Homebrew Salamar Species Details

As a raucous celebration gets underway in Lietsin, an old salamar shuts his windows and prepares his alchemy exeriments. He watches the elixirs boil and sniffs at the pungent fumes that waft through the air. He has no desire to join the frivolous festivities outside – the quest for knowledge is what he lives for. In the misty forests outside Orinfell, a salamar mother teaches her daughter the names of plants and their medicinal uses. Just as her own mother did, and her mother before that. Out in the sweltering Tanaroch Desert, a young salamar sapplies a poultice to a fellow traveler wounded during a ma’ii raid. He gazes out across the barren wasteland and imagines what it once was like so very long ago: a lush jungle teeming with his noble ancestors – the great salamar empire of Ax’oloth. An intense longing for connection fills his soul. Every salamar knows that spiritual desolation.

 

Seekers of Ancient Connection

In the ancient days of Ax’oloth, the wise salamar nurtured a mystical bond with nature and with one another. They shared their experiences and emotions as if they were one consciousness, and they lived in a state of transcendent harmony. This oneness was ripped away from them five thousand years ago when the enigmatic Aldan Thei unleashed the Auroboros’ catastrophic power. The destructive energies incinerated Ax’oloth and snuffed out the salamar’s communal link.

Even after so many millennia, the salamar still feel the ache of what was lost. The emptiness haunts them. Most salamar have turned to alchemy, botany, and even the arcane arts to restore the bond they once shared. They spend their whole lives experimenting and recording their research. Their natural patience and profound intellect make them experts in these fields, and salamar are highly sought after for their elixirs, potions, and compounds of rare herbs.

The salamar are happy to share their knowledge, but they have earned a reputation for being somewhat indifferent and aloof to outsiders. So focus on their lofty experiments, they struggle to assimilate into Lawbrand’s society and create lasting friendships. Tragically, their obsession with the past has blinded them to the present – and the potential for developing the emotional connections they truly long for.

A Loss of Connection

The ancient salamar empire of Ax’oloth was a glorious merging of nature and craftsmanship, where stone temples were built around living trees and streams – creating a perfect natural balance. The salamar held a miraculous link between themselves and the trees within their realm – like a collective dream that bonded them to each other and to the natural world. In this way, the salamar experiences a deep, profound wholeness. Yet, five thousand years ago, a horrific catastrophe consumed the rainforests of Ax’oloth and brought ruin to its grand temples. As their beloved land burned, the salamar’s delicate bond collapsed, leaving them to wallow in isolation and bitter grief.

Though many salamar survived the ruin of their paradise, their race never fully recovered from the loss of their bonded existence. For them, the longing to get back to the state of transcendent oneness was less of a desire and more of an overriding racial imperative. Over time they came to see lost Ax’oloth as less of a place and more of a state of being. Given this perspective, modern salamar set themselves to discovering a way to regain their bond with each other and with nature.

Believing that by looking closely enough in the right places and dedicating themselves completely to their experiments, they could find a way back to the unity they experienced in Ax’oloth. Using modern-day sciences such as botany and chemistry, and even the study of the arcane arts, the salamar hope to devise a means to reconnect with the natural world.

Curiously Disinterested

While they are generally good-willed and view Lawbrand’s “younger” races with humor and patience, the salamar are often treated with skepticism and mistrust. Their non-salamar neighbors often find them hard to relate to – and while they seem nice enough, it’s as if they’re indifferent to the lives and experiences of others. Their big, unreadable black eyes and neutral facial expressions can add to this general impression of disinterest.

Unlikely Heroes

In recent years, many younger salamar have been swept up in Lawbrand’s burgeoning youth movement. Drawn to engage with the world around them as opposed to ignoring it like their elders traditionally have, these curious salamar saw new opportunities to appereciate the beauty and wonderment of society – and to create lasting relationships with their fellow citizens. These youths abandoned botany and alchemy and instead took a wide array of jobs and roles within the Trade-Cities. Eager to learn and be productive members of society, many of them even became explorers and adventurers with great potential for daring heroism.

Appearance

Salamar appear as diminutive lizard-folk, akin to bipedal geckos. They have smooth, rubbery skin, long tails, and large, round black eyes. Their bodies can have a broad range of natural color patterns and striping – some of these being distinctive of different tribes or family groups. They tend to move slowly and deliberately. Their facial expressions are often unreadable – causing many to believe that the curious race is aloof and disconnected from the day-to-day realities of Lawbrand.

Salamar Names

Masculine Names

Sess, Shri, Salass, Theel, Thress, Saffoth, Jexx.

Feminine Names

Saress, Jaxxa, Axxra, Salamn, Jaya, Sissra.

Family Names

Liss, Nass, Zarda, Leth, Sazzi, Talla.

Salamar Traits

As a salamar, you have the following racial traits.

Ability Score Increase

Your Intelligence score increases by 1, and your Wisdom score increases by 1. 

Age

Salamar reach adulthood by age 25 and live on average for 150 years. 

Size

Salamar average about 4 ft. tall and typically weeight 90 lbs or less. Your size is small. 

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Sticky Feet

Your climbing speed is 30 ft. 

Adaptive Molting

Your skin markings convey a benefit to you based on the color of their banding. At the end of a long rest, you may change the color of your markings as soon as the long rest is finished. The color of the markings bestow one of the following bonuses to your ability scores.

• Yellow Scales: +1 Charisma
• Green Scales: +1 Dexterity
• Blue Scales: +1 Constitution

Natural Camouflage

Your markings can also adapt to look exactly like rock, dirt, or bark while staying motionless. As a bonus action, you can adapt your markings to blend against such materials, and you gain proficiency to Stealth while staying still among that material.

Studious Nature

Once per long rest, when performing an intelligence check for either Nature or Arcana, you may gain advantage.

Slow Metabolism

The effects of potions, poisons, and alcohol last twice as long on you. 

Curious Concoctions

Once per long rest, you can roll a d10 and consult the Potion Created table below, using whatever components are at hand. These potions require 10 minutes to brew and have a mud-like appearance and texture. They are worthless in value and are only potent for 24 hours, after which the potions no longer grant their effects. Their unique properties and ingredients allow them to only convey their bonuses to salamar. 

D10	Potion created
1	Potion of Healing
2	Potion of Growth
3	Oil of Slipperiness
4	Potion of Superior Healing
5	Potion of Poison
6	Potion of Supreme Healing
7	Potion of Mind Reading
8	Potion of Heroism
9	Potion of Giant Strength (Hill Giant)
10	Potion of Speed

Languages

You can speak, read and write Common and Salamari.