Species
The predominant race of the Nachikufan nation are the Atavists. They are a people whose physiology is deeply intertwined with the spirit of a specific beast, an aspect that is channeled and made manifest through the gear they wear.
Physical Form and Sensory Traits
In their baseline state, Atavists appear humanoid, typically with athletic and powerful builds. Their distinguishing feature is the presence of subtle but undeniable bestial traits that vary based on their ancestral lineage. One might have the golden, slitted eyes of a feline, while another has slightly pointed ears, elongated canine teeth, or fingernails that are thick and hard like claws.
When an Atavist equips a special piece of attuned gear called a Heart-Totem, these traits become dramatically enhanced. This “attuned” state is not a full transformation, but an awakening of the beast within. Their muscles might swell with power, a mantle of fur might sprout along their spine and arms, their face contorts into a more feral visage, and their senses sharpen to a supernatural degree.
- Sensory Traits: Even in their base form, Atavists possess heightened senses. Their hearing is sharper, their sense of smell is more acute, and their low-light vision is superior to that of most other humanoid races. These senses become incredibly potent in their attuned state.
General Size
Atavists are generally taller and more powerfully built than the average human. Males often stand between 6 and 7 feet tall, with females being slightly shorter but possessing a similar lean, muscular build. Their weight is dense for their size, reflecting their potent physiology.
Body Pattern
Many Atavists are born with faint, birthmark-like patterns on their skin that reflect their animal aspect. An Atavist of a leopard lineage might have subtle rosettes on their shoulders and back, while one from a zebra lineage could have faint stripes along their limbs. When they enter their attuned state, these patterns often glow with a soft, internal light.
Life Cycle
An Atavist is born with a dormant animal aspect inherited directly from their mother. A mother with the aspect of the Lion will always bear children with the Lion aspect. These children are mundane, possessing no magic, but display the subtle bestial traits of their lineage from birth. Their compulsory education includes not only language and history but also training in how to understand and connect with their inner beast. Upon reaching adulthood, an Atavist’s initiation rite involves carving their first personal Heart-Totem, allowing them to finally attune to their ancestral spirit and use magic through their gear. They have a natural lifespan of around 120 years.
Potential Positives and Negatives
Positives:
- Their heightened senses make them exceptional hunters and scouts.
- In their attuned state, their physical strength, speed, and resilience are massively amplified by their gear.
- They share a deep, intuitive connection with the natural world and the specific animals tied to their aspect.
Negatives:
- Their bestial appearance can be unnerving or met with prejudice in foreign cultures that don’t understand their nature.
- A strong, primal instinct is tied to their animal aspect (e.g., a predator’s aggression, a prey animal’s flight response), which can be difficult to control under stress.
- Their unique physiology makes them potentially vulnerable to specific forms of magic or alchemy designed to disrupt or agitate their inner beast.
Tags: Atavist, Humanoid, Shapeshifter (Gear-Based), Nachikufan, Bestial, Feral, Tribal, Totemic, Animistic, Primal, Hunter, Scout, Resilient, Matrilineal, Ruling Class, Heart-Totem, Animal Aspect
Specialized Item Slots Available
The unique physiology of an Atavist allows them to use a piece of gear that no other race can.
- Heart-Totem Slot (1): This is a specialized gear slot located over the sternum, directly above the heart. An Atavist can slot a Heart-Totem—a totem carved from resonant wood, bone, or stone in the likeness of their matrilineal animal spirit—into this space. This totem acts as a key, interfacing with their body and allowing their other gear to channel the power of their animal aspect, enabling their attuned state. The quality and materials of the totem dictate the strength and stability of this transformation.
Environmental Adaptability
Atavists are supremely adapted to the environments of Nachikufan, which range from dense jungles and savannas to wooded hills. Their heightened senses and physical prowess make them at home in the wild. They are less comfortable in sterile, urban environments or barren wastelands, though they can adapt as well as any other race.
