Ratfolk

Ratfolk
Ysoki

(Creature)

2E1E

Common

Small

Humanoid

Ratfolk

Level

Varies

Adjective

Ratfolk or ysoki

Images of ratfolk

Source: Player Core 2, pg(s). 29

Listed traits are for ratfolk as creatures. As an ancestry, ratfolk are

Uncommon

.

Type

Humanoid
(ratfolk)

CR

By character class

Environment

Warm deserts,
underground,
urban

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Adjective

Ratfolk or ysoki

Images of ratfolk

Source: Inner Sea Races, pg(s). 247

Ⅰ

Ⅱ

More information about this subject might be available on StarfinderWiki.

Ysoki, also known among others as ratfolk, are small people who resemble humanoid rats. They are natural travelers and often join merchant caravans, where they use their natural dexterity and perception to add unusual items to their hoard of goods.

Appearance

Standing about four feet tall and weighing eighty pounds, ysoki have large ears, whiskered snouts, and long, scaly tails just like common rats. When in cities, they wear heavy robes to conceal their rodentlike features, which unnerve other races. Contrary to a common stereotype of being dirty or diseased, ysoki are instinctively clean. Ratfolk are sometimes mistaken for wererats and treated with fear unless they have the chance to correct the misidentification.

Adventurers

Ratfolk might take up the adventuring life to explore and travel, to defend their family or community, or for any number of other reasons. Their natural wit and nimble fingers make ratfolk excellent alchemists and rogues, while some specialize in ranged weapons as fighters or rangers.

Habitat and society

A ratfolk.

Ratfolk are communal by nature, living in warrens of up to 100 adults and thriving on proximity and contact, even in tight spaces. While they refer to their homes as "warrens", the term is synonymous among them with "home" and can represent anything from a literal cavern to a city tenement, ship, martial arts studio, dungeon, or igloo—any structure that is bustling, dark, and defensible can be a warren.

Ysoki society is communal and democratic by nature, and while they have a social hierarchy, all voices are heard when making major decisions. Colonies and families within larger warrens often designate a single member as the swarm voice, who has the authority to govern the warren and resolve disputes. A warren's bone mother serves as its oracle, and when a warren member dies, a bone from their remains is gifted to the bone mother to become part of its physical history. Most warrens have either a swarm voice or bone mother, and a few have both. Senior hunters and combat leaders are below the voice and bone mother in ysoki society, followed by skilled artisans, merchants, caretakers, and teachers. Elite combatants within a warren often form a parallel secret society known as a Den of Fangs.

Most ratfolk make their homes either on the road in traveling caravans, in the sewers and slums of large cities, or in subterranean caves. Their warrens are complex enough to easily hide their hoards or escape from enemies. Ratfolk merchants trawl markets for intriguing items, which they value over money.

Ratfolk have an affinity for all kinds of rodents, including rats and giant rats, and many can speak to such creatures. They excel at tinkering and alchemy, and often protect their lairs with creations like snares, traps, and bombs. They are also known to tame giant fleas for use as mounts.

Ysoki merchants regularly dispatch large caravans that travel widely for at least a year before returning home. During this time they make an effort to learn new things from other peoples and collect interesting goods to be brought home.

Ysoki excel at fighting in cramped spaces alongside their kin. Though physically weak, they are extremely loyal to their kin and are notorious for avenging fallen family members. Threatening one individual is a surefire way to rally the whole community.

Although not known for their trickery (they take great pride in their professionalism when dealing with other races), ysoki are not above using their size and numbers to outwit or outmaneuver an enemy when threatened.

On Golarion

A rat-mounted ratfolk.

The largest ysoki population on Golarion is in the Darklands of Tian Xia, where they rule over the empire of Diguo-Dashu, in the caverns of Sekamina. These ratfolk declared war on Imperial Lung Wa in 4251 AR and seized a dozen cities before the Imperial Army drove them back into the deeps and sealed the entrances to the Darklands behind them.

Other large numbers of ratfolk dwell in Deepmarket, a subterranean city located far beneath the city of Goka, and the City of Whistling Swords, a ruined tengu city in Kwanlai. Ular Kel in Casmaron also counts ratfolk among the many non-human inhabitants of its Khoretz district.

Inner Sea region

Ratfolk in the Inner Sea region are commonly found in the more arid and flat parts of human nations, including Druma and Katapesh. Tribes of primitive ratfolk live on the western edge of the Dirt Sea in the Hold of Belkzen. A ratfolk settlement called Chitterhome can also be found in the Sellen Hills region of Numeria, where they eagerly scavenge for technological wonders and weapons.

Cultural groups

Ysoki, much like humans, are highly adaptable to wherever they find themselves. Their propensity for following wherever the flow of trade and commerce takes them has spread ysoki across the world, resulting in a variety of cultural groups. Among the most notable groups are:

• Belkzen Creeper, an isolated and fearsome ratfolk culture that lives alongside, but not in harmony with, the orcs of the Hold of Belkzen.
• Diguo-Dashun Underminer, the most numerous ysoki heritage, lives on or beneath the continent of Tian Xia.
• Drumish Dasher, the ysoki group most associated in Avistan with ratfolk at large.
• Gokan Hopper, a ysoki group that lives in the western deserts of Tian Xia and amongst the shadows of the Wall of Heaven mountains.
• Numerian Tinkerers, an experimental culture of ysoki who adore tinkering with the fallen remnants of Rain of Stars scattered across Numeria.
• Ulfen Leapers, a hardy, bulky breed of ysoki who live in the frozen northern reaches of Avistan and along its western coast.

Known ratfolk

See also: Category:Ratfolk/Inhabitants

• Kitsch, quartermaster of the Pathfinder Society's Procurement and Supplies Division

On distant worlds

Golarion is not the only world on which ratfolk make their homes. Akiton, the Red Planet, is home to a ysoki community who are physically almost identical to their relatives on Golarion, despite being worlds apart and having thousands of years of their own distinct history.

Small and timid, the ysoki are equally adapted to the open desert, the strange formian honeycomb caves sometimes found in the deepest trenches of the planet, and in major human cities (where they tend to gravitate towards the slums). Renowned as tinkerers, scavengers, hoarders, traders, and pickpockets, the ysoki are cunning and resourceful. They've shown particular talents for disassembling and re-purposing technology.

Thanks to the cross-planetary trade facilitated by the network of portals linking the two worlds, many ysoki have also spread to the Green Planet, Castrovel.

References

Paizo published a major section about ratfolk in Monster Codex, and an article on ratfolk in Blood of the Beast.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.