GURPS Hekinoe Races: Elduman

Next up in our list of races are the Elduman. The totally innocuous and benign not overlords of The Known World.

Let's start with the easy stuff, their crystalline flesh and faux-skin. The crystalline flesh is flesh-like, and though it is not truly any tougher than muscle and bone, it is somewhat more resilient to heat temperatures. This gives them Temperature Tolerance 2 (Cold 1/Hot 1). Unfortunately, despite its flexibility and living nature, the crystalline flesh and bone of Elduman is brittle and prone to shattering like normal crystal. This gives the Elduman Fragile (Brittle) and means their limbs just break off and the Elduman shatter if they fail HT checks at negative hit points.

The Elduman crystalline flesh is psionically active, and one of their most well know uses of this ability is to dump psionic energy into their flesh to bind it more tightly together, hardening it and making the Elduman resistant to incoming blows. This looks like Damage Reduction 5 (Biokinesis, -5%; Active Defense Roll, -40%; Costs 1 FP/Use, -10%; Requires Attribute Roll: Will, -5%). So this means that as long as an Elduman is aware of an attack, he can try to activate his Elduman Resilience before it hits. This is kind of a clunky ability, as he needs to make a DX/2 + 3 roll (Biokinesis Talent applies here) to activate it quickly enough, then he needs to make a Will check (Biokinesis Talent applies here too) to actually marshal his psionic power and bind the molecules of his crystalline flesh together. The optional Elduman traits will offer a passive form of Elduman Resilience that keeps the Elduman Resilience on at all times, but this requires more effort and psionic energy and has a reduced effect. This looks like Damage Resistance 2 - 4 (Biokinesis, -5%) [10 - 20].

Oh, Elduman don't have sensitive external genitalia, so they get Injury Tolerance (No Groin) and they're immortal or whatever, so they get Unaging.

Elduman are psionic so we given them Energy Reserve 3 (Psionic) to pay for activating any of their psionics powers and whatnot. We also add a feature that says that they can create, purchase, and use psionic powers and whatnot. 

As crystalline creatures, Elduman are somewhat more vulnerable to sonic energies, so they get Vulnerability (Occasional Substance: Sonic Damage; Multiplier, x2). Speaking of vulnerabilities and weaknesses, the Elduman are a little inconvenienced by Gifts. This comes out as Revulsion (Occasional Substance: Gifts). Because they're made of psionic crystalline material, Elduman also have Unusual Biochemistry. 

Elduman are sustained by their psionic power, among other things, so they have Doesn't Eat or Drink. They also require less sleep than other creatures, so they have Less Sleep 4. 

And I think that about does it for Elduman. Excluding the near infinite number and variety of psionic powers they could posses.

Elduman

0 points

Mandatory Traits

Basic Attribute Ranges At Character Creation

• ST 8 - 14
• DX 8 - 14
• IQ 8 - 14
• HT 7 - 13

Secondary Characteristic Ranges At Character Creation

• Will 9 - 15
• Per 9 - 15
• SM +0 (5' 6" - 6' 6")

Advantages [46]

• Alternative Sustenance: Doesn't Eat or Drink [10]
• Crystalline Flesh: Temperature Tolerance 2 (Cold 1/Hot 1) [2]
• Elduman Resilience: Damage Reduction 5 (Biokinesis, -5%; Active Defense Roll, -40%; Costs 1 FP/Use, -10%; Requires Attribute Roll: Will, -5%) [10]
• Groinless: Injury Tolerance (No Groin) [2]
• Immortal: Unaging [5]
• Psionic: Energy Reserve 3 (Psionic) [9]
• Reduced Sleep: Less Sleep 4 [8]

Disadvantages [-45]

• Crystalline Flesh: Fragile (Brittle) [-15]
• Shatter Prone: Vulnerability (Occasional Substance: Sonic Damage; Damage Multiplier x2) [-20] 
• Strange Biology: Unusual Biochemistry [-5]
• Vulnerable To Gifts: Revulsion (Occasional Substance: Gifts) [-5]

Quirks [-1]

• Sexless: Sexless [-1]

Optional Traits

Secondary Characteristics

• Will+1 [5]
• Per+1 [5]

Advantages

• Enhanced Elduman Resilience [+2/1 DR]: The Elduman may increase their Elduman Resilience up to Damage Resistance 15 and may do so at any time.   
• Passive Resilience [10 - 30]: Some Elduman possess a passive form of Elduman Resilience that functions at all times, this form of passive ability replaces the active ability and because it requires more effort and psionic energy to maintain, it is weaker. Passive Elduman Resilience is purchased as Damage Reduction 2 - 6 (Biokinesis, -5%).

