communicate easily with one another. After the invasion, and the subsequent introduction of a galaxy of other peoples and languages, many talphis have carried this tradition into a much larger stage. The eager-to-please talphis often have a knack for picking up new languages quickly, and zabaniis have become highly sought-after translators for many different factions.

You've learned that it's important to always be able to converse with your neighbors, and much of your early education has been devoted to communicating with diverse groups. You become trained in Society. If you would automatically become trained in Society (from your background or class, for example), you instead become trained in another skill of your choice. Additionally, you gain the Linguistic Prodigy standardized ancestry feat.

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.