The Sixth People of Man

Helena Markos

Takal Nûn, who was lord of swords, came to Baba Tubalkhan in his forge and said: "Brother Tubalkhan, I ask that you make for me the greatest of weapons. Make for me a sword, so that I may cleave my enemies in twain."

Baba Tubalkhan nodded and said: "Come back tomorrow, and I shall give it to you." 

The next day came, and Takal Nûn returned to the forge. Before his feet, Baba Tubalkhan had laid a plowshare.

"This will do you much better," spoke Baba. "Swords are ugly things and not terribly practical for most of the year. Besides, if you wish to make ghosts of men, a sharp rock and a strong arm will do just as well and you have both already. I did not want to give you a gift you already possessed."

Takal Nûn was greatly angered by this, but knew that Tubalkhan had taken on some of his wife's trickery, and so restrained his rage. 

"Make me a spear, then, so that I may smite my enemies from my chariot. Make me a mighty helm, to proclaim my glory to all who see."

Baba Tubalkhan nodded and said: "Come back tomorrow, and I shall give it to you." 

The next day came, and Takal Nûn returned to the forge. Before his feet, Baba Tubalkhan had laid a broom of reeds and a cookpot. 

Now Takal Nûn erupted in great fury and bit at his cursing finger until it bled, and lay a curse upon the forge of Baba Tubalkhan: "You have wronged me three times, Tubalkhan, for you have given me a plowshare when I asked for a sword, a broom when I asked for a spear, and a cookpot when I asked for a helm. Thus I lay a curse upon your beloved sons the altai, that they will desire with all their hearts the gifts you have denied me and the arts of their bloody usage."

***

The Altai

Among the human peoples the altai are closest in relation to the néandr, being similarly solid of build but a head and a half taller. Most of them hail from the plains of Kara Koren, north of the Blackwine Sea and the lands of the amazons. They keep a semi-nomadic life there, migrating with the bison herds between the cities on the rivers and the holy mountain of the Hollowhorn.

They are also cursed.

Upon reaching adolescence, men of the altai enter an intense and lengthy cycle of musth that will keep them in its clutches for decades, urging them on to great violence and uncontrolled anger. This is the root of the roving warbands that have haunted the imaginations and livelihoods of the other peoples for millennia.

The curse of Takal Nûn necessitates a civilization split by sex (factoring in deaths, the ratio is about three women to each man). Women serve as the backbone of society, maintaining the farms, herds, homesteads, lodges, trades, government, and the other major functions of day-to-day life. Men go out campaigning during the spring and summer, returning home for the autumn and winter months when the curse is at its lowest intensity.

(Aside: It is worth pointing out that some altai who are born female recant all inheritance and responsibilities in order to go out campaigning and live as a man. The opposite, those born male who live as women, are significantly rarer and tend to be limited to the occasional hermit oracle-berserker.)

Altai households are large, multi-generational, and complex. The short form for outsiders is thus: a household consists of a group of women bound by a household vow, their surviving elderly parents, their children, and a rotating roster of men in various states of monogamy who come round during the off-season.

Time and necessary tradition have turned the wars among the altai into formal affairs organized by the elders, carried out for personal glory and the driving force of musth than for accumulating land or booty. This mostly curtails, but has not entirely stopped, the raiding bands that have intruded upon the lands of the other peoples over the ages. A sort of equilibrium has been reached in modern days, with more overlap of populations and greater understanding of cultures, but old wounds can still run deep on the borderlands of their territory. Altai housholds can be found in many major cities outside Kara Koren.

The curse fades fully when reaching 40-60 years of age - those men that survive until this time are welcomed back home as Greyhair'd elders and are permitted to sit with the old women in the council lodge. They may also lead moots during the yearly springtime gatherings at the base of the Hollowhorn.

The altai have nothing to do at all with Orca or her servants.

***

As best as scholars can tell, Takal Nûn was a prehistoric warlord who enslaved the altai and whose sorcerous works are the source of the. The lack of any altai men who do not demonstrate the curse leads to the hypothesis that he was successful in killing off those segments of the population that he was not able to enslave. Some oral histories contain reference to the "old altai" who were transformed even more by the curse, until they "had arms and chests like that of trolls, and minds heavy and thick as winter mud. If a woman gave birth, the child would be cut from her womb for its head was too misshapen to emerge on its own."

If any of the old altai still exist, they do so far beyond even the shadow of the Hollowhorn.

Class: Sanctioned Cambion

Max Gibson

Cambions have a long history with the church, for good or for ill. Rome's traditional open-door policy (established at the First Lateran Council in 1123) has meant that those cambion children not abandoned to the wilderness, aborted, or killed at birth nearly always make their way into the auspices of the church, up until only recent decades. While the pulpit loves upholding this as an act of charity and of undermining the influence of the Enemy, the reality is that it is mostly practical: cambions make very good exorcists.

When there's morally-compromising wetwork to be done, they send a cambion.

[Side note: Cambions are not half-demon, but the result of a cubus transporting sperm between a male victim and a female one (with relatively-rare cases of attack-triggered parthenogenesis). The supernatural properties imbued during transit grant cambions an instinctive awareness of demons and resistance to their influence, and a greater attunement to magic].

The last half-century has seen a paradigm shift in the cambion population. Where it was once near-unheard of to see one outside the church, it is now increasingly difficult to find one within it. Greater secular support and legal protections for both cambions and their mothers, combined with a more sympathetic public and a church embroiled in scandal, means that most cambions can support themselves on their own. Those who want to take up the traditional trade of exorcist tend to join secular organizations, as greater study of the supernatural has shown that religion has very little to do with the actual Powers that Be.

Many of those cambions who have left the Catholic church have joined together to found their own spiritual fellowship, the Red Circle.

HD: d8 (d6 flesh, d8 grit)
Saves: As cleric / mystic
Weapons and Armor: Cambions can use any armor and weapons.
XP: As cleric / mystic

Heritage Infernale: Cambions are immune to mundane fire damage, resistant to any damage inflicted by an embodied demon, and immune to seduction.

Ember Eyes: Cambions have grey-scale low-light vision. Their eyes glow in the dark like hot coals.

Leadfoot: Cambions are incredibly dense and heavy, as if their bodies are made of stone. They sink in water and cannot be moved or knocked prone except by significant force. (ie Creature HD > 1/2 cambion CON)

The Gitchy Feeling: Cambions have an innate sensitivity to the presence of demons and other spirits. This feeling can determine how many entities are present and how strong they are.

Applied Exorcism: There are three primary methods of exorcism at a cambion's disposal.

