Combining the torsos and visage of a human with the talons and wings of a predatory bird, Harpies bear a commanding presence.
Songs from the Feyrealm have long captured the attention and stolen the hearts of mortals, sometimes to their own detriment. At one of the last Fey Galas where the Seelie and Unseelie Court attempted a united event in peace, members of the Unseelie Court lured away the favored attendants and servants of a jealous deity. Those who stole away the goddess’s winsome feathered devotees were turned into the cruel creatures who lure travelers to their death, and those who danced and drank with them unknowingly were not spared the punitive transformation.
A curse from a god can seldom often be broken, and rather than lament their new forms, the Harpies of the Feyrealm pursued True Harpies into Retroggio, taking flight as monster hunters. They would emerge from the sunset sky shortly before the Goblinoids were banished, as well. Some would be distracted from their task and join the wars on Retroggio, while many disappeared into the high mountains and desolate areas where True Harpies would go to hunt, only rejoining again in small numbers when Gigan caught up to them as a link to society.
When the call for aid at the dawning of the Calm Before’s time came, Harpies answered. They could not have predicted the Upheaval, but they were able to help stave off total ruin in areas leading up to The Now.
Appearance
Haunting lonely mountains and sheer cliffs, expanses of desert and isolated mesas, there is little to divide “True Harpy” monstrosities from their more human-friendly counterparts. Harpies, people as we know them, have adapted to standards of modesty and expanded tool use, and, chiefly, don’t go around eating, luring out and torturing people. While the gender divide amongst Harpies seems on par with the usual dimorphism of humanoids, it’s noted that where they roost in high number, they form matriarchal groups.
Independently of any settlement or bounty board’s influence, they began to appear to any civilization they could communicate with to try and establish just this: “We know ourselves from the monsters in the wild. Leave them to us, or you could get us killed.”
HARPY TRAITS
Creature Type. You are a Humanoid.
Age. Harpies mature at the same rate as humans, and live up to 150 years.
Size. Their long, bird-like legs give them slightly taller but still overall Human-like heights. You are Medium.
Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet.
Flight. Because of your wings, you have a flying speed equal to your walking speed. You can’t use this flying speed if you’re wearing medium or heavy armor, or in an enclosed area (a tunnel that is 5 feet wide or less) where you are unable to spread your wings.
Talons. You have talons that you can use to make unarmed strikes. When you hit with them, the strike deals 1d6 + your Strength modifier slashing damage, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Eyes of a Hawk. Tracking and hunting monsters and threats is your ancestral calling. You therefore have proficiency in one of the following skills of your choice: Investigation, Nature, Perception or Survival.
Songbird. You have proficiency in one instrument of your choice, and you have advantage on any Charisma (Performance) check you make to sing.
Rendjule, the demi-god of nature and creation, was slain on the Material Realm, and where their divine blood struck the land, the first of the Arcanants were formed.
Arcanants have been long-sworn to protect Retroggio, and the oldest among them have watched the fall of ancient tyrants, the rise of modern civilization and its collapse during the Paradox Upheaval, all in one lifetime, spent happily avoiding a walled or paved city. The violent restoration of the Schizmwood is broadly viewed as scales being rebalanced.
Their long lifespans and intense dedication to the balance of nature imparts them with a perspective that feels utterly alien to most other creatures. An Arcanant taking a closer look to involve themselves in the goings-on of more short-lived creatures is incredibly rare, but not unheard of.
Appearance
Angion Arcanants are more shy of common society, with appearances that evoke that of plants; trees, flowers and leaves alike, and their skintones will often have shimmering patterns and lines, like swirling vines, or the bark of a tree. Their hair thusly runs vivid and varied across the color spectrum, in high red ruffles like a carnation or low drifting strands like a willow. Their eyes share this expanded color array, and often have irises that expand in a higher ratio than the sclera.
Arthron Arcanants, as the name implies, resemble humanoids that have the features of bugs and insects. Compound eyes are common, while some have visibly fixated pupils like a mantis, and to their deep chagrin, there are some that are referred to as “Arcane Ants” for their resemblance to the tunneling insects. They have a variety of patterns, vivid stripes, antennae, and varyingly soft or scratchy tufts of fuzz.
