Chel

Chel

Appearing as a humanoid shaped mass of crystals, chel are an uncommon race that prefers to remain concealed behind trickery. Having lived for many centuries beneath the earth, chel civilizations consisted of large cave complexes that gradually became abandoned over the years, in some part due to the shifting of tectonic plates. The chel grew more integrated in outside communities after the decline began. More recent events saw a second decline which scattered the chel to the four winds, leaving many to find their own fate rather than relying on a community.

Chel’s bodies consist of two kinds of crystal, one serving a function similar to that of bone while being similar to metal in construction. The other type of crystal contains a liquid that serves as the chel’s blood. This material is slightly thicker than blood, and hardens into a glasslike structure shortly after being shed. Chel bodies have a very open structure, with a single main crystal forming a structure similar to a human skeleton. Chel have angular features, with new growths of crystal that are shaped as they grow. Chel can come in a wide variety of appearances beyond this simple constant. Some are truly translucent, with a body that refracts light and can be seen through, while others are a ruby-like mass, mottled like marble, or appear to have veins running through them. Many chel have a face that appears almost like a prism (often with a point towards the front where their nose is) with careful, deliberate carvings ranging from depressions to entire artistic pieces done in relief. They have mouths slightly wider than those of humans, with sharp, unevenly serrated teeth. They have eyes of a variable hue, and their eye color often changes as they age. Chel’s eyes actually have multiple corneas, and with enough practice, a chel can shift these corneas individually. This dynamically changes the color of a chel’s eyes, though this is limited to which colors the corneas are. Chel grow new corneas as they age, retaining the old as well, and eventually the cornea’s structures prevent them from shifting their eyes to certain colors. Their bodies share common humanoid shapes, with male chel having slightly wider shoulders and hips. They have five fingers and toes, with their smaller bones made of numerous tiny, fused crystals. Their height and weight vary massively, with individuals from heights of 3 feet to 8 feet being reported. Their height seems to be affected by some sort of limit to their minimum and maximum mass, with shorter individuals always being wider and taller individuals always being thinner, barring a few incidences of genetic deviance.

Chel are highly individualistic, and often can be rather transparent with their intentions, particularly when in regard to something they are passionate about. This is simply a tendency, however, and chel are extremely astute at creating and keeping up ‘false passions’ designed to counteract the knowledge others may come by about such a tendency. Many chel are collectors, researchers, merchants or artisans who surround themselves with both true and false passions. To many chel, a false passion can be something they would want as their true passion, or something that interests them, enabling them to better sell their deception. Chel often dislike being compared to one another, even positively, as each of them understands the unique combinations of events required to have two chel be comparable, finding the sequences of events far more notable than the chel themselves. In chel groups, often one can tell how close one chel is to another simply by the intensity of their emotions. For chel who know one another very well, even an idle sentiment can carry some deeply hidden meaning.

Chel are a people born from stone, with unique crystals below the earth forming their bodies over a period of 10 years or more. They are grown from the sides of massive crystals known as husks, with the largest husks reaching up to 50 feet in diameter. The minerals in the area around a husk are often drawn in, and play a large part in influencing a chel’s appearance. As a result, most chel deposit husks when the time is right around particular minerals to give their children an appearance like the best looking stone they remember. Husks work like a filter, and first form a chel’s skeleton before forming the outer, soft layer of crystalline flesh as it excretes the skeleton over a period of many days. A husk needs to remain both air and water tight, and is in itself crystalline, rendering them just as vulnerable to destruction as eggs from any other race. Unlike other race’s eggs, a husk can produce multiple children over a period of many decades if left undisturbed.

With small populations and requiring very out of the way locations, there are few chel societies, but many are places that newborn chel can be raised out of harm’s way. Chel may also hostel other races in such places, usually being temporary arrangements. Many chel societies subscribe to a policy of elitism. This takes the form of only allowing the best to perform in many instances. This shapes young chel into one role or another very quickly. Those who do not excel are not mistreated beyond being ignored. This policy often leads many chel to leave over a number of years, as its competitive nature wears thin after some time even to most victors.