• Blessed Lead: The cambion may prime bullets that will do triple damage to possessive demons. They may create and keep bullets equal to their level, each takes a full day to prepare. 
• Drawing out the Devil: The cambion may entrap an incorporeal demon in an object. This follows the base mechanic of turning undead. If the cambion knows the demon's true name, they act as if three levels higher. 
• White Sacrament: A lengthy ritual that allows a cambion and any allies to enter a pocket of hell, where they may strike at the blackened soul of a manifested demon and kill it for good. The cambion may sacrifice any number of hit dice (xd8 HP) as a bonus action to grant all allies the effect of Bless for that amount. All allied weapons are treated as holy for the duration of the Bless.  If the cambion is killed, the effect ends immediately and any survivors will be trapped in hell.

Shadcarlos

Everyone is Human

I've played around with this idea before, and got to thinking of expanding it upon seeing Trey Causey over at Sorcerer's Skull do something similar, as well as Joe Fatula's stuff over at Signs in the Wilderness.

Reverse-engineering the Standard Fantasy Races (TM) into primates that exist in the real-world has fourfold purpose: one, stale fantasy tropes are stale and mythologizing the real world is much more fun and meaningful for me. Two, it's the easy go between of "humans only" and "lots of choice of fantasy peoples", since both are true. Third, it allows you to focus on the really weird fantasy species that can be thrown into the world to interact with. Fourth, I have a feeling it's a solid way to circumvent "let's go into the caves and just murder everyone". We have chaos-spawn for that.

Human Species

Humans - Homo sapiens sapiens - This is us.

Dwarves - Homo sapiens neanderthalensis - A bit shorter, a bit stockier, live up in the lands of ice and snow. Possibly deceptively high-pitched voices.

Elves - Homo sapiens idaltu - Immediate ancestors of humans, now fading out.

Halflings / gnomes - Homo sapiens floresiensis - The little people. Tend to come from small, remote islands.

Orcs - Homo sapiens denisova - Closely related to dwarves, significant cross-pollination between the two peoples. Live in a vast and rugged wilderness, far from civilization.

Ogres - Homo sapiens carnifex - The result of heavy arcane reagent poisoning. Gigantism, mental degradation, violent cannibalistic tendencies.

Tiefling - Homo sapiens cambionis - The result of a cubus transferring sperm between a male and female victim. Sterile, generally mutated.

Aasimar - Homo sapiens nephilli - The result of a angelic siring and miraculous birth. Sterile, generally mutated.
 

Other Primates

Goblins - Lemurs and tarsiers - Loud, rowdy, huge tribes, downright bizarre looking really.

Hobgoblins - Chimpanzees and bonobos - Tool usage, have figured out war and raiding parties.

Bugbears - Mandrills - Ye gods, look at those teeth.

Firbolgs - Orangutans and gorillas - Eminently chill dwellers of the inner forests.

Trolls - A hunchbacked, ape-like mass of tumors. No one knows what it used to be.

Giants - Gigantopithicus - Huge, rarely seen.

Banner Saga in the OSR

The Banner Saga is one of the most solidly-OSR video games out there, so in honor of its recent conclusion, here's all you might need to run it.

Class: Mender

Men and women who show aptitude in pulling upon the threads of creation are taken in by the order of Menders and sent out across the world to build and heal.

HD and Saves: As cleric
Weapons and Armor: Light armor and simple weapons

Mend: Menders may repair [level] damaged objects per day.

Herb Lore: Menders are trained in herb lore and healing arts.

A Welcome Sight: Menders gain +1 to reaction rolls among common folk

LeKsoTiger

Class: Valka

The highest and most powerful of the menders are the valka, who sit in council at Manaharr and watch the world unfold around them. Men of their number often go mad from minds over-driven.

HD: As cleric
Saves: As magic-user

Weapons and Armor: Light armor, simple weapons, spears

Herb Lore: Valka are trained in herb lore and healing arts.

Wielders of Power: Men or varl who would willingly and openly cross a valka are tremendously driven or immensely stupid. Wielders of political power are inclined to dislike your interference, and undermine accordingly. 

Loom-Mother's Gift: The valka are masters at pulling upon the threads that weave together creation. They may use their powers [level] times per day safely, as per VAM rules. Beyond this limit, they mus Save vs Magic or risk unraveling (roll on your favorite spell backfire table)

Valka begin with two powers on the following list, randomly rolled. Each time they level up, they may gain another (re-roll duplicates)

1. Mend  - Repair a damaged object or small structural damage.
2. Arc Lightning - Does 1d6 damage to target, 2d6 to adjacent target, 3d6 to the next, etc.
3. Troll Stones - Tears monoliths from the ground
4. Confusion - Enemy must pass save or attack its fellows this turn.
5. Inspiration - Target gains 1 reroll.
   
6. Ride the Lightning - Shoots forward in 50' straight line, automatic melee attack, then return.
   
7. Mend Flesh -  Heals target 1d6+lvl HP.
   
8. Breeze - Target may move double their speed for one turn.
   
9. Runic Gale - 10' circle grants all who step inside a +1 to all rolls their next turn.
   
10. Choose one

LeKsoTiger

Class: Varl

Horned giants created by the god Hadrborg; now a dying race, as no more will ever be made.

HD and Saves: As dwarf

Weapons and Armor:  

• Cannot use minor or small weapons
• Cannot wear heavy armor.
• To-hit as fighter.

Of Our Bones, the Hills: Varl add + 1 to their STR and CON modifiers.

Shoulders Most Broad: Varl may carry twice as much equipment before becoming encumbered. They may carry 2 Sacks during long-distance travel.

It's the Beard: Varl are all male, cannot reproduce, and show no interest in related fields.

Fear of Fire: A successful WIS save is required to come close to or interact with fire. Otherwise, varl will avoid it as a priority.

Canary; full name, Cainánóiridhe

Class: Horseborn

Half-man-half-horse beings from the southern plains of Dalalond. Their relationship with the northerners is strained, for the horseborn are responsible for the killing of all horses in the world. (Use Welsh for their names)

HD and Saves: as fighter

Weapons and Armor:  

• Can only wear light armor, specially made.
• Proficient in flails, spears, and lances.
• To-hit as fighter.

Freedom of Movement: Horseborn move and carry as ponies, being smaller than normal horses. They have no love for cities, buildings, and walls. Underground is right out.

Like a Kick in the Head: Horseborn may make a 1d8 melee attack to an adjacent enemy. On a hit, the target must make a successful Save vs Paralysis or be stunned for 1d3 turns.

