Chirals (Kai-rels)

The Chirals

The Chirals are a race of halfling-sized bat creatures, named so for their supporting hand structures in their wings. They are a hexapodal species, with the wings being the 3rd set of limbs. Their long forelimbs and short, somewhat stubby legs all have opposable thumbs. Sometimes they'll ambulate with all six limbs since it tends to be more comfortable to walk that way and distribute their weight on more limbs. They have a wide variety of diets, mostly specialists that are adept at feeding on their choice meal. The ones that fly during the day are the plant-eating Chirals, sometimes called Voladores (Shortening of 'Zorros Voladores', a literal translation of Flying Foxes), which live near The Last Strands and are pretty well-attuned to nature. They are the largest of the three variants. The other two that fly at night have a bit of a negative reputation. The insectivorous Chirals are called Devorador, as a shortening of 'Devorador de Insectos' for their diet and use of echolocation to find their prey. Due to how much insects they'd have to eat to sustain larger bodies, they are typically on the smaller side. The other Chiral, the hematophagous Vampiros, are highly specialized and feared.
Chirals are said to be the godkin descendants of an ancient god whose primary role was in service to the underworld and the dead. This god's given name was Camazotz.

Subspecies

The Voladores of the Chiral species are excellent at long duration flight, partly because of their carbohydrate-rich diet and large wingspan relative to their body mass. They are mostly diurnal and use their strong eyesight to identify edible fruits from afar. They typically live near The Last Strand settlements or an Oases settlement.
The Devorador are highly agile and acrobatic for their species, able to turn quickly in flight. They are also the most diverse in their appearances. Their hearing is superior to the other Chirals because they need to use echolocation to identify prey. They aren't exclusively insectivorous as desert cacti have rich fruits and nectars for them to consume. They also have superior darkvision. The Devorador is considered small for a Chiral. Devorador are the most likely to choose to be a sky pirate.
The Vampiros are especially rare, but a mutation from the cataclysm gave them the ability to consume the life force of other creatures. They will consume blood and by extension, their life essence from any living thing. They are almost exclusively nocturnal and tend to be feared. Their faces have some sensory pits that allow them to chemically identify living creatures. They can also see in infrared if shrouded in darkness. Sudden light changes make it difficult for the Vampiros chiral to see but they can adapt. As what would be called an apex predator of the skies, the Vampiros show up in all kinds of post-cataclysm folklore.

Adaptations

Chirals, being warm-blooded, need to radiate heat away from their bodies when it is extremely hot out. Their large ears are full of blood vessels that help radiate heat away, and if they're cold, their bodies constrict bloodflow to their extremities. Similarly, their wings are also excellent at radiating heat so they may find a shady spot to shed excess heat through their wings.
Chirals can detect things hidden in plain sight, things that might be invisible to the naked eye or particularly well camouflaged. To detect these things, they use echolocation and their enhanced senses.

Culture

The Chirals that do settle in permanent locations tend to be more peaceful and less aggressive because of the availability of resources and food, often building treehouses that allow them to nest comfortably. The Veloradores and some of the Devorador settle down in these more permanent locations alongside other aerial species. They have a strong affinity for drinking and devise lots of various fermented drinks, even a sort of sweet, fermented cactus drink called Teekelea which is deceptively strong. Their cooking frequently involves grilled fruits, fried insects, various vegetables, spices, and small game meats. Sometimes they'll eat grains or other processed foods but it's not common. Their singing is often in ranges that most other races can't hear, so most of the Chiral music is difficult to hear, aside from some woodwind, stringed, and percussion instruments that they use. They tend to coexist among the remaining forest dwellers of Dunia.
Chiral art often uses vibrant, almost neon paints and various textile mediums. They most frequently display this vibrant body paint in festivals, filled with colorful lights and food.
Chirals like to use a variety of hallucinogenic substances that they've concocted themselves and a wide selection of chemicals that they've brewed.
The Chirals that do break off from their colonies often leave to join Sky Pirate crews. These sky pirate crews are comprised of a rag-tag group of various species who choose the life of high crime as opposed to other more traditional career paths, not that there's many careers to choose from in a post-cataclysm world. They call anyone that lives on the ground Groundlings.

