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El-Sayal (prestige class)

El-Sayal

"El-Sayal" means "rain of sand" in the tongue of the desert dwellers. The El-Sayal incorporate the fierce storms of the Waste into their speech and philosophy--their wars are storms, their movement is wind, and their view of natural rain is falling sand.

The organization of the El-Sayal is a closely associated druidic order with some rangers, barbarians, nercromancers and arcane spellcasters from the north in their employ.

The El-Sayal tend to live in the Deathwaste, with a few of their lower initiates sent out into the world. Their natural animals are the monsters of the waste, instead of the natural animals of the rest of the world.

The El-Sayal respect of nature is foreign to most druids. They would say they have a wider view of what is natural, most would say they have a twisted view. To the El-Sayal, a tree is no more or less natural than an Iron Wall created by the spell, a raised undead, or a golem. All are of the same cloth to the El-Sayal. They see their duty, then, to restore the balance of the pre-war days, where magic was more closely associated with the land. To do this, they are hoping to spread the magical chaos of the DeathWaste out to the rest of the land.

The symbol of the El-Sayal is the Lightning-Root [1]. When lightning strikes the desert, it turns a part into a hollow glass object that resembles a treeroot. Every El-Sayal who has passed the Tahaddi possesses a piece of one of these, in which he keeps a drink made from the gland of the Alzabo, described below.

The El-Sayal are ritual cannibalists. In the Deathwaste, there is an extraplanar beast called the Alzabo which can consume the flesh of a creature and gain it's memories and vocal capacity (it uses it to know where the family lives and to trick them into letting there guard down by speaking with the voice of their (Recentlly) departed family members. A gland from the alzabo can be made into a drink which allows humans to eat the flesh and gain their memories--kinda like the Bene Gesserit in Dune--the knowledge skills and memories are passed on, more active skills (running, climbing, fighting) are not because the muscles and reflexes are not there. (Lifted from the Book of the New Sun series by Gene Wolfe)

Shai-Hulud is "Old Man/grandfather of the desert, and is the honorific for their archdruids and other high-level members.

History

As the Walkers had been the first to enquire of the new arts the Kaeron were discovering, they were also the most likely candidates for the Kaeron to slaughter on the advice of Chemelosian. A handful of Walkers escaped and fled south to the Plains of Bally Mor, led by Eowalle Brielith, an archdruidess. They were the center of what little resistance survived over the 500 years of Kaeron rule of Talanu, dwindling from their once massive coven of several hundred to, eventually, but twelve.

In their care, a young man grew up to become the strong and wise Colanx the Bear, who was, together with Daran Kar-Thone, the Chosen of Dana selected to lead the rebellion in full, and the Twelve Walkers became his personal guards and guides.

At the Battle of Bally Mor, a fierce--and close--battle between the Kaeron High College of Wizardry and Colanx's forces, the High College had unleashed a gof-level powered spell of wilting aimed at Colanx unlike any magical forces they had seen before. It moved intelligently, dodging or overcoming all magical protections afforded the general. Knowing the battle, and likely the war would be lost with Colanx, the Walkers--according to the legends--martyred themselves and drew the magics within themselves and the land around them.

This sacrifice allowed Colanx to win the day, and together with Daran Kar-Thone, the war in time. Upon their retreat from the weather changes in the north, they discovered that it had a toll--the magic directed into the land had created a desert, which was to grow into the DeathWaste.

It had another toll. The Walkers were not martyred. The Twelve were wracked with magical energy and crossed the border into the Other World, where they were treated by the Fay who dwell on the ethereal plane there, and then returned to the Plains of Bally Mor--now the DeathWaste.

Having little sanity left after their ordeals, sacrifice, and time in the Other World, they saw what their noble sacrifice had done--evidentally, destroyed their sacred home to gain nothing. They broke. Their hatred of themselves and what they did shifted to a hatred for others, and they made the DeathWaste their home. They adjusted as only druids do--the reed that bends will survive the hurricane that the stubborn tree does not, and made peace with the DeathWaste. Time and the magical echoes from the battle drove them, and their successors, away from the traditionally accepted path of the druid, and over time, they became known for their unnatural practices, and were named after a uniquely desert phenomena of the rain of sand, the El-Sayal.

Requirements

• Able to cast 2nd-level Nature-powered Divine Magic
• Able to cast 2nd-level arcane spells
• Wilderness Lore: 8 ranks
• Knowledge (Planar) 10 ranks
• Alignment: Any Evil or True Neutral
• Race: Any
• Special: Initiation rites (Tahaddi)
  The Tahaddi is a harsh rite of initiation which few survive. It is during the Tahaddi that the prospective El-Sayal must throw off his or her ties to the natural world and switch to a world which includes arcane magic, necromancy, and extraplanar beings as wholly natural.

