Ratfolk

"Everyone underestimates us. We prefer it that way. Hard to see the knife when you're busy looking down."
— Kresk, merchant-factor

Ratfolk are small, sharp, and perpetually underestimated — which is exactly how they like it. A rodent-featured humanoid race with a talent for commerce, engineering, and navigating the spaces nobody else wants, they've built a diaspora that spans Golarion's trade routes, undercities, and the gaps between other peoples' civilizations. They're not vermin. They're not thieves. They're entrepreneurs operating in markets the rest of the world hasn't noticed yet.

Physical Description

Ratfolk stand 3½ to 4½ feet tall, with lean, whipcord builds that let them squeeze through spaces that larger races can't. Their features are openly rodent: whiskers, rounded ears set high on narrow skulls, dark bead-bright eyes, and prominent incisors. Fur ranges from brown and grey to black and white, often patchy or mottled. Tails are long, naked, and surprisingly expressive. They move in quick bursts — darting, pausing, scanning — the body language of something that's spent millennia being prey and turned the survival instincts into a competitive advantage.

Society

Ratfolk culture is built on the warren — extended family networks that function as trading houses, mutual aid societies, and intelligence operations simultaneously. Information is the most valuable commodity, and ratfolk warrens trade in it like other cultures trade in gold. A ratfolk merchant doesn't just sell you goods — they sell you information about who needs those goods, where the supply is thin, and what the markup should be. This makes them indispensable to commerce and deeply unsettling to anyone who values privacy.

In Molthune, ratfolk occupy the same economic margins as mul — useful, tolerated, not respected. They run the grey-market exchanges in Canorate's less patrolled districts, where permits aren't checked and questions aren't asked. The military uses ratfolk scouts for tunnel work because nobody else fits.

Relations

• Humans: Transactional. Humans buy what ratfolk sell and prefer not to think about where it came from. Ratfolk return the favour by charging fair prices — which, coming from a ratfolk, means you're only being overcharged slightly.
• Kender: Ratfolk find kender maddening. Kender "borrow" without tracking value. Ratfolk track everything. Watching a kender walk through a market is, for a ratfolk, a form of psychological torture.
• Dwarves: Grudging respect. Dwarves understand craft and commerce. Ratfolk understand logistics and margins. Together they're an efficient trading operation. Apart they complain about each other constantly.
• Catfolk: The dynamic that makes outsiders nervous. Fierce commercial rivals who occasionally form joint ventures so effective they destabilize regional markets.

Alignment and Religion

Ratfolk lean Neutral — pragmatic, community-oriented, and disinterested in abstract morality when there are margins to calculate. Abadar, the Master of the First Vault (trade, law, civilization) is the most common patron. Norgorber, the Reaper of Reputation (secrets, trade in grey areas) appeals to the less scrupulous. Some worship Grandmother Spider, The Finder of Lost Things (stories, webs of connection) or no deity at all, finding divinity in compound interest.

Racial Traits

Core Abilities

• Tinker: +2 racial bonus on Craft (alchemy), Perception, and Use Magic Device checks.
• Rodent Empathy: +4 racial bonus on Handle Animal checks to influence rodents.
• Swarming: Up to two ratfolk can share the same square. If two ratfolk sharing a square both attack the same foe, they are considered flanking that foe.
• Darkvision: See in the dark up to 60 feet.

Adventurers

Ratfolk adventure when the warren's interests require it — or when the warren becomes too small. A factor sent to establish trade in a new city. An engineer whose curiosity about tunnel construction led somewhere dangerous. A scout who went under a wall and found something that shouldn't have been there. Common classes include Alchemist, Rogue, Gunslinger, and Investigator.