Selia (Sell-e-a)
Dreaded aquatic humanoids, the selia combine the traits of a shark and an anglerfish into a human shape, with all the temperament of both.
Basic Information
Genetics and Reproduction
Females often have many mates, and they carry the eggs of their young inside their belly and for four years after they hatch.
Growth Rate & Stages
Selia young spend the first 4 years of their life inside their mothers belly, absorbing nutrients from the mothers body. After four years, the young enter a frenzied state of growth and tear themselves out of their mothers body, with the strongest consuming each other in the process. While painful, this process is usually not fatal unless the mother is particularly fertile or if it comes at a very inopportune time. After emerging a selia grows to walking age within the year and reaches adulthood at 18 years of age.
Dietary Needs and Habits
The seila are rabidly carnivorous, hunting any creatures in the surrounding area. When not hunting nearby races, they mostly dine on large quantities of fish and shrimp. When possible, many selia enjoy the taste of dinning on child flesh, often after chasing and tormenting it to marinate it in fear.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Females dominate selian society through pure force, although most Deep Realm selia are ruled over by aboleth masters rather then other seila.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
The insides of a selian esca can be utilized in making high quality lanterns and underwater light sources.
Facial characteristics
The selia have several layers of large, jutting teeth that are constantly growing. They have large modified fin that dangles from their head known as a esca; the esca of females are often notably larger than males. These escas' can glow with an eerie light, and when a selia swings a glowing esca around, it can cause a hypnotic effect in those who stare at it. The selia use this effect to incapacitate prey before tearing into them with their jaws.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Average Intelligence
While cunning hunters and raiders, the selia are prone to violent outbursts and reckless state of rage that compromises their judgements.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Selias have darkvision, and this darkvision extends underwater.
Civilization and Culture
Beauty Ideals
Selias enjoy coating themselves in the blood of their kills, and often let the blood cake and dry on them, slowly washing off over time as the selia conducts subnautic raids.
Gender Ideals
Female selia dominate selia society, due to the females large and more dominating presence. Male selia are often only viewed useful as mates or used as a labor source.
Courtship Ideals
Male selia attempt to prove themselves in raids, as female selia select their mates due to battle reputation. Females can challenge other females to a bloody death battle, with the winner gaining possession of the losers mates and children.
Relationship Ideals
Selias are highly possessive of both their mates and their friends, often viewing them as an extension of their property. This means that a selia might be a bold, if somewhat rude, protector of those they actually care about.
Average Technological Level
The selia mostly plunder their items from the species around them, and thus have little in the way of advancement.
Major Language Groups and Dialects
Most selia speak Selian and Aquan, but can also be found speaking Aboleth, Aklo, Chirat, Common, Enthos, Nezu, or Terran.
Common Etiquette Rules
Selias often gift each other a wine made of distilled blood to each other as gifts, often brewed out of the blood of the receiving selias personal enemies.
Common Dress Code
Due to the aquatic nature of their homeland, the selia often wear little clothing. What clothing they do wear is often fashioned from eel hide, seaweed, and the bones of the raided.
Common Taboos
Showing signs of weakness, such as sparing its enemies, is likely to cause a selia to lose standing.
Historical Figures
A member of the Nenu-Lan guild, The Court of Misfits, was a selia named Berta Fleshrend.
Common Myths and Legends
A majority of the selia worship and follow Maw, the King of the Undertow, who travels the Othi Coastline in a giant mechanical submarine-like contraption. Despite identifying as male, no selia dares challenge Maw over his supremacy of the race.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
The selias' tendency to raid and brutalize other races have left them few friends, and any coastal town is likely to drive one away on sight. Pirate crews are much more likely to welcome aboard a selia crewmate, just as long as they don’t eat any crew members without permission. The selia view Merfolk meat as a supreme delicacy, and will often go out of their way to torment the creatures. Though rare in meeting, a selia can find friendship with the Bura, as they both have a tendency for recklessness and physical prowess. The selia have an intense rivalry with the sahuagin, and each view the other as unworthy of bearing relation to sharks.
Racial Table - Selia: Hit Dice: D10; Class Skills: Intimidate, Perception, Stealth, Survival, Swim; Skill Ranks Per Level: 4 + Intelligence modifier per level; Weapon Proficiency: Martial, plus tridents; Armor Proficiency: Medium
| Level | BAB | Fort | Reflex | Will | Abilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | +1 | +0 | +2 | +2 | Animal Minded, Amphibious, Bleeding Bite, Frenzy |
| 2nd | +2 | +0 | +3 | +3 | Blood Scent, Natural Armor |
| 3rd | +3 | +1 | +3 | +3 | Bite Increase, Hypnotism |
| 4th | +4 | +1 | +4 | +4 | Natural Armor Increase, +1 Strength, +1 Constitution |
| 5th | +5 | +1 | +4 | +4 | Bite Increase, Rending Tear |
Random Starting Ages
| Adulthood | Intuitive1 | Self-Taught2 | Trained3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18 years | +1d4 years (19 - 22) | +1d6 years (19 - 24 years) | +2d6 years (20 - 30 years) |
Random Height and Weight
| Gender | Base Height | Height Modifier | Base Weight | Weight Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 3 ft. 10 in. | +2d10 in. (4 ft. - 5 ft. 6 in.) | 100 lbs. | +(2d10x5 lbs.) (82 - 180 lbs.) |
| Female | 5 ft. 5 in. | +2d10 in. (5 ft. 7 in. - 7 ft. 1 in.) | 160 lbs. | +(2d10x5 lbs.) (162 - 260 lbs.) |
Selia Aging Table
| Middle Age (-1 to Str, Dex, and Con, +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha) | Old (-2 to Str, Dex, and Con, +2 to Int, Wis, and Cha) | Venerable (-3 to Str, Dex and Con, +3 to Int, Wis, and Cha) | Maximum Age (GM secretly decides maximum age) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 41 years | 62 years | 70 years | 82 + 2d20 years (84 - 122 years) |
Random Selia Homelands
| % Rolled | Homeland | Trait Gained |
|---|---|---|
| 01-40 | Swampland | Ambush Training |
| 41-80 | Underwater City | Deepsea Native |
| 81-87 | Ship-City | Pirate |
| 88-93 | Coastline or Island | Wharf Rat |
| 94-98 | Tundra | Tundra Child |
| 99-00 | Unusual Homeland | (Roll on Unusual Homeland table) |
Random Selia Families
| % Rolled | Parental Status |
|---|---|
| 01-40 | Only Mother is alive |
| 41-60 | Both of your parents are dead |
| 61-80 | Only Father is alive |
| 81-00 | Both of your parents are alive |
| % Rolled | # of Siblings |
|---|---|
| 01-60 | 1d3 Siblings |
| 41-85 | 1d2 Siblings |
| 86-00 | No siblings |
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Lifespan
84 - 122 years; although most selias die due to violence long before that.
