Races Among the Stars 3: Draelik
As a rule, I dislike stereotyping entire species in sci-fi. Legends universe Star Wars did it all the time, and it only ever proved limiting, pidgeonholing entire species into roles based on the first member of the species we see.
Today’s subject, the draelik, kinda have that problem. This yellow or green-skinned race of gaunt humanoids with elongated craniums, with their tufts of cranial bristles and vestigial gills, hail from a waterless world that may have once been covered in oceans, but due to the fact their world lies in a nebula notorious for both its difficulty in navigation and its lawlessness, it is hard to tell exactly what happened to it.
The issue I have with the draelik is that they are mostly pigeonholed into being worshippers of entropy, finding joy in the slow unraveling of reality. Make no mistake, however, their faith is nothing like the cult of the Devourer, whom they consider foolish children thrashing about rather than watching the majesty of all becoming nothing at its own pace. Such zealots do not create except to make things that promote disorder and entropy, and seem to worship and take orders from the curious outsiders called sceaduinars, natives of the Negative Energy Plane.
Thankfully, despite touching upon being an unrealistic monoculture, there are plenty of draelik that do not follow this belief system, instead traveling far beyond the nebula to seek their fortune. Even then, it is hard to escape the nihilism of their culture, and many at least invest in the trappings of being mystics of the void to better sell their talents, but others still try to bring new wonder into the world.
Draeliks are durable and wise, but their unnerving demeanor and nihilism makes them few friends.
In the dim light of their homeworld, they possess strong darkvision.
Their association with the negative energy plane has granted them some innate magical ability, focused on illusion, inducing fatigue, and summoning up small whispy allies.
Dwelling in the shadows, they are surprisingly stealthy despite their yellow skin.
The connection to entropy and deathly energies does make them more resistant to their effects as well.
Their constitution bonus and association with entropy makes vanguard an attractive class option, but also note that solarian is popular for them in-canon as well, particularly unbalanced graviton-focused ones. They also favor wisdom, making mystic and instinctive biohackers attractive to them. Technomancer and mystic are likely unpopular except for those focusing on technologies that promote entropy and use negative energy, while soldiers and operatives play into their reputation as shadowy assasins. Envoys likely only occur when draeliks have a working relationship with other species, and witchwarpers likely show up only in the pursuit of new possibilities of nihilism or among those who reject the path of entropy.
Almost done. Tune in tomorrow for the conclusion of this week’s special!
