Vukhars

Vukhars are fearsome tentacled creatures of enormous size, who use their terrifying psychic abilities as well as physical might to rule over vast domains in their native world of 2514 Bhadrapada VI.

Physical Description
Vukhars look like enormous masses of writhing tentacles, with a single large and vertical-slitted eye in the middle. Their size varies greatly according to age (as they never stop growing); infants range from about 30cm to 2m long depending on the subrace, while the largest ones easily surpass 30m (not including tentacles). Their core body is roughly almond-shaped, with the rounded end toward the front and the tapered end in the back; however, the only part of their core that is usually visible underneath the tentacles is their eye, which is right in the middle of their front. Their tentacles are numerous (the exact number varies between individuals, but is usually between 60 and 80), and make up the majority of their body mass. Vukhar tentacles are divided in the following categories: pseudopods, shorter thick tentacles used for locomotion and manipulation; cilia, thin, whip-like tentacles, whose undullation generates a repulsion effect that allows flight; and flagella, large and powerful tentacles whose sweeping motion can be used either for swimming or for defense. Another jutting bodily structure of vukhars is their radula, a single short, broad, spike-covered prehensile protrusion located a bit below their eye, which is actually the outer portion of their mouth, and is used to grasp food, tear it apart and bring it to their mouth orifice. Their flesh is tough and rubbery, and comes in a variety of colors according to their subrace. Vukhars are hermaphroditic, and thus do not have distinct sexes.

Abilities
Vukhars are unmistakably among the most terrifying creatures to exist anywhere in the known worlds; the older and larger ones are mightier than even the most powerful transhumans. Their physical capabilities are more than impressive enough, with a suite of powerful tentacle attacks (as well as a strong prehensile radula) that can make short work of most enemies, and a tough hide that protects them from most non-psychic attacks; coupled with their flight and keen senses; their physique alone would make them unmatched predators.

Their mind, however, is even more fearsome. Not only do they develop an intellect that far surpasses the most accomplished humanoids over the years, making them matchless strategists, but they also have a powerful set of psychic abilities, both innate and learned. Their most famous ability is their psychic blast, a projection of concentrated energy, usually as a cone emanating from their eye, that takes a variety of forms depending on subrace, from scorching heat, to freezing cold, to electrical arcs, and even transforming the mollecular structure of the air into deadly poison. All vukhars have the ability to project a psychic blast since infancy, though its potency depends a lot on the vukhar's development.

Aside from their psychic blast, vukhars also have several innate psychic abilities, varying a lot according to subrace and age, including telepathic abilities, weather control, shapeshifting, and many others. They also have a natural talent for psionics, and invariably grow to be powerful sensitives, increasing in ability as they age. They are naturally resistant to psychics and immune to paralysis, as well as to varying types of energy forms, depending on subrace (usually to the same type of energy as their psychic blast). Their imposing presence and lingering psychic field also has a destabilizing effect on most sentient psyches, causing feelings of abject terror and desperation, which they use for great strategical effect.

Mindset
The unique, alien mindset of vukhars is by and large a consequence both of their physical and psychic prowess, and of the logistical needs imposed by their massive physiology.

Being among the largest non-plant creatures in Bhadrapada VI, vukhars need an enormous amount of food to sustain themselves, especially with the energy consumption that comes with their psychic abilities and relatively active lifestyle (for creatures their size). As they feed mostly on meat, the territory required to sustain a food chain large enough to feed a single vukhar can be quite extensive, especially for larger specimens. Capturing and eating practically any living creature is no problem for them; however, managing their range and its natural resources, as well as keeping it free from competitors (whether developed societies or other vukhars), can be more than a single vukhar can manage, even with their psychic powers. Therefore, all vukhars keep some sort of community of thralls, whose nature and level of organization varies considerably (see Society below), devoted to managing and protecting the vukhar's domain, as well as providing food. On the other hand, the extent to which vukhars deplete the natural resources of the land around them makes it nearly impossible for more than one vukhar of significant size to live in the same location, making them highly solitary and territorial.

The confluence of these factors (size and power level far greater than most other creatures they know, keeping many "lesser" creatures as thralls, territoriality and solitary nature) gives vukhars a rather unique perspective of the world, which for them is divided between "lesser" beings (humanoids, animals and most other creatures) and "greater" ones (themselves and other vukhars). "Lesser" creatures are mostly beneath notice, and seen as less than sentient, mere livestock or tools to be used as convenient (or pests to be managed), much like most humanoids view domestic animals or bugs. This attitude makes vukhars sound extremely arrogant to most other races, as the difference in rank that vukhars perceive between themselves and humanoids is far greater than that between a despotic king and his lowliest slaves. For them, interactions with humanoids are either resource management or pest control; in all other circumstances, such lowly beings can be ignored altogether.

On the other hand, beings perceived as equals (mostly other vukhars, as well as a few particularly powerful other creatures) are treated in a downright paranoid fashion, as protecting their territory and resources from interlopers is a vukhar's most pressing necessity. They are unable to form bonds of trust, and their interactions with equals consist of open war, guarded truces, or at best, cautious, calculated and strictly temporary alliances when some sort of mutual benefit can be gleaned.