Architecture

Chirals tend to prefer the safety of the upper canopies of whatever forests remain, building treehouses that allow them to move safely between treetops without much interference from those on the ground. It also affords them some privacy from prying eyes. Those that reside in the badlands build huts that cling to the cliffs of the windcarved canyons and keep them from hanging too low to the ground. If an elevated position cannot be found, they will close off a cave entrance for safety purposes. Some of the Voladores Chiral will build spherical huts with entrances on the bottom so that only flying species may enter.
Due to their needs for privacy and safety, they have watchtower type structures on the outer edges of their settlements.

Technology

Chirals tend to be good scavengers of existing technologies, appropriating it or manipulating it to suit their specific needs. They often don't see the need to invent new systems but instead improve what's already there. For example, an anti-materiel rifle that might be used by another race might be modified for Chiral hands, given layers of recoil control systems and counter lever mechanisms to improve their ability to fire it while airborne. They might modify welding goggles to help with extreme brightness, and are generally considered very DIY and crafty. Whatever is broken, can be salvaged by Chiral hands. They are also fantastic chemists, capable of mixing various concoctions into drugs, explosives, or medicines.

Unique Vehicles

Chirals often appropriate technology from other cultures and species and modify it to fit their own needs, but nothing is so prominently featured in Chiral flotillas as a Chiral dirigible. These lighter-than-air craft act as mobile bases of operation from which they can deploy safely without much interference from other species. The Chiral dirigible can have a variety of purposes, including food transport. Air pirates may try to attack a Chiral dirigible but they often have a means of defending and intercepting most aircraft. Because of the strong winds that kick up in The Dust, the Chirals have to be careful when traveling its vast stretches.
Chiral Airboss
The Airboss is a bit of an odd vessel. It has plating on the bottom half of its lighter than air balloon to defend against ground attacks, and is bristling with various turrets of different calibers and even some cannons facing downwards. It is meant to bully an area with absurd amounts of suppressive fire and is a Chiral Sky Pirate's choice. The maximum airspeed is slower than your typical Chiral dirigible but they're much harder to take down because of its downwards plating. Attacks from above are typically the most effective. The Airboss is also capable of operating as a light carrier, carrying up to four 'Zeek' planes, mounted sideways and pointing downwards. The Airboss has to ascend quite high to deploy the planes.
Chiral Mobile Airshop
Both an airship and a merchant's vessel, the Airshop is sorta a cultural hub for the more nomadic Chiral tribes. They will land and set up a makeshift bazaar and workshop from this lighter than air vessel. Sometimes they use magical flywheels to propel the vessel via a driveshaft and several propellers. Sometimes they steal engines and fit them to the Airshop for more power.
Dieselwerk 'Zeek' Monoplane
The sky pirate's choice aircraft, the Zeek is a fuel-hungry bastard child of a plane that the Chirals use to strike from the skies. It's not exclusively a Chiral vehicle but the Chirals did refine the Zeek to the point that the Zeek is largely associated with them. They know that the air advantage they have is short lived because of fuel limitations but the aircraft has its own unique noise that the airbrakes make which is leveraged to scare its prey. Some are outfitted with .50 cal cannons and others fitted with dumb-fire bombs and rockets. No advanced guidance systems were developed by the Chirals so it's mostly analog input. Imagine if someone cobbled together a Japanese Zero fighter with a bunch of makeshift pipes, some cloth or thin sheet metal and a rear facing turret, and that's what you'd get. The canopy of the Zeek can be explosively detached so that they can eject or jump out to safely escape from the plane.

Unique Weaponry

The Black Hand
A one-of-a-kind rifle that can pierce just about anything, this fearsome weapon has been passed down from generation to generation, and its transition from one leader to the other is practically religious in its ceremonies. Legend has it that The Black Hand is one of the Chirals' first firearms that ever felled a dragon. Its status amongst them is fabled and only one exists. Some Weirdling engineer many generations ago (in terms of Chiral generations that might be 50 years), bonded it with a twisted soul that hungered for the flesh of the mighty.
When it is fired, a surge of eldritch energy whirls in its wake and those that it strikes are gripped by its force and pulled to the ground to be consumed by roiling black magic, only to disappear with a residual wisp of smoke.
Chiral Sniper
This weapon is designed with some stabilizing mechanisms and an advanced recoil system to make follow-up shots very easy. It suffers no penalties when attacking in rapid succession and is fairly usable from the air. It is a magazine-fed semi-automatic weapon that uses full power rifle cartridges.
Chiral Aerial Cannon
This is more of an anti-materiel rifle than a cannon, and with only being able to load a single round in its chamber, it is meant to be fired only once before the shooter repositions to reload. Because of the mass of the round, it is capable as an anti-aircraft weapon. The round will penetrate multiple targets at extreme distances. An airborne Chiral must make a strength saving throw or get pushed back 10 feet from its current position when firing this beast of a weapon.
Modelo 5 Trejo Pistol
The famous Modelo 5 is a Chiral pistol that is easily converted into a machine pistol format and can be modified into a short pistol carbine as well.
Manos De Fuego
Literally the Hands of Fire, a rope-linked cluster bomb of sorts that the Chiral Sky Pirates might use to terrorize Groundlings. On impact, the collection of various liquids in the 5 canisters react to one another and create a sort of napalm jelly that sticks to whatever surface it splashes on. If spun before being thrown, it almost resembles a hand because of the 5 canisters used.
Chiral Lanza
A motorized slingshot that can fire just about any junk that is thrown in it, the Lanza is a very DIY weapon that can launch a myriad of projectiles. A lot of the time, the Chiral Lanza will be used to launch explosives much further than a normal slingshot could.

