Sometimes, as we sleep, our dreams take us to places impossible to behold in a lifetime. Continents made of cloudstuff, stars the size of a hand, cubic oceans floating lazily on sky-like infinities, and many other loonities that belong to the drunken mumblings of the human neo-cortex taking a break from mundane processing and data gathering. Nevertheless, not all of these bizarre images should be dissmissed as the mere impulses of an overactive imagination, for the mind of sentient beings is powerfull and, sometimes, either by accident or purpose, it might reach realities which are simply too far, too different, too alien to be accounted as real. Sometimes, it is even possible that the observer becomes observed, and someone belonging to such delirious realms might come to stare back at the unprepared visitor, for there are worlds of uncharted wonder impossibly far away from us, hidden in the invisible space that spans the difference from a second to the next or the previous.
Too acostumed to measure reality through distance and size, our concious minds can only fathom worlds on the likeness of ours: scaled in miles, feet, meters and others systems that would grant pleasure to the linear thought of man. But our sleeping selves know there are other ways, other means by which to catalogue and portray creation, indulging in the sights of what never was, what could have been, and what could be, as too often we forget time is also part of creation, and our limited perception of it is not even near to describe the true extent of it's vastness and splendor, weaving entire galaxies of probability out of choices disscarded, chances left, and unlikely events, right before our eyes, yet completely unseen by us. These are the "otherwhens", the worlds that weren't, built around the moment that wasn't, and populated by beings who never came to be, but could. Strange mirrors of what could have been, the Kawatl are among those who dwell in the eternal "if": closer to humanity than none other, yet separated by the unbreakable crystal of eternity, denizens of the ages unhappened.
Physical Description
Being a sort of distorted mirror reflection of humanity, the kawatl look a lot like humans, but are also decidedly different at first sight. While sporting an overally humanoid body configuration, a kawatl glossy skin, colored in hues that range from lime green to dark cerulean, is totally bereft of hair and insterspersed with soft and small scales which are, often colored on a tone darker than the surrounding skin and in stripe patterns unique to each kawatl as fingerprints are unique to every human. Instead of hair, however, the kawatl possess very fine feathers in a dispossition analogue to human hair, displaying a gamma that goes through shades of green, blue and even purple, usually sporting two colors and, more rarely, only one. It's common, nevertheless, to mistake the eyebrows and eyelashes of a kawatl as proof of hair on them, but a finer examination would reveal them to be composed entirely of fine rachises, the structure that runs in the middle of feathers.
Possesing marked sauropsidan features as described earlier, the kawatl are, still, more closely related to mammals than to reptiles as, despite having something akin to an ectothermal methabolism, kawatl females, who tend to be slightly taller than the males, sport breasts and give birth to live offspring, thought the children come enveloped on a vestigial leathery egg, akin to the ones of certain snakes. They also possess angular ears slightly bigger than human ones with a pointy ends towards the sides, unlike elves. Then again, one can easily tell how merely passing are the similarities between humans and these beings by paying some attention to other details, for while they possess colored irises with a range of colors similar to ours, their most common color happens to be bright lime, while the sclera of their eyes is instead black and the color of their flesh is turquoise, easily seen in the coloration of their tongues, since their luminiscent blood is cyan which produces a curious effect of faint glow when they "blush".
Despite being fairly adapted to an amphibian lifestyle, capable of breathing oxygen in airy and liquid states and possesing a vestigial tail that helps them stir their direction underwater, the kawatl relinquish vegetal fibers for their clothing, instead resorting to artistically crafted suits of armor of several alloys bound together with some of the roughest leathers made, which would certainly harm the skin of humans on the long run, but to which the kawatl are impervious. This particular choice of attire, however, tends to further blur the difference in between males and females, as both genders look pretty much the same, with males being slightly shorter yet considerably effeminate in looks, despite lacking female endowments.
Society
Given their existance as denizens of Dyoâmmos, the elemental plane of time, it is hard for the kawatl to explain in detail how they lead their non-linear existances on a "daily" basis, but a few details have reached us, thought still considerably cryptic in general lines.
