Living mostly underground, the Karakal live in the deserts of Amane. The medium-sized cat-human hybrid is characterised by a robust build, long legs, a short face, long tufted ears and long canine teeth. Their coat is usually uniformly reddish tan or sandy, while the ventral parts are lighter with small reddish markings.
Typically nocturnal, the Karakal are a highly secretive and difficult to find species. They are mostly carnivore and typically prey upon small mammals, birds and rodents.
The Karakal usually live in underground caves in matriarchic communities of 10~50 individuals.
Wandering Outcasts
Most Karakal remain in their distant homeland, content to dwell in small, tight clans. These Karakal hunt for food, craft goods, and largely keep to themselves.
However, not all Karakal are satisfied with such a life. They seek out stories, artifacts, and lore. Those who survive this period of wanderlust return home in their elder years to share news of the outside world. In this manner, the Karakal remain isolated but never ignorant of the world beyond their home.
Barterers of Lore
Karakal treasure knowledge rather than material things. A chest filled with gold coins might be useful to buy food or a coil of rope, but it’s not intrinsically interesting. In the Karakal’s eyes, gathering wealth is like packing rations for a long trip. It’s important to survive in the world, but not worth fussing over.
Instead, Karakal value knowledge and new experiences. Their ears perk up in a busy tavern, and they tease out stories with offers of food, drink, and coin. Karakal might walk away with empty purses, but they mull over the stories and rumors they collected like a miser counting coins.
Although material wealth holds little attraction for the Karakal, they have an insatiable desire to find and inspect ancient relics, magical items, and other rare objects. Aside from the power such items might confer, a Karakal takes great joy in unraveling the stories behind their creation and the history of their use.
Fleeting Fancies
Wandering Karakal are mercurial creatures, trading one obsession or passion for the next as the whim strikes. A Karakal’s desire burns bright, but once met it disappears to be replaced with a new obsession. Objects remain intriguing only as long as they still hold secrets.
A Karakal rogue could happily spend months plotting to steal a strange gem from a noble, only to trade it for passage on a ship or a week’s lodging after stealing it. The Karakal might take extensive notes or memorize every facet of the gem before passing it on, but the gem holds no more allure once its secrets and nature have been laid bare.
Tinkers and Minstrels
Curiosity drives most of the Karakal found outside their homeland, but not all of them become adventurers. Karakal who seek a safer path to satisfy their obsessions become wandering tinkers and minstrels.
These Karakal work in small troupes, usually consisting of an elder, more experienced Karakal who guides up to four young ones learning their way in the world. They travel in small, colorful wagons, moving from settlement to settlement. When they arrive, they set up a small stage in a public square where they sing, play instruments, tell stories, and offer exotic goods in trade for items that spark their interest. Karakal reluctantly accept gold, but they much prefer interesting objects or pieces of lore as payment.
These wanderers keep to civilized realms, preferring to bargain instead of pursuing more dangerous methods of sating their curiosity. However, they aren’t above a little discreet theft to get their claws on a particularly interesting item when an owner refuses to sell or trade it.
Karakal Names
Each Karakal has a single name, determined by clan and based on a complex formula that involves astrology, prophecy, clan history, and other esoteric factors. Karakal names can apply to both males and females, and most use nicknames derived from or inspired by their full names.
Clan names are usually based on a geographical feature located in or near the clan’s territory.
The following list of sample Karakal names includes nicknames in parenthesis.
Karakal Names: Five Timber (Timber), Jade Shoe (Jade), Left-Handed Hummingbird (Bird), Seven Thundercloud (Thunder), Skirt of Snakes (Snake), Smoking Mirror (Smoke)
Karakal Clans: Bright Cliffs, Distant Rain, Desert Tree, Rumbling River, Snoring Mountain
Karakal Personality
A Karakal might have motivations and quirks much different from a Demi-Human with a similar background. You can use the following tables to customize your character in addition to the trait, ideal, bond, and flaw from your background.
The Karakal Obsession table can help hone your character’s goals. For extra fun, roll a new result every few days that pass in the campaign to reflect your ever-changing curiosity.
Karakal Obsessions
| d8 | My curiosity is currently fixed on … |
|---|---|
| 1 | A legend or mythos of a forgotten age |
| 2 | A monster |
| 3 | A lost civilization |
| 4 | A wizard’s secrets |
| 5 | A mundane item |
| 6 | A magic item |
| 7 | A location |
| 8 | A legend or tale |
Karakal Quirks
| d10 | Quirk |
|---|---|
| 1 | You miss your tropical home and complain endlessly about the freezing weather, even in summer. |
| 2 | You never wear the same outfit twice, unless you absolutely must. |
| 3 | You have a minor phobia of water and hate getting wet. |
| 4 | Your tail always betrays your inner thoughts. |
| 5 | You purr loudly when you are happy. |
| 6 | You keep a small ball of yarn in your hand, which you constantly fidget with. |
| 7 | You are always in debt, since you spend your gold on lavish parties and gifts for friends. |
| 8 | When talking about something you’re obsessed with, you speak quickly and never pause and others can’t understand you. |
| 9 | You are a font of random trivia from the lore and stories you have discovered. |
| 10 | You can’t help but pocket interesting objects you come across. |
Your Karakal character has the following racial traits.
Ability Score Increase
Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Age
Karakal have lifespans equivalent to humans.
Alignment
Karakal tend toward chaotic alignments, as they let impulse and fancy guide their decisions. They are rarely evil, with most of them driven by curiosity rather than greed or other dark impulses.
Size
Karakal are smaller on average than humans and relatively slender. Your size is Medium.
Speed
Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision
You have a cat’s keen senses, especially in the dark. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Feline Agility
Your reflexes and agility allow you to move with a burst of speed. When you move on your turn in combat, you can double your speed until the end of the turn. Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you move 0 feet on one of your turns.
Cat’s Claws
Because of your claws, you have a climbing speed of 20 feet. In addition, your claws are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Cat’s Talent
You have proficiency in the Perception and Stealth skills.
Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common.