Homebrew Sergal Species Details

In ancient times, the sergals were a clan-based, tribal society with a rich culture of ancestor worship and a hunter-gatherer economy. However their world changed suddenly with the arrival of the High Elves from the distant land of Mereth. The subsequent clash of both military and culture saw the elves victorious, and the sergals became second-class citizens to the High Elves, whom shared their culture and language with the ancient sergals.

Millenia later when the Merethi Empire collapsed, and the elves lost their influence and power over other nations, the Sergal civilization was among the first to spring up, free of oppression. Despite the lukewarm-at-best relationship the ancient sergals had with the High Elves, the sergals maintained many elements of Merethi culture, such as architecture, language, smithing and military techniques, however with a unique Sergal cultural flair.

Since then, the Sergal civilization has expanded, rescinded, faced hardship and bloomed, but overall the land of Argos remains a proud and powerful nation which stands as a major player in the grand scale of Toril.

Combat style

Militant Sergals wear relatively light combat armor made of ceramic or metal armor. Southern Sergals wear metal; Eastern and Northern generally wear ceramic armor. This is rooted in the differences in available materials in each region. In ancient times, Eastern and Northern Sergals were also known to use bone armor.

Sergals prefer melee combat and are quite deadly at it. They prefer the use of polearms and bladed weapons as they find the most effective at dealing with Talyxian or even the occasional Eltus threats. Especially, blades also hold up a very distinct, spiritual meaning in their culture as well as practical, which is why they are emphasized as the usual go-to solution, from the old-era all the way up to modern

Their main proficiency is in evasion and strong offensive abilities, featuring quick, dynamic movements and leveraging their strong jumping ability. Their strength is in close range combat, and they can quickly close the distance from mid-range engagements. They will take advantage of their high stamina to run long distances, chasing down their enemy or prey until they do not have the strength to escape. When Sergals assume a scatter or dispersal tactic, the distance between squads is quite open and vast, across wide ranges of land.

Due to their size, their agility is inferior to Nevreans, but once they are up to speed, they can move the fastest and furthest of any Eltus race.

They can disregard their own defense to a degree when facing off against an opponent. Sergals secrete a large amount of adrenaline during combat and can ignore minor injuries and distractions. Their sensitivity to pain is dulled and their focus is sharpened significantly. However, their critical thinking also deteriorates and they can be described to behave like a pack of lemmings without sufficiently skilled leadership.

Anatomy

Sergals follow a humanoid body plan with two arms and two legs, with a markedly dog or weasel-like aspect and heavily furred skin. The head is nearly flat and gently tapered past the eyes with no separation between head and snout, eyes protrude from the sides of the skull and are capable of nearly 270 degree vision. Also notable is the extremely long and dextrous tongue. Much like a shark, Sergal teeth grow throughout life and are designed to fall out easily. While an adult Sergal mouth has 40 teeth, he or she may go through as many as 360 teeth in its lifetime.

The Sergal's neck is long and has a wider range of movement than a human's. The legs are digitigrade, meaning the Sergal walks on long toes rather than feet, giving the legs three joints rather than two. Sergal's hands have three fingers, one opposable thumb, and a vestigial fifth digit corresponding to a human pinky that protrudes just past the wrist. Wide fingers allow a Sergal‘s grip to equal a human's in strength, and the clawed nails can provide extra staying power on some surfaces.

Sergal’s have a notable difference from Humans in that they have an extra pair of openings connected to the respiratory system. These are connected via the Windpipe and in the Sergal's case they are located ventrally on either side of the neck, similar in shape to gills. These help regulate internal temperature allowing the Sergal to sustain similar activity to a human without panting or sweating, and are widened by the autonomic nervous system during arousal, exertion, and stress. Some Sergal’s also have limited control over their digestive system, allowing them to quickly absorb nutrients for combat or slow down their metabolism. This is seldom taken advantage of to use their stomachs as an unorthodox storage method for smuggling or other purposes. Aside from a slightly higher lung capacity, extra two airways and metabolism control, Sergal are more or less similar to humans internally.

