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Ancestries
Versatile Heritages

Common Ancestries

Dwarf

Dwarves have a well-earned reputation as a stoic and stern people, ensconced within citadels and cities carved from solid rock. While some see them as dour and humorless crafters of stone and metal, dwarves and those who have spent time among them understand their unbridled zeal for their work, caring far more about quality than quantity. To a stranger, they can seem untrusting and clannish, but to their friends and family, they are warm and caring, their halls filled with the sounds of laughter and hammers hitting anvils.

Elf

As an ancient people, elves have seen great change and have the perspective that can come only from watching the arc of history. After leaving the world in ancient times, they returned to a changed land, and they still struggle to reclaim their ancestral homes, most notably from terrible demons that have invaded parts of their lands. To some, the elves are objects of awe—graceful and beautiful, with immense talent and knowledge. Among themselves, however, the elves place far more importance on personal freedom than on living up to these ideals.

Gnome

Long ago, early gnome ancestors emigrated from the First World, realm of the fey. While it's unclear why the first gnomes wandered to Golarion, this lineage manifests in modern gnomes as bizarre reasoning, eccentricity, obsessive tendencies, and what some see as naivete. These qualities are further reflected in their physical characteristics, such as spindly limbs, brightly colored hair, and childlike and extremely expressive facial features that further reflect their otherworldly origins.

Goblin

The convoluted histories other people cling to don't interest goblins. These small folk live in the moment, and they prefer tall tales over factual records. The wars of a few decades ago might as well be from the ancient past. Misunderstood by other people, goblins are happy how they are. Goblin virtues are about being present, creative, and honest. They strive to lead fulfilled lives, rather than worrying about how their journeys will end. To tell stories, not nitpick the facts. To be small, but dream big.

Halfling

Claiming no place as their own, halflings control few settlements larger than villages. Instead, they frequently live among humans within the walls of larger cities, carving out small communities alongside taller folk. Many halflings lead perfectly fulfilling lives in the shadows of their larger neighbors, while others prefer a nomadic existence, traveling the world and taking advantage of opportunities and adventures as they come.

Human

As unpredictable and varied as any of Golarion's peoples, humans have exceptional drive and the capacity to endure and expand. Though many civilizations thrived before humanity rose to prominence, humans have built some of the greatest and the most terrible societies throughout the course of history, and today they are the most populous people in the realms around the Inner Sea.

Leshy

Guardians and emissaries of the environment, leshies are immortal spirits of nature temporarily granted a physical form.

Orc

Orcs are forged in the fires of violence and conflict, often from the moment they are born. As they live lives that are frequently cut brutally short, orcs revel in testing their strength against worthy foes, whether by challenging a higher-ranking member of their community for dominance or raiding a neighboring settlement. Many orcs seek glory as soon as they can walk and carry a blade or club, taming wild beasts or hunting deadly monsters.

Uncommon Ancestries

Athamaru

Athamarus are fish-like humanoids who form tight-knit undersea communities. In small settlements, they engage in the subsistence farming of seaweed, train eels to serve as mounts, and create elaborate works of coral art. Their interactions with other aquatic ancestries are strained, as athamarus have suffered mistreatment at their hands. However, they remain curious about potential connections and what new opportunities may offer.

Athamarus define themselves by their connections to the world around them. They live in communal settings among coral reefs and aquatic companion creatures that encourage large families and friend groups. Athamaru settlements established near river or sea trade routes usually maintain strong relationships with the sailors who regularly pass by, exchanging coral jewelry or information about nearby sea routes for surface goods, especially root foods like tubers, yams, and other vegetables, which they see as delicacies.

If you want to play a character who values community and survives the sea through effort alone, you should play an athamaru.

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Physical Description

Athamarus have a distinctive appearance that resembles fish. Their brightly colored skin often matches the reefs where they build their communities. Frills, barbels, and crested fins add to their flamboyant appearance. The sheer variety of crest shapes, scale patterns, and fin styles make individuals distinct, even as communities share features. These similarities are often environmentally advantageous, such as scales that allow them to blend into seaweed or longer toes in areas with stony seabeds.

Outsiders often note that athamarus have a distinctive smell, which comes from pheromones, used for both communication and defense. While the level of control varies, all athamarus can communicate basic emotions chemically, and individual settlements have unique variations to their pheromones that serve as a community fingerprint. Masters of pheromonal expression can communicate complex philosophical concepts purely chemically, occupying a role similar to master singers in other communities.

Athamarus value natural adornments that blur the lines between body modifications and jewelry. In areas where coral grows, tending reefs and their symbiotic species are highly valued tasks. Some fashion still-living specimens into earrings or cuffs, then gently guide the coral as it continues to grow. These pieces often stay in circulation for generations and are valued as living community history. Other uses of coral include integrating pieces in with the wearer's body in symbiosis, the coral providing nutrients and the athamaru ensuring access to sunlight and quality water.

Society

The largest population of athamarus lives in the underwater nation of Xidao in Tian Xia. There, smaller city-states follow their own government and leaders, though they have vowed to protect one another from the terrors of the deep should the need arise. The largest city-state, Yashabaru, has no direct control over the other settlements, but its leader serves as a figurehead for the region. Outside of Xidao, communities are more isolated and independent, though population centers include the Shackles, a reclusive settlement near Sedeq, and the large gulfs of Arcadia.

The smallest individual athamaru settlements might have only a dozen members, while the largest house hundreds. Athamaru communities connect with other aquatic inhabitants to build strong bonds that improve the quality of life for everyone involved. Animals are integrated into their communities as partners, particularly the domesticated eels that athamarus use as steeds. The eels generally roam freely, and athamarus train mounts from newly hatched elvers they raise.

Each community consists of genetically related athamarus, typically all born from a single parent. In most settlements, the parent is known as the matriarch and serves as the leader. When this parent nears the end of their life or otherwise stops laying eggs, several athamarus in the community choose to undergo certain physical changes, including an increase in size, to announce their intention to become the next matriarch. The decision to be considered a matriarch isn't taken lightly, as the eventual leadership role is responsible for the community's survival and continuation. Each community selects their next matriarch from these "hopefuls" in their own way. Such traditions include democratic elections, trials of knowledge, and contests of physicality involving deep diving or riding untamed wildlife. In Xidao, citystate matriarch candidates must present themselves to the High Matriarch and their council to be judged worthy of completing the transformation.

