Endless Blue - Week 42 - Garment Couture: The Fashion Aesthetic

Sociology

Garment Couture: The Fashion Aesthetic

Elquan fashions favor the simple over the complex.  While craftsmen are more than capable of (and do) producing the most intricate of work, the tendency of water to obscure light and detail means such astounding detail is lost.  Clothing and jewelery with fine detailing can only be appreciated in the Shore areas, where light can most easily penetrate the water's natural absorption.  As a result, many refer to those that wear detailed clothing and finery as "wanting to be deep fish in the shallows", referring to the vain desire to appear imposing in one's small area of influence.

Textiles

Fabric is a well known technology beneath the waters of Elqua, with records of woven fabrics dating back to the Bronze Epoch.  While cloth of that time originally had only the natural coloration of the plant or animal material from which it was derived, eventually dyeing became possible with mated containers.

All cloth is made on machines called looms, a moving interleave of thread that meshes together to form a continuous plain of fabric.  Thread itself is an extension of the creation of rope, refined and reduced to a more manipulative state.  Thread is comprised of the fibers of plant matter and/or the hairs of hairy aquatic mammals*, spun around each other to form a contiguous length of string.  The thread is then loaded into the loom which forms a criss-crossing lattice of interwoven threads.  The product is cloth.

A variety of cloth (and supple leathers) are used in Elquan fashion.  Indeed, cloth weaving is not limited to just organic materials.  Lamé -- a fabric made with a metallic weft --  uses a thin metallic yarn that is wrapped in a metallic wire or ribbon.  So fine and skillfully spun is this mineral thread that is becomes nearly as ductile as cloth without loosing the luster of precious metal.

Hides and skins of sea fauna are also used in the fabrication of clothing as it is in the creation of nautiluses, but where the latter uses tanning methodology that produces stiffer material, the former concentrates on softening the skins.  Fish skin comes in a wide variety of natural coloration and scale composition, and these gradations are used by seamstresses to produce incredible works.

Articles of Clothing

Clothing is the shaping of fabric into objects that can be worn on the piscean body.  Not every species in the oceans is equipped to survive in varying temperatures, and as such sometimes need extra protection to shield them from the elements.  Over successive generations clothing has evolved from just being "shelter that is worn" into an expression of art, tradition, culture, and personality.

Cap-- This is a generic catch-all term for anything worn essentially on the top of the head.  They can be kept in place by any manner of means, be it a tight headband, pinning in the hair, or strapped under the chin, jaw, or ears.

Choker -- A choker is like a necklace, but instead of hanging loosely down from the neck and shoulders, it is more snugly around the throat (but not too tight as to constrict breathing or swallowing.  It can serve the same role as a belt and can be what keeps the chemise (below) in place, but is differentiated by the need to keep the weight demands low as to prevent choking.

Chemise-- A chemise is an article of clothing that covers the torso of a piscean.  They may be as form fitting or formless as desired, and they need not include sleeves -- but may have them at various lengths, also either tight against the arms or more loosely draped as taste dictates.  The creation of chemises always needs to keep in mind the location of the picean gills along the lower ribs, and must keep that area free of obstruction lest they endanger the wearer with strangulation.

Glove -- The piscean glove is a bit more complicated than the gloves of our world.  Most pisceans have varying lengths of webbing between their digits, and natural ungues at their tips.  While this stretch of skin aids in swimming, it makes tailoring gloves more difficult.  A slit is cut in the fabric of the gloves where each finger connects to the hand and is extended outward to the second or third knuckle.  A piece of cloth is then folded over and sewn into the hem of the slit, and the seem is reinforced with stiffer materials to keep the glove form fitting.

Belt --  A loop around the major axis of the piscean body, belts are perhaps the most varied of all the articles of clothing.  They can vary in ever conceivable way -- thickness, width, tightness, color, even the method of wear is exceedingly flexible.  While traditionally worn perpendicular to the central anteroposterior axis, belts can be jauntily skewed over the hip, across the chest like a bandoleer, or even interlocked like a harness.  They are the most functional part of Elquan dress and the most universally utilized in every way of life.

Ephod -- The ephod is the article of clothing that covers the main trunk of the tail.  Like the shirt, it can be as basic as a cloth hanging from the waist to as complicated a network of interwoven fibers enshrouding the tail.

Caudalet -- Much like the choker, a caudalet is worn around the end of the tail right before the tail fins spread out from the piscean form.  Also like a choker, a caudalet can be used as the connective part of the lower end of an ephod or to anchor tail flippers (see below).

Flipper -- The lower counterpart of the glove, flippers are pieces of clothing worn over the pelvic and/or tail fins.  They are usually made of sterner stuff than gloves, as they must endure the constant wear of continual swimming.

