Nuar

Core Racial Traits

Trait	Effect
Darkvision	Nuars have darkvision out to 60 feet.
Gore	A nuar can charge without taking the normal charge penalties to the attack roll or its AC.
Maze Mind	Nuars have a naturally strong sense of direction and an instinctive understanding of complex patterns.
Natural Weapons	Nuars are always considered armed.
Swift	Nuars have a base speed of 40 feet.

Darkvision

Nuars have darkvision out to 60 feet.

Gore

A nuar can charge without taking the normal charge penalties to the attack roll or its AC. If the nuar has another ability that allows it to charge without taking these penalties (such as the charge attack ability from the soldier’s blitz attack fighting style), the nuar also gains the ability to charge through difficult terrain.

Maze Mind

Nuars have a naturally strong sense of direction and an instinctive understanding of complex patterns. As a result, they very rarely get lost. A nuar can attempt a special level-based Wisdom check (1d20 + CR or level + Wisdom bonus) instead of using his total bonus in the Piloting skill to navigate or his total bonus in the Survival skill for orienteering. In addition, a nuar with 1 or more ranks in Piloting or Survival also gains a +2 racial bonus to checks with that skill.

Natural Weapons

Nuars are always considered armed. They can deal 1d3 lethal piercing damage with unarmed strikes and the attack doesn’t count as archaic. Nuars gain a unique weapon specialization with their natural weapons at 3rd level, allowing them to add 1-1/2 × their character level to their damage rolls with their natural weapons (instead of just adding their character level, as usual).

Swift

Nuars have a base speed of 40 feet.

Vital Stats

Stat	Value
Average Height	7–8 ft.
Average Weight	260–350 lbs.
Age of Maturity	13 years
Maximum Age	90+2d20 years

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Nuars are one of the many species that trace their origin to Golarion, as they bear a close resemblance to the minotaurs known to have developed on that world. Despite beginning the era after the Gap with no home world and living only in the Pact Worlds, the desire of nuars to build a place for themselves, coupled with a natural aptitude for complex patterns and structures, has led them to spread far and wide as explorers, colonists, troops, and engineers. Nuars prove quick to adapt to local customs, and many spend much of their adulthood far from any other members of their species.

Nuars are generally described as being pale minotaurs, and this is a fair (if oversimplified) description. Short by minotaur standards, a typical nuar stands between 7 and 7-1/2 feet tall, and their sturdy frames and sizeable horns cause them to average between 260 and 350 lbs. They're bipedal and hooved, with strong, nimble hands. Most nuars have tails, which range from short tufts to long, flexible ropes that nearly reach the ground, but this trait isn't universal. Nuars are covered in short, thick hair, with longer, shaggier hair common at the crown of the head and sometimes along the spine and at the tail-tip, wrists, and ankles.
Nuars of all gender grow between two to eight horns, with two or four being most common. These horns generally grow from the upper back of the skull and sweep out and then forward, allowing them to be used effectively in close combat. The horns begin growing shortly after birth and reach full length after roughly a decade of aging (often seen as a sign a nuar is an adult). Nuars with more than two horns generally have two of typical length, with the rest being shorter (and often curving in different directions). Nuars with three or five horns are rare, but not unknown, roughly as common as humans born with eyes of different colors. Among nuars with odd-numbered horns, roughly half have more on one side of their head than the other, and half have a central horn growing forward from their forehead.
Nuar horns are made of dense keratin (the same material that makes up their hooves, nails, and hair) with honeycombed patterns of dentin and microscopic tunnels of enamel (the same material their teeth are made of), which also coat the outside of the horn. New enamel is produced at the root of the horn if the outer sheath is damaged, allowing horns to repair and regrow, though severe damage can be permanent. While nuars have nerve endings in the flesh around the base of their horns, they have no feeling within the horns themselves, which are dense and tough enough to survive exposure to vacuum. Indeed, many nuar armor suits leave their horns exposed to allow for easy use in combat without damaging the armor.
Though nuars are generally described as white in coloration, this description is also a simplification. Most have typical arctic or desert coloration with white, light gray, cream, and tan most common, but some also have dark bellies, palms, and/or noses. Most nuars have pink or red eyes, with a much smaller number displaying bright blue, green, or yellow irises. Roughly 1 in 20,000 nuars have radically different coloration with red, blue, and even purple hair and skin.
Nuar brains are particularly adept at visualizing complex patterns and can memorize twists, turns, and interlocking shapes more easily than lists of names, abstracted historic dates, or purely philosophical ideas. Many nuars use their aptitude for patterns to excel as engineers, artists, and navigators; others delve into more esoteric subjects by constructing “memory mazes” within their heads, envisioning an imaginary labyrinth and placing key ideas or facts in specific turns and twists of the metaphorical structure.

