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Azaka

Dwelling deep beneath the crust of icy worlds, the azaka tunnel and search relentlessly, transforming thousands of miles of earth into crystalline tunnels and honeycombed hives seething with their kind. These voracious creatures feed on the rich deposits of aetherite in the world and seek out sources of aetheric power to nourish themselves and bring more of their own kind into the world. Little is known or understood about the azaka, from the structure of their society, to their true numbers, to even their motivations.

Captured azaka taken from their hive have savage, animalistic intelligence and impart little knowledge of their kind. What little is known of the azaka is a mixture of educated guesses, supposition, and facts gleaned from divination magic.

The most widely-believed origin of the azaka posits that they are survivors of the Collapse, hailing from the now destroyed world of Amrita.

Epics speak of a time when stars rained from the sky and covered the world in darkness, giving rise to the veil that now shrouds the sky.

The azaka are believed to have traveled on falling stars, having drifted through the lightless void of space for untold centuries.

For azaka, the desire to subjugate other organisms is second only to their drive to consume aetherite. The azaka have the ability to entrap other creatures within aetherite-infused cocoons that transform their victims into mindless, insectile versions of their former species to serve as mindless slaves to the ever-moving machinations of the hive.

Azaka society is divided into three known groups: the insectile slaves (see the insectile creature template), who perform a variety of tasks; azaka warriors, who serve as laborers and combatants; and azaka thought-seekers, who act as hubs for azaka hive-minds. Azaka do not have leaders but make decisions as a hive mind.

Azaka thrive on aetherite, but the material netherite poses great danger to them. If an azaka fails a Fortitude save against netherite poisoning it suffers the additional effect of temporarily losing all benefit of the azaka hive mind and any psychic magic abilities. This persists until the azaka is no longer affected by the netherite poisoning. Azaka mercilessly kill any of their own who are even temporarily affected by netherite.

Azaka Hive Minds
Hive Size Minimum Int Modifier Radioactive Aura Radius Spell-like Abilities
Small (2 to 8) +2 low, 60 ft. 1st (3/day) mind link, mind thrust
Medium (9 to 30) +3 medium, 60 ft. 2nd (3/day) mind thrust II, fear
Large (31 to 80) +4 high, 90 ft. 3rd (3/day) mind thrust III, synaptic pulse
Huge (81+) +5 severe, 120 ft. 4th (3/day) mind thrust IV, modify memory, synaptic pulse (greater)

Azaka Subtype

This subtype is applied to aberrations of the azaka race.

Required Type: Aberration.

Traits: hive mind (see below), immunity to radiation sickness and all mind-affecting effects, darkvision 60 ft.

Radioactive Aura (Ex)

Azaka emit a radioactive aura that increases in strength and radius with the size of their hive mind.

Hive Mind (Ex)

All azaka within 1 mile of an azaka thought-seeker form a single hive mind.

Individual azaka in a hive can be further than 1 mile from one another so long as other thoughtseekers form a link between them with no gaps greater than 1 mile. Members of a hivemind share their awareness and senses freely and cannot be caught flat-footed or flanked.

Any azaka in a hive mind treats their effective Intelligence modifier as equal to the minimum intelligence offered by the hive mind, unless their own intelligence score is greater. An azaka hive mind manifests special psychic powers as described in the table below. In combat an azaka hive mind acts on its own initiative count as a Separate entity using its Intelligence modifier to determine its effective initiative, provided at least two azaka remain linked in the hive mind. If the number of azaka drops to one or fewer, the hive mind dissipates and can take no more actions. An azaka hive mind may take one standard action each round and may cast any of its available psychic magic powers through any azaka currently in the hive mind, using that azaka as the point of origin for the effect.

Azaka are large insectile creatures that feed on radiation. Their telepathic abilities merge the minds of all azaka within range of each other into a single hive mind.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Alien Bestiary (Starfinder) © 2018, Legendary Games; Lead Designer: Jason Nelson. Authors: Anthony Adam, Kate Baker, John Bennet, Eytan Bernstein, Robert Brookes, Russ Brown, Duan Byrd, Jeff Dahl, Robyn Fields, Joel Flank, Matt Goodall, Robert J. Grady, Jim Groves, Steven T. Helt, Thurston Hillman, Tim Hitchcock, Nick Hite, Daniel Hunt, Mike Kimmel Marshall, Isabelle Lee, Jeff Lee, Lyz Liddell, Jason Nelson, Richard Pett, Tom Phillips, Alistair J. Rigg, Alex Riggs, Wendall Roy, Mike Shel, Neil Spicer, Todd Stewart, Russ Taylor, Rachel Ventura, Mike Welham, George Loki Williams, Scott Young.