Homebrew Yinglet (2024) Species Details

Legacy Note:

If you use a Legacy background, make sure to enable Customize Your Origin and enable Ability Score Increases

Physical Description

Thin, lanky, lithe, and small, the yinglets resemble a cross between a shorebird and a rat. Their entire bodies are covered in brown, black, gray, or white mid-length fur, save for their forelegs (and occasionally forearms), which more closely resemble the forelegs of a shorebird: stilt-like, bony in texture, and black in coloration. They may or may not possess locks of human-like hair on their heads. Their heads have the basic structure of a reptile; they possess large, bat-like ears on the sides of their heads, and they have whisker-like protrusions from their eyebrows. Their tails are also reptile-like, with females (and a few more feminine males) having a tuft of ornamental fur on the tip of the tail. Most yinglets have nine teeth: a single large, pointed "shelltooth" in the front of their mouths to crack open the shells of mollusk species, and four pairs of smaller, pointed teeth closer to the back of their mouths to prevent live prey from escaping. This unfortunate tooth arrangement prevents them from pronouncing "th" sounds. Their eyes are cat-like, with a colored sclera and black slits for irises. The color of the sclera can vary drastically, but is most commonly some shade of yellow. Their hands and feet are very similar in structure: they both have three single-jointed, clawed fingers and a single clawed opposable thumb, with pads similar to a cat or dog on the palm and the tip of each digit.

Internal Biology

Yinglets have a drastically different internal biology from most other humanoid races. Notably, they are unable to digest bread and other dry foods (such as nuts, corn, or rice). In addition, their internal clocks run much faster than humans: they sleep for an hour for every five hours spent awake, rather than eight hours for every sixteen. Their main food source is mollusk meat, such as clams, oysters, and slugs. They experience a brief euphoric feeling upon eating such foods, and with enough mollusk meat at one time they can become intoxicated for hours on end. Coupled with their emotional maturity, which is roughly comparable with that of a human in early-to-mid-adolescence, their affinity for mollusks forms an unfortunate combination.

History

The history of the yinglets is short but eventful. The yinglets originated from humid swampland filled with poisonous plants, much later than any of the other races. There they squabbled with each other briefly for small gains of territory until eventually being united by a single male yinglet of great intelligence and ability. His efforts established the enclave system, and by extension yinglet society as a whole. The yinglets never developed a language of their own, instead adopting the humans' language of Common. Similarly, they've never developed any technology of their own, resorting to scavenging and stealing from human society. 

Society

Yinglet society is stratified into "enclaves", essentially tribes of yinglets ruled by a matriarch and an array of patriarchs. Being a relatively young race compared to humans, yinglets have few skills, and are reliant on scavenging to survive. They also have a gender ratio of about six males to one female, so females are highly coveted by yinglet society. It is rare for most male yinglets to even get a chance to see a female yinglet outside of the secret inner chambers of an enclave. Among other races, yinglets are seen as pesky vermin by most, and often occupy the lower classes of society.

Yinglet Traits

Creature Type: Humanoid
Alignment: Tends towards Lawful due to strict enclave system
Size: Small (about 2.5–4 feet tall), chosen when you select this species
Weight: Average 35 pounds
Speed: 30 feet

Optional Features

The following options are available through Customize Your Origin feature

• Yinglet Mutation - choose a mutation for your Yinglet that makes it stand out and grants RP incentives
• Sleep Deprevation - Optional ruleset for Yinglet sleep cycle requirements.
• Ability Score Increases - Necessary if you choose to use a non 2024 background.

Yinglet (2024) Traits

As a Yinglet, you have the following special traits.

Scavenger

Coming from a society built on scavenging, you are proficient in the survival skill.

Yinglet Biology

Used to a swamp environment rife with toxic plants, you have advantage on saving throws against poisons, and you have resistance against poison damage. However, you are also unable to digest bread or other similarly dry foods. Upon doing so, you must succeed on a DC 17 Constitution saving throw or vomit.

Darkvision

You have Darkvision with a range of 60 feet.