Homebrew Maristo Species Details
Twas upon a furious sea on which we found ourselves, all sails stowed against the howling gales, and our ship a'wallowin' under heavy cargo. The cap'n was bellowing and the mar's were a'running under orders to pump that, tie this, and hold on fer dear life. Sixteen hours we sailed as such, as much as it could be called sailin', mostly we jus' hung on and tried not to drown an die, but the ship she brought us through, an af'er the storm cleared we had naught but clean strong winds ta blow us ta port within a day. Twas a glorious sail, an we celebrated in our cups for a day as the trade was offloaded.
The Maristo were an isolated people on distant islands in difficult seas until a human ship found itself wrecked upon their rocky shores. Though lacking a common language the human sailors soon found that their benevolent rescuers quickly adapted to the common tongue and learned anything taught to them quite readily. Years passed as the poor sailors worked steadily to attempt repairs on their ship, and the rat-like Maristo aided them all the while.
During this time the Maristo realized that their little world, of which they had always believed they knew everything about, was indeed much larger than they had fathomed. So they learned all there was to learn about the great sailing vessel they were helping to repair, and everything they could about its operations.
By the time the human ship was ready to sail the Maristo had already begun construction on great ships of their own, determined to set out into the broader world and meet with its people. They brought their delicate trade goods, fine coral carvings, fishbone armors, porcelain pottery, sharkleather hides, and sea cotton textiles with them.
Within a few years the Maristo had established trade with every nearby human port, proving themselves to be incredibly adept at sailing and ship construction. Their fine wares are treated as exotic luxuries and coveted by the wealthy in every land.
A Feudal People
Maristo culture is shaped by thousands of years of close proximity on tiny islands, their nations are small in area, but great in population, and bound to their individual islands. Travel between nations occurs via small skiffs that can best handle the treacherous reefs.
Often in their history great wars between their tiny nations wracked their island chains leaving behind much destruction to the delicate ecosystem, for this reason a warrior caste arose that has kept a tight rule upon the people and prevented large scale warfare.
Battles between nations are now fought between career warriors on agreed terms in dedicated battlegrounds, often in view of spectator peasants come to see the carnage and cheer for their lord or lady's side. This practice has become largely ceremonial, with assassinations having become the primary, and hidden, way of settling political scores.
These assassination games are quasi-legal, with the outcome being respected by all so long as long as complex forms of notice are followed and the act itself is perpetrated completely without witness.
Great Variety
The Maristo consider themselves blessed by great variety in their markings. Their fine, oily fur, comes in many patterns of color, most often in shades of brown, black, white, gray, red, and even blue, their coats seldom contain just one color, often displaying at least two, and occasionally three. Their large eyes, lacking pupils or sclera, seldom match in color and range from very light blue to the darkest black, and among those with white fur, often red.
Their hands are very dexterous and display two thumbs opposed on either side of their fleshy palms, with four long delicate-appearing fingers in between. Their feet appear much the same as their hands, and can be used nearly as ably, but have the added feature of tough, elastic webbing between each thumb and its nearest finger, this flexible webbing greatly assists their swimming speed.
Their tails are fleshy, muscular, and typically gray, black, or pink. Maristo youth initially have little control over their tails and it takes them many years to learn to suppress the automatic twitching and stillness brought on by various emotional states.
It is a saying among the Maristo that one "twitches like a child" if they are unable to prevent their tails telltale twitches when attempting a deception. When a Maristo is wary or angry the tail stands straight out and stiff; while frightened or shamed, the tail curls up under and between the legs; and if content, it lazily swishes back and forth.
Florid of Speech
Due to the tight-packed nature of their homeland, and the extremely formal nature of all interactions between the various castes of their people, the Maristo have developed an extremely polite society, which to outsiders often seems overly obsequious.
They are fond of flowery language and will rarely use a five copper word where a ten platinum word will fit. Many races find this behavior to be a bit smarmy and deceptive, but to the Maristo their mode of address is simply to prevent misunderstanding and offense, which is a good thing, for between Maristo offense can often lead to bloody honor duels.
Maristo poetry has become very in fashion among humans and even elves, though dwarves and dragonborn have been known to lose all patience waiting for a Maristo trader to get past honorifics and pleasantries to reach the crux of a bargain. Halflings and gnomes seem to particularly delight in convoluted conversations with the Maristo people.
