Homebrew Chirokara Species Details

The chirokara dwell deep in the bowels of the underdark. They carve their homes into the massive stalactites of the cave systems: one stalactite can house a family of ten chirokara with room to spare! The chirokara value community above all else, as they see it as their best way to survive in the perilous underdark. It is because of this culture that you rarely see any chirokara leave their caves, especially in wartime. The only ones who do are typically seen as the outcasts. While longing for adventure won't get you arrested or executed, it is looked down upon. Unfortunately, not many chirokara live to 

Fang and Wing

From below, chirokara look much like large bats, or to the superstitious, demons. Only when they descend to hang on a branch or in a cave or walk across the ground does their humanoid appearance reveal itself. Standing upright, chirokara might reach 6 feet tall, and they have long, stocky legs with clawed feet that have long, knuckled toes, which in turn makes them unable to wear proper shoes.

Fur covers their bodies. Unlike the aarakocra, whose plumage depicts membership in a tribe, the chirokara's fur comes exclusively in shades of blue and purple. The way they know if another chirokara is in their tribe is through echolocation, which to them is so advanced, it may even be considered an evolved form of telepathy.

On Leather Wings

 

The chirokara make full use of their bodies, and their wings may be their most powerful weapons of all. Unlike the aarakocra, a chirokara doesn't like to be in the air for any longer than they have to be because in the underdark, that makes you vulnerable to attack. But despite this, their wings are a force to be reckoned with. They can fly with a chaotic flow, like a leaf on a windy day, making it difficult to hit them in the air. A fully grown chirokara can send gusts of wind from their wings strong enough to knock a rider off their steed.

A Hard Knock Life

The chirokara have the underdark to blame for what they are in life. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is up to them to decide. They have no god or religion, first of all. They simply believe that you existed in some way before you were born, and when you die, you transfer to another plain of existence. Of course, once they started trading with and liberating other races, they became aware of the vast pantheons and realms that lay beyond the underdark. A chirokara is free to worship whatever deity they desire as long as it does not interfere with the colony. Most chirokara live their lives not worshiping any deity, and they enter the afterlife with a feeling of wondrous curiosity. 

The chirokara learn to use everything in the underdark to their advantage: their clothes, armor, food, paper, medicine, and weapons all come from cave fishers. Their clothes are an interesting sight to behold - they are backless jerkins with jaw high collars and pants that go down to their knees, as well as green sashes around their waists. The stone that is thrown away when they carve their stalactite homes are crushed down to small rocks and stone bolts for their slings and crossbows. Even after they die and the funeral rituals occur, their bodies are turned into bait for cave fishers.

However, not everything is fun and games with the chirokara. They weren't always this way. They used to be a peaceful race, herding cave fishers and, if the spotty history is to be believed, partook in the slave trade. But then the mind flayers attacked, striking hard and fast against the unprepared chirokara. Oddly enough, because of their echolocation, the mind flayers were unable to turn the chirokara into mind flayers like they could other races, because the vibrations coming out of their brains, the illithid would be shredded to atoms, making ceremorphosis impossible. This, of course, didn't stop the cruel mind flayers. They simply kept the chirokara as slaves instead. The bat-folk had no choice but to descend deeper and deeper into the underdark. They used guerrilla warfare tactics against the mind flayers, learning the hard way how to survive with the traditions they still use to this very day. If legend is to be believed, a chirokara hero (renamed Qeassa by the history books) used her echolocation to cause a collapse of stalactites that buried three-fourths of the mind flayer army. The mind flayers retreated, but to this day, the chirokara hold a grudge against them, seeing them as their mortal enemies, and any other race that partakes in slavery in the underdark should beware of chirokara attacks. Mind flayers also gave the chirokara rhabdophobia - a fear of magic that is engraved deep into their culture. There are literally no magic users in chirokara colonies, and a chirokara who wants to learn magic would have to leave the colony to learn it.

