Zyphers are large felines with wings and slightly curved tiara of horn (yes, fully functional and great at piercing hides). They are innately magical and come from a technologically advanced society and also have the same home realm as the Reaplings, and the two races are well integrated.
Physically, they are built rather like cougars, but their face and ears look more like tigers. They have patterns, usually stripes or a web-like pattern, but rarely will be large patches. They have dark shades of color for fur, including reds/oranges, black/greys, greens, and rarely teal. Stripes/patterns are usually black/grey with reds/oranges being uncommon, and teal rare. They are monogendered, this monogenderism certainly doesn't prevent individuals from having personalities that can sometimes fit gender stereotypes and since dealing with bi-gendered species, and bi-gender languages, they tend to adopt the gender pronouns that best fit their personality when using such languages.
Their wings are capable of flight, but it is tiring both physically and magically (they lighten their own weight inherently with magic), so they fly a lot, but not everywhere (much like humans don't run everywhere, though for zyphers it is like a quick jog).
Zyphers have several "affinities." Each affinity is either a classic element (fire, air, water, earth, aether/void) or a pair of elements. It is very rare for an individual to have additional traits, and when it happens, it almost always is because that individual achieved a certain amount of wisdom and unlocked the additional abilities. Though tales tell of chosen individuals who who were born with many of the traits. Most such stories are dismissed as exaggerated legend, but not all.
ADM, you get the first trait of two elements or both traits of one element,
Fire: Magical endurance, Greater magical potency
Air: Quickness, Better flyer
Water: Flexibility, Fine control
Earth: Strength, Toughness
Ether/Void: Awareness/perceptive, Unravel
Environment: Zyphers have lived in every biome, but most tend towards forest or scrublands.
Society Most zyphers live in clans, each clan tends to have elected leaders, though those leaders have great power. Leaders from the same region gather and elect a leader for the whole region, and then leaders from neighboring regions gather and elect a leader, etc. The structure is layered till you end up with one leader over all. However, those higher leaders really coordinate/arbitrate separate groups when required and oversee discussion among those at the next lower level. They only take action on behalf of the entire group during emergencies.
Otherwise, the clan leaders hold the majority of power and even laws are very rarely empire/nation wide.
Of course, like other sentients, a wide variety of social structures can be found among them.
Relations I don't do "race = culture/nation," so relations is about the common groups.
The groups of zyphers here in the dungeon plane, are from the Stellar Empire, a rather Star Trek-ish utopian group, save a handful from the Ruathan Tribes.
The ruathan tribes are rather stubborn and disagreeable fanatics who believe in a harsh way of living including that freedom must be earned through strength or merit, and as a result has mostly slaves in their tribes. The Ruathan Tribes don't like outsiders very much and are more than willing to be conquerors if they need something outsiders have.
The Stellar Empire though, is much as described before, being a democracy of sorts with the primary at the low end of things. Clan is family and individuals do not often change clans, though it happens. The imperials are a more open-minded and tolerant lot. They also highly value a martial tradition and education having one of the best education systems across any of the planes. Children are raised communally in each clan and they go through vigorous, if fun, training at school until they hit adolescence when they become apprentices for their first job.
Religion their religion generally centers around Mother Nature, the Challenger that challenges all things to become better than they are. They see obstacles as things to overcome, setbacks as motivation to do better, and that to grow to become better is a singular drive in religion.
The Ruathan Tribes generally focus these ideas on individuals, thus they don't utilize teamwork very well and are constantly fighting each other. The Stellar Empire however, believes that teamwork is a viable and successful strategy, and thus are more diplomatic and have better interactions with each other and others.
Adventurers Most Zypher adventurers are those who want to get away from society, are introverts, or love exploring.
On the Dungeon plane, many are sent out and supported by the community to explore and tame their new home or to find a way to get back home.
Trait explanations
Unravel means you find it easier to break magic effects (which while a simple act in theory is actually difficult to perform correctly, especially in a defense way, but for a void zypher is a bit easier and more intuitive. Doesn't make it easy, just less difficult and more flexible and precise.)
Perception/Awareness (I assume you are still asking about void zyphers), is just that you notice things many others don't and find magical auras a bit easier to notice than others. Also such zyphers tend towards unusual world views and unorthodox ideas. If Sherlock Holmes was a Zypher, this would be his most pronounced elemental aspect.
Attributes:
Attributes can increase, they are just slower than skills and are prone to ability damage and such. You could go through weight training to improve strength for example.
Attributes serve the role as in d20, and have a similar range of values, 10-11 being average, though peak ability is about 28.
There are more attributes than d20, though some are used less mechanically than others.
There are 12 attributes, 3 each for physical, mental, social, and spiritual. During character creation, each category is handled separately, and you get to pick one or two of these categories to be better than the others.
