Sunday, September 27, 2020

The Changed

The Changed
The changed are individuals who were originally human, but have been altered beyond their humanity by sin, magic, divine intervention, or the experiments of artificers.


Ashen
In Krevborna, death is not always the end. Ashen are dead men and women who have been mysteriously returned to life to complete a task assigned to them by the gods. The time allotted to an ashen to finish their task is limited. When someone reanimates as an ashen, they find that their skin has turned gray and that they are now marked by a bleeding black sigil that attracts the attention of fiends; their memories and sanity slowly erode until they become a hollow, mindless husk.
Suggested stats. Use the Hollow One supernatural gift.


Greshniks
Being a greshnik is a condition, something akin to a disease—albeit a malady of a spiritual nature. Some sinners are so consumed by their misdeeds that their bodies begin to reflect the foulness of their souls. Their skin becomes reptilian and squamous, their teeth elongate into fangs, their fingers curl into claws, and horns crown their unwholesome heads. The Church of Sacred Blood generally regards greshnik as spiritually unclean; although atonement is possible, a greshnik’s body only reverts to its original, unchanged human form upon their death.
Suggested stats. Dragonborn.


Jägerborn
The monster hunters of the Haxanjager guild adopt orphans, urchins, and other discarded children with the hopes of training them to the task of hunting supernatural horrors. The strongest and most promising of these children are experimented upon to transform them into superior monster slayers. Using secret artificer magic, the chosen children are injected with alchemical infusions or given grafts taken from samples of monstrous flesh that endow them with superhuman abilities; the children who receive these infusions are marked by the experience—jagerborn often have cat-like eyes, discolored skin, or faded hair.
Suggested stats. Genasi, Simic hybrids.




Kaliabano
Kalibano are humans who were exposed to black magic while still in the womb. They are born misshapen, bestial, hulking, and brutish; no two kalibano look exactly the same—they may be hunchbacked, gnarled of limb, or possess tusk-like teeth. When a child is born a kalibano, the community often sends for a witchfinder as a befouled birth is a sure sign that a witch or hag is lurking in the vicinity. Kalibano are often feared because many possess an innate ferocity due to their malign magical origins.
Suggested stats. Half-orc, orc.


Malocha
Malocha are humans who have become infected by the baleful influence of the elder gods that emanates from the accursed stars of the Abhorrent Cosmos. Their bodies become infected with aberrant power that distorts their essential humanity. Transformation into a malocha takes a variety of forms—flesh that turns into fish-like scales and forked tongues paired with the cold eyes of serpents are but a two signs of being touched by the psychic miasma of the elder gods. Due to their connection to the elder gods, malocha often possess strange abilities. Some find themselves able to live comfortably beneath the sea’s waves or feel a newfound inclination to the dark paths of occult science.
Suggested stats. Tritons, yuan-ti purebloods.


Prometheans
Prometheans are are constructed creatures crafted from inanimate matter and granted life through magical means. Some wrought are created in vats by alchemists or in cauldrons by witches. Others are stitched together from corpses or built of metal and clockwork mechanisms by artificers, particularly the mad inventors known as the Scions of Adamus, before given the gift—or curse—of life. It is rare that a promethean survives the ordeal of their creation; as they are unlikely to meet another of their kind, the life of a promethean tends to be a lonely existence.
Suggested stats. Warforged.