Worlanisi

Core Racial Traits

Trait	Effect
Limited Telepathy	Worlanisi have limited telepathy with a range of 60 feet.
Multiarmed (4)	The creature has the number of arms listed.
Psychic Reverb	A worlanisi takes a –1 penalty to saving throws against mind affecting effects and takes +1 damage per damage die from mind affecting spells, weapons, and other effects.
Worlanisi Gamble	Once per day as a reaction when the worlanisi or an ally they can see within 15 feet rolls an attack roll, saving throw, or skill check, the worlanisi causes that creature to roll…
Worlanisi Luck	The first time each day that a worlanisi rolls a natural 1 on a d20 roll, they treat it as a natural 20 instead.
Worlanisi Movement	Worlanisi have a land speed of 30 feet and a climb speed of 20 feet.

Limited Telepathy

Worlanisi have limited telepathy with a range of 60 feet.

Multiarmed (4)

The creature has the number of arms listed. This allows it to wield and hold up to that many hands’ worth of weapons and equipment. While this increases the number of items it can have at the ready, it doesn’t increase the number of attacks it can make during combat.

Psychic Reverb

A worlanisi takes a –1 penalty to saving throws against mind-affecting effects and takes +1 damage per damage die from mind-affecting spells, weapons, and other effects.

Worlanisi Gamble

Once per day as a reaction when the worlanisi or an ally they can see within 15 feet rolls an attack roll, saving throw, or skill check, the worlanisi causes that creature to roll twice and take the better result.

Worlanisi Luck

The first time each day that a worlanisi rolls a natural 1 on a d20 roll, they treat it as a natural 20 instead.

Worlanisi Movement

Worlanisi have a land speed of 30 feet and a climb speed of 20 feet.

Vital Stats

Stat	Value
Average Height	2-3/4 to 3-1/2 ft.
Average Weight	30 to 45 lbs.
Age of Maturity	8 years
Maximum Age	100 + 2d20 years years

!
Worlanisi are charming and intrepid nomads, and love to travel for years at a time, valuing the journey more than the destination. They're outdoorsy, competitive, and welcoming to strangers. Due to their small stature and blue skin, worlanisi appear deceptively delicate. They are slight but strong humanoids with four arms and horn-cones on either side of their head. These horn-cones once let them use their psychic powers to stalk prey across Worlan, but this use has since atrophied. Modern horn-cones allow worlanisi to communicate telepathically and wield luck like no other species in the galaxy. Unfortunately, the horn-cones also amplify incoming and outgoing psychic energy with a painful reverberation.

The planetary pressures of Worlan molded the worlanisi to be strong, lucky, and telepathic. Traditionally hunter-gatherers, worlanisi evolved into lithe and able climbers, using their four arms to climb through trees while wielding weapons. The average worlanisi has a small but wiry frame. The tallest of them stand about three and half feet in height, but their average weight ranges from only 22 to 27 pounds. Their slight frames are deceptively strong, allowing worlanisi to carry burdens much heavier than themselves.

One of the most important evolutionary pressures that worlanisi faced was an environment filled with traces of residual psychic energy. In response, worlanisi developed their distinctive horn-cones: a pair of structures on the sides of their head that amplify incoming and outgoing psychic signals. Ancient worlansisi used their large, imposing horn-cornes to track the psychic traces their prey left behind, placing them a cut above the other Worlan predators. Throughout the millennia of the pre-Gap era, the worlanisi shifted to incorporate more luck and cunning into their survival, and with the advent of advanced technology their reliance on psychic tracking lessened. As a result, their horn- cones have shrunk over the generations and become practically vestigial, but remain a sometimes painful source of amplification for incoming psychic signals. Mental attacks reverberate within them, leaving untrained worlanisi more vulnerable than other species with telepathic abilities. Despite this disadvantage, the horn-cones are a source of pride to worlanisi, who adorn and paint them in a wide variety of ways.

Worlanisi are known for the rare ability to consistently gift their luck to allies as well as themselves. Some scholars theorize this luck originates from their horn-cones, along with their limited telepathic gifts. Indeed, a worlanisi's ability to wield and control luck grows in adolescence as their horns develop more concentric rings, adding credence to this theory.

As perpetual children of good fortune, worlanisi enjoy an easy-going and trusting society. Luck is so central to worlanisi society that most of them credit it for every major event of their lives. Good outcomes, no matter how hard they were worked for or how much one prepared for them, are evidence of one's luck. Indeed, most worlanisi view luck as a seed that needs hard work and the right conditions to grow properly. Even times of disaster and tragedy can be viewed later as blessings in disguise for the growth and changes they brought. Because luck needs help, worlanisi also value achievement and skill. They take great pleasure in artisan crafting, clever solutions, and improving their communities.