Attributes are considered to be composite stats and some creatures (though no player races at the moment) can have features that treat an attribute as being higher or lower for certain of those aspects that are lumped together under a single attribute, and it is expected that common sense will be applied with this concept so it is not required to be explicit about it all the time. For example, horses have very stiff skeletons, so while they might enjoy a high agility score to represent their speed and swiftness, they also would treat their agility as being much lower for skills that rely on flexibility, such as escape artist.
The attributes are
Physical
STRENGTH is physical power to move things (and self), the ability to apply that power well, and physical bulk.
AGILITY is flexibility, speed, precision in movement, and athleticism.
CONSTITUTION is durability, healing, immune system, and ability to handle poisons or other physical taxes on the body.
Mental
INTELLECT is memory, recall, and logic (including math).
CREATIVITY is problem solving, and dealing with illogical contradictions.
AWARENESS is intuition, being aware of one's self, and spotting patterns.
*it should be noted that none of these is directly related to having good ideas or developing strategies. This is intentional. It allows players to bring good ideas and strategies to the game without it "going against the character's stats."
Social
CHARISMA is social magnetism and ease of garnering attention and respect.
COMMUNICATION represents the ability to communication well, both with language and in other ways, such as gestures, expressions, and body language. A higher ability here allows one to better understand what others intend, notice things left unsaid, and of course, makes for a better "fast-talker."
EMPATHY represents ability to act as a team-player, emotional control, and connection with others. A low empathy person doesn't understand nor interact with others very well, like the classic lone wolf character.
Spiritual
SOUL is inherent energy. A high energy person that is always on the go and constantly bouncing off the walls, has a high Soul.
AURA is the connectivity with the world. It affects range and ability to interact with the world. A high Aura will notice things farther away and be better at accounting for external forces and the environment.
WILL represents personality, dedication to values (whatever they may be), and strength of self. Someone with a high will is not easily swayed nor diverted by adversity.
Skills:
Skills are broad types of activities that characters can learn to perform. They have three categories based on how difficult they are to learn.
Natural skills are instinctive and barring extreme circumstances, are generally learned up to a basic proficiency simply by living life. For example, perception is something people do all the time without thinking, they don't require training to use the skill, though training is required to become an expert at it.
Learned skills are a bit harder to learn and are not inherent in people. They must be studied or practiced, but are usually based on natural activities and therefore anyone could figure them out with simple trial and error by attempting them and eventually figuring them out.
Advanced skills are more abstract, or even unnatural (such as flying for a race without wings), and require significant investment to learn, usually the only reasonable way to learn these skills is from teachers. Advanced skills usually require some character trait (like a Feature, see below) or special circumstance to initially learn the skill. Those that don't, can be learned through trial and error, but require considerably more time and practice and often require just as much study and analysis as actual attempted use.
Making checks:
Making Checks
Checks can be more than pass/fail. They are informative. The result of a check will be a number and that number describes how well you did, regardless of how well you needed to do.
The Golden Number Scale
By default, when comparing numbers and associating them to results in the story world, the number represents a level of skill, ability, or rarity according to this scale.
<0 so easy that it normally is a success without effort, so common as to need effort to escape from it
0-10 common and easily done by average people with little training
10-20 apprentice level, fairly common
20-30 journeyman/professional level,
30-40 expert level, uncommon and somewhat expensive
40-50 basic mastery level, rare and expensive
50-60 masters aspire to this, Olympic level, very rare and hard to find
60+ legendary/mythical, many skeptics will not believe it (unless done by a demi-god or supernatural effect)
The number is also used for other things occasionally. I.E when something is crafted, the result of the crafting skill check is the quality of the item, which can come into play at times, such as appraising things.
To get that number, is very similar to d20, save that skill and attribute modifiers are dice, as are other things. You roll up to five dice, each representing an aspect of the check.
One die is called the Tier die. It represents your tier, or agency within the world. For PCs this is usually d10 to d12. D18 and higher is the realm of supernatural and divine beings. Tier die is added to nearly every roll and serves similarly to the d20 in d20 games.
Attributes have ranks, the higher the rank, the bigger the die that attribute adds to the check. Unlike d20, attributes with a positive score are positive bonuses.
An attribute score of 1-4 is rank 0 and adds nothing.
An attribute score of 5-8 is rank 1 and adds a d2.
An attribute score of 9-12 is rank 2, a d4
An attribute score of 13-16 is rank 3, a d6
An attribute score of 17-20 is rank 4, a d8
After this point, for every 20 points above, add 5 ranks, so 29 (9 plus 20 once) is rank 7 (2 + 5 once), which is d14 and 89 (9 plus 20 four times) is rank 22 (2+ 5 four times) or a d44.
The ranks are there for a reason I won't get into right now, suffice to say though, dice sizes are twice their rank.