Sometimes young adults split off to create new communities, especially if resources become scarce or internal conflict escalates. If a group struggles as they establish a community, their former settlement often agrees to take them back if they agree to respect the extant leadership.

Other groups have mistreated athamarus in the past, so their communities maintain strong internal bonds. Athamarus consider it less risky to deal with each other first. While the most common activities between them are trade, communities also share information. Warnings about danger flow quickly. Safe opportunities are also shared, such as trustworthy land-dwellers and open markets. Such trust with outsiders, however, is easily lost and hard to regain. Most athamarus would rather flee—sometimes even uprooting an entire community—than risk open hostilities.

Athamaru names typically consist of three syllables. The first syllable is shared by all members of a generation, and the last two syllables identify an individual. When traveling outside their communities, they introduce themselves by their community name first. Some communities, particularly those in Xidao, break this convention, but those names still maintain a flow and identify athamarus hatched in the same year.

Sample Names

Aussandor, Cayiel, Corlena, Mithae, Onteac, Paquotal

Beliefs

Due to their community-minded nature, athamarus tend to favor beliefs and philosophies that focus on connection and aiding others. They are also aware that they sometimes require protection from the dangers of the sea, so some athamarus take on the roles of staunch guardians or religious figures who plead for intercession from sympathetic gods. Worship within a single community tends to favor one deity, with multiple temples being rare. In the Inner Sea, athamaru settlements typically revere the nature god Gozreh to strengthen their bonds with their surroundings or Erastil for guidance on forming healthy communities. In Tian Xia, the Duke of Thunder Hei Feng's favor is sought as athamarus navigate fickle seasons and politics, while those athamarus who guard the seas against horrors from the deep pray to the triad war gods Srikalis, Sritaming, and Sribaril for unwavering strength.

Popular Edicts

seek out new experiences away from your place of birth, lead your community to a better future

Popular Anathema

betray your community or otherwise knowingly do it harm

Athamaru Mechanics

Rarity Uncommon

Hit Points 8

Size Medium

Speed 20 feet, Swim 25 feet

Attribute Boosts Strength Wisdom Free

Attribute Flaw Intelligence

Languages Common, Thalassic, Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if positive). Choose from Alghollthu, Azlanti, Fey, Tien, and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent in your region).

Traits Amphibious, Athamaru, Humanoid

Low-Light Vision You can see in dim light as though it were bright light, so you ignore the concealed condition due to dim light.

Athamaru Heritages

Athamaru adaptations developed over centuries of underwater living while facing attacks from dangerous predators. Choose one of the following athamaru heritages at 1st level.

Coral Athamaru

Hopeful Athamaru

Kaleidoscopic Athamaru

Quilled Athamaru

Azarketi

Catfolk

Curious and gregarious wanderers, catfolk combine the features of felines and humanoids in both appearance and temperament. They enjoy learning new things, collecting new tales and trinkets, and ensuring their loved ones are safe and happy. Catfolk view themselves as the chosen guardians of natural places in the world and are often recklessly brave, even in the face of overwhelming opposition. They believe that strong communities, breadth of experience, and continual self-improvement aid them in this fight.

Centaur

Centaurs are proud nomads who range far and wide across their ancestral territories, protecting their lands from exploitation and intrusion. They are survivalists who forge tight bonds with family and community and stand firm in the face of danger. Many are skilled hunters, trackers, and warriors who do battle with bow, steel, and hooves. Brave and stubborn, they're willing to challenge even the fiercest foes and largest forces to protect their homes, kin, and the land within their domain.

As hunter-gatherers, centaurs rely upon the bounty of the natural world for sustenance. As youths, they're taught to nurture and respect their surrounding ecosystems so the land remains healthy and bountiful throughout their lives and is preserved for future generations. Centaurs understand that a land exploited or despoiled is a land unfit for survival, just as a herd overhunted dies off. In the ancient past, such carelessness and greed resulted in malnutrition, famine, and loss of territory, and most centaurs are careful not to repeat the mistakes of their distant forbears. Thus, centaurs prefer to adapt to their surroundings, rather than abuse their environments for their own comfort. They're guardians of nature, and their beliefs lead them to clash with careless urbanites and expansionists over exploitative and dangerous practices, including overhunting, overlogging, pollution, and city development.

Centaurs are happiest when mobile, and many feel restless or fall ill if cooped up or sedentary for too long. They're fond of racing and athletics, and are aggressively competitive, always striving to best their previous achievements and to outdo their fellows. This often results in centaurs being judged as contentious and boorish by outsiders. Most centaurs enjoy physical contests, particularly team sports, and award small but valued tokens to victors—though for many centaurs, bragging rights are the greatest prize of all. Not all centaurs compete as athletes, but most centaurs enjoy exertion and take naturally to activities that get their blood pumping and their heart racing.

If you want to play a character who runs free and proud, always looking out for their companions, you should play a centaur.

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Physical Description

Centaurs have the form of muscular humans with the bodies of horses from the waist down. They're hardy and stable, capable of carrying heavy burdens and cumbersome loads for long periods. Centaurs display great variation in their size, hair, and coloration, with most averaging 7 feet tall and weighing over 2,000 pounds. While coloration is often inherited, a centaur's coat markings are unpredictable, and many take pride in the distinct patterns, placements, and chromatic shifts of their coats. These markings are present at birth and don't change over the course of a centaur's life. In ages past, a centaur's markings were used to divine their future. Though this tradition has fallen out of favor since the death of prophecy, some particularly rare markings are still considered lucky or an ill omen today.

Society

Centaurs are originally from the continent of Casmaron, and most still reside there today, particularly in Iblydos and Iobaria. In Iblydos, many centaurs are agrarian, carefully and sustainably tending farmland and gardens, particularly for wildflowers, olives, figs, and grapes, from which they vinify a beloved (and potent) local wine. Thanks to popular folktales regarding the near-mythical centaurs Elthavus and Ventriadi, famed mentors to numerous ancient Iblydan hero-gods of old, it is traditionally believed that centaurs excel at training heroes. Centaurs have done nothing to dissuade this notion. Most centaurs enjoy the act of mentorship, and aging military leaders, healers, astronomers, engineers, and other experts are often thrilled to pass their knowledge down to younger generations. Thanks to their competitive nature, some centaur teachers compete with one another over who can train the most promising students, soldiers, and intellectuals.

