Illithari

The **Illithari** are a homebrew subrace of humans from the Underworld of Verum. They are descendants of slaves of the Illithids and have gained psionic powers as a result.

## Background

The Illithari are descendants of humans who were stolen from dragonkind early in their creation. The Illithids in the Underworld found their biomass useful not only as a food source, but for its malleability which made them potent psionic batteries. Eventually a civil war of the grand minds allowed the first of the slaves escape their mental prisons and flee to all corners of the underworld eventually founding a secret sanctum in the light of a great crystal. They attempted to hide themselves by locking away their psionic strength in the hopes they would not be discovered.

Some of the illithids began to feel sympathy for these humans, bileving themselves wrong to enslave them. One notable Illithid was injured and lost its memory. It was found by one of the Illithari who nursed back to health and even gave it a name. It was known as Solomon Hancock. Eventually his memory returned and he felt horror for how his people treated these humans. As a result he raised up an army of humans and like-minded Illithids and fought for their freedom. His rebellion failed, however, and the people he tried to save were returned to their mental prisons. As punishment Solomon was banished to the surface to live with his failure.

He was found by witches on the surface who took him in and in exchange for their care, he provided protection for them. During this time he still wished to return and free the Illithari from the great minds and take his place as a scion of his people. In the 6th era, Solomon tried once again and ventured into the Underworld with a collection of Kalkatesh's bravest heroes. He was successful and tore the mental shackles of his people asunder allowing this branch of humans to return to the surface for the first time.

## Characteristics

llitharis look like normal humans except they have pale skin and ritualistic tattoos that they are born with. Their most notable feature is the gemstones that grow in a crown around their head which they use for their internal psionic power. The gemstone color matches with the element they end up manifesting.

## Psionics

The illithari have access to psionic abilities, inherited from their long contact with the Illithids. They will manifest with a specific element that their abilities will be tied to. Each of these manifested elements have associated phenomena that can be activated.

### Shatter

Shatter represents the stress on the characters soul to manifest phenomena. Psionics, rather then being a strain on the mind is instead a burning of the soul. Whenever a character's Shatter becomes 0, they fall unconscious as their soul is literally shattered. They must make a special set of death saving throws that cannot be interfered with, nor can any healing stop them. Should the character fail these death saving throws and die, they instead are raised as a husk. Husks are horrible and dangerous monsters that seeks to drain the souls of those around it.  A character has an amount of Shatter equal to Attunement Slots + Proficiency Bonus. You regain your proficiency bonus in Shatter whenever you complete a long rest.

### Abilities

* Aether (Telekineticists)
	+ (Phenomena) Mage Hand – This functions as the cantrip Mage Hand, except that, you may manipulate up to 10 + 10 per character level in lbs. You may also control this to a distance of up to 120ft. This costs 1 Shatter.
* Air (Aerokineticists)
	+ (Phenomena) Gust – This functions as the cantrip Gust except that you may effect a creature of large or lower and you may push them up to 10ft +5x character level. The DC for this strength saving throw equals 8 + your INT modifier + your proficiency bonus. The object weight that you can manipulate is equal to 5 x your character level and may be pushed up to 20ft away from you. You may also, in addition to other effects, blast yourself in a direction up to 60ft, this can be used as flight, although not gracefully and you may only travel in a straight line. This costs 1 Shatter.
* Earth (Geokineticists)
	+ (Phenomena) Mold Earth – This functions like the cantrip Mold Earth, except the portion of earth you can effect is equal to 10 + 5x characer level, you may move this earth up to 10 + 5x character level away from you. This costs 1 Shatter. Fire (Pyrokineticists) (Phenomena) Control Flames – This functions like the cantrip Control Flames, except that the portion of fire that you can control is equal to 10ft +5x character level. You can expand this fire (5x character level)ft in one direction, if there are flammable materials in that direction. This costs 1 Shatter.
* Water (Hydrokineticists)
	+ (Phenomena) Shape Water – This functions like the cantrip Shape Water, except that the portion of water that you can control is equal to 10ft +5x character level. You can expand this water (5x character level) ft in one direction. This costs 1 Shatter.

## As a playable race

Illithari are a standard playable Human subrace in Verum. In order to begin play as a Human Illithari, you must be a member of the Great Coven, World Wanderers, or Night Guard. To join the Night Guard at Level 1 a Human Illithari must undertake the Crimson Crucible. When they do so they may ignore the stat prerequisites necessary to undertake it, but cannot receive any additional aid from any source. This includes Origin and Faith.

### Stats and Abilities

* Ability Scores: None
* Size: Medium
* Speed: 30 feet
* Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common and one extra language of your choice. Humans typically learn the languages of other peoples they deal with, including obscure dialects. They are fond of sprinkling their speech with words borrowed from other tongues: Orc curses, Elvish musical expressions, Dwarvish military phrases, and so on.
* Attunement: The Illithari have strong malleable souls and therefore begin play with one additional attunement slot.

### Player Characters

* Mataal Ika
* Mungus