Accessories

Accessories are differentiated from clothing in that they are usually comprised of harder materials than fabric, usually metal.  This material would be uncomfortable, even detrimental to the wearer is used like cloth.  They are instead used to accentuate and supplement the garments worn by a piscean.  Common forms of accessories take the form of jewelery such as earrings, torcs, bracelets, and rings.  Elquan tailors have taken to incorporating jewelery into their garment designs, making buttons, clasps, and buckles decorative as well as functional.  Other materials used in Elquan jewelery is abalone, crystal, gemstone, sea shell, and perhaps the most pervasive accoutrement of all, pearl.

Fashion by Historical Culture

Culture enforces as much influence on fashion as whimsy does.  Areas of high ethnic concentration will contain greater numbers of  traditionalists, whom bring the "old ways" of dress with them.  Part of being accepted into a society is the adoption of their customs, and adopting the apparel of the local populace is the primary visual means of integration.

The Yaun-Teel maintain a practice among their orthodox members of keeping their bodies fully clothed as much as possible.  This sets them apart from their slaves, whom are usually divested of all clothing early on in a method meant to humiliate and break the will of their "indentured servants".

With their culture very much entrenched in the martial tradition, it is unsurprising to find that the Orcans in a martial fashion, incorporating nautiluses into a style of dress that expects the struggle for life and death to erupt at any moment.

In many ways, the amount and intricacy of clothing worn by the Chelon is an indication of their social standing, with the more powerful and affulent affording complex outfits that fly in the face of function.

The Ceph both eschew clothing and are rebuked by it.  Their non-piscean forms make many of the articles of clothing useless to them, which is just as well as it would interfere with their natural camouflage abilities.  Ceph clothing must be specially made for them, usually consisting of a huge glove with eight fingers on it, caps, and belts.

Locanth and Sahaguin, cultures diametrically opposite oceanographically as well as philosophically, strangely share a common aesthetic when it comes to clothing.  They will dress pragmatically, opting for clothing that is functional for an intended purpose.

The strange Lumulus connect their clothing directly to their chitinous exoskeletons, anchoring them with piercings in the hardened plates.  Their quizzical clothing incorporates the unique metals that their culture is renown for into a way of dress that is both clothing and jewelery simultaneously.

The Mer are the most mercurial when it comes to clothing, as they are a species fascinated by fashion.  Fads come and go across all of the Mer currents quicker than a Kouton hides a secret, and they take their inspiration from whatever aspect of the mode of dress from other cultures strikes their fancy.  What is chic one day is dull the next, and whatever little feature of culture that captured their attention at one moment could cause social expulsion by the time you learned of it.

Speaking of the Kouton, they prefer to wear loose fitting robes and cowls that cover most of the body, obliterating any distinguishing features that may betray knowledge to others.

"Clothes make the Mer, so long as other make the clothes..."
- a snide comment on the way Mer reputation for dress.

---
* -- Despite being referred to as "mammals", these animals do not require air to breathe.  Like the cetaceans and dolphinidae of the setting, aquatic mammals have gills and never developed the blow hole, nostrils, or any other form of in taking the atmosphere into their bodies.

Endless Blue - Week 30 - The Ambusher, Guerilla Fighters of the Sargasso

Sociology

Ambusher -- Guerilla Fighters of the Sargasso

Some careers come fully formed out of sheer skill, while others are pure need.  Ambushers are a mix of both -- the desperate need to survive in a world utterly turned against them coupled with such raw potential honed to a perfect result.  No other class is so well suited to take advantage of their natural abilities to hide amongst the swaying foliage, only to suddenly turn around and become such a dangerous threat to unsuspecting prey.  Nothing is safe in the cool blue waters of Elqua, not when a whirling dervish of pain could erupt from any direction without so much as a ripple.

Adventurers: Minimalists are drawn to the ambusher's lifestyle, with few belongings to weigh them down.  The freedom from the metaphorical shackles of possessions gives them liberty few have ever truly known.  One part wanderlust, one part survivalist, and one part individualist, ambushers took their persecuted circumstances and remade themselves into testaments of resilience.

Alignment: Most ambushers are chaotic neutral, hoping on optical deception and quiet patience to guard them from danger but relying on quick reaction and random savagery to escape from the direst of situations.  The constant pressure of life on the run that served as the impetus for the ambusher lifestyle left little opportunity for long term planning or rigid, inflexible thinking.  Everything could, and often did, change at a moment's notice, and an ambusher must be able to react instinctively.

Ambushers in the Known World
After the fall of the Kraken Empire and the Known World's freedom from occupation, the degenerating kraken were hunted ruthlessly where ever they tried to hide.  These cleansing witch hunts ran rampant across the Maw, scattering the bewildered and abandoned overlords across the bodies of water. As the years went by and their own bodies mutated into the puny forms that we know today as the Ceph, they were forced to rely on their brute strength and physiognomy to survive.

