Changeling

Living Camouflage

Every culture has stories of creatures of unknowable intent that walk among every day folk, blending in perfectly and infiltrating. Many flavor the tales with fear and use them as stories of warning to their children to be alert around strangers. Others use them to lay blame for dissapearances, missing persons, and undefined criminal activity in their communities. Though few lay these stories openly at the feet of Changelings, they all carry an air of hesitancy and mistrust towards the only known species capable of the feats described in the stories.
The most obvious, and simultaneously most and least understood thing, about Changelings is upfront in their name: They are, as a natural trait, fully capable of shapeshifting into nearly any humanoid form at will. Understood to have original heritage from somewhere deep in the ancient Feywild, Changelings are a people without a history and heritage, instead simply borrowing the history of whoever is convenient at the time before moving to a new disguise as the situation demands. Little is known of how the Changelings came to leave the Feywild or what caused their spread across the planar barriers, but there are historical accounts of Changelings as far back as the first age.

Masks and Motivation

With their obvious value as spies and thieves, Changelings have a unique blend of fear and respect that follows them wherever they travel, with each new city and settlement defining the ratio between the two reactions anew. In the circles where Changelings are sought after, warned of, or even employed for specific purpose, the term Mask is often used to describe any non-natural form that a Changeling might take to blend in, be it a regular one they feel comfortable in or a temporary form they use once for a unique goal and then never assumed again.
Changeling themselves vary in personality and behavior as much as any other sapient species throughout Avanshae, with hopes, dreams, goals, hatreds, loves, and specific idiosyncracies.

A Hidden Society

Unknown to any who aren't closely related or connected to a Changeling, there is a deeply hidden and closely guarded set of rules and behavior that Changelings employ with one another. Given that the default state of a Changeling at any point is more likely to be a chosen persona, names have a different purpose and meaning to Changelings. While two changelings who know each other well enough might exchange details on their preferred Masks, only when they truly feel they can trust each other will they share their true names. Perhaps stemming from an innate fey understanding that names can hold power, a Truename for a Changeling is often regarded as one of the greatest secrets that can be entrusted to another.
Changeling Truenames are often short, most commonly a single name of only one or two syllables, often with an equally simple descriptor such as Eva Long Nails, Mase of the Gold Chain, or Kylla Bright Eyes. These descriptors are often the only thing separating one Changeling's Truename from another, due to their short names; while their may be many Sev's, there would only be a single Sev with Blue Fingertips.

Ancient Memories

While the senses of a Changeling rarely seem to be particularly more sharpened than any given Human, certain specialists proclaim that an ancient memory of their time in the Feywild still lives deep inside, affording them a unique sense for detecting their own kind. It isn't something magical enough to immediately alert them, but in direct interactions, two Changelings will begin to detect nearly imperceptible ticks and behaviors that give away a creature pretending to be something else. This has led many law enforcement groups and criminal enterprises to keep a Changeling on staff to help prevent infiltration.

Traits

Stats

• Creature Type: Fey
• Size: Medium
• Speed: 30 Feet
• Age: Though they do not visibly age in their natural state and can appear as young as they like in their alternate forms, Changelings tend to only live for 200-300 years on average.

Species Features

Changeling Instincts

Deeply connected to the Feywild, Changelings innately have proficiency in a set of skills, selecting 2 from: Deception, Insight, Intimidation, Performance, or Persuasion.

Shapechanger

As an Action, a Changeling may change their appearance and voice. They determine the specifics of the change, down to their skin coloration, hair length, and presented gender. They can also adjust their height between Medium and Small. Their in-game staticstics do not change when they take the appearance of another race and they neither lose any of their own species abilities nor gain those of the other specieis. A Changeling is fully capable of creating an entirely new form for themselves with a unique appearance, but are only capable of replicating a specific person if they have been in that person's presence or seen them for at least 5 minutes; long enough to study their details. If they have only seen them and not heard them, they are unable to replicate the target creature's voice correctly. A Changeling's clothing and equipment are not changed by these transformations. A Changeling can remain in a new form as long as they want, but will automatically revert to their true form on death.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Etirely humanoid, but natural shapechangers capable of perfect replication of other humanoid forms at will. In their natural state, they have white to pale blue or gray skin, whited our eyes, and exclusively bright white hair with faint shades of green, blue, or purple.

Genetics and Reproduction

As Changelings can take nearly any humanoid form, it is exceedingly easy for their to intermingle and breed with other humanoid species. A Changeling father only has a chance of creating a Changeling offspring with a non-changeling mother, but a Changeling mother will always birth a Changeling child. In the case of mixed parentage, its not uncommon for changeling children to appear 100% as the non-changeling parent's species until their early teens when their Changeling nature is revealed.

Growth Rate & Stages

Being Fey in nature, Changeling are particularly long lived given the right conditions. Though they do not visibly age in their true/natural forms, their bodies still have a limit and most only live to their late 200s, though some do succesfully break the 300 mark.

Origin/Ancestry

Fey

Lifespan

200-300 years