Nok’Ti’Goth (Dragonborn)

The Nok’Ti’Goth are the race commonly referred to as Dragonborn. As is often the case with racial names in other languages, “Dragonborn” is both inaccurate and somewhat offensive to the Nok’Ti’Goth, though most have learned to accept it, as there seems little chance of changing it.

Biology and Appearance

The Nok’Ti’Goth are carnivorous, bipedal, warm-blooded reptiles. They have long dragon-like snouts filled with many sharp, pointed teeth. Nok’Ti’Goth have a natural armor of scales that provides some resistance against damage. Scale color varies from individual to individual with common colors including red, gold, blue and green. In general males have the same color as their father and females as their mother, but exceptions do exist. Occasionally mixed variations such as red-gold or blue-green occur. Adult males typically range between 6’ and 6’8" tall and weigh somewhere between 280 and 320 lbs. Adult females tend to be a bit shorter and slighter than the males.

Like most reptiles, they are egg-layers, but only rarely to they lay more than one egg at a time. Eggs are typically placed in a safe, warm place. Most Nok’Ti’Goth communities contain a community hatching ground where the precious eggs are guarded continuously. The eggs are quite tough and considerable effort is required to break them. It is considered ill fated to assist a hatchling in breaking out of it’s shell.

Like dragons, Nok’Ti’Goth have a breath weapon. However, unlike dragons, the type of breath weapon is not determined by the color of the scales. Types of breath weapon damage are acid, cold, fire, lightning, and poison. Some rare and powerful Nok’Ti’Goth even develop hybrid breath weapons that do more than one type of damage as they mature.

Society and Culture

Nok’Ti’Goth society is formed around clans. Clans are further divided into houses and then into families. Clan, house and family loyalties run deep and nearly every Nok’Ti’Goth knows the heritage and standing of their own. Internal hierarchy is based on a complex determination of honor. Personal, family, house and clan honor must be considered whenever two Nok’Ti’Goth meet, to determine who has the higher standing. Outsiders see the stiff formalism between Nok’Ti’Goth as a sign of a conceit and condescension, despite the fact that Nok’Ti’Goth usually treat with other races with humility.

Honor

The Nok’Ti’Goth concept of honor is complex and difficult for most other races to understand. Among other ways, honor can be earned though great deeds, enduring sacrifice and besting your enemies. However, how and why these things are done is even more important than the doing itself. Deeds accomplished by underhanded or evil means rarely gains one honor. How clan, house and family honor are determined is a mystery to most outsiders.

Religion

Most Nok’Ti’Goth worship the goddess Bahamut, at least openly. Worshipers of the evil goddess Tiamat do so nearly always in secret, although their is a growing movement devoted to the goddess Io from whose body both Bahamut and Tiamat arose. Adherents of this sect tend to downplay the extremes at either end and worship both gods as part of a whole. Priests of Bahamut and Tiamat consider this group heretical. Some Nok’Ti’Goth do worship other gods, but rarely do they completely turn their backs on their race’s preferred gods.

Relations with Other Races

Due ostensibly to their monstrous appearance, the Nok’Ti’Goth are often feared or reviled among less urbane populations. Within The City, they are generally treated as just another race, unless someone is looking for a scapegoat. The Nok’Ti’Goth themselves generally treat other races with respect, with the notable exception of Tieflings. Strong racial resentments still exist over a war over ten centuries in the past.

History

Most of Nok’Ti’Goth history is known only by their legends. Despite their small numbers in recent times, there are many accounts of Nok’Ti’Goth playing vital roles in important events. For example, the high priests of the Great Temple of Bahamut were responsible for crowning the Emperors of Ibaessia as well as the Eladrin Kings and the Kings of the Glittering Halls.

Nok’Ti’Goth legends are firmly based on the idea that they are the first people. While one might expect this to lead them into a sense of superiority, very few of their legends suggest this, those that do are usually legends of the followers of Tiamat. The rest are aimed instead at giving the Nok’Ti’Goth a collective sense of honor and a duty to the younger races. Most modern scholars believe that these legends herald from a time after the fall of Arkhosia, tailored to settle the few remaining Nok’Ti’Goth clans into a peaceful life. Most people place little stock in these legends, but in general, the Nok’Ti’Goth believe them passionately.

