Gear
Awakened from the crashed spaceship Angra-Nenu, gears are a servitor race created as workers for the ships’ mysterious leaders. Robotic brains that are capable of projecting solid holograms, the newly reanimated and now masterless constructs struggle to find their place in the world.
Basic Information
Biological Traits
A Gear has two forms, its mechanical Core, that acts as a computerized brain controlling the rest of the Gear, and its Projection, a physical hologram that surrounds the Core and allows it to interact with the world.
Genetics and Reproduction
Being robotic creatures, Gears are crafted and forged rather than birthed. The process of how to create a new gear was lost in the crash of the Angra-Nenu, and whoever unlocks the secret of Gear construction could change the world.
Growth Rate & Stages
Gears are crafted fully-grown and are able to jump right into their designated roles. Many gears are now purposeless after the crash, and must struggle to adapt.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Gears do not require food, and many find organic matter distasteful, although some gears enjoy drinking or bathing in various machine oils as an intoxicant.
Biological Cycle
Gears are generally unaffected by the changing of the seasons or even the passing of time itself, but at times extreme temperatures can causes a gear to gain "glitches", where its suffers from quick mood swings or cause its personality to temporarily shift.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Gear society was heavily structured, with caste-like groups. They were built to be a servitor race to alien beings, and now that they have been reawakened into the modern world, are struggling to find a place without standing orders. This leads the them easily being exploited by others who can demand things of them.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
A Gears' Core is prized by inventors and crafters all over the world who seek to unlock the secrets of the stars. With the Gears penchant for taking on a servant role, many business owners and other unscrupulous people have begun to realize that the Gears are a source of cheap or even free labor, and seek them out as personal workers. However, many of the lower classes of Nenu-Lan recognized this exploitative nature, and some have formed special unions demanding fair treatment for the Gears.
Facial characteristics
A Gear’s default projection appears as a grey-skinned, bald, and androgonous human-like creature with sunken eyes and an elongated forehead, however a Gear is able to change its projection. Over time, a Gears projection slowly shifts to match its personality, and may even take on more gendered appearances. Gears that were on the lower end of the ship's command structure often took on a more robotic projection, while those on command levels take a form more resembling their former masters.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
99% of all Gears dwell in the technologically advanced city of Nenu-Lan, as they where the original crew of Angra-Nenu, the crashed starship the city was constructed around.
Average Intelligence
Each Gear was crafted for a specific role, and thus vary wildly in their intelligence. All Gears have an innate understanding of the technology of the Angra-Nenu. Those that are crafted from more laborious jobs are often robotically simple, while those crafted for more complicated tasks are stunningly intelligent.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Gears have darkvision and the ability to see in low-light conditions.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Gears lack names, instead having long numerical codes and tiers based on their Core colors. They are unlikely to use those numbers with non-Gears, often going by either their core color or the first number in their code. They may adapt nicknames over time based on their actions or growing personality.
Beauty Ideals
Being crafted, Gears have little concept of beauty. Many viewed their strange, long dead masters as the pinacol of mortal perfection, and thus sculpt their projections of their ancient blueprints and grey, androgynist features.
Gender Ideals
Gears lack a gender, and thus don't understand the idea of one creature being treated differently due to biological traits.
Courtship Ideals
Due to not being able to reproduce, gears lack courtship ideals, instead focusing their efforts on being productive. This causes them to struggle when their projection takes on a more human form, as they can easily mistake human courtship for orders from a higher power.
Relationship Ideals
Gears view everything in a master-servant capacity, with most cases of them being the servant. A lack of purpose or drive is mentally harmful to a Gear, and thus they will go to great lengths to find something or someone to give their existence meaning.
Average Technological Level
Once being the servants of a technologically superior society, Gears are very technologically adept, and many are capable of restoring lost technology, or even building it themselves.
Major Language Groups and Dialects
All Gears speak Aklo, with many not speaking any other languages due to their specialized roles not often requiring it. Their computerized brains are quick to learn and adapt to new dialects, and thusly have to potential to easily learn any language.
Common Etiquette Rules
Asking a Gear for its opinion on something not related to its expertise can cause it stress, as it will struggle to find a satisfactory answer, so many try to avoid giving a Gear open ended choices.
Common Dress Code
Gears are capable of crafting their projections with the appearance of clothing, so while most don't wear actual garments, they often have the appearance of jumpsuit-like uniforms, often with their designation number marked on them.
Common Taboos
For a Gear working directly under someone to refuse a direct order would be unheard of, and for a Gear to actively reject seeking a greater purpose would be viewed as insanity.