Species Features

Chiral Age
Chirals are not the longest living species as a whole. For some reason or another, their lives are cut short by accidents from explosions, aircraft collisions, or just bad luck. They live anywhere from 40 to 70 years, but the life expectancy is low because of the aforementioned situations. They are capable of flight after 6 months of age, can talk at around the age of 1 to 2, and reach maturity at around the age of 15.
Chiral Flight
The Chirals take to the skies and are capable of flight for limited periods. Devoradors and Vampiros can fly up to 2 hours of sustained flight. While in combat, this is reduced to 4 turns of flight. Once they have flown while in combat, they must wait until they have completed a short or long rest before flying again. The Veladores are capable of the longest flight periods, flying indefinitely. Chiral flight speed is 50 feet per turn. While wearing heavy or superheavy armor, they cannot gain height by flying, and can only glide.
Echolocation and Blindsight
The Chiral subspecies Vampiros and the Devoradors both utilize Echolocation and Blind Sense to locate prey
Chiral Agility
Chirals are very acrobatic in general and are able to maneuver very well. All Chirals get a boost to dexterity in PF2E and +2 to Dexterity in D&D 5E.
Chiral Analysis
Chirals are very good at analyzing tech and breaking it down. All Chirals get a boost to intelligence in PF2E and +1 to Intelligence in D&D 5e. In PF2E, they also get a free boost.
Chiral Scavenging
Chirals have an acute ability to repurpose existing technologies and are able to locate more useful gear after battle. When using an investigation check to locate gear that was previously equipped by the enemy, they will locate all of it and any ammunition they were carrying. This bonus can occur once per day.
Chiral Wallclimb
Chirals all have grasping claws and hands that help them climb, hang upside down, and cling to most surfaces. They can do this at 20 feet per turn.
Chiral Ambulation
Chirals are awkward when not in flight, and can only move 25 feet per turn when on the ground.

Subspecies Features

Voladores Acrobatics
Voladores are capable of greater speeds while in flight than their counterparts. Their flying speed is increased by 10 feet per turn, up to 60 feet. They do not have echolocation or blind sense like the Vampiros or Devoradors. They can perform acrobatic maneuvers while in flight to raise their evasion by their proficiency bonus until attacked again as a reaction, and can perform this maneuver up to as many times as their proficiency bonus per short or long rest.
Devorador Echolocation
Devoradors have acute hearing and get a boost to perception. Devoradors have access to echolocation, which provides blindsight.
Vampiros Nightstalker
Vampiros are dependent on finding and feeding on living things. As an adaptation, they have become exceptionally stealthy. They are proficient in stealth checks and can reroll critical failures on stealth checks. Because of their nocturnal nature, it takes them an hour to adapt to bright conditions. While adapting to bright conditions, they have a disadvantage on attack rolls. Because they use echolocation, they have blindsight.

Chiral-Specific Backgrounds

Pirata Loco
You are a pirate. A crazy one at that, too. You're obssessed with firebombing the locals and watching things go up in flames.

Skill Proficiencies:Acrobatics, Perception
Equipment:
Weirdling Engineer
An obssession with the occult and machines has landed you the title of 'Weirdling' Engineer amongst your peers. You are both revered and feared, and hold a title that the line of inventors that designed 'The Black Hand' held.

Skill Proficiencies: Arcana, Investigation
Tool Proficiencies:
Equipment: