d20 Dark Quest Cyclopedia Galactica Alien Races Zizak.pdf

ALIEN RACES:

ZIZAK

Author/

David Woodrum

Editor/

Joanna G. Hurley

Artist/

David Hamilton

Graphic Artist/

Deborah Balsam

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XENO SPECIES:

REPRODUCTION/AGING

The female zizak lay between 5 to 8 (1d4+4)

eggs per month. These eggs are typically

placed in a brooding den and covered in sand.

From there the eggs require no further atten-

tion from the female. The young hatch within

2 months of the burial of the eggs. Unfertile

rates are typically rather high, with only 20%

to 40% of the eggs hatching. After hatching,

the young mature both physically and men-

tally at a rapid rate. While little love and af-

fection is given to these young, the juvenile

zizak are mustered into a range of intellectual,

physical, and religious exercises by stern elder

tutors. Those that cannot keep up with the

demanding pace are either allowed to die off

ZIZAK

The zizak are a race of strange, humanoid crea-

tures with insect-like heads, smooth skin in

mottled shades of orange and red-pink, and

large emerald to apple green eyes that are

similar to that of a common houseﬂ y. Short

lived compared to other intelligent species,

with bizarre religious beliefs, the zizak are of-

ten jealous and aggressive individuals.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

The zizak stand 5 feet to 5 feet, six inches in

height. They weigh between 90 and 145 lbs.,

and the females are usually shorter and light-

er than the males. While their faces are quite

insect-like in appearance, the smooth, slick

skin of the zizak is much like that of a human,

although utterly hairless. The ﬂ y-like, com-

pound eyes of the zizak give the creature an

enhanced focusing ability. These eyes also

softly glow a greenish tint in utter darkness,

allowing the creature to see by darkvision.

In dim light, the zizak is capable of lowlight

vision.

When a zizak of traditional values and impor-

tant rank is encountered, it is likely that this

creature will be wearing either the ceremo-

nially acceptable robes of their culture or a

shimmering set of technologically advanced

battle armor. Such armor is presented to the

heroic warriors of the zizak culture, as a sym-

bol of the carapaces that were stolen from

the zizak’s bodies by the evil visitors of their

past history.

BREATHING

The zizak breathe an atmosphere that is quite

similar to what the humans refer to as “air.”

While levels of carbon dioxide were much

heavier in the atmosphere of the zizak’s na-

tive world, this is an element from which the

zizak neither beneﬁ ts nor is harmed. A zizak

can live on a human acceptable standard

mix of nitrogen and oxygen gases without

any medical problems.

or placed into a lower caste rank of the zizak

social system.

This treatment normally requires 4 days of nu-

merous intervals. Only one skill check is need-

ed, however, as the primary mixture for injec-

tions determines the success or fail rate.

The zizak have short life spans, maturing rap-

idly but dying off at an early age. The zizak

reaches the maturity level of a young adult at

age 5 but is rarely able to exceed 35 years of

age. The aging factors for a zizak are present-

ed below:

Species Speciﬁ c Allergy/Toxin Precautions:

The zizak have no known allergies or toxic

reactions of an abnormal or peculiar nature.

Beyond their ability to breathe heavier con-

centrations of carbon dioxide, the zizak share

more or less the same allergic and toxic resis-

tances as the human race.

Young Adulthood: 5 years to 11 years

Middle Age: 12 years to 17 years

Old: 18 years to 23 years

Venerable (Elderly): 24 years to 35 years

SOCIETY AND CULTURE

The zizak society and culture is extremely

reliant on the traditional religious beliefs of

the zizak. According to zizak theology, these

creatures were once equipped with a durable,

natural carapace and had extraordinarily long

lives. Then, around 3,500 years ago according

to zizak history, an evil alien race known as the

zarlig invaded the primitive home world of the

zizak. Believing these creatures to be angels

of their sun god, Z’Tilzuz, the zizak greeted

the zarlig with offerings of peace. The zarlig,

however, slaughtered a vast majority of the

zizak population before taking the remaining

populous as prisoners. Believing that they had

somehow angered their sun by allowing these

creatures a peaceful invitation to their world,

the zizak hung their heads in shame and ini-

tially refused to ﬁ ght their suppressors.