Over the ages, centaurs spread throughout much of the Inner Sea via Iobaria, most notably the Isle of Kortos, where grudges against the citizens of Absalom are long-enduring. There, centaurs wage guerrilla warfare against the constant intruders into their territory and clash with nearby harpies and minotaurs. They range across the lowlands and forests, in alpine meadows, and throughout the Immenwood.

Centaurs maintain large territories that they range through in a nomadic lifestyle, living as mobile communities of hunter-gatherers. These areas are well defined and have been maintained through generations. At the heart of each territory is a centralized location of import. Often a religious site, meeting place, or camp is maintained for sick and the elderly centaurs who can no longer travel with the rest of their band. Occasionally, this camp is a permanent settlement, constructed of wood, limestone, clay bricks, or marble, depending on the region and environment, and surrounded by fields of carefully tended crops or flocks of chickens, goats, or sheep. Centaurs have a passing fondness for animals, but rarely keep domesticated pets and find horses off-putting.

A centaur band is a tight-knit community, led by a respected member of the group who's proven capable, wise, and calm under pressure. Usually, these leaders are middle-aged and older, as centaurs consider life experience a necessary quality in a leader. Rarely, a centaur or band chooses to become sedentary or integrate with a larger nation. These are often small bands whose territories have been destroyed or stolen, emissaries representing their bands, adventurers, loners, outcasts, or even bands who simply can't survive against a superior military enemy. Regardless, this choice is not made lightly, as most centaurs feel constrained in urban environments, particularly in settlements built for people smaller than them.

When built, centaur constructions are large and airy to allow for range of movement. Their buildings are communal, always aboveground, and open to the elements in places—wide doors held open, or roof and wall hatches to allow in light. Most are built of wood, thatch, and mudbrick while in Iblydos, harder materials like marble and stone are more likely. In Iobaria, they often repurpose old cyclopean ruins, which offer plentiful space.

In Iobaria, herbalism, medicine, and magical purification are more commonly valued skills, thanks to the incessant plagues and illnesses that are prevalent in the region. A centaur band dare not travel without a few skilled healers, and even hunting parties and scouts rarely split off for long. Centaur healers and herbalists frequently put aside their differences and affiliations to exchange knowledge at annual meetings known as Soothings. There, band representatives from across the nation exchange medical breakthroughs and other knowledge. The largest of these Soothings occurs biannually in Vurnirn, the largest centaur settlement in Iobaria.

In Kaer Maga, Cheliax, Molthune, and Oprak, centaurs have assimilated with the larger nations, sometimes living as citizens and merchants, but more often serving as soldiers and mercenaries. In Garund, centaurs range across plains and savannas. They get along well with other nature-conscious cultures, teaming up with catfolk, tripkees, elves, and orcs to battle demons near Lake Ocota, undead near the borders of Geb and Mzali, and other dangerous threats. Centaurs remain open foes with Taldor and Andoran, remembering well the old wars with the expansionist Taldan empire that drove them into the Verduran Forest. Many in these regions dream of retaking their ancestral territories back from Taldan and Andoran control—a dangerous pipe dream certain to result in the deaths of countless centaurs.

Centaurs believe in reform and often rely on community pressure to discourage harmful behaviors. The unrepentant and the greatest transgressors face exile beyond the band's borders; centaurs avoid ending the lives of their own, except during times of war and mid-battle. While some centaur bands, serving demons and other foul gods, may attack other centaurs, even they prefer to harry other foes.

Centaurs consider saddles and bridles both restricting and shamefully insulting, akin to being shackled and caged. They despise being ridden and refuse to serve as a mount except in the direst of circumstances or emergencies, or only by their most trusted companions.

Centaurs have a single name and sometimes earn an appellation through their deeds, appearance, or personality traits, such as Thunderhoof or Windrunner. When beyond their territorial borders, centaurs use their band's name as an additional identifier. Centaurs who settle in other nations either adopt their band name as a last name or create a unique last name of their own, founding a lineage that's passed down to future generations.

Sample Names

Aecora, Demeleon, Ertris, Hycanthe, Irdan, Jalvayne, Karala, Malion, Oridius, Tolron, Vorag

Beliefs

The beliefs of a centaur often depend on where and how they were raised. Many centaurs follow the Green Faith or worship deities who share their respect for nature, such as Cernunnos, Erastil, or Gozreh. Others feel kinship with Desna, goddess of travel. Healers and herbalists favor Immonhiel or Pharasma. In urban areas, Kurgess and Gorum are favorites, depending on the centaur's temperament and profession.

Centaurs have two primary religious figures: Greenspeakers and Faithspeakers. Greenspeakers are one with nature, followers of the Green Faith, exceptional herbalists, and otherwise learned in the ways of the natural world. Faithspeakers are pious devotees of gods, demons, celestials, and other beings. Both are given equal respect, considered two sides of the same coin. Through their Speakers, centaurs interact with the world beyond what they can see and feel, and lead ceremonies, celebrations, and prayers. Celebrations are usually divided into two categories: beginnings and endings, with beginnings such as weddings, births, and spring celebrated at dawn, and endings such as harvests, funerals, and partings celebrated at dusk. Death rites vary by region and culture, but sedentary bands and those who cultivate fields, gardens, or crops, often burn their dead on pyres, releasing their spirits from their material bodies, then using the resulting ashes to fertilize fields or gardens so the dead can continue to serve their community. In regions with rocky ground or frigid climate, centaurs instead bury their dead under cairns and stone mounds.

Popular Edicts

ensure knowledge is passed on, live in harmony with the natural world, play fair in an honest competition

Popular Anathema

fail to roam, aid in the wanton destruction of a natural landscape

Centaur Mechanics

Rarity Uncommon

Hit Points 8

Size Large

Speed 30 feet

Attribute Boosts Strength, Wisdom, Free

Attribute Flaw Charisma

Languages Common, Fey, Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if positive). Choose from Arboreal, Cyclops, Dwarven, Elven, Gnomish, Halfling, Jotun and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent in your region).

Traits Beast, Centaur, Humanoid

Darkvision You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.

Mount Your equine body is well suited for carrying trusted allies. A PC can ride you if they are one size category smaller than you (Medium size, for most centaurs), rather than needing to be two size categories smaller.

Robust You increase your maximum and encumbered Bulk limits by 2.

