Homebrew Brill Species Details

Deep below the surface, farther down than any dwarf has dared to go are pockets of grand caverns the size of cities engulfed in darkness. These cities are the home of the Brill, a race of deep-dwelling humanoids who have lived without light or contact with any other race for centuries.  Changes in the tides of the Brill culture have awoken an adventurous spirit within some of its inhabitants allowing them to trek to the surface. 

Faceless Visitors

The appearance of a Brill can unsettle to some since upon closer inspection they do not have eyes, ears, nose, or mouth. Their head is human-shaped but with a thinner jaw and in their skull going from the forehead to the jaw is a smooth curved and flat on the sides, giving them a wedge-shaped front.  The head and face have no identifiable surface features, instead, rows of thick swirling hairs from the center of the face out to the sides, giving the appearance of drawn on eyes, ears, and mouth. These hairs are sensitive and have a purpose. 

The series of hairs around what would be the mouth, nose, and jawline area are short wire-like and create vibrations in the air allowing them to produce different frequencies of sounds. They constantly sending out high-frequency vibration as a method to detect their surroundings, they can also be used to create a spoken language. Slightly longer hair around the normal placement of eyes and ears pick up lower frequency vibrations and can unfold then be controlled to feel the delicate differences of the surface of an object. The long fine whistful hair on the head, back, shoulders, upper arms, and thighs are used to pick up high-frequency sounds similar to echolocation.  These hairs can be a range of colors, lengths, and are very sensitive to the touch, because of this Brill will only wear coverings around their waist, groin, forearms, and lower legs.

Brill's skin has a pale washed-out blue or green skin that swirls beneath the skin surface. As they age their skin turns grey and tighten, giving them a skeletal appearance. They are not a muscular race, they have thin long arms and legs.  Instead of hands or feet, they have two long thick clawed fingers with thick clawed thumbs on either side. Walking upright is difficult and they may prefer to walk on all fours. They are excellent climbers and are able to easily hang upside down as this is how they normally sleep.  Their shoulder and hip joints have a wide degree of movement allowing them to be very flexible. They appear to be unbalanced with a wide chest with jutted breast bone and small hip and waist. In the center of their stomach is a large slit right between the ab muscles, this is where they insert and digest food. They breathe through their skin and require little fluids. 

 

Bright Lightless Life

It is unknown how many underground cities the Brill may have, they are not a race that seeks out others of their kind or any other species.  These gigantic lightless caverns consist of mostly of three sections. The lowest area is mostly for agriculture, down here plantlife and large insect creatures are cultivated for the population. All caverns will have a river or pool as a water source at the lowest level.  As the walls curve up the rim is the start of housing and market areas. These houses and buildings are intricately carved into the stone walls reaching to the ceiling. Once a Brill is at age and finds a mate, they automatically move to a home on the upper rim of the ceiling, as they grow older they move down the rim every decade or so. The ceiling is used as a place for education and entertainment, the youth will spend much of their time here reading the scribes and sharing sounds.

Brill culture is simple, as a race they are not aggressive or curious, there general being is that of contentment. They have no specific religion but do have elders who are both leaders of knowledge and provide cultural guidance. Each elder provides writing to be etched into the cities ceiling before they retire to the lower rim.  These writing like all Brill writings are etched into stone, it consists of grooves in straight lines similar to grooves on a record. The elder's writing are that of common sense and encouragement, recently writing has been etched "If one is not content, then search for contentment elsewhere". This has sparked some members to leave the great city.  

The Journey from the Center

A brill that cannot find contentment and wishes to travel to the surface must first seek permission from the elders, permission is often granted since they want everyone to find contentment.  Once permission is granted they are put into a deep sleep and carried out through a vent with a pack of supplies. These supplies include written stories of those who have gone to the surface before them, this teaches them general understandings and dangers of the surface world.  It teaches them about spoken languages, specifically common and how to speak it so others on the surface understand. They are also provided with food, water, and gold nuggets to start them on their journey. When they wake it normally takes a week to reach the surface, during that time they read the text to prepare for the world above.

On the Surface

Brill are a calm and reserved race, their culture has never had a war, and warriors are rare.  When on the surface they are often overwhelmed with all the sounds around them, they often seek quiet and dark surroundings.  They are seekers of knowledge and sounds, rarely will they settle unless they believe they have found contentment.  They are able to read very quickly by using the hairs on their face to detect ink on the paper if a quality book. The love music though anything loud could be annoying. They are unable to smell or taste, they can eat almost anything through the slit in their stomach. They don't drink generally since it is difficult, mostly they receive fluids from the food they eat.  They can walk on all fours since that is more comfortable but will rarely do that in public. Brill do sleep a normal 8 hours a day but do not care when and prefer to sleep upsidedown hanging from a ceiling or tree.

Voiceless Speakers

The Brill language cannot be picked up by anyone with normal hearing, but the Brill are excellent learners of spoken languages.  Unfortunately, when they speak spoken languages all Brill sound very similar, with a robot mono-tone cadence. They often will include descriptive phrase when they speak such as "...as I said angrily" or "...with concern", to help others understand their feelings.  They do They are interested in sounds more than anything since they cannot taste, see, or smell.  The world on the surface is full of sounds and noise, they enjoy quiet and peaceful areas.  Since their native names are too complex for most creatures to understand they use single syllable but long sounding names such as Larrr, Viii, Braaa, and Tesss.

BRILL SUGGESTED CLASSES AND BACKGROUNDS

Classes that are most appropriate for brill include monks, rangers, rogues and wizards.

Backgrounds that are most appropriate for brill include the outlander, the hermit, and the sage.

 

 

Brill Traits

As an brill, you have certain traits in common with your people. Your specific sensory for detecting vibrations, excellent climbing ability and flexibility give certain advantages. You have no eyes, ears, mouth or nose but those challenges can be overcame by your other physical traits that both help and hinder.

Ability Score Increase

Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Intelligence score increases by 1.

Age

Brill reach maturity by age 20, and start "dulling" by age 45 when their skin starts tightening and turning gray.  They have a life span only slightly longer than a human, lasting 110 years.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write brill and common. You can speak and understand any two other languages.  You can learn any spoken language if surrounded by its native speakers for a month.  Brill's written language is created by creating grooves into a hard surface like a record.  Reading any written words requires the text to have a texture that can be felt with the hairs on the brill's face, they cannot read anything at a distance since they are blind. Reading and writing any other language is difficult for the brill. Writing takes time to feel the page and placement of the ink. 

Alignment

Most brill are good or neutral as they feel that they are visitors on the surface world.  It would be rare to find a chaotic brill, but not impossible.

Size

Brill are about 6 feet tall. They have thin, lightweight bodies that weigh between 120 and 180 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 25 feet either upright or on all fours.  Climbing speed is the same as your walking speed. An advantage to all difficult terrain, a disadvantage to swimming.

Physiological Traits

Due to no eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, you have protection to some spells but your sensitivity has negative effects in certain situations.

• You are immune to any visually related spells (illusions).
• You are resistant to any spells that are auditory enchantments. 
• You are resistant to any damage that requires breathing (clouds, mist, gases).
• You are resistant to falling prone.
• You are vulnerable to thunder damage. 
• You also take +1 Psychic damage for each physical damage taken during an attack.

Permanent Blindsight

You blindsight of 60 feet. You are unable to see any colors.

Claws

Your claws are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.