Feature: Elduman are psionic creatures and may use all five types of psionics and may purchase a great variety of advantages as psionic powers.
Feature: Elduman cannot purchase any sorcerous advantages or abilities and cannot access ambient sorcerous energy in any way. 

GURPS Hekinoe Races: Dwenoren

Next up in our alphabet of races from Hekinoe are the Dwenoren. The Dwenoren are a subterranean race living within labyrinthine tunnels and cave cities beneath the mountains of Whurent. And, you know, on every other continent on Hekinoe. 

So what are the defining physical/biological characteristics of the Dwenoren? The first and foremost is that they are blind. They use a sort of sonar/echolocation type thing to "see" their surroundings. They also have frills of sensory spines along their chin and jaw, this spines are stiff and fibers and are extremely sensitive to changes in air movement. They also help the Dwenoren to "see" their surroundings. The Dwenoren also have very large and complex ears to hear better. They are hairless, but their pores secrete a oily substance that serves to insulate them against the cold of the deep tunnels of Whurent. They've also evolved to require less oxygen than other races, kind of similar to what serious mountain climbers train for to acclimate to higher altitudes with less oxygen. They also have no real visible reproductive or sexual characteristics. 

So let's start with their basic attributes and secondary characteristics. They're a little short, but not tiny, so they have a SM of 0. The underground regions of Hekinoe tend to be harsh environments due to scarcity of resources and cold, so they're hardy little fuckers so their HT range is 9 - 15 and in their optional traits they'll get HT+1. They are blind and rely entirely on their sensory spines and echolocation to get around, but they're very aware of their vulnerabilities, so they tend to be perceptive within the narrow confines of their senses and their Per range is 9 - 15 and their optional traits have a Per+1. 

Dwenoren have no eyes, as I've said, so they have Blindness. A side effect of their lack of eyes is Injury Tolerance (No Eyes). Their sensory spines are treated as Vibration Sense. It functions in both air and water so it gets Universal, +50%. Unfortunately, it is limited by the direction their sensory spines are facing, so we apply Limited Effect: Front 120 Degree Arc, -30%. Their echolocation is represented as Scanning Sense (Sonar) with Extended Arc: 240 Degrees, +75%;  Targeting, +20%; and Increased Range: 2x, +10% (which means it is effective to about 40 yards through air). The echolocation of the Dwenoren also confers Ultrasonic Speech, which means they can converse in frequencies above 20 kHz. In the optional traits for Dwenoren, they'll have an option to change the Increased Range modifier of their Scanning Sense (Sonar) from 2x to 5x. 

The huge ears of the Dwenoren can perceive their echolocation, so obviously they also have Ultrahearing, which allows them to perceive frequencies of sound above 20 kHz. They also grant them very good hearing, so the Dwenoren have Acute Senses 1 (Hearing). Dwenoren also gain a feature that states that they may but the Acute Senses advantage for their Scanning Sense (Sonar) and their Vibration Sense.

The skin oils of the Dwenoren are represented with Temperature Tolerance 1 (Cold) and Slippery 1.

And with that, I think we're done. So here are the Dwenoren:

Dwenoren

22 points

Mandatory Traits

Basic Attribute Ranges At Character Creation

• ST 8 - 14
• DX 8 - 14
• IQ 8 - 14
• HT 9 - 15

Secondary Characteristic Ranges At Character Creation

• Will 8 - 14
• Per 9 - 15
• SM +0 (4' 6" - 5')

Advantages [73]

• Ears: Acute Senses 1 (Hearing) [2], Ultrahearing [0]
• Echolocation: Scanning Sense (Sonar; Extended Arc: 240, +75%; Targeting, +20%; Increased Range: 2x, +10%) [41], Ultrasonic Speech [10]
• Eyeless: Injury Tolerance (No Eyes) [5]
• Sensory Spines: Vibration Sense (Universal, +50%; Limited Effect: Front 120 Degree Arc, -30%) [12]
• Skin Oils: Slippery 1 [2], Temperature Tolerance 1 (Cold) [1]

Disadvantages [-50]

• Eyeless: Blindness [-50]

Quirks [-1]

• Sexless: Sexless [-1]

Optional Traits

Basic Attributes

• HT+1 [10]

Secondary Characteristics

• Per+1 [5]

Advantages

• Enhanced Echolocation [+2]: Some Dwenoren possess greater ability to emit and receive their echolocation. They replace the Increased Range: 2x, +10% enhancement on their Scanning Sense (Sonar) with Increased Range: 5x, +20%. 

