Homebrew Anomalocarid Species Details

HORROR BORN OF EVIL

Anomalocarids are an unnatural race created by evil druids and wizards who wished to return the world to a time before steel, cities, and civilization. They sought out the remains of the most ancient creatures, able to sense the relative age of even fossilized creatures. Naturally, they came across the anomalocaris, and felt they would be best fit for the job, being some of the most ancient beasts they could find. The Druids took their remains, using their own blood and the blood of various animals they felt were most similar to these long-dead creatures and from the depths of time they created the Anomalocarids.

For a while, they did as they were told with little fuss, but soon began to question their creators and their existence. Was this all they were? Slaves to a bunch of weird animals their ancestors never even knew would come to be? They took a stand and rebelled, turning on the druids in a show of primal carnage, but kept their magical implements. They knew by now they were unnatural, that they should not be, but nevertheless they WERE, and they made a pact to stay hidden, only revealing themselves in times of global crisis.

CITIES BORN OF HEAT

These bizarre people usually live deep underwater, beyond the reach of sunlight, though not by choice. They live here because it is the only place they can hide from everyone else- and because they can handle the pressure. They don’t usually build cities due to the lack of food in the abyss, but when they do they carve them out of seamounts near hydrothermal vents or other oases in the vast desert that is the abyss.

Their cities will even turn hydrothermal vents into a forge where they can craft their own metal weapons and armor, though pure iron doesn’t last long in the depths. Rather, the Anomalocarids are forced to create stainless steel variants just to have decent weaponry. The cities themselves are mostly stone brick or mud brick homes with lots of larger structures like barracks, libraries, and even schools dug into the mud as burrows.

BALANCE OF NATURE

The Anomalocarids are devout followers of Cambrui Gask and his commands of Balance. They do their best to monitor the balance of good, evil, order, and chaos and keep nature beautiful if they can. They prefer not to get involved with the surface world unless there is a global crisis occurring. They fear being persecuted or hunted down by other races that may find them intimidating, and so keep their existence secret unless absolutely necessary. They work in the shadows to try and keep things working correctly.

When the balance of nature or power comes into jeopardy, the Anomalocarids following Gask arrive to try and set everything right, often through sabotage and subterfuge since they don’t like to be seen. Any who see them must either die or disappear, none may know their presence unless necessary.

Deep Dwellers

You can breathe water as well as air, and you are acclimated to high pressure environments as well as cold ones.

Compound Eyes

You never have disadvantage to hit unless your vision is obscured in some way.

Anomalocarid Traits

ASI, Cold and warm acclimation,

Ability Score Increase

Anomalocarids gain +2 to their wisdom score, and +1 to their constitution score

Languages

You speak Aquan and you are physically incapable of speaking Common, but can understand and write it just fine.

Deep Dwellers

You can breathe water as well as air, and you are acclimated to high pressure environments as well as cold ones.

Compound Eyes

You never have disadvantage to hit unless your vision is obscured in some way.