Homebrew Nezumi Species Details

The nezumi, or "ratlings" as they are often called by humans, are a race of bipedal ratlike humanoids. In Rokugan, they are an ancient race native to the Shadowlands. Before the fall of the seven kami, the ratlings of Rokugan lived in grand cities in a mighty empire. On an apocalyptic day nezumi legend dubs "The Terrible Day When Air Became Fire and Heaven Fell From Its Perch to Crush Our Glorious Home Beneath Its Blackened Corpse," the empire of the ratlings was destroyed and the Shadowlands was born. In the aftermath of that event, the ratlings have become hardy and wily scavengers, eking out a meager existence int he midst of Rokugan's greatest horrors.

Personality: Nezumi are wild, fierce, and primitive. They are survivalists in a grim terrain, and their outlook is colored by the harsh realities of their existence: barren land, hazardous natural features, and deadly predators, from ogres and goblins to terrible oni. For all the evil that surrounds them, the nezumi have somehow escaped the Shadowlands Taint, remaining uncorrupted by their surroundings.

Physical Description: Nezumi look like nothing so much as humanoid rats. They stand upright, roughly as tall as a human (averaging about 5 1/2 feet tall and 155 pounds). They have long snouts, pink ears, and pronounced incisors, like ordinary rodents. Their bodies are covered with rough fur, ranging in shade from white through gray and brown to black, sometimes solid and sometimes patterned. Fur patterns tend to run in ratling families.
   The nezumi have five-fingered hands, opposable thumbs, and sharp claws. Their long tails are mostly hairless and have the same pink coloration as their ears and palms. Their legs are bent like those of rats and have only three toes.
   Like human barbarians, nezumi often wear earrings in their pierced ears, necklaces made of gone or teeth, and similar ornamentation that humans usually consider savage.

Relations: In Rokugan, the nezumi are staunch allies of the Crab who defend the Empire from the Shadowlands. They often work closely with the scouts of the Hiruma family. Other humans of Rokugan, however, view the ratlings in a less positive light. Superstitious folk believe they carry the evil of the Shadowlands with them, and their disregard for the culture and customs of Rokugan lowers them in human estimation. Their scavenging habits--sometimes extending as far as grave-robbing--deeply offend the Rokugani sense of propriety.
   In other campaign settings, nezumi are often confused with rat hengeyokai or goblin rats (evil lycanthropes) and suspected of being just as evil as those races.

Alignment: Lacking a sense of property, home, or community, nezumi tend strongly toward chaotic alignments. In Rokugan, they are rarely evil, being sworn enemies of the Shadowlands and its creatures. In other campaign settings, many nezumi are evil--whether by nature or simply because they are so often suspected of evil.

Nezumi Lands: Nezumi are nomadic, wandering in packs or tribes along a more or less fixed migratory cycle. In Rokugan, they generally confine themselves to the Shadowlands, though they sometimes venture into Scorpion and Unicorn lands to scrounge for food or equipment.

Religion: Nezumi do not venerate ancestors or spirits. Rather, they believe that an individual's ki shapes the universe, making each individual life--as well as the collective life of a pack or the entire race--inherently valuable.

Language: The native nezumi language is a chittering combination of barks, squeaks, and clicks, bearing a strong resemblance to the noises of common rodents. It has its own script, but it is rarely used except to leave warnings or directions for other packs. Nezumi usually learn to speak Rokugani or Common, though they punctuate it with clicks and squeaks and a peculiar stuttering repetition.

Names: A nezumi name consists of three to five syllables, separated by an apostrophe (which represents a pause in some dialect, a clicking sound in others), and ending with the name of the individual's clan, such as check, tch, tck, teck, tuk, or uk. Sometimes the syllable oh- is added to the beginning of a name to designate an individual of great age and wisdom. (Oh-chi'chek is respected elder of the chek, or Teachers, tribe.) To show that a nezumi has gained great honor in his tribe, the syllable ti- is added before the name of the tribe. (Rik'tik'ticheck has distinguished himself in the Teachers tribe.) Only occasionally do ratlings adopt nicknames, such as "Longsnout." Nicknames are most common among ratlings who work closely with humans, since humans often have trouble pronouncing ratling names.

Names: At'tok'tuk, Chet'rop'tik, Chit'i'tchik'kan, Mack'uk, Mat'irt'chuk, Mat'tck, Oh-chi'check, Rik'ik'ticheck, Ropp'tch'tch, Ruantek, T'tep'mok, Tchick'chuk, Tir'chik'tep, and Z'orr'tek.

Adventurers: The step from the nezumi's scavenging lifestyle to the life of an adventurer is not a large one, and nezumi adventurers are usually motivated by the simple desire to make the most of their short lives that they can.

Nezumi Traits

Rodent humanoid

Ability score modifiers

+2 Constitution, -2 Charisma. Nezumi are hale and hardy but rather crude by human standards.

Size

Medium-size: As Medium-size creatures, nezumi have no special bonuses or penalties due to size.

Speed

Nezumi base speed is 40 feet.

Sight

Low-light Vision: Nezumi can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. They retain the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.

Racial Bonus

+2 racial bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks. Nezumi are naturally stealthy.

Racial bonus

+2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison and disease: Nezumi are resistant to illness and toxins.

Immunity

Immune to the Shadowlands Taint: Nezumi can never acquire a Taint score, and suffer no ill effects from exposure to the Shadowlands. Effects such as the cloud of Taint spell or the special attacks of Shadowlands creatures can still harm them, however.

Unarmed attack

A ratling's sharp claws and teeth deal 1d4 points of normal damage with a successful unarmed strike. A ratling can make only one unarmed attack per round, using either claw or a bit attack.

Keen Scent

Nezumi have a better sense of smell than humans do, and are often more able to distnguish humans from each other by scent than by sight.

Languages

Automatic Languages: Rokugani, Nezumi.
Bonus Languages: Bakemono, Shadowlands.

Favored Class

Favored Class: Rogue. A multi-class nezumi's rogue class does not count when determining whether he suffers an XP penalty for multi-classing.