Similar to my AI-generative experiments with MidJourney, I’ve been dabbling with AI to produce expanded content for homebrew campaign settings. It’s been kind of fun to upload some basic outlines and concepts to something like ChatGPT and then watch what it spits out. After some back and forth fine-tuning, the results end up pretty good (in my opinion). The re-skinned dwarfs I was calling the Komari Xul from the last post turned out pretty good. That started with little more than the Bazen Pur files in my links section and a detailed prompt outlining some thematic goals and sources of inspiration. Below is another example for a OD&D re-skinned halfling class using the same approach and files.
Hardari Kul Sardak – The Hollow-Blooded
Re-skinned OD&D Halfling Fighting-man for the Bazen Pur Campaign Setting
“I speak to the wind, and it answers in hooves.”
Overview
The Hardari Kul Sardak—known more simply as the Hardari—are a semi-nomadic shepherding people scattered across the wind-swept steppes, dry river valleys, and thorn-grass hills of southern Bazen Pur. Though slight of build, they are not to be underestimated. The Hardari are lean from labor, tanned by sun, and toughened by generations of watching over the enormous, thick-wooled flocks that provide their food, their trade, and their memory.
Each Hardari band oversees an expansive grazing range, often communicating over great distances by means of bone whistles, mirrored signals, or smoke-cued sky-marks passed from ridge to ridge. They can read a hoofprint like a map and smell the wind for sickness before it touches the lambs.
They do not build cities or claim territory, but neither are they rootless. Their identity is bound to motion through the land, ancestry, and the rhythm of the flock. They trade meat, curdled milk, and woven wool at the edges of Marukian outposts, exchanging what they need without overextending their welcome. Though seen as provincial by urban standards, Marukian garrisons rely heavily on Hardari supplies of meat, milk, and textiles. More than one outpost has perished after disrespecting a local flock-circle.
They are famed for their uncanny skill with the sling, developed from youth to strike wolves, carrion birds, and jackal-things from shocking distances. A Hardari child learns to defend a bleating lamb with a stone before they learn to count.
They are not flashy. They are not boastful. But they remember every insult—and every kindness.
Class Framework
Class: Fighting-Men, limited to 4th level
Prime Requisite: Strength
Weapons Permitted: Any
Armor Permitted: Any
Magic Use: None
Other Class or Cultural Abilities (see below for details):
- Improved Saving Throws
- Improved Listening
- Concealment/Hiding
- Long-distance communication
- Sling Mastery
Languages:
- Mesleki (called “Hardari” by outsiders)
- Trade-Qarian (Common)
- Alignment Cant (Law)
- Hardari Horn-Sign (whistle-based signaling dialect)
| XP | Level | Hit Dice | Title |
| 0 | 1 | 1+1 | Lamb-Walker |
| 2,000 | 2 | 2 | Whistle-Keeper |
| 4,000 | 3 | 3 | Circle-Bound One |
| 8,000 | 4 | 4 | Hollowed of the Wind-Road |
Alignment
The Hardari Kul Sardak are always aligned with Law due to their strict adherence to custom. Their lives are woven into the unspoken code of the flock-circle—a rhythm older than cities, older than kings. To stray from custom is to lose the thread of memory. Law, for the Hardari, is not written statute or imperial decree; it is the path of wind, wool, and watchfulness. Their justice is seasonal, their mercy quiet, and their vengeance carried in silence for years. No Hardari speaks of being “aligned with Law.” They would only say, “The circle remembers.” The Hardari are not aligned with Neutrality or Chaos.
Level Titles in Detail
| Level | Title | Meaning and Cultural Significance |
| 1 | Lamb-Walker (Surrak Anari) | A novice shepherd, recently entrusted with the care of lambs. Sleeps beside the flock, learns the tongue of hooves and wind. Still carries the scent of mother’s wool. |
| 2 | Whistle-Keeper (Kul-Zhura) | Trusted with bone-whistle signals and the watch of distant ridges. Can read storms in the grasses. Begins weaving their own wool-scroll of memory. |
| 3 | Circle-Bound One (Ashari Kuldan) | An honored adult who bears the circle-mark—a woven braid of lineage, sacrifice, and kinship. May speak in council, carry rites to distant kin, and settle disputes by wind-sign. |
| 4 | Hollowed of the Wind-Road (Sardak Elessun) | A sacred guardian of the flock who has undergone fasting and blood-anointing. Speaks rarely, walks alone, and is trusted to listen to the silence between hoofbeats. May become a legend whispered by children and stars alike. |
Each title is earned through ritual, observation, service, and survival, rather than by defeating enemies. These names are often not spoken aloud by the Hardari themselves—others refer to them in recognition, and the names are sometimes woven into cloaks or carved into horn-discs.
Cultural Abilities & Traits of the Hardari
Resilient Folk
Hardari add four levels for all saving throws. The Hardari’s innate resilience can account for saving throw bonuses in various culturally thematic ways. Two examples:
- Wind-Whispered Reflexes
Hardari are remarkably difficult to strike at range. They add four levels for Saving Throws against Wands. Some say they feel the stone before it has it’s loosed.
- Warding Against the Unseen
They add four levels for Saving Throws against Staves & Spells. Their life spent under open sky grants them an innate resistance to lies shaped by other wills.
Blending Step
Though often out in the open, the Hardari know how to conceal themselves with shadow of the land itself. When among hills, tall grasses, or scrubland, they may remain unseen or unheard on a 5-in-6. They do not vanish—they simply blend in with what already surrounds them.
Keen Hearing
Hardari can identify noises and detect sounds on a 2-in-6.
Shepherd’s Communication
All Hardari are trained in long-distance signals, including bone-whistle calls, colored smoke, and sun-glint mirror flashes. They can communicate coded warnings or flock status across vast open spaces, even under duress.
Mastery of the Sling
All Hardari treat the sling not as a simple weapon, but as an extension of the arm and breath. A Hardari with a sling gains +4 to attack rolls.
[AI-Assisted Content using ChatGPT]