Both variants of Arcanant have short, pointed ears, that may just be hidden or just protruding from their hair. Sometimes also obscuring their ears are unique features that may form in bug wings and mandibles for Arthrons, or petals and leaf-shapes in an Angion, usually encompassing an area from the temple to the lower jawline. They have the same gender spectrum in identity and dimorphism as most humanoids, including sexual reproduction, with females normally standing much taller than males.
ARCANANT TRAITS
Creature Type. You are a Humanoid.
Age. An Arcanant matures at the same rate as a Human, but can live for up to 800 years.
Size. Their height regularly goes just a bit short of 7 feet, with a tendency for males to be shorter. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet.
Keen Senses. You have proficiency in the Perception skill.
Hivemind. You can speak telepathically to any creature you can see within 30 feet of you. Your telepathic utterances are in a language you know, and the creature understands you only if it knows that language. Your communication doesn’t grant the creature the ability to respond to you telepathically.
ANGION TRAITS
Speech of Beast and Leaf. You have the ability to communicate in a limited manner with Beasts, Plants, and vegetation. They can understand the meaning of your words, though you have no special ability to understand them in return. You have advantage on all Charisma checks you make to influence them.
Retroggio’s Mercy. As an action, you can touch a creature and roll a number of d4s equal to your proficiency bonus. The creature regains a number of hit points equal to the total rolled. Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
ARTHRON TRAITS
Spider Climb. You have a climbing speed equal to your walking speed. In addition, at 3rd level, you can move up, down, and across vertical surfaces and upside down along ceilings, while leaving your hands free. You must be barefoot to benefit from this feature.
Arthropod Magic. You know the infestation cantrip. You can cast animal friendship an unlimited number of times with this trait, but you can target only insects or arachnids with it.
Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells when you cast them with this trait (choose when you select this ancestry).
The year in Retroggio is presently 2050. The realm has had its ups and downs, with the most recent century capping off a destructive cataclysm that brought a screeching halt to a post-industrialized era, and left all manner of creatures in an anachronistic world of magic and ruin.
The Winter of 2049 was particularly harsh, but with aid granted from a nearby citadels that rely on the borderlands for scavenging supplies and larger valleys to farm for food, Bounty Quests are beginning to be arranged in many lands, such as The Ruptured Desert.
Like most settings, there is a deeper history to Retroggio than its present, but current events and the stylings of the setting itself are the prime focus of its denizens.
Most peoples with a general education know of the different eras:
The Dawn of Time
When the gods arose and shaped the realm through the magical formation of The March of Time.
The Tyrant Crusade (0-1428)
When giants from the sky fought dragons for superiority on the Material Realm.
The Sovereign Culling (1429-1750)
When civilization tired of their ancient overlords and established independent societies.
The Calm Before (1751-1950)
A period of prosperity and formation of industry and societal infrastructure throughout the Realm.
The Paradox Upheaval (1951-1984)
When all the effort of the last 500 years came crashing down, and the Schizmwood took up root where it had been cleared.
Which brings us to the current era:
The Now (1985-2050)
The Present.
A near-century of watching society starve, become overwhelmed with death, witnessing the fall and resurrection of a capitalist ruling class and a share of aftershock-like magical disasters that freckled the lands has made some of the tenderest hearts grow hard.
100 years after the strange downfall of the more technologically-advanced times, Retroggio is now a scatted melting pot of people who have kept on trying to recover displaced technology, or embraced a return to magic. It's created a world that feels like post-apocalyptic patchwork of a post-1950's Truckstop Dystopia and a Recovering Realm of Magic.
Emerging from the reborn Schizmwood a decade after the Paradox Upheaval, no one is sure they want to know the truth of the Cryptids.
