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

New Species Feats

Egg Clutch

The demeti are pseudo-parthenogenic amazonians who lay large, nutritious eggs.
    Prerequisites: Saurian, Level 1 Only
    Benefits: You benefit from the first 2 food and 2 drink you consume each day. Additionally, any time you consume more meals in a day than you require, on the following day you lay a large egg. These eggs are about 5 inches long, 3 inches wide, and weigh about 1 pound, with a shell durable enough to be packed and carried safely while adventuring. Raw demeti can be consumed to provide a common meal and whether raw or cooked, any character that consumes a demeti egg also benefits from one use of balm, ointment, salve or tonic (their choice).

Egg Crest

Demeti have a keen sense of smell and can become quite skilled at using it to find valuable medicinal herbs.
    Prerequisites: Egg Clutch
    Benefits: Your base scent range increments are equal to your Wisdom score x 5 ft and gain a +4 to all Forage checks. You also gain 4 ranks in the Medicine skill (not to exceed your maximum ranks).

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 Compulsions

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 Fortitude save (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 Restoration I 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 Restoration II 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 Fortitude save 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 Fortitude save due to eating a demeti egg, they still lay a number of eggs equal to the number they fail their Fortitude save 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 Fortitude save.

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 Fortitude save 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 Restoration I 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 Restoration II 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 Fortitude save 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.