Parman

## Overview

A race of human native to the inner continents, parmans have lived their lives for the most part in stability and security. Freed from the dangers of monster attacks and banditry, the only obstacles between parmans and prosperity are political and economic. As such, they spend most of their time in those arenas, debating over social or governance policy while enjoying the benefits of their central location. This allows them to experience much of what the wider world has to offer, although with status and standing so important, expressing a genuine, positive opinion over something judged to be low-quality can be equivalent to exile.

Parmans adapt by veiling every statement with unspoken meaning and wearing a facade to keep themselves guarded against ostracization. Despite this danger, they find it difficult to resist appreciating the marvels that trade brings to their doorstep; although some would call this appreciation condescending, patronizing, or fetishistic - but parmans see no problem with this. After all, isn't that a small price to pay for taking part in the safe lands that the parmans have built?

## Mechanics

Standard Race Traits

* Ability Score Modifiers: Parmans get +2 Constitution and Charisma, but -2 Wisdom. Parmans are worldly in their mental and physical experiences, but are burdened with an acute lack of self-awareness.
* Size: Parmans are Medium size, and thus have no bonuses or penalties due to their size
* Base Speed: Parmans have a base speed of 30 feet
* Languages: Parmans begin play able to speak Common and one local language. Those with high Intelligence can choose any language they want.

Other Race Traits

* Practiced Consumption: Consuming potions, drinks, food, or medicines takes one act instead of two. If doing so would take longer, it takes one act less.
* It's Called "Culture": You gain a +2 bonus to Appraise and one Lore, Artistry, or Perform skill, and one of those types of skills is always a class skill for you.
* Connoisseur: Whenever you would gain a bonus to a roll from a consumable item or a class ability with limited rounds of use per day, increase that bonus by +1.

## Society

With the majority of parmans secure in their daily survival, the main thing that separates parmans from other races is their ubiquitous possession of leisure time. Those who fare well economically, in addition to re-investing their wealth and spreading their influence politically, tend to become patrons of the arts in order to both show off their discerning taste and allow them to fill their leisure time with whatever wonders they personally desire. Those who are less fortunate often enter service industries in the employ of the former group, especially if doing so would allow them to work their way up in social or economic ranking.

All in all, parman society is both physically and culturally the center of the world, and the long arms of their trade routes allow them to go on continent-spanning journeys in the space of a single museum room, opera house, or artistic exhibition. While this does mean that parmans excel at seeing and appreciating the best of all races and kingdoms, accumulating the knowledge of a polymath along the way, it has the unfortunate side effect of diminishing their own desire to create, as well as creating social divides wherever there's a disagreement about quality.

## Religion

Parmans worship any and all gods, frequently discussing their personal views on the divine with others and adopting new viewpoints from both local forums and foreign lands wholesale. The most popular gods among parmans include Ketar Mozog, who is often credited with the social graces that allow parmans to enjoy their current stability, Vicenta Salcedo, whose domain of art and inspiration gives life meaning and enjoyment, and Jolein Composed of Desire, whose objective judgement allows good, high-quality works to be differentiated from the low-brow cultural chaff that so often makes its way into the world.

Many also pay homage to Zhihao Jin, although the orcish god supremely dislikes the parman tendency to consume and analyze instead of create and invent and rarely pays his typical parman worshipers any attention. In a similar vein, parmans appreciate Fa'qamuu Twice-Heavenbound solely as a deity of celestial bodies and the sky, and entirely ignore their tenets of asceticism and withdrawal from the material world.

## Relations

Parmans, while gregarious and usually well-read, take much of their knowledge of other races and kingdoms from written or performed works and local popular culture, which means that the images in their head can differ substantially from reality.

Aasimar, tieflings, and aphorites easily fit into parman society, although aphorites tend to quickly become recluses in order to avoid the subtle barbs of parman social etiquette.

Ganzi dislike when parmans turn their individuality into entertainment, and find that they're only really unique in their opinions about the works of others - boring.

Fetchlings, on the other hand, find the excitement that sends parmans into a frenzy when listening to faraway news or looking at exotic goods to be borderline adorable, and often seek out dedicated patrons among the race.

Changelings are always both more unnerving and less interesting than parmans believe, and their harsh treatment leads changelings to try and prey on parman communities more than others.

Dhampir are strangly welcome in parman lands, although they quickly grow tired of the assumptions about their blood-drinking habits and history-spanning life experiences.

Drelmans consider parmans to be a degenerate branch of the same race and are willing to trade with them, but relationships never go further than that.

Drow are able to navigate the delicate social structure of parmans with ease thanks to their emotional sensitivities, although when they inevitably respond to an insult with rightful indignation, the resulting amusement is often so humiliating that they refuse to return.

Dwarves look at parmans and see only an inability to work with their hands, and keep moving. Duergar have never thought of parmans in their life.

Elves and parmans get along easily due to their shared love of beauty, but elves hate how parman settlements seem to expand and devour all the natural resources around them without mercy. Ghorans themselves are victims of this, and number parmans among their most hated and feared races - not only do individual parmans harm ghorans, but as a culture, they glorify the plantfolk's death as a delicacy.

Gnomes and ratfolk note that parman settlements are the easiest places in the world to conduct a project or trade, as every person is supportive of their efforts, even if they seem to regard it as spectacle instead of a grand dedication or invention.

Grippli and lizardfolk both hate parmans for their insulting treatment of their cultures and their expansionist tendencies.

Halflings, ifrits, kobolds, nagaji, vanara, tengu, and kitsune all get along reasonably well with parmans, after the initial shock of being different from their tales and stereotypes has passed.

Hobgoblins and orcs both see parmans as pathetic cowards that are unable to wield arms and so they resort to bandying words.

Oreads tolerate parmans as neighbors and fellow townsfolk, but they do not enjoy being romanticized or held up as paragons or representatives of their race, and rarely pursue parman friendships. On the other hand, skinwalkers and vishkanya both enjoy that their racial traits are considered exotic and cool by parmans - for skinwalkers, it's a much better option than fear, and for vishkanya, such opinions allow for infiltration and manipulation without even trying.

Suli, unlike kobolds, easily see through the facades of parmans, and their noble pride does not take well to the implicit condescension nor the caricatures made of their heritage. Sylphs, ever-ready to investigate, find that parmans have intriguing opinions on various works but are rather bland themselves - they are glad to engage in conversation with the worldly parmans, but never bother to seek out hidden information about them.

Undines, strangely enough, find that their emotionless appearance grants them complete mastery of almost all social situations involving parmans, and they have no problem rising rapidly through parman settlements or forming long-lasting relationships with them.

Goblins are beloved by parmans and love them back, for the parmans see themselves in goblins: a hopeful, ever-inspired folk who seek out joy all over the world. Goblins are rarely astute enough to note that parman understanding tends to stop at the surface level, but they have no problem with such things because their songs and celebrations are often no more than surface-level in their entirety.