Worlanisi Heritages

Your home world has become a hub of tourism as people come from all over to witness Worlan's famed competitions or try their luck against the luckiest people in the galaxy. You might work at the Short Straw, where the customer always loses, in one of the countless theaters and arenas in Nasceri, Worlan's capital city, or at any number of similar venues across the stars. Perhaps you've raced across the entire planet in Fortune's Regatta, smiling for the camera and striking dramatic poses as you dashed through storms and over mountains.

No matter where you are, you can always find an audience, and though keeping the people happy is hard work, you've paid your dues. You know how to earn that applause, and thanks to the experience, you've come away with a potentially handy set of skills. You're 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. You also gain the Virtuosic Performer skill feat.

Life is the journey—your journey is your life. You've taken to the stars to travel the galaxy, and thanks to your good luck, many ships gladly take you aboard as a welcome fortunaut, a sentient good luck charm. A wandering fortunaut in search of work is never unemployed for long.

It's no secret that having one of the luckiest people in the galaxy around can be good for business, and you've learned how to use that to your advantage when you find yourself somewhere new. You're trained in Diplomacy. If you would automatically become trained in Diplomacy (from your background or class, for example), you instead become trained in another skill of your choice. You also gain the Hobnobber skill feat.

You're a member of a small community of worlanisis that have lived a starkly isolated life from the rest of the planet, deep in the volcanic caverns beneath Worlan's highest mountains rather than hopping from island to island like other worlanisis. The erroneously named “luckless” (so called because of their smaller horn-cones) were considered mythological ancestors, people found only in ancient bones buried in ruins, until shifting tectonic plates drove you to the surface.

You're much larger in stature than the average worlanisi, your blue skin tends toward paler shades from a lack of sun exposure, and your horn-cones are proportionately smaller. You are Medium in size and start with 8 HP instead of 6, but your time away from the bulk of your people has caused your psychic abilities to atrophy. You have neither Limited Telepathy nor Psychic Reverb, and you can't take worlanisi ancestry feats with the mental trait. Additionally, you gain resistance to fire damage equal to half your level (minimum 1) from your years in the hot, magma-lined tunnels.

You've pursued the psychic crafts that your ancestors used during ancient times. The psychic resonance your horn-cones invite can be painful, yet through discipline and perseverance, you've developed a semblance of your ancestors' hunting prowess.

By focusing on psychic echoes left behind by your prey, you're able to hunt and track in the most inhospitable conditions—even the vacuum of space. You're trained in Survival. If you would automatically become trained in Survival (from your background or class, for example), you instead become trained in another skill of your choice. You have the Experienced Tracker skill feat. In addition, you have imprecise thoughtsense with a range of 20 feet. However, your weakness to mental damage from psychic reverb increases to be equal to half your level (minimum 1).

A group of worlanisi who rebelled against the brutal experimentation of the Reivolan Institute 20 years ago have formed the Vault of Vorlath, one of the most efficient and successful mercenary factions in Near Space. These survivors have been augmented with cybernetics, trained in military tactics, and conditioned to be cunning, aggressive soldiers who are known throughout the galaxy for their fighting prowess. Over the years since the Vault's formation, the Vorlathi have recruited worlanisi fortunauts and other promising soldiers, augmenting their bodies and sharpening their minds for combat while sparing them the brutality of the Reivolan Institute's experimentation. The Vorlathi mercenaries refuse to rely on their luck for protection, striving to be prepared for even the unluckiest scenarios. You were either a member of the original rebellion or were recruited later on.

Your body has been customized with cybernetics. You're 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. You also gain the Augmented Body 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.