Pins and Poisons: Horseborn may 1) tip their spears in poison (1d4 damage for 3 turns, does not stack) or 2) pin an enemy in position with a crippling shot (enemy reduced to 5 movement)

Couldn't confirm who made this :/

Class: Dredge

Created by a bitter and nameless god to wage war against the rest, the dredge are the silent hordes that come up from beneath the earth and down from the north wastes of Valkajokull.

HD and Saves: as fighter
Weapons and Armor:  See below. To-hit as fighter.

Stone Speech: Dredge speech is akin to the tones of a tuning fork. Menders may learn to understand their language, and may speak it with the aid of an appropriately-tuned staff. Dredge can understand the language of men and varl, but cannot speak it.

The Great Enemy: Men and varl (especially the latter) view you as an enemy. Hostility is guaranteed, violence likely.

Special Equipment:

• Armor: Dredge armor is an extension of their stony skin. They cannot wear any additional armor atop it, but may use shields. A dredge may elect to shatter their armor to absorb 1d12 damage from a single physical attack. They will take -2 to AC for each time the armor has been shattered, which cannot be repaired without the aid of a mender, stonesinger, or two days' work by a trained stonemason. Anyone adjacent to the dredge when armor is shattered takes d4 damage + 1 bleeding damage for d4 turns.
  
• Weapons: Dredge weapons are made of stone. On an attack roll of 1, the weapon will shatter, dealing d4 damage, + 1 bleeding damage for d4 turns.

Template: Choose one of the following archetypes.

Stoneguard

• AC as plate
• Carries a shield and warhammer (d10)
• Can wield great weapons in one hand.

Slinger

• AC as chain
• Sling does 1d6 damage.
• Shatterstones (explode on the next turn, 1d6 to adjacent enemies, d6 ammo die) 
• For -2 penalty to hit, can stun enemy for 1 turn with a successful attack.

Stonesinger

• AC as leather
• Carries two stone blades (d8) that may be struck together to cast spells.
• Disease strike - A successful hit does an additional 1/turn to living targets, non-stacking.
• May cast the following [level] times per day. 
• Can mend shattered armor and weapons, or other broken objects.
• Rupture - Enemies within hearing distance take 1d6 + lvl damage. All dredge armor in range shatters in addition to the damage.
• Umbrage - All nearby allies lose -2 AC from damaged armor, but gain +2 to hit and +2 damage until the end of combat. Dredge armor shatters.

Gods

The gods are dead, their powers have faded from the world. There was never an organized religion, and now few people hold onto any of the old traditions at all.

Each god has a god-stone somewhere in the world, engraved with their likeness. They are notable landmarks, and gathering places for the few remaining faithful.

1. Loom-Mother - Creator of the world and of humanity, teacher of magic.
2. Dundyr - Loom-Mother's counterpart, god of beards, smithing, games, and song.
3. Hridvaldyr - God of beasts and hunting, of the deep forests. Weilder of a terrible spear.
4. Denglr - God of fortune and wealth, all things desired that one cannot have.
5. Radormyr - God of the harvest, depicted as a great serpent that lives within the sun.
6. Marek - God of waters and the sea, depicted as a vast aquatic beast.
7. Hadrborg - Disciple of the Loom-Mother that created the Varl.
8. Ingrid - Through her godstone, the menders learned the language and history of the gods.
9. Bjorulf - God of mead and brewing. Very popular, despite his stern countenance.
10. Stravhs - God of secrets and trade. Built weapons the gods used to kill each other.
11. Aselei - Goddess of all those traveling unfamiliar lands, of what lies beyond the riverbend.
12. Irynx - The Winter Bird.
13. Baldringr - A god of war, shunned by the varl for reasons they will not say.
14. Vez'nan - God of a lost, subterreanean people. Gained the greatest power by forsaking all.
15. Geirraðr - God of wise council and direction, off invention and good decisions.
16. Bygglaerer - The Builder, who formed the cavernous foundations of the world.
17. Lauga - Goddess of love, beauty, and things that happen in the night.
18. Dredge - The dredge  raised a godstone in their own image. Their creator goes unnamed.

Playing the Saga

Luka Rejec's Ultraviolet Grasslands covers everything one would need to run the travel portions of the Saga. Simply replace the points of interest with locations from the game (or suitable equivalents) and play with the final goal being reaching Arberrang (or, for UVG, The Black City). Besides that, the following points should be helpful.

• There is a darkness in the north, and the dredge are pushing south. We don't know why.
• Fighters and specialists are as usual.
• Clerics and magic-users are replaced by Menders and the Valka. 
• There are neither horses nor plate armor. You do have yox, which are yak + ox.
• Most strange creatures come from underground.
• A single valka is significant. More than one is a status-quo-breaking proposition.
• Among 100 refugees, there may be one or two menders.
• You must keep moving. The dredge will not stop and wait.

Néandr and Idaltu

The four core races of D&D aren't human, elf, dwarf, and halfing. They're all human: H. sapiens, H. sapiens idaltu, H. neanderthalensis and H. floresiensis. Elves and dwarves belong with the Folk, ineffable and inherently magical. The demihuman classes never really had a lot to set them apart, so why set them apart all that much?

I did a post a while ago on the florens, and you're all pretty well acquainted with the manun, so here are the other two peoples among Mother's children.Everything listed applies on top of whatever old school class you are using, and presumes LotFP.

Tom Bjorklund

Néandr

Stocky and hirsute, the néandr were first born into the Snows and thrived in those cold days. In these warmer ages they have retreated to the mountains and tundra where it is more comfortable for them, but they can still be found in healthy numbers throughout the lands of their cousins. The shape of their mouths and throats can make it difficult to speak many other human languages, and so they will typically stick to their own or speak simply.

Clan Membership: A néandr who has not been exiled from their clan might always find sanctuary and support from their kinsmen and their allies. Conversely, their clan’s enemies are also their enemies, and an individual might be called on by their elders to perform a task for the clan.

Old Man's Song: Néandr with a WIS of 13 or an INT of 15 know the sacred language used in oral histories. It is possible to hear it up to 5 miles away (given clear air and strong lungs), so long as the listener understands it. 

Clans of the Néandr

Roll twice for allies and twice for enemies. Repeated rolls indicate factions within a clan.