Leveling Up

A chirokara doesn't age like a human. A chirokara only gets stronger. They get stockier, faster, stronger, and deadlier. They also do not age the same way as humans. They do not date their age with the days since their birth, but rather, their experience growing in life. They're measured in stages. Somebody playing a chirokara should have their stage in society correspond with their level. It can be any stage they choose as long as it doesn't go over level four. A stage one chirokara is considered a child and is taught the culture, simple trade based economy, and literature of the chirokara culture and how to survive in the underdark. They are then given four separate exams on each of these subjects. Once they pass, they evolve to level two, which is considered to be a teenager. At stage two, they go out into the world of the underdark with the rest of the hunting colony and learn all they can about the vast caves to hunt cave fishers and liberate slaves. Once they learn everything, they evolve to stage three, where they are considered adults and are allowed to have children. At stage four, they choose their profession in the colony. Because they almost always stick to their profession in life, it usually takes a year at the least for them to choose. They can choose to be hunters, slave liberators, guards, teachers, parents, clothing weavers, weaponsmiths, or butchers. It is also at this stage that they will not be able to gain a societal rank until stage 20. At stage five, a chirokara will be able to tear weak armors with their claws. At stage six, a chirokara can produce a venom from their fangs once a day. At stage seven, a chirokara can lift pig-sized creatures with its feet claws. At stages eight through fifteen, a chirokara's strength and speed is increased until their strength and speed is comparable to top-level aarakocra. At stage sixteen, they are able to shoot the venom from their fangs out like a spitting cobra to attack their foes. At stage seventeen, they can use their echolocation as a high pitched shockwave to knock back opponents in a ten foot radius. At stage eighteen, their venom can be used from their claws as well as their teeth. At stage nineteen, they can use their venom up to five times a day, although there has to be an hour in between. Finally, at stage twenty, a chirokara is considered an elder of the colony if, and only if, they slay a mind flayer, the mortal enemy of the chirokara, and bring it's ashes back to the colony. The elders lead the colony, making the decisions and communicating with the elders of other colonies in times of war. The slaying of a mind flayer proves that the chirokara is honed in both mind and body, and as a result, command the respect of the colony.

It is also important to mention some drawbacks of the chirokara body. If one shoots their wings with a projectile, the wings will rip, and depending on high up they are, they run the risk of falling to their deaths. Their fur, like most furry creatures, is incredibly flammable. Blinding lights will disorient a chirokara for thirty seconds longer than any other race because of their night vision, and the same goes for loud noises because of their sensitive ears. Finally, because of their rhabdophobia, the chirokara gain an additional 5 attack damage when hit with magic attacks.

Sense of Community

Chirokara are a colony in every sense of the word. As such, it is nearly impossible to keep a sense of identity in their communities. It is because of this that they take self-identity so seriously and try to put it into their lives whenever they can. They use the silk from cave fishers to make their clothes. Their fur comes in shades of blue and purple, ranging from as light as lavender and baby blue to as dark as navy and English violet. Their eyes, blessed with night vision, glow a bright yellow. They technically have four arms, but two of those arms are twice the size of the others and are their wings. Their hair is always in the ducktail-haircut combined with a widows peak. The only way to tell a male from a female (aside from the obvious genitalia) is that males grow side burns during puberty, and females shave them. It is common for non-binary chirokara to keep them well-trimmed, unlike the males, who keep them wild and big and the females who don't have them at all, and non-binary chirokara trim their side burns and tie their hair in a knot, as opposed to the common ducktail-haircut. The hair styles of the Chirokara is very important to the chirokara, for a sense of community is important to the survival of the chirokara, and using the wrong pronouns may cause a quarrel between two chirokara that may cost the colony dearly because of the lack of communication. They also value identity, which is hard to maintain in the close-knitted communities. If a chirokara uses the wrong pronouns, it is very likely that the elders will banish them. Adventurers going to a chirokara cave should be wary of this at all times.

Chirokara Names

A chirokara technically does not have a name. Because they communicate in echolocation at a frequency and tongue that most races in the realms can't understand, their names are both incomprehensible and unpronounceable to other races. Because of this, most chirokara usually pick a second name to use when interacting with other races. Their names are usually goblin names because of how many goblins there are in the underdark.

Chirokara Traits

As a chirokara, your ability to both fly and see in the dark at level 1 gives you a leg up in most situations your party may find itself in. Your DM should be conscious of how flying in the air and your sensitivity to bright light could be used against you, but also how your flight and night vision could help the party.

Ability Score Increase

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

Age

Aarakocra reach maturity by age 3. Compared to humans, aarakocra don’t usually live longer than 30 years.

Alignment

Most aarakocra are good and rarely choose sides when it comes to law and chaos. Tribal leaders and warriors might be lawful, while explorers and adventurers might tend toward chaotic.

Size

Aarakocra are about 5 feet tall. They have thin, lightweight bodies that weigh between 80 and 100 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 25 feet.

Flight

You have a flying speed of 50 feet. To use this speed, you can’t be wearing medium or heavy armor.

Talons

Your talons 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.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common, Aarakocra, and Auran.