“You can lead a Suntouched to water, but you can’t make it drink like a normal person. Damn feet drinkers.” ~Bob the Human

Suntouched

Long before Aila became corrupted by The Lost One, it gave life to many of the races that make up Owasiwa. One of the most prominent of these are the Suntouched, beings spawned from the fertile soil that make up the shores. The Suntouched became one of the most populous races and helped to found Oasis, many refusing to ever travel far from their beloved lake. 

Physical Appearance

Suntouched all come in shades of brown, typically darker if they are well hydrated. While well hydrated, their skin appears like many of the smooth skin races that exist in Owasiwa, but if they dry out, one can tell they are formed by extra fine particles of sand and silt. Suntouched do not have a universal physical shape, though bipedal is quite common among them due to their proximity to many other bipedal races in Oasis. The physical shape of the Suntouched slowly shifts over the life of a Suntouched to better reflect how they feel they look or should look. For some, this might mean a shift to an animal shape, for others, it might be growing extra limbs. This shift cannot be manually controlled by the Suntouched, and happens over the course of seasons and years typically. The only known rapid shifts have happened after extremely traumatizing events, and often leave the Suntouched appearing damaged from mental scarring. 

Psychology 

Suntouched are a proud race, with a long memory. Many of their kind feel they are the perfect union of the Three; Sun, water, and sand. This feeling of superiority, as well as their long presence in Owasiwa and large population, have often led to many of their kinds finding their way into leadership positions in Oasis. The Suntouched are also responsible for the Law of Water, the inherent belief that all water cannot be owned by any and must be available to any and all. Being so populous and ancient though, the Suntouched have become just as varied of mindset and personality as any other.

Reproduction

The Suntouched have unique sexes to the individual. Each individual Suntouched is its own sex and may reproduce with any other Suntouched, singularly or plural. Suntouched don’t typically take on genders, believing the individual to be above such things. Reproduction of Suntouched can only occur in Lake Aila, while the sun is present. Typically Suntouched will have a large, public orgy in the shallow waters of the Lake, one that all races are invited to participate in. For the Suntouched, the physical act of copulation is unnecessary, but still partaken in. Rather, all that is needed to reproduce is for two or more Suntouched to be in the waters together, with a desire to reproduce. After the orgy is finished, child Suntouched will begin walking out of the waters in roughly two years time following an orgy, and are typically adopted by the first Suntouched to come across them. Suntouched maintain large families, but without familial names, believing they are all one large family.

Aging

The Suntouched live endlessly so long as they have access to sunlight and water, of any kind. They take on no physical features of aging if they have regular access to these two things. However, if they are deprived of either for more than a few days, they age rapidly. Their entire form begins to become covered in cracks and crumbles, and if it continues, they will quickly deteriorate into a pile of sand.

Abilities

Uncontrolled shape shifting
Able to subsist solely on sunlight and water
Slow regeneration of wounds if given access to sunlight and water
Can only be killed by complete dehydration or denied access to sunlight

Languages

Sunspeak is their native tongue. Nearly all Suntouched will refuse to speak Sunspeak to non-Suntouched, and they will often only speak Sunspeak to Suntouched.

Common was invented by Suntouched so as to be able to better speak with non-Suntouched. Despite having invented the language, by combining parts of many other languages in the region, many feel it to be beneath them.