The Asmari are the dominant native to the planet of Asmar. A proud and noble people, the Asmari built their civilization around a relationship with nature, connected through the Yorea - the Song. All life on Asmar is bound together through the Yorea, allowing even the smallest creature to voice their thoughts and transcend language.

The Asmari are both arrogant and a bit naive when dealing with other races. Used to being able to hear the thoughts and know the minds of everything around them, once removed from their homeworld and outside of areas where the race does not propogate, they become quite naive - varying between easily manipulatable to unreasonably suspicious and paranoid of others.

Physiology

The Asmari are humanoid in appearance, though they are often lithe - retaining little fat in their bodies. They are technically omnivores, but many rarely eat meat due to the Yorea. Certain seafood is fine, but for the most part their is a moral quandry with eating a living thing which you can communicate with. They prefer to take their meals from the gift of nature's bounty - vegetation, as well as non-fertilized eggs, milk, and similar products.

The Asmari skin contains cellular level crystals that allow them to change their skin color, both for cosmetic capabilities and to grant them the benefit of camouflage or lighting in dark areas, as the Asmari can - if they wish - produce a bioilluminescent glow. Most Asmari default to a single native skin tone that is familiar to them, based on their environment.

The Asmari are adept at the use of the Yorea, and many train themselves to silence their thoughts or to hold the same thought for a long period of time, though this can only be managed for so long. They seem to have an eye for discerning illusions as a result of this connection.

The Yorea exists inside of them, even if it does not exist around them - and this allows them to use it through a concentrated force of will even in areas where the Yorea cannot thrive - though it's much harder than on Asmar.

Mechanics: The Asmari benefit from natural camouflage, and unless marred or disfigured all have the Striking Looks merit and may invest in the advanced version without a supernatural template. They clash with illusions even without magic, and gain a +2 dice bonus (Mortal Asmari use Composure). Attempts to read their mind treat their withstand as 1 higher, or apply a -2 penalty.

Asmari may speak without using their mouth and replicate any sound they've heard. With a willpower, they can create a visible illusion within 10 feet of them, and can maintain this illusion for up to their composure rating in turns. Some Asmari train themselves to communicate to a single individual - but this requires a subterfuge specialty and a composure + subterfuge roll. It's worth noting that if the organisms which produce the Yorea are removed from the Asmari's body, they lose this benefit until they return home or to a ship which contains the organisms.

When outside of their planet and away from their ships, the Asmari lose 10-again on empathy and subterfuge rolls and treat their untrained penalty to social rolls as -3.

Culture

Imagine that you exist in a world where there are no lies, and everything exists as you wish for it to be. Everyone projects their thoughts, so deception takes on a completely different face in the form of illusions and control over your own thoughts. Even the animals, feral and savage, project - allowing the sentient to bond across primal lines and communicate in ways that no other planet could ever manage.

Imagine that all your fears, all your insecurities, all your darkest thoughts are on display for everyone to see. If you intend to flee in panic, others will know. If you intend to strike, others will know. If you murder a person, others will know. If you lust for a person, others will know. You can learn to control your thoughts to a degree, to keep some basic elements private - but the harder you try not to think on something, the more powerful the thought becomes.

The Asmari are a culture of people who live in a world where everyone's most base desires are on display, and where lies and deceit are but fleeting illusions. They are a people who, open and privy to all the secrets of everyone else, has been able to create a rich and vast society the likes of which few cultures could ever match. They are a proud and noble race, capable of cutting through deception and resisting mental manipulation with ease - yet outside of their planet, when unable to see the minds of all those around them, they become incredibly naive and insecure.

Outside of the planet, they still retain the ability to project their thoughts, but are often confused by the rest of the universe's incapacity to do so. Certain religions have come to the conclusion that other, lesser races simply lack the capacity for true sentient thought or even souls, though this consideration is a rather fringe thought in recent years as the race became more aware of the reason for it's ability to project.

Religion and Spirituality

The Asmari's dominant religion expresses the soul as a singing entity - and the thoughts and projections a song of life. Music flows through their veins, bringing a discordant world of thoughts each demanding to express themselves into wholesale unity. The soul lives on through the essence of the song - through memories and connections - something that for the Asmari is especially true, given simply thinking on a memory can make the face of one who has passed flow into form.

Marriage exists within the Asmari, though it is different from the limited and constricting unions that humans bind themselves to. The Asmari recognize that it is impossible not to have stray thoughts or to be attracted to other people. While jealousy does exist within the Asmari, those you love are not your possessions and love has no borders. Due to these infallible truths, marriages between the Asmari are communal and not restricted to only two individuals.

When Asmari people love each other - and it is important to note this love does not need to be carnal - they may join each other and become a part of each other's Heartsong. A person may have many members of her Heartsong - a childhood friend who has seen them through thick and thin, the father of their child, their actual child - as long as the love is pure, it is valid. When a new Heartsong is to be joined to one party, that new Heartsong becomes a part of their Choir - a collection of all three. It is possible for someone to join the Heartsong of one member of a Choir, but to not be able to find harmony with the rest - but this has been known to lead to discord and strict within the Choir, and oftentimes afflicts the most traumatizing of fates: A Broken Song.

The Asmari faith says that only those without souls cannot sing. This belief caused initial interactions with other worlds outside of space to be tenuous, to say the least, and it wasn't until a few centuries past that the determination came that the planet itself granted the ability to project the song. This faith however still pervades to traveling Asmari, who find discomfort in their alien peers - as it is well known that those on Asmar who do not sing are not natural

Supernatural Asmari

Asmari are one of the only races who seem to be capable of Awakening besides humans. Most humans consider this to mean the Asmari are another offshoot of humanity, but the Asmari do not agree. Regardless of the truth, Awakened Asmari may benefit from a +2 Yantra for spells relating to piercing illusions, reading minds, or projecting thoughts or emotions. Many of them use their camouflaging capability to write runic yantras on their skin as temporary tattoos, but must be careful as adding new ones or changing their color will always damage the rune, even if it is fixed afterwords. This of course doesn't deter most Asmari mages, who are happy to brand themselves with literal glowing runes that denote the power they have.

The Celestial Choir is a Silver Ladder Caucus that is based on Asmari. While the Silver Ladder doctrine is human-centric, the Asmari claim that there are a number of divine races which hold potential to reach beyond the Lie, and that in the Time Before, these races all lived upon the Superal City. When the Exarchs reached across the heavens and claimed Dominion, these races were scattered through the heavens - divided so as to deter them from true union and pollute the Truth. The Asmari claim they were the descendants of the original Kings who lead Atlantis, who first learned from the whispers of dragons.

Asmari can also be turned by vampirism. Vampiric Asmari lose the ability to project their thoughts and imaginations, even on Asmar. They can feign this using the blush of life for a scene, but once the scene has passed they return to the Silence. The blush is also required in order to benefit from their camouflage - without it, they default to the coloring they had when they were turned, albiet extremely pale. They gain a +2 dice bonus on most non-physical disciplines, particularly those which utilize illusions, projections, or mental manipulation. Because of their loss of the Asmari projection, Asmiri Kindred learn to read their peers without it - they lose the flaw after roughly 200 years as a Kindred, though Torpor has been known to cause the flaw to return.