Homebrew Equidaen Species Details

Equidaens are ancient relatives to the Equidae family, such as horses, donkeys and zebras, hailing from the Material plane. While the reasoning as to why this race evolved the way it did is unknown, whether it was a magical influence or if something in their instincts took them down another path. They are loyal to their values, they're humble and whilst not enterally carefree, they appreciate life, their freedom, their family and what's given to them. They are a peaceful race but are fully capable in battle if it ever came to it. 

Their intelligence and strength leads them all over and in different work fields, from blacksmithing to mining or becoming scholars to teachers of general education or magics, whilst they are completely capable of doing whatever they desire, these sorts of jobs tend to be the ones they lead to the most.

Herding Home and Community

Most Equidaens generally don't stay in one place for very long, creating temporary homes for a few years before moving on to the next location, whereas some may stay stationary, creating blossoming villages. Equidaens value the importance to family and community before anything, trust means everything, and breaking the given trust can lead to temporary or permeant banishment, depending on what occurred. Its rare to see an Equidaen traveling alone, chances are they're an exile, simply wanted adventure or have quite the tale to tell.

Celebration are rather important to Equidaens, ranging from life to death, a successful season of harvest and so on, increasing in size depending on the importance. Throwing a small to village-sized gathering to honor the child and its bearer bringing the family gifts. The celebration of death they will paint the body of the deceased with hand prints, family going first and celebrate their life through eating meals and partaking in hobbies they loved before sending their body to the ground to return to nature. The next day the family may fast as a way of mourning. Each herd has their own way to celebrate, but these are the most commonly known.

Equss

Equss is the language of the Equidaens, it has written, spoke and physical aspects. The writing consists of glyph-like "lettering" generally written with their "fingers" to achieve various line thicknesses. Spoken sounds similar to whinny's and chuffs with almost a distorted and broken common sounding language mixed in. They also communicate through their body language, specifically ears and tails, to convey more emotional messages that cannot be expressed through words. 

Herbivorous Nature

Being descenders of herbivores their bodies do not require eating meat to survive, while they can eat it in moderation, eating large amounts can cause them to fall ill as their stomachs do not properly digest it. They are able to eat grass and leaves as a temporary solution but still require proper protein and vitamins from balanced meals, and honestly, who wants to just eat grass and leaves. Due to this fact, hunting is only necessary for pelts and furs on occasion, they will dry and preserve the meats they gather to trade to nearby settlements.

Blood of the Ancients

Equidaens share visible similarity to their ancient ancestors such as fur coating their bodies with flat colours or various patterns, and a horse-like head, but have evolved to walk on two legs, and their front hooves split and softened to create a 3 "fingered" hands. Some may adorn their manes and tails with beads or ribbons laced into braids simply for decoration and for special events, applying paints and additional adornments such as ribbons to their bodies and nicer clothing.

Equidaen Traits

Equidaen's have the following traits

Languages

You can speak, read and write Common and Equss.

Creature Type

You are Humanoid.

Size

Equidaen's have a vast range of builds and heights ranging from 4ft to 8ft.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 35ft

Age

Equidaen's reach adulthood in their 20s and live around 115 years.

Equidaen Build

Due to your muscular nature, you count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity.

Stay Apparatus

You're legs lock in place while maintaining balance, granting you the ability to rest whilst standing.

Hooves

You have hooves that you can use to make unarmed strikes. When you hit with them, the strike deals 1d6 + your Strength modifier bludgeoning damage, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.

Natural Connection

Your connection to your body and the wild helps you understand it greater than most. You gain proficiency in Athletics and Survival.