Hiding among the kelp forests, employing their camouflage abilities to stay hidden most of the time, springing out to attack the isolated straggler or wandering monster, the ceph ambushers had to make every attack quick and every attack had to count.  Much of the current irrational fear of the Ruins of the Kraken Empire stems from the hide-and-strike tactics used by the near feral ceph in order to survive.  They appeared suddenly, as if through magic, only to disappear again in the blink of an eye.  Few ever survived these ambushers, and many who did still were not sure of what happened to them.

GAME RULE INFORMATION
Ambushers have the following game statistics.

Abilities: Strength is the primary focus for an ambusher, allowing him to strike more accurately and then cause more damage.  Behind that would come Constitution for the raw, primal vitality of health a high Constitution entails, and then Dexterity for the boost in stealth.

Race: Only the lowly Ceph can become ambushers, as the class is practically a physical extension of their already existing potentiality.  Not even the Lumulans, with their vestigial extra arms, can achieve the manual dexterity or the astounding reach needed for multi-tentacled combat.

Alignment: Any non-lawful, though most are more concerned about simple survival than any existential debate over good vs. evil.  Ambushers have more in common with animals trying to survive another day than existential thinkers trying to rationalize their world view.
Hit Dice: d6.
Starting Funds: 2d4x5gp.

CLASS SKILLS
The ambusher's class skills (and key ability for each) are Climb (Str), Disguise (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Move Silently (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), and Survival (Wis).

Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifier) x 4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

CLASS FEATURES
All of the following are the ambusher's class features.

Ambusher Class Abilities Chart

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Feats	Extra Attacks
1	+1	+0	+0	+0	Unarmed Strike, Two-Armed Fighting	0/1
2	+2	+0	+0	+0	Weapon Focus (Unarmed Strike)
3	+3	+1	+1	+1	Improved Unarmed Strike
4	+4	+1	+1	+1	Weapon Specialization(Unarmed Strike)
5	+5	+1	+1	+1	Flurry of Blow
6	+6/+1	+2	+2	+2	Multiattack	1/1
7	+7/+2	+2	+2	+2	Weapon Focus (Grapple)
8	+8/+3	+2	+2	+2	Four-Armed Fighting	1/2
9	+9/+4	+3	+3	+3	Weapon Specialization (Grapple)
10	+10/+5	+3	+3	+3	Ultra-camouflage
11	+11/+6/+1	+3	+3	+3	Improved Multiattack	2/2
12	+12/+7/+2	+4	+4	+4
13	+13/+8/+3	+4	+4	+4	Six-Armed Fighting	2/3
14	+14/+9/+4	+4	+4	+4
15	+15/+10/+5	+5	+5	+5
16	+16/+11/+6/+1	+5	+5	+5	Supreme Multiattack	3/3
17	+17/+12/+7/+2	+5	+5	+5
18	+18/+13/+8/+3	+6	+6	+6	Eight-Armed Fighting	3/4
19	+19/+14/+9/+4	+6	+6	+6
20	+20/+15/+10/+5	+6	+6	+6

Weapons and Armor Proficiencies: Ambushers are proficient in all simple weapons and may wear any light armor.  Most of the classes' abilities are contingent on using unarmed attacks and therefore require empty "hands".

Hands vs. Tentacles

While it is easy to see that the Ceph have what we could equate with arms, they are lacking any obvious source of minute manipulation like other pisceans have evolved in the form of hands.  The ceph tentacle has its root at the base of the creature's body, extending about the length of a piscean arm (the actual length varies according to which of the three genotypes is in question, with the "cuttlefish" having the shortest arms and the "squid" having the longest) and tapers off to the tip.  Two of these eight tentacles end in a broad pad, and these serves as their hand, folding in half and wrapping around the item to be held.  These are their primary limbs, the equivalent to any other races arms, and it is with these arms that the fine, dexterous movements like writing are made.  Ceph still, like all other intelligent races, favor one arm over another.

Subsequent arms, with enough skill, can be used to wield items as well, but without the widened musculature at the tip they are only capable of wrapping primitively around an item.  Carrying delicate things or items that need to be kept stable requires either a Balance check or a raw Dexterity check to prevent them from becoming damaged (apply their Strength modifier as damage).  The use of the Multiattack feat or the Ambusher class features remove this drawback at a rate of one pair of tentacles with every application of the feat/class feature.

Unarmed Strike: Ambushers develop styles that allow them to cause extreme damage with every blow, or to minimize that damage so it can be shrugged off in a matter of hours.  At will, they can choose whether their unarmed blows cause lethal or subdual damage, with no penalty to attack or damage rolls.  They are still limited in dealing damage by the creature type being targetted, and cannot for example cause subdual damage to undead or constructs.

Two-Armed Fighting: An ambusher can fight unarmed with both arms, granting an additional attack each round with the off-hand arm at the standard penalty for off-hand attacks.  Treat this class ability like the Two-Weapon Fighting feat that only applies to unarmed strikes, resulting in -2 penalty for primary hand attacks and a -2 penalty for off-hand attacks.  This means an off-hand unarmed attack will always have the same bonus as the corresponding primary hand attack.  However, damage from successful attacks with the off hand arm only benefit from half of the ambusher's Strength modifier, rounded down.