1. Roving Tusk – Heavy fur collars and ivory mead-horns. Headbutt hellos and iced mead.
2. Fire-Belly – Bright red tattoos on bared stomachs. Fire-eaters, fire-breathers, spice merchants.
3. Stone-Head – Born under the ceaseless stony vigilance of Azad, god of the Old Men.
4. Blacktooth – Betel-leaf chewers and tale-spinners. Never entirely trustworthy, by purpose.
5. Redwood – Spirit-keepers of the misty rain-forests. Adherents of balance in all things.
6. Hearth-Keeper – Keep the fires going, the stewpots full, and the communal halls warm.
7. Chalk and Tar – Paint their skin white and black before entering battle. Badlands nomads.
8. Mound-Builder – Descendants of those who built the ancient funerary grounds.
9. Stone-Raiser – Astronomers and architects, who build the star-hearth ritual sites.
10. Seeking Wolf – Tamers of wolves and lovers of DOG. Paired with a pup at birth.
11. Iron Mountain –Purplish-grey skin; disciples of cold, snow, steel, stone, and blood.
12. Cloud People –White-haired; commune with the gods who live high in the cloud palaces.
13. Bone-Eater – Huge-framed cannibals and scavengers of meat; fair and honorable warriors.
14. Pearl Moon –Oracles and dream-readers, finding omens in the reflections of the great lakes.
15. Wide River – More comfortable  in the water than out; taller, sleeker, less hairy than most.
16. Corn-House – Adobe huts on the cliffside, corn-husk dolls, masters of making do with little.
17. Marsh Fisher – Stilts, spears, and reed hats. Secret meanings and swampland slang.
18. Blue-Tongue – Long distance runner-messengers. They cannot ever divulge a secret.
19. Woven-Beard – Pride is their downfall; they have become too good at war for their own sakes.
20. God-Drum – History-keeping priesthood that may call the clans together in times of need.

Tom Bjorklund

Idaltu

They were the first among Mother's children to master the arcane arts and settle themselves in cities. There are few of them left today; their ancient golden age was achieved through magical means, and those means came with the condition that their age would fade away in due time. They have come to terms with this, though it took a long while.

Magic Tongue: Arcane language is a core part of Idaltu education, and so they have deep knowledge of all manner of magical shorthands (see: Read Magic). This skill is extended to decrypting codes and ciphers in languages that they know normally with an hour of focus and quiet.

The Star of Your Birth

Idaltu magical practices came about as part of their studies of astronomy, and so the two fields have always been taught intertwined with each other. The traditional zodiac signs are linked with an associated spell, as well as the more folkloric broad personality traits. Planets are more associated with the broad social stratum of Idaltu civilization.

1. Red Watcher in the East  – Careful, distant, collected, cold, consistent (Summoning)
2. The Summer Eagle  – Lively, outgoing, (Feather Fall)
3. The Dancer – Wild, untamed, joyous, free, unrestrained (Charm Person)
4. The Fox – Clever, coy, quick-witted, little sense of consequence (Faerie Fire)
5. Mouth of the Whale  – Vast, encompassing, overwhelming (Message)
6. The Bull’s Horns  – Possessing of a mighty presence; stubborn, unstoppable (Knock)
7. Weaving Girl  – Innocent, daydreamer, lax, contented (Sleep)
8. The Belt  – Striving, seeking, improving, admonishing (Hold Portal)
9. Little King in the North – Caring, calculating, maker of difficult choices (Unseen Servant)
10. The Windmill  –  Heroic, foolhardy, noble, incompetent, friend (Shield)
11. The Old Bear  – Solitary, enduring, of few connections and rare emotion (Enlarge)
12. The Arrowhead  – Direct, cutting, no mind for norms or propriety (Magic Missile)

Planet in Ascension

1. The Messenger – Athletes, clowns, merchants, explorers
2. The Shining One – Courtesans, aesthetes, lovers
3. The Marcher – Soldiers, workers, farmers, craftsmen, commoners
4. God's Red-Eye – Priests, scholars, scientists, wizards
5. Ring-Bearer – Rhetoricians and artisans
6. Lunatic King –  Princes and philosophers
7. The Depths – Those whose souls cannot be named
8. The Small One – The forgotten and overlooked

Class: The Folk

“Faërie contains many things besides elves and fays, and besides dwarfs, witches, trolls, giants, or dragons; it holds the seas, the sun, the moon, the sky; and the earth, and all things that are in it: tree and bird, water and stone, wine and bread, and ourselves, mortal men, when we are enchanted.”

- Tolkien, On Fairy Stories.

“We do not want merely to see beauty... we want something else which can hardly be put into words- to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. That is why we have peopled air and earth and water with gods and goddesses, and nymphs and elves.”

-C.S. Lewis

Xia Chenjie

Class: The Folk

Folk possess only two stats, Forma and Numen (Form and Presence, if you roll that way,).

Forma (FRM): The strength of the Folk's physical manifestation. Folk can withstand damage equal to their FRM before losing their material body. They may re-manifest in FRM / NMN modifier days, rounding up (ignore negatives). When you level up, roll d20: if it is higher than your Forma, increase that score by 1.

Numen (NMN): The strength of the Folk's true being. Tied with the health of their home locus: each act that honors / desecrates this locus will increase / decrease this stat by one. If the modifier is negative, the locus has become polluted and the Folk corrupted. If NMN is reduced to 0, the Folk fades completely and cannot return.

Roll 4d4 for Forma; Numen always begins at 10.You may subtract up to 2 from one score and add it to the other.

Saves are resolved by rolling under the appropriate stat.

Folk do not gain experience or levels: instead, the templates a Folk possesses are equal to its Numen modifier. They will always possess the traits of template 0.

Templates

0) Folk Magic, Words of the World, 2 Power

N1) +1 Power

N2) + 1 Power

N-1) Sickly Nature, -1 Power, +1 Corruption

N-2) Polluted, +2 Corruption

Folk Magic

Certain magics are universal among all of the Folk. They are:

• The ability to change shape as they wish.
• The ability to appear and disappear as they will.
• Knowledge of the language of all birds and beasts.
• The ability to be heard in a man's native tongue.

Folk are tied to their home, whether it be a single tree or an entire biome; they cannot pass far beyond the border of their locus without invoking 2 Power for the duration of their journey.

Words of the World

There is no separation between the Folk and the world, and this is their greatest magic.

Invoking Words of the World requires Power. Power is invoked for as long as the effect is active, and returns when the effect is dispersed. Actions will scale depending on how much Power is invoked.

(This is all just barely tweaked from Kevin Crawford's system in Godbound, by the by.)

• Damage against a single target (1d6 /1d8 / 1d10 / 1d12)
• Damage against multiple targets (1d4 / 1d6 / 1d8 / 1d10)
• Gain armor or defenses (as leather / as chain / as plate / as plate and shield)
• Resist damage or an effect(damage reduction, damage resistance, countering spell effects, etc)
• Hinder or weaken an enemy (Penalties to hit, take extra damage, status effects, etc.)
• Create something
• Change something
• Other

For Folk operating outside of their homes, roll d6 for each point of Power invoked. Dice that come up as 6 are considered burnt until the next day.