In 1961, under the Bog Moon of Opus, the first definitive interactions with Cryptids and the post-Upheaval world began. They were viewed no different than several other threats and anomalies that had begun to emerge out of the Schizmwood for their appearance, but it was at this point that they began to make more desperate attempts to communicate, to belong outside of the otherworldly woods.
Enough Cryptids had come together at that point that they had begun to build lives together, in spite of their mysterious origins: awakening inside the Schizmwood with no true memories of themselves. For several years they tried to adapt, seeing that escape from the forest was just as dangerous as living in it, but even with the visible ruin of the outer world of greater Retroggio, they saw a preferable peace, and relative harmony. Like the Vulprine who escaped the Abyss, the Cryptids wished to escape from the poisonous and labyrinthine forest.
Appearance
From their three-fingered hands and feet, to their long stretching tongues and mottled patterns on their skin, it’s a challenge to say what stands out the most about a Cryptid. They come in many body types and frames, usually with an unnaturally long and strongly-built neck with pointed ears that spire out from the jawline, and a crest down the front of their throat to their navels.
Amongst all the other visual oddities, the last two that stand out are their pupils and their coloration. Their eyes are centered with spirals, as if they’re mimicking the gnarled knots in the bark of the Schizmwood trees. And somewhere on their person, to align with the weird woods’ crimson foliate, there will be a vibrant red mark of some sort; perhaps they’re an unnaturally vivid redhead, or their throat or tongue carry the color, or even their eyes. Sometimes it will be a bit more muted, and you see a bit more of the purple pigmentation of the trees in their place of origin, but there isn’t an instance yet that the scarlet and violet trademark of the Schizmwood does not betray a Cryptid.
CRYPTID TRAITS
Creature Type. You are a humanoid.
Age. Due to the nature of their sudden appearance in the timeline, the oldest known is 300, with no signs of old age setting in. They seem to mature at a similar rate to Humans, reaching their adult height by age 11.
Size. Though it is difficult to anticipate a Cryptid’s individual frame, you are Medium.
Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision. 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 discern colors in that darkness only as shades of gray.
Tongue. Your tongue is long and dextrous enough to be used as a limb. As an action, you can make a special attack targeting one creature you can see within 15 feet, up to one size larger than you. The target must make a Strength saving throw (DC = 8 + Strength modifier + your proficiency bonus). On a failed save, the target is pulled up to 10 feet into an unoccupied space straight towards you. If you’re able to make multiple attacks with the Attack Action, this Attack replaces one of them.
Your tongue can also manipulate an object, open an unlocked door or container, stow or retrieve an item from an open container, or pour the contents out of a vial in a 10 foot range.
Sneaky. You have proficiency with the Stealth skill. In addition, without squeezing, you can move through and stop in a space large enough for a Small creature.
Schizmwood Instincts. Your deep connection to the Schizmwood has bestowed you with additional abilities via your bloodline. Choose one of the following abilities for your Cryptid:
Toxin Training. You have advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the poisoned condition on yourself. You also have resistance to poison damage.
Arboreal Abomination. You have a climbing speed equal to your walking speed, and can make Strength (Athletic) checks to climb difficult surfaces with advantage.
Gift of the Trees. You know one cantrip of your choice from the druid spell list. Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for that cantrip (choose when you select this Ancestry).
Beast-like ears, horns, tails and large teeth are the first impression of these exuberant people, and even post-calamity, life has never been as good for them as it is right now.
The Calm Before was a time of expansion and peace. Or, at least, so it seemed. Goblinoids first noticed that there was a frequency of monstrous attacks that grew, and key diviners and the magically inclined marked that the walls between realms was weaker than it was, allowing creatures who should not have been able to to slip unnoticed into the Material Tealm. Ancestors of today’s Vulprine are said to be lost souls, stolen into the Abyss eons ago only to emerge and steal a glance at the open sky and full moon.
It’s very romantic, and whether or not it’s the full truth is anyone’s guess of course, but the version of the story that is undeniable is that while waging war with unspeakable creatures and encroachers from deeper within the earth, Goblinoids began to witness Vulprine, more and more of them, shooting out from the Underground and laying waste to battlefields on their way out of their caverns. They would observe them stand in the fields outside of their caves, shivering in the surface’s night are to gaze at the moon, howling with outstretched arms.
