Homebrew Haikan(Shark-Folk) Species Details

 

Physical Description

Haikan have humanoid bodies with a shark-like humanoid head, with fins on their back, arms, and legs. They have a shark tail, as well as a pair of gills which are located on their necks and webbed fingers. Unlike normal sharks, Haikan skeletons consists of mainly bone instead of cartilage and most possess spiked elbows. They have four fingers, three toes, their eyes are different shades of yellow, orange, or red and the white of eyes are black. Their females have more feminine features, with human-like breasts and their gills reside on their sides right under their busts. Their bloodlines consist of any real shark species, as well as prehistoric species, such as the helicoprion or hybodus and even the megalodon. They can also be more animalistic looking, having closer to actual shark shaped heads, thick clawed fingers and more bulkier or grotesque physiques. 

History

Haikan were among the first intelligent species created by the gods, created before Elves and Dragons. They were in the beginning a basic shark species, who were transformed into a feral humanoid shark monster. They prayed upon large marine life and other surface or aquatic races. Sekolah, the shark god favored this species, so he bestowed upon them intelligence and a special gift. This gift was to store memories and genomes of other shark species, into their own genome including the ones that went extinct. 

Sekolah favored certain Haikans who had done special deeds that pleased him, such as killing a great and powerful enemy or someone who went against Sekolah's will. They also could gain his favor by spreading his will, or protecting his monuments or places of worship. An honorable death in battle is the only way a Haikan should die, this is also one of the ways a Haikan would gain his favor. Sekolah comparative to how they pleased him, they would gain different such blessings. Extra strength in battle, enriched life, and even give them an extended lifespan after death, in some cases in the form of an undead.

Haikan fought with and hunted any sort of creature that looked either powerful or threatening to them, including dinosaurs and dragons, making them top predators inside and outside of water. They are hated by most if not all surface dwelling races, making them enemy number one to almost everyone. They are even hated and despised by dragons, since the first time they killed an adult red dragon. This was not a one time problem, and has caused a bitter rivalry between the Dragons and Haikans. They favored the taste of dragon flesh, from that day onward it became the largest badge of honor available for a Haikan to hunt and kill a dragon. This then henceforth became a great and mighty challenge, for a member of the Haikan royal family to hunt and bag a dragon, the bigger the better. The royal family loved the taste of dragons so much they made it their most favored treat among all other delicacies of their people. They often form hunting parties specifically to hunt and bag a dragon for any special occasion or festival. This made any and all dragon absolutely despise, for they looked at them as prey and dragons being the vain creatures they are hate them. A dragon that sees a Haikan will immediate become enraged and will do whatever it can to kill and devour it.

The Haikan have a great and mighty city made of stone, coral, and metal that rests near the bottom of the seafloor called Sharanthis. The city was first built about a hundred years after the dawning of the Haikan race, it's construction was orchestrated by the first true king of the Haikans. His name was king Gargon Chasmjaw, he was the first to unite the Haikan under one banner as well as create the baseline social structure and law system. The city is surrounded by a barrier of magic preventing water from entering the city, though the city has water current-like tubes or canals that travel all throughout the city. These tubes are like watery subways and watery elevators, that allow travel to every district in the city. The city is on a rising platform-like structure, consisting of 5 large circular platforms that each equal to 100 square miles along its top surface and the sides of the platform rise up to 25 miles tall. The top platform houses the royal family and other high class Haikan families. The second platform houses the military forces and their facilities, this is also the layer that holds the store houses for their more expensive and rarest item storages. The third platform contains most of the shops and markets that exist in the whole city. The fourth platform holds almost all the temples, as well as almost all the inns and taverns in the city. The lowest platform of the city is filled with the common citizens housing as well as a few small shops and taverns. The outside of the city holds some ancient houses and other buildings, these have been fixed up with scrap materials to make them usable dwellings for the squalors and outcasts of the Haikan.

Society

War and fighting are in the hearts of all Haikan, they live for the thrill of the hunt and battles against other strong creatures. They like to terrorize and crush the weak, proving their strength is the desire of most if not all Haikan. They are a strong warring and battle heavy race, they are a strength based society, the strong rule above the weak is their anthem. They do have rules and laws, as well as several groups of gangs also known as pirates. They fight with one another inside or outside their undersea city, they fight for territory and just to prove whose better. Haikan hunt and war with almost every other race, they rarely form treaties and only stray from war against races to their eyes are great warriors.

If a race offers dragon meat, skin, bones, or just any type of dragon imports they will make some kind of deal against attack or war. When it comes to food and drink, Haikan can drink either salt water or regular water, as well they don't get dehydrated by drinking salt water. When it comes to food, anything with nutritional value will suffice, Haikan aren't much for fine dining, though their peoples specialty dish is "Dragon Skin Soup". Sharkin are known to be horrendous eaters and have terrible table manners. Now Haikan are considered carnivores, though they are actually omnivores, general their diet consists of almost any fish or meat and a very small amount of sea vegetables or fruits.

Haikan for the most part are generally of average intelligence, they can be smarter than that though very rarely will you find a Haikan genius. They aren't very magically inclined, most are warriors along with a very few religious sharkin most who run any form of religious temples to a god or philosophy are usually Hammerhead Haikan though others can become clerics. Sharkin are among the best when it comes to forging and blacksmithing, because all blacksmiths of the Sharkin race know a special technique to prevent metal from rusting underwater. This is a very unique technique only known by the smiths of Sharanthis, making the metal they forge turn a dark-ish blue grey color to even darker blue grey or aqua green colors.

Now for all of the terrible actions, or stories told about Haikan and their society they aren't all a hundred percent true. They aren't all terrible creatures, there are some kind or docile Haikan races such as the Whale and Basking Haikan races. There are others who despise the rule of the royal family and how their kingdom is run by them. They are the lower class of the Haikan society, usually they are kind to those hated by the royal family and in turn there is a rebel force who plot against the royal family. They aren't the most organised group of rebels, though when fighting against a bunch of meat headed brutes I guess you don't need much intelligence or organisation. Their greatest escapade against the royal family committed by the rebels, it was merely some vandalism and one or two raids. The Sharkin rebels usually just help other Haikan, by getting them food, helping with housing, or hiding out unwanted troublemakers.

Haikan Names

Their Language is more of a simple and guttural language, with the majority of their names containing only one to two syllables. Male names are more guttural than the female names. Their last names are combinations of two simple words, like Black, Bite, Jagged, Jaw, Tooth, Rage and so forth.

Male Names: Bhulg, Draq, Dkon, Fingar, Fug, Garg, Glutch, Kargon

Female Names: Auga, Eima, Fhien, Gillga, Marg, Oarie, Roara, Zaire

 

Haikan(Shark-Folk) Traits

Dangerous, oceanic hunters and warriors you gain these traits.

Ability Score Increase

Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.

Age

Hexan mature at the age of 15, and live to be around 360 years old.

Alignment

Usually any chaotic alignment, but there can be exceptions.

Size

Hexan are usually 5 to 6 feet tall and weigh between 230 to 280 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet, and you have a swimming speed of 30 feet.

Darkvision

You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Amphibious

You can breath underwater as well as above water.

Blood Frenzy

Once per round, when you hit a creature with a melee attack, the creature takes an extra 1d4 damage if it's below its maximum hit point . You can do this a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier, and you regain all uses when you finish a long rest

Bite

Your jaws are a natural weapon, which you can use as an unarmed strike. If you hit, you deal 1d6 + your Strength mod as piercing damage instead of the normal bludgeoning damage.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Orc. Orc is a harsh, grating language with hard consonants. It has no script of its own but is written in the Dwarvish script.