Weapon Focus (Unarmed Strike): As the feat Weapon Focus, the ambusher gains a +1 bonus on all unarmed attack rolls.

Improved Unarmed Strike: Ambushers become adept in all manners of unarmed combat.  They are able to use their empty arms as weapons, whipping and lashing at a target rapidly, and do not invoke an attack of opportunity when attacking unarmed.  This ability applies only to their unarmed attacks, and does not extend to any other weapons they employ, even monk weapons or attempts at grappling.

Weapon Specialization (Unarmed Strike): By 4th level, the ambusher is so adroit at attacking unarmed that he gains a +2 bonus on all damage rolls when attacking unarmed.  Ambushers are allowed to continue along the Weapon Focus/Specialization tree using feats gained at every three character levels (by taking Greater Weapon Focus and Greater Weapon Specialization) as if they were fighters, but must still meet all other prerequisites.

Flurry of Blows: Similar to the Monk class ability, ambushers gain the skill to make a massive number of attacks at the cost of accuracy.  Upon reaching 5th level, when using the flurry of blows ability, all attacks that round suffer a -2 penalty (including off hand attacks) but gain an additional attack with their primary arm at their highest base attack bonus.  This penalty lasts for a whole round, until the ambusher's action the next round.  If the ambusher is allowed an attack of opportunity before that new round, it suffers the -2 penalty as well.  Unlike the Monk class ability, an ambusher's flurry of blows penalty does not alter as he gains levels in the class.  An ambusher may not make grapple attempts while using the flurry of blows class feature.

Mulitiattack: At 6th level an ambushers gain the ability to employ an additional pair of arms in combat.  This grants one additional attack with the primary hand, at the highest base attack bonus.  While this allows the usage of additional shields, the shield bonuses of concurrently used shield do not stack -- instead they only serve to givesthe ambusher protection on additional sides (i.e., with two shields, the ambusher would gain the shield bonus from attacks made from the direction of attack that has the shield between himself and the attacker: front, left, right, rear, above, or below).  The shield bonus applies to any attacks coming from the nine cubes on the same plane that the shield is facing.
          Further, every shield being used reduces the number of available off-hand attacks by one, starting with the least favorable one.

Weapon Focus (Grapple): This ability is the same as the Weapon Focus feat, and gives the ambusher a +1 attack bonus when trying to perform the grapple special action.

Four-Armed Fighting: As with Two-Armed Fighting, but this class feature grants an ambusher the ability to utilize an additional pair of arms in combat.  This equates into an additional attack each round with the off-hand arm at the second highest base attack bonus.  The standard penalty for off-hand attacks (attack and damage rolls) still apply.

An ambusher with this ability may employ it with the grapple action, allowing him to grapple with two arms, then attack with two others (assuming the grapple was not initiated with his final iterative attack).  The ambusher will get a single attack with both a primary arm and his off-hand arm at his current base attack bonus.

Weapon Specialization (Grapple): By 9th level, the ambusher's reflexes are so well honed in grappling that he gains a +2 bonus on all damage rolls when attempting a grapple.  This is essential identical to the Weapon Specialization feat.  Ambushers are allowed to continue along the Weapon Focus/Specialization tree using feats gained at every three character levels (by taking Greater Weapon Focus and Greater Weapon Specialization) as if they were fighters, but must still meet all other prerequisites.

Ultra-camouflage: At 10th level, an ambusher has mastered his natural camouflage ability through intense practice and enhanced via dietary techniques discovered during their years foraging in the Ruins to rely less on chemicals that fluoresce in ultraviolet light.  When an ambusher is in the area of ultraviolet light and utilizing their camouflage ability, observers with ultravision must make a Spot check at a DC of 15 + the ambusher's levels in the ambusher character class to hope to spot the hidden ceph.

Improved Multiattack: An improved version of the Multiattack class feature that allows the use of an additional pair of arms.  The extra primary attack gained by this ability is at the second highest base attack bonus.  These ambushers can now use three shields at once, essentially improving their protection on three fronts but reducing the number of available off-hand attacks by one for each shield used (starting with the lowest bonus attack).

Six-Armed Fighting: As with Four-Armed Fighting, an ambusher can fight unarmed with an additional pair of arms (now three pairs).  This grants an additional attack each round with the off-hand arm at the third highest base attack bonus.  The standard penalty for off-hand attacks (attack and damage rolls) still apply.
An ambusher with this ability may employ it with the grapple action, allowing him to grapple with two arms, then attack with four others (assuming the grapple was not initiated with either of his two final iterative attacks)..  The ambusher will get a two attacks with both a primary arm and his off-hand arm -- the first at his current base attack bonus and the second with a -5 penalty to the attack roll.  If the character does not have enough iterative attacks to make both primary and secondary attacks, he may make as many as he can until his allotment for this round is exhausted.

