Ruvoka, Manteia

[ Elementaloids ] [ Ruvoka | Tribes | Manteia ]

Manteia Ruvoka

N | Medium | Amphibious | Elemental | Humanoid | Ruvoka | CR 9

Ruvoka [ruh-VOKKER] are mysterious humanoids who can be found throughout the Inner Planes. They are tall, gaunt cutters who care deeply for the sanctity and nature of the elements, organised into tribes, each one being uniquely adapted to life on a single plane. The best-known of these are described here…

The high-ups of the tribes are called manteia [man-TAY-uh]. Many of these bloods are priests of nature or elemental powers, deeply attuned to their home elemental planes. They have access to powerful primal magics, weird powers over their native element, and an uncanny knack for divination as well. It varies from tribe to tribe, but the manteia are typically the leaders of a ruvoka settlement too. There might be a single individual in a small clan, a trinity, or even a council of six manteia governing the larger tribes.

While stat blocks for every kind of manteia are out of scope of this article (for now at least), see below for an example of the uublexa pelomancer, a manteia from the Plane of Ooze:

Customised Manteia Statistics

To create stats for a manteia of another ruvoka tribe, you can make the following modifications to this statblock:

• Replace the speeds and the resistances to the elementally appropriate ones. Keep in mind that ruvoka are typically immune to the harmful effects of their native plane and can glide through the elemental matter.
• Add relevant elemental traits (as well as the amphibious trait for water-based ruvoka).
• Replace the melee and ranged attacks with culturally appropriate ones.
• Change the primal spell list in ways you find fitting.
• Change the additional abilities to better represent the special abilities of any individual ruvoka manteia. You can create a much more interesting encounter, if these abilities rely on the ruvoka interacting with the enviroment it is familiar with, representing primal druidic nature of this creature.
• You can also add or substitute additional skills.

Suggestions for individual members of the ruvoka tribes should help inspire ideas for many of these.

Names of Ruvoka Manteia

Tribe	Elemental Plane	Manteia Title	Speciality
Ayaska ‡	Metal	Molybdomancer / Iron-Twister	Pouring molten metal into water and interpreting the shape it makes
Brajeti	Earth (formerly Dust)	Geomancer / Stone-Caller	Cast pebbles onto the ground, connect them by lines and interpret the shapes formed
Chora ‡	Vacuum	Chaomancer / Vast-Watcher	Interpret the movements and shapes made by astronomical bodies and vague stirring in the darkness
Ethilum	Air	Anemomancer / Wind-Singer	Interpretation of weather patterns and wind currents
Gobinhu ‡	Dust	Amathomancer / Dune-Walker	Drop dust or sand onto a flat surface and interpret the patterns
He’moana ‡	Water	Lecanomancer / Water-Witcher	Divination by scrying in a basin of water; water dowsing
Kaltori	Fire	Lampadomancer / Moth-Wizard	Interpreting the shapes made by flickering flames
Lazuul ‡	Mineral	Lithomancer / Gem-Seeker	Examining the occlusions and flaws in precious stones
Löylyari	Steam	Aeolomancer / Brocken-Charmer	Seeing and speaking to faces that appear in the mist
Maltha ‡	Magma	Rhuamancer / Lava-Calmer	Interpretation of the shapes of lavala flows and patterns of bubbles in pumice stones
Mazuku ‡	Smoke	Capnomancer / Fume-Breather	Examining the movements of smoke plumes, shape, size and direction travelled
Onibi ‡	Lightning	Ceraunomancer / Storm-Chaser	Interpret the flashes and rumbles of lightning strikes
Ramoka	Steam	Nephomancer / Mist-Reader	Interpret the shapes of clouds
Sartarin	Ash	Tephromancer /Pyre-Fisher	Examining the ashes from a ritual fire, especially from a cremated creature
Tokama ‡	Radiance	Kaleidomancer / Rainbow-Gazer	Interpreting rays of light scattered by a prism, lens or gemstone
Uublexa ‡	Ooze	Pelomancer / Mud-Wader	Read the cracking patterns in drying mud
Vandesh	Ice	Cryomancer / Ice-Augur	Reading the patterns made in frost or the way ice cracks when water is poured over it
Vrksava ‡	Wood	Dendromancer / Root-Speaker	Read the patterns of root and branch, tree-ring and bud
Wakna ‡	Salt	Halomancer / Ghost-Salter	Cast salt into the air, over the shoulder or into fire, and interpret the patterns
Zathosi	Earth	Petromancer / Vein-Shaper	Interpretation of the lines and strata inside rocks after they are cracked open

Stats: [ D&D 2e ] Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. III (ruvoka)

Source: Margarita and Jon Winter-Holt. Canonwatch: Several ruvoka clans are mentioned in PSMC3, although details were scant and have been expanded upon. Manteia, or mantis, was the Ancient Greek name given to diviners and prophets, and is the root of the ‘mancer’ part of necromancer, etc. I chose manteia rather than mantis for obvious reasons. Incidentally, praying mantis are so-named because they look like little priests. More details on the main ruvoka page. If you come up with any manteia concept you’d like to share, please leave a comment below!