Zard Null
Description
“Zard” is the term used to refer to the entire species of these humanoid reptiles or to a “null”, a zard of null caste. They are the lowest-status individuals in their society and are necessarily servants or foot soldiers employed at the forefront of battles to die by the hundreds, without their commanders caring about the loss – no matter how great the number. Zards from higher castes will rarely refer to themselves as just Zards, but will make a point of saying loud and clear which caste they belong to, reaffirming their social position.
Physical description
Zards null are humanoid reptiles. Instead of lips, their mouth consists of a bony beak similar to that of a parrot. They have a small tri-sectioned shell on their back, which is basically three very large convex scales overlapping each other. Some of them have very small bone ridges in this area.
Its skin varies from bright yellow to burgundy, dotted with small spots of contrasting colors. The color of the shell varies from metallic blue to shiny black and its eyes can have the same range of colors as the skin or shell (but not always matching). Their pupils are vertical like a cat’s and their hands have only four fingers.
They are cold-blooded creatures and are most active in warm places. In cold environments they become apathetic and their birth rate drops drastically. Nulls are omnivores, but whenever they can, they will feed exclusively on meat. They have a habit of drinking the blood of the animals they feed on, just as humans drink juice to accompany meals.
Ancestry traits:
Hit points: 6
Ability Score Increase: Your Dexterity or Constitution score increases by 2 points and your Strength decreases by 2 points.
Age: These casteless servants reach physical maturity at age 10, but can live to 120, although the violence and exploitation of upper castes rarely allows this.
Alignment: Always Chaotic. Often chaotic and evil.
Size: About 90cm tall and 30kg. Its size is Small.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 25 feet.
Night vision: A null can see perfectly in mundane (but not magical) darkness within a range of 36 meters.
Beak: A null´s bony beak is a natural weapon. You gain an unarmed beak attack that deals 1d4 piercing damage. Your beak is in the brawling group and has the finesse and unarmed traits.
Shell: The tripartite shell on your back and the bony protuberances on your legs and arms give you a +2 natural armor bonus, but you are unable to wear armor. It is possible to increase this bonus later by acquiring Zard ancestry talents.
Ember Hide: You have fire resistance equal to half your level (minimum 1). You can also more easily recover from being on fire. Your simple check to remove persistent fire damage is DC 10 instead of DC 15, which is reduced to DC 5 if another creature uses an appropriate action to help you. Treat environmental heat effects as if they were one step less extreme.
Cold Vulnerability: You have weakness to cold 5. Treat environmental cold effects as if they were one step more extreme (extreme cold becomes incredible, severe cold becomes extreme, and so on).
Languages: Zardonic and common (if the character is a Zard born after Tarragorn’s awakening) or Antiqua (if the character is a Zard born before Tarragorn’s awakening).
ZARD NULL INHERITANCES
The Null caste presents variations in the physiology of its individuals that derive from atavisms of their varied reptilian ancestors.
Spit fire
A null with the spit fire heritage is able to spit a small, non-magical flame a number of times per day equal to his Constitution modifier. It´s produced by special glands in his throat. The flame produced causes an effect similar to the “Produce Flame” magic cantrip (described on page 360 of the Pathfinder 2nd edition core book), with the difference that it only has a 3 meter range and does not cause persistent fire damage on a critical success. Your attribute for damage modifier is Constitution.
Robust
Your lineage has endured physical punishment from upper castes for countless generations, and this has made you resistant to all types of harm. You gain 10 Life Points from your ancestry instead of 6.
Adherent
The ends of your fingers are wide and have a high grip capacity. You gain a +4 bonus on athletics checks to grapple and climb. You are considered trained in athletics to perform these actions, even if your class description says otherwise. If your class already provides you with training in athletics, increase your proficiency level in it one step (exclusively for the grappling and climbing actions).
Chameleon
You are able to suddenly change the colors of your skin and shell a number of times per day equal to your Constitution modifier. The base color and its saturation can be different across your body, allowing you to create patterns or other color schemes. You spend a single action for smaller, localized changes or a full round for dramatic changes throughout your body. When you are in an area where its coloring is slightly similar to the environment (for example, dark green in a forest), you can use a single action to make smaller, localized changes to blend in with your surroundings. This grants you a +4 circumstance bonus on Stealth checks until your surroundings change color or pattern.
Origin
These reptilian humanoids are one of the oldest civilizations of If, who placed themselves in suspended animation when human shamans performed a great and powerful magical ritual to influence the polar volcano Freyser Geist to prematurely enter its cycle of high activity, generating an ice age, which lasted two thousand years. As Zard’s metabolism is vulnerable to cold, this caused the entire species to find itself in trouble. Their fertility was greatly reduced and going to war against humanity further reduced their numbers.
In a desperate maneuver, the sorceress sovereign Sekla gathered the Zard people together in a secret location deep underground and performed a spell that placed the remaining individuals in suspended animation until the power of human ritual over the weather had ceased. In the darkness of the earth’s womb, the Zards fell asleep filled with hate and dreamed for two millennia of the day they would awaken to take revenge on humanity.
Religion
Since they were awakened by Queen Tarragorn through her psychic link with any reptile, the Zards began to worship her as a divine figure, a goddess incarnate. Before that, the reptile people did not have any type of faith or cult. Although the queen is not actually a deity, zard clerics can choose her as their deity, with the domains of fire and destruction.
It´s believed that despite not being a deity, the queen is able to grant magic to her clerics by acting as a living conduit between the cultists and the very divine energy that is the target of their prayers.
Relationships with other species:
Floti: small and naive mammals, so weak that they will certainly be extinct by Zard superiority.
Magibrutes: these are opponents to be feared and worthy of the Zards blades. Magibrutes are powerful and reckless, just like us. But they do not have an incarnated divinity like us, those chosen to inherit the world of If.
Humans: mammals even more despicable than the Floti, thanks to them we lost the hegemony of this world. But it’s only a matter of time before we rain fire on this filthy species that forced us into exile and near extinction.
Tarkal: Our ancient chronicles tell of the day they came to this world from the great vortex. Over the millennia, they have developed an orderly and powerful civilization that may pose a threat to Zard’s rule. But their lack of aggressiveness will make them fall before our undeniable strength.
Phaemon: fey, demonic, impure and useless hybrids who exists only to annoy. We will crush them – after exterminating every last human.
Adventurers Zard null
Nulls are normally born, live and die serving the masters of the upper castes who oppress and enslave them. But some individuals break this rule. Among them, there are some who simply rebel against the tyranny of their society and flee. Others find themselves immune to Queen Tarragorn’s commands (see the section “Queen Tarragorn’s influence” in her article to learn more about this).
When this occurs, this null is immediately condemned as a heretic who has not received the grace of the great mother and will be executed unless he manages to escape in time. If found later, he will be hunted. Be that as it may, such outcasts end up becoming adventurers as fate dictates. You must inform the narrator and in your form when creating your character whether or not he is immune to Tarragorn’s influence.
Since the Zards have spent the last two thousand years hibernating underground, no If species is used to seeing them around. A human may be more surprised by the visit of a Zard than a Tarkal in their city. If the campaign takes place after Queen Tarragorn’s attack, then any Zard will be treated by humans with anger or fear.
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