Sergal voiceboxes are capable of extremely nuanced motion that only one in a hundred thousand Humans can imitate. The Sergal can hear low and high-pitched noises that are outside a human's hearing range. As such, the Sergal language is nearly impossible for humans to speak, but Sergal are capable of speaking Human languages

Due to constant threat, Velous races developed high resistance and regenerative capability. Sergals have sturdy, fully solid bones and possess a rapid recovery rate. It takes significantly less time for a sergal to heal from a fracture and return to normal everyday life compared to humans or most other sapient species.

Ecology and Habitats

Many of the Sergal's adaptations have led observers to believe that the Sergal’s ancestors were adapted to littoral fishing, much like seals or otters. Their streamlined body and water-repellent fur make Modern Sergal good fishers and swimmers but many of their greatest advantages were lost in the rise to intelligence.

The Sergal are native to the islands of the Broken Horn. They have spread widely across these parts and now that they have joined the Empire and their standard of living is higher they are spreading all across the southwest coast of Granmor and the kingdom of Verdon. Hardy, brutal Sergal troops are heavily used to pacify the restless North and so Sergal settlements have sprung up there as well.

Sergal do not like hot, humid, or overly vegetated climates as their thick fur makes them hot and their gills are sensitive to sand, dust, and pollen. Sergal living in hot climates bathe frequently and carry misters to keep their gills clear.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Sergal are omnivorous, allowing them to gain nutrients from plant or animal matter. While Sergals are technically omnivorous creatures, the average individual's basic diet will typically consist of small animals and fish. In Mick Ono's Old Age canon novella writings, they have also shown to have cannibalistic traits due to Rain Silves; Sergals as a whole have often been misunderstood as monstrously bestial due to this. However, this is uncommon behavior for a typical sergal, and confined to Rain Silves and her vassals particularly.

Social Structure

Early in life, Sergals form a close group of friends of both genders called a cadre. Sergal generally mate for life with one of the other members of their cadre. In Northern Sergal society it is still considered normal to mate within the cadre, but in the Southern Sergal culture this is forbidden.

Because life-partner pairs can contain offspring from several males in the Cadre, the family of the Cadre is considered family to any pups born within it. This has led to a strong tribal structure in which strong political and economic bonds are created among groups of families who share a gene pool. New connections between tribes are created by youth of different tribes growing up in close contact, creating Cadres that connect the new tribes and their genetic pools. This makes tribal relations much more stable than in human societies.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

A Sergal's sense of smell is much heightened over that of humans. They have a wide peripheral vision, superior dynamic visual acuity, and excellent situational awareness, however, their overall quality of vision is poor. Due to their eyesight working in conjunction with their brain structure, they are unable to focus on a single target well, and they cannot successfully use projectile weapons without proficiency. However, they can practice simple long-range attacks like a javelin at close range quite well. Sergals rarely use firearms and must have proficiency to wield them. They also have a weak electrochemical sense which gives them a strong direction-finding ability. Their rates of magic and psychic sensitivity are slightly lower than humans but more or less similar. 

Sergal Regional Variants

Northern Sergal

Northern Sergals primarily live in the northern regions of Tal in primitive and rural areas near the forest, mainly Astna Plains. They have long, fluffy manes, usually with white abdomens, somewhat short ears and a slightly thick face when compared to Southern Sergals. However, these parts do not still reach to very short and thick levels like those of Eastern Sergals. Their primary fur colors are gray, blue, bluish gray, and bluish violet. As a noticeable physical feature, they keep forward-facing eyes even after reaching adulthood, unlike Sergals who are living in other regions. This is caused by their undeveloped and wild environment composed of alien Talyxian biomes, which produce the unidentified and unknown components in the atmosphere that affect growth.

They lived a primitive tribal lifestyle with an animistic belief system for a long time, due to their cowardly and deeply religious nature. Their minds are easily influenced, a weakness General Rain exploited.

After domination by General Rain, their lifestyle totally changed and most of them became combatants who are loyal to Rain. Then after the end of the war and reconstruction of Shigu, they finally got a civilized life.