Centaur Heritages

Centaurs are a diverse people who adapt to their environment and the labors they perform. Choose one of the following centaur heritages at 1st level.

Budding Speaker Centaur

Fleetwind Centaur

Ironhoof Centaur

Mottle-Coat Centaur

Ponygait Centaur

Stoutheart Centaur

Fetchling

Once human and now something apart, fetchlings display the Shadow Plane's ancient influence through monochrome complexions, glowing eyes, and the casting of supernatural shadows.

Hobgoblin

Taller and stronger than their goblin kin, hobgoblins are equals in strength and size to humans, with broad shoulders and long, powerful arms.

Kholo

Kholo have bad reputations as brutal raiders and demon-worshipers. Many believe that kholo are witches, cannibals, and worse. The truth is more complex. Kholo are eminently practical and pragmatic hunters and raiders. To them, honor is just another word for pointless risk. Any loss of a kholo affects not just the individual, but their packmates and kin as well. Wasting time on anything but victory, whether it's mercy or cruelty, is seen as little shy of immoral. Kholo are masters of ambushes, tactical feints, and psychological warfare. Equally misunderstood is the kholo practice of ancestor worship and endocannibalism. Kholo consume their dead as a sign of reverence, holding a grand feast and transforming the bones into art or weapons. Kholo extend this honor to respected foes, hoping to bring their enemy's cunning or strength into the clan.

Kitsune

Kitsune are a charismatic and witty people with a connection to the spiritual that grants them many magical abilities, chiefly the power to shapechange into other forms. Whether they pass unseen among other peoples or hold their tails high, kitsune are clever observers of the societies around them.

Kobold

Every kobold instinctively understands the importance of power, and many are inclined to venerate those who have it, whether they be mighty dragons, cruel fiends, imperious fey, or even ancient artifacts. Kobolds seek out these alliances out of a sense of pragmatism—after all, who would dare bully a kobold who serves an ancient dragon?—but also because kobold eggs incubated near such loci of power take on physical traits (and sometimes abilities) similar to those of the warren's benefactor. On their own, kobolds are ingenious crafters and devoted allies, but outsiders who trespass into their territory find them to be inspired skirmishers and clever ambushers. However, these reptilian opportunists prove happy to cooperate with other humanoids when it's to their benefit, combining caution and cunning to make their fortunes in the wider world.

Lizardfolk

Lizardfolk are consummate survivors, heirs to empires considered ancient even by the elves.

Merfolk

Merfolk live in every ocean of Golarion, infinite in their variety and awe-inspiring in their majesty. They consider themselves, not without some merit, the rulers of the sea. Among the tropical reefs of the Fever Sea, merfolk build temples and palaces of brightly colored corals. Beneath the ice floes of the Shining Sea, merfolk hunt seals and whales for food in small, standoffish clans. In the Embaral Ocean, merfolk populate the great trading city of Alohmab, built into the shell of a titanic snail that crawls across the ocean floor.

Though merfolk's everyday lives aren't all that different from those of the surface dwellers above, they have a much more intimate relationship with magic. In the aquatic environment of the open ocean, much that relies on fire and metal is impossible. Instead, merfolk shape sound and water with magic, using them as both tools and weapons. Such skills are widely distributed throughout all merfolk communities, even among those without formal magical training.

If you want to play a character who embodies the grace, wonder, and danger of the sea, you should play a merfolk.

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Physical Description

Merfolk are among the most distinct ancestries on Golarion; one can't really mistake a merfolk for anything else. From the waist up, merfolk have the bodies of humanoids with powerful bodies and sharp, aquadynamic features. Their eyes are a little larger than those of a human, and many have slightly pointed ears, similar to those of aiuvarins. Below the waist, merfolk have the bodies of great fish, each with a long, scaled tail ending in a fin or pair of fins.

Merfolk come in every color of skin and scale imaginable. Most often, their human bodies have skin tones similar to those of humans or elves living in the same area—the merfolk of the Shackles, for instance, bear a certain similarity to the Lirgeni, while those who live in the Steaming Sea somewhat resemble their Ulfen neighbors. Merfolk who dwell farther from land take on colorations closer to fish tones of blue, gray, or even green. Deep-sea abyssal merfolk have dark gray, midnight blue, or even translucent skin.

Merfolk fish tails are colored similarly to local fish populations. In the temperate zones where most merfolk live, they have iridescent, silvery bodies with traces of gray or blue; tropical merfolk might display patterns of brilliant colors, while those born in the depths might have translucent scales or faintly bioluminescent stripes.

Society

Merfolk can be found in the corners of every ocean, but the largest concentration lives in sprawling aquatic kingdoms on continental shelves, usually in temperate waters teeming with fish. Merfolk look at the deep water in roughly the same way that surface dwellers look at mountains or deserts: some people can live there, but it isn't exactly ideal terrain. Merfolk territories consist of several settled villages and cities, sometimes organized under aristocratic families with courtly politics to rival those found in any Inner Sea monarchy. These political entities pursue active diplomacy with one another, making alliances and trade treaties. Many tend to be more standoffish toward surface dwellers, but some are fascinated by the surface and actively seek to learn about it, whether by using specialized water-filled mobility devices to come onshore or through ancient transformation magics.

Merfolk value magic very highly, and any merfolk hoping to rise to a leadership role is expected to have a powerful grasp of the sorcery of wind, wave, and song. Merfolk kings and queens aren't necessarily the most powerful mages in their territories, but they're usually not far from it, as they have access to a wealth of teachings and artifacts passed down from one generation to the next.

Merfolk have as many naming patterns as there are merfolk cultures, but a few tendencies predominate. Dolphin-like clicks and whale-like groans punctuate mellifluous merfolk names, and variances in pitch and tone help distinguish similar names from one another. Merfolk who regularly deal with surface dwellers often adopt names borrowed from local surface cultures, especially since merfolk names tend to sound strange and awkward to their own ears when pronounced in air rather than water.

Sample Names

Aloori, Iri'kik, Ouliette, T'konaa, Uathanak

Beliefs

In general, merfolk follow the morals and customs of their parents and the communities in which they were raised. These vary greatly throughout the world. For instance, some merfolk are expected to live harmoniously with nature, while others follow a rigid set of laws ordained by their ancestors. Many merfolk believe that acts of altruism raise a community as a whole, even if they don't immediately produce beneficial results for the one who performed the deed in the first place.