All told, the vukhar's mindset is one of a godly entity, sovereign over all mundane things (and people), and whose reign is solitary and absolute, a principle that must be upheld at all costs.

Alignment
As a result of their alien mindset as described above, vukhars have a rather unique relationship with the alignment system. Vukhar alignment is very closely tied to subrace, being largely instinctive, and falls into one of the four following categories:

-Paternalist vukhars tend to focus on creating a civilization out of their thralls, often as a fully structured nation with their ruling vukhar on top, and try to take advantage of the prosperity enjoyed by peaceful civilizations to accumulate wealth, knowledge and power. However, regardless of the peaceful trappings, the "nation" still exists solely for the personal benefit of the vukhar, which rules it with absolute authority and heavy taxation. They will frequently try diplomatic and peaceful relations (mostly trade) with other civilizations, both those ruled by vukhars and others.

-Bureaucratic vukhars have a similar modus operandi as paternalist ones, creating societies under them – however, their focus is quite different, more on exploitation and aggressive expansionism than on peace and prosperity. They run their civilizations like particularly aggressive corporations in their dealings with the outside world, and much like slave farms internally, treating their thralls more like resources they must expend to attain their goals than like subjects.

-Cooperativist vukhars tend to have a "live and let live" philosophy (at least as far as fellow vukhars and other powerful forces are concerned), preferring to seek self-improvement in isolation and build their own wealth from the ground up. They exploit lesser creatures for food and labor, of course, but do so responsibly, only as needed, taking care to maintain a sustainable ecology under them – as such, they don’t have much in the way of thrall societies, just small groups they round up as necessary for each task and let go when no longer needed.

-Libertarian vukhars are focused on expanding their power and influence however they can, using up all resources (including lesser creatures) as they are made available but not taking particular care to build them up as a society, and expanding aggressively into neighboring territories. Rather than "waste" resources building and maintaining any kind of infrastructure, they would rather use their personal power to gather whatever resources they need when they need them, often by attacking fellow vukhars or other civilizations. They trust nothing but themselves with the resources they require.

Culture
Being extremely solitary beings, vukhars have very little in the way of culture, consisting of a scant few traditions acquired from parents during infancy, as well as from other vukhars in their rare friendly encounters. Their philosophy closely reflects their mindset as described above, consisting largely of explanations of the ways in which they are superior to all other creatures in the world, as well as techniques for managing their resources and for dealing with fellow "greater" beings that show a little variation by subrace (see "Alignment" above). Many vukhars practice poetry, which is highly abstract and opaque to non-vukhars, but their works are not diffused, even among their own race (except for books taken from the troves of conquered or raided rivals), making them a poor cultural expression.

The historical lore and traditional accounts of vukhars are completely unknown to other races; any attempts to question them about this subject are seen as insufferably insolent, and met with immediate aggression. Some students of vukhars speculate that this is due to the fact that they have little to nothing in terms of historical tradition, due to their aforementioned dearth of culture of any kind; since this is a severe deficiency when compared to other sapient races, the only way to reconcile this with the superiority that is central to their mindset is by destroying the questioner. Another prevalent theory is that vukhars view their historical past as strategic information that may be used against them, and defend it as closely as they do their territory. (See the History section for what is known of vukhar history.)

If vukhars have religious beliefs, or philosophical ideas about the nature and origin of the world, those are also closely guarded and unknown to outsiders. The same theories that attempt to explain the vukhars' reticence in regard to historical accounts also apply to their religious and philosophical beliefs.

Language
Vukharic is a complex language, featuring a rich phonetic inventory with many guttural sounds, written with a large syllabary (111 symbols, consisting of 92 "root" syllables, 12 codas and 7 diacritics) derived from an older logographic script. Vukharic grammar is also rather complex, with many verbal tenses, case inflections, and structured collocations, and its lexicon is vast and filled with subtle distinctions. However, this Classical Vukharic, mostly preserved through tomes of highly abstruse poetry penned by scholarly thralls, is scarcely used outside of the philosophical debates that sometimes occur in the rare peaceful encounters between powerful vukhars. The day-to-day communication and record-keeping of vukhars falls back on Informal Vukharic, a standard with minor variations by subrace and individual, that has slightly simpler gramar and a somewhat reduced vocabulary. A closely-related derivate is Vernacular Vukharic, used by thralls to converse between themselves, which utilizes a 32-character abjad instead of the traditional syllabary and has considerably simplified phonetics and grammar, as well as a lexicon that combines a small fraction of the original Classical vocabulary with a number of regional neologisms. Vernacular shows a large amount of regional variation, with each domain often featuring its own version. Several Bhadrapadan races (such as hasturans) have their own dialects of Vernacular Vukharic as a mother language, even for communities free of Vukhar rule.

Society
society/organization

Territory
domains and such

Interspecies Relations
relations

History
publicly known history

Sub-Races
list with description and brief overview of variant abilities

Vukhar Characters
notes on custom characters

Vukhar Names
sample names

Roleplaying Rules
note/link to d20srd dragons; table with vukhar subraces and corresponding dragon types w/ link