In Cobrin'Seil, life has not always been particularly egalitarian. Years before even the First Age, an era of magical dominance was instigated and enforced by wizards and sorcerors, who used their magical powers and alchemical studies to bring about unholy breeding experiments. In this era, new races and crossbreeds were brought about by forced evolution. In this process, thousands of new races were made and died out, unable to breed. However, a handful of races were capable of breeding and led to genuine races. One of these races was the Equitarn, the result of an attempt to make a slave race that would be easily subjugated and willing to endure hardship, produced by the crossing of a race of humans with horses.
Personality
Equitarn are stolid and reserved people, which some interpret as being unemotional. This interpretation is incorrect, however; the Equitarn are incredibly emotional people, whose feelings run extremely deep. They tend to form extremely strong attachments to individuals or groups, an attitude based in a herd mentality. They're strong-willed and hard to bring around when they're certain they're right.
Physical Description
Equitarn are tall and broad, standing about 9 1/2 to 10 1/2 feet tall and typically weighing 1,500 to 2,500 pounds. They are hardy and well-built, with a horse's hind legs and tail, along with a large, broad upper body. They tend to be as diversely coloured as actual horses, and tend towards having yellow or deep brown eyes. Their bodies are covered in light, downy hair and they also have mane hair, which starts on the tops of their horse-like heads and flows down the back of their necks. Given their home climates, Equitarn tend to either wear clothes that bias towards the whites of snowy fields, with thick furs to keep themselves warm, or almost nothing at all. They also tend towards wearing armour that could best be compared to barding. Thanks to their origin any individual Equitarn probably has some human traits above and beyond their gross humanoid physique; often, Equitarn are born with human heads, bald bodies, or some other mutation. An Equitarn achieves majority at about 25 years in age and can live to be over 300 years old; they live long, stable lives, and do not degenerate due to old age until the last ten to fifteen years of their lives.
Relations
The physically superior Equitarn are often strong allies of the half-orcs and orcs of the Northern Wastes. The notion of a mount as schooled in combat tactics as its rider is a true boon to the nature of the North, where a good rider is just as hard to find as a good mount. The Equitarn can also appreciate the simple, uncomplicated lifestyle of the orcish races. In the southern areas, the more mutated variants of the Equitarn race tend to take up work in the human societies, working as pack 'animals' and dock workers.
Alignment
Equitarn are primarily neutral. They aren't prone to genuine extremes, and are much more likely to be completely neutral, protecting themselves and a small nucleus of friends, avoiding both complete altruism and genuine cruelty.
Religion
More often than not, the Equitarn worship Vhaulun, whose self-focus appeals to them. Others follow Acydea, whose natural abilities and focus on the animal and plant world appeals to those Equitarn who simply identify themselves as some form of advanced animal rather than be in the same category as human beings.
Language
Equitarn are ultimately a magically created subrace of humans. They have no unique language of their own, and as such speak Common. They have been known to pick up languages of similar races, such as orcs, goblins, and gnolls.
Names
The Equitarn have a simple naming system. They usually take a human name, and append to it their clan name. All the clan names of the Equitarn stem from their original lot names and experiments. Some clan names are extremely simple – Vateleven, Vatwelve and Vatnine are three strong, well-known clans of Equitarn. Others, however, are simply named for their creator. Sample Equitarn names: Kinloch, Aradin, Vala, Kennaugh, Kochel, Duggeren.
Adventurers
Equitarn often adventure for the simple sake of sating their wanderlust. A large number of Equitarn work long hours in simple jobs that offer little to no reward beyond the fiscal; for this reason, many Equitarn become adventurers, to find some way of life that's new and different. Equitarn are also prone to attaching themselves to groups or individuals, and take up a guardian role, preferring to avoid any task that involves a great amount of thought.
Game Information
Equitarn Racial Traits
- +4 Strength, -2 Dexterity, +4 Constitution, -2 Wisdom: Equitarn are imperceptive and rash. They tend to enforce their will on the world around them in a concrete fashion, which makes them less prone to using their force of will. They're rarely quick to action or perceptive of the world around them, but they are large and heavily built.
- Large: As Large (tall) creatures, an Equitarn, Equitarn have a –1 size penalty to Amour Class, a –1 size penalty to attack rolls, and a –4 size penalty to Hide checks. Equitarn have lifting and carrying limits twice those of a Medium character, and have a space of 10 feet and a natural reach of 10 feet.
- Equitarn base speed is 30 feet when walking on two feet. An Equitarn can use its hands to assists its movements, and drop into a lower gait. When running on four legs, an Equitarn's base movement speed is 40 feet, and it has an increased carrying capacity as a quadruped, but it can't hold anything in its hands or wield weapons. Shifting from bipedal movement to quadrupedal movement is a move action, or can be done as part of any other move action that doesn't entail the use of the Equitarn's hands. An Equitarn's reach decreases to 5 feet when it's quadrupedal.
- Thick Skin (Ex): The Equitarn's hide is thicker and hardier, with thick bony plates under the skin. These plates mirror the normal positioning of most types of actual armour, and therefore, don't actually provide shielding beyond a normal suit of armour. The Equitarn has a +6 armour bonus to its Armour Class.
- Steadiness: Equitarn have a racial +2 to Balance and Swim checks.
- Massive: Equitarn are prodigiously heavy for creatures of their size. This weight is in their bones and musculature, and Equitarn are born with a native understanding of how to employ this weight to their advantage. Equitarn receive a racial +4 bonus on trip checks and checks to avoid being tripped, and on bull rush attempts and to resist bull rushes.
- Racial Hit Dice: An Equitarn begins with two levels of monstrous humanoid, which provide 2d8 Hit Dice, a base attack bonus of +2, and base saving throw bonuses of Fort +0, Ref +3, and Will +3. It also gives the Equitarn skill points equal to (2 + the Equitarn's Int modifier) × 5. These hit dice have Balance, Climb, Jump, Ride, Survival and Swim as class skills. Equitarn gain Endurance as a bonus feat.
- Level Adjustment: +1. Slow learners at the best of times, Equitarn's many shortcomings are often compensated for by their raw physical abilities. They level up slower and gain experience more slowly than other races.
- Automatic Languages: Common. Bonus Languages: Elven, Giant, Gnoll, Goblin, Halfling.
- Favoured Class: Fighter. The Equitarn are able learners in the field of martial combat, and rarely don't turn their talent in this area to some profit in their lives.
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