Caretakers

Physical Characteristics

Appearance:

Dark granite skin, Sun Yellow to Ember Red eyes, no hair

Resilience:

Like a rock

Background Aspects

Inherent Aspects:

Social Responsibility 4, Acceptance 2, Trauma Resistance 3, Slow Metabolism 7, Heavy Sleeper 5, High Pain Threshold 3

Caretakers have no need for food or sleep as known by mortal beings. However, when very active (that is to say, moving fast enough for mortals to detect it), they must enter a trance-like state for (15 - Endurance) hours to regenerate their energy. The Rank of Slow Metabolism determines how frequently this is necessary and Heavy Sleeper reflects the difficulty of rousing a Caretaker from this state.

Recommended Aspects:

Born Leader, Tolerance of Extremes, Sense of Direction, Superior Concentration

Unique Abilities:

Weight-based Trauma Resistance is doubled. Tactical movement rates are reduced by 75% and Option Point allotment is reduced similarly. Long-term movement rates are reduced by 25% and the resulting distance requires a 24-hour day of travel rather than the 10 to 12-hour day which is the norm for other races.

Expertises and Attributes

Inherent Expertises:

Savvy, Meditation, History 2

Recommended Expertises:

Physical Adaptation, Social Adaptation, Leadership, Knowledge (Magical Theory), all Omnessence Archetypes, all Omnessence Affinities, Language

Profile Restrictions:

None

Minimum Attributes:

Willpower 6, Intelligence 5, Wisdom 6

After purchasing Attributes, increase Endurance and Hardiness by 100%, increase Strength by 50%, reduce Agility by 50%, and reduce Quickness by 75%.

Environmental Adaptation:

Like a rock

Culture and Social Interaction

Lifestyle:

Caretakers generally play the role of distant observers, though they may occasionally act to affect events in the long term. Unless already roused to action, Caretakers will not involve themselves in smaller tasks as it can take them several years to bring themselves into a state which mortal beings would recognize as being "active".

Family:

N/A. If the Caretakers ever went through a period analagous to the Background Development of mortal species, it is long since forgotten. All Caretakers are aware of each others' existence, but have no special relationships among their society.

Symbols and Creative Arts:

While the Caretakers have a great appreciation for art, they rarely pursue it. Caretaker art generally exists on a grand scale, such as a strikingly detailed mountain range or an exquisitely formed 500-mile stretch of coastline. Few mortals can distinguish Caretaker art from works of nature. Some speculate that all works of nature are, in fact, Caretaker art.

Clothing and Decoration:

Caretakers do not wear clothing. Some will decorate themselves by causing certain colors or rock or types of crystal to form patterns on their skin using a process conceptually similar to human scarification; metals are never used, however, being viewed as elements which contaminate otherwise pure rock.

Religious and Magical Considerations:

Caretakers are very advanced magically, provided that the time is available for them to work their magic; most Caretaker magic is performed over the course of several days, weeks, or even years.

Caretaker religion is an advanced form of animism which would have probably become ancestor-worship if not for the race's immortality. In this religion, all things are believed to have spirits, which should not be destroyed. As the Caretakers do not die, their religion does not distinguish between living and nonliving objects, but causing something to stop moving permanently (their understanding of the deaths of mortals) is a bad thing. The recent death of a Caretaker has caused some unrest as the survivors struggle to form the concept of death among their own kind, and it will probably be several centuries before these issues have been resolved.

History:

In a very real sense, the history of the world has been the history of the Caretakers. It is only now that events are coming to be dominated by mortals.