Tumorian

The tumorians hold a legacy unlike any other in Ealdremen as the pioneers of space travel and being credited with bridging the interstellar gap between planets ages ago. They are often regarded as being at the forefront of scientific innovation both in technology and magic, but they are also a prominent force in politics as well. Some historians believe that the founding of the Veriol Alliance and its later reformation closer to the modern age is the result of tumorian racial guilt. Because of their colonization of distant worlds, it was the tumorians' ancestors who led to the creation of the Alamo Empire, a faction that most tumorians view as antithetical to their own views of freedom and the ideal nature of government.
==Etymology and Other Names==
Though not all tumorians come from the nation of Tumoria, the people of their race that did hail from Tumoria long ago became iconic of the people in their explorations all throughout Ealdremen. Distant countries on other planets grew to associate the nation with the race as a whole, and the name tumorian entered into the vernacular as the race's name. Languages spoken primarily by tumorians, such as Morish, have variant terms for each native tumorian nationality and refer to the race collectively as zrokocho, commonly translated as changing-eyes-people.
==Biology==
Tumorians are a bipedal people with four digits on their hands and feet; they are generally on the shorter side of the bipedal races throughout Ealdremen and rarely exceed five feet in height. A tumorian may appear to be even shorter if their head is especially heavily plated, as heavier heads can lead to a tumorian inclining their head much more than even a fellow tumorian with lighter armored plating. These bony outgrowths are not localized only to a tumorian's head, however; it is also common for this limited armor plating to cover their backs. Some tumorians may even have sparse plating on their arms or the backs of their hands, which might also bear small bony protrusions akin to spikes. It is rare for a tumorian's entire dorsal side to be covered in armored plating. For the most part, the rest of their skin has a rough, leathery texture and is especially coarse on their palms and the soles of their feet.
A tumorian's skintone generally ranges from brown to orange. Rusty colors closer to red are very uncommon, but not unheard of, and some tumorians may have washed-out skintones that look closer to grey than anything else. It is common for a tumorian's armored plating to be of a similar hue, but some tumorians may have especially striking appearances with discordant or dramatically different colors. If a tumorian has natural bodily markings, they are mostly limited to patches of discolored skin as opposed to any sort of consistent pattern. For the most part, their armored plating also tends to be uniform in color, though some may display gradient patterns that grow lighter or darker in color, especially if the armored plating is on their face. Most tumorians have some amount of plating on their faces, particularly around their noses; those without plating may appear to have flat or featureless faces, as tumorians do not have hair anywhere on their bodies, and their noses do not protrude much from their faces.
One of the most defining features of tumorian biology is their changing eye colors. A tumorian's eye pigmentation is linked to various parts of their brain, which produces pigment of different colors depending on the emotions felt by the mind. Although family members may have similar colors for their various moods, as pigment generation is partially genetic, it is generally regarded that every individual tumorian has different color displays for their emotions. Complete heterochromia is more common among tumorians than most other Ealdremen races; such individuals will still have eyes that change color, but their eyes will never be the same color as each other. A tumorian whose eyes do not change color, or whose eye colors change rapidly or without a consistent pattern, almost always has sustained neurological damage of some kind.
==Sociology==
Culturally, tumorians tend to place value on deliberate action and choice, especially in specifying a concrete goal and then planning on how to achieve that goal. Spontaneity is often seen as juvenile at best, or it could be seen as the result of poor planning. Though most tumorians would never expect someone to plan for every possible contingency, planning for no contingencies at all is careless. Their approaches to scientific discovery in any discipline are similar; tumorians' hypotheses tend to be rigorously tested and focused on what should happen rather than what might happen. They look down on reckless experiments, believing that there is nothing in the world that cannot eventually be explored safely, even if the technology is not yet there. Some tumorian specialists in magic disciplines especially will disregard any bit of knowledge that cannot be proven in a safe manner, believing that publication of such results will encourage others to put their lives in peril in the name of future discoveries. A given tumorian can likely accept unknowns or vague results, even if they might not like them; they are much less likely to accept that the only route to truly knowing something is dangerous.
Much as actions should be deliberate, tumorians also view emotions as something that should be consciously shared and never done by accident. Some tumorians, especially those that hold public offices or otherwise must lead others, will wear dark glasses or obscure their eyes through some other means to prevent their emotions from being "decoded". They view this less as explicitly hiding emotions and more a deliberate choice in how they present themselves and approach their duties; there are similar times when they will publicly show their eye color to let others know exactly what they are feeling as they speak. Conscious eye contact is generally socially threatening to a tumorian, as it implies scrutiny and trying to puzzle out something that isn't being outwardly shared. As such, tumorians generally do not look each other in the eye, especially when each others' eyes are visible.
Most tumorians believe that each individual has a specific, potentially niche interest or two that will be especially intellectually stimulating to them; it "activates" their brain and floods their eyes with joyous color pigments that nothing else does. Pursuit of these interests is usually encouraged among tumorian populations, though tumorians often believe that one's life must be appropriately structured to feed this interest. Throwing away stable sources of livelihood or rushing headlong into danger simply to stimulate the brain is looked down upon. The brain must be fed, but a fed brain in a starving body will eventually waste away as well. They view government and countries similarly with the government as the brain and the citizens as the body -- a government that does not tend to its citizens exists in a worthless, immobile husk. As a result, it is common for tumorians to prioritize legislature and government structures that emphasize individual freedoms and maintain the unique defining identities of various countries. Much as subjugating another person and forcing assimilation upon them is a crime, such is the same with another country's customs becoming lost to a more powerful nation's laws.
==Racial Traits (D&D 3.5e/Pathfinder)==
At the start of each day when a prepared caster would be normally able to prepare spells, a tumorian can undergo a Meditative Study for ten minutes to gain a Knowledge skill of their choosing as a class skill. If it is already a class skill, they instead receive a +3 racial bonus to that Knowledge skill. Once per day as an immediate action, a tumorian can recall the information they studied and make a Knowledge check appropriate to a creature that the tumorian can see, hear, or otherwise interact with. If the Knowledge check succeeds, the tumorian and their allies receive an insight bonus (shown in the table below) to attack rolls and Diplomacy, Bluff, Intimidate, and Sense Motive checks made against that creature for the rest of the day. The tumorian's allies must be within 30ft and able to see or hear the tumorian (who must be able to verbalize or otherwise explain their knowledge of the creature) to receive this bonus.
: 10-14: +1
: 15-24: +2
: 25-34: +3
: 35 or higher: +4
Tumorians have a long history of studying a variety of subjects relating to arcane magic, making them Arcane Scholars and granting them a +2 bonus to either Knowledge (Arcana) or Knowledge (Planes). From their Polygot ability, tumorians receive +2 Linguistics and an additional known language at character creation.
Category:Ealdremen Races