Ghoran

## Overview

Ghorans are a species of ambulatory, intelligent fruit plants native to Airel. Originally considered little more than an exotic food source, over the centuries ghorans learned to speak and express their sentience to their harvesters. This discovery rapidly led to the criminalization of ghoran consumption on the central continent, which has since spread across the western half of the world mostly successfully - however, Airel still poses a danger for any ghoran foreigners who aren't certain about their abilities to defend themselves. Ghorans themselves are immortal, recreating new bodies every 20 years are so, and most ghorans in existence are not young - it takes 100 years and a certain set of circumstances to grow a new ghoran. As one of the races most preyed upon with the slowest method of reproduction, they're quite rare, and their alien mindset creates a much different, more primal view of the world than any of the creatures around them can understand. For a ghoran, life is spent blending in with mortal races while forever apart from them, trying to discern those who see them as companions from those who see them as food.

## Mechanics

* **Ability Score Modifiers**: +2 Constitution, +2 Charisma, –2 Intelligence: Ghorans are hardy, guileful, and eager to explore their emotions, but they process complex thoughts slowly.
* **Size**: Ghorans are Medium creatures and receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
* **Type**: Ghorans have the plant type but lack the immunities to mind-affecting, paralysis, poison, polymorph, sleep, and stunning effects that type usually has. The plant type features immunities that, when granted to a player character race, can be disruptive and overpowered.
* **Languages**: Ghorans begin play speaking a language granted by their Background and Sylvan. Ghorans with high Intelligence scores can choose any languages they want (except secret languages such as Druidic).

### Defense Racial Traits

* **Natural Armor**: Ghorans have tough, rugged skin and so gain a +2 Natural Armor bonus to AC.

### Feat and Skill Racial Traits

* **Past-Life Knowledge (Ex)**: Ghorans have memories encoded in their seeds. They treat all Knowledge skills as class skills.

### Magical Racial Traits

* **Natural Magic (Sp)**: Ghorans with a Charisma score of 11 or higher gain the following spell-like abilities: 1/day—detect poison, goodberry (created berries bud from the ghoran’s own body), and purify food and drink. The caster level is equal to the ghoran’s level. The DC for these spells is equal to 10 + the spell’s level + the ghoran’s Charisma bonus.
* **Seed (Ex)**: As a full-round action, a ghoran can expel the seed from an orifice in its abdomen. If planted in fertile ground and left undisturbed for 2d6 days, the seed grows into a healthy duplicate of the original ghoran, save that the duplicate can reallocate all skill ranks upon sprouting. Once a ghoran expels this seed, it gains 1 negative level, and it dies as soon as the duplicate sprouts. This duplicate replaces the previous ghoran character.

### Weaknesses

* **Light Dependent**: Ghorans are heavily light dependent and so take 1d4 points of Constitution damage each day they go without exposure to sunlight.
* **Delicious (Ex)**: Ghorans take a –2 penalty on Escape Artist and combat maneuver checks to escape a grapple against a creature that has a bite attack with the grab ability.

## Society

The majority of ghorans have no society of their own, and instead do their best to blend into settlements populated by other races. Where their consumption is illegal, ghorans slowly learn the local etiquette and mannerisms over the decades, eventually becoming a source of knowledge and oral history that may be valued and relied upon or treated as hearsay, rumor, or witchcraft. Many ghorans, unable to truly relate to the minds of mortal creatures due to their abstract and primeval emotions, focus on recording facts and objective knowledge, becoming scribes or librarians, while others make the most of their plant nature and become gardeners, farmers, herbalists, or druids. Those ghorans who live among those who consider them food necessarily become experts in adaptation and mimicry or stealth, honing perfect skills for an actor or spy, or fully decide to turn the tables on would-be predators by hunting them down first, relying on their sturdy bodies and ability to remain active without sleep to strike when others are at their weakest. Some still give up on adapting to other races at all, wandering deep into natural woodlands to exist among animals or fey.

