List of Ancestries
Aiuvarin
Aiuvarin
Elves’ children with people of other ancestries, and the children of their children, are called “aiuvarin”, an elven word that refers to a poem about leaves that fall too quickly to the ground.
Elves’ children with people of other ancestries, and the children of their children, are called “aiuvarin”, an elven word that refers to a poem about leaves that fall too quickly to the ground. The most familiar aiuvarins in Golarion are born to an elf and a human, or to two aiuvarins. Those born of these unions are commonly referred to as “half-elves.” The life of an aiuvarin can be difficult, often marked by a struggle to fit in. Aiuvarins don’t have their own homeland on Golarion, nor are populations of aiuvarins particularly tied to one another since they often have very disparate traditions from their parents’ ancestries. Instead, they often attempt to find acceptance in their parents’ cultures or settlements.
Aiuvarins often have pointed ears and can be lanky, along with manifesting traits from their non-elven ancestors. They lack the almost-alien eyes of their elf parents, and their work to find a place for themselves in communities where they’re often out of sync with the dominant culture leads many to become artists or entertainers. Despite this innate socialization, many aiuvarins have difficulty forming lasting bonds with either of their parents’ people due to the distance they feel from both communities as a whole.
Aiuvarins gain some, but not all, of their elven parent’s longevity, and those with a human parent often live for around 150 years. This causes some of them to fear friendship and romance with humans, knowing that they’ll likely outlive their companions.
- Keep to yourself and find it difficult to form close bonds with others.
- Strongly embrace or reject one side or the other of your parentage.
- Identify strongly with and relate to other people with mixed ancestries.
- Find you more approachable than elves.
- See you primarily through the lens of your elven heritage.
- Downplay the challenges of being caught between cultures.
You have elves, or possibly other aiuvarins, in your family tree. You have pointed ears and other telltale signs of elf heritage. You gain the elf trait, the aiuvarin trait, and low-light vision. In addition, when you gain an ancestry feat, you can choose from aiuvarin and elf feats in addition to those from your ancestry.
Changeling
Changeling
Changelings are the children of malevolent hags, born with occult magic and the potential to hear a psychic Call.
Tales of children stolen away and replaced by monsters exist across countless cultures—but the true monsters are the hags who bring these strange children into the world, either directly as their birth parents or indirectly when strange magic from their coven rituals affects babies in nearby villages. Such a child faces no end of challenges, often beginning life as an abandoned or orphaned outsider.
Though a changeling generally resembles an ordinary member of their ancestry, their distinctive eyes—each a different color—set them apart. One of their eyes matches that of their father’s lineage, while the other matches the color of their hag mother’s, often in an unnatural shade such as violet or vivid green. Not everyone with differently colored eyes is a changeling, but this manifestation of changeling heritage makes it difficult for them to hide their nature and can lead to banishment. As they come of age, they manifest other characteristics from their mother, including supernatural abilities. Darkvision, clawlike fingernails, and innate magic are the most common.
Changelings can be any gender, but women in particular are vulnerable to the Call, a psychic influence that urges them to abandon their mortal life, join the hag’s coven, and eventually become a hag themselves. Changelings who understand their heritage often fear the Call and work to resist its pull. Those who remain ignorant of their origin may find themselves subject to a terrible compulsion without knowing why.
- Cherish and protect those friends and family who accept you as you are.
- Seek to better understand your hag mother and the gifts she gave you, for good or ill, or distance yourself from your heritage.
- Fear the day you hear the Call and worry you might not be able to resist—or perhaps you already fight to resist it every day.
- Assume you practice occult or primal magic, or that you participate in a coven.
- Worry that you might secretly be a monster, or become one, and turn on them.
- Notice and speculate about your distinctive eyes.
Your mother was a hag. Your eyes’ heterochromia is the most obvious signifier of this parentage, but you likely also have a slighter build, paler skin, and darker hair than most members of your other parent’s ancestry. You gain the changeling trait. You also gain low-light vision, or you gain darkvision if your ancestry already has low-light vision. You can select from changeling feats and feats from your other parent’s ancestry whenever you gain an ancestry feat.
