Arachi

> *“Steeling themselves, the remnants of the town’s once proud guardsmen descended into the mine. It was in the deepest tunnels that they found the remains of the mining team, now naught but bones and scraps of cloth. And there they saw by the faint light of their torches, in the darkness, a hundred beading eyes and blood-dripped mouths. The defenders stood together and fought for their lives but it was all for nothing. They to, like the miners before them, were devoured by the swarm which, as they feasted, erupted into an orchestra of horrifyingly happy chittering.”* - excerpt from an old Imperial folk story ‘The Menace Below.’
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The Arachi were once thought to be a simple myth, a bogeyman story told to undisciplined children. “You best behave or the Arachi will come from the ground and take you away” frustrated parents would tell their young. But how naïve they were, for the Arachi are very much real and even more dangerous than the stories proclaimed. Once united under a single hive-mind the Arachi Swarm attempted to rise from the ground and devour the world; the subsequent Emergence War saw their Brood Queen slain, breaking their hive-mind and rendering the remaining hives independent ‘states.’ Now many Arachi search for new purpose and meaning in a world that fears and loathes them.

## **Physical Description - Genetically Manipulated**

All Arachi are bred for a very specific purpose. Their genetics are actively manipulated and chosen in the egg stage so that the specific offspring excels at its expected role, but not much else. Due to this gene manipulation the Arachi vary greatly in terms of physicality and mentality. Some Arachi are tiny ankle-height creatures, others are 30 foot monsters. These are typically specially-bred individuals, though. The average worker or drone is approximately 4-5 feet, similar to the size of Dwarves, with higher ranking Arachi easily reaching 6 feet.

Depending on where the Arachi is bred, their exoskeleton can be a variety of colours. Those whose home hive lies in a desert, for example, will likely be a sandy stone colour. Those in the jungle will be a variation of green. At the larva stage all Arachi are a soft pink, like a baby rat, but as they mature and their exoskeleton hardens their colour attunes to the environment and becomes fixed. Like their height, many different Arachi have different features, depending on their role. An Arachi might have mandibles or pincers or claws or even wings. Ultimately, it depends on what their specific breeding purpose is.

## **Mentality - Suspicion and Naivety**

Most Arachi typically live for 10-15 years, so many are not granted the decades of experiences that most other races benefit from. In the past, their race’s collective consciousness mitigated said issue, as the memories of their kind was absorbed into the hive-mind. A newly-born hatchling would be able to recall the experiences of an Arachi from 500 years ago. But that is gone, and so many Arachi fall into one of two camps - suspicious or naïve.

In a world that views them as pests, it is only natural for most Arachi to be naturally suspicious. Even within their own society, betrayal is constant and almost engrained in the culture - anything to improve their own lot in the hive. To these Arachi life is a complex web of lies, plots and schemes. As a result, they are often very slow to trust new people, in and outside the hive. They are also subtle; they are aware of their status in the world and know that to draw attention would be to invite trouble.

On the other end of that, some Arachi are simply bred without intelligence. These individuals are usually bred for slave labour or, in the time of the Emergence War, expendable suicide units. Those that somehow leave the hive are more akin to a dog than a person. They can be naively loyal, blindly ignorant and completely irrational. Unsurprisingly, then, many are exploited for labour and entertainment.

Due to their long periods of isolation and relative youth on the world stage, most Ararchi are fairly neutral on the other races - with the main factor being the individual’s mindset. Those that are naturally suspicious will, of course, be suspicious of these other races. On the other hand, those that are naïve could potentially be more optimistic and trusting. Opinions vary greatly.

## **Society - The Menace Below**

The Arachi live in independent, semi-autonomous hives that dot the entire world. Most are found in Allmenaria but some, including some of the largest, can be found in Morrion. On the surface, their hive mounds are large and imposing, if quite unsightly. But underneath lies a whole network of tunnels and rooms that stretch across the whole world. This place, in the tongues of the other races, is known as the ‘Under-Empire’ and is the very heart of the Arachi race.