Living in any condition besides that of their former lives in the Abyss has resulted in centuries of Vulprine living ridiculously full lives. Some lead lives that are hedonistically careless, putting pleasure and happiness before any other value. Others may find details of bureaucracy and the word of the law to seem pointless. As the saying goes, when applied to Vulprine, they were able to take themselves out of the Abyss, but unable to fully remove the chaos from their nature. They roam Retroggio in packs, about the same before the Upheaval as they are now.
Appearance
Though their faces and build are distinctly humanoid, there are features that make it impossible for a Vulprine to ever be mistaken for a true human. Most have curved horns that protrude from the sides of their head above their ears, which are variably like that of a canine, deer or bovid, though some have a single central, or off-center, spiral horn. They also have tails to match - full bottle-brushes of fur that wag when excited, cropped faun-like nubs of fur or a long oxtail tipped in a tuft of hair.
Appearances other than that can vary quite widely, from the color of their eyes, skin and hair, the ratio in which said hair (or fur) covers their bodies, whether their teeth protrude from their lower jaw, or if their pupils are round, angled, or otherwise oddly-shaped.
VULPRINE TRAITS
Creature Type. You are a humanoid. You are also considered a fiend for any prerequisite or effect that requires you to be a fiend.
Age. Vulprine mature at the same rate as humans, but retain a youthful appearance and vigor until their 80s or 90s. Their average lifespan is around 150 years, with the latter half of it being the point at which they begin to appear aged and, eventually, elderly.
Size. There is no true average among Vulprine heights or builds; they vary in height as much as humans. You are Medium.
Speed. Your walking speed is 35 feet.
Darkvision. 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 discern colors in that darkness only as shades of gray.
Demonic Fortitude. Your hit point maximum increases by 1, and it increases by 1 every time you gain a level.
Abyssal Resistance. You are descended from a lineage that traveled an unusual and unforgiving landscape. You have resistance to cold and poison damage.
Rush of the Abyss. If you move at least 20 feet straight toward a target and then hit it with a melee attack on the same turn, you can use a bonus action to push the target. The target must be within 5 feet of you and no more than one size larger than you. Unless it succeeds on a Strength saving throw against a DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier, you push it up to 10 feet away from you.
Unfathomable Leap. You can add 10 feet to your jumping distance, whenever you make a long jump or a high jump, even when making a standing jump. This extra distance costs movement as normal.
Goblinoids as they are known now have been the increasingly populous folk of industry and expansion.
Emerging from the Feyrealm at the end of the Third Era, Goblinoids were often used in wars and conflicts that were held in proxy, so that the Seelie and Unseelie court would not have to dirty their hands with actual combat. Not wanting wars between the courts of the Feyrealm to become like that of Giants and Dragons, there was instead a full truce bartered by both courts, and a banishing of their Goblinoid Armies.
The benevolent but flighty Arch Fey decided to pour proverbial gasoline onto a fire by dumping them into the Material Realm.
Giant and Dragon leaders both came courting both former Seelie and Unseelie battalions. An Unseelie Goblinoid commander named Ghirotle Darvax is credited as extending a proper truce to a Seelie general named Runtierre Pavlova, where both sides choose unanimously to refuse leadership of a Dragon or a Giant. United, they insist on fighting for themselves and finding a place in the deep caverns and surrounding thickets of Retroggio to call their own.
This united front overtook the last caves of the sheltering humans, and claimed the caverns in the bases of mountains. Surface history acknowledges that Goblinoid involvement lead to the fracturing of Gigan and Dragon loyalists into the third “rebel” army, and allowing The Calm Before to set in.
Beneath the surface, Goblinoid expansion into mines and caves drove out the last of ancient humanoids known as the Stoutbloods. Common belief is that this was some sort of genocide, and few believed the Fey Tales that the dwindling fortresses of the Stoutbloods were suddenly desolate, crumbling and abandoned. It was certainly convenient that now the Darvax Company had access to countless coal mines, but what good importer would want to start a fuss and drive up the fuel prices?