Supreme Multiattack: As the improved multiattack and multiattack class feature before it, this ability allows an ambusher the use of yet another pair of additional arms (for a total of 4 pairs of arms) at their third highest base attack bonus.  Shields can be employed in four of the six directions, but for each shield so used, reduce the number of available off-hand attacks by one (starting with the lowest bonus).

Eight-Armed Fighting: As with Two-Armed Fighting, but an ambusher can fight unarmed with an fourth pair of arms (for a total of four pairs).  This grants an additional attack each round with the off-hand arm at the fourth highest base attack bonus.  The standard penalty for off-hand attacks (attack and damage rolls) still apply.

An ambusher with this ability may employ it with the grapple action, allowing him to grapple with two arms, then attack with six others (assuming the grapple was not initiated with his one of the three final iterative attacks)..  The ambusher will get a three attacks with both a primary arm and his off-hand arm -- the first at his current base attack bonus, the second with a -5 penalty to the attack roll, and the third with a -10 penalty.  If the character does not have enough iterative attacks to make all three primary and secondary attacks, he may make as many as he can until his allotment for this round is exhausted.

Table of Ambusher's Additional Unarmed Attacks

Level	Multiattack Tree (Primary Arm only)	Both Arms (Multiattack + # Armed Fighting)		Both Arms with Flurry of Blows
		Primary	Off-hand	Primary	Off-hand
1	+1	-1	-1	-	-
2	+2	0	0	-	-
3	+3	+1	+1	-	-
4	+4	+2	+2	-	-
5	+5	+3	+3	+1/+1	+1
6	+6/+6/+1	+4/+4/-1	+4	+2/+2/+2/-3	+2
7	+7/+7/+2	+5/+5/0	+5	+3/+3/+3/-2	+3
8	+8/+8/+3	+6/+6/+1	+6/+1	+4/+4/+4/-1	+4/-1
9	+9/+9/+4	+7/+7/+2	+7/+2	+5/+5/+5/0	+5/0
10	+10/+10/+5	+8/+8/+3	+8/+3	+6/+6/+6/+1	+6/+1
11	+11+11/+6/+6/+1	+9/+9/+4/+4/-1	+9/+4	+7/+7/+7/+2/+2/-3	+7/+2
12	+12/+12/+7/+7/+2	+10/+10/+5/+5/0	+10/+5	+8/+8/+8/+3/+3/-2	+8/+3
13	+13/+13/+8/+8/+3/+3	+11/+11/+6/+6/+1/+1	+11/+6/+1	+9/+9/+9/+4/+4/-1/-1	+9/+4/-1
14	+14/+14/+9/+9/+4/+4	+12/+12/+7/+7/+2/+2	+12/+7/+2	+10/+10/+10/+5/+5/0/0	+10/+5/0
15	+15/+15/+10/+10/+5/+5	+13/+13/+8/+8/+3/+3	+13/+8/+3	+11/+11/+11/+6/+6/+1/+1	+11/+6/+1
16	+16/+16/+11/+11/+6/+6/+1	+14/+14/+9/+9/+4/+4/-1	+14/+9/+4	+12/+12/+12/+7/+7/+2/+2/-3	+12/+7/+2
17	+17/+17/+12/+12/+7/+7/+2	+15/+15/+10/+10/+5/+5/0	+15/+10/+5	+13/+13/+13/+8/+8/+3/+3/-2	+13/+8/+3
18	+18/+18/+13/+13/+8/+8/+3	+16/+16/+11/+11/+6/+6/+1	+16/+11/+6/+1	+14/+14/+14/+9/+9/+4/+4/-1	+14/+9/+4/-1
19	+19/+19/+14/+14/+9/+9/+4	+17/+17/+12/+12/+7/+7/+2	+17+12/+7/+2	+15/+15/+15/+10/+10/+5/+5/0	+15/+10/+5/0
20	+20/+20/+15/+15/+10/+10/+5	+18/+18/+13/+13/+8/+8/+3	+18/+13/+8/+3	+16/+16/+16/+11/+11/+6/+6/+1	+16/+11/+6/+1

Note:  These numbers do not reflect bonuses given by Weapon Focus or Weapon Specialization class abilities/feats, nor those from a high Strength modifier.

"If not for our superior martial prowess, the sheer ability
of seasoned ceph ambushers to deliver such astonding damage
would leave me fearful of a second occupation…"
-- the accomplished Orcan packbreeder known as "The Beastmaster".

Endless Blue - Week 14 - Ceph

Biology

Ceph – Vermin of the Known World

Eventually when enough of the races in the Known World of Elqua banded together, they were able to over-throw the tyrannical Kraken Empire.  Perhaps that victory made the occupiers lose face with their eldritch gods and were abandoned, even cursed.  Since then the one mighty, one massive race has devolved into the cephalopods known today as simply "the Ceph".

