This article presents the Barathu ancestry for Starfall Galaxy campaigns, offering players a mechanically unique option centered on adaptability, collective consciousness, and biological mastery. Barathu characters excel in support roles, environmental adaptation, and fostering party cohesion through their empathetic abilities.
Empathy Incarnate
Barathu existence defies the solitary configuration that defines most sapient species. Their consciousness operates as both individual and collective—a fluid state where personal identity merges seamlessly into greater wholes. This profound empathy is not philosophical abstraction but biological imperative, encoded in their RNA and expressed through psychoreactive biomass that binds diverse species into the Khi-Myr Bio-Commune's unified superstructure.
Popular Edicts: Foster unity, integrate diverse life forms, understand biological processes, contribute to the collective, and embrace shared understanding.
Popular Anathema: Promote individualism at the expense of the collective, create internal conflict, resist integration, destroy biological systems, act with selfish intent.
Physical Description: Fluid Form, Boundless Potential
Barathu resemble massive, pulsating protoplasmic masses—living clouds of biomass that drift through space and atmosphere with equal ease. While they typically occupy a Medium space, their true form is fluid and adaptable, capable of extruding pseudopods, sensory tendrils, or manipulative appendages as required.
Coloration varies dramatically among individuals, ranging from translucent shimmer to deep opaque hues. These variations often reflect current Mana currents, biological processes, or integration status within the Bio-Commune. When interacting with solid-form species, Barathu may adopt humanoid silhouettes as courtesy, though their fluid nature remains apparent in subtle movements and the constant micro-adjustments of their biomass.
Communication occurs primarily through limited telepathy, though they also emit complex biological signals, pheromone cascades, and subsonic vibrations that carry layers of emotional and informational content beyond verbal speech.
Society: The Communal Weave
Frontier Origin Crucible
The Barathu emerged from the uncharted Frontier, where their unique biology allowed adaptation to extreme and varied environments. Early conflicts with the warring Khyran Tyrants forged the pragmatic armistice that birthed the Khi-Myr Bio-Commune—a lesson in integrating diverse life forms through empathy rather than conquest alone.
Outer Sphere Expansion Integration
As core architects of the Khi-Myr Bio-Commune, Barathu actively expand into the chaotic Outer Sphere, serving as the collective's central nervous system. While some strains favor diplomatic integration through shared consciousness, others adopt aggressive assimilation strategies, reshaping regions of space into living extensions of the Commune through bio-engineered outposts and sentient starships.
Inner Sphere Rare Contacts
Direct Barathu presence in the Inner Sphere remains exceptionally rare. Their organic methodologies clash fundamentally with the Commission's mechanical infrastructure and corporate social order. Any Barathu encountered here likely serve as Bio-Commune diplomats negotiating resource access or assimilation treaties, though rogue elements pursuing unusual individual agendas occasionally appear.
Connection to the Rift and Bio-Engineering
Barathu perceive technology not as metal and circuits but as extension of living systems. Their starships are gargantuan, sentient client species; their weapons and tools are smaller, bioengineered creatures that function in perfect empathetic synchronicity.
Their Rift understanding is deeply biological—they manipulate its energies not through arcane formulae but through organic processes, integrating Rift-touched biomass into their creations. The crucial Barathu RNA, embedded into assimilated species, acts as a powerful empathy conduit, rewiring neurological pathways to ensure unwavering loyalty and eliminate internal conflict within the Bio-Commune.
The Rift-Storm Cataclysm provided a chaotic crucible where their bio-engineering adapted to harness raw, untamed energies, further deepening their understanding of life's resilience amid cosmic upheaval.
Barathu Mechanics
Barathu offer exceptional versatility through genetic reconfiguration and aerial mobility. Their ability to rapidly retrain ancestry feats makes them uniquely adaptable to campaign developments, while their telepathy and flight provide constant utility.
Hit Points: 8
Size: Medium (often amorphous or fluid, but typically occupies a Medium space)
Speed: 5 feet; Fly 20ft
Ability Boosts: Wisdom, Constitution, and one Free Ability Boost.
Ability Flaw: Dexterity.
Languages: Common, Mryrid. You can learn additional languages equal to 1 + your Intelligence modifier (if it’s positive). Choose from the list of common languages and any other languages to which you have access.
Genetic Adaptation: You can reshape and adjust your body to adapt to new situations. You can retrain an ancestry feat in 1 day of downtime, rather than in 1 week. You can retrain any ancestry feat, even lineage feats.