When the Gap ended, nuars were aware of their names, careers, relationships with others, and little else. Cultures with long pre-Gap histories, such as humans, elves, lashuntas, and kasathas, could look back to records describing their ancient kingdoms, myths, gods, heroes, and wars; however, nuars had no such stretch of history to model their society on. Some sought to build their own paths and traditions from the clues found in their homes, while others quickly adopted the customs and behaviors of non-nuar neighbors. The relatively short history of nuars since the Gap has revolved around either discovering more of who they once were or building new frameworks upon which to build their way of life.

First Steps

At birth, nuars weigh roughly 15 pounds and stretch more than two feet long from hoof to crown of head. Though gangly and awkward at first, they can walk within a few hours, feed themselves within a few days, and can master as many as 50 words and even craft two-word sentences within a month. This relatively quick development allows nuars traveling with their family to have numerous children with them, as it isn't necessary for a parent to dedicate their time caring for the young for a prolonged period.
While many nuars are raised with their family's customs and local traditions and language introduced in their day-to- day lives, some nuar communities prefer to restrict what their young are exposed to. One line of thought believes that the inherent nature of nuars can be found by the behavior of their newborns showing preferences for specific foods, colors, temperatures, or other basic elements from which more complex entertainments and traditions can be built. There's considerable debate whether such efforts are effective, not the least because different groups of nuars consider different ideas neutral. One group might only use items that are black and white when decorating a newborn nuar's room, while others might employ a spectrum of colors but avoid patterns and textures. While some groups claim to have discovered some “essential” element of nuar nature by observing the preferences of young ones, such trends are rarely duplicated by different groups trying the same methodology.
Young nuars begin to show interest in various arts and careers by the age of two and often enter formal training at this point. A nuar reaches their full height by eight years but retains a gangly frame until they hit adulthood roughly four years later. Nuars that are adult height but not yet fully filled out are often called tallings, and they might help with their parents' vocations, care for younger siblings, and try their hand at dozens of different life paths and potential career goals before settling on something they find fulfilling.

The Maze of Life

Once a nuar is an adult, they often seek a sense of connection to a broader community than that of their caregivers. A desire to wander and see what lies beyond familiar walls is commonplace and often results in a nomadic existence many nuars call the Maze of Life. Some nuar scholars feel this wanderlust is a result of nuar brains quickly grasping complex patterns and shapes, with everything they know as youth becoming too familiar and simple to satisfy their desire for intricacy in adulthood. Others feel the tendency of adult nuars to leave home for long stretches indicates there's some crucial cultural touchstone in their lives that's missing, and, lacking an ancient history to guide in fulfilling it, many nuars become explorers in a subconscious desire to connect with a missing part of their culture.
While not all nuars leave their homes as adults, the idea of the Maze of Life is a popular one. Growing originally from a personal legend (see Personal Legend below) more than a century ago, nuars often use it to refer to seeking a balance between what an individual wishes to do and what their circumstances require or allow them to do. Anyone dissatisfied with their job, or who wants to see sights on distant worlds, or struggles to create art they enjoy is often said to be wandering the Maze of Life, and this is considered a normal and acceptable part of being an adult.
For many nuars, the Maze of Life results in finding some other culture or settlement that speaks to them. Many nuars enjoy the aesthetics and traditions of places with strong orc and half-orc influences, including Apostae and places within the Veskarium where orcs have settled over the generations since the Drift became accessible.