Personality: The Ceph continue to suffer abuse and scorn on a daily basis, and their station as second-class citizens has an effect on their outlook.  They are a hard working people, taking the thankless jobs, dangerous work conditions, and pitiful reward that they can in order to eek out a continued existence.
Physical Description: They are the only race in the Known World to not possess the easily identifiable piscean form -- head, torso, arms, and tail -- and instead look simply like larger versions of their aquatic ancestors.  The race actually has three ethnicities, but few except other Ceph can clearly tell them apart.  They have eight tentacles, two of which are slightly longer than the others and end in a wide pad.  Above those are pair of golden eyes with a unique "w"-shaped iris, one widely situated on either side of their bulbous bodies.  They lack any form of a skeleton, except a sub-dermal plate over what would be considered their foreheads.  This plate is ridged and forms a rippling of the skin that overlaps it.  At the nexus of their radially arranged tentacles is there mouth, protected by a sharp but flat beak.  Their skin is covered in tiny pigmentation cells that change color at will.
Relations: Relations with other races are completely on a per individual bases.  The one thing the Ceph have learned is that despite how they are treated, they know other races are individuals, each with different urges, goals, and drives.  They will often overlook personal attacks by any one stranger, knowing that as a rule the whole race is not as judgmental.
Alignment: The fall of the Kraken was swift, and the degeneration into the Ceph even more so.  A history of prejudice and persecution has caused the need for the Ceph to adopt a more chaotic life style, never knowing if at any second everything about their life could be irrevocably shattered.
Homeseas: The Ceph have no homesea.  Though their ancestral home would be the Maw, no one still sane inhabits the Ruins of the Kraken Empire.  The Ceph have dispersed throughout the Known World, and settled down where ever they discovered a niche to be filled.  There are no pure Ceph settlements, but it is rare to ever find a city that doesn't have some level of Ceph in its populace.
Religion: Their abandonment by their eldritch gods has not spoiled the Ceph on worship,  Now, instead of making sacrifices to unknowable entities, the devote their souls to Olyhydra, the stern mistress of Law.  The understand her dogma that life is toil and only hard work will be rewarded..
Language: The Ceph speak a pidgin language, combining words from surrounding settlements into a patchwork language.  It is difficult, even for other Ceph, to speak with a Ceph who learned to speak too great a distance away, as it could almost be considered a different language.
Names: Names are of great importance to the Ceph, usually chosen by the individual.  Having been called racial slurs for so very long, they have taken to keeping nicknames given to them, answering to them instinctively.  A well travelled Ceph could have dozens of these bestowed names, and he would answer to each and every one of them.
Nick Names: Bait, Squid, Sucker, Wiggler
Formal Names: Ika, Onag, Surume, Tako,
Adventurers: Ceph treat adventuring just as they do survival.  If any race had a more honest viewpoint of the adventuring lifestyle, it would be the Ceph.   They treat it as a job, a means to an end, a way to keep them alive, keep their families alive, just another step in the never-ending cycle of work and rest.

Racial Traits
Ability Adjustments: Dexterity +2, Strength -2.
Automatic Class Skills: Disguise and Hide in Shadows
Skill Bonuses: Disquise +4, Move Silently +2.
Bonus Hit Dice: None
Natural Armor: None.
Natural Weapons: The beak of a Ceph can be used as a natural weapon, inflicting 1d3 points of slashing damage on a successful hit.
Movement: Small creature (1 cube tall), base speed 20 cubes.
Senses: Ultravision, Low-Light Vision
Buoyancy: Shore (adjustable)
Camouflage (Ex): Pigments saturating the Ceph's rubbery skin are malleable, and with a successful Disguise check a Ceph can blend in with its surroundings.  This gives the Ceph the Hide In Plain Sight feat and adds a +10 racial bonus to Hide checks.  The Ceph must maintain his concentration while using his camouflage ability to maintain this effect for more than a round, however failing the Concentration check does not result in the Ceph breaking its camouflage, just losing the racial bonus (he failed to adjust his coloration to take into account an observer's movement, etc.).
Multi-Tentacled (Ex): Most Ceph use their major tentacles (the ones with the flat pads at the end) as their grasping apendages, to holding ungues and nautiluses for example.  The other arms cannot be used for combat unless the Ceph takes the Multiattack feat, meeting all the prerequisites for it first.  This allows for a second pair of tentacles to be used just like the first pair, and taking the feat subsequent times adds another set of two tentacles, to a maximum of four pairs of arms.  The Ceph must still follow the same proceedures to accomplish two-weapon fighting to use both arms of a set in combat.
Favored Class: Rogue is the favored class of Ceph, employing their natural camouflage and stealthiness to the greatest extent and is what has made the Ceph so adaptable.
Social Flaw: Self-Depreciating
Base Height: Male: 2' 8” (+ 2d3 in.).
Female: 2' 7" (+ 2d4 in).
Base Weight: Male: 30 lbs. (+ height mod. x 1d2 lbs.)
Female 26 lbs. (+ height mod. x 1d2 lbs.)
Automatic Languages: Ceph, Elquan
Bonus Languages: Chelon, Koutonese, Locanthic, Sahaguin.
Level Adjustment: None

