Duskborn (3.5e Race)

Author: the bluez in the dungeon (talk) Date Created: 26th August 2024 Status: Complete Editing: Clarity edits only please

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Duskborn

The duskborns are a race of humanoids condemned to live in a condition similar to vampirism.

History and Origins

Long ago, a vast region was plagued by vampire lords, who lorded over the population and had established a sort of government. Many nearby lands and religious organizations representing deities of good and light had tried to fight the vampires but without definitive results.

In that land, a young nobleman was born, son of a baron, with a proud bearing, skilled with the spear, of high ideals and incredible willpower. He lost his family in an attack by low-grade vampires, who, driven mad by bloodlust, attacked the carriage in which he and his family were traveling to escape those infested lands. By a miracle the young man was saved and grew up in one of the nearby lands, raised by the family of an officer, a man not rich and noble like his family, but of sound principles, hard and decisive. This adoptive father trained him in the art of war and command, and the young man grew up surrounded by soldiers, learning their art early. Once an adult, the man asked the king and the religious authorities for permission to go to his native region, leading a handful of men and women, who like him had suffered the cruelty of the vampires and wanted to free themselves from them. Having obtained the license and the necessary blessings, the man and his band of soldiers ventured into the region. For five years the gang lived by their wits, hiding, capturing, killing and torturing vampires, in an attempt to track down their masters and end their reign of terror.

The band was well-liked by the population, and many tried to help them with supplies, accommodation, information and sometimes by joining them, also because not everyone returned alive from their missions and the band needed new members. The years of guerrilla warfare transformed the armed band into a tough and expert group of vampire hunters, masters in the use of the spear, whose numbers had increased, and had planted a seed of hope in the hearts of the people. Invigorated by the good news, the neighboring kingdoms and churches sent troops, weapons and blessings to reinforce the group, which was then able to expand its operations on a larger scale, becoming a real military force, an army determined to eradicate the vampiric threat. The commander's techniques became more and more atrocious and violent: the vampires were expertly impaled on long pointed stakes in such a way that their death came as late as possible, or because they stayed the whole night and then turned to ash at dawn, or because, even more cruelly, the impaled vampires were expertly covered so that they did not die during the day, but suffered for a prolonged time. Not only that, as a purification ritual, the soldiers collected the blood of the vampires that slid down the poles into cups, and then drank it, thus believing they could purify it, since it was originally human blood. This unprecedented cruelty made them known as the Spearmongers.

Unfortunately their crusade against vampires would not fail to involve innocents: in their vengeful fury the soldiers captured and tortured people who were not really vampires, but had been falsely accused, or were believed to be collaborators of the hated undead. At first, although the mistakes of the Spearmongers were clear, the authorities who supported them decided to turn a blind eye, given the surprising success of their operation. After another five years, the Spearmongers managed to strike at the heart of the vampiric forces, impaling their lords and ending their dark reign. In a perverse turn of events, the vampire lords, sensing the cruelty, bloodlust, and occult practices of their tormentors, collectively cursed them, for their cruelty made them similar to vampires, and thus they would become like them.

And so, on that fateful dawn, when the sun rose, burning the vampire lords, the soldiers and their commander felt an aversion to the light they had never felt before, and to the heat that had always accompanied them. They had transformed into duskborns. This transformation confused many, who committed suicide, or desperately asked to be purified. The allies of the Spearmongers, taking the opportunity to punish their cruelty and eliminate any connection with the powerful and cruel army, betrayed them and began to massacre them, convincing paladins and clerics that their profane rituals had transformed them into vampires. After an initial phase of disarray, the Spearmongers regrouped, organized a counter-offensive and managed to escape their persecutors, losing themselves in the world and giving rise to the duskborn race. Only fragments of this story remain, such as the terrible fame of the Spearmongers, and the name of the founding father of the duskborns, Baron Konrad Blaad.

Physical Description

Duskborns are physically similar to humans, from which they mostly derive, although some of them have traits that make them more similar to other races, such as dwarves, halflings, or half-orcs.

However, they share the following physical traits: their ears are more pointed than human ones, they usually have a sharp face, their complexion, free of imperfections, is usually light, ranging from a pale pink to an ashy colour, even if some duskborns have skin black as the night, they usually have a well-structured physique and their limbs are delicate and sinuous, but the exact body shape is dictated by the life choices of each individual, their eyes are usually blue or grey, but some of them have yellow, orange or red irises, and finally they have particularly prominent canines.

Although the duskborns are widespread almost everywhere, and therefore their way of dressing is dictated by their culture and their social rank and profession, those who remained close to their land of origin and maintained their customs are mostly nobles or in any case wealthy, and wear elegant and refined clothes, with wide puffs and skirts, embroidery and various jewels.

One of their peculiarities, widespread almost universally, is to insert the figure of the sun in some part of their clothing (whether it be embroidery or a jewel), in memory of their past, as a substitute for the light that they cannot tolerate.

Personality and Alignment

They are mostly haughty and serious, with a great love for their traditions and their history, which they repeat and pass down almost religiously. They still share their hatred of the undead, especially vampires, and so all duskborns are trained to fight them and know them deeply.

Their tendency towards decadence and violence, however, betray the vampiric stain that lurks within them. These extremes of discipline and hedonism mean that among them there are no specific personalities that define them as a race.

Their alignment is typically lawful, with a certain prevalence of neutrality, but in truth it is possible to find any alignment between them.

Customs and Society

Typically, this applies to the duskborns who have maintained their traditions the most, to settle and integrate into human societies, with which they feel the greatest affinity, often becoming nobles and administrators or, if more inclined to combat, hunters of monsters and vampires, taking advantage of their innate abilities and to satiate their bloodlust. These duskborns consider themselves heirs of the Spearmongers and true custodians of their history, dictated by the hatred for vampires and those who serve them and that is still perpetuated.