Dromaar
Dromaar
As the orcs of Belkzen have become a critical vanguard in the war against the Whispering Tyrant, sometimes fighting alongside allies of other ancestries, children with a mix of orc heritage and that of another ancestry (typically human) have grown in number.
As the orcs of Belkzen have become a critical vanguard in the war against the Whispering Tyrant, sometimes fighting alongside allies of other ancestries, children with a mix of orc heritage and that of another ancestry (typically human) have grown in number. Many of these “half-orcs” refer to themselves as “dromaars,” an orcish word referring to those drummers whose music sends the hordes marching to war, seeing themselves as heralds of a new age for orcs in the Inner Sea region. Some intolerant humanoids see orcs as more akin to monsters than people, hating and fearing them simply due to their lineage. This can push dromaars to the margins of society, where some find work in manual labor, as mercenaries, or in crime. Many who can’t stand the indignities heaped on them in human society find a home among their orc kin or trek into the wilderness.
Some humans assume dromaars are less intelligent or uncivilized, and dromaars rarely find acceptance among societies with many such folk. To an orc hold, a dromaar is often considered a valuable addition, making up for anything they might lack in physical strength with gifts inherited from their other ancestral line. While some dromaars struggle to claim a name for themselves in the unforgiving hierarchies of orc holds, others may find that orcish society is far more tolerant and can create opportunities to rise high.
A dromaar with a human parent can typically live to around 70 years old.
- Ignore, embrace, or actively counter the common stereotypes about dromaars.
- Make the most of your size and strength, either physically or socially.
- Keep your distance from people of most other ancestries, in case they unfairly reject you due to your orc ancestors.
- Assume you enjoy and excel at fighting but aren’t inclined toward magical or intellectual pursuits.
- Pity you for the tragic circumstances they assume were involved in your birth.
- Get out of your way and back down rather than face your anger.
Orcish strength emboldens your bloodline. You have a green tinge to your skin and other indicators of orc heritage. You gain the orc trait, the dromaar trait, and low-light vision. When you gain an ancestry feat, you can choose from dromaar and orc feats in addition to those from your ancestry.
Dwarf
Dwarf
Dwarves are a short, stocky people who are often stubborn, fierce, and devoted.
Dwarves have a well-earned reputation as a stoic and stern people, but they also have an unbridled zeal and deeply value artisanship. To a stranger, they can seem untrusting and clannish, but to their friends and family, they are warm and caring. While trust from a dwarf is hard-won, once gained it is as strong as iron.
If you want to play a character who is as hard as nails, a stubborn and unrelenting adventurer, with a mix of rugged toughness and deep wisdom, you should play a dwarf.
- Strive to uphold your personal honor and refuse to back down
- Appreciate quality craftsmanship in all forms and insist upon it for all your gear.
- See you as stubborn, though whether this is an asset or a detriment changes from moment to moment.
- Recognize the deep connection you have with your family, heritage, and friends.
Dwarves typically reach physical adulthood around the age of 25, though their traditionalist culture places more value on completing coming-of-age ceremonies unique to each clan than reaching a certain age. A typical dwarf can live to around 350 years old.
Few dwarves are seen without their clan dagger strapped to their belt. This dagger is forged just before a dwarf’s birth and is distinctive to their clan. Dwarves honor their children with names of ancestors or dwarven heroes. When introducing themselves, dwarves tend to list their family and clan, plus any number of other familial connections and honorifics.
Popular Edicts create art with utility, guard your community against those who would harm it, keep your clan dagger close
Popular Anathema leave an activity or promise uncompleted, forsake your family
Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if it’s positive). Choose from Gnomish, Goblin, Jotun, Orcish, Petran, Sakvroth, and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent in your region).
Elf
Elf
Elves are a tall, long-lived people with a strong tradition of art and magic.