Goblinoids marked the 1800s as the beginning of a decline, one sudden and rapid; creatures began to emerge. At first it was monsters, violent brutes, growing in number and demanding specialized attention and increased efforts of defense. Centuries of war and suspicion of events that had taken out the Stoutbloods had them prepared, but not nearly enough.
The Vulprine began to emerge from caverns so deep that not even the Goblinoids dared to delve into them for fuel. Neither side could understand one another, and though there was a series of fearful skirmishes, when the fiendish humanoids were able to flood up out of the deep and into the Goblin Cities, they continued, out into the open night air. Mining was more complicated, after this, and eagerness to resume their status quo kept them occupied, not wanting to lose their profits or pride by seeking outside help.
All of this intensified deeply, up until the Paradox Upheaval, when it appeared to many of the subterranean Goblinoids as nothing more than a slight quake, a setback of a cave-in, but nothing catastrophically foul for them. Some of them wouldn’t learn of how the world outside changed for weeks. An admirable amount of them would leave, to seek out connections and offer aid to those they knew of out in the surface world when the dust cleared, somewhat; however, it wasn’t difficult for them to maintain their places of power.
Appearance
The major division of Goblinoids stands between the smaller and more human-sized variety.
Simply known as Goblins, the smaller of the two average between two to three-and-a-half feet tall, with gangly limbs and yellow-green to minty-aqua skin that appears strongly textured and often a bit moist, like a dog’s nose. Reflective cat-like eyes are wide-set in their faces, with sharp teeth and large, bat-like ears and noses, with pink or red pigments. They’re often full of enthusiasm and a challenge to contain, physically and socially.
Holding a lofty prefix, on the other hand, Hobgoblins are a bit more broad than they are tall in build. They tend to average just short of six feet in height, but there are many outliers. Opposite of the goblins, their skin ranges from yellow-orange to deep crimson in complexion, with teal-to-blue markings in their nose and ears. While they also are reminiscent of bats or felines, still clearly reading as a nocturnal or low-light creature, many of their features also seem closer to that of a Human’s in makeup.
GOBLIN TRAITS
Creature Type. You are a Humanoid. You are also considered a goblinoid for any prerequisite or effect that requires you to be a goblinoid.
Age. Goblinoids mature at the same rate as humans and have lifespans similar in length to theirs.
Size. Goblins vary from 3-and-a-half to just shy of 4 feet tall. You are Small.
Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet.
Superior Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light. You discern colors in that darkness only as shades of gray.
Sunlight Disadvantage. You have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks based on sight and attack rolls when you or the target of your attack in bright sunlight.
Fury of the Small. When you damage a creature with an attack or a spell and the creature’s size is larger than yours, you can cause the attack or spell to deal extra damage to the creature. The extra damage equals your proficiency bonus. You can use this trait a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining all expended uses when you finish a long rest, and you can use it no more than once per turn.
Nimble Escape. You can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action on each of your turns.
Puckish Panache. You gain proficiency with two of the following skills of your choice: Acrobatics, Deception, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand or Stealth.
HOBGOBLIN TRAITS
Creature Type. You are a Humanoid. You are also considered a goblinoid for any prerequisite or effect that requires you to be a goblinoid.
Age. Goblinoids mature at the same rate as humans and have lifespans similar in length to theirs.
Size. Hobgoblin height range is very close to humans, but with a somewhat sturdier build. You are Medium.
Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision. 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 discern colors in that darkness only as shades of gray.
Saving Face. If you miss with an attack roll or fail an ability check or a saving throw, you can draw on your bonds of reciprocity to gain a bonus to the roll equal to the number of allies you can see within 30 feet of you (maximum bonus of +5). You can use this trait a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Technical Prowess. You’ve grown familiar with a set style of tactics, and have honed yourself to a flawless execution. Starting at 3rd level, choose one of the options below:
First Strike. If you hit a creature with an attack roll, the creature takes an extra 2d6 damage if it hasn’t taken a turn yet in the current combat
Bracing Defense. When a creature within range hits you with an attack while you’ve taken the Dodge action, you can use your Reaction to make an Attack of Opportunity.