Maristo Adventurers
Maristo adventurers often start their lives as exploratory traders, striking out from their island homes on the great trading vessels of their people seeking their fortune in the less crowded human lands. The less successful of these traders sometimes find that while they may not make their fortunes in trade, there are other often greater fortunes to be made venturing inland accompanying adventures on grand quests through ruins and dungeons in search of treasure and glory.
Adventuring Maristo love nothing better than to write long-winded and florid letters to their large families back home, boasting of their exploits, and occasionally passing packets of found trinkets and treasure to honorable Maristo ship captains for delivery home to their liege lords as tribute to bring greater honor to their clans and families.
Maristo adventurers come from many walks of life in their native isles, including their samurai warriors, poetic bards, dashing swashbucklers, capable rogues, and assassins. Though seldom naturally gifted with arcane talents, their keen intellect occasionally produces a young traveler willing to put in the study to become powerful casters.
ROLEPLAYING A MARISTO
If you’re playing a Maristo, never use just one word, especially a short word, when many long words will work instead. When speaking to others, especially those with authority or of noble birth, attempt to ingratiate yourself with many honorifics, compliments, and pleasantries. No Maristo will begin any entreaty for aid or trade with a bald request, all such interactions must be accompanied by mutual small talk and niceties before any such appeal is made. Those who refuse to engage in banter are either crudely boorish or simply lack the intelligence to converse with one as loquacious and well-versed as yourself, perchance you could find better company with whom to spend your valuable time.
Maristo are very curious people, they love to know more about everything and will go to great lengths to discover a secret, especially a marketable one. They see monetary value in nearly everything and are always thinking of ways to incorporate nearly any finding into their schemes for future profits.
Maristo Names
Maristo Names are tediously long by many races standards, full of honorifics, titles, ancestors and clan affiliations, a full name for any Maristo could take a page or more to write out, and though any good Maristo would love to wax poetic about the various sources of their namesakes and titles, many understand that for the sake of brevity they must, alas, keep it short. For this purpose they often create for themselves another name, referred to as an outsider name, which they use in the company of non-Maristo. These names are often words or names that they have heard in their travels that they liked due to the way it rolled off the tongue, as such the names they go by are often familiar to strangers they meet.
Among other Maristo, outside of formal occasions (of which there are many), they often shorten their true names, and you can tell the degree of familiarity between two Maristo by the length of the names they refer to each other by. Complete strangers may use up to five names to prevent confusion or offense, while close family members will shorten them to a single pet name that only they use. If a Maristo is very angry with you, you will know it, because they will use your full name as part of any very flowery insult they hurl your way.
Maristo Traits
Your Maristo character has the following racial traits.Quick Learners
Very quick learners, Maristo adventurers gain proficiency in one artisan tool of their choice as well as one bonus Dexterity, Intelligence, or Charisma skill.
Quadridexterous
Maristo are equally adept at working with either hands or feet when performing complex tasks. For instance, a Maristo who's captor mistakenly bound only their hands would soon find that their prisoner has freed themselves by simply untying the knots with their feet.
Due to their extremely dexterous hands and feet, and largely owing to their additional thumbs, Maristo also gain advantage on Slight of Hand, and Athletics checks used to climb walls, ladders, or rope.
The complex nature of their feet disallows the use of boots, and non-magical gloves made for other races will not fit due to lacking the proper number of digits. Magical gloves are known to adapt to the extra digit, however no magical boot is capable of such drastic adaptation.
Even were boots devised that would properly fit a Maristo, none would ever wear them; the very idea of footwear disgusts them.
Darkvision
Large eyes and ears provide enhanced senses even in extremely low light, all Maristo have Darkvision to 120 feet.
Ability Score Increase
Your Dexterity, Intelligence, and Charisma scores each increase by 1.
Age
Maristo mature as quickly as 12 years, and though they lead long lives they often grow frail in their elder years. Around their 70th year they typically retire to clan holdings to assist in the rearing and training of their clan's youth, passing on all they have learned. They can live as long as 120 years.
Alignment
Maristo are born to a society with a rigid caste system governed by feudal lords and clan elders, they are most often lawful and lean toward neutral or good.
Size
Maristo are just under 4 feet tall and weigh between 90 and 110 pounds. Your size is Small.
Speed
Your base walking speed is 30 feet. Webbed feet allow swimming speed of 20 feet.
Languages
You can read and write Common, Maristo, and one other language.
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