Feature: Dwenoren may purchase Acute Senses for their Scanning Sense (Sonar) and Vibration Sense advantages. 

GURPS Hekinoe Races: Children of Volung

So writing out the Nel was getting rather difficult. And aggravating. And there are better things I could be doing with my time. So that's what I'm going to do. In the interests of productivity I'm going to return to using the blog as a place where I hammer out my thoughts about the GURPS Hekinoe campaign book, which is what I was doing with the whole sorcery, psionics, Gifts thing. Then I got sidetracked by fucking about with the Nel, which serves no purpose because they're such a minor feature of my campaign world. I like them way too much, which leads to me getting distracted by them at the drop of a hat. So we're going to shut down the whole Nel thing and start on the campaign book and go more or less chapter by chapter. Maybe. Probably not. Whatever. We're going to start with races.

There are currently 17 races in The Known World: Children of Volung, Conwighta, Dwenoren, Elduman, Elduman Descended Uncout, Fallen, Fell Descendants, Fell Humans, Fell Soulless, Greyskin Abraxens, Okwighta, Rankethlek, Sereth, Solwighta, Soulless, Uncout, and Vyanth.

Wait. Seriously? Seventeen fucking playable races? That's over double the fucking number of races in Pathfinder's core book. Yeesh. Anyway, alphabetically speaking, we'll start with the Children of Volung.

Before we do that though, I want to lay out some guidelines for creation and stuff. The first is that there will be no attempts at balance between the races. They are what they are and have the points values that they have. The second is that I really am going to step away from race and culture thing being tossed together because. In this campaign book, the second on races will be immediately followed by a section on cultures and every character in The Known World will pick a race and culture. Culture will govern things like languages, technology level, attitudes, etc, etc, etc. The race portion will cover things like biological traits and physical descriptions and so on and so forth. Make sense?

Each race will also be broken up into two sections: mandatory traits and optional traits. Mandatory traits will govern stuff that is absolutely always present, like Dwenoren being blind, and Fallen being unkillable. Optional traits are going to govern things like stat increases and stuff some members of the race have, but not all, like some Rankethlek being made out of copper, or some Soulless having very active Fallen personalities within them.

What do we know about Children of Volung? They're tough to kill, around seven feet tall, have tough hide, they're angry, hail from the far north, and have bony plates beneath their skin over their rib cage.

Hailing from the far north is easy, Temperature Tolerance 1 (Cold). The toughness is also easy, we give them one level of Hard To Kill and one of Hard To Subdue. We also add in a feature stating that they can buy up to three levels of each of those advantages, rather than the normal two of other races. Their tough hide comes out as Damage Resistance (Tough Skin, -40%) and the bony plates beneath their skin over their rib cages are Damage Resistance (Partial: Torso, -10%). They're all around seven feet tall, so we give them a Size Modifier of +1.

The anger of the Children of Volung is a genetic trait, they're ill tempered and quick to anger and this genetic predisposition to aggression has caused them to survive as a race through many trials and tribulations. It is referred to as Volung's Rage and is represented by Bloodlust and Berserk. They always have the option of reducing how often they fall prey to these disadvantages, but they can never buy them off.

They're immortal, which is easily represented by Unaging.

Children of Volung bones are also denser and tougher than those of other races, so it takes more work to break them. This is represented by Injury Tolerance (Unbreakable Bones; Limited Effect: x1.5 Damage To Cripple Limbs, -50%). This just means that the bones of a Child of Volung take 1.5 times as much damage to cripple. This toughness of their bones is why their bone plates over their ribs don't have the Semi-Ablative modifier.