For kawatl, time is devided in three "currents" or, more aptly, "streams": the forward streams, the backward streams, and the loop streams. On their own words, their civilizations, fluorising on vast cave networks inside homungus melange-like fungal colonies of bio-luminiscent orange color, strive to seek the loop streams, for no time is "wasted" on such places. There, the kawatl lead lives of profound meditation and artistic expression, being taught to peer into the timestream in order to seek inspiration and elightenment as the most paramount duty on life, while still taking such with a puzzling lack of reverence or respect.
Skilled artisans and crafters, the kawatl see the making of art as the most honorable and loafty goal ever and are capable of seeing "poetic" or "artistic" beauty in almost everything, even among the most questionable art pieces or performances. However, and despite their great talent for crafting, the kawatl despise the idea finding transaction value on material goods and, thus, find the concept of amassing wealth selfish and abhorrent, which has also led to a general lack of interest in the topic of science, as they consider the overzealous preocupation of understanding why things work the way they do as distractions from experiencing them on their raw beauty and mysterious woundrousness (which is logical, considering what an sterile effort would be to develope science as humanity know it on such a morphic reality as Dyoâmmos).
Despite this apparent dissregard for rules or order, the kawatl society remains simplistic but strictly ordered by dividing individuals by the role they perform on a congreation of six individuals which they call "Cells", a roughly equivalent to the nuclear concept of families for humans. Each cell is comprised of a Guardian, a Healer, a Mentor, a Feeder, a Birther, and a Crafter, each entrusted with a specific task within the cell. While there are no gender restrictions regarding the roles, birthers are the exception as only females can birth and nurse children and, thus, are considered the de-facto leaders of the cell, giving females the "seat of power" on the kawatl society.
However, little else can be said about the kawatl, as futher explanations quickly lead to an absolute lack of terms with whom to translate the concepts of partial or total atemporality in which they thrive so often and which emcompasses their "day-by-day".
Relations
Far more friendly than other temporal creatures, the kawatl are more than happy upon meeting members of other races but, despite their eagerness to stablish cultural exchange, they quickly find themselves both unable to understand and unable to make themselves understood by members of non-temporal races, which they find profoundly frustrating and dissapointing. More even, many planar travelers mistake the peaceful kawatl for an amazonian warrior race playing sheep due their particular choices of attire and the near indistinguisable differences between males and females, leading many to believe the kawatl are a female only race. Despite this, the kawatl remain largely optimistic that they might, someday, learn to understand and make themselves understood by their planar neighborgs across the magnaverse.
From the common races, the kawatl share an special relation with the humans, whom they see with a blend of awe and rejection, for they consider humans to be "their dark mirrors". The Kawatl see with utter amazement to all the different kinds of art and crafts humans have managed to achieve across their infinite amount of cultures across so many and different worlds, deeming them master artists, but cannot make blind eyes to how easily humankind can use that very same talent for utter destruction and, worst of all, against itself in most cases. Humans, for their part, are largely ignorant of the existance of the kawatl and, those few who know of them, are usually too apart from the common bulk to be accounted as examples of the general opinion humans could have of the kawatl.
Most arlexya have no problems dealing with the kawatl, and the latter welcome the chance of partaking in long tales the arlexya are so fond of telling. Nevertheless, most arlexya silenty envy the fact the kawatl can go to the material plane without such harming them in any way, a feat forbbiden to the maren who find the kawatl as rather gullible, making them unwilling and unknowing part of their schemes now and then.
While the Inevitables are always wary of any sentient race with time warping capabilities, the kawatl are among the lest of their concerns, as they have proven, time and again, to be rather "harmless" and "uninterested" with warmongering, conquest, invasion, or quests for power as a race, thus deeming them "undisruptive".
