Homebrew Anubus Species Details

 

 

"Guardians of the dead, the anubi often act as groundskeepers for cemeteries, temples, and other sacred grounds surrounding the souls of the dead and the divine. With the ability to speak with the dead, the anubi can often guarantee a peaceful life for the spirits due to the communication between the planes. Strong willed with a divine since of justice, the anubi will always fight for their beliefs.  Most anubi tend to become paladins or clerics so that they may serve the dead with the utmost care. From what information my analysis was able to gather, these seem to be the main traits of the anubi and their habits. I have realized, of course, that not all anubi follow such a caring path.

Some anubi, such as the one I am currently investigating, stray down a darker path. Perhaps the dead souls speaking to them direct them to this path in hopes to create destruction in a last ditch revenge? Another theory is that the anubi get sick of hearing the speeches of the damned thus leading them to such extents. Anubi that tend to go down a more destructive path tend to become necromancers, paladins of broken oaths, and so on. Either way, this concludes my notes on the anubi race. For now, I must continue to follow the papertrail of blood that my target has left before me."

-Beetle, The Warforge Detective

Anubi are often known to become lawful neutral/good. The anubi have a natural sense of justice due to their upbringings and culture. Some anubi tend to stray away from the herd and lose that sense of law and good, but it isn't very common.

Anubi Physical Traits

Anubi are known to take very similar form to that of an African jackal. With a humanoid body, but the head and senses of the African jackal, the anubi are a force to be reckoned with. They often have a thin layer of black fur since they tend to live in hot climates. A thicker coat of fur would be agonizing for someone of their stature. Their hands and feet tend to be mainly humanoid, but they do maintain a form of claws as they normally allow their fingernails to grow out quite a bit. Anubi tend to grow to be 5'11 on average and naturally have a bulkier, more muscular frame than some other races.

Golden Markings

In respect of the dead, the anubi will often put on golden eyeliner around their eyes. Some anubi will even go as far as to get golden tattoos on their bodies. While this practice is mainly seen as a form of respect, it does serve an extra purpose. Anubi believe that these markings ward off evil spirits that wish to twist the anubi's mentality. While some may scoff at this practice, the anubi would know better than anyone else due to their constant involvement with the dead. Lycanthropy spirits pose a dangerous threat to the anubi, but are often warded off by the golden markings. This has been proven since the beginning of this tradition.

Anubi Culture

The anubi culture commonly leads most anubi to become clerics, paladins, or blood hunters. While the clerics and paladins often act as protectors of sacred grounds, blood hunter anubi often act as a second agent to avenge the dead. They are known to track down the killers and create a rude awakening. Using the blood magic and their strong sense of survival skills, they can easily track someone down. All they need is a trail and a drop of the targets blood. Some anubi tend to go down a less just path and lean towards classes like wizard, rogue, barbarian, or warlock.

The anubi don't tend to create their own villages as they often live among pre-created societies. Most anubi spend little time in towns as they would rather spend their time in temples, churches, cemeteries, ruins, and monasteries. Since they are known to lightly wander the world, they normally will attach a lantern to their belts at all times in case darkness falls upon them during such travels. Anubi protecting and living in abandoned temples will often build homes in such ruins and station their living quarters near whatever they wish to protect in the said ruins. 

When it comes to clothing, the anubis race doesn't bother with layers of clothing. With heat beaming down on their bodies and their light layer of fur, they normally will only bother with a singular cloth around their hips and pelvis so they don't "flash" people. Most of the accessorizing from the anubi comes from jewelry rather than actual clothing. Golden bracelets, helmets, rings, and earrings are extremely common to be worn by anubi.

Anubi Names

Anubi are known to have lupin and african names due to the type of heritage they have.

Male Anubi Names: Murdus, Ra-mes, Gyasi, Ankhhor, Randwulf, Norden, Fredegund

Female Anubi Names: Rabiah, Nubia, Schent, Kes-kes-t, Minerva, Johanna, Charicce

Neutral Anubi Names: Titia, Darwishi, Ur, Lukman, Neb-amen, Jamal, Claude, Lennix

Necrotic Exposure

The anubi are constantly exposed to different forms of necrosis magic their entire lives. Due to this, they have gained immunity to necrotic magic. Perhaps the god of death gave pity on them and chose to give them immunity for their own safety... or they simply evolved and adapted.  

Anubus Traits

The anubi's abilities and strengths

Ability Score Increase

You gain +2 to your wisdom, +1 to your strength.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common, Sylvan, and Celestial!

Age

Anubi mature at age 15 due to their lupin/humanoid mixed bloodline. They often live to be around 250 years old on average.

Size

Anubi men often stand around 6'3 and weigh around 236 lbs. on average. Anubi women often stand around 5'8 and weigh around 176 lbs. They commonly fall in the medium category.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 35 feet.

Spirit Connected

The anubis have a natural ability to speak with the dead. Unlike most races, they do not need any spells to speak with the dead nor to see the dead. They are born with 80 feet of true sight so that they may see into the spirit realm. Since they have continuous interactions with the dead, they have gained an immunity to necrosis. 

The Dead's Bite

Anubi have a strong, deadly bite. While their bite might not hurt as much as an anglerians, they always have a chance to leave a destructive scar. The initial damage die of the anubi's bite is a d8 of necrotic/piercing damage. Upon being bit, the enemy must roll a con save. On a failed save, you temporarily hearing the wailing of the dead, dealing a d8 of psychic damage. If the target fails three saves, they must roll a dc 17 con save or be turned into a lycanthrope.

Upgrades. The damage die upgrades at levels 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20!