Kitsune

Willy and capricious, kitsune are fox folk shapechangers known for their trickery and agility.

Despite their ability to assume human form, kitsune possess very little of the ambition or materialism that motivates humanity, instead finding satisfaction in lasting legacies such as art, story, song, and companionship.

Ability Adjustments: +2 Dex, +2 Cha, –2 Str

Hit Points: 4

Racial Traits

Size and Type

Kitsune are humanoids with the kitsune and shapechanger subtypes and are Medium. They have a base speed of 30 feet.

Agile

Kitsune gain a +2 racial bonus on Acrobatics and Athletics checks.

Change Shape (Ex)

Each kitsune can assume the appearance of a specific single human form of the same age and sex. The kitsune always takes this specific form when using this ability. A kitsune in human form gains a +10 racial bonus on Disguise checks made to appear human. Changing shape is a standard action. A kitsune in human form remains in human form even if knocked unconscious or killed, until it chooses to change form.

Kitsune Magic

Kitsune with a Charisma score of 11 or higher gain the following spell-like ability: At will—dancing lights. The caster level for this effect is equal to the kitsune’s level. In addition, kitsune can gain the Magical Tail feat as a replacement class feature at 2nd, 4th, 6th, 12th, or 18th level, as if the bonus feat were granted by an archetype. Kitsune cannot replace a replacement class feature gained from an actual archetype with the Magical Tail feat.

Low-Light Vision

Kitsune can see in dim light as if it were normal light.

Natural Weapons

Kitsune are always considered armed while in their true form. They can deal 1d3 lethal damage with unarmed strikes and the attack doesn’t count as archaic. Kitsune gain a unique weapon specialization with their natural weapons at 3rd level, allowing them to add 1-1/2 x their character level to damage rolls with their natural weapons (instead of adding their level, as usual). Kitsune lose this ability while in human form.

Physical Description

As shapechangers, kitsune can magically assume the form of a specific human appearance of the same sex that ages and develops alongside their true form—that of a foxlike humanoid with a large, bushy tail and digitigrade legs. Kitsune have a diverse palette of fur colors ranging from reds and oranges to browns, fulvous, and gray, though kitsune with far stranger fur colorations such as azure or bright green sometimes arise on worlds abundant in strange magic or tumultuous ley lines. Kitsune human appearances are genetic, such as their true form, and in antiquity kitsune were far more likely to take the form of humans of specific, ancient ethnic groups as a result. In modern times, however, kitsune can assume forms that span the full girth of humanity’s modern ethnic groups.

Home World

The story of the kitsune home world mirrors that of humanity; kitsune arose on Azan-Ra Prime and took to the stars alongside humans, garbed in human identities. When the Emperor went supernova during the Regicide, many kitsune lives were lost as Azan- Ra was engulfed in solar fire and viscera, scattering those star faring kitsune who survived across the Azan-Ra System alongside their human peers.

While most kitsune are now found living alongside (or hidden within) humanity on virtually any of the inhabitable worlds within the Azan-Ra System, smallgroups of self-stylized “ward keepers” instead dwell upon massive planet-class ships situated in the heart of the wreckage of Azan-Ra Prime. Warded by kami that guide the starship and act as the vessel’s living AI, they travel throughout the wreckage of Azan-Ra Prime in search of salvageable bits of the dead planet that they can rescue from the void of space. Kitsune dwelling on these kami wards rescue salvageable debris at the kami’s behest and enshrine them upon these ships, drifting amidst the gore and wreckage of a dead world and piloted by spirits.

Society and Alignment

Kitsune are a people of storytellers and muses, preferring to convey lessons and histories through the arts as opposed to the stuffy textbooks and lectures favored by modern societies. In the ancient past, kitsune society existed almost exclusively in the shadow of humanity, hiding in plain sight away from the curiosities of others.

In the wake of Azan-Ra Prime’s destruction and the advent citizen identification policies and technologies, however, kitsune society has undergone a renaissance in which kitsune actively integrate with other races and societies and are far more public with their true forms.

After all, in a future filled visitors from far-flung galaxies, a shapechanging fox person is far from the strangest sight a human could see in a given day. This has led to a dramatic uptick in kitsune populations across the Azan-Ra System and the integration of those populations into human society, to the point where the two are often different in historic origin only. For this reason, modern kitsune aspire to political and leadership positions in ways their ancestors didn’t, seeking to join the Azan-Ra System’s great heroes in song and legend. Of course, old habits die hard, and many kitsune make good use of their shapechanging powers with traversing ever changing and evolving social and political landscapes, leading their human peers to harbor wildly varying levels of trust and suspicion towards their motives and loyalties.

Relations

Famously gregarious, kitsune get along well with nearly all races, yet find some more pleasant than others.

They see the brutish vesk as good for little more than a cheap laugh or prank, and often feel uncomfortable around androids due to mutual difficulty processing the others’ emotions. They get along well with ysoki, finding charm their loud, impulsive natures and both respect and love indulging the shirren’s cultural curiosity. Most complicated of all, however, are kitsune’s relationship with humanity—while kitsune make fast friends—and occasionally lovers—with individual humans, kitsune have mostly derogatory opinions of humanity, regarding them as being reckless and foolish. Curiously, romantic pairings between humans and kitsune always result in kitsune children, which sours so-called human “purists” with kitsune.

Adventurers

Ever seeking a new tale to tell, many kitsune experience a cultural wanderlust that bids them to leave home, often finding themselves shoulder to shoulder with humanity in their quest for wealth, fame, knowledge, excitement, and glory. But where humanity is driven by manifest destiny and economic opportunity, kitsune are motivation in mischievous curiosity and a simple desire to leave their mark on the world in a culturally significant way. Kitsune charm and guile makes them perfect envoys, and their agility makes them competent operatives.

Names

Nearly every kitsune name is either the subject of a kitsune story or song, an invention, a mishmash of a traditional human name with some other deeper, secret meaning known only to the kitsune and those closest to him. Such secrets include combinations of syllables that, together, have a second meaning, and names that phonetically sound like subjects of famous kitsune stories and songs. Some examples of kitsune names are Ama’tso, Benzai, Bosatso, Dozoka, Emma-zi, Hai Miro, Hayaji, Ikiryo, Inaricha, Jojin, Jokug-jin, Korvakaze, Kyr’shin, Miyazavi, Nushino, Revhy, Saehba, Signe-Tsu, Shinda, Suchiji, Taka’shi, and Uzume