Vodya

A Vodnik woman

## Appearance

The Vodyas are a broad mouthed humanoid race. With square chests, long arms and large eyes they appear vaguely frog-like. Their skin colours tend to range from a light olive colour to a light brown. Their hair is usually black or brown, with the occasional redhead. Their irises are most usually green or yellow, but red, bronze, and silver aren’t uncommon.

## Food sources

Due to the wet areas that they live in, vodnik diet consists of a lot of fish and shellfish. In some areas locusts are a very popular food source. They also cultivate dragon fruit, okra, cacao, eggplants, squash, barley, beans, and sugarcane.

The Vodya haven’t domesticated many animals. The most common animals are turkeys, which they cultivate for eggs and food, possums, which have domesticated themselves and take care of ticks and pests, and a species of large minks called the Ychean mink.

Besides this they also have hunters which gather fruits and herbs from the marshes and hunt for animals together with their minks.

## Society

Families are very important in vodnik societies. Vodyas tend to stay in touch with their parents and grandparents and usually have close relationships with them. People want to stay on good terms with their parents and grandparents because if you anger them they might not want to help you in the afterlife and might cause misfortune on you. Especially children are expected to please their parents and to do whatever they say.

The vodyas have a close connection to their past and their ancestors. They are afraid to do anything that will disappoint their ancestors and they are afraid to do something that their ancestors would not approve of. Because of this they are fairly unchanging in their ways and their culture is filled with traditions that they dare not break.

## Religion

Most of the vodyas follow the Atrin religion. The Dason branch of the Atrin religion is the most practiced form by the vodyas, however in the parts that are close to the western border with Laichi, people are more likely to follow the Mirchnik branch.

Shamans are very important in vodnik society. They function as their priests and communicate with the spirits for guidance, their blessing, or to help cure someone. They also perform the rituals related to death, birth, and any offering.

## Vodya Traits

***Ability Score Increase.*** Your Wisdom score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.

***Age.*** Vodyas reach maturity around the age of 20 and they can live up to the age of 120.

***Size.*** Most vodyas are between 5' and 5'6" feet tall, your size is Medium.

***Speed.*** Your base walking speed is 30.

***Hold Breath.*** You can hold your breath for up to 15 minutes at a time.

***Sticky Grip.*** Your hands and feet can release a sticky substance. You have advantage on ability checks and saving throws made to keep holding on to something and you have advantage on Strength (athletics) checks made to climb.

***Spiritual Fortitude.*** The spirits of your ancestors give you one final boost when you're about to go down during combat. When you are reduced to 0 hit points you can drop to 1 hit point instead. When you do so you gain temporary hit points equal to your Constitution modifier + 3x your level. At the start of your next turn you gain temporary hit points equal to your Constitution modifier + 2x your level and your turn after that you gain your Constitution modifier + your level in temporary hit points. At your fourth turn you drop to 0 hit points. While you have these temporary hit points you have advantage on your first weapon attack on your turn. If your temporary hit points are reduced to 0 your hit points immediately drop to 0. When you regain hit points this condition ends early. You can't use this feature again until you finish a long rest.

***Ancestor's Knowledge.*** When you don't know a certain piece of information you can channel spirits to ask for the answers. You can use your action to channel these spirits for 1 minute. When you do so you add your proficiency bonus to all of your Intelligence skill checks unless you are already proficient in said Intelligence skills. You can't use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.

***Languages.*** You can speak, read and write Common and Vodnik. Vodnik has a script of its own which is vaguely reminiscent to Dwarvish. Most vodyas speak Vodnik among themselves but are quick to switch to Common when foreigners are around and they are happy to share their language.

## Vodnik Names

The vodyas have names that are related to occupations. In the vodnik society it's sort of expected to follow into the footsteps of your parents, which causes most family names to still be relevant to someone's occupation, however this is not always the case.

**Male Names:** Lroch

**Female Names:** Eruka

**Family Names:**