In The Known World, baseline biology is Uncout, and their biology is similar enough to the Glenwighta and Dwenoren that drugs and medicine have similar effects on those three races. Children of Volung have some janky biology, so they get Unusual Biochemistry. This means that drugs designed for the three baseline races might work, or it might do something insane to them. They can get drugs and medicines that work for them, but they're more expensive in regions where the "normal" races exist.

The reason I say the Glenwighta, Uncout, and Dwenoren have similar biologies in terms of what drugs and medications do to them is because they are the three native races of The Known World, and they in theory evolved to live their, so it would be ridiculous, in my opinion, for them to have wildly different insides.

So the base Children of Volung racial template ends up being -2 character points. Let's move onto the optional traits.

The first of the optional traits is the hardiness of the Children of Volung. They're all tough and hard to take down, but some are very resistant to diseases and poisons. So we give them Resistant (Common: Poisons; +3 HT To Resist, x1/3) and Resistant (Common: Diseases; +3 HT To Resist, x1/3)

The optional traits also include the racial bonuses to basic attributes a race may have, for the Children of Volung this is ST+1 and HT+1. Their SM reduces the cost of ST, fyi. The reason I am including modifications to a race's basic attributes in their optional traits is because there is a lot of variance among the physical capabilities of a race, not every Child of Volung is going to be a big beefy bruiser, even if the majority of them are. I'm also going to include the normal range of their basic attributes at character creation in the mandatory traits section. This is going to tell players how high they can buy the stats for a particular race before modifying them. I envision the "normal" range being 8-14 for most individuals. In GURPS, 8 is considered below average and 14 is considered exceptional. So Captain America as the pinnacle of the human norm has a ST, DX, and HT of 15+. The Hulk has a ST upwards of 20, but a IQ of 8.

There's one more optional trait that Children of Volung have. They have access to a secret store of gear unavailable to every other race in The Known World. The players don't get to see the store beforehand or ever speak of what it contains, and accessing it requires the purchase of an Unusual Background, but it is an option.

Children of Volung

-2 points

Mandatory Traits

Basic Attribute Ranges At Character Creation

• ST 9-15
• DX 8-14
• IQ 8-14
• HT 9-15

Secondary Characteristics

• SM+1

Advantages [23]

• Immortal: Unaging [5]
• Northern Blood: Temperature Tolerance 1 [1]
• Plated Rib Cage: Damage Resistance 1 (Partial: Torso, -10%) [5]
• Tough Bones: Injury Tolerance (Unbreakable Bones; Limited Effect: x1.5 Damage To Cripple Limbs, -50%) [5]
• Tough Hide: Damage Resistance 1 (Tough Skin, -40%) [3]
• Tough To Put Down: Hard To Kill 1 [2], Hard To Subdue 1 [2]

Disadvantages [-25]

• Strange Biology:  Unusual Biochemistry [-5]
• Volung's Rage: Berserk (Self Control: 12, x1) [-10], Bloodlust (Self Control: 12, x1) [-10]

Optional Traits

Basic Attributes

• ST+1 [9]
• HT+1 [10]

Advantages

• Hardiness [10]: Resistant (Common: Diseases; +3 HT To Resist, x1/3) [5], Resistant (Common: Poisons; +3 HT To Resist, x1/3) [5]
• Secret Access: Children of Volung have access to a secret supply of goods. Accessing this store first requires the purchase of Unusual Background: 24 [25]. The player and character may never speak to other players or characters of what they have seen or purchased in this secret store, and if they do so the GM will remove the equipment without refunding character points spend on the background or money spent on the equipment, 

Feature: Children of Volung may purchase up to three levels of Hard To Kill and Hard To Subdue, rather than the normal maximum of two levels of each.

Feature: The bloodlust and rage of the Children of Volung is hardwired into their biology. They can always reduce the severity of their Berserk and Bloodlust disadvantages, but can never buy them off completely.

So there we go, the Children of Volung. Wee.