In the past, all hives were united under the Brood Queen however her death fragmented Arachi leadership. Now the hives are led by old commanders and generals, almost all of which have adopted ‘leader sounding’ titles like overlord, warlord, or chieftain. These individuals rule their kind through intimidation and fear more than respect, relying on the old practices of genetically-bred loyalty to maintain power. Even then, that doesn’t always work as leaders will occasionally be murdered and replaced, typically with the very Arachi that killed them.

Most hives are isolationist in nature and do not actively participate in trade. Not that this really makes a difference, mind you, as the Arachi do not have much worth trading to begin with. Natural resources are scarce and almost exclusively used for the benefit of the hive and anything that is created unique to Arachi culture is rejected by merchants for being “crude, grotesque and unsellable.” As a result, most Arachi found outside their hives are labourers and workers, or mercenaries and bodyguards if they were bred for combat.

## **Arachi Adventurers - Search for the Self**

Arachi that take up adventuring almost always do it as a result of their lack of purpose. Without the hive-mind they are without definite aim and direction. Due to this, they join the few adventuring parties that will accept them in order to find a new meaning for their life out in the world. This is not a spiritual or religious journey as some might expect, for the Arachi do not have religion in the same way other races do. Instead, this journey is fuelled out of an intense feeling of existential dread, something that is no doubt worsened by their short life spans.

## **Arachi Names**

An Arachi is born without a name, for they are defined exclusively by their breeding purpose. They are expected to fulfil a role and then die, so names are wasted on them. The exception to this are modern Arachi leaders, who tend to adopt names from other cultures in an attempt to separate themselves from their subordinate brothers and sisters. A lower-ranking Arachi that has a name is almost always given this name by a member of another culture and race. As a result, Arachi names vary greatly depending on who gave it to them. An Arachi named by a Dwarf will likely have a Dwarven-sounding name, for example.

## **Arachi Traits**

Your Arachi character has an assortment of inborn and unique traits and abilities, gifted to them due to their unique lifestyle and biology.

* ***Ability Score Increase -*** your Dexterity and Constitution scores both increase by 1.
* ***Age -*** Arachi have much shorter lifespans than other races. They mature in adulthood in a matter of weeks, but most only live 10-15 years at most. Those bred for leadership can live up to 50 years.
* ***Alignment -*** most Arachi are about as ‘true neutral’ as one can get, to the point that they might as well be unaligned. They have no meaning of life or purpose and so cannot really be labelled as truly good or evil, lawful or chaotic. However, as they find their purpose and meaning this alignment is likely to change.
* ***Size -*** though their size varies depending on their breeding purpose, most ‘regular’ Arachi are between 4-5 feet tall. Your size is medium.
* ***Speed -*** your base walking speed is 30 feet.
* ***Darkvision -*** accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern colour in darkness, only shades of grey.
* ***Claws and Mandibles -*** like most Arachi, you are bred with features like large mandibles and sharp claws, which make for great weapons in a pinch. Instead of a regular unarmed strike, your claws will do 1d4 of slashing damage. Your mandibles will do 1d6 of piercing damage.
* ***Master of One* -** you have been bred for one purpose, and one purpose alone. This makes you proficient at it, but at the cost of something else. You gain an extra skill proficiency of your choice, but at the cost of a -5 disadvantage modifier for another randomly selected skill.
* ***Pheromone Receptors -*** Arachi have a language and are capable of speech, however they typically communicate using pheromones. As an Arachi, you have the ability to ‘read’ pheromones of other creatures, telling you how they feel and what they might be thinking.
* ***Languages -*** you can speak, read and write Common, Arachi and the dominant standard language of your hive’s home region. The Arachi language are variations of clicks, squeaks and chittering, and those sounds will likely spill over into whatever other languages an Arachi might speak.