Nightspawn
A normal human has a monstrous awakening. It usually happens while asleep. They become something unnatural, something that CAN NOT BE, yet IS. Sometimes gruesome, sometimes beautiful, but always wholly unreal and utterly superhuman. Is this becoming in response to the penetration of our world by supernatural threats, or is it something done by the supernatural threats themselves? Whetever the cause, people started becoming these things at about the same time around the world.
But which is the real you anymore? Are you a human, or are you a monster? Neither? or both?
When you wear a human face, is it a disguise, just a facade?
When you are in your monstrous form, is it just a morphus?
Basic Information
Anatomy
No two Nightspawn are alike. Each seems to manifest some psychological aspect of who the person was before their transformation. Perhaps the Morphus came from the nightmare dreams of the person while they slept.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Existing arcane and secret societies were quick to notice the becomings around the world. They either hunted the new nightspawn as aberrations or tried to recruit them in the fight against supernatural threats. The arcane underworld is abuzz with the existence of these horrific and powerful new creatures who can pass off as perfectly normal humans.
Domestication
Some nightspawn don't lose who they were. They maintain their cares, their bonds of friendship and love. Others shed their humanity to unleash their inner monster; striking at any and all who they despise or who get in their way.
Facial characteristics
Use the Comprehensive Appearance and Characteristics tables found on page 16 of Palladium Books' Dark Designs.
Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms
Though the following is unknown to all, the Nightspawn owe their existence to the Lords of Night themselves. In 2020, while the world was locked up in fear and panic, avoiding their neighbors and even their own families. One of the strongest (pre-Rifts) connections to the The Nightlands formed. Nightmares struck the world for three straight weeks. Some few thousand people across the globe got a surplus dose of the The Nightlord's power and were turned into aspects of their own nightmares. So, while the power of the Lords of Night is what transformed them, they retain their full independent and free will and are just as real as you and I.
Civilization and Culture
History
Nightspawn became around the world at about the same time, in the year 2020. It seemed to be completely random, afflicting the young and old alike, the firm and infirm. There were perhaps only a thousand or so, which is statistically nothing, but significant nonetheless by sheer impact.
Up until this time, the arcane and secret societies of the world were self-governing. The sudden influx of such powerful and uncontrolled supernatural threats seemingly out of nowhere reached public consciousness and caused the governments of the world to take notice. They came together to form a multinational task force under the nominal oversight of the United Nations to address the threat these things posed.
Nightspawn became what they are through the influence of the The Nightlands.
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Scientific Name
Homo Sapiens Monstrositus
Comments