Limited Telepathy: You can communicate mentally with creatures within 30 feet. You can communicate only with creatures that share a language with you. This doesn't provide you with any insight into their thoughts, and it conveys no more information than normal speech would.
Barathu Heritages
At 1st level, choose one of the following Barathu heritages.
Dreamers: The Dreamers of Hrefna are descendants of Barathu colonists who lost their intelligence and ability to merge while their psychic powers improved. Barathus regard their cousins with reverence and protectiveness, leading to their insistence on administering Hrefna as a protectorate.
They also agree that the Dreamers must be left to their own devices; meddling with them is one of the few criminal offenses among barathus. A small but vocal group opposes this view, arguing for more unrestricted contact with the Dreamers.Early Stage: They possess a thorough understanding of their biology and its functions. They can merge with other barathu to form a new, larger barathu from their combined biomass and gestalt personality. Similarly, barathu reproduce by splitting off portions of their biomass as early-stage barathu.
Manufacturer: The Manufacturer Barathu have adopted internal mechanisms to produce pharmaceuticals.
Merged: You are a Barathu that has successfully integrated with another Barathu, forming a larger, more powerful collective. You gain 10 Hit Points from your ancestry instead of 8.
Barathu Ancestry Feats
You can select Barathu ancestry feats from the following options.
1st Level Feats
Adaptable Limbs: Your malleable body allows you to move with surprising grace. You gain a +1 circumstance bonus to Acrobatics checks.
Barathu Lore: You are well-versed in the history and traditions of your people. You gain training in Barathu Lore. If you were already trained in Barathu Lore, you instead become an expert.
Darkvision Adaptation: You've explored the darkest regions of space and found ways to adapt. You gain darkvision.
Dermal Spikes: You can extrude sharp, chitinous spikes from your skin. You gain a piercing unarmed attack that deals 1d4 piercing damage. This attack is an agile, finesse, unarmed Strike.
Grasping Tendrils: You can extend short, prehensile tendrils. You gain a +1 circumstance bonus to checks to Grab an Edge, and you can perform Interact actions with your tendrils (though you cannot wield weapons or shields with them).
Metabolic Manipulation: You can subtly alter your internal processes. You can go 2 additional days without food or water before suffering negative effects, and you gain a +1 circumstance bonus to Fortitude saves against ingested poisons.
Synthesize Medicinal: Your biological systems can produce basic healing compounds. Once per day, you can spend 10 minutes to produce a single dose of a minor healing stim-tab (or equivalent basic healing item as determined by the GM) with the biological trait, which lasts for 24 hours before decaying.
Tentacle Whip: You can extend a specialized tentacle for combat. You gain a bludgeoning unarmed attack that deals 1d6 bludgeoning damage. This attack has the reach and unarmed traits.
5th Level Feats
Collective Connection: Your connection to other Barathu deepens. When you are within 10 feet of another Barathu, you gain a +1 status bonus to attack rolls.
Fluid Anatomy: Your amorphous body is difficult to pin down. When you use the Escape action, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to the check.
Molecular Modification: You can subtly alter your own cellular structure. Once per day, you can choose one physical damage type (bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing). You gain resistance 2 to that damage type for 1 minute.
9th Level Feats
Convergent Evolution: You have an uncanny ability to mimic certain physical traits of other species. Once per day, you can spend 1 minute to temporarily gain one physical trait from another humanoid ancestry (e.g., darkvision, a climb speed of 10 feet, resistance 1 to fire) for 1 hour. This must be a trait that the other ancestry gains from its heritage, not an ancestry feat.
Expansive Verse: Your understanding of the collective allows you to broadcast your thoughts. You gain limited telepathy out to 30 feet. This telepathy allows you to communicate simple ideas and emotions.
13th Level Feats
Ascendant Empathy: Your empathic abilities are profound. Once per day, when an ally within 30 feet fails a Will save against an emotion effect, you can use your reaction to allow them to reroll the save, using your Will save modifier instead of their own.
Living Warship Affinity: You are exceptionally skilled at interacting with the Khi'Myr's living starships. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Piloting (Space) checks when operating a living starship, and you can sense its "mood" or state with precision.