Sickly Nature

Folk whose numen has been severely damaged take a 1d6 penalty to all rolls that they make, and they may not leave their home territory.

Corruption acts the same way as Power, though it is fit only for foul and misbegotten uses. When it is invoked, the Folk must make a Numen save, or will lose 1 point in that score.

Polluted Form

At this point the Folk has either faded to near-nothing (and thus cannot / will not act), or embraced its corruption and transformed into an abomination. Some small fragments of its old essence might still remain, but drawing them out is next to impossible.

All those who encounter must make a save vs magic at -4 to avoid contracting sickness or curse, per turn. No save may be made for direct physical contact.

Folk who have reached this level of corruption will often attempt to survive by severing themselves completely from their home. This should not be allowed to happen.

 

tvonn9

 Folk PCs

There are uncountable varieties of the Folk that might be found in the great wide world. I'll have a post detailing some of them later down the line.

The most common Folk that might be found in the company of dungeon hobos and the like will be nymphs, woodwose, brownies, goblins, and talking animals.

Needless to say, any Folk who would end up in such a situation already positively inclined towards humanity - there are more of these than one might think, considering the many alliances Mother made in the distant past.

Outside of fools and the truly foul, Folk traveling in the world of men will be met with great respect.

The greatest threat to the Folk is the growing tumor of Hell - fending off this threat will bring many Folk to call upon mankind for aid, or offer theirs in kind.

Gorgonopsid Space Liches

Jonathan Kuo

Buckle up, ladies and gents, it's time for gorgonopsid space liches. Please pardon the fellow above, he is out of costume.

It's not easy getting into space. Sometimes, a species gets lucky and just stumbles upon some magic that can get them into orbit. Most of the time they never get off the ground at all. Sometimes, a species tells the universe to go fuck itself, beats it up, steals its lunch money, and does stuff the hard way.

Gorgorex was one of those.

Let's not mince words here, they nearly murdered their own planet to get into space. But they got there, and they got there first. Gorgorex civilization was a dominant player in a bubble upwards of 150 light-years across. A dust mote compared to the empire of the mind-worms that would come after them, but it was the grandest of the time and twice as grand besides because it was built upon a near-absolute lack of skill in the spatio-temporal arts.

Magical gravity control was completely beyond them. Faster than light travel was never even on the table. But they had biomancy and necromancy, and with the combination of the two came all their undying biological technologies. The gorgorex abandoned their bodies early in their interplanetary era for the benefits of lichdom; Phylacteries were mass-produced, flesh was traded for bone, and the species entered the age of post-scarcity. There were plans for a Dyson swarm.

It never came to pass, for gorgorex civilization collapsed completely. A glitch in the sigil-programming of their phylacteries would unspin their souls and wipe the storage. This was hard-coded into the enchantment and was triggered by age: roll over a certain date and poof. Gone.

Entire colonies were wiped clean before anyone realized there was a problem. Frantic workarounds were developed, but by the time the knowledge would reach outlying regions time-lag would have wiped anyone who could have listened to the message. Feral fragments of their networked bodies filled the empire; mindless, atavistic, slowly degrading into dust.

Ten Remnants of the Gorgonopsid Space Liches

1. Umbilical cord space elevator attached to geosynchronous skull-station.
2. Self-replicating tomb colony filled with deteriorating maintenance ghouls.
3. Autonomous skeletal drones, programming hopelessly glitched by age.
4. Orbital lichyard, hatcheries full of stillborn ships.
5. Rib cage cylinder habitat, left to the pests for ages.
6. Orbital solar farm, now inhabited by hives of stellar fire elementals.
7. Fallow terraforming hexes, spotted with seed and gene vaults.
8. Osteosculpting station, coral tanks still functioning.
9. Communication hub, still broadcasting messages from the empire's final days.
10. Sublight cargo vessel, trapped in a long elliptical orbit.

Ten Treasures of the Gorgonopsid Space Liches

1. Thinking machine in a formaldehyde vat, desiccated but still functional.
2. An unused phylactery, ruby-red and smooth as oil.
3. Monofiliment bone-wire sword, still sharp despite the years.
4. Portable solar-heater, could survive a bomb detonation.
5. Pre-lichdom ghoul-suit, still able to do EVA walks.
6. Non-functioning but intact fusion reactor.
7. Supercoolant unit filled with liquified Ice 9 elemental.
8. Blob of active metamaterial, currently at child intelligence and growing smarter.
9. Painstaking recreation of the empire in orrery form, all orbit times to scale.
10. A GSL's original body, lovingly preserved for nostalgia's sake.

The Conqueror of Time-Space, Heirozonus Zhul

The last of the gorgonopsid space liches, the utterly mad Heirozonus has devoted his unlife to building a gargantuan museum devoted to showcasing all the eras of fantastic deep time. He pilots this patchwork monstrosity of a rotating cylinder through the time-stream, abducting interesting specimens and endlessly revising and adding to the habitat-exhibits found within.

Hook: the player characters wake up from a drugged haze in a clearly-fake model homestead. There are a few recollections of drinking the night before and lights in the sky. Everyone's clothing has been replaced with ridiculous "local garb" that no one in their right mind would ever wear. Outside the house, there is a skeleton-servitor, eyes aglow...

The Wanderers

They are wanderers among the stars, descendants of some ancient race that was particularly sensitive to the emanations of the cosmos.

These are based on the format of +Skerples'  races, and are a fine fit for spaceship crews.

Mercury

Lean and fleet-footed. Grey, pock-marked skin. Hairless.

• Reroll DEX
• Will not get tired from from running
• Will die if more than lightly encumbered

Venus

Wreathed in veils of golden haze. Beneath the clouds one might glimpse rugose folds of technicolor fungi. Eyes like stars. Always female.

• Reroll CHA
• Take half damage from fire, acid, and heat.
• Will corrode carried items that are not glass or magical metal

Earth

Swarthy brown. Stout. Hair like moss. Smells of petrichor. Tracks dirt and dew everywhere.

• Reroll choice
• Can speak with animals and plants
• Disadvantage on saves against poison

Mars

Wiry, rust-red. Hair and beards like dirty snow. Drink blood. Broken teeth. Always cold to the touch. Always male.

• Reroll STR
• Does not need to drink water
• Spites peace in all forms

Jupiter

Broad shoulders, thundering voice. Banded skin like orange sherbet. Hair like roiling clouds, blue and white. Red right eye socket, empty.

• Reroll CON
• Cannot be knocked prone
• Aura of spell failure (save vs magic to cast), draws spell aggro

Saturn

Tawny gold skin. Ice-particle halo. Faint hexagon scales. Elegant and calm.

