Racial Traits
Your cyclops character has the following traits:
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Age. Cyclops mature at a slower rate than humans. They're considered young until they reach the age of 50. Cyclops live for a predetermined amount of years that they know at any given time. Cyclops have been considered to live up to about a millennium.
Size. Your size is Medium. To set your height and weight randomly, start with rolling a size modifier:
- Size modifier = 2d10
- 6 feet + 2 inches + your size modifier in inches
- Weight in pounds = 200 + (2d8 x your size modifier)
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Mono-Eyed. Due to your single eye and lack of depth perception from two, you have slight issues with your vision. You have the ability to see objects up to 1 mile away and have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks made to view details from any distance that is greater than 60 feet away. However, you have disadvantage on ranged attack rolls against creatures that are more than 30 feet away from you.
Prophetic Intuition. You were born with a otherworldly sense that guides your talents. You are proficient in one of the following skills of your choice: Athletics, Acrobatics, History, Nature, Religion, Insight, Medicine, or Survival. You are also proficient with one tool of your choice.
Whenever you make an ability check with the chosen skill or tool, roll a d4 and add the number rolled to the check's total.
Powerful Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
Shun Death. You can avoid a fate that should not lead to your true death. When you are reduced to 0 Hit Points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can't use this feature again until you finish a Long Rest.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Giant.
Cyclops, Demi-Clops
Cyclops are sometimes called demi-clops by their fellow giantkin races, such as Goliaths: believed to be the descendants of great Cyclopian Giants and other mortal largefolk, like goliaths, humans, or ogres. Whatever their origins, Cyclops evolved to become a unique race. Their ancestry with the Cyclopian Giants comes with a great boon and a great curse. They are able to view the future with a degree of accuracy. However, the more they view the future, the more they can only foresee their own death in great accuracy.
The Belief of Nekeraadi
It's said even when a Cyclops child is born, they speak or outright know the precise amount of days they will spend living. Though this knowledge is recorded, forgotten, or remembered in time, it remains a harrowing and constant reminder that haunts a mortal Cyclops almost to an incessant and maddening amount. Most cope with the idea of knowing they only have so many days in the mortal world, indulging in the delights of the world and being a pivotal part of their tribe or family. Though there are those that fight against and test the idea of their eventual death, called their Necro-Hour, Nekeraadi in Giant. They will throw themselves at all or any dangerous or deadly encounter, with great risk and abandon-ment, knowing full well their Necro-Hour will not arrive. Though many who test their fate are met with great bloody success, they endure a hard and grueling life because of it, and Cyclops who follow this path are considered out-casts, and shunned by tribe and family for the danger they might bring back to their homes.
Raw Dealed by the Gods
Eons ago, a great Cyclopian Empire once existed, proud and mighty with buildings as tall as skyscrapers. These giants were well respected and admired by the mortal races, who kept great distance from the nigh immortal and indomitable giants. The truth behind their prosperity was because they relied and abused the powers of their diviners and priests, who could foresee and prophetize against any adversity: Learning how to change the outcomes of a war against their sworn enemy, finding when the next apocalyptic event would arrive and preparing for it, and even going so far as to out-right stop otherworldly invasions from all manner of planar blight. Though the Cyclops used their powers for the good of the realm and its people, the Cyclops eventually treaded in a realm they could never have foreseen the consequences of.
The Cyclops believed they could eventually stop the deaths of their people, foreseeing diseases, unfortunate circ*mst-ance, or even going so far as to abuse the magic of Resurr-ection. They treaded on the Realm of the God's territory, hoping to become true immortals even though they already lived long lives. When they went foreward with their plans to prolong or cease their deaths, the God of Death: Lord Ness-umontu immediately caught wind of their deeds and un-leashed a virulent Divine Plague on their bodies and souls.
The Divine Plague afflicted each and every one of the Cyclops, which denied their ability to divine the future anymore, of which attempting to view gave them a single vision, a vision of their eventual deaths. Terrible flames, crumbling stones, and an Empire in ruins was the only thing the ancient Cyclopes of old viewed, and their Civilization fell within a century. All and any attempt to wield Necromancy, in an attempt to resurrect or bring about Undeath only failed terribly. To this day, Cyclops are a grim and harrowing myth that only enforces the tyrannical God of Death.
Cyclopian Empire Survivors
Amongst all of the attempts to prolong the lives of the Cyclops, the only success was brought about only stopped their entire race from becoming extinct, though the dreams of immortality with the Cyclops of old died with them. The supposed Cyclops that live now are but descendants of the ancient Cyclopian Empire, with a mixed heritage of giant and mortal that greatly dissolved the Divine Plague enforced by the God of Death.
Mortals that see the Demi-Clops often mistake them for the Cyclops of old, assuming them to be one of the mythological giants seeing their great height, single eye, and impressive bulk, though they stand almost equivocally to that of a Goliath in height. They're still mostly called Cyclops by most or all races, what could semantically be considered the truth, merely just the surviving species along the line of descen-dants.
The Cyclops still remain in their domain they used to inhabit during the peak of their Empire, though little remains after eons of strife, conflict, or pillaging by the beings of the World. The Empire barely has little left of their proud constru-ctions, and all that's left is nature-reclaimed ruined land that the Cyclops remain in to this day.
Cyclop Related Rumors
T - denotes a True Rumor, F denotes a False Rumor, U denotes a Rumor that hasn't been proven True or False
| d10 | Rumor |
|---|---|
| 1 | (F) If you stare long and hard into a Cyclop's Eye and Iris, you can see how you will eventually shown to you in the eye. |
| 2 | (T) A preserved Cyclops Eye can work as a magical component for Divination, almost as good or stronger than Crystal Balls. |
| 3 | (U) A Cyclops can commit suicide and it they will die earlier than they foresee. |
| 4 | (F) A Cyclops can tell at a glance how long you have to live. |
| 5 | (U) A Cyclops can never die as a baby or child, they will live and reach the age of an adult. |
| 6 | (T) A Cyclops knows what purpose or talent they have which allows them to succeed in life. |
| 7 | (T) Cyclops are more afraid of experiencing pain in their life than experiencing their eventual death. |
| 8 | (F) Cyclops love the taste of eyeballs, and use eyeballs in all of their recipes. |
| 9 | (U) Cyclops secretly plot to restore themselves and their empire, and seek to use their powers to rule over every mortal being. |
| 10 | (U) Cyclops know the exact next thing you will ever say to them. |
One Eye
One Vision
One Future
Forgotten Realms Cyclops feel like a shoe-horn in for an Iconic Greek Inspired Mythological Monster, like most of D&D's creatures refur-bished rather awkwardly just to fill a book with big-name bads.
Though of course, I had a vision for the Race's backstory that I wanted to incorporate for a while, translating that into an actual D&D Race for players could potentially be messy, but I hope you take inspiration as it is.
Created by /u/tranborg
Artist Credits:
- Page 1 - Javier Franco Santacreu - Cyclops Arena
- Page 2, Top Right - Ricardo Caria - Cyclops blacksmith
- Page 3, Bottom Left - Katapraktoi - Monster Manuel: Cyclops
- Back Cover, Page 4 - Jakub Kaktus - Skinny Minis - Kolganra, the Cyclop
- Cyclop, Demi-Clop, Mono-Eyes are all proper names for this Race. You can't really call them anything else without betraying the origin of a single-eyed creature of Myth.
WWW.GMBINDER.COM
This document was lovingly created using GM Binder.
If you would like to support the GM Binder developers, consider joining our Patreon community.