History
Gears once served the mysterious beings who flew amongst the stars on the starship that would become known as the Angra-Nenu. Critically damaged by the then-mortal Rostrom, the Angra-Nenu crash landed in Central Matera, the damage causing its Gear crew to permanently retreat in their Cores. Centuries later, in an expedition to the ship, the Nenu-Lan guild known as The Court of Misfits accidently awakened the Gears, who found their old masters long dead. Without purpose, many gears left the ship and entered the city of Nenu-Lan.
Historical Figures
The first revived Gear became a member of the Nenu-Lan guild The Court of Misfits, the navigator Gear commonly referred to as Navi.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Being newly introduced to the world, many creatures fear and mistrust the Gears. The Gears' inclination for strange and little-understood technology only adds to this wariness, and many view gears as foreign invaders from beyond the stars. Luckily, a Gears’ projection is easily hidden under clothing, and their ability to alter their shape makes them easy to blend in. The other races of Nenu-Lan are more accepting of technology and are much more receptive to the gears, but many Dwarves and Gnomes also find gear technology fascinating.
Racial Table - Gear: Hit Dice: D10; Class Skills: Craft, Disable Device, Knowledge (Engineering), Profession, Use Magic Device; Skill Ranks Per Level: 2 + Intelligence modifier per level; Weapon Proficiency: All technological weapons; Armor Proficiency: All technological armors
| Level | BAB | Fort | Reflex | Will | Abilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | +1 | +0 | +0 | +0 | Living Construct, Core Projection, Electrical Vulnerability, Nonsensence |
| 2nd | +2 | +0 | +0 | +0 | Disguise Self, Gravity Shifting |
| 3rd | +3 | +1 | +1 | +1 | Alter Self |
| 4th | +4 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +2 to chosen ability score, Adjustable Polymorph |
| 5th | +5 | +1 | +1 | +1 | True Hologram |
Random Starting Age
| Adulthood | Intuitive1 | Self-Taught2 | Trained3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 years | +1d4 years (2 - 5) | +1d6 years (2 - 7) | +1d8 years (2 - 9) |
Random Height and Weight
| Base Height | Height Modifier | Base Weight | Weight Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 ft. 10 in. | +2d10 in. (5 ft. - 6 ft. 6 in.) | 60 lbs. | +(2d10x5 lbs.) (70 - 160 lbs.) |
Random Gear Homelands
| % Rolled | Homeland | Trait Gained |
|---|---|---|
| 01-94 | Technology Based City or Area | Technical Archeologist |
| 95-00 | Unusual Homeland | (Roll on Unusual Homeland table) |
Random Gear Parents (Gears are created rather than born)
| % Rolled | Parental Status |
|---|---|
| 01-95 | Self-Raised |
| 96-00 | Raised With Another Race (Roll on that races Parental Table instead) |
| % Rolled | # of Siblings |
|---|---|
| 01-95 | No siblings |
| 96-00 | 1 siblings (twin) |
Lifespan
With the proper maintenance of its Core, a gear is effectively immortal. Even without rigorous upkeep. a Gears' Core is likely to last for thousands of years.
Average Height
5 ft. - 6 ft. 6 in.
Average Weight
70 - 160 lbs.
Average Physique
Each Gear was crafted for a specific role, and thus vary wildly in their physique. Gears that are crafter for manual jobs have a projection that is often larger and has endless mechanical strength, while those sculpted for mental work are often smaller, with weak and spindly projections.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
A Gears' core varies in color and design by a Gears crafted purpose. Gears built for heavy manual labor often have Cores with simple designs with red tones. Gears built for more precise physical tasks often have sleek designs with green tones. Gears built for doing more mental work such as creating new tech or spellcasting have bluer tones and a more triangular body. Gears built more for planning or scouting roles often have a more purple and a complex design with many parts. Gears built for leadership have pink tones and a more elegant design.
Discovered by
Gear
Type
Construct
Ability Score Modifier
+4 to any one score other than Constitution, -1 to all other ability scores other than Constitution. Each gear is crafted for a specific purpose and excels at that roll, but lacks experience in other areas.
Size
medium
Speed
A gear has a base speed of 30 feet.
Language
A gear starts play speaking Aklo. A gear with a high Intelligence score can pick from any languages they want (except secret languages).
- Materil: A gear can be tied to any of the Materils, but tend towards Earthbreakers or Shadowbringers.
- Darkvision: Gears can see perfectly in the dark up to 60 feet.
- Low-light Vision: Gears can see twice as far as humans in low-light conditions.
