Homebrew Vyrgeda Species Details

Hailing from a realm void of water, the vyrgeda are perhaps the strangest humanoids ever known. Practically everything about them is alien, from their bizarre culture to their one-of-a-kind anatomy.

False Lamia

Vyrgeda are the spitting image of a giant scale worm, save for a pair of arms and more serpentine proportions. Their skin is leathery-smooth, with round bumps studding their backs like those of an alligator. Vyrgeda range in color from sandy browns and ivories to pale violet, with some also having full-rainbow iridescence like a bobbit worm.

Their hands have thumbs on both sides, with a wide, mitten-like finger in between. These uniquely-shaped hands allow vyrgeda to both use tools and tunnel through the ground. To further assist their digging power, vyrgeda move on a slithering tail rather than legs.

 Vyrgeda have exoskeletal heads, with their mouthparts forming a pseudo-skull. Their jaws are beaked, with large serrations resembling shark teeth. Vyrgeda have no eyes, nostrils or ears, instead relying on five fish-like whiskers to hear and smell.

Melt the Sand, Impale the Land

Vyrgeda cities are extremely vertical, built floor by floor like a skyscraper. Though the part above the sand may not look very big, the subterranean portion of a city may even run so deep as to pierce the underdark.

Vyrgeda build everything with bricksalt: a white, clay-like material. Bricksalt is made by swallowing, half-digesting and regurgitating sand. Though it hardens on its own, bricksalt can be left in the sun to bake, becoming clawsalt. Clawsalt is horridly sharp, valued for its use in tools and weapons. The bite of a clawsalt weapon can evoke mortifying pain, equal to injecting raw vinegar. For this, clawsalt is illegal almost everywhere.

What's There to See?

Total blindness has posed a massive influence on vyrgeda culture. Since two-dimensional art forms (calligraphy, paintings, etc) are imperceptible to them, vyrgeda express their thoughts with architecture, sculpting and pottery.

To accommodate for their blindness, vyrgeda have developed a tactile form of writing called gede-namede ("Speech-Echo"), in which square tablets of bricksalt are hollowed with symbols and stacked upon each other to form a cube. Akin to braille, gede-namede is read through touch, albeit in a three-dimensional format. To read a gede-namede cube, one must hold it in their palms, resting their whiskers on the top side. Through tremorsense, the hollowed symbols within the cube all come into view. The text is read in up-to-down rows, out-to-in columns and left-to-right "pages".

Talking in Tunes

Vyrgeda often talk with a musical accent, holding tones and swinging their syllabic rhythm. Since musical sounds are considered attractive among their kind, vyrgeda choose names for their offspring based solely on which sounds best.

Examples of vyrgeda names (unisex): Dore, Issra, Rafu, Eiso, Lamba, Yokru, Gafal

Vyrgeda Traits

As a vyrgeda, you can cruise through sand and caves as if you were flying. Additionally, your exotic dialect grants heightened charisma.

Size

Vyrgeda can grow up to nine feet long, standing up straight at five feet.

Age

Vyrgeda reach adulthood at 2 years, and can live for as long as their head and chest remain intact. When a vyrgeda's arm or tail is severed, it will grow back over the course of a week.

Languages

You can speak, read and carve fluent Terran, with Common and Undercommon being your second languages. However, you can only read Common and Undercommon if they're in a tactile medium, such as a plaque or tablet.

Peculiar Tongue

You speak in strange, musical ways, granting a natural boost in Performance.

Worm Senses

Touch and hearing are the only senses you need. You have 30 feet of Blindsight. When underground, you also have 60 feet of Tremorsense.

Sand Surfer

Your body is built for gliding through sand and navigating in caves. You have a burrowing speed of 20 feet, and can hold your breath for up to 3 hours in sand. You gracefully swim through quicksand, moving at up to twice your burrowing speed.

You leave a 3-foot-diameter tunnel in your wake when burrowing in soil or mud, but not sand.

Crawler

Your legless, serpentine body is spinelessly limber, granting a +3 bonus to your Dexterity score. However, this also imposes a -2 reduction from your Strength score.