• Reroll INT
• Can float atop water
• Eat their own children

Uranus

Electric blue and placid. Features are rotated 90 degrees: the upper limbs are one leg and one arm, the line of the face is perpendicular with the ground, and so on.

• Reroll at random
• Trained in a random skill (3-in-6)
• Perpetual target of mockery

Neptune

Deep blue, splotched with darker spots and ribbed with white. Bide their time, waiting for moments where patience might be discared and storms may erupt.

• Reroll WIS
• Half damage from cold
• Cannot eat cooked or warm food

Pluto

Reddish brown and white. Small. Orbited by five small, smooth stones, said to be plucked from the rivers of the dead.

• Reroll none
• Advantage to saves against fear, can speak with the dead.
• Haunted by cold and lost souls

Drow-Shaped Space

If you asked me what my favorite D&D races are, I would say without hesitation that they are drow and tieflings. Not for what they necessarily are, but because I can turn them into all sorts of fun things. They're weird, and they're the right kind of weird where they get the hooks in and make you think "I can do this, I should do this."

When the spider-themed dominatrices don't cut it, there's plenty of fuel for the mind. I would be remiss at this point to not mention +Patrick Stuart 's Aelf-Adal, +Skerples ' roses-and-cities drow,  +Jacob Hurst and his Hot Spring Elves, and +Chris Kutalik with the Eld. This sort of creative variety is precisely why this topic is so fun.

Sometimes the space around the center is better than the center itself. Like prime farmland surrounding a dilapidated house. There were good ideas here: they just got stalled out, sidetracked, ignored, or overpowered by bad ideas. But there were ideas, ideas with enough promise that you find yourself drawn back to it and start poking around in the guts of that dilapidated story. There are ideas that worked, and ideas that work that can be reconstructed.

So then! Drow. This is a post about drow.

 zombroccoli

The Lilu

 

Mother had a sister, did you know that? The gods cast her deep into the earth for sins we know not, and imprisoned her there along with all her children. This was many long ages ago, perhaps even before the snows melted.

They are like men seen through a darkened mirror, reflections shaped by the veins of the earth.

They have lived too long in the presence of demons, in the same way one might live too long in the presence of a leaking nuclear reactor.

They are impish, capricious, riotous, gregarious, violent and lustful; their blood burns brightly with their appetites and vices. They love fire, pipe smoking, strong drink and burning spice.

Imagine yourself starving and alone in the dark veins of the earth, and to hear from the cave ahead the stamping of feet, the clapping of hands, the bawdy chants of their drinking songs. They offer you liquor, spiced meat, a pipe, sex. Bounty enough to think you have gone mad. Perhaps you have caught some of theirs.

The Matriarchs

 

Imagine yourself a root of a great fungal tree, a strand of mycelium probing through the fertile earth. Trace yourself up that woven family-organism, all the way up to the crowned and you find her: the beloved autocrat.

They are the architects and gardeners of the lilu; grow this branch, prune that branch, cross pollinate here just so. Perhaps that is too much of a lie, for they are not gentle and they do not nurture. The dark mirror manifests in them as a megalomania befitting their station: obsession and excess, cruelty and cleverness sharpened by the merciless caves below. Singular identity

And love, which is perhaps the most terrible madness of all. It's all family business, after all.

With rule that has gone unquestioned for so many centuries, made even more complete with the death of █████, contact with the surface has been nothing short of catastrophic for the Matriarchs. There are suddenly too many moving to keep track of; do they extend further on the surface or remain below the earth? How much superficial influence may be safely permitted? Ought we change what has been changeless?

Families have split apart or turned on longtime allies over the matter. It will only get worse.

Know this: one does not say no to the matriarchs.

1. Has grown corpulent on the profits of her opium dens. Wears a full-length tapestry-veil of golden thread, embroidered with erotic acts. Extends no kindness, permits no complacency.
2. Collects the eyes of her husbands and tattoos her wives with poetry. Sickness as a child left her with a permanent wet cough. Believes unquestioningly that she will become her own assassin.
3. Takes immaculate care of her garden, where she grows rare mushrooms in the still-living bodies of her enemies. Wishes to see the sun murdered, for it is a terrible and evil god. Walks with a painful limp.
4. Abnormally young for her position. Rarely emerges from the clan distillery. Outwardly friendly, speaks in a booming voice: it is well-known that this is an act, but not what it conceals.
5. Melancholy and inquisitive. A sorceress by trade. Wears a blind cave eel around her neck, treats it as if it is someone else's infant.
6. Wears mail of cave-crawdad shells, stamped with wax seals of old family conflicts. False teeth made of obsidian. Whispered to be an usurper, to have killed her aunt and taken her wife as trophy.
7. Slick and decisive. Spider-silk robes and alkalion-hide boots. Ain't no one's fool, didn't raise no fools neither.
8. Regularly descends further into the earth, to parley with the deep families. Keeps immaculate records, carved in lead. Reputation as a very dangerous neutral party.

pomorum

The Republicans

 

Contact with the surface led to all manner of funny ideas filtering into the heads of the poor. Ideas like rights and representation and voting. Ideas like printing presses and coffee shops and civil liberties and independence from the matriarchs.

Ideas that get you killed down below.

They are True Believers, idealists dreaming of a republic untainted. They will fight and die for that dream with broadsides and pamphlets and soapboxes and firebombs and hidden rooms and sit-ins and protest marches. A hundred different inner circles with a thousand different plans forward and ten thousand arguments about it. The movement grows. The matriarchs have taken notice. The republic slouches towards the ballot box to be born.

They will see the lilu dragged kicking and screaming into the century of the fruitbat, with or without the matriarchs.

The Two-Faced City

There was an earthquake that split open the land, so terrible that all the world's maps had to be re-made. In a single night the barrier between above and below was torn down: towns leveled, mountains built up, rivers diverted, valleys carved out, lakes born in pock-marked scars, caves opened to the sky.

And from the veins of the earth came the lilu, blinking in the light of the moon.  

They raised a city there, a city of towers and stairs and bridges, like bones cast for omens on the earthen scars. No space is wasted. Everything is connected. By day it rests near-empty, a nest of stone; by night, it teems with the mad energy of the lilu.

In the lower city,  the veins have not yet released their grasp. There are passages here that lead further into the earth - if one follows them, one could find those lilu that remained in the darkness.