Southern Sergal

Southern Sergals primarily live in the southern regions of Tal in rural areas, small towns, and Gold Ring, the largest and developed country built on the shore of the great salt lake, Colvilous. A large majority live in the Gold Ring.

Their appearance differs greatly from their northern counterparts. Southern Sergals are generally shorter, slimmer, and thinner-furred. Their primary fur colors are brown, beige, blonde, and orange.

Southern Sergals consider themselves to be much more civilized and cultured than northern Sergals. They value cultured and civilized behaviors greatly because they have lived with another species, Agudners, with whom they share their homes, jobs, and culture. Fashion is popular with Southerns, who enjoy dying their fur colorful hues. Gender differences do not still differ on the biological feature, but are more culturally apparent, with female Southern Sergals often having a more "feminine" fashion and behavior.

Eastern Sergal 

Eastern Sergals are the most numerous type, are a mix of Northern Sergals and Southern Sergals, and primarily live in the middle east to the south of Planet Tal, covering Reono and Gold Ring.

They have longer, fluffy thicker fur than those of Northern Sergals, and mainly deep colors like mixed colors; such as black, deep-gray, deep-brown, and deep-green. Their build is the biggest among all of the Sergals due to heterosis. They have the shortest ears and thickest faces.

They share their culture with Southern Sergals, specifically civilized and cultured sociality by a relationship with Agudners. Therefore fashion like fur dyeing is popular among them, too. However, they are somewhat rustic when compared to Southerners. Also, they have a very superior hunting technique, and because of this, there are many great hunters among them.

Western Sergal

Western Sergals are less numerous subspecies of Northern Sergals, living in the Northwest of Planet Tal, mainly the Vetla forest. Due to lore reasons, their numbers are very low, although they are treated as an extinct species in official historical facts

Their appearances are similar to Northern Sergals, with a slender body, and intermediate cold colored fur such as green-blue and purple mainly.

They share their culture with Native Nevreans, specifically strict and clean culture with music, poem, and dance. They value beauty and arts greatly. There are many poets among them.

They had maintained a peaceful civilization of their own, but they were almost destroyed by General Rain due to Rain's lust for beautiful things, and all history of them was completely lost. The few survivors took refuge in Gold Ring, a southern city.

Credit:

Race originally created by Mick Ono and Kiki CR, as part of the Vilous series.

Other Information sourced from;

• Wikifur - Sergals
• The World of blue team Fandom Page - Sergals # Biology

Modified and adapted for DndBeyond from

• DanDwiki - Sergal Variant (5e_Race)
• Worldanvil - Sergal Article by Insidevoices

Special Thanks to Mick Ono and Kiki CR for creating the species, to the writers of wikifur and theworldofblueteam, aswell as the DND wiki and to Insidevoices for Creating Statsheets in Worldanvil.

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Sergal Traits

Creature Type: Humanoid
Size: Medium (about 5-7 feet)
Speed: 35 feet

As a Sergal, you have these special traits.

Age

A Sergal may live between 50 and 60 years of age, but the average lifespan of most Sergals is currently 20 - 30 years due to the many threats from dangerous and alien wild creatures living in their surrounding environment. In safer and civilized regions such as Gold Ring, the largest and developed country in the south, they could live longer than Sergals living in other regions. Though, their lifespan is shortest in the three Eltus races.

Alignment

While Sergals can be any alignment, the state of their philosophy and culture leads them towards neutral good.

Sergal Combat Training

Sergals have innate proficiency with Spears, Shortswords, Glaives, Halbeards, Pikes and Quarterstaffs. 

Melee Inclination

Due to your eyesight working in conjunction with your brain structure, you are unable to focus on a single target well, and cannot successfully use projectile weapons without proficiency. However, you can practice simple long-range attacks like a javelin at close range quite well. Sergals rarely use firearms and must have proficiency to wield them

Claws

If you have a constitution bonus greater than 0, Sergals add their constitution bonus to unarmed damage. This bonus does not apply to unarmed strikes made with Fanged Maw such as bite or biting grapple.

