Uplifted bear

Uplifted bear

(Creature)

Type

Magical beast

CR

By class level

Environment

Any

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Source: Alien Archive 2, pg(s). 16-17

Uplifted bears are, as their name suggests, bears given intelligence and the ability to use tools by another intelligent race. They are one of the most common species of uplifted animals.

Appearance

Uplifted bears resemble a bear with nimble hands and opposable thumbs. Their unmodified muzzle can only speak gruffly, so uplifted bears prefer to use telepathy. An uplifted bear is 5 feet tall when standing quadrupedally, 10 feet tall when bipedal, and weighs 1200 pounds.

History

Uplifted bears were uplifted during the Gap, which also erased any information about by whom or how they were uplifted. When an uplifted bear team of explorers discovered an unpopulated, lush forest planet in the Ferra system, a small and vocal group of uplifted bears began to petition the rest of their kind to claim it.

Society

Uplifted bears inhabit small communities across the Pact Worlds system, most commonly on large asteroids in the Diaspora. They usually seek to discover pre-Gap relics and build new traditions to create stable societies, though many uplifted bears don't want to focus on the past and leave their homes.

Many, but not all, uplifted bears are most comfortable when they could be regularly outdoors in a natural environment, and do not take well to life on a space station or long expedition. Because of this, many assume that they're best suited as explorers or ecologists; many uplifted bears become successful scientists.

Uplifted bears sometimes have an undeserved reputation of being violent. Some like to draw out this bias of certain people and then mock them, while some uplifted bear kingpins play up this rumour and use their appearance to threaten those they can't convince.

Uplifted bears find kinship in and prefer the company of animals and animal-like humanoids. They get along well with shirrens, who fear that the Swarm will re-assimilate them in the same way that uplifted bears fear that their creators will return and twist their gift of intelligence.