Alignment & Religion
While deeply spiritual people, the kawatl do not possess a formal religion, instead having a sort of mystical outlook on their common lives, attempting to find a bit of enlightenment or meaning in every single event across their existance. They revere creation as a whole as a singly unifying entity of which they are part, but hold the mystical coualt in special regard, claiming that it is thanks to their guidance that they found the path of idillyc existance they now have. In fact, many kawatl sages claim that their race originated on the material plane and had a fluorishing and technologically advanced civilization across an entire world that was in the brink of entering decadence due the common problems associated with the uprising of technology. Legend says that, as the kawatl was to enter into a global scale war of nations, a woman named Xuxetl managed to stop it from happening thanks to the teachings of a benevolent coualt, causing an upheaval on the kawatl civilization, and leading to it's actual simplistic system. This shift from technology towards mysticism ultimately saved the kawatl and (briefly) their world as their string on the material plane faded into probability. Sent to the frozen eternity of Pandezmos, the kawatl managed to keep fragments of their world and time "afloat" into Time Loops scattered across the Loop Currents of Dyoâmmos, where they now reside.
Most of the time, and given their highlight of artistic pursuit, the kawatl are chaotic good at best, and chaotic neutral at worst. Both evil and lawfullness are exceedingly rare among them, but not unheard.
Adventurers
While always seeking new sources of inspiration and generally compelled to act with freedom as long as refraining from harming or endangering other beings, most kawatl are not so fond of the idea of parting ways with their cells, perhaps the only thing "stable" on their rather mutable realms. Most of those who do are unfortunate individuals who have lost their cells to the depredations of temporal monsters or odd outcasts who cannot seem to do very well in groups, leading solitary existances. Now and then, however, some kawatl become "adventurers-by-accident" since, when peering upon the timestream of some worlds, they might find themselves too emotionally involved and/or identified with the visions and experiences of a particular story or person, involuntarily reaching for such a place and moment in space-time, quickly realizing they are now stranded far, far from home.
Standard Racial Traits
* Ability Score Racial Traits: Owing to their repitilian heritage, the kawatl have enduring bodies and a passionate emotiveness, but their long stay in the "senseless" realms of Dyoâmmos have made their civilization to put less and less attention in sharpening their intelects. They gain +2 Constitution, +2 Charisma, and -2 Intelligence.
* Size: As Medium creatures, the kawatl receive no bonuses or penalties due size.
* Type: Kawatls are humanoids with the reptilian and temporal subtypes.
* Base Speed: Kawatls have a land speed of 30 feet and a swim speed of 30 feet (+8 racial bonus to Swim checks).
* Languages: Kawatls begin play speaking Common and Olmah. Kawatls with high Intelligence scores can choose from Draconic, Terran, Aquan, Ignan, Auran, Sylvan and Dyomian.
Defensive Racial Traits
* Tough Hide: While not entirely covered in scales as most reptiles, the skin of the kawatl is considerably tough and resistant, granting them +1 Natural Armor bonus to Armor Class.
* Steeled Up: Given their choice of attire, the kawatl begin play with Breastplate and Half-Plate armor proficiency. (Keep in mind that, while arcane spells are still subject to Armor Check Penalty, chronoturgical spells aren't). In contrast with other characters, thought, the kawatl cannot exchange this proficiency for a higher Class Bonus to their Armor Class and they can never take such an option. In addition, they receive a +2 Racial Bonus on Craft (Armor) skill checks and get Endurance as a Racial Bonus Feat at 1st Level.
Weakness Racial Traits
* Timestream Denizen: Accostumed to a non-linear existance since countless generations, the kawatl have a hard time trying to make themselves be understood by creatures that lack the capacity to witness the multifacetical reality of time, receiving a -2 penalty to Charisma based skills when dealing with creatures without the Temporal subtype.
Other Racial Traits
* Amphibious: Being forced to survive in the ever changing chaos present in many regions at Dyoâmmos, the kawatl have pushed their capacity of surviving to the limit, with the chaotic energies of the time stream awakening dormant genes from their evolutionary past, granting them the ability to breath both air and water without problems.
- The Writer.