Other Information Important to this Race
- The Ruling Line: The monarchy of Nachikufan is matrilineal, passed from Queen to eldest daughter. The ruling line is defined by a powerful and ancient Lion aspect. The Queen’s personal Heart-Totem is the nation’s most sacred relic, a massive fist-sized diamond carved into the form of a roaring lioness, said to be a gift from the world itself.
- Cultural View: Within Nachikufan culture, the Atavists’ nature is not seen as a curse but as a sacred gift. Their society is built around a deep, animistic respect for the natural world. Their art, their music sung in the Kufani language, and their laws all reflect the wisdom they draw from their animal spirits. The lavish gear they wear is a celebration of their aspect, often incorporating furs, fangs, and bones in its design.
Bearing of the Beast-Hearted
From fragmented scrolls of woven reeds, stained with the dust of forgotten ages and bearing glyphs that swim before the weary eye, comes a tale of the people called the Marked by Kin, those now known as the Atavists. The telling is clouded, the words like echoes across a chasm of time, but the essence of their becoming endures.
It is said that in the first light of Saṃsāra’s dawning, before the souls fell like rain from the heavens, the land of Nachikufan was wild and untamed. The people who first walked its verdant shores were fragile things, touched by the raw magic of the world but without its strength. They were prey to the great beasts that roamed the land, creatures of tooth and claw born of the world’s own long dreaming.
Among these early people was a woman named Anya of the Quiet Spirit. She was small and not strong, but her heart held a fierce kinship with the creatures around her. She would leave offerings of fruit and honey at the lairs of the great cats, and she would sing soft melodies to the shy deer in the forest. The beasts, it is said, did not harm her. They sensed the kinship in her heart.
But the other people did not understand Anya. They saw only danger in the wild things and sought to drive them away with fire and sharp stones. This angered the spirits of the land, the unseen forces that dwelled in the trees and the rivers. The world began to turn against the fragile people.
In her despair, Anya climbed the highest mountain and wept beneath the twin moons. She pleaded with the spirits for a way for her people to survive, to become strong enough to walk the land without fear. The spirits heard her plea.
The translation becomes murky here. Some passages speak of a great storm that swept across the land, carrying the essence of the beasts on its winds. Others tell of Anya undergoing a sacred ritual, offering her own heart to the spirits in exchange for the strength of the wild. The most persistent fragments describe Anya finding a sacred stone, warm to the touch and pulsing with a primal energy. This stone, it is implied, became the first Heart-Totem.
Whatever the truth of that ancient time, the people began to change. Children were born with the subtle marks of the beasts: the keen eyes of the hawk, the silent tread of the panther, the unwavering heart of the lion. When they reached their adulthood, they crafted stones like the one Anya found, and through these totems, the spirit of the beast awakened within them, lending them strength, speed, and the sharp senses they had lacked.
They became the Atavists, the people bearing the kinship of the wild within their very being. They learned to live in harmony with the creatures of Nachikufan, understanding their ways and respecting their territories. They rose to become the dominant people of the land, their connection to the natural world giving them a strength that others could not match.
The ruling lineage, it is said, traces its ancestry directly back to Anya of the Quiet Spirit and the first sacred Heart-Totem. Their emblem is the lion, the beast said to have offered Anya its courage in that desperate time. The Queens of Nachikufan carry the weight of this ancient pact, their own Heart-Totems the most potent in the land, symbols of their people’s enduring connection to the wild heart of Saṃsāra.
But the old texts also whisper a warning. The beast within is a powerful ally, but it is also a force that must be respected. If the Atavists forget the balance, if they become arrogant in their strength or lose their reverence for the natural world, the spirits that gifted them their power may one day take it away. The beast-heart must be borne with wisdom and humility, lest it consume the very humanity it was meant to protect.
The Moral of this mistranslated story is: The strength of the wild is a precious gift, but one that demands respect and balance, lest it overwhelm the very spirit it is meant to empower.