Tengu

"I collect swords the way other people collect regrets. At least mine are useful."
— Kurosawa, blade-scholar

Tengu are a crow-featured humanoid people — sharp-eyed, sharp-tongued, and sharp-bladed. They're scattered across Golarion in small communities and urban diasporas, valued for their swordsmanship, linguistic talent, and the kind of pragmatic adaptability that comes from being a minority race in everyone else's civilization. They collect things — weapons, languages, stories, grudges — with the acquisitive instinct of their avian kin and the discernment of people who've learned that not everything shiny is worth keeping.

Physical Description

Tengu stand 5 to 5½ feet tall, with the lean build of fencers. Their features are avian: black feathered heads with corvid beaks, dark eyes with the quick, assessing focus of a bird that's spotted something interesting, and taloned hands capable of remarkable dexterity. Their bodies are covered in fine black plumage that ranges from glossy blue-black to matte charcoal. They move with quick, precise gestures — head-tilts, sharp turns, sudden stillness — that read as either alert or nervous depending on how well you know them.

Society

Tengu culture revolves around three pillars: steel (swordcraft and martial arts), speech (language, storytelling, and the social power of knowing what to say), and collection (the acquisition and curation of objects, skills, and knowledge). A tengu household is part armoury, part library, and part museum — every wall displays something worth examining, and every tengu can tell you the provenance of every item.

In the Inner Sea, tengu live primarily in port cities and trade hubs — Absalom, Magnimar, Katapesh — where their linguistic gifts and blade skills find ready employment. In Molthune, they're rare but valued as translators, weapons instructors, and the kind of intelligence operatives who can pass through a crowded room without being remembered.

Relations

• Humans: Tengu thrive in human cities. They understand the power structures, navigate the social hierarchies, and fill the roles nobody else wants — spy, tutor, fence, sword instructor — with quiet competence.
• Elves: Mutual respect for craftsmanship, mutual irritation over methods. Elven blademakers create art. Tengu blademakers create function. The argument has been running for centuries.
• Kender: Tengu appreciate kender's fearlessness but are appalled by their indiscriminate collecting. Tengu collect with purpose. Kender collect with enthusiasm. These are not the same thing.
• Ratfolk: Excellent professional relationships. Both races understand the value of information, the utility of being underestimated, and the profit margins on other peoples' blind spots.

Alignment and Religion

Tengu lean Neutral or Chaotic Neutral — practical, self-reliant, and loyal to their community before any abstract principle. Desna, The Wandering Star (luck, travel) and Cayden Cailean, the Lucky Drunk (freedom, bravery) are common. Blade-scholars sometimes venerate Irori, the Master of Masters (perfection through discipline) or Gorum, Our Lord in Iron (strength in battle). Some follow Pharasma, the Lady of Graves (death, fate) — the Crow Mother, as tengu sometimes call her.

Racial Traits

Core Abilities

• Swordtrained: Proficient with all sword-type weapons (including bastard swords, daggers, elven curve blades, falchions, greatswords, kukris, longswords, rapiers, scimitars, short swords, and two-bladed swords).
• Gifted Linguist: +4 racial bonus on Linguistics checks. Learn 2 languages per rank in Linguistics instead of 1.
• Bite: Natural bite attack dealing 1d3 damage.
• Sneaky: +2 racial bonus on Perception and Stealth checks.
• Low-Light Vision: See twice as far as humans in dim light.

Adventurers

Tengu adventure to collect — new techniques, new blades, new stories worth telling. A blade-scholar seeking a legendary sword. A linguist following a dead language to its source. A spy whose cover was blown and whose options narrowed to "leave town" or "die." Common classes include Rogue, Swashbuckler, Fighter, and Ninja (if available) or Slayer.