Erebus

Erebuses have human origins but have evolved into their own species, primarily due to the human inhabitants on a remote planet who experimented with instant mental communication between members of their species. The lead scientist had already opened up his mind’s potential to give him incredible psychic gifts, and he used those to augment the technological aspects of his peoples’ advancement. The procedure was successful, and Erebus became the core of an Overmind connecting everyone on the planet. With all minds working as a harmonious collective, the erebuses expanded beyond their planet. As time passed, the Overmind lost all of its progenitor’s personality, and it currently acts as a hub for its scattered people. The intense gestalt on the erebus home world has allowed them to repel even magically or technologically superior invaders, since the erebuses can instantaneously coordinate a response. Away from their home, though, they lose the strong connection among themselves but retain an empathic connection which eases communication among their species.

Even an erebus born apart from the gestalt mind still feels a connection to it and finds a way to contact the Overmind before reaching adulthood. Adventuring erebuses are the norm, since their collected knowledge and experiences add to the whole and provide the Overmind a better understanding of the current state of the universe. Most erebuses leave their home planet upon reaching maturity and only return near the end of their natural lifespans, passing their memories on to the gestalt before dying.

Erebuses tend toward true neutral alignments, but their individual experiences shift their viewpoints.

Erebuses are split equally between good and evil, but the connection to a gestalt makes them more prone to shift to lawful alignments as opposed to chaotic. Extreme alignments are exceedingly rare among erebuses. Their focus on the mind and its capabilities leads many erebuses to choose psychic as their primary class or to pursue psionic disciplines. Some erebuses choose classes, such as cavalier where they can share teamwork feats with their allies, in order to simulate the connection they have with erebuses.

Average erebuses stand at 5 and a half feet tall. Their dense flesh causes them to weigh more than humanoids of their size, and they weigh in excess of 300 pounds. Erebuses enjoy long lives, nearly matching an elf’s lifespan.

Racial Traits

• Ability Score Modifiers +2 Intelligence, +2 Charisma: Erebuses are quick witted and strong willed. They have no inherent physical weaknesses.
• Size: Erebuses are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Speed: Erebuses have a base speed of 30 feet.
• Senses: Erebuses can see twice as far as humans in dim light.
• Force of Will: Erebuses add +1 to the saving throw DCs for spells and spell-like abilities of the enchantment school. In addition, erebuses with a Charisma score of 15 or higher may use hypnotism once per day as a spell-like ability (caster level equal to the erebus’s character level).
• Limited Mental Connection: Erebuses have a +8 racial bonus on Bluff checks to pass secret messages to other erebuses and cannot deliver a wrong message to an erebus regardless of the check.
• Mental Fortitude: Erebuses spend some time in a gestalt mind, enforcing their mental endurance. They receive a +2 racial bonus on Will saves to resist spells and spell-like abilities of the enchantment (charm) and enchantment (compulsion) schools. In addition, if they fail such a save, they receive another save 1 round later to prematurely end the effect (assuming it has a duration greater than 1 round) The second save is made at the same DC as the first. If an erebus has a similar ability from another source (such as from a rogue’s slippery mind), it can only use one of these abilities per round but can try one on the second round if the first rerolls ability fails.
• Skilled: Erebuses gain an additional skill rank at first level and one additional skill rank whenever they gain a level.
• Languages: Erebuses begin play knowing Common and Erebus. Erebuses with high Intelligence scores can choose any of the following languages: Abyssal, Aklo, Celestial, Draconic, Elven, and Infernal. See the Linguistics skill page for more information about these languages.