- Living Construct: A gear’s Core is a complex construct and its Projection takes on the features of a normal humanoid, causing them to have different traits than a normal construct creature. Like normal constructs, gears have no Constitution score. Any DCs or other statistics a gear has that rely on a Constitution score treat the gear as having a 10 in that score. A gear is not immune to mind effects like most constructs, but they do gain a +2 racial bonus on saves versus mind effects. A gear’s Projection is not immune to ability damage, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, nonlethal damage, or effects that would require a fortitude save, but they do receive a +2 racial bonus on saves against any effects that would cause such states. A gear doesn't receive bonus hit points due to its size. Gears don’t need to eat, breathe, or sleep, unless they want to gain some benefit from one of those activities, such as healing damage to their Projection or regaining spells.
- Core Projection: A gears body is in fact a solid hologram projected out from its Core. This body still has mass and can interact with the world normally, but the Core is essentially the gears “brain”, controlling the body. If the gear's Projection is brought to less than 0 hit points, the projection ceases and the gear’s mind retreats into its Core. This prevents the gear from being slain due to massive damage, and means that the gear need not make checks to stabilize. While in this state, a gear is completely helpless, and can’t perceive the world around it, effectively unconscious. Reforming a Projection is a slow process; a gear only recovers hit points while in the negative at a rate of 1+the gears total hit dice per day. Once the gear returns to 0 or more hit points, the Projection reforms around its Core. Creatures can attempt to damage a gears Core to permanently damage or destroy the gear. A gears Core has hit points equal to its double its total hit dice, and hardness equal to its hit dice. If a Core is brought to 0 hit points, it is destroyed beyond all repair and the gear dies. A Cores hit points cannot be healed naturally, but can be repaired through the Craft Construct feat and spells such as make whole. A gear who's core has suffered damage is likely to take ability damage to its scores and/or develop insanities or other defects.
- Electrical Vulnerability: A gear is immune to electricity damage, but is forcefully returned to its Core for 1 round per three points of electricity damage it would have taken. Any effects that specifically damage technology might also cause a gear to retreat into its Core.
- Nonsensence: A gear is crafted fully grown with their knowledge and skill sets. A gear doesn't age, and cannot be affected by spells that manipulate age or otherwise interact with age.
- Technological Expertise: A gear is well versed in technological devices, and rolls twice and takes the better result on any skill check pertaining to identifying or utilizing technological devices.
- Disguise Self (Ex): Starting at 2nd racial level, a gear learns how to modify how its projection looks. They can utilize the effects of disguise self, using their total hit dice as their caster level, although they can only change aspects of their projection, cannot change the appearance of their gear or other held items.
- Gravity Shifting (Ex): Starting at 2nd racial level, a gear’s projection begins to adjust for environmental effects such as pressure and gravity. They become immune to hazardous pressure, as well as gravity-based spells such as reverse gravity or gravity sphere.
- Alter Self (Ex): Starting at 3rd racial level, a gear gains greater control over their projection, gaining the ability to duplicate alter self a number of times per day equal to ½ their total hit dice, using their total hit dice as their caster level.
- Adjustable Polymorph: Starting at 4th racial level, the gear learns to adjust its projection at a much faster rate. They can cast any polymorph spell or ability on themselves as a swift action instead of its normal casting time.
- True Hologram (Ex): At 5th racial level, a gear’s projection gains all the normal construct immunities, and 1/day the gear can duplicate polymorph, targeting only themselves and using their total hit dice as their caster level. The gear must be familiar with the biology of the creature to successfully replicate its form and abilities beyond just its appearance.
Alternate Racial Traits
- Amnesiac: Some gears have been damaged, and no longer remember their past experiences. While they have lost their knowledge, they are much more adaptable and eager to learn, gaining 4 + Intelligence modifier skill ranks per level instead of 2. This trait replaces the Technological Expertise trait and alters the Gears skill points.
- Ancient: Some gears have fulfilled their roles for centuries and have seen countless worlds, but are beginning to degrade without repairs. These gears gain a +6 to their chosen attribute and a -4 to all other attributes (other than Constitution), and treat all skills as class skills. A gear with this trait retreats to its Core for 1 minute per 3 points of damage instead of rounds when exposed to electrical damage. This trait alters the gears starting attributes, class skills, and Electrical Vulnerability trait.
- Branched: Some gears are less specialized and more adaptable. These gears gain a +2 to any two scores (other than Constitution), and a -2 to all other scores (other than Constitution). This trait alters the gears starting ability scores.
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