Merfolk worship is, like their societies, diverse. Deities with control over water are placed in high regard, and most communities have a shrine to Gozreh or one of the Elemental Lords of Water: Kelizandri or Lysianassa. Abadar is a popular god in some larger merfolk settlements, and a version of Erastil—more associated with sharks than with stags—is worshipped in smaller villages.

Popular Edicts

aid one's neighbor whenever possible, bring the beauty of music to the world, protect the seas from threats within and without

Popular Anathema

fight the current head-on, use magic to harm innocents or hoard wealth

Merfolk Mechanics

Rarity Uncommon

Hit Points 8

Size Medium

Speed 5 feet Swim 25 feet

Attribute Boosts Dexterity, Charisma, Free

Attribute Flaw Constitution

Languages Common, Thalassic, Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if it's positive). Choose from Aklo, Azlanti, Draconic, Elven, and Fey, and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent in your region).

Traits Amphibious, Humanoid, Merfolk

Aquatic Grace When you roll a success on a saving throw against a water effect, you get a critical success instead.

Low-Light Vision You can see in dim light as though it were bright light, so you ignore the concealed condition due to dim light.

Hydration Your body requires you to return to aquatic environments at least once in a 24-hour period. After the first 24 hours outside of water, you take a –1 status penalty to Fortitude saves. After 48 hours, you struggle to breathe air and begin to suffocate until returned to water.

Merfolk Heritages

Merfolk heritages often reflect the oceans in which they live. Choose one of the following merfolk heritages at 1st level.

Abyssal Merfolk

Carcharodon Merfolk

Pelagic Merfolk

Reef Merfolk

Sailfish Merfolk

Minotaur

Minotaurs stalk complex passageways, whether natural or artificial, and are masters of stone architecture. Inquisitive and steadfast, these bovine humanoids spend their lives perfecting the pursuit that calls to them, which can sometimes lead them far from the enclaves where they were raised. Minotaurs are originally from the Iblydos archipelago but have spread far and wide across Golarion, forming close-knit communities often near mountains or beneath the surface of the earth. Though sometimes mistaken for simple brutes, minotaurs have scholars and warriors alike. Those who can look past their appearance will find an affinity for building and navigation, as well as creative problem-solving.

The myth many minotaurs tell of their origins is one of craft, curses, and misunderstanding. Millennia ago, Iblydos was filled with living deities who walked among and ruled the mortal people. A stonemason named Tavdrinos, admired by mortals and hero-gods alike, received a vision from a hero-god to create a glorious temple, though the myth doesn't name which one. The mason found the images of the vision murky: scrambled glimpses of twisting columns, charging bulls, and a defiant stand made by an unknown figure. It was hardly a detailed commission, but one does not refuse a divine order. The mason labored for 17 years before his task was done. The three-story temple celebrated the glory of the hero-god and their sacred animal, the bull. Upon the herogod's arrival, Tavdrinos expected to be met with praise and congratulations, but the deity flew into a rage instead. Tavdrinos had misunderstood the vision, for the bull was a hated beast, not a celebrated ally. As punishment for this accidental insult, the hero-god cursed Tavdrinos with the hated shape of the bull. Angered by both the curse and his failure to please the deity, the mason retreated to a series of caves under the temple, where he continued his work as the first minotaur.

If you want to play a character with strength of body, who expresses themselves through craft more than words, you should play a minotaur.

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Physical Description

Minotaurs are tall, bulky humanoids with the bovine features such as horns, hooves, and elongated faces. Their fur patterns are frequently monotone in deep browns or blacks, though white or gray aren't uncommon. Though the large size of a minotaur might cause one think they are clumsy, the truth is quite the opposite. Minotaur hooves rest on a delicate balance point, making their footfalls quiet and precise. However, when there is a need to be heard, the steps of a minotaur can fall like thunder.

A minotaur's horns are a source of pride and often accented by pieces of fashion. Those with longer horns add rings and chains around them, cast in whatever rare metals are affordable, or dye or engrave patterns along them. Those with not much horn to speak of instead shave their fur around the base of the horns, possibly adding stylish circular tattoos to the surrounding skin or fitting metal caps onto their tips. This draws attention to an otherwise overlooked feature.

Society

Minotaurs typically reside within insular, subterranean communal enclaves. They take great pride in their architectural prowess, hewing buildings out of stone and natural caves alike. An enclave often has almost twice as many buildings as it needs, with the extra structures serving as functional art. Young minotaurs practice their hunting and stalking skills in the empty buildings, with each generation adding a small expansion or fresco on the walls. Expansions like twisting hallways, unexpected overhangs, shared gardens, and a variety of other such contrivances create numerous social spaces and quiet areas for calm reflection, so long as the traveler is able to keep from becoming lost by the unusual architectural flow.

Myths surrounding minotaurs lead most to believe they are fierce carnivores, or even cannibals in the darkest of legends. In reality, most minotaur societies are hunter-gatherers, feeding off lichen and other flora. Their reputation as fierce hunters stems from monthly rituals, when the most accomplished stalkers venture out and bring back dangerous prey. The return of these hunters is one of the few occasions minotaurs indulge in meat, feasting on the kills as a show of gratitude and reverence for the hunters' skills.

Minotaurs tend to be blunt and literal, rarely engaging in overly clever wordplay, sarcasm, or irony. Flaring nostrils and rolling eyes can be intimidating expressions when viewed by non-minotaurs, but to a minotaur, they can convey a complex story with emotional and even spiritual elements. Minotaurs wishing to emphasize a certain emotion occasionally use piercings and tattoos, though minotaurs who lean too heavily into these adornments to look fierce often come off as a bit foolish to their peers. The minotaur saying "an angry bull stamps once and gores twice" is both an admonition against overly aggressive displays and a reminder that the creature truly to be feared is one who speaks with their actions.

Iblydan minotaurs often have names similar to the names of humans from that archipelago. Minotaur surnames are ever-changing, typically reflecting the most memorable achievement an individual has accomplished. Until adulthood, an Iblydan minotaur bears the surname Tavdrinos (after the first minotaur). Once they reach maturity, their childhood friends and allies collectively bestow a fitting surname. Minotaurs in adventuring groups might be renamed multiple times by their allies.