Though chel have little contact early on with other races in most cases, they have no issue understanding biological differences. For a chel, it may be normal to shave down certain parts of what could be considered its “flesh”, but it harms other creatures. While chel ingest minerals (including calcium from bones) in their diets in addition to meat and liquids, most other creatures cannot digest them in the same way. Most chel have issues with digesting plants if they do not begin eating them when they are very young, while humans have no such issue. A chel needs to eat only once in a three-day period, except during times of intense growth where a chel may need to eat up to nine times a day or risk fatigue.

Many chel lay claim to aspects of other’s cultures that they perceive to be of special value. Chel often practice gemcrafting as a result of this tradition, as the ability to turn underground surroundings into wealth was once a common skill in chel cultures of old. It is said chel society had a great falling out with the other races when some of them began to eat the flesh of sentient races (or were rumored to). The mass hysteria that resulted in a number of lynchings led many chel to retreat from multi-racial societies due to a fear for their lives. Other rumors involving chel that were used during these torpid years were that their crystal bones could be used to ward off aging and their eyes could be made into lenses that could see harmful magic.

Most chel dress in a manner similar to other humanoid races, with temperature very much being a factor for them. Chel use bits and pieces of clothing or ornamentation from different cultures, though few chel dress garishly. Many also set gemstones into their clothing or a favored object, often something they keep close by. Chel sweat much like humanoids do in order to keep cool, though they lose only pure water from their systems and do so more slowly.

Chel are extremely long-lived, showing signs of middle age around 800. Most have extensive notes concerning their earlier experiences, usually in a series of scribings or occasionally using mnemonic devices to jog their memory. Many chel cover a wide field of interests with their records, often placing extra emphasis on their favorite subjects.

## Racial Traits

* Ability Score Racial Traits (0): Chel are expressive and strong, but have a sensitive body. They gain +2 Charisma, +2 Strength, -2 Constitution
* Size (0): Chel are medium creatures and thus gain no bonuses or penalties for their size.
* Type (0): Chel are humanoids with the chel subtype.
* Base Speed (0): Chel have a base speed of 30 feet.
* Languages (0): Chel begin play speaking Common and Terran. Chel with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following languages: .
* See Magic (3):  Chel can cast detect magic at will as a spell-like ability. They additionally gain a +2 bonus on Spellcraft checks to identify magic items.
* Crystal Cutter (3): Chel gain a +2 bonus on Craft checks concerning crafting gems or metal items. They gain a +4 bonus on Appraise checks concerning precious gems and metals.
* Memoriam (2): A chel can choose to record up to 1 minute of its surroundings at up to 30 feet away as a free action. A chel can only hold one such recording at a time, and any new recording overwrites all of the old. A chel can play back this recording at any time as a standard action, projecting images from their body onto the surrounding environment in a 30 foot radius. This is an extraordinary ability.
* Quick Clotting (2): Chel only suffer bleed damage of any sort for 1 round before their body seals the injury naturally at the end of their turn.
* Reactive (1): Chel gain a +2 bonus to their initiative roll after being attacked in a surprise round. This bonus is not gained if the chel acts in the surprise round.

Racial Points: 11

Alternate Traits:

Catalytic Conduit (3): A chel gains a +2 bonus on Use Magic Device checks to activate spell trigger items and any spell trigger item the chel activates counts as having one higher caster level, up to a maximum of the chel’s character level. This replaces see magic.

Jagged Claws (2): A chel has two primary claw attacks that deal 1d4 points of slashing or piercing damage. Chel gain a +2 bonus on confirming critical hits with a claw against an opponent they have already hit in the same round. This replaces quick clotting.

## Random Chel Starting Ages

(13 - 16 years) | +1d6 years
(13 - 18 years) | +1d8 years

1 This category includes barbarians, oracles, rogues, and sorcerers.

2 This category includes bards, cavaliers, fighters, gunslingers, paladins, rangers, summoners, and witches.

3 This category includes alchemists, clerics, druids, inquisitors, magi, monks, and wizards.

Random Chel Height and Weight

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