Oread

The Plane of Earth's influence runs through an oread's family, most often from a shaitan or crystal dragon ancestor. Oreads tend to be stoic, steadfast, and dependable, but they contain depths not seen on the surface.

Oreads can be slow to reveal their true selves, or perhaps more accurately, have enough depth and mystery inherent to their beings that they can reveal new and unexpected facets of themselves every day. They usually feel that they personify certain aspects of earth, stone, or other sediments or minerals, such as a cliff's tenacious resilience against erosion, the generosity and nourishment of fertile soil, or the versatile utility of metal and stone.

Oreads born with a special connection to a specific subset of elemental earth, such as crystal, dust, or mud, might have an oread lineage. A lineage can be inherited along a family bloodline, or it can manifest spontaneously in oread children. They can be caused by where an oread's ancestors lived, frequently seen in dustsoul oreads, many of whom are born in a desert or to a family that has farmed for generations. Lineages can also be the result of specific planar heritages. Gemsoul oreads often have a crystal dragon in their lineage, and miresoul oreads descend from the more sodden creatures of elemental earth.

Physical Description

Oreads have the same diversity in height, body type, and physical characteristics as any other member of their mortal ancestries, alongside a handful of other traits that distinguish them as geniekin. Their skin is often gray or brown, but can also resemble metals and precious stones, with copper and iron veining or crystals that grow out of their skin. Instead of hair, oreads often have crystals or rocks that grow from their heads; regardless, most oreads sculpt, decorate, or otherwise maintain the appearance of their hair, whatever form it takes. Almost all oreads have shimmering gemstone eyes, beautiful and multifaceted.

Oreads usually dress in sturdy clothes that can withstand physical labor and exposure to the elements, like wool and leather. Many choose clothing that will expose their unique characteristics, tailored to show off any crystals embedded in their rocky skin.

Versatile Heritage

Oread

Uncommon, Oread
An earth elemental ancestor has influenced your bloodline, and your features highlight this elemental planar connection. You might have a crystalline or metallic sheen to your skin or hair, rough and stony flesh, or glittering gemstone eyes. You gain the oread trait, in addition to the traits from your ancestry. You also gain low-light vision, or you gain darkvision if your ancestry already has low-light vision. You can choose from oread feats and feats from your ancestry whenever you gain an ancestry feat.

Oread Feats

Other Information

Family Relations

Most oreads are descended from shaitans, genies native to the Plane of Earth, but other planar creatures, especially other earth elementals, are known to have oread descendants. The children of earth and mud mephits are typically born smaller than their mortal parent, with modest vestigial wigs or nubs in their backs where a mephit's wings would have been. When a dragon, crystal dragon bears oread offspring, they almost always have the gemsoul lineage in addition to draconic features like wings or a tail. Xorns are the least common elemental ancestors for an oread, as they seldom have relationships with mortals.

Geniekin Cuisine

For geniekin, food is about elemental unity. The tradition of tea is particularly important in Haljaluk, and geniekin tea makers—undine and ifrit in particular—are known for their ability to tease subtle flavors and aromas out of blends. Oread and sylph cuisine emphasizes aroma above all things, infusing rice or wheat with cardamom, cloves, anise, and other spices that create complex and intense tastes. In recent years, ifrit cuisine has taken a turn toward eating dangerous animals and plants. Whether it be snapping flytrap salad, lemon-fried dragonfish fillet, or herb-crusted cockatrice breast, the thrill of taming a dangerous creature into culinary art has become a trend. Oread cooks use components from spellcasters and alchemists in Veldon and machinists in Thrana; with such ingredients, they create dumplings that hold far more soup than they should, cakes that produce bursts of sparks, and even entrées whose steam spells out the cook's name.

Geniekin Trendsetters

Geniekin often find tight clothing restrictive and prefer generous, flowing garments. Recently, this trend has spread from geniekin to everyone in Haljaluk, with people of any gender wearing skirts, though the fabric tends to be cut and folded differently based on the outfit. Jewelry, perfume, and makeup, which geniekin of any gender use to express inner elemental identity, are likewise broadly fashionable there.
Geniekin dancers enjoy the benefits of celebrity and patronage among the urban elite across the Dragon Reach Isles, Dendrah, and the Wyrm Coast. For geniekin, dance forms a narrative, and they often recreate ancient Dendrin tales with elemental flair. Performers accompany the music with ankle bells or, in places of great natural beauty, with the sounds of the elements themselves. In recent decades, geniekin dance companies have emerged, touring the Dragon Reach Isles, Dendrah, and the Wyrm Coast and spreading their cultural influence.

Oread Settlements

Most oreads prefer to integrate into the communities of their birth rather than settle their own cities, but over time, oread communities naturally develop and grow in areas with concentrated oread births. The dwarven Crystal Citadel Zesmethos in Northeastern Ispanfain has a large oread population. Dwarf elders speculate that its proximity to the Shimmering Cavern, a natural cave with an abnormal quantity of crystals that glow within an otherworldly light that exists in in the Frost Talon mountains, is responsible.