GURPS Nel Part 3: Feronel and Sokarnel Meta-Traits

So now we're here at part three, the court meta-traits. There are six nations/courts/kingdoms/etc of Nel: the Feronel, Sokarnel, Aubernel, Utenel, Sarownel, and Loronel. The Feronel are the oldest, the first. They're also the smallest and are dying out. No new Feronel have been "born" in the last thousand (possibly longer, I forget, it's written down somewhere) or so years. So we're dealing with a race of 1000 - 9999 year old supernatural berserkers. The Sokarnel are the second oldest and they are probably the largest court of Nel, as they are the dead of the Nel. When Nel die, unless the Nel in question really really fucking pissed off Keroen Skathos, they are offered reincarnation as Sokarnel. They're stripped of all memories of their life, but they get to continue and serve as Keroen's undying spies and assassins. The Aubernel and Utenel are the first of the young Nel. I have it written down, but I think it was somewhere between 3000 and 4000 DK that they came into existence. The Sarownel and Loronel are the youngest courts, again, I have it written down, but I forget the exact date of their creation. Are you detecting a pattern yet? Anyway. The Sarownel and Loronel only a  few thousand years old at this point. Four thousand tops.

Each court has different traits, but there is some equality between them. As my guideline for the following meta-traits, I want the Feronel and Sokarnel meta-traits to be of equal points value and be the highest value ones. I want the Aubernel and Utenel to be about 75% of the Feronel and Sokarnel and I want the Loronel and Sarownel to be 50% of the Feronel and Sokarnel.

This post will be about the Feronel and Sokarnel. We'll start with the Feronel, because I love them and they are the best.

The first thing is that the Feronel are hands down tougher and more physical than the other Nel courts. We represent this by giving them ST+2, DX+1, and HT+2. Feronel also respect strength of will and self-control (despite their berserker natures). So they also have Will+1.

Then we move onto advantages. All Nel are generally weather resistant so we add Damage Resistance 6 twice, but one gets Limited: Fire/Heat, -40% and the other gets Limited: Cold, -40%. Since Feronel are Feronel, they get Feronel Talent 1. Seems logical. Feronel regenerate pretty fast, so we take the base meta-trait Regeneration (Fast; Reflexive, +40%; Costs 4 FP/Minute, -40%) [50] and improve that to Very Fast (one hit point per second). Because it also represents a bigger drain on their Gifts, we up it to Costs 5 FP/Minute, -50%. Keep in mind that the Nel meta-traits are layered on one another, so even though the advantage is ultimately 90 character points, the Feronel meta-trait only accounts for 40 of it. All Nel can communicate with their ruler mentally, Contuck in this instance, so we need Telecommunication (Telesend). Since this is a function of the Nel's Gifts being connected to their ruler, we apply Gifts, -5%. Since it's only with one person we apply Contuck Only, -40%. Feronel generally have stronger Gifts in a larger amount, so we give them Energy Reserve (Gifts) +5 on top of the base meta-trait. They also have Gifts +3 on top of the base Nel meta-trait.

Now we move onto disadvantages. Feronel have a code of honor. There are two actually, and they're both fairly mild in terms of restrictions they put on behavior. The first is the Feronel Code of Honor, which basically amounts to speaking your mind, confronting foes and antagonists face to face instead of talking shit behind their backs, and never starting a fight unless the foe bears a weapon in hand. What defines a fight and a weapon are somewhat vague. The second code is Loria's Code. This is a more refined version of the Feronel Code. It involves things like not murdering your opponents during a duel, if a foe is ridiculously weaker than you in Gifts or blade skill, do not take advantage of that weakness. Basically, the Feronel Code represents barbaric warrior culture honor and Loria's Code is a slightly more civilized version. Neither of them are particular restrictive, so they're only worth -5 character points.

The Feronel are very savage and a bit bloodthirsty by nature, and those that aren't that way took a long ass time to change their ways and become something else. For the most part the Feronel are  basically Stone Age gods of war. So they have both Berserk and Bloodlust. This means any time violence occurs there is a chance they lose their shit, and when it comes to violence they want their foes dead and there's not much that can deter them from that.

So we're looking at 198 points for the Feronel on top of the 382 for all Nel, plus the racial templates. The actual  cleaned up and written out list format meta-trait will appear later, as there's still some final tweaking to do.

The Sokarnel, like the Feronel are tough and physical, so they get ST+2 and HT+2, but they're "dead" things of patience and stillness, so no DX bonus. Because they're "dead" things of patience and stillness, they get Will+2. Like the Feronel, they have Damage Resistance 6 for cold and fire, increased regeneration, the Sokarnel Talent, Gifts+3, Energy Reserve +5 (Gifts), and the ability to contact their ruler (Nostathon).