As an ancient people, elves have seen great change and have the perspective that can come only from watching the arc of history. After leaving Golarion in ancient times, they returned to a changed land, and they still struggle to reclaim their ancestral homes. Elves value kindness, intellect, and beauty, with many elves striving to improve their manners, appearance, and culture. Their studies delve into a level of detail that most shorter-lived peoples find excessive or inefficient. Elves are often rather private people, steeped in the secrets of their groves and kinship groups. They’re slow to build friendships outside their kinsfolk, as elves who spend their lives among shorter-lived peoples often become morose after watching generations of companions age and die. These elves are known as Forlorn among their fellow elves.
If you want a character who is magical, mystical, and mysterious, you should play an elf.
- Carefully curate your relationships with people with shorter lifespans.
- Adopt specialized or obscure interests simply for the sake of mastering them.
- Focus on your appearance, either admiring your grace or treating you as if you’re physically fragile.
- Worry that you privately look down on them, or feel like you’re condescending and aloof.
Elves gradually adapt to their environment and their companions, and they often take on physical traits reflecting their surroundings. An elf who has dwelled in primeval forests for centuries, for example, might exhibit verdant hair and gnarled fingers, while one who’s lived in a desert might have golden pupils and skin. Elves reach physical adulthood around the age of 20, though they aren’t considered to be fully emotionally mature by other elves until closer to the passing of their first century. A typical elf can live to around 600 years old.
Elves hold deeply seated ideals of individualism, allowing each elf to explore multiple occupations before alighting on a particular pursuit or passion that suits her best. Elves bear notorious grudges against rivals, which elves call ‘ilduliel,’ but these antagonistic relationships can sometimes blossom into friendships over time. An elf keeps their personal name secret among their family, while giving a nickname when meeting other people. This nickname can change over time, due to events in the elf’s life or even on a whim. A single elf might be known by many names by associates of different ages and regions.
Elven names consist of multiple syllables and are meant to flow lyrically—at least in the Elven tongue.
Popular Edicts find beauty in nature and art, explore things others would keep hidden, demonstrate superiority to your rival
Popular Anathema abandon your own path, force another creature to do something
Choose from Draconic, Empyrean, Fey, Gnomish, Goblin, Kholo, Orcish, and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent in your region).
Gnome
Gnome
Gnomes are short and hardy folk, with an unquenchable curiosity and eccentric habits.
Long ago, early gnome ancestors emigrated from the First World, realm of the fey. While it’s unclear why the first gnomes wandered to Golarion, this lineage manifests in modern gnomes as bizarre reasoning, eccentricity, obsessive tendencies, and what some see as naivete.
Always hungry for new experiences, gnomes constantly wander both mentally and physically, attempting to stave off a terrible ailment that threatens all of their people. This affliction, known as the Bleaching, strikes gnomes who fail to dream, innovate, and take in new experiences. The Bleaching slowly drains the color— literally—from gnomes, and it plunges those affected into states of deep depression that eventually claim their lives. Very few gnomes survive this scourge, becoming deeply morose and wise survivors known as bleachlings.
If you want a character with boundless enthusiasm and an alien, fey outlook on morality and life, you should play a gnome.
- Embrace learning and hop from one area of study to another without warning.
- Speak, think, and move quickly, and lose patience with those who can’t keep up.
- Appreciate your enthusiasm and the energy with which you approach new situations.
- Struggle to understand your motivations or adapt to your rapid changes of direction.
Gnomes typically reach physical maturity at the age of 18, though many gnomes maintain a childlike curiosity about the world even into adulthood. A gnome can theoretically live to any age if they can stave off the Bleaching indefinitely, but in practice gnomes rarely live longer than around 400 years.
By necessity, few gnomes marry for life, instead allowing relationships to run their course before amicably moving on, the better to stave off the Bleaching with new experiences. Though gnome families tend to be small, many gnome communities raise children communally, with fluid family boundaries. Gnome names can get quite complex and polysyllabic. Gnomes rarely concern themselves with how easy their names are to pronounce, and they often go by shorter nicknames. Among gnomes, the shorter the name, the more feminine it’s considered to be.