Life as a Ceph is life as an untouchable.  As prolific and ubiquitous as they may be, they spend lives of never been noticed, never included, never praised.  If anything, they take the brunt of the other races' historical ire.  It has never been forgotten that these seemingly simple and honest people were once blood-crazed tyrants who called the Known World their own, even though generation after generation has come and gone since then, leaving no one remaining alive that lived through the tragedy of Kraken occupation.  But the Ceph typically do not let this prevent them from integrating themselves into society and eking out a living as society's lowest class.

Their own practicality enables them to ingrain themselves into cultures in almost any capacity.  They are the ones willing to do the demeaning work, the servitude to an erudite community.  Ceph lack the hubris and racism of the ancient civilization, and know that if they are to survive as a people they must adapt to the new order or die completely.

“Despite their universal revilement, Ceph have an unerring knack
for getting themselves into positions of indispensability...”
A shrewd observation of Ceph survival skills

Endless Blue - Week 10 - Species of the Endless Blue

Biology

Species of the Endless Blue
Scholars divide the races of Elqua into the civilized and primitive nations.  Claiming enlightened criteria, this dichotomy forced on intelligent species in actuality is an arbitrary and elitist separation based on homeogenic qualities that the societies among the Periphery and Crèche of Civilization share in common: namely a non-representative alphabet, an educational system, a lack of ethnic diversity, and an abandonment of Pantheon worship.  Some hypocrisy remains in this division of higher evolved grouping, as two of the four Civilized races still reproduce oviparously (via egg production) instead of viviparously (live birth); conversely, two of the primitive races carry their children to term.

Civilized Races of the Periphery

Chelon [kappa sapien] – The Chelon are a race in decline, having long ago reached their nation’s height of power and now suffer through the long, agonized slide into obscurity.  Chelon live to great age, but for far too long their birth rate has been outstripped by their natural death rate.  So old is the race that whatever ethnological variation they may have had homogenized into the sole race known of today.   Aristocratic in nature, they gave the Known World many of its inventions, and the Chelon Sea is believed to be the birthplace of magic.  They have chevron-shaped heads with a flat cranium, with small, inset eyes on either side of beaked mouth and a weak chin under that.  They possess a shell from their stooped shoulders that covers their back and most of their notably short tail.  Their skin, while not a bony as the shell on their back, is toughened with calluses.  Along with Lumulus, they are sometimes referred to collectively as “Shellbacks”, and the on-again/off-again war between the two distant nations has been coined after that appellation.
Pl. Chelon; adj. Chelonite

Lumulus [rakovica sapien] – Xenophobic and withdrawn, the Lumulus are the most alien of all the sentient races of Elqua’s Known World.  Masters of heat and the rare metals and glass of the ocean societies, these beings from the Lumulus Basin participate in a detached yet heavy commerce with the other bodies of water.  They possess a haunched, banded exoskeletal shell that they must shed yearly to grow.  Lumulus never stop growing, but only the rarest specimen has ever grown nearly as large as a Mer.  They have two main arms that end with three fingered hands that are heavily yet naturally armored, and a series of three “digits” interspersed between their gill slits.  Their eyes are completely black, and they possess long, fine, wiry hairs from their upper lip.  Perhaps the most notable feature of the Lumulus is their blue blood.  Their society is broken down into eight forgeclans, with their three ethnicities (rakova, jastog, and morski) freely intermixed.   Even though they are separated on either ends of the Known World, the Lumulus and Chelon nations have engaged in hostilities for most of their history.
Pl. Lumulus; adj. Lumulan

Mer [piscean sapien] – A race in ascendance despite some truly tragic self-induced calamities, the Mer are coming into their own.  Half-mammalian and half Piscean, the Mer were the most varied in appearance and were organized into thirteen tribes called “currents”.  These currents each form their own autonomous yet interdependent state under the banner of the Mer species.  At the present time, only eight of those original ethnicities still exist.  Despite this seeming turn toward extinction, the remaining currents are thriving, and now consider their expanse of the known world to be claustrophobic and have begun to look outward for more breathing room.  The Merfolk are perhaps the most diverse coloration (which determines in which current they belong), with a myriad of patterning that varies from family to family.
Pl. Mer, Merfolk (antiquated); adj. Mer