Legend of Creation

Though Nok’Ti’Goth creation legends vary somewhat from clan to clan, they are all remarkably consistent on most points. In general, these legends state that the universe was created by two great beings. The first is an unnamed deity referred to as the All-Father, who is claimed to have conceived of and designed universe. The second is Io, who transformed the design into form and became mother to both the gods and the primordials. Soon after the universe was created, the All-Father left it to attend to tasks beyond mortal ken. He wished Io to go with him, but she remained, knowing that she would be needed. Finding that he could not change her mind, the All-Father left, saddened in the knowledge that he would not see Io again.

In the beginning the gods and the primordials worked together, much as the All-Father and Io had, the gods providing an ordered design and the primordials providing the raw elemental power to give it form. But in the end the primordials rebelled, tearing many of the first worlds apart into pure elemental chaos. Realizing that the primordials would reduce the whole of the universe to chaos if they had their way, the gods banded together to fight the primordials and thus began the Dawn War.

Legend of the Dragons

The Nok’Ti’Goth claim that dragons, the most powerful of mortal beings, where created by Io during the Dawn War as weapons against the primodials. Drawing from the very elemental powers that had given shape to the primordials themselves, Io fashioned beasts of immense power and cunning, with the ability to stand firm against the primordial’s onslaught. However, lacking the perfect reasoning skills of the All-Father, she underestimated how much their bestial nature would dominate them in their early stages of life. The dragons were wild and uncontrollable and Io nearly despaired of them until she formed the idea of a race of beings, strong like the dragons, but smaller and with shorter lifespans, allowing them to mature faster. Thus the Nok’Ti’Goth were born. Noble and proud like the dragons they resemble, the Nok’Ti’Goth served as handlers and trainers for the young dragons, honing them into a fierce fighting force that helped turn the tide of the war.

Death of Io

During the Dawn War, Io was killed by the powerful primordial known as Erek-Hus, the King of Terror. With a rough-hewn axe of adamantine, the King of Terror split Io from head to tail, cleaving the dragongod into two equal halves. No sooner did Io’s sundered corpse fall to the ground than each half rose up as a new god, Bahamut from the left and Tiamat from the right.

Founding of Arkhosia

Whatever the truth of the legends, there is some indication that the Nok’Ti’Goth controlled, or at least influenced, a large part of the continent. The earliest writings of the several other races, including elves and dwarves, contain words, symbols and grammatical structures that seem to trace their roots to Draconic, the language of the Nok’Ti’Goth and dragons. Those non-Dragonborn scholars that study Nok’Ti’Goth history believe that the Empire was founded and ruled from the city of Bel’Bahamut, the nearly inaccessible place now known as The City.

Fall of Arkhosia

Template

Attribute Modifiers
ST+1 [10]
HT+1 [10]

Advantages
Claws (Sharp) [5]
Damage Resistance 1 (Tough Skin, -40%) [3]
Nictitating Membrane 2 [2]
Peripheral Vision [15]
Teeth (Sharp) [1]
Choose one of the following:

• Fire Breath: Burning Attack (2) (Cone (+3); Increased Range (1/2D Range only) (x5); Reduced Range (x1/10); Takes Recharge (5 seconds)) [15] A cone of fire, 10 yards long and 3 yards wide at the furthest point. It has 1/2D 5, Max 10. Damage is 2d burning. Requires a five second recharge between bursts.
• Lightning Breath: Burning Attack (2) (Increased Range (1/2D Range only) (x2); Jet; Side Effect (+1); Stunning; Takes Recharge (5 seconds)) [16] A single bolt of lightning, 10 yards long. It has 1/2D 10, Max 10. Damage is 2d burning and it stuns the target. Requires a five second recharge between bursts.
• Acid Breath: Corrosion Attack (1) (Cone (+3); Increased Range (1/2D Range only) (x5); Reduced Range (x1/10); Takes Recharge (5 seconds)) [15] A cone of acid 10 yards long and 3 yards wide at the furthest point. It has 1/2D 5, Max 10. Damage is 2d corrosive. Requires a five second recharge between bursts.
• Cold Breath: Fatigue Attack (1) (Cone (+2); Freezing Hazard; Increased Range (1/2D Range only) (x5); Reduced Range (x1/20); Takes Recharge (5 seconds)) [15]
• Poison Breath: Toxic Attack (2) (Cone (+3); Increased Range (1/2D Range only) (x10); Persistent; Reduced Range (x1/20); Resistible (HT); Respiratory Agent; Takes Recharge (5 seconds)) [17]

Disadvantages
Social Stigma (Monster) [-15]

Features
Born Biter (+3 Size Modifier to Bite, +3 to skill for others to hit face or nose)
Cannot learn non-reptilian languages above Accented level.
Head armor isn’t interchangeable with human head armor.