Popular Edicts seek new experiences, embrace your inspiration, move from obsession to obsession
Popular Anathema slow down to explain yourself, deprive someone of all stimulation
Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if it’s positive). Choose from Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Goblin, Jotun, Orcish, and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent in your region).
Goblin
Goblin
Goblins are a short, scrappy, energetic people who have spent millennia maligned and feared.
The convoluted histories other people cling to don’t interest goblins. These small folk live in the moment, and they prefer tall tales over factual records. Goblin virtues are about being present, creative, and honest. They strive to lead fulfilled lives, rather than worrying about how their journeys will end. To tell stories, not nitpick the facts. To be small, but dream big. Many goblins enjoy simpler delights like songs, fire, and eating, and hate reading, dogs, and horses. Other goblins might have more complex pursuits, though, such as tinkering with scraps or concocting snacks and explosives from most anything.
If you want a character who is eccentric, enthusiastic, and fun-loving, you should play a goblin.
- Strive to prove that you have a place among other civilized peoples, perhaps even to yourself.
- Lighten the heavy emotional burdens others carry (and amuse yourself) with antics and pranks.
- Work to ensure you don’t accidentally (or intentionally) set too many things on fire.
- Wonder how you survive given your ancestry’s typical gastronomic choices, reckless behavior, and love of fire.
Goblins reach adolescence by the age of 3 and adulthood 4 or 5 years later. Goblins can live 50 years or more, but without anyone to protect them from each other or themselves, few live past 20 years of age.
Goblins bond closely with their allies, fiercely protecting those companions who have protected them or offered a sympathetic ear. Goblins tend to assume for their own protection that members of taller ancestries, which goblins often refer to colloquially as “longshanks,” won’t treat them kindly. Learning to trust longshanks is difficult for a goblin, and it’s been only in recent years that such a partnership has even been an option. Goblins keep their names simple. A good name should be easy to pronounce, short enough to shout without getting winded, and taste good to say. The namer often picks a word that rhymes with something they like so that writing songs is easier.
Popular Edicts invent songs for every occasion, turn trash into your treasures, solve problems with fire
Popular Anathema trust a dog or horse, learn to read
Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if it’s positive). Choose from Draconic, Dwarven, Gnomish, Halfling, Kholo, Orcish, and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent in your region).
Halfling
Halfling
Halflings are a short, resilient people who exhibit remarkable curiosity and humor.
Claiming no place as their own, halflings control few settlements larger than villages. Instead, they frequently live among humans within larger cities, carving out small communities alongside taller folk. Optimistic, cheerful, and driven by powerful wanderlust, halflings make up for their short stature with an abundance of bravado. At once excitable and easygoing, halflings are the best kind of opportunists, and their passions favor joy over violence. While their curiosity sometimes drives them toward adventure, halflings also carry strong ties to house and home.
If you want to play a character who must contend with these opposing drives toward adventure and comfort, you should play a halfling.
- Get along well with a wide variety of people and enjoy meeting new friends.
- Find it difficult to resist indulging your curiosity, even when you know it’s going to lead to trouble.
- Appreciate your ability to always find a silver lining or something to laugh about, no matter how dire the situation.
- Think you bring good luck with you.
Halflings reach physical adulthood around the age of 20. A typical halfling can live to be around 150 years old.
Popular Edicts share good meals with friends and strangers alike, stand up to bullies and oppressors, stay beneath the taller folk’s notice
Popular Anathema take your luck for granted
Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if it’s positive). Choose from Dwarven, Elven, Gnomish, Goblin, and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent in your region).
Human
Human
Humans are diverse and adaptable people with wide potential and deep ambitions.