Untouchable. You have advantage on saving throws and ability checks to avoid or escape the Grappled condition.
You can train yourself to use a different tactic every time you level up, but can only ever commit to knowing one of these techniques at a time.
Great reptiles of a more bestial nature were once cowed and tamed by dragons that held dominion over all life.
Though they were made to be more humanoid, to follow intelligent order and command, and thought to be easily war-like, there was a degree of innocence in their rebellion, even if they were ignorant of it. The Sauriens of old did not care for the wasted effort of the Draconic wars against giants; they had none of the ambition of rulership of a dragon, or the sense to desire a kingdom or lay down roots.
Unlike Nagas, who are motivated by a desire to experience something of the human element of their origins, a Saurien is focused on their own natural march. Some of them may move about between the seasons on paths that never see cities or settlements and live off the land, while others have possibly set up routes to intentionally stop near civilization, learning about new tools and enjoying the chance to indulge in the niceties of modern relaxation.
Though many were rallied under the call of the Draconic rulers in the Tyrant Crusade, they were also frequently the first to abandon their posts when the Sovereign Culling began. Some of them may have bothered to carry threads of their history, but the majority only care for keeping track of what is most practical.
Appearance
Powerful jaws and thick legs, tails with plate-like spines or plumage, crests and frills upon the head and neck, with coloration that tends to be one that easily blends in the natural environment their lineage favors.
This means soft greens and brown stripes in the forest and jungles, gray or gold patterns amongst rocky mountains and dried out hillsides, delicate blues or even whites amongst oceans and beaches, along with any coloration that makes sense in a dinosaur. The influence of their Draconic progenitors and their appearance by design is also a factor that still makes itself known in their genetic make-up; a Saurien may sometimes have vivid red scales, reflective black patterns with a tan underbelly, or another color like that of a chromatic dragon.
The two key types of Saurien are the Rex, a massive and predatory-looking figure that rivals the Gigan for size while sporting mostly scaly hide, and the Raptor, a wily little beast that will make up for its stature in numbers and have a propensity for feathers. Perhaps out of an instinct to peacock themselves, the more feathered a Raptor is, the more likely it is to prefer dressing up in humanoid-inspired fashion. It’s said that a Saurien Rex will almost always shun clothing in all but the most extreme of weather.
SAURIEN TRAITS
Creature Type. You are a Humanoid.
Age. Sauriens reach adult size by 10, but do not mature until they are closer to 20, with lifespans slightly over 100 years.
Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet, and you have a swimming speed equal to your walking speed.
Hold Breath. You’ve adapted to aquatic surroundings and survived environments riddled with dust storms. You can hold your breath for up to 15 minutes at a time.
Natural Armor. You have tough, scaly skin. When you aren’t wearing armor, your base AC is 13 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield’s benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.
Nature’s Intuition. Thanks to your historic connection to nature, you gain proficiency with two of the following skills of your choice: Animal Handling, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Stealth, or Survival.
REX TRAITS
Size. A Rex can range from over 5 to just about 7 feet tall. Your size is Medium.
Bite. You have a fanged maw that you can use to make unarmed strikes. When you hit with it, the strike deals 1d6 + your Strength modifier piercing damage, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Hungry Jaws. You can throw yourself into a feeding frenzy. As a bonus action, you can make a special attack with your Bite. If the attack hits, it deals its normal damage, and you gain temporary hit points equal to your proficiency bonus. You can use this trait a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
RAPTOR TRAITS
Size. The smaller of the Sauriens, Raptors stand 3-4 feet tall. Your size is Small.
Claws. You have oversized claws on your hind feet that you can use to make unarmed strikes. When you hit with it, the strike deals 1d6 + your Strength modifier slashing damage, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Clever Hunters. You have advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of your allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated.