Some zizak who have snubbed their ancient

traditions for a more liberal, socially friendly

life of wealth and prosperity amongst the stars

have stumbled upon an interesting cure for

their rapid aging. There is a rare form of drug

known as Zygludin that temporarily halts the

zizak’s natural aging upon treatment. Such

treatments are extremely costly, but upon

successful dosage the treated zizak will cease

to biologically age for a total duration of 2 to

5 (1d4+1) years. Most zizak that can afford

such treatment immediately receive an ad-

ditional treatment once the effects of the for-

mer medication begins to wear off. Such zizak

have been known to live virtually indeﬁ nitely

while younger generations of their kind die

off of natural old age. Due to this treatment,

the longest living zizaks are currently around

135 years of age. While such results are not-

ed by the scientiﬁ c community as a shining

achievement for medicine and technology,

the traditional zizak views such treatments as

a terrible, sinful abomination.

Finding the long lived zizak to be a potential

threat should they breed too much or grow

too strong with desires for revenge, the en-

slaving zarlig performed medical experiments

on the zizak, eventually producing a mutated

offspring that lacked both the long lived age

and protective carapace. This new zizak was

deemed to be an adequate slave race for the

zarlig, and all other zizaks were killed off.

The rules for Zygludin treatment are given be-

low:

Treatment Type:

Application DC

Cost DC:

While the mutation of the zizak had prov-

en to be a success to the zarlig, their medi-

cal experimentations became their own

Zygludin

Treatment

Craft: Pharmaceutical

(DC: 24)

undoing. Not content with their newly modi-

ﬁ ed slaves, the zarlig began to experiment

with other forms of life on the zizak home

world. This lead to an excruciating disease

that caused the zarlig’s skin to rot away, kill-

ing off all but a tiny few of the brutal enslavers.

Shockingly enough, the zizak were immune to

the disease, causing them to believe that they

were once again in the favor of their godlike

sun.

appeared to be the zarlig’s home world. Upon

arrival, all the zizak could ﬁ nd was a desolate,

abandoned planet wracked with pollution

and wreckage. While billions of skeletons (in-

cluding that of the zarlig) littered the planet’s

surface, no other sign or evidence of life was

found. Such a discovery of destruction gave

the zizak faith that their once slain sun god,

Z’Tilzuz, had returned in an unknown form in

order to wreck ﬁ nal havoc upon the zarlig.

From that point on, the zizak became an ex-

tremely religiously driven race. Having lost

their original biological makeup to the

hands of their evil, experi-

menting visitors, the zizak

vowed to never let such

atrocities occur again. The

race rapidly developed

intellectually, and were

quickly able to under-

stand the basic principles

behind the abandoned,

decaying zarlig weaponry

and spacecraft. Within a

few centuries galactic ex-

ploration became a dawn-

ing possibility for the

zizak.

Though outsiders to the species believe that

the zizak are quite incorrect about the fate of

the zarlig, and that this ancient race was

reduced to a nomadic, star

faring state due to their own

carelessness, the zizak are

content with the concept

that their god has returned,

despite the fact that their

home star has been long

destroyed due to an unex-

plained catastrophe. Since

this time of realization for

the zizak, a majority of

the race has turned their

attentions towards try-

ing to re-establish a link

of permanence with their

reincarnated god. As such,

the zizak culture and soci-

ety is both technologically

driven and theologically

driven, with skilled experts

taking on both the tasks of interga-

lactic research and religious study at once.

The traditional zizak government is grounded

in their religion, where all laws are established

in the nature of the creed of Z’Tilzuz. While

these creatures no longer have a native home

world, the zizak have a vast, mobile space sta-

tion that serves as a mother ship and central

meeting area.

While the zizak traveled

outward and established

colonies on remote plan-

ets, they kept their strong

religious faith, always pointing out

their home star to their children during night-

ly prayer rituals. Then, a mere 500 years ago,

a terrible tragedy occurred. For reasons that

have yet to be accurately explained, the zizak’s

godlike sun simply exploded, killing off all

zizak beyond the remote colonists. In anguish,

the remaining zizak regrouped, believing

their ancient enemy the zarlig to be the cause

of the destruction of their god. Using what

information they had retained of the zarlig’s

mapping systems, the zizak set out to what

RELATIONS

Due to the terrible past of the zizak, these crea-

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