As unpredictable and varied as any of Golarion’s peoples, humans have exceptional drive and the capacity to endure and expand. Though many civilizations thrived before humanity rose to prominence, humans have built some of the greatest and the most terrible societies throughout the course of history, and today they are the most populous people in the realms around the Inner Sea.
Humans’ ambition, versatility, and exceptional potential have led to their status as the world’s predominant ancestry. Their empires and nations are vast, sprawling things, and their citizens carve names for themselves with the strength of their sword arms and the power of their spells. Humanity is diverse and tumultuous, running the gamut from nomadic to imperial, sinister to saintly. Many of them venture forth to explore, to map the expanse of the multiverse, to search for long-lost treasure, or to lead mighty armies to conquer their neighbors—for no better reason than because they can.
If you want a character who can be just about anything, you should play a human.
- Strive to achieve greatness, either in your own right or on behalf of a cause.
- Seek to understand your purpose in the world.
- Cherish your relationships with family and friends.
- Respect your flexibility, your adaptability, and—in most cases—your open-mindedness.
- Distrust your intentions, fearing you seek only power or wealth.
- Aren’t sure what to expect from you and are hesitant to assume your intentions.
Humans reach physical adulthood around the age of 15, though mental maturity occurs a few years later. A typical human can live to be around 90 years old. Humans have exceptionally mutable physical characteristics compared to other ancestries, with greater variance in height, weight, and other physical parameters.
Popular Edicts explore the world, strive for greatness, devote yourself to a moral outlook
Popular Anathema waste what little time you have
Additional languages equal to 1 + your Intelligence modifier (if it’s positive). Choose from the list of common languages and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent in your region).
Leshy
Leshy
Leshies are immortal nature spirits placed in small plant bodies, seeking to experience the world.
Leshies are immortal spirits of nature temporarily granted physical forms. As guardians and emissaries of the environment, leshies are “born” when a skilled druid or other master of primal magic conducts a ritual to create a suitable vessel, and then a spirit chooses that vessel to be their temporary home. Leshies are self-sufficient from the moment the ritual ends, though it isn’t uncommon for leshies to maintain lifelong bonds with their creators. Many leshies relish the opportunity to interact with the physical world. While most leshy spirits are ancient, they rarely recall past lifetimes and see their new life as a chance to experience the wonders of the world once more.
If you want to play a character who is curious and connected to nature, you should play a leshy.
- Act as a traveling agent for natural guardians who are unable to leave their territories.
- Encourage civilizations to cooperate with nature and build their cities in ecologically friendly ways.
- Think you are a curiosity due to your spiritual origins.
- Assume you know only about nature and are unfamiliar with civilization and society.
Leshies are grouped into categories akin to ethnicities, but these are not connected to physical features; rather, they represent broad categories of characteristics of their spirits. Certain spirits are more likely to gravitate toward particular physical bodies, though this predisposition is far from absolute. Leshies’ genders are determined by the spirits that inhabit their bodies. Some leshies are exclusively male or female, while many consider themselves both. Others, particularly fungus leshies, tend toward far more complex expressions of gender, or eschew the concept entirely. Leshies choose and change their names multiple times throughout their lives.
Popular Edicts experience the physical world, form a family through loyalty and trust, protect parts of nature you embody
Popular Anathema embrace unnatural magic or influences
Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if it’s positive). Choose from Draconic, Elven, Gnomish, Goblin, Halfling, Sakvroth, and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent in your region).
Nephilim
Nephilim
Nephilim are influenced by the divine magic of the Outer Sphere, often with fiendish or celestial features.
Countless legends tell of mortal dealings with immortal beings, and of the children born from those encounters. These children, known as planar scions, are mortals who inherit the supernatural essence of another plane, which manifests through their distinctive physical features and otherworldly powers. This section presents rules for nephilim, planar scions who can trace their extraplanar heritage back to celestials, fiends, monitors, and other entities who often become involved in the religious affairs of mortals.
