Elans are not born; they are made. Living humans are selected from a pool of applicants and screened by a special elan council. Those who pass muster undergo a secret psionic process in one of several hidden elan enclaves, where they abandon their humanity for a new, psionically energized existence. Thus, elans do not reproduce biologically, but rather psionically, through a mysterious psionic ritual known only to elans. Even then, their “children” are usually already fully formed adult humans. Nonhuman elans are never created, and it could be that the ritual simply doesn’t work for any creatures but those who were originally human.
When those who are still human seek the transformation to elans, they must petition existing elans for the privilege of going through the process. Elans are a secret lot in this regard, and do not publicly reveal their enclaves or places of making; the elans select new aspirants and turn away those they feel are unsuited for life as an elan. Newly created elans retain the basic memories and personalities of their previous human lives, but lose all their previous class levels, skills, and other characteristics; a newly created elan is a 1st-level character, free to reinvent himself as a member of his new race.
Personality: Elans are nearly as adaptable, flexible, and ambitious as the humans from which they are made. Because their exceedingly long life spans sometimes lead the living to think the worst of them, elans practice a certain restraint, especially with regard to the subject of their origin. Otherwise, their personalities vary widely.
Physical Description: Elans typically stand just under 6 feet tall and weigh around 180 pounds, with males generally taller and heavier than females. Because the council members who make the selection of aspirants have their own preferences, elans of a certain “generation” often share certain physical characteristics. The current council members favor aspirants with pale skin, red hair, and a youthful quality.
Overall, elans vary in looks as widely as humans do. An elan dresses in a style typical of the area in which she lives (to all the better pass herself off as human), including the adoption of unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, body piercing, and the like.
Elans have effectively unlimited life spans. As long as they are not destroyed, their mental arts could conceivably continually energize and rebuild their bodies for a thousand years or more.
Elans do not sleep as members of most other races do. Instead, an elan meditates in a deep trance for 4 hours a day. An elan resting in this fashion gains the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep. While in this trance, an elan concentrates on suffusing her body with psionic energy, healing the hurts of the day, and restoring animation and resiliency to her tissues.
Relations: Elans mix with members of other races, especially humans. It is probable that their relations would undergo a shift should their true nature become widely known, so one of the essential tenets of elan existence is secrecy.
Alignment: Elans tend toward no particular alignment, not even neutral. The best and the worst are found among them.
Elan Lands: Wherever humans are found, there too are elans.
Religion: Elans are less likely to worship a deity than members of other races, since they feel that any grace or continued existence they might hope for depends on their own efforts and the continual mastery of their inborn psionic talent.
Language: Elans speak Common. They typically learn other languages, including obscure ones, and they are fond of sprinkling their speech with words borrowed from other tongues: Orc curses, Halfling culinary terms, Elven musical expressions, Dwarven military phrases, and so on.
Names: Elan names vary greatly, and an elan’s name is often simply the human name she possessed before entering into her new existence. This is particularly true when an elan wishes to pick up her old life where it left off. Others view their second chance at existence as an opportunity to start anew, and they pick new names.
Titles, though they are used only among themselves, are important to elans. Freshly transformed elans have the title of Newmade; those who have lived at least a few decades after transformation have the title of Made; and those over a century old have the title of Eternal. Those who belong to the council that chooses new elans have the title of Culler.
Adventurers: Elan adventurers are akin to humans in their daring and ambition. Because many effects that hurt humans leave elans unscathed, elans sometimes seem extraordinarily brave to those who don’t know their true natures.
ELAN RACIAL TRAITS
- –2 Charisma: Elans, despite their attempts to blend into the human population, continue to come off as just a little unusual.
- Aberration: Elans are not subject to spells or effects that affect humanoids only, such as charm person or dominate person.
- Medium: As Medium creatures, elans have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
- Elan base land speed is 30 feet.
- Elans (unlike most aberrations) do not have darkvision.
- Naturally Psionic: Elans gain 2 bonus power points at 1st level. This benefit does not grant them the ability to manifest powers unless they gain that ability through another source, such as levels in a psionic class.
- Resistance (Su): Elans can use psionic energy to increase their resistance to various forms of attack. As an immediate action, an elan can spend 1 power point to gain a +4 racial bonus on saving throws until the beginning of her next action.
- Resilience (Su): When an elan takes damage, she can spend power points to reduce its severity. As an immediate action, she can reduce the damage she is about to take by 2 hit points for every 1 power point she spends.
- Repletion (Su): An elan can sustain her body without need of food or water. If she spends 1 power point, an elan does not need to eat or drink for 24 hours.
- Automatic Language: Common. Bonus Languages: Any (other than secret languages, such as Druidic). Elans’ past lives expose them to wide ranges of language.
- Favored Class: Psion.
- Level Adjustment: +0.
Source: Expanded Psionics Handbook
