The Koren are a feline people with the grace and power of great cats. Their society is sharply divided between the regal Kor and their wilder Korel cousins, each embodying different aspects of their predatory heritage.
The making
Gaea made the koren in the likeness of the great cat, one of her minor animal-children, named at the Birth of Man with all the beastfolk (see Beastman). The great cats she drew them from are solitary things. Each holds a range alone, hunts alone, suffers no rival inside its territory, and wants no company it has not bred or killed. That is the instinct she set in the koren body. Then she gave that body the mind of a social animal, one that needs rank and speech and the regard of others and cannot be whole alone. She made a creature that wants a court and cannot abide one. The two halves have never agreed, and they did not agree from the first day.
So the koren came apart at the root, and they have stayed apart. The Kor answered the contradiction by building a court so dense with custom that the cat-nature has no room left to move in it: every gesture fixed, every rank marked, and breaking the form punished with exile, because the form is the only thing holding a solitary predator inside a society (see Kor). The Korel answered the other way, dropping the pretense of society and living as the body wants, in loose hunting packs that gather and scatter and gather again (see Korel). Neither answer is the right one, because there is no right one. Gaea built the question into them and went quiet.
Two Kor of equal house, meeting on a narrow stair. Neither will climb while the other descends, for to give ground is to lose face and to take it is to give insult. They hold a body-length apart, tails low and still, until a servant of lesser house is sent up between them to break the line so that both may pass as though nothing had been decided. The whole exchange takes the better part of an hour, and not one word of it is spoken.
Vitals
- Size: Medium
- Height: 4.5-5.5 feet
- Weight: 80-160 pounds
Heritages
- Kor (Highborn) — The ruling class of Koren society, bound by intricate customs where every gesture carries meaning and breaking custom means exile. See Kor.
- Korel (Wildborn) — Feral Koren who embrace their predatory nature, forming loose hunting packs and living by instinct over etiquette. See Korel.
Game mechanics
Natural Predator
Passive ability. Your heritage as hunters runs deep. You have darkvision out to 30 feet. Additionally, you have advantage on checks to track creatures by scent, and you always land on your feet - you take half damage from falls and cannot be knocked prone by falling.
Kor (Highborn) — Claws of Courtesy
Passive ability. Your claws and jaws count as light, melee weapons (slashing and piercing respectively). When you use them while in the agility stance, add 1d4 to your attack rolls.
Additionally, your lifetime of navigating complex social hierarchies grants you one of the following benefits (choose when you select this heritage):
- Perfect Composure: You are immune to the shaken condition and have advantage on saving throws against being frightened or charmed.
- Social Predator: When you spend at least 10 minutes observing someone in a social setting, you learn their current attitude toward you and one secret they're trying to hide.
Korel (Wildborn) — Savage Grace
Major ability. You can unleash your feral nature in combat. When you do, your claws count as light melee weapons that deal slashing damage. For the next minute:
- Your move speed increases by 20 feet
- You can move through enemy spaces as if they were difficult terrain
- When you deal damage with your claws, the target takes 2 levels of weakened
Additionally, you gain the Nimble talent as a racial ability (it does not count toward the number of talents you have).