A faithful priest of Erastil is visited by an angel in his youth, and many years later he fathers a child with the head of an elk and a birthmark shaped like Erastil’s religious symbol, a bow and arrow. A powerful sorceress prevents an incursion from the Outer Rifts, but a sliver of demonic power infuses the child she carries, who is born with fangs and a pair of tiny horns. A planar caravan travels the Multiverse until its ranks are filled with children who possess devilish hooves and angelic halos. These children, known as nephilim, possess the ambition and capacity for growth and change inherent in their mortal forebears, while also possessing some portion of the power and appearance of an immortal entity or entities whose energies influenced their bloodline.
Nephilim are difficult to categorize by nature. Some possess both demonic and angelic traits, while others possess abilities that defy the neat categories of scholars. Many nephilim do have traits that strongly point to their lineage, though. Nephilim who carry the power of archons, sometimes known as lawbringers, may display golden eyes or flaming auras, while nephilim descended from devils, known as hellspawn, may have red skin and hooved feet.
While the term nephilim broadly describes these individuals, some cultures use the name empyrean or cambion to refer to nephilim with celestial influence or fiendish influence respectively. Other nephilim sometimes earn the names of aphorite or ganzi, though this entry only focuses on empyreans and cambions.
If you want a character who is supernaturally infused with the power of the Outer Planes, whose appearance is striking and notable, and whose personal connections might extend beyond the bounds of the Universe, you should play a nephilim.
- Have a strong sense of self-confidence due to the power or influence of your extraplanar heritage.
- Lean into or rebel against your perceived extraplanar nature, embracing angelic goodness or twisting demonic rage towards better ends.
- Find that building relationships with others is difficult, but treasure those who value you for who, and not what, you are.
- Assume you’ve faced numerous challenges or gained unfair advantages due to your heritage.
- Mistake you for an agent of a holy or unholy organization.
- Think you have associations with powerful extraplanar creatures, potentially trying to bargain with you for power of their own.
Your nature is influenced by celestials, fiends, or monitors. This manifests as a combination of features that belie your heritage, such as golden eyes, a halo, horns, or a tail. You gain the nephilim trait, in addition to the traits from your ancestry. You gain low-light vision, or you gain darkvision if your ancestry already has low-light vision. You can choose from nephilim feats and feats from your ancestry whenever you gain an ancestry feat.
Orc
Orc
Orcs are proud, strong people with hardened physiques who value physical might and glory in combat.
Orcs are forged in the fires of violence and conflict, often from the moment they are born. As they live lives that are frequently cut brutally short, orcs revel in testing their strength against worthy foes, often by challenging a higher-ranking member of their community for dominance. Orcs often struggle to gain acceptance among other communities, who frequently see them as brutes. Those who earn the loyalty of an orc friend, however, soon learn that an orc’s fidelity and honesty are unparalleled. Orc culture teaches that they are shaped by the challenges they survive, and the most worthy survive the most hardships. Orcs who attain both a long life and great triumphs command immense respect.
If you want a character who is hardy, fearsome, and excels at feats of physical prowess, you should play an orc.
- Eagerly meet any chance to prove your strength in a physical contest.
- View dying in glorious combat as preferable to a mundane death from old age or illness.
- See you as violent or lacking in discipline.
- Admire your forthrightness and blunt honesty.
Orcs consider powerful builds, heavily scarred skin, large tusks, and tattoos attractive, regardless of gender. Orcs reach physical adulthood around the age of 17, with many orcs living to be up to 60 years old.
While there are orc deities, their worship is surprisingly uncommon among orcs. Orcs believe that if a creature has a face and a name, it can be killed, and so their own deities are often targets, rather than objects of reverence. Some orc holds teach that the greatest members of the hold can earn a chance to challenge the orc deities for a place amid the pantheon.
Popular Edicts become even stronger, share knowledge you won through pain, destroy the undead
Popular Anathema accept defeat without proof of strength, reshape or reanimate a creature into something lesser
Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if it’s positive). Choose from Goblin, Jotun, Petran, Sakvroth, and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent in your region).