Roacher

HAD ROVANTIS BEEN ABLE TO READ EMOTIONS ON an insectoid face, Clicky would have looked contemplative as she broke the silence - "I pity those that require greatness to feel content. Tell me elf, what is the need for art? Is not the company of your fellows sufficient?"

"Perhaps there is wisdom in ignorance, my strange companion. It is true that many of my kind, in their obsession with arts and sciences, forget why we create such mastery in the first place. But to neglect it entirely - that would be far worse - blasphemous, even."

"You haven't given a reason at all - your kind can never be satisfied with what you truly have. It's always about the people and places your art mimics, the legends, the hypotheticals, the delusions. It is the flaws in your minds that make such things necessary, not some cosmic or divine mandate. To rejoice in ones flaws is a beautiful and tragic thing. Were you a roacher, I would offer much counselling."

Living in small, tightly woven communities within the Underdark, roachers are highly sociable insectoids. They make their homes in the most secluded places they can find, often in extreme conditions where most other creatures would perish.

Insectoid Bodies

Roachers look like cockroaches walking upright on two legs. They have large black eyes, antennae, and are covered with an exoskeleton which is usually some shade of brown or black. The upper pair of their four arms are considerably larger and stronger than the lower pair, reflective of their different functions. The upper arms are primarily used for harder labour and combat - the lower arms are too weak for such tasks. The lower arms are used when more dexterous, precise or gentle movements are required.

Hidden Villages

In the vast and dangerous expanses of the Underdark, roachers are content with what others refuse. They choose the most isolated and resource-poor locations for their villages, so that they are not likely to be disturbed, and typically seal themselves off once they establish themselves. These spaces form into tiny, self-sufficient communities of 20 to 50 individuals, and the community rely on each other to the point where disagreements amongst them are extremely rare and each roacher treats every other as an equal. No luxuries, comforts or extravagances are expected or desired. Eggs are raised to adulthood by the entire village - it is considered irrelevant who the parents were - and the village grows. When it reaches a certain size, scouting begins for a new location, and about half of the village's capable adults set out to set up a new colony, likely never to return.

Roachers rarely have contact with outsiders, and even more rarely meet anyone from above ground. In any case outsiders consider roachers to be of no concern to them - they are rarely worth attacking, and if threatened, they typically leave. Some roacher villages maintain relations with local svirfneblin - they offer surplus goods in exchange for information on potential threats. In the event of an attack, and when fleeing is not a viable option, roachers will defend their fellows with their lives, using simple but meticulously crafted weapons.

Roacher Adventurers

Roachers rarely become adventurers. Those that do are often abandoned, or the sole survivor of a calamity, seeking adventuring parties as a surrogate village. Their new companions can never replace the company of other roachers, but in time, the roacher learns to love and trust its friends as though they were their own kin, and defend them with their lives if necessary. In order to communicate with adventurers, adventuring roachers typically learn to understand at least Common and Undercommon. It is however extremely difficult for a creature with mandibles to speak as other humanoids do, so when speaking, it is difficult for those not familiar with the roacher to understand its speech.

Roacher Names

The names roachers call each other are unpronounceable to those without insectoid features, so a roacher within an adventuring party typically takes on whatever name the other party members call it, typically a fond nickname.

Roacher Traits

Your insectoid heritage and adaptations to the Underdark give you the following racial traits.