City Districts

1. Broken Clock (Upper City) - Puts forward a modern, surface-world air. Republicans are everywhere among the merchants and middle-class families. Book stores and coffee shops and newspapers. The lilu have never been gifted with timekeeping, thus the name of the district's great landmark.
2. Paradise Pools (Lower City) - There are sulfuric hot springs here, along with opium dens, distilleries, and pleasure-houses. It is the bottom of the mug, where all the dregs settle.
3. Whitechasm (Upper City) - The canyon walls are white, stuffed with fingertip shells. The constant carving of those cliffs into beautiful forms leaves the neighborhood cloaked in chalk dust.
4. Firepit (Lower City) - Every surface of the bowl-shaped depression is coated in glazed tiles, the color of an autumn sun. When a lucky ray of light pierces the upper city the pit and all the buildings within look as if set ablaze.
5. Tanglebridge (Upper City) - Dozens of tiny precipices linked together through walkways of wood and stone and rope, like a spider's web. It is functionally superfluous, and people like it that way.
6. Path of Banners (Lower City) - A knotted thoroughfare, festooned with colorful flags and paper lanterns. It is the primary way into the lower city, and home to the best merchants.
7. Silent Faces (Lower City) - Hundreds of massive  stone heads in black and white. Why were they built? Why is it untouched by noise and chaos? Why do the inhabitants go about masked?
8. Sun Quarter (Upper City) - The foreign quarter, where the city's human inhabitants live. It is amenable, if cramped. Take heed: The matriarchs will have no gods of man in their city.
9. Eunuch's Spire (Upper City) - The scholar-castrati of the great families hold their wise counsel within this stone spike. Here there is a semblance of order, but only so much.
10. Shadepier (Lower City) - A small, quiet dock, where one may set out in a white-hulled coracle to the seas beneath the earth.
11. The Houses' Hold (Upper and Lower City) - A great superstructure like a hollowed mountain or an inverted valley containing the family homes of the matriarchs. It is called by some the Third Face, a city within its own city.
12. Shoulder Keep / Giant's Ward (Upper and Lower City) - When the ground opened up, it was found that a great  stone form like a man stood in the rubble, holding aloft an island of earth on its broad shoulders. The keep has long been home to sorcerers and mages, mad inventors and the like. The hollow bones and muscles of the giant are a hive for the poor and family-less.

Excellero

 █████, their Mother's Sin

It was killed, after all those eons of its dominion. Champions among the lilu went forth to its chambers, all but three died. Spikes of molten lead were driven into its side, its heart was torn out, but still the blood flowed for nine months and the severed head screamed for ten before at last it died.

The name has been excised. Hieroglyphs were chiseled away, books burned, tongues torn out, graven images ground into dust. All that remains is an empty space, an anti-name, a blank hole in the collective consciousness. Great pains have been taken to keep that space empty. To fill it up again with euphemism or title or the idle daydreams of the forgetful is a danger that no one among the lilu would dare.

Its magic, stripped from its master, still lingers heavy in the veins and wombs of the lilu. It is their heritage now. It is no curse, they grin. Why curse yourself? Let others curse at you.

But in whispers there are some who still ask: what sin was so great to warrant this?

Language of the Lilu

 

Blacktongue is an incomprehensible mash-up of slang, idiom, neologism, and vulgarity. Unnecessary speed and wild gesticulation are necessary. Intoxication makes it easier. It sounds like gargling curry and tobacco smoke. Lilu speaking human languages will carry over many of their habits.

It is possible to learn Blacktongue through carousing in a lilu settlement. 100 monies spent carousing will provide a basic understanding of the language, upgraded to passable and finally fluent with another night and another 100 monies for each stage.

And his name...his name will  be KILL SIX BILLION DEMONS

Mutations

 

The lilu lived too long in the influence of demons, in the same way that one lives too long in the influence of radioactive materials. Their bodies have been changed beyond the simple pressure of darkness and want.

Base
40% chance of basic albino coloration
50% chance of horns
 # of Mutations = 1d4 - 1


 Skin

1. Black
2. Dark Grey
3. Ash
4. Red
5. Blue
6. Gold
7. Burnt umber
8. Dark green
9. Rotten flesh pink
10. Jale, ulfire, or octarine
11. Stripes or bicolor (roll 1d10 twice)
12. Mottled (roll 1d10 twice)

Horns

1. Ibex
2. Ram
3. Crown
4. Yak
5. Rhinoceros
6. Gazelle
7. Markhor
8. Antlers
9. Nubs
10. Other

Feet

1. Normal
2. No toes
3. Opposable toes
4. Hooves
5. Talons
6. Stumps

Other

1. Smells of incense and spice
2. Third Eye
3. Polyphonic voice
4. Hermaphrodite
5. Impossibly thin
6. Grotesquely fat
7. Carapace (roll second color)
8. Digitigrade legs
9. Head tendrils
10. Seething with parasitic worms
11. Metallic halo
12. Blood tears
13. Shaggy hair
14. Asymmetrical
15. Goiters, tumors, and boils
16. Burnt and shriveled
17. Folds of rugose skin
18. Vestigial additional limbs
19. Osteoderms
20. Smoldering breath 

Cosplayer Irina Sabetskaya

 

Lilu Player Characters

 

• d4 HP / level for veins-born lilu regardless of class.
• d6 HP / level for surface-born lilu.
• Blinded if they are without protective eye gear in open sunlight.
• Can see in dim and low light without penalty. Cannot see in complete darkness. 
• Are usually specialists or wizards. Rarely fighters. Clerics are automatically suspect and prone to prosecution. 
• Or just use Daniel Sell's tieflings.

And some extra details

• Veins-born are deathly thin and rarely more than four and a half feet tall. 
• Surface-born are of typical human size from the significantly better nutrition.
• Excellent low light vision, as well as touch, smell, and hearing. If active in the day they must go about with tinted lenses or igaak goggles.
• Will eat just about anything that is not overtly poisonous. Possession of or access to adequate food is a sign of social status.
• Veins-born lilu tend to be intensely agoraphobic when on the surface. Many will be either terrified or hateful of the sun.
• Without the sun enforcing a circadian rhythm, lilu do not have a recognizable sleep cycle. They sleep then it is needed and wake when they are rested.On the surface, they tend towards nocturnalism. Easier on the eyes.
• You are born into your mother's line. If you are male, you are married off and will join your wife's family (or for rich families, harem). If female, you probably have at least one wife of your own for political reasons. Sexual relationships are a category all of their own, which is summarized as "fuck it, let's fuck". Child-bearing unions are orchestrated by professional matchmakers who keep pristine genealogies, to cut down on the worst mutations.
• If you've got no family, whatever the reason may be, you have no social standing. Lots of houseless men and lesser daughters who can't be married take up lives as dungeon hobos for this reason.
• The surface world has three things lilu society desperately needs: light, food, and space. Even those still deep in the veins will be willing to trade. 
• Sex, drugs, rock and roll
• Party hard.

