Demeti

To strangers, the demeti appear to be an all-female species of colorful reptile folk who are famous (or in some cultures notorious) for their willingness to sell their quite large and plentiful unfertilized eggs as foodstuffs, which have a reputation for making an extremely nutritious if quite adventurous meal. They are also known for being talented herbalists due to their particular sense of smell and for a culture that prizes druids, healers, and magic users of all kinds, and encourage the pursuit of such professions. Between their culture prizing connections to nature and/or ambient magic, and their fondness of the heat and sun of their tropical and desert home regions, they are typically scantily clad, rarely wearing more than a loincloth unless clothes or armor is of important utility or local law demands more.

Pseudoparthenogenesis

While all demeti have the same reproductive organs—a vulva, vagina and uterus—there are in fact still two reproductive sexes and three major genders within their species. Female demeti tend to be taller, more muscular, curvier, and have breasts. They also tend to have rich, highly saturated coloration such as vermilion red, ultramarine, forest green or pumpkin orange. Male demeti, on the other hand, are usually shorter and slender, lack breasts, and have lighter coloration—like coral, celadon, saffron, periwinkle, or aquamarine. Reproduction requires either a male demeti to fertilize an egg layed by a female or vice versa, and this process along with the first year of childrearing is usually treated as a very private affair, with typically only close friends and relatives seeing the child at all during this time.

Amazonian Practices

In demeti culture, women are broadly associated with physical strength, skill at arms, and a number of other traits many other societies view as masculine, as well as professions like merchants where haggling or other highly assertive social interactions are involved. Men on the other hand are usually taught trades relying more on fine dexterity, gentle redirection, and clever diplomacy. There is also a third gender in demeti culture, called nekau or “ambigender,” which has typical cultural roles that resemble a non-homogeneous mix of both men and women, but also certain roles that neither men nor women play in their society. Nekau have scale colors either tinted deeper or bleached paler either across their whole body or in selective patterns. Any demeti who has ready access to natural plant life can easily sniff out herbs that can be made into pastes to shift their scale colors to the range associated with their gender.

Demeti Names

In demeti names, feminine names always end with “-a.” Masculine names always end in “-o” and are often formed from adjectives in their dialect of draconic, or from diminutive forms of feminine names. Nekau names can follow the conventions of either feminine or masculine names, but always end in “-e.”

Example Feminine Names: Antona, Balduena, Corala, Diogena, Fiera, Gregoria, Ladislaa, Mauritsa, Mihaela, Oskara, Petra, Raymonda, Valdemara, Yozefa

Example Nekau Names: Akteone, Berenitse, Dioneze, Euripide, Filipe, Gerde, Hektore, Izidore, Johane, Laorence, Margarete, Sanche, Tsipriane, Ventseslae, Zaharie

Example Masculine Names: Ancho, Benyo, Erasmino, Glorindo, Hiacinto, Karesindo, Luchyo, Mayino, Orabelo, Samwelino, Teodorikino, Vespero, Yuvelo

Demeti Traits

Your demeti character has several abilities.
    Ability Score Increase. Your choice of Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma increases by 2, and a different ability score of your choice increases by 1.
    Age. Demeti grow quickly, reaching maturity by age 14, but they do not often live beyond 60.
    Alignment. Demeti do not have tendencies towards any particular alignment.
    Size. Demeti are roughly the same size as humans, but with a larger degree of variance. Your size is Medium.
    Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet. You also have a swimming speed of 30 feet.
    Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 30 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
    Egg Laying. Every other day you experience cravings for an additional day worth of food. If this craving is ignored, you are treated as having gone one day without eating for calculating exhaustion, but the craving does not occur again until you have eaten two days worth of food in a single day. If you satisfy your craving for additional food, then during the next day while taking a short or long rest (GM decides when this takes place), you lay a large, unfertilized egg, about the size of an emu’s egg. These eggs are edible, have a shell sturdy enough to carry them safely while adventuring, and will not spoil for 30 days. These eggs are about 5 inches long, 3 inches wide, and weigh about 1 pound. Demeti eggs are as nutritious as an ordinary day’s worth of food and can be eaten safely raw or cooked. Furthermore, an individual proficient with brewer’s supplies or cook’s utensils can use those tools to pickle them. The work involved can be completed during a short or long rest, but the pickling takes 25 days to finish (the duration before the eggs spoil is suspended during the pickling process). Once pickled, they last an additional 100 days before spoiling. With access to a properly supplied and maintained food cellar, fresh demeti eggs can last 9 months prior to being eaten or preserved.
    Fill Your Cravings. On days when you are craving additional food due to your Egg Laying ability, you have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to forage.
    Fresher is Better. If one of your eggs is consumed within two days of being laid, the creature eating it heals a number of hit points equal to your level.
    Hold Breath. You are able to hold your breath for up to 15 minutes at a time without difficulty.
    Wild Cures. You gain proficiency in the Medicine skill and with the Herbalism Kit.
    Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Draconic.