Class Features

Hit Die: d8

Spells: The El-Sayal must choose between their druidic and arcane spellcasting abilities, and thereafter each level gained as an El-Sayal counts as an additional spellcasting level of that practice. A 4/4 Druid/Mage who chooses the path of the El-Sayal and gains a level can either (for purposes of spell list and spellcasting level only) choose to become a 5th level druidic spellcaster or a 5th level arcane spellcaster. This decision is permanent, however, the El-Sayal is not restricted from adding levels to the other practice. The next level the above character makes can be placed into either other class--if they had chosen arcane magics, they can still advance as a druid.

Unnatural Attunement: The El-Sayal are at home with extraplanar entities and monsters. To them, the natural beasts of the world are 'unnatural'. El-Sayal able to cast "Animal Friendship" effect non-natural animals--monsters and extraplanar beasts.

Quicksand At 1st level, the El-Sayal can merge with sand as per the Meld into Stone spell once per day.

Shared Experience Beginning at second level, an El Sayal may (if the opportunity arises) consume the flesh of another El Sayal to gain their personal memories (see personal memories described below in "Memories of the Flesh"). In this fashion is the history--and the madness--of the El Sayal passed down through generations. On average, but third level an El Sayal has consumed a fallen comrade who had himself consumed another--so there is a pool of communal memories that all El Sayal have access to. The El Sayal does not gain languages past their maximum allowed through Intelligence, but if they have space open for languages, can learn them from the memories. Most contact with El Sayal outside of the Deathwaste have been with their translators, druids who have devoted their lives to learning languages from their memories, and can so speak very ancient and very uncommon languages naturally.

Memories of the Flesh At 3rd level, an El-Sayal can consume the flesh of a sentient being and gain, for (Wisdom modifier) days the following: All the personal memories of the victim--for example, their friends, their friends' residences, languages, secret passwords, and so forth; all the skills and feats of the victim (The El Sayal gets the ranks the victim had, and they do not stack with existing ranks. Performance of these skills may be restricted or impossible due to physical limitations of the El-Sayal); All the spellcasting ability of the victim. After that, the El Sayal loses one set (his choice) of the above memories (personal memories, skills, spellcasting) each (Wisdom modifier) weeks until nothing remains.
The El Sayal can hold a maximum number of separate being's memories equal to his Intelligence modifier at any one time.

Permantent memory-sets
At 6th level, the El-Sayal can make one of the memory-sets permanent--however, the El-Sayal may only have one memory set of each type at once. They could have the personal memories of a FireWalker barbarian, the spellcasting ability of a fallen comrade, and the skills and attack bonuses of a fighter, but if they then tried to permanently take on the memories of another, their barbarian memories would vanish, and the number of permanent memory-sets is limited by their ability to have concurrent memory sets.

Permanent Personalities
At 8th level and every 4 levels past, the El-Sayal can make an entire personality permanent, and this personality no longer counts against their total. Permanently 'stored' personalities act not unlike Intelligent weapons. They have an Ego rating equal to the sum of their bonuses (and penalties) of their Charisma, Wisdom, and Intelligence, plus twice the personality's total level, plus again any spellcaster levels, plus the total number of feats the character has. (So, a human personality which had Cha 12 Int 16 and Wis 16, with 4 spellcasting levels and 3 fighter levels, and 4 feats would have an ego of 26). Personalities can resist the El Sayal's use of their memories in situations they would not agree with or if the El Sayal's action requiring the memory would be against the personality's alignment. The El Sayal must then roll a Will with the DC equal to the personalty's Ego. If successful, the El Sayal succeeds in using the memory, otherwise, the El Sayal fails and must roll again. If the El Sayal fails the second time, the personality can take control until a similar situation takes place. If the El Sayal succeeds the second time, nothing happens.

SandWalk At 3rd level, the El Sayal can travel through sand as per the Xornwalk spell once per day.

SandStride At 5th level, the El Sayal can travel through sand as per the TreeStride spell once per day.

PlaneWalk At 7th level, the El Sayal can planewalk once per day

Planar Immunity At 9th level, the El Sayal can declare himself immune to the effects from one of the elemental planes for that day.

Phylactery of the Bretheren At 10th level (and beyond), an El-Sayal may enter into a pact with any number of other El Sayal of at least 10th level each. If any one member of the pact dies, their soul travels to the nearest member of the pact (who must be on the same plane) and resides as a stored memory (as per Memories of the Flesh). The deceased El-Sayal can recreate their physical body through a ritual which must be completed by the host El-Sayal within 1d6+Wis modifier days. The El-Sayal is considered to be reincarnated, as per the spell.