Sample Names

Actilea, Iraiasos, Paxaidio, Rotherion, Zavmandris

Beliefs

Long traditions of isolation have resulted in most minotaurs taking an evenhanded approach to events. Many tend toward an unbiased outlook that allows for adaptation. Those who have poor interactions with other humanoids, particularly those met with violence or intolerance, might choose to recede into a chosen lair, ruin, or fortification that they guard fiercely, which sadly perpetuates the tales of brutal minotaurs.

Minotaurs raised by their own people tend to avoid association with deities of any stripe—little surprise given their creation legend. Divine beings are thought of as petty and uncaring, if not by intent then by the sheer magnitude of their power. Many minotaurs adopt logical or spiritual philosophies as a way of reconciling their existence. Mysteries are puzzles yet unanswered, ones that can be explained with careful thought and study. When minotaurs decide to follow deities, they're primarily drawn to those concerned with self-improvement and self-control, like Irori and Nethys.

Popular Edicts

construct architecture of lasting beauty, seek out ever more perplexing puzzles, hone one's prowess

Popular Anathema

leave fate to godly hands rather than mortal initiative, pass up the chance to investigate a mystery

Minotaur Mechanics

Rarity Uncommon

Hit Points 10

Size Large

Speed 25 feet

Attribute Boosts Strength, Constitution, Free

Attribute Flaw Charisma

Languages Common, Jotun, Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if positive). Choose from Cyclops, Dwarven, Fey, Petran, Sakvroth, and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent in your region).

Traits Beast, Humanoid, Minotaur

Darkvision You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.

Horns Your sharp horns are as deadly as spears. You have a horns unarmed attack that deals 1d8 piercing damage. Your horns are in the brawling group and have the unarmed trait.

Minotaur Heritages

Minotaurs can often be differentiated by the region of their enclave or the enclave of their ancestors. Choose one of the following minotaur heritages at 1st level.

Ghost Bull Minotaur

Glacier Cavern Minotaur

Littlehorn Minotaur

Roaming Minotaur

Slabsoul Minotaur

Stalker Minotaur

Nagaji

Ratfolk

Ysoki are beings that most surface-dwelling humanoids refer to as "ratfolk." They are a communal people who prefer cramped conditions, with up to 100 individuals living in a given home. If they can't find homes in town, ratfolk may instead live in caves and cavern complexes, as these provide great storage for the many and varied goods they bring back from trading expeditions.

Samsaran

Samsarans, as the tale goes, originated with a group of scholars in Zi Ha who ventured into the mountains to find the cure for an illness ravaging their village. After weeks of peril, they found a freshwater spring filled with pure magical life essence. This water brought the scholars back from the brink of death and cured the villagers. Given a new chance at life, everyone who drank the water devoted the rest of their life to learning and experiencing the world fully. Upon death, this devotion, combined with the magical essence now infused in their bodies, transformed these people into the first samsarans.

Tanuki

Tian Xia is replete with magically gifted ancestries—such as tengu, kitsune, yakshas, and yaoguai—whose powers bring them high regard and who, in turn, use their gifts for responsible ends. Tanuki aren't one of these ancestries. Instead, the shapeshifting raccoon dog–like humanoids use their powers of illusion and transformation in ways more people should: for fun! Tanuki delight in pranks and practical jokes, especially those that allow them to take the high and mighty down a notch and show them what life is like for everyone else. Where other peoples take pride in their storied histories, noble traditions, or intricate ceremonies, tanuki take pride in their simplicity and disregard for the world's many rules. Though some might claim this outlook reduces tanuki to uncouth rubes, tanuki feel it makes them more cultured; after all, one must know a rule to bend it, and one must understand a norm to break it.

Tengu

Tengu are survivalists and conversationalists, equally at home living off the wilderness and finding a niche in dense cities. They accumulate knowledge, tools, and companions, adding them to their collection as they travel.

Tripkee

Tripkees are a shy and cautious people who generally seek to avoid being drawn into the affairs of others. Despite their cautious outlook and small stature, adventurous tripkees still take bold and noble action when the situation demands it.

Vanara

Wayang

Wayangs are diasporic sojourners from the Netherworld where they lived and worked alongside their allies, lightweaving d'ziriaks. Both peoples shared affinities for artistic expression and spiritual introspection, inspiring each other's sensitivities to color, form, and function; they also bolstered each other's defense against rampaging dragons, oni, and undead. This idyll collapsed from divine meddling; some say when Abadar sentenced Zon-Kuthon to exile in the Netherworld, the Midnight Lord's deific presence distorted the plane into a nightmarish domain, while others accounts ascribe fiendish sources to this doom.

Rare Ancestries

Anadi

Anadi people are reclusive, sapient spiders who hail from the jungles of southern Garund. Though they act in many ways like natural-born shapeshifters, their twin forms actually stem from carefully developed magic.

Android

Technological wonders from another world, androids have synthetic bodies and living souls. Their dual nature makes them quick-thinking and calm under pressure, but comfortable in stillness and solitude.

Automaton

These intelligent constructs house actual souls and represent what remains of a dying empire's last attempt at greatness. Automatons combine technological ingenuity with magical power, creating a blended being wholly unique to Golarion.

Awakened Animal

You once enjoyed the simple and boundless pleasures of nature with an innocent, uncluttered mind. You lived from moment to moment, never questioning what comes next or pondering the ramifications of what happened before. You were at one with the wild. Then came the event that changed everything. You drank from a glowing lake, someone pulled a magical prank, a druid sought to elevate your mind. You were pulled out of the present moment of the wild and into a land of thought. For the first time, you realized you had a past.

For the first time, you started to think about your future. Now you experience the world in a whole new way. You become aware of dangers that never occurred to you before, but there are pleasures and wonders aplenty in this new world, too. That's a good thing, because there's no going back to how things were.

Awakened animals were normal animals that underwent an experience that awakened their minds, giving them full intelligence and the ability to perceive the world through a lens of thought. There are many mysterious ways for animals to awaken, but the most well-known path is through the ritual awaken animal

Conrasu

Conrasus are shards of cosmic force given consciousness who construct intricate exoskeletons to interface with the mortal world. Both an integral part of the underlying processes of the universe and strangely set apart, conrasus look to aeons to understand their existence.

Dragonet

Dragonets are miniature dragons, complete with wings, dagger-like teeth, and magical breath. They can be fiercely independent and proud, at times protective or avaricious, and they delight in the finer things in life.