Random Height and Weight

Variant Rule: Addictive Eggs

Using this variant rules, two days after eating a demeti egg, a creature must make a Wisdom saving throw with a DC of 15. On a failed save, the creature has disadvantage on the first three ability checks they make after completing a long rest. The creature can attempt this saving throw again each day, and on a success, the effect ends. The effect also ends if the creature eats another demeti egg.

Variant Rule: Aphrodisiac Eggs

Using this variant rule, when a creature eats a demeti egg, its libido increases dramatically for the next two days. Furthermore, the creature must make a Wisdom saving throw with a DC of 10, or gain a random flaw from the following table for the same duration. If another demeti egg is eaten before the duration ends, the duration resets to two full days, and each flaw gained in this way remains for the duration, unless they contradict one another, in which case the newer flaw replaces the older one.

Aphrodisiac Egg Flaws

Variant Rule: Contagious Eggs

Each non-demeti creature of small, medium, or large size who has a womb and vagina (or an ovipositor) has an Egg Score, which begins at 0. Whenever the creature eats a demeti egg, their Egg Score increases by 1, then they must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC equal to their new Egg Score. On a success, nothing further occurs. On a failed save, the creature begins a cycle of cravings and egg laying just as the demeti experience. The creature’s Egg Score immediately decreases by the amount they failed the save by, and they will lay an equal number of eggs before the egg-laying cycle ends. These eggs are considered demeti eggs regardless of the species of the creature laying them, but they cannot be fertilized by any means short of magic.
If a creature fails a save due to eating a demeti egg, but is currently already undergoing an egg laying cycle, their Egg Score still decreases and the additional number of eggs is added to the total they will lay before their laying cycle completes.
Casting lesser restoration on a creature can reduce its Egg Score by 1 instead of the normal effect of the spell, but the spell can only be used in this way every five days. Casting greater restoration in the same manner can reduce a creature’s Egg Score by 5. These spells have no effect on an ongoing egg laying cycle.

Variant Rule: Adaptation

Creatures who eat demeti eggs regularly will eventually find themselves laying eggs of their own more often and in greater numbers. This variant rule may be used as an addition to the Contagious Eggs variant rule above. When a creature fails its Constitution saving throw due to eating a demeti egg, their new modified Egg Score after the save becomes that creature’s Minimum Egg Score, unless they already have a Minimum Egg Score that is higher. When a creature’s Egg Score is reduced to less than their Minimum Egg Score, but after the number of eggs to be laid is determined, the creature’s Egg Score is then increased to equal their Minimum Egg Score. A creature’s Egg Score cannot be decreased below their Minimum Egg Score in any other way.

Variant Rule: Fast Adaptation

This variant rule may be used as an addition to the Contagious Eggs variant rule above. Similar to the Adaptation variant rule above, creatures who regularly consume demeti eggs will find themselves laying them more and more often. When a creature fails a Constitution saving throw due to eating a demeti egg, they still lay a number of eggs equal to the number they fail their Constitution saving throw by, however their Egg Score does not decrease. Using this variant rule, a creature’s Egg Score cannot be decreased except by magic.

Variant Rule: Slow and Steady Adaptation

This variant rule may be used as an addition to the Contagious Eggs variant rule above. Similar to the Adaptation variant rule above, creatures with an Egg Score also have a Minimum Egg Score. The creature’s Minimum Egg Score begins at 0, and each time the creature fails a save due to eating a demeti egg, their Minimum Egg Score increases by 1.
This option produces a slower progression that likely will not be noticed by any creatures who are not frequently eating demeti eggs despite their contagious properties, but once the effect has had time to accumulate, it will produce a steadier increase in egg laying frequency and quantity, as the Minimum Egg Score may increase even beyond the maximum result the creature can roll on a Constitution saving throw.

Variant Rule: Transformative Eggs

When using this variant rule in conjunction with the Contagious Eggs variant rule, creatures of small, medium, or large size have an Egg Score even if they do not have a womb and vagina (or an ovipositor). Creatures that are not able to lay eggs also have an Egg Transformation Score, which begins at 0. When they fail a Constitution saving throw due to eating a demeti egg, instead of beginning an egg laying cycle, the number of eggs they would otherwise lay is added to their Egg Transformation Score. Casting lesser restoration on a creature with an Egg Transformation Score can decrease their Egg Transformation Score by 1 instead of the spell’s normal effect, and casting greater restoration on such a creature in this way can decrease it by 5.
If a creature’s Egg Transformation Score increases above the creature’s Constitution score, then during that creature’s next long rest, they lose their Egg Transformation Score and are transformed to gain all of the organs related to giving birth for their species (or laying eggs, if the species lays their own eggs normally) in addition to their existing reproductive organs. They will begin laying eggs if they fail subsequent Constitution saving throws due to demeti eggs, as normal for a creature with an Egg Score.
This transformation can only be reversed by any means normally capable of changing the creature’s sex organs in the appropriate manner desired. If a creature ceases having the organs necessary for giving birth or laying eggs, they gain an Egg Transformation Score, which begins at 0.