Kashrishi

Kashrishi make their homes in remote areas of the world. These quiet beings have stout, durable frames and distinctive crystalline horns. Their inherent psychic abilities make them natural empaths but also occasionally burden them with the unceasing thoughts of their neighbors.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Kashrishi have short but wide frames with remarkable strength for their size. All have signature crystalline horns, though these can grow in a variety of configurations. The most common kashrishi, xyloshis, have a large primary horn and between one and three smaller horns, typically arranged linearly from the tip of their nose and spanning along their nose and brow.
While most kashrishi have light sandy or gray skin tones, their coloration can also echo the tones of their crystalline horns; sapphire, ruby, or emerald patterns aren't so uncommon as to cause another kashrishi to take notice. Kashrishi with strong connections to specific creatures with whom they share their home environments might take on skin patterns or colorations that mirror those creatures. Some stories even talk about kashrishi with wings and butterfly patterns that cover their bodies, though no such kashrishi has been seen in the Impossible Lands for at least a century.

Behaviour

Most kashrishi are good, and almost instinctively kind because of their empathic abilities and tight-knit communities.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Despite their small stature, kashrishi tend to be terrible at hiding. Their crystalline horns are likely to flare with magical light when they exercise their innate magical powers, and they're raised in an environment where their parents or guardians can almost always find them by feeling for their emotions. As a result, kashrishi tend to be excessively honest and kind, avoiding harmful deceptions but also employing enough tact to ensure they don't evoke unpleasant emotional reactions from others.
Kashrishi lack a clear concept of charity, not because they're cruel or inconsiderate, but rather because their worldview is inherently inclusive of the people around them. Rare indeed is the kashrishi who exercises casual cruelty or who leaves another member of the community in need. Such actions lead to emotional reactions that cause turmoil for all kashrishi in the vicinity.
Kashrishi enjoy various team games, employing games of trivia as measures of both knowledge and psychic ability. They also appreciate games that involve bluffs and double-bluffs with blind cards, testing their abilities to keep their minds clear and their thoughts organized. Kashrishi don't generally condone the act of gambling with outsiders, as many find it challenging to deal with the implications of their psychic abilities, even if they strive to keep their powers secret.

Facial characteristics

Your horn reacts to psychic energy by softly glowing. The horn emanates dim light in a 10-foot emanation until the start of your next turn whenever you use an occult action you gained from an ancestry feat, cast an innate occult spell, or Cast a Spell that has the mental trait.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

The empathic sense of a kashrishi has its own “mental fingerprint” that's unique to each member of the species, and this mental fingerprint can be conveyed through psychic communications as a name. Kashrishi who adventure with non-kashrishi often adopt descriptive names that their companions can more easily speak and remember.

Relationship Ideals

Kashrishi generally engage in monogamous relationships with no real preference toward any particular gender pairing. The height of intimacy for a kashrishi is opening their mind fully to the psychic link of another kashrishi, an act much more personal than anything physical. This act doesn't let kashrishi know whether someone is perfectly compatible with them or that the two mesh entirely—simply that from moment to moment, their inner feelings are more accessible and open, so communication becomes not a guessing game but an entirely wholesome, true experience. Some kashrishi believe that psychic communication should be held exclusively for these intimate moments.

Major Language Groups and Dialects

Common Kashrishi