Some duskborns, however, do not adhere to this vision, and have developed a society that stands in stark contrast to that of others of their kind. In fact, these duskborns are fascinated by the power of vampires, and embrace the vampiric color of their nature, in an attempt to become like them. They mix with vampires and often serve them, or try to gain power to imitate them and become like them. Collectively they are called the Night Lodge, and, while they do not act as a united organization, they recognize a certain commonality of purpose, if not just to combat the duskborns who consider them traitors to the race.

Lands and Relations

They do not have their own territories, and instead integrate with local populations, especially human ones. They maintain good relations with anyone who opposes the power of undeath, and therefore are often associated with churches of deities of light or with orders of paladins and monster hunters, but the activities of the Night Lodge and their vampiric traces still make them suspicious to most.

Religion and Spirituality

Although they do not adhere to any racial deity, most duskborns worship deities of good and light, especially for the power it can grant them to fight vampires, but their approach is usually more utilitarian than dictated by sincere faith. Those who belong to the Night Lodge are often indifferent to faith, and indeed look with contempt on those religions that oppose non-death, also mindful of the massacre suffered by their ancestors, but many end up venerating death cults, or consider vampires themselves as divine beings.

Language and onomastics

Although their diaspora has scattered them all over the world, and this makes their cultures very varied, they still retain the habit of speaking Common and Necril, which they learn for obvious reasons.

Their names often follow the usage of their native region.

Typical male names: Konrad, Mohg, Trescu, Ivan, Grigorji.

Female typical names: Katranna, Moresca, Gwyma, Karlena, Baba.

Racial Traits

• +2 Charisma: Duskborns have a strong personality, and almost magnetic abilities.
• Humanoid (Duskborn): While they are not true undead, their quirks make them unique humanoids. 
• Medium: As a Medium creature, a duskborn has no special bonuses or penalties due to its size.
• Duskborn base land speed is 30 feet.  
• Darkvision: A duskborn can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and a duskborn can function just fine with no light at all.
• Low-Light Vision: A duskborn can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. She retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions. 
• Impaler: Their origin as descendants of Baron Blaad and his company has left them with a complex martial tradition with spears. Each duskborn is proficient with the spear and deals +1 damage with any spear, spear-like weapon, or other piercing polearm. 
• Blood Thirst (Ex): Plagued by an unnatural need for violence and death, the duskborns are weak when they don't shed blood, but as soon as they taste its smell they are invigorated. They take a -1 penalty to initiative and AC until they slay a living creature with blood or an undead (summoned creatures don't count). If so, these penalties are removed and the duskborn immediately gains 1d10 temporary hit points, +1 hit point per Hit Die, for 1 minute. This effect works only once per day, but they no longer suffer the penalty until the next day. 
• Curse of the Sun (Ex): The disastrous legacy of the duskborns makes them detest light, so that, during the brightest daylight hours (between dawn and dusk) if exposed to sunlight or under the effects of a spell daylight or similar, they are dazzled. Furthermore, under the effects of sunlight, any healing magic only works half-way on them. They count as creatures sensitive to light-based effects 
• Sinister Nature (Ex): The duskborns’ affinity with death makes them similar to the undead. They gain a +4 racial bonus on saving throws against [Death] effects and against fear, poison, and disease. They take only half damage from negative energy. They are perceived as evil undead by Divination effects and have a +2 racial bonus on Disguise checks to look like vampires. 
• Enemies of Undeath: Despite their sinister nature, duskborns do not, for the most part, fraternize with necromancers and undead. On the contrary, they hate them, and spend much of their energy fighting them. They have a +2 racial bonus on Knowledge (Religion) checks regarding undead and a +2 dodge bonus to AC against undead.
• Automatic Languages: Common, Necril.
• Bonus Languages: Any, except secret languages.
• Favored Class: Paladin
• Level Adjustment: +0
• Effective Character Level: 1

Racial Options

• Duskborn Bloodhunter: A cabal of paladins formally untied from any particular spiritual institution and without any traditional religious belief, formed exclusively by crepusculars, who declare themselves heirs of their vampire-hunting ancestors and who have developed techniques to better hunt these monsters, combining training with alchemy.

• Duskborn Impaler: Duskborns who choose to train in martial weapons often learn the discipline perfected by the Dreadspears, who focus on using the spear and intimidation to bring their opponents to their knees.

Feats

• Night Fangs

Other feats

• Spearmonger

• Dread Thrust

Pathfinder Options

In Pathfinder, duskborns also gain a +2 to a physical characteristic of their choice (Strength, Dexterity or Constitution) and a -2 to Constitution.

Alternate Racial Feature

• Night Fangs: Some duskborns have more pronounced vampiric traits than others, starting with their teeth. They gain the Night Fangs feat for free. This alternate trait replaces the Impaler trait.

• Call of the Vampiric Blood: Those who embrace their vampiric nature find they have more in common with these creatures than what meets the eye. They gain a +4 racial bonus against mind-affecting effects and a +2 on Charisma-based checks to influence vampires. They take only half damage from negative energy. They are perceived as evil undead by Divination effects and have a +2 racial bonus on Disguise checks to look like vampires. This alternate trait replaces the Sinister Nature trait.

• Night Lodge: Not all duskborns fight vampires, on the contrary the members of the Night Lodge collaborate with them. They gain the Skill Focus (Knowledge Religion) feat for free and treat the Knowledge (Religion) skill as a class skill for all of their classes. This alternate trait replaces the Enemy of Undeath trait.

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