Orcan [cetacean sapien] – Considering themselves to be the first race of Elqua, the Orcans are warrior poets descended from the once marauding Cetacean barbarians.  Their skin is smooth, yet thick, with a rubbery texture that belies the practiced lethality of their martial history.  Ridged folds of skin contract from their where their lower lip would be down over their broad, barrel chests to their solar plexus. Strict vegetarians, this ruffled skin expands on their distendable jaws to swallow massive volumes of water, and the plates hanging from the back of the throat strain the great amounts tiny plankton they need each day to survive.  This does not mean the race is toothless, as they posses a series of similarly spaced out, pointed incisors that can inflict a vicious bite.  Indeed, one of their two subraces – the Narwahl – still feature the pair of dental tusks that jut from the upper lip which the Cetacean Barbarians were so well reknown.
Pl. Orcans, Cetacean (antiquated); adj. Orcan

Ceph [vulgaris sapien] – These are the degenerate descendants of the dominating Kraken.  Considered lower than the Primitive races of the Hinterseas, yet found collectively among even the most effluent societies, the Ceph have proven they are survivors, if anything.  They fill any niche they can, desperately trying to eek out a living in the face of the bigotry leveled against them.  Heightening this estrangement is the curious fact they are the sole intelligent race that does not share the torso/tail morphology common to the sapient races, and instead appear as larger, more advanced octopi capable of speech.  They also posses three subspecies, differentiated by the ridge patterns formed on their foreheads by their cuttle bones.  They all posses the eight limbed form and strange “w”-shaped pupil form of their forefathers, but at a greatly reduced stature.  Ceph do have an interesting natural camouflage ability that helps them hide even in the brightest lit waters of the Shore.
Pl. Ceph; adj. Cephic

Primitive Races of the Hinterseas

Kuoton [kaeru sapien] – The Kuoton are an old race that has harassed the other intelligent races for millennia, using many forgotten secrets of dangerous evils that dwell in the oceans beyond the Known World.  Their form is roughly amphibian, resembling a frog, with slimy skin hanging loose around inflatable jowls and a mouth filled with tiny, needle shaped teeth, giving the species an appearance of having it face smashed flat.  Their blunt snouted head is diminutive in proportion to their bulging, wide-spaced eyes that each posses a sideways nictitating eyelid.  Their arms and tail are thin, but strong, and their hands appear webbed like their tail flukes.  Over all, their oily bodies are reedy except for a paunch around their pelvic flukes.
Pl. Kouton; adj Koutonese

Locanth [peixe sapien] – The Locanth are still a nomadic race, just as their ancient forefathers were, migrating around the Gulf of Locanth in pursuit of their traditional meals.  They have dim, oval eyes on either side of the skull like herbivores, yet they maintain a mostly carnivorous diet.  Since their gaping mouths lack any teeth, and their slender fingered hands do not end with claws, the species on the whole are not aggressive and tend to distrust outsiders.  Large fins sprouting from their arms and sides of their tail work in conjuction with their pelvic fins, making Locanths perhaps the fastest intelligent race on Elqua.  There is little to tell the difference between the male and female of the species other than the dark markings around the female’s egg sacs.
Pl. Locanths; adj. Locanthic

Sahaguin [vis sapien] – Sahaguin are a primitive race, larger than any other of the Known World races save the Cetaceans.  They also have extended fins along their arms and tail like the Locanth, but the more predatory eyes and mouth like the Kouton.  There is little to no fat on the body of a Sahaguin, and the muscles underneath their heavily scaled skin are visibly rippled, like coils traveling from the head down to the tip of their tail.   Over all, they are superbly fit for their predatory lifestyle, and their aggressiveness knows little restraint.  They have maintained a constant animosity to the Mer to such an extent that the two cannot co-exist in the same living area for long before hostilities break out.  They are deathly secretive about their children, and any inquiry about their noted absence results in violence.
Pl. Sahaguin; adj. Sahaguani

Yaun-Teel [anguiliformes sapien] – Originally thought to be an offshoot of the Mer, the Yaun-Teel will usually be mistaken for Mer with a casual glance.  However, upon closer inspection, their subtle eel-like features betray their origins.  Their bodies are lithe and agile, with slender necks and tapered fingers.  Perhaps the most telling feature of their form is that their eyes never blink.  They are a guileful and manipulative race, believing without exception in the superiority of their bloodline.  As such, any adept race other than themselves is considered fair game for slavery, including their close cousins, the Mer.
Pl. Yaun-Til, adj, Yaun-Til

Keep in mind, while these are the races of the Endless Blue setting, they do not define the nationalities beyond the area of the Known World the races first began.  Outside of physical limitations (i.e., the Shelf of the Cetacean Oceans) and national dogma (the xenophobic Lumulus Basin), there are cross border bloodlines: Mer that have lived in the Chelon Seas since the original thirteen currents, or Narwhal in the Sahaguin Lagoons, and the Ceph in nearly every body of water.  Individuals of these multicultural upbringings will have mixed their biological heritage with their societal surroundings to form towns, even metropolises, of unique character and vision.