Fleshwarp

Fleshwarps are people whose forms were created or radically transformed by magic, alchemy, or unnatural energies. Their unorthodox appearance can make it difficult for them to find a place for themselves in the world.

Ghoran

Goloma

Golomas fear most other people and deliberately use their unusual biology to frighten off those they consider to be dangerous predators. Rarely seen and poorly understood, golomas' many-eyed and wooden faced visages instill terror in most they meet.

Jotunborn

According to their oldest stories, the first jotunborn were the direct creations of the earliest gods. Having just completed the majority of the creation of Golarion, these gods created several groups of people to act as stewards for this new world. Among these groups were jotunborn, beings who were formed from the remains of titans who dared rebel against the gods in the earliest days of existence. Rather than give jotunborn the full power they gave the titans, the gods instead instilled the first jotunborn with the faintest spark of creation and gave them slighter forms. These new servitors would be just as capable at helping to shape the rest of Golarion but would also be weaker and easier to strike down should they rebel like their progenitors.

Kashrishi

Poppet

Poppets are small, basic constructs that typically help their owners with simple tasks. Occasionally, poppets gain sapience, independence, and a spark of life. Elevated beyond mere helpers or playthings, these poppets are free to chart their own destinies.

Sarangay

Sarangay are carabao-headed people who have long survived deep in the forests across Tian Xia. Many adventurers have thought them to be monsters at first, but sarangay are nothing more than a thriving society who value their community and their souls above all else. Their cultures are built upon the intense desire to protect their communities and their chosen leader. Their horns are said to be a crescent moon, and their towering statures are said to have come from their ancestors being stretched so far up to reach their Father Moon while their Mother Earth kept them close to her bosom. They revere the great Father Moon, their First Ancestor, and endeavor to protect and exalt nature above all else, for they understand that they're part of it.

Shisk

Shisks are secretive mountain-dwellers, bone-feathered humanoids who lurk underground in dark tunnels and caverns. Their fascination with collecting and protecting esoteric knowledge is one of the few things that can persuade them to explore the outside world.

Shoony

Diminutive humanoids who resemble squat, bipedal dogs, shoonies are sometimes mistaken for weak and insular pacifists. However, their sheer perseverance, incredible work ethic, and resourceful use of diplomacy make shoonies far from helpless.

Skeleton

Skeletons are considered among the lowest types of undead. They're typically mindless creatures, lacking many of the abilities that make other undead a serious threat. However, the animated bones of dragons, giants, and other great beasts make for dangerous foes. Powerful living creatures can retain some of their might and intellect upon returning as a skeleton. Some necromancers turn their strongest enemies into skeletal undead servants, assuming they can keep control of them.

Sprite

Sprites are diminutive, whimsical, and exuberant creatures from the fey realm known as the First World. They love playing pranks, exploring new things, and embracing everything to do with magic.

Strix

Known as itarii in their own language, strix are reclusive avian humanoids devoted to their homelands and their tribes. They defend their precious communities with broad wingspans and razor talons.

Surki

Surkis are an insectile species who subsist on the latent magic in the world around them. As a subterranean species native to the Darklands, surkis have rarely been seen on the surface, and always with long pauses between historical sightings. This is due to surkis' life cycle—long dormancies followed by so-called "generation digs," as they migrate great distances in response to happenings underground. The healing of the Worldwound initiated one of the largest such digs in their history, bringing surkis up into the caverns and passages of the Sarkoris Scar and emerging onto the surface for the first time in many years. Since their emergence, several small surki settlements have been established in secluded corners of Sarkoris, voraciously cataloging the wildlife, magics, and various other inhabitants of the area as they explore the alien environment of the surface.

Rather than consuming food conventionally, surkis are filter feeders, absorbing magic from the air, soil, plants, stone, and practically any other material. This magic is refined and sequestered in nodes throughout a surki's body over the course of their life cycle, which is comprised of three distinct phases: larva, adult, and evolved. At each stage, surkis use their stockpiled magic to undergo a dramatic metamorphosis into their next stage of life, evolving adaptations that will help them survive in any environment. Surkis therefore vary dramatically on an individual level; each surki tells the story of their adventures and their chosen role in the environment in their unique combination of adaptations.

If you want to play a character who's exploring Golarion for the first time, with limitless adaptability and a strong tie to magic, you should play a surki.

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Physical Description

Each of surkis' three life stages greatly differ. Larval surkis spend the first 10 to 100 years of their lives dormant inside their eggs, waiting to emerge when they've accumulated enough latent magic and the environmental conditions are just right. Larval surkis are roughly two feet long and grub-like with several luminescent nodes visible through their translucent flesh. Their heads are chitinous, round, and eyeless, and they navigate primarily using the ability to smell magic. Four of their six legs are small, but the front set are large, powerful digging claws that they use to tunnel through the earth and to communicate with the other larvae in their generation dig as they travel from their nest home. Once they've traveled far and accumulated enough magic, they enter a cocoon for several days, emerging as the adult form that's seen most often on the surface.

Adult surkis have a roughly bipedal form, standing on two multi-jointed limbs and having two arms that end in three-fingered claws used both for digging and for producing percussive sounds used in the Surki language. They possess two feathery antennae and two long sensory barbels that sit on either side of their mandibles. Surkis have a characteristic rounded shape with several rustbrown or orange chitinous plates along their back, and surki clothing and fashion tend to incorporate rounded shapes or belts around and under their plates. Their magical nodes are distributed throughout their bodies, clustering in the abdomen, shoulders, and each limb.

These nodes continue to accumulate magic as they age, using it to create new adaptations, often heralded by intricate, luminescent patterns in the chitin surrounding the point of change.

The final stage in surkis' life cycle is known as the evolved form, after the surki enters its grand metamorphosis. An adult surki forms a chrysalis and rapidly changes over the course of a single evening. Less physically dramatic than the shift between larva and adulthood, the evolved form brings with it profound magical abilities that resulted from a lifetime of magical absorption and refinement. Evolved surkis' nodes metamorphose into complex organs capable of projecting tangible magic to a variety of ends, from digging apparatuses made out of pure force to glowing wings that defy gravity. This final form is the ultimate expression of any surki's individuality and adaptations—a form perfectly suited to fulfill the environment they choose to inhabit or the role they wish to fill.

