The World of Abadonya

Survivors of Port and Island

Oriander Tengu are found most often in island ports, old harbor districts, cliffside settlements, and smaller communities along busy trade routes.

They adapt quickly to changing circumstances and often survive by mastering skills useful wherever people gather: translation, bargaining, scouting, swordplay, repair work, navigation, and information gathering.

Their communities are usually close-knit and private. Outsiders may know the public face of a Tengu neighborhood while understanding very little about the customs, elders, and agreements that shape life within it.

Black Feathers and Sharp Eyes

Tengu resemble humanoid crows or ravens, with broad beaks, taloned hands and feet, and bodies covered in iridescent feathers.

Black plumage is most common, though brown, blue-black, and other dark shades also appear. Some individuals bleach feathers, paint their beaks, wear rings or beads, or use colored cloth to make themselves easier to identify.

Tengu are roughly human height but usually more lightly built. Their hollow bones make them agile, though physically less robust than many other Medium humanoids.

Every Port Leaves a Mark

Tengu are exceptionally talented at learning languages. Oriander communities often develop dialects filled with phrases borrowed from sailors, merchants, islanders, travelers, and neighboring peoples.

This habit extends beyond speech. Tengu communities frequently adopt clothing, food, tools, music, sword techniques, and practical customs from surrounding cultures, reshaping them into something distinctly their own.

They do not generally view cultural borrowing as imitation. To a Tengu, a useful idea becomes more valuable when adapted well.

The Blade Is a Universal Language

Sword training is common from an early age. In many Oriander Tengu communities, basic blade competence is treated as practical education rather than a mark of professional soldiery.

Different neighborhoods and island groups develop distinctive schools, often combining techniques learned from mercenaries, sailors, duelists, guards, and travelers.

A respected sword teacher may hold influence equal to a merchant elder or community negotiator, especially in dangerous port districts.

Close-Knit by Choice

Oriander is the principal homeland of the Tengu in Abadonya. Some communities occupy dense port neighborhoods, while others maintain isolated settlements on forested islands or difficult coastal cliffs.

Public decisions are often made through loose councils, respected elders, skilled negotiators, and individuals whose reputation gives their voice weight.

Conflict is commonly settled through public discussion, bargaining, arbitration, or formal personal challenges rather than rigid bureaucracy.

Tengu who live outside these communities often remain connected through family networks, trade contacts, and shared language.

Useful Truths from Many Traditions

Tengu religious life tends to be flexible. Individuals may honor several powers, maintain household traditions, or adopt practices learned during travel.

In Abadonya, Mandella attracts Tengu scholars, translators, and messengers, while Rivera is respected among sailors and island communities. Others follow gods connected to craft, nature, magic, trade, or personal values.

Tengu may follow any alignment or deity. Their adaptability does not require fickleness, and many remain deeply loyal once trust is earned.

Standard Pathfinder 1e Racial Traits

Ability Score Modifiers: Tengu gain +2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, and –2 Constitution.

Type: Tengu are humanoids with the tengu subtype.

Size: Tengu are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to size.

Base Speed: Tengu have a base speed of 30 feet.

Languages: Tengu begin play speaking Common and Tengu. Tengu with high Intelligence scores can choose any bonus languages except secret languages such as Druidic.

Sneaky: Tengu gain a +2 racial bonus on Perception and Stealth checks.

Gifted Linguist: Tengu gain a +4 racial bonus on Linguistics checks and learn two languages each time they gain a rank in Linguistics instead of one.

Swordtrained: Tengu are automatically proficient with sword-like weapons, including bastard swords, daggers, elven curve blades, falchions, greatswords, kukris, longswords, punching daggers, rapiers, scimitars, short swords, and two-bladed swords.

Natural Weapon: Tengu have a bite attack that deals 1d3 points of damage.

Low-Light Vision: Tengu can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.

Race Points: 13 RP.

These are the Pathfinder 1e racial mechanics used for Tengu characters in Abadonya.

Alternate Racial Traits

Carrion Sense: Gain a limited scent ability that functions only for corpses and badly wounded creatures at 50% or fewer hit points. This replaces Gifted Linguist.

Claw Attack: Gain two claw attacks as primary natural attacks dealing 1d3 damage each and count as having Improved Unarmed Strike for feat prerequisites. This replaces Swordtrained.

Deft Swords: Gain a +2 dodge bonus to CMD while wielding a sword-like weapon. This replaces Natural Weapon and Sneaky.

Exotic Weapon Training: Choose a number of eastern weapons equal to 3 + Intelligence bonus and gain proficiency with them. This replaces Swordtrained.

Glide: Make a DC 15 Fly check to fall safely from any height and, when falling safely, glide 5 feet laterally for every 20 feet fallen with another DC 15 Fly check. This replaces Gifted Linguist.

These options use the normal Pathfinder 1e alternate racial trait replacement rules.

Experience Becomes Mastery

Tengu often become adventurers because travel rewards exactly the skills their culture values: observation, language, adaptation, negotiation, and practical combat.

Rogues and rangers are especially common, while oracles, monks, fighters, bards, swashbucklers, and other agile or skill-focused classes also fit naturally. Tengu can pursue any class.

An Oriander Tengu adventurer might work as a translator between island groups, master a foreign sword style, uncover information hidden in a port district, or treat every new journey as another lesson toward personal mastery.

Return to the Races of Abadonya index to browse other ancestries.