Skills don't have scores, just ranks. The die gained from a skill is twice the rank.
Example,
Tier 6 with agility 14/rank 3, and acrobatics of rank 4 would roll a d12+d6+d8 for acrobatics checks.
Mostly complete magic:
Imagine a standard d20 die, it is a platonic solid. Each vertex represents a concept, and each face is a type of magic.
Often when displayed, the vertices are arranged similarly to the tree of life.
The 20 faces/types of magic and the face they belong to,
Thermics substance mana purpose
This type of magic is about controlling heat, moving it around or producing it. Simple but power intensive. Chronometrics substance purpose state
This type of magic can speed up or slow down time for the affected objects/creatures. It can only change the rate of time flow, but it can't allow time travel, though many fiction stories tell about time travel. Difficult and intensive. Few can use this reliably. Magnetics substance magnetism electricity
Controls magnetic fields and magnetic attraction. Moderate skill to use but intensive. Gravimetrics magnetism ether gravity
Gravity has three states. This allows a change in state, which affects how it attracts, or doesn't attract other matter. Mild skill and moderately intensive. Electromancy substance electricity mana
Control electricity, mostly (it tends to get out of hand easily, thus difficult to control properly but easy to produce.). It is moderately power intensive. Illuminetics electricity gravity light
Light comes in two forms, though it is believed there is a third form. Fairly easy to produce and somewhat intensive. Often used for training magic and is usually an early trick mastered by apprentices. Channeling electricity mana light
Simple and cheap, this is about moving mana around. Often used to power/recharge magic items. Is sometimes used to fuel another caster's magic. Manametrics mana purpose pattern
This affects mana and channels for mana to flow through and follow. This is the basis of mana based technology, from magic items to "electronics," called manatronics. Difficult, but not intensive. Fatescribing mana light pattern
Affects probability. The effects are subtle enough that many scholars thought it didn't work, till statistics showed otherwise. Simple and not intensive to cast, but it is tricky to get the desired results, though only very highly skilled mages can have a serious impact with this ability. Most folks wouldn't notice the difference. Auramancy state place ether
This is about using/manipulating the "aura" of things with magic. You could use this skill to "feel" nearby magic or creatures. Takes a great deal of focus but isn't difficult nor intensive. Emotives purpose pattern place
Can read/affect emotions, which seem to have an energy of their own. moderately difficult, not intensive to read, but intensive to manipulate. Doctors usually learn this to aid panicked patients. Conjuring purpose state place
Turn mana into matter, or matter into mana. Both difficult and intensive, the latter is more difficult but the mana can be captured to speed the regaining of mana. Morphics place ether soul
Changes aspects of material. The common way to use this is to change things from material to ethereal or orthereal, which interact with each other differently. Moderately difficult, intensive to shift, but cheap to maintain (and it needs maintained or the matter will return to normal quickly). At greater difficulty, can change the "projection" of an object, giving it a different physical form. Though if maintained for long periods, or performed often, the original form destabilizes and the object ends up as a ruined mess. A few creatures seem to have alternate forms that can be switched between or maintained without risk, though how it is accomplished is beyond even knowledgeable scholars. Sculpting pattern place soul
This affects the bonds of matter, on the simple end, it allows reshaping of an object, permanently, but on the difficult end it can mix two objects to produce alloys, or separate out into pure substances. This is often used to shape stone into buildings, or to "forge" items. Skill in using this ability is still required to produce good results. (AKA you need to be good at making swords to make a good sword). Concussives ether gravity soul
Controls pressure and raw force. Often used by musicians to make music, but is also often used to make telekinesis style effects, though precision is difficult for telekinesis performed in this fashion. Dissolve light pattern soul
This can break or strengthen bonds in a material. Often used in a fashion similar to welding things. Also used to cut things or in very scary bombs. Not easy and fairly intensive. Intraference substance magnetism state
This affects the reality of the world. Imagine an ether that is like a sea. This ability can calm the waves or produce terrible waves. This is often used to disrupt magic effects, but can also alter the flow of magnetism, gravity and similar effects, by making a "wall" that such things can't cross. Generally doesn't affect matter itself though. Moderately difficult, and mildly intensive, this is most common as a counterspell. Formweave magnetism electricity gravity
This is about the patterns that thongs seem to follow. I.E. you could bring thread and have it form into cloth. Simple and mildly intensive. Fieldetics magnetism state ether
This is all about fields, and is primarily about controlling other effects, magic or not. Similar to Intraference, this has greater flexibility and lends itself well to making geometric forms, such as cones or cylinders. Divination gravity light soul
Allows one to perceive different aspects of the universe, such as different spectrums of light, or the motion of air. Some of these are simple, others difficult. Doesn't grant the ability to perceive things far away (just things you can't normally perceive), but it can when combined with Intraference.