They have a few abilities that set them apart from the Feronel, the ability to wander into The Nightmare Lands whenever they want, and the ability to reconfigure themselves into the form of certain carrion creatures. They also have the ability to sort of fade into shadows and darkness. They also have a unique feature.

The feature is the easiest to explain. Sokarnel may take up to two levels of Aubernel, Feronel, Loronel, Sarownel or Utenel Talent. This is because they used to be living Nel from another court, and even if they lack the memories of that time, their Gifts might still be shaded with their former nature.

Wandering into The Nightmare Lands whenever they want is pretty easy as well. It's just Jumper built just like we built it for getting into Nel holdings.

Fading into shadows is a little bit more difficult to accurately represent. When Sokarnel enter a shadow it's a lot like the Hide In Plain Sight ability from Pathfinder. It doesn't matter if people are looking at you or not, you more or less disappear. The ultra points heavy way to represent this is using the Link modifier and coupling Insubstantiality and Invisibility together and applying a modifier that says only in shadows and darkness. It's similar to when Contuck moves through clay or Shim melded himself into the counter in the tower. However, the way I'm going to do it is with the Shadow Form advantage. You basically become a two dimensional shadow of yourself and end up resistant to physical effects and have a hard time moving around and physically affecting things. I want this to be an innate effect of Sokarnel, something that just happens automatically. Because it's somewhat uncontrollable, it becomes a disadvantage, rather than an advantage. We also apply the Accessibility: Only In Darkness Or Shadows modifier as well. I'm going to call it a -80% modifier (which reduces the points value of the disadvantage) because becoming a shadow when you are in shadows and darkness isn't really that much of a penalty and it can be relatively easy to avoid shadows and darkness. This is an automatic thing, but I do want the Sokarnel to be able to force themselves into their Nel form if they wish, but I want it to cost them. We apply the Switchable: Usually On enhancement, which means it costs 1 FP a second to turn their shadow form off. This normally increases the cost of an advantage by +5%. We also want to allow the Sokarnel to carry at least their light encumbrance with them in shadow form, so we add Light Encumbrance, which is normally a +10% enhancement. Since the accessibility, encumbrance, and ability to switch out of shadow form are all things that reduce how much Shadow Form penalizes a Sokarnel, they all reduce its value as a disadvantage. Unfortunately, the accessibility one already reduces its value by 80%, and you can't drop the value of an advantage or disadvantage below 20% of normal. This whole thing might change. It's a little wonky. 

Next up is the ability to shapeshift into carrion creatures. For this we use Shapeshifting (Alternate Form). This is the advantage used to represent creatures like werewolves and such. The base value is 15 points. If you're able to transform into a template with fewer points than your racial template, it's just a straight 15 points. If you can transform into something more powerful (like a 0 point human into a 300 point dragon) you pay 15 point plus 90% of the other template's character point value. Since Sokarnel are several hundred character points, Shapeshifting is only going to cost Sokarnel 15 points. The carrion creature forms aren't that special. They're just big bugs and weird insect crow creatures.

The Sokarnel do have a few disadvantages. The first two are Duty. One to Keroen Skathos, and one to Nostathon. Keroen and Nostathon don't really call on the Sokarnel to do much these days, so we go with Quite Rarely for both. The Duty to Keroen also gets the Extremely Hazardous addition. He pretty much uses the Sokarnel for one thing: war and murder festivals and when he does call on them, it's because he's backed into a corner or because he expects them to reduce everything to blood and raw meat.

Sokarnel are also vulnerable to the sun. It is a kind of poison to them. The first way we represent this is with Revulsion, which forces a HT roll every time you are exposed to a substance. Failure means you are at -5 to effective skill with all skill rolls and attribute checks for the next 10 minutes. The points value is based on how common the substance is. Direct sunlight is very common. 

The next way we represent this is with the Weakness disadvantage, which deals HP damage when exposed to a substance. This damage bypasses DR. We go with the highest rate of damage, 1d per minute of exposure, and then modify it based on how common it is. Sunlight is listed as very common with this disadvantage, and triples the value. However, with the innate regeneration of the Sokarnel (1 HP per second), 1d every minute is worthless. I'm going to say the damage happens to the Sokarnel's FP, which reduces the value of the disadvantage, but actually impacts the Nel by reducing its ability to use its Gifts. I think it's appropriate as it simulates the Nel's Gifts/lifeforce draining away under the hostile gaze of the sun. 