Overbreathing

Once per full rest, the Sergal may begin Overbreathing in order to add their Constitution modifier to attack and spell hit rolls (not damage rolls), as well as saves and skill checks involving Strength, Constitution, or Dexterity. Overbreathing lasts 30 seconds or 5 turns, and can be used while under the influence of any status effect except Petrification. When Overbreathing expires, the Sergal may immediately suffer 2 levels of exhaustion to extend their overbreathing.

Regional Variants

The original species of them are Northern Sergals, and there are various regional differences who have derived from Northerners; Southern Sergals who got civilized culture earliest by symbiosis with Agudners from the early stages, Eastern Sergals who are a mixed breed of Northerners and Southerners, and Western Sergals who are an extinct race. But in the modern era of Tal, nationality such as Shigu, Reono, and Gold Ring takes up greater importance than race or subspecies because of the sheer amount of mixing gene pools by globalization.

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Variant	Regional Knowledge	Legacy	Height and Weight (Optional)
Northern Sergal	Primal Lord: You are proficient in the Survival and Athletics skills.	Legacy of Violence: As a bonus action, you can put savage force behind your attacks. Your melee weapon attacks add your proficiency bonus to damage rolls until the end of this turn. You can use this trait once per Short or long rest.	Base Height 5’9” Height Modifier +1d12 inches Base Weight 125lb Weight Modifier +1d4 × Height Modifier (lb)
Southern Sergal	Civil Lore: You gain proficiency in one skill of your choice from the following options: Arcana, Persuasion, Medicine or History.	Legacy of Discovery: As a bonus action, you can attune to a magic item you are holding, provided you meet the requirements to attune. You can use this trait twice, recovering all uses after you finish a long rest.	Base Height 5’2” Height Modifier +1d20 inches Base Weight 110lb Weight Modifier +1 × Height Modifier (lb)
Eastern Sergal	Hybrid Lore: You gain proficiency in one skill of your choosing.	Legacy of Hunters: If you attack a creature with advantage, your first successful attack against that creature deals an additional 1d4 damage.	Base Height 6’5” Height Modifier +3d4 inches Base Weight 140lb Weight Modifier +1 × Height Modifier (lb)
Western Sergal	Sonorous Lore: You gain proficiency in two Charisma skills of your choice and one instrument.	Legacy of Tragedy: As a reaction to taking damage, you can reduce the damage taken by an amount equal to your Charisma Modifier. You can use this ability a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining all uses after you finish a long rest.	Base Height 5’9” Height Modifier +1d12 inches Base Weight 125lb Weight Modifier +1d4 × Height Modifier (lb)

Fanged Maw

Your wedge-shaped jaws are a natural weapon, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. On a hit, you deal 1d6 + your Strength modifier piercing damage instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.

As an unarmed strike, this action is compatible with features, spells, and class abilities that modify or utilize unarmed combat.

Once per turn, when you successfully subject a creature to the Grappled condition, or while you are maintaining a grapple on a creature, you can make a special bite attack against that creature as a free action, termed a "Biting Grapple."

On a hit, the target takes 1d6 + your Strength modifier piercing damage. If the target is currently grappled by you, it suffers a penalty to all subsequent Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks made to escape your grapple. This penalty is equal to half the piercing damage dealt by this attack (rounded up). This penalty is a unique physical effect of the bite and does not count as a standard condition or grapple effect. When resolving a bite attack or releasing a biting grapple, the Sergal must roll a Constitution save vs the target's AC. If the save fails, they lose teeth painfully and cannot make a bite attack or a biting grapple again until they complete a full rest.

Keen Senses

You have proficiency in the Insight, Perception, or Survival skill.

Peripheral Vision

If you would be Surprised, you can immediately make a perception check without using an action, contesting your ambusher's stealth check to avoid suffering the condition.

Sergal Agility

You can move an additional 15 feet on your turn without spending an action. You can do this a number of times equal to your Constitution Modifier + your proficiency bonus, regaining all uses after you finish a long rest.

Sergal Evasion

While you are not wearing armour, you can calculate your AC as 12 + Dexterity modifier. You can use a shield and still gain this bonus.

When you are subjected to a Dexterity saving throw, you can use your reaction to roll a 1d4 and add the number rolled to the saving throw. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.