Average Height
Male selia are significantly smaller than females, ranging from 4 ft. - 5 ft. 6 in., while females range from 5 ft. 7 in. - 7 ft. 1 in..
Average Weight
Due to a males diminished size, they weigh quite less, ranging from 82 - 180 lbs, while females weigh 162 - 260 lbs.
Average Physique
The selia are stocky and powerfully built, able to swim quickly and rend foes with their powerful jaws.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
While most selia are a mix of a brownish-green or grey, some range into more exotic colors such as red, purple or blue.
Geographic Distribution
Selia
Type
Monstrous Humanoid (Aquatic, Selia)
Ability Score Modifier
+2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Wisdom. Selias are hardy, but often fly into reckless rages.
Size
medium
Speed
A selia has a base speed of 20 feet, but their speed is never reduced by armor or encumbrance. They also have a swim speed of 30 feet and the +8 racial bonus to Swim checks that a swim speed normally grants
Language
A selia begins play speaking Selian and Aquan. A selia with a high intelligence score can pick from any of the following languages: Aboleth, Aklo, Chirat, Common, Enthos, Nezu, or Terran.
- Materil: A selia can be tied to the Water, Shadow, or Light Materil, allowing them to become Watershifters, Shadowbringers, or Lightbenders.
- Darkvision: Selias can see perfectly in the dark up to 60 feet.
- Amphibious: A selia can breathe both in air and in water.
- Animal Minded: A selia gains a +2 racial bonus to Handle Animal and wild empathy checks towards shark-like creatures. This bonus increases by 1 for every two hit dice beyond the 1st the selia possesses.
- Bleeding Bite: A selia has a bite attack that deals 1d4 points of damage and 1 point of bleed damage. This bleed damage doesn’t stack with itself, although it does stack with other sources of bleed damage. This bite is a primary attack. The bite damage increases to 1d6 points of damage at 3rd racial level and 1d8 points of damage at 5th racial level.
- Blood Scent (Ex): This ability functions like the scent ability, but only for smelling badly wounded creatures (creatures with 25% or fewer total hit points) or creatures suffering from bleed damage. This ability functions underwater.
- Frenzy (Ex): 1/day, when a selia takes damage, it can fly into a frenzy for 1 minute, gaining a +2 racial bonus to Strength and Constitution, but a -2 penalty to AC.
- Natural Armor: Starting at 2nd racial level, a selia gains a +1 natural armor bonus to their AC. This bonus increases by one at 4th racial level.
- Hypnotic Light (Ex): Starting at 3rd racial level, once per day, a selia can duplicate the effects of the hypnotism spell as a extraordinary ability, using their total hit dice as their caster level; with the exception that the affected creatures need only to see the selia rather than hear them. For every 2 hit dice beyond 3rd, the selia adds an extra d4 to the amount of hit dice it can effect with its hypnotism.
- Rending Tear: Starting at 5th racial level, instead of adding the selias Strength modifier to their bite damage, they can instead add their Strength modifier to the amount of bleed damage they deal with their bite attack. Whenever they score a critical hit with their bite attack, they multiply that bleed damage by x2 instead of x1.
Alternate Racial Traits
- Deep Selia: These selia have never traveled to the surface, and have lived all of their lives under the waves. Their swim speed increases to 40 feet, they gain darkvision 120 feet, but can no longer breathe air. This trait replaces the Amphibious trait
- Greater Maw: Some selias teeth are larger but less serrated. At 1st racial level, their bite deals 1d6 points of damage, but it no longer deals no bleed damage. At 5th racial level, they add their Strength modifier an additional time to their bite damage. This trait replaces Bleeding Bite and the Rending Tear traits.
- Translucent (Ex): Some selia have strange, see-through skin. This skin allows them to blend into their surroundings much better, but at the cost of their protection. The selia gains a +4 racial bonus on Stealth checks, and when underwater and in darkness, as long as they don't move more than half their speed in a turn, act as if under a nonmagical invisibility spell. The selia takes 50% more damage from precision based attacks, such as a rogues sneak attack, as it's skin tears much more easily. This trait replaces the Frenzy trait.
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