The World of Abadonya

Children of the Wandering Seed

Aurelion's oldest woodland stories speak of immense magical trees whose seeds can drift for miles on strong mountain winds. Most seeds fall dormant or grow into strange vegetation. A rare few awaken as Thornkin.

A newly awakened Thornkin does not pass through infancy in the manner of mortal peoples. It emerges with an instinctive understanding of movement, speech, and the world around it, but almost no lived experience. This makes curiosity one of the strongest forces in Thornkin culture.

Their wing structures are living parts of their bodies, formed from wood, vine, leaf, thorn, and mistletoe-like growths. They are not worn devices and cannot simply be removed.

Small Fey with Living Wings

Thornkin are small, light-framed fey whose bodies blend humanoid features with living plant growth. Their wings form branching lattices of vine and wood rather than feathers.

Skin tones may resemble pale flesh, bark, moss, fresh leaves, dried wood, or floral hues. Hair can appear as ordinary hair, trailing vines, fine roots, moss, or sprays of tiny leaves.

Some Thornkin develop prominent natural thorns along the wings, shoulders, forearms, or back. Others sprout flowers, seed pods, or leaves that change subtly with season, health, or mood.

Aurelion Thornkin enjoy combining natural materials with objects collected during travel. Their clothing may include woven grasses, soft leathers, embroidered cloth, bright ribbons, small gemstones, or strange trinkets gathered simply because they were interesting.

Tell Us Something We Have Never Heard

Thornkin society revolves around art, discovery, experimentation, gossip, and storytelling. Someone who returns from a distant journey with an extraordinary tale may gain more admiration than a wealthy landowner or formal official.

Leadership is usually informal. Famous explorers, skilled artists, entertaining storytellers, and individuals with unusual experiences naturally attract followers.

Mixed fey communities are common in Aurelion. Thornkin living among other fey often adopt elaborate titles whose importance depends far more on reputation and personality than law.

They show little interest in assigning social roles by gender and tend to find rigid mortal expectations on the subject unnecessarily restrictive.

A World Too Interesting to Ignore

Thornkin are inquisitive to a fault. They ask questions constantly, test unfamiliar objects, follow strange sounds, investigate rumors, and become fascinated by things other travelers wisely leave alone.

This makes them excellent guides and explorers when their curiosity points in the same direction as the group. It can also make them exhausting companions when a half-hidden inscription, odd flower, or mysterious doorway becomes more interesting than the original destination.

Their humor is often whimsical, strange, and highly situational. Thornkin may play harmless tricks, invent elaborate titles for friends, or turn serious journeys into opportunities for stories.

Where the Seeds Awaken

Aurelion is the principal homeland of the Thornkin. Their groves are most often found near magical forests, high valleys, abandoned arcane gardens, secluded enclaves, and places where wind and ley energy meet.

Some scholars believe particular ancient trees have produced Thornkin for centuries. Others argue that several different magical tree lineages exist across Aurelion.

Thornkin care considerably less about proving these theories than Aurelion's scholars do. To most Thornkin, where a seed began matters less than what the person grown from it chooses to experience.

Offerings, Stories & Favors

Thornkin often approach powerful beings through respect, offerings, favors, and reciprocal relationships rather than rigid religious hierarchy.

In Abadonya, many Thornkin feel a natural connection to Trentula because of forests and living growth. Others are fascinated by Rashtala and magical mysteries, while storytellers and seekers of hidden knowledge may turn toward Mandella.

Thornkin may follow any alignment or deity. Their culture tends toward independence and whimsy, but individual morality varies as widely as it does among other peoples.

Standard Pathfinder 1e Racial Traits

Ability Score Modifiers: Thornkin gain +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, and –2 Constitution.

Type: Thornkin are Fey.

Size: Thornkin are Small and gain a +1 size bonus to AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a –1 penalty on combat maneuver checks and CMD, a +2 bonus on Fly checks, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks.

Speed: Thornkin have a base speed of 30 feet and a fly speed of 40 feet with poor maneuverability.

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

Languages: Thornkin begin play speaking Common and Sylvan. Thornkin with high Intelligence scores can choose Draconic, Elven, Goblin, Halfling, and Orc as bonus languages.

Natural Armor: Thornkin gain a +1 natural armor bonus.

Spell-Like Abilities: Thornkin can use entangle and feather step once per day each. Caster level equals the Thornkin's character level.

Race Points: 12 RP.

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

Selected Alternate Racial Traits

Arboreal Vitality: Fly speed becomes 20 feet with poor maneuverability. While adjacent to a living tree larger than the Thornkin, gain fast healing 2 for 1 round, healing up to 2 hit points per character level per day. This modifies fly speed.

Body Thorns: Natural thorns function as masterwork armor spikes while the Thornkin is not wearing armor or bulky clothing. This replaces the spell-like abilities.

Bower Born: Gain +2 racial bonuses on Diplomacy and Handle Animal checks. This replaces natural armor.

Fey Resilience: Gain DR 1/cold iron, increasing by 1 for every 5 Hit Dice. This replaces the spell-like abilities.

Flighty: Perception becomes a class skill and the Thornkin gains +2 on saves against patterns and effects causing fascination. This replaces natural armor.

Honey Whisperer: Handle Animal and wild empathy can influence vermin as if they were animals with Intelligence 1. This replaces natural armor.

Intense Curiosity: When taking 20, gain +4 on Perception and Survival checks to find or follow tracks and predict weather. This replaces the spell-like abilities.

Natural Bounty: Gain goodberry 1/day, later adding plant growth and heroes' feast at higher levels. This replaces natural armor and the normal spell-like abilities.

Nimbus of Vitality: Once per day, surround yourself with a life-giving aura that functions with faerie fire and grants fast healing 2 for a limited duration. This replaces the spell-like abilities.

Otherworldly Gossip: Gain +2 on Diplomacy checks to gather information and on one chosen Knowledge skill. This replaces the spell-like abilities.

Photosynthetic Vision: Gain +2 on Perception checks. This replaces low-light vision.

Soaring Agility: Gain +1 dodge AC against attacks originating at least 20 feet below you. This replaces natural armor.

Sticky Tendrils: Gain wall-clinging and gliding instead of true flight. This replaces fly speed.

Symbiotic Imbalance: Base speed becomes 20 feet and fly speed remains 40 feet but improves to average maneuverability.

Titled: Bluff, Diplomacy, and Knowledge (nobility) become class skills. This replaces feather step.

Tree-Born: Remove the Constitution penalty, but base speed becomes 20 feet and fly speed 30 feet with clumsy maneuverability.

Tree Dialect: Gain speak with plants 1/day, affecting trees only. This replaces the spell-like abilities.

Whimsical Outlook: Once per day, roll a Will saving throw twice and use the better result. This replaces the spell-like abilities.

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

The Next Story Is Somewhere Else

Adventure comes naturally to Thornkin. Their culture already rewards exploration, unusual discoveries, and stories gathered beyond familiar groves.

Bards, rogues, druids, sorcerers, witches, investigators, hunters, and other skilled or magical classes are common, though Thornkin can pursue any class.

An Aurelion Thornkin might leave home to map an impossible ruin, meet a creature no one in the grove has seen before, investigate magical weather, follow a rumor across the continent, or simply collect a story worth telling for the next hundred years.

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