## Religion

Ghorans have a strange relationship with the divine, as there are multiple gods who do not oppose the idea that they are food. Zhihao Jin and Nothing Left of Quibatus are especially reviled by ghorans for this, and Ketar Mozog's offering of social rules to protect them or Dowager Empress Kyouko's insistence that proper servants of the kingdom will be left alone do little to actually prevent other races from eating ghorans. At the least, all ghorans due to their sun-subsisting nature give at least some reverence to Fa'qamuu Twice-Heavenbound. Many also seek Agathon's aid due to his affinity to nature and suffering, and plenty worship Basang Ba, as she represents unfettered power not limited by civilization's rules. Those few ghorans who hunt down mortals or escape to the wilderness occasionally pay homage to Jolein Composed of Desire's Apparition, wishing for their activities to be hidden from the minds of others, or Alessandra Juntoso, who promises a slow decay to all temporary, mortal races. Ghorans are divided when it comes to Masik, as the god of death appears to have overlooked them when it comes to mortality, but his activities have also given rise to every race that hunts them.

## Relations

Almost all other races have the capacity to treat a ghoran as food, so ghorans tend to examine each individual for signs of threatening behavior and take appropriate action, even if the reputation of that race would make such a thing unthinkable.

Aasimar are interesting to ghorans in theory and study, but only idyllkin and plumekith seem to manage to get that interest to translate into friendship.

Aphorites find ghoran's ability to retain information admirable, but such partnerships are short-lived as the slight personality changes evident with each ghoran reincarnation unnerve and drive away the aphorite.

Changelings and dhampir find that ghorans have no fear of them, and often find tutelage or guidance under the plantfolk's observation.

Drelmans, orcs, tieflings, nagaji, dwarves, and vanara are as likely to eat a ghoran or burn them as fuel than befriend them, so such relationships are over before they even begin.

Parmans and hobgoblins, especially, view ghorans as nothing but a delicacy or firewood, and ghorans often would rather leave a settlement entirely than spend too much time nearby.

Drow and fetchlings both find ghorans interesting, but the tempermental nature of drow and the sycophantic tendencies of fetchlings means that the feeling isn't mutual.

Elves, gnomes, sylphs, and undine all get along well with ghorans. Elves and gnomes share a natural affinity with plants, and sylphs and undine have a similar elemental affinity, as well as an interest in ghorans that is unrelated to their bodily composition.

Suli and ifrits, unfortunately, have elemental natures that do not mix with ghorans and thus rarely get along, despite most suli's willingness to treat the rare ghorans as noble guests.

Grippli and lizardfolk see ghorans as good omens, and celebrate their visits with small festivals - being put on such a pedestal is strange for these ghoran, but some decide to stay and receive the well-wishing of the settlements for generations.

Halflings generally prefer a good roast to sentient fruit and their casual, sedentary lifestyle is easy to adopt by ghorans who often want nothing more than to absorb the sunlight and relax, so lasting friendship is most common between these two races.

The kobold obsession with fire and grandeur often scares off ghorans before any true interaction can begin, but those ghorans who seek to hunt down mortal races find that kobolds are easily molded into minions with a bit of flattery and subterfuge.

Oreads and ghorans get along, content to not understand the other while focusing on practical and day-to-day matters, and trust is often built between them before either of them notice.

Ratfolk find ghoran to be curious, and eagerly recruit the plantfolk for ulterior motives - which is to say, to help them grow alchemical reagents and to maintain the integrity of their burrows.

Skinwalkers, like ghorans, have a close relationship with nature, but both races tend to be on the defensive around others, resulting in an utter standstill of social interaction.

Tengu leap at the chance to meet a ghoran, either to gain access to their knowledge of past events, to examine their unique bodily composition, or to instruct them in the ways of the world.

Vishkanya are equally excited, but treat such a meeting as an opportunity to gain information for blackmail, to manipulate the ghoran into becoming a pawn, or to discreetly pass along their location in order to gain a monetary reward from ghoran traffickers.

Ganzi are usually sources of great confusion to ghoran, although those that treat such encounters as a learning experience find the ganzi tagging along with them, with their consent or not.

Goblins allow ghorans a glimpse of mortal life without pretense - silly, wild, joyous, and a danger to itself and others. Displaying this essential truth allows ghorans to instantly confirm or lay to rest any doubts about a goblin they may hold, without needing to worry about any ulterior motives within a goblin's mind.

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