17th Level Feats
Communal Ascension: Your body is a perfect conduit for the Khi'Myr collective. You gain resistance 5 to mental damage, and you can spend 1 minute to regain 1 Hit Point for every 3 Hit Points lost by a willing ally within 30 feet (up to your own maximum Hit Points).
True Bio-Architect: Your mastery of bio-engineering reaches its peak. When you use a Crafting check to create a biological item or creature (if allowed by GM), you reduce the time required by 75% and the raw material cost by 25%.
Adventure Hooks for Barathu Player Characters
The Rogue Bio-Construct
Hook: A highly experimental, sentient bio-construct, designed by the Khi'Myr Bio-Commune for a specialized task (e.g., deep-Rift exploration, terraforming a volatile world, or a new form of living weapon), has gone rogue. It is exhibiting unpredictable behavior, causing ecological damage, or even subtly resisting the Bio-Commune's attempts to re-assimilate it. The Bio-Commune dispatches the Barathu PC (perhaps with a small team of Shirren or other assimilated species) to track, understand, and either re-integrate or neutralize the rogue construct.
Barathu Appeal: This hook directly appeals to the Barathu's mastery of bio-engineering and their drive for collective understanding. The PC would be uniquely equipped to understand the rogue construct's motivations and internal processes, using their Expansive Verse (telepathy) and Molecular Modification to adapt to the situation. It offers a chance to prove their loyalty to the Bio-Commune's ideals of unity, or perhaps to question the ethics of forced assimilation if the rogue construct displays true, independent sentience.
The Empathic Cascade
Hook: A localized "empathic cascade" is sweeping through a multi-species settlement in the Outer Sphere, causing overwhelming emotional surges, shared hallucinations, and a breakdown of social order. The source is traced to a previously dormant, ancient Rift-Nexus that has unexpectedly become active, amplifying and distorting the emotions of all nearby organic life. The Khi'Myr Bio-Commune sees this as an opportunity to "integrate" the affected population. Still, a concerned Lashunta or Tanyon-Unin faction seeks a Barathu PC to stabilize the cascade before it leads to widespread chaos or forced assimilation.
Barathu Appeal: This hook challenges the Barathu's profound empathy and their understanding of the Rift's psychoreactive nature. The PC's Ascendant Empathy and Convergent Evolution would be crucial for navigating the emotional maelstrom and stabilizing the Rift-Nexus without resorting to the Bio-Commune's more extreme methods. It offers a chance to demonstrate their ability to foster genuine understanding and unity, rather than imposed control.
The Khyran Tyrant's Resurgence
Hook: Whispers and disturbing psychic signatures suggest a fragmented consciousness of a Khyran Tyrant (the ancient warring species with whom the Barathu formed the original armistice) is attempting to re-form or awaken from a long slumber in the Frontier. This resurgence threatens to destabilize the delicate balance of the Khi'Myr Bio-Commune's expansion and unleash a new era of conflict. The Bio-Commune tasks the Barathu PC with a reconnaissance mission to confirm the threat and, if necessary, preemptively neutralize the Tyrant's awakening before it can fully manifest.
Barathu Appeal: This hook delves into the Barathu's ancient history and the foundation of their Bio-Commune. The PC would confront a direct threat to their species' hard-won peace, potentially facing a powerful, ancient foe. Their Living Warship Affinity would be invaluable if operating with Bio-Commune vessels, and their True Bio-Architect skills might be needed to devise a unique biological countermeasure against the Tyrant's return.
The Dreamers of Hrefna's Peril
Hook: The isolated "Dreamers" of Hrefna, a Barathu protectorate whose inhabitants lost their intelligence but gained enhanced psychic powers, are in unforeseen peril. An opportunistic faction (e.g., Grolak Marauder Hordes seeking to exploit their psychic energy, or a Commission research team attempting to "study" their unique state) has discovered Hrefna and is attempting to infiltrate or exploit the Dreamers. The Barathu PC, aware of their species' reverence and protectiveness towards the Dreamers, must intervene to safeguard them without violating the strict "non-interference" policy that governs Hrefna.
Barathu Appeal: This hook presents a moral and tactical challenge, appealing to the Barathu's protective instincts and their unique societal laws. The PC would need to use their adaptability and subtle manipulation (Adaptable Limbs, Grasping Tendrils) to deter or remove the threat without direct, overt intervention that could harm the Dreamers or violate the sacred protocol. It highlights the nuanced aspects of Barathu ethics and their deep respect for life, even in its most altered forms.
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