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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

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Ancestries | Versatile Heritages

Versatile Heritages

Source Player Core pg. 74 2.0
The peoples of Golarion are many, and they have a long history of intermingling or dabbling with forces capable of altering the very fabric of a mortal body or soul. The children born to such parents might have traits from each of their parents or physiological manifestations of the forces their ancestors were influenced by, manifesting as a specific heritage.

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Common Versatile Heritages

PFS StandardAiuvarin

Elves' children with people of other ancestries, and the children of their children, are called “aiuvarin”, an elven word that refers to a poem about leaves that fall too quickly to the ground.

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PFS StandardDromaar

As the orcs of Belkzen have become a critical vanguard in the war against the Whispering Tyrant, sometimes fighting alongside allies of other ancestries, children with a mix of orc heritage and that of another ancestry (typically human) have grown in number.

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Uncommon Versatile Heritages

PFS StandardAphorite

Once perfectly identical beings who bridged the gap between Axis's perfect order and mortals' unrestricted existence, aphorites are now lit more by the spark of free will than the beacon of cosmic law.

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PFS StandardArdande

The strength of a baobab trunk and flexibility of a yew branch, flowers and fruit sprinkled across a forest canopy like jewels in a crown, soft moss blankets, and the daytime constellations created by pinpricks of light through leaves—this is what ardandes are made of.

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PFS StandardChangeling

Changelings are the children of malevolent hags, born with occult magic and the potential to hear a psychic Call.

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PFS StandardDhampir

Many call vampires the children of the night, but it is dhampirs who can truly claim that title. These mortal offspring of vampires walk the line between life and undeath not just physiologically, but also in their social standing, temperament, and worldview.

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PFS StandardDuskwalker

The first duskwalkers manifested as the result of a bargain between two powerful psychopomps, the immortal guardians and guides of souls after death. One believed that certain souls who helped preserve the cycle of life and death but had their own lives cut short deserved reincarnation, while the other felt this would too greatly violate that same cycle. In the end, the duskwalkers rose from a concession between the two that allowed such rebirths to occur but limited their frequency—only a finite number of duskwalkers ever exist at any one point in time.

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PFS StandardGanzi

Children of chaos, ganzis are born of the roiling effervescence of the untamable Maelstrom, the primal sea of all creation. Their blood crackles with the promise of change and the raw power of creation unshackled.

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PFS StandardIfrit

Ifrits descend from creatures such as efreet, salamanders, and magma dragons. Their spark of ancestral flame gives them a reputation for being passionate, if not capricious.

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PFS StandardNephilim

Nephilim are influenced by the divine magic of the Outer Sphere, often with fiendish or celestial features.

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PFS StandardOread

The Plane of Earth's influence runs through an oread's family, most often from a shaitan or crystal dragon ancestor. Oreads tend to be stoic, steadfast, and dependable, but they contain depths not seen on the surface.

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PFS StandardSuli

Sulis are geniekin who embody a mixture of elements, most commonly air, earth, fire, and water. They are typically the descendants of jann, genies of all four elements that wander the Material Plane instead of making a home on the Elemental Planes.

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PFS StandardSylph

Sylphs are an intense and lively people, flighty and tempestuous. These planar scions have kinship to beings of elemental air such as djinni, invisible stalkers, and cloud dragons.

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PFS StandardTalos

Taloses, geniekin gifted with magic from the Plane of Metal, resonate with the unlimited potential of raw ore, the treasured shine of polished gold, or the forgiving ring of a hammer reforging a broken blade.

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PFS StandardUndine

These dynamic, fluid mortals trace their ancestry to creatures from the Plane of Water, such as marids, water mephits, and brine dragons.

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Rare Versatile Heritages

PFS StandardBeastkin

Beastkin have extraordinary abilities derived from the animal world, allowing them to partially or fully transform into animals, granting them deadly fangs, refined senses, and other such traits. A beastkin treads the line between nature and society, living with a foot in each.

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PFS StandardReflection

Stories of malevolent duplicates are commonly told around campfires to frighten companions. In these tales, the duplicate forms after a botched ritual or exposure to a mysterious artifact, and is bent on replacing the creature they've replicated. Most believe such stories to be only that, but such reflection duplicates are real. While some wish to replace their progenitors, others merely want to forge a new life for themselves where no one knows of their origins.

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