Society

Surki society places great importance on individuality and self-expression. Every surki is expected to find their own way of doing things, and innovation is a highly prized achievement. Surkis are also very much in touch with their environment; they place no distinction between plant and animal, recognizing that every being fills an important part of the environment. This quality has led surkis to create settlements that leave as little impact on the environment as possible, weaving silks around plants and fungi to coax them to grow into shelters and walls. Wood and other plant-based resources are seldom harvested in a manner considered traditional to most societies in Golarion. These resources are portioned out in strategically grown sections and harvested precisely enough to not kill the plant if possible.

Surki relationships are focused on complementing adaptations. Surkis are generally polyamorous and might maintain a close bond with numerous others. Surkis are a single-sex species, and while they understand concepts of gender and orientation as experienced by other ancestries, many surkis find the idea of choosing not to bond with someone based on anatomy or personal descriptions absurd. They instead choose to pursue those with personalities, talents, or adaptations that augment their own in unexpected ways, such as using woven silks to reinforce a tunnel dug through loose rock. Nevertheless, attraction in surki society is as complicated an idea as in any other, and bonded surkis will often express their feelings toward a loved one with a personal description that expresses something they value within the relationship. For example, a surki might introduce a partner as "Who Speaks Quietly and Makes My Soil Richer."

Only adult surkis are capable of reproducing, which they do through parthenogenesis. Any adult surki can lay an egg when they choose, though because the process expends so much of the magic stored in their nodes, few surkis lay more than one egg every few years. Many of these eggs are kept in a protected area of the settlement, awaiting the next generation dig. When the eggs are ready, they hatch en masse, and the larva coordinate their departure, drawn to magic like a beacon tunneling through the earth and stone to find a new place to settle.

Familial life vastly differs for surkis. Eggs lain outside of a generation dig are cared for and tended by the surki "parent" until the grub emerges. New village grubs are typically left to their own devices, allowed to venture outside the village or even leave the community altogether. Often, village grubs find their first homes in the soil of the community farms, where they feed on the natural magic within the soil and plant life. These gardens double as schools for these grubs, as the adult and evolved surkis who tend the gardens regularly converse with the grubs, thumping and scraping out the stories of their young lives and the lessons they've learned from others. Surki grubs born early or those whose nodes don't function well are often bonded with ostillis, small amorphous symbiotes that augment the grubs' ability to absorb nutrients from magic.

Surkis choose their names when they enter adolescence. Every surki has a name referred to as their "root" or "grub" name that's produced solely with the forelimbs. Adults commonly incorporate all or part of their root name preceding their chosen name, though it isn't expected to be repeated, especially by those of other ancestries who don't possess the exoskeleton necessary to "pronounce" the name. The root name, while shown proudly, is considered the personal property of the surki who possesses it, and repetition of the root portion of a surki's name is considered rude by most, tantamount to theft. Surkis' chosen names typically represent a personal quality that they admire most or an achievement they take pride in. As surkis age, they might change their chosen name to better fit who they feel they've become. When surkis die, any present-tense verbs used in their names become past tense.

Sample Names

Bearer of Heavy Boulders, Weaver of Intricate Webs, With the Deftest Song, Who Shines Brightly, Whose Patterns are Bold, Whose Voice is Music

Beliefs

Surkis' connection to their environment leads them to typically worship natural deities. Their own ancient traditions identify each creature as possessing a unique spirit, with keystone species occupying a deific role within their ecosystem. Surki traditions dictate that surkis and other cultures aren't part of this spirit cycle, though with time, care, and practice, one can be accepted into it with the blessing of the environment's keystone species.

Among surki communities in Sarkoris, worship of Gozreh and Sturovenen has grown quickly. Surkis who dedicate themselves to a deity are more likely to choose one representing their own environment or the natural world as a whole. Deities whose domains include travel or change are also popular among surki devotees.

It's very important to surkis that life be allowed to follow its natural course. Death, violence, and war all have their place and purpose.

Popular Edicts

encourage others to discover their true selves, protect and nurture natural ecosystems, work with others to promote symbiotic relationships

Popular Anathema

force another to change before they're ready

Surki Mechanics

Rarity Rare

Hit Points 8

Size Medium

Speed 25

Attribute Boosts Constitution, Free

Languages Common, Surki, Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if positive). Choose from Elven, Fey, Sakvroth, and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent in your region).

Traits Humanoid, Surki

Darkvision You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.

Magiphage The various nodes throughout your body draw in latent magic from the world around you. You don't need to eat or drink unless you're in an especially magic-poor environment (such as the Mana Wastes). Choose what tradition of magic you most consumed as a larva; this type of magic has become so ingrained in your body that it changes the tradition of all surki spells and magical actions to that tradition.

Surki Heritages

Surkis emerge from their larval stage with some adaptations already in place. Though not all are the same, those represented below are among the most common. Surki heritages have multiple possible evolutions, which are accessed by taking the Grand Metamorphosis feat.

Breaker Surki

Elytron Surki

Hardshell Surki

Lantern Surki

Vishkanya

Yaksha

Away from shining citadels and opulent palaces, reticent yakshas shelter Tian Xia's rural hinterlands from natural disasters and otherworldly depredations. Famed for resolute vows and prowess with primal magic, yakshas shield the indigent and protect the wilderness, punishing those who threaten either with bone-crushing fury. Yaksha legends recall their origins as divine spirits, overseeing the safety of roads and abodes in a primeval world of vast storm forests and titanic flame floods—the First World, a realm of boundless potentiality. During the Great Abandonment, when the gods left the First World, many yakshas rejected this exodus, instead staying to perform their duties as caretakers. Despite the realm's sudden dearth of divine power, the remaining yakshas swore primordial vows, allowing them to channel power from the nearby Creation's Forge into primal magic and transform swathes of the metamorphic First World into stable regions to provide refuge for destitute fey.

Yaoguai

Yaoguai usually begin as simple animals, plants, or objects before finding a way to awaken to sapience, becoming strange shapeshifting creatures in the process. Often originating from an infusion of ambient energy into their original form, yaoguai attain their powers through training their innate magic. Taking care not to expose their true appearance and nature, yaoguai of the same origins or species sometimes form enclaves in which they dedicate their lives to honing their powers or engaging in hedonistic pursuits—though the two aren't mutually exclusive. Yaoguai who lack a solid community, meanwhile, feel compelled to cultivate themselves until they transcend their origin, which might allow them to join society and experience a new kind of freedom.