Dvati

Dvati are humanoids found across the neutral planes, and every one is born an identical twin; their priests teach that a dvati soul is too mighty for a single body. Their slight build suggests elves, but little else does. Their skin is white as snow, their thick black hair resists the shears, and their eyes are solid blue with no visible iris or pupil. The nose is almost absent, just two small slit nostrils, and their graceful hands have three fingers and a thumb.

Dvati think of themselves as artists and philosophers and prefer peace, but they are trained fighters and defend themselves with lethal skill. They favor small throwing blades and throwing stars, above all the tvan'th, an S-shaped blade that returns to a skilled thrower.

Twins fight as a team. A favorite tactic is to circle a foe and use their echo-voice, speaking together so that the sound seems to come from everywhere at once. It takes a round to start, and both twins must be able to circle and speak; a target who fails a save vs. spell suffers -4 to hit for as long as they keep it up.

All dvati are naturally ambidextrous and possess the proficiency in the two-weapon style of fighting, preferring paired weapons, which give them an extra attack each round. If one twin dies, the other loses 1d6 hit points a day until it too perishes; nothing less than a wish can restore this loss.

As player characters, dvati can be fighters (to 16th level), priests (13th), wizards (16th), thieves (12th) or bards (15th), and the allowed multiclass combinations are wizard/thief, fighter/thief, fighter/priest, fighter/wizard and fighter/wizard/thief. Since every dvati is a twin, a player must create both characters.

Everything in dvati life revolves around the number two. This makes them not rigid or lawful but devoted to duality in their art, buildings, language and thought. Twins grow up side by side, stay together as adults, and speak to each other telepathically, a closeness they treasure rather than resent.

They build large towns and cities in the neutral planes, each divided into four ruling houses with four subgroups called rings apiece. Friendly and outgoing, they trade widely and welcome strangers. Truthful themselves, they are slow to suspect lies, but a single deception marks someone as a liar forever.

The word dvati names both the race and a pair of twins, and because each pair shares one soul their language has no singular pronoun. They farm and hunt, eating a steady mix of meat and vegetables. They care little for treasure in itself but love gems and set them into their handiwork.