Alright, so now we have a rough draft of the Sokarnel and it comes in at 245 character points. Looking back at the Feronel, we see them sitting at 198. As I said before I want the Feronel and Sokarnel to match up points-wise. Normally, this wouldn't be a concern as races are what they are. There's no concept of equality/balance in GURPS. Racial templates are what they are. I'm ignoring this for the Nel because Nel are made out of Gifts. Every aspect of them stems from the Gifts they are composed of being turned to a particular purpose. So if two Nel are made out of the same amount of Gifts they should, in theory, be of roughly the same points value from the game mechanics perspective. Or at last that's what I think. 

So how can we equalize them a bit? I think the first step is to add another DX+1 to the Feronel. This brings us to a 27 point disparity. There's always going to be a slight disparity between the meta-traits, as any of them that add ST are going to be modified slightly when applied to mountain-kin due to their size reducing the cost of the ST, but 27 points is still too much. Derp. The Sokarnel need Disturbing Voice. Their voices are really creepy, all hissing whispers and hoarseness and the sensation of bugs crawling around your ears. This brings the difference down to 17 points. I think I'm comfortable leaving it there, as modifying either template much more kind of edges into adding and subtracting for the sake of adding and subtracting, rather than modifying them for the sake of making them more true to the vision in my head. 

Oh. Whoops. The Sokarnel and Feronel only had Gifts +3 for 39 points, instead of Gifts +5 for 45 points like I had written (which is bad math in the first place as 5x13 = 65, not 45). So some of the above math is off.

So here they are, the meta-traits for the Feronel and Sokarnel. 

Feronel Meta-Trait

212 points

Basic Attributes [80]

• ST+2 [20]
• DX+2 [40]
• HT+2 [20]

Secondary Characteristics [5]

• Will+1 [5]

Advantages [152]

• Damage Resistance 6 (Limited: Cold, -40%) [18]
• Damage Resistance 6 (Limited: Fire/Heat, -40% [18]
• Energy Reserve +5 (Gift) [15]
• Feronel Talent 1 [5]
• Gifts +3 [39]
• Regeneration (Very Fast; Reflexive, +40%; Costs 5 FP/Minute, -50%) [40]
• Upgraded from the base Nel meta-trait.
• Telecommunication (Telesend; Contuck Only, -40%; Gifts, -5% [17]

Disadvantages [-25]

• Berserk (Self-Control: 12, x1) [-10]
• Bloodlust (Self-Control: 12, x1) [-10]
• Code of Honor (Feronel's or Loria's) [-5]

Sokarnel Meta-Trait

229 points

Basic Attributes [40]

• ST+2 [20]
• HT+2 [20]

Secondary Characteristics [10]

• Will+2 [10]

Advantages [247]

• Damage Resistance 6 (Limited: Cold, -40%) [18]
• Damage Resistance 6 (Limited: Fire/Heat, -40% [18]
• Dark Vision [25]
• Energy Reserve +5 (Gift) [15]
• Jumper (World; Costs 2 FP, -20%; Gifts, -5%; Limited Access: The Nightmare Lands And Back Only, -20%) [55]
• Shapeshifting (Alternate Form; Carrion Creatures) [15]
• Sokarnel Talent 1 [5]
• Gifts +3 [39]
• Regeneration (Very Fast; Reflexive, +40%; Costs 5 FP/Minute, -50%) [40]
• Upgraded from the base Nel meta-trait.
• Telecommunication (Telesend; Nostathon Only, -40%; Gifts, -5% [17]

Disadvantages [-68]

• Disturbing Voice [-10]
• Duty (Keroen Skathos; Quite Rarely: 6; Extremely Hazardous) [-7]
• Duty (Nostathon; Quite Rarely: 6) [-2]
• Revulsion (Very Common: Direct Sunlight) [-15]
• Shadow Form (Light Encumbrance, -10%; Accessibility: Only In Darkness/Shadows, -80%; Switchable: Usually On, -5%) [-4]
• Weakness (1d/Minute; Very Common: Direct Sunlight, x3; FP Only, -50%) [-30]

Feature: The Sokarnel may purchase up to two levels of the Aubernel, Feronel, or Utenel Talent. The choice of talent denotes the court affiliation the Sokarnel had in life.