Despite their psychic hypersensitivity, worlanisi prefer telepathic communication to spoken language. To them, telepathic conversation is both intimate and practical. Telepathy can allow a boat crew to communicate in a storm, two hunters to stealthily sneak up on prey, or friends to chat while dancing in a loud night club. Spoken word is for formal occasions or for songs and other entertainments.

Worlanisi get along well with most other cultures, adapting to local customs while traveling and bringing back their favorite practices to Worlan. Still, they have little patience for any customs they find self-destructive; destroying an ecosystem for short-term gain largely baffles them. Worlanisi also tend to completely dismiss other species' attempts to artificially boost luck with talismans and other superstitions. From the worlanisi viewpoint, true luck is inherent. Chasing luck with toys isn't just foolish, but dangerous, since it leads people believe themselves protected. Worlanisi take pride in being living good luck charms and know no trinket can replace their skills.

Fortunauts

In the chaos after the Gap, most worlanisi lived fully nomadic lives, aided by high-tech sporting gear manufactured in Nasceri. They traveled with no fixed destination, trying to find meaning and a sense of their own identity. Over time, these travelers became known as fortunauts, and their journeys were called jaunts. Trusting Desna to guide them, they learned and grew along the way. After the Signal, jaunts began to extend to the stars themselves. As ship crews across the galaxy learned of the worlanisi's extraordinary luck, eagerness to learn, and boundless optimism, fortunauts were welcomed everywhere as lucky charms and insurance for the riskiest of ventures.

Most modern day fortunauts are young, and their jaunts herald the transition between childhood and adult responsibility. They sign onto ships, taking travel as it comes. When they return, they tell the stories of their travels and about what their journeys taught them. Hospitality is sacred on Worlan. If a worlanisi comes home to find a stranger sleeping in their bed, they clean the stranger's gear, restock their supplies, and make them breakfast before waking them to ask about their journey. The jaunt is so important to worlanisi culture that it's almost impossible to start a family, enter politics or hold any position of authority without one. Fortunauts bring back not just experience, but important offworld contacts and learning that enriches the rest of worlanisi society. Even once they return home, worlanisi crave adventure throughout their lives, taking time off to climb mountains, hunt, surf, or simply see someplace new.

Family Life

Worlanisi families tend to be polyamorous and sprawling, with each person recognizing multiple partners that they love in a committed fashion. In a culture that embraces change, travel and individualism, casual love affairs are widely accepted. However, they're considered temporary until everyone in a family agrees to welcome the newcomer. Marriage vows on Worlan are less about connecting to a single person romantically and more about agreeing to join the work, child-rearing duties, and finances of an extended family. Family time, especially with children and elders, is sacred and valued, perhaps more so because worlanisi family structure is set up to give everyone breaks and support. Through trades and covering for one another, everyone in the family gets some time away to pursue new experiences.

Politics

Worlanisi government councils, whether island or planetary, are elected with staggered terms and strict term limits to encourage the politicians of Worlan to work without worrying about the next election. However, some elected officials still manage to be incompetent, corrupt, and self-serving. Some families try to monopolize a council position by holding it with successive candidates all from the same family group. These shenanigans are tolerated and even respected when the family sharing the job does good work despite protecting some of their private interests. Still, if any crisis arises during their tenure, elections can become violent. More than one corrupt political official has perished or had suspicious accidents while traveling on the job.

Recreation

Worlanisi love games and competitions of all sorts. Most of the games they favor tend to minimize or offset luck, such as the strategy card game Seven Suns. The only casino to feature games of chance on Worlan is the Short Straw, located in Nasceri's spaceport. Catering to offworlders, the draw of the Short Straw is the challenge of gambling against the luckiest people in the Galaxy. Most tourists come expecting to lose, with bragging rights accruing for how long they were able to hold their own against such overwhelming odds.

The most famous worlanisi sporting competition is Fortune's Regatta, a race across Worlan in the most inhospitable conditions, including sailing during hurricane season, mountaineering near an active volcano, and long treks through monster-infested jungles. The viewing of this annual competition, which draws thousands of offworld spectators and athletes, is more popular as an offworld broadcast than it is among local worlanisi, however. Fortune's Regatta, while a notable personal experience, can be an event that relies heavily on luck, and where is the excitement in that?