Florens and Hauflins

By Akela (as far as I could tell)

In Liang Bua, it’s traditional to leave out bowls of rice wine and baked sweet potatoes by the family shrine every full moon, so that they might scare off evil spirits with the sound of their happy feasting.

In Warchest’r Shire, the first bottle of a fresh batch of garum-sauce is taken out past the old stone bridge and left in a basket at the edge of the woods, as payment for saving the life of the good king Wenceslas’ infant son.

In Old Alegh, soldiers on patrol always keep a few marbles or dandelion heads in their pockets to put in the crooks of old trees’ roots, to make amends for the blood shed at Crowshead Creek.

No matter where one goes in the world, there will always be the Little People. Hauflins, florens, halfamen, puckwudgies, hobbledehoys and halflings. Half the size of a man, or just about the size of a child, folk say they live up in the mountains, deep in the jungle, just over the next hill.

They exist, there’s no doubt about that. The people of Liang Bua wake up to find their wine and potatoes gone, and are untroubled by wicked spirits. The garum factory in Warchest’r will find broken tools mended overnight. The forests of Old Alegh are a place of rest for men tired of the wars past the mountains.

Many men confuse them for Folk, but this is not true. They are Folk-friends, perhaps the most so of all the races of men (Goblins in particular, as they share a puckish humor), but men they are to the end; The Little People know the Humble Art, and remember when Mother and DOG led them through the snow, as befitting an elder race of man.

Few ever directly cross paths with the Little People: their villages are hidden by geography and subtler arts, and they themselves are quiet as shadows. They rarely travel abroad, and in those rare cases it is usually because they have been roped into some adventure or another by someone else. This is occasionally referred to among their villages as being “off to see the wizard.”

Playing as the Little People

Your HD, XP, saves, and class abilities remain unchanged. The following traits may be added.

Hauflin Hole

There is a village out there that your heart calls home. The world of bigmen is good for an adventure or two, but in time you will return to the place you were born. Roll below:

1. A comfortable, clean warren beneath a hill, among the roots of an old rowan tree. Guarded by a one-eyed badger named Old Battleaxe.
2. A temple complex overtaken by the jungle. Tents and huts set up among the statues of devas and boddisatvas. The serpent who lives in the reservoir could eat a water buffalo whole.
3. A longhouse in the mountains, at the end of a path erased by a landslide. Memories of smoked fish and warm furs, skiing down the slopes and riding the goats back up.
4. A wooded island in the middle of a placid lake. You spent your days fishing with your grandfather.
5. A cave behind a waterfall, at the end of a valley. The stream above was glacier runoff, meaning that any homecoming had an unavoidable cold shower attached.
6. Just over the next ridge of hills. From the top of the church steeple you can barely make out the willows by the river and the apple orchards by Miller Tad’s.

Out of Sight, Out of Time

For all the simplicity of their lives, the little folk have a tendency to collect objects that don’t seem to belong to the place, nor the time: a pocketwatch, a newspaper, a telegram from one’s aunt, an umbrella, a booklet of stamps, licorice candies, mothballs, rubber galoshes, and so on. You will have at least one of these items in your possession upon leaving home, and might find another during your travels. (If the original is lost, or every other level as desired)

Riddles

The Little People adore riddle games. Your opponent must pass an INT check to guess your answer (or you can try and stump your DM), but you must write your riddles yourself.

Example:

Off playing chess near a red velvet field

White king lost his crown and knelt there to yield

His hair’s all turn’d black

By the shock of attack

And pain now the kingdom’s been deal’d.

On My Mother’s Side

The Little People have large families, and so you most certainly know someone, or you know someone who knows someone, who is relevant to whatever is at hand. You can use this to get a piece of information, a helpful tool, a translator, or a guide, once per adventure.

This place is apparently an actual pub now. Probably overpriced as hell, but I appreciate the effort.

Changelings

by Beckjann

An infant vanishes from its crib. An open window, a full moon, a misplaced horseshoe. 
 

Left behind in its place is a hungry, squalling, sickly thing. A void lingers behind its eyes, its tongue is incapable of speech. Unless it is very lucky, it will die in a few months, perhaps a year or two. An unmarked grave, whispered confessions to the village priest.

The Fairest are dying. Their children are rare enough, and nearly all of them lack any spark of life. Magically inert, minds impossible to parse by man or Folk alike. Their own bodies reject themselves. The Fairest trade these fading infants for healthy human children – wish for a wish, tooth for a tooth, child for a child. They care nothing for their own sickly offspring, and delight in the chaos it causes the apes.

The stolen children are swept down under the hills and shaped in the image of the Fairest. They are no longer human, but they are not true kin to the Folk.

Attribute Modifiers: Changelings receive +2 to an attribute of the player’s choice, and + 1 to another. Player choice may be substituted with random rolls.

Size, Speed, Age: Changelings are Medium, with Speed 30. They cannot die of old age, and retain a vague youthfulness to them.

Languages: Changelings speak and read Elvish. They have a 70% chance of speaking either Elemental or Draconic (player’s choice), and a 25% chance of speaking common.

Background Skills: Changelings do not take a normal background. Instead, they receive proficiency in Nature, Deception, and the Elf Pipes (can be used to cast Charm Person 1/day, roll under CHA)

Fair Parentage: Changelings have advantage against magical charms, and cannot be put to sleep through magical means.

Sociopathic: Changelings mirror their masters’ morals. They lack empathy for other beings, and act according to their own whims and for their own ends: others are tools to be used or amusements to observe. Gain advantage on Deception, Persuasion, and Intimidation rolls to manipulate other people for your personal gain (this may overlap with the party’s gain.)

Bound to their Lord: When children are snatched up from their cribs and taken to the halls of the Lords and Ladies, they are bound from that moment of passage to their lord and all the servants of that court. Most will be taken as a retainer by a lower member of the court, but those who show promise will be granted their Lord’s authority to act as representative in the mortal world.

Unearthly Form: Long years in the Courts transform the human child into something other, something that straddles the line between human and faerie. This comes with physical changes as well as those to mind and soul. All changelings will possess the following.

• An emblem of their lord or lady – clothing jewelry, heraldry.
• Dogs will react poorly. Cats will treat as an equal.
• 1-in-10 chance of the sign of patronage manifesting bodily.
• 6-in-10 chance of albinism.
• 4-in-10 chance of horns or antlers.
• 5-in-10 chance of red hair (3-in-10 if albino).
• 7-in-10 chance of catlike eyes.
• 5-in-10 chance of a third eyelid
• 1-in-20 chance of ignoring all of the above – hairless, grey skin, small mouth and nose, large, black eyes.