Skinwalkers

Skinwalkers are descendants of humans and natural lycanthropes. They are lithe, agile folk who look basically human, but with long, shaggy hair, sideburns (in both sexes), pointed ears, large eyes, heavy eyebrows, and wide, flat noses. Their forearms and lower legs are densely muscled, and they grow hair so thick that it is sometimes mistaken for fur. Skinwalkers frequently adopt a hunched posture, preferring to crouch or perch on a tree limb, ledge, or piece of furniture rather than standing or sitting.

Sometimes called "the weretouched," Skinwalkers inherit from their lycanthrope ancestors a limited ability to transform into a semi-bestial state. Shifting is a natural ability rather than a curse or a disease, and it cannot be cured or otherwise removed. Neither can it be passed to a non-Skinwalker through biting, claw attacks, or any other method.

When she is shifting, a Skinwalker's features take on an even more bestial appearance, although she does not actually assume a fully animal form. Her eyes have a feral glint, she snarls and growls when angered, and she is able to tap into her lycanthropic nature to access extraordinary physical abilities. These changes and the abilities gained are related to the kind of lycanthrope the Skinwalker descends from. Some Skinwalkers display features distinctly reminiscent of one kind of animal, while others exhibit a mixture of influences.

The act of shifting makes some Skinwalkers stronger or tougher. Others find themselves able to move faster, climb near-vertical surfaces, or fly. The most dangerous Skinwalkers become so lost in their transformation that they begin to fight like animals, biting and clawing in a brutish rage.

Most Skinwalkers have a bloodline too muddled to express one lycanthropic “theme”. However after generations of bloodlines commingling, some display one of the following bloodlines: Bloodmarked, Coldborn, Seascarred, Scaleheart, Witchwolf, Ragebred, Nightskulk, Fanglord.

Like any other race, Skinwalkers cannot be said to share a single personality type or a universal preference for one lifestyle over another. However, due to their lycanthropic ancestry, many Skinwalkers do have quick tempers. Members of other races consider them rude and even boorish, and it is true that Skinwalkers have little patience for being treated like animals or idiots and don't hesitate to set aside social conventions when they feel the situation warrants it. Skinwalkers with a common trait also tend to share patterns of behavior as well—Bloodmarked Skinwalkers are often shy and introverted, for example, while Ragebred are the opposite.

Skinwalkers do not have a homeland, since their hybrid lineage developed where humans and natural lycanthropes shared the same lands. Lycanthropes were brought to near extinction in Khorvaire more than a century ago, so the only places left for Skinwalkers were in human lands. They have always been victims of prejudice and distrust, though, and are often unable to find acceptance even in the lands of their birth.

Because they are so regularly made to feel like outcasts, Skinwalkers gather in communities of their own. They have a fiercely independent streak, and use their feral abilities to hunt for food and scrounge for shelter rather than give money to the very people whose ill-formed opinions force them to live this way. Raised in these communities, Skinwalkers come to view their lives in terms of hunting and a constant fight for survival.

Other Skinwalkers decide to give up on civilization and its prejudices entirely. The Eldeen Reaches is the most popular destination for Skinwalkers who want to live as close to the land as possible. There, they become trappers, hunters, or sometimes guides—and visiting city-dwellers pay a substantial fee to reap the benefits of the Skinwalkers' natural abilities.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Outwardly human, skinwalkers are virtually indistinguishable from others of the ethnic group into which they are born. Those rare skinwalkers who have bred true for generations tend to have dark eyes, straight dark hair, and richly colored skin. Skinwalkers’ features vary greatly when they shapechange. They gain a bestial visage evoking the creatures they emulate; the snout elongates, teeth become more prominent, claws emerge from fingertips, and skin toughens into hide. Despite their shapechanging abilities, they are not immune to infection from full lycanthropes.

Biological Traits

The base skinwalker is merely the most common of its kind but there are those who’ve inherited a larger share of their ancestors’ animalistic beings, and in whom can be seen the traits of very specific types of lycanthropes. Whether the scions of wereboars, the grandchildren of werecrocodiles, or the distant progeny of wererats, these individuals possess stronger ties to their ancestors than other skinwalkers.

• Bloodmarked

  Those skinwalkers known as bloodmarked are a hungry lot— their predilection for blood is matched only by their flock mentality and adherence to strict hierarchy.

• Coldborn

  Coldborn are remarkable among skinwalkers for their awareness and their potential for discipline, as well as for their hidden rage.

• Ragebred

  Ragebred, even more so than other skinwalkers, find both their greatest strength and direst weakness in their choleric emotions— from unstoppable rage to tempestuous affection to reckless spite.

• Scaleheart

  Scalehearts are of an exceptionally cold aspect—few others can so easily toss aside inhibitions in the name of their ultimate goals.

• Nightskulk

  Nightskulks combine the versatile aspect of the skinwalker with the ambition and necessary ingenuity of the wererat to become some of the most creative and surprising of their kind.

• Seascarred

  The seascarred draw on the majesty of the shark and the society of skinwalkers to produce shamans and pirates with the ability to impose their will on anyone or anything that gets in their way.

• Fanglord

  Fanglords are skinwalkers of a most regal lineage, well aware that they carry the blood of kings and tyrants—and just as confident and imposing as their forebears.

• Witchwolf

  Witchwolves are skinwalkers of the open field and quiet forest, almost human in their ingenuity and free spirits, yet carrying a seed of those most terrible and brutal monsters—the werewolves.

Genetics and Reproduction

Are able to reproduce as a Human, often able to produce viable offspring with Orcs, Elves and others in a similar fashion. The resulting offspring may or may not possess the ability to assume the Skinwalker parent's altered form.

Additional Information

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Sarlonan Skinwalkers

As the secrets of Sarlona have revealed themselves to the Khorvarian scholars over the last few years, one of the most startling revelations was the discovery of a vast skinwalker population in northern Tashana. It has become apparent that, like humans and ogres, the skinwalker race actually originated in Sarlona.

The three Tashana skinwalker groups, each con­sisting of hundreds if not thousands of individual, semi-nomadic tribes, are not nations in the typical nation-state sense. Rather, they are people bound together by common tradition and loose territorial boundaries.

While the three nations have known great wars in the past, they have maintained a relative peace for many gen­erations. Tashanan skinwalkers place much more importance on the community than do their self-reliant brethren in Khorvaire. The seminomadic tribes of the Qiku and Saar­tuk, in particular, have evolved a kind of parallel civilization to the urbane nations of the world—one that values natural simplicity over technological sophistication, mobility over entrenchment, and spirituality over materialism.

The tribes of the Qiku nation roam all inland regions west of the Tiiki river and south to the border of Riedra. Several Qiku villages, while designed to be movable on short notice, have persisted for decades now and are essentially permanent. Most of these villages are built in, on top of, and around the sprawling boulder mounds of the central Tundra, and feature tents, tun­nels and semi-permanent structures of earth and stone. The Qiku currently share much of the far southern lands and resources with the refugee Akiak dwarves of the Paqaa Mountains.

The Saartuk tribes occupy the entire western coast­line from the Eska Mountains to the Riedran border. The Saartuk harvest virtually all of their resources from the sea, and individual tribes move up and down the coastline and among various inland waterways. The Saartuk maintain the permanent coastal village of Whitetooth and coexist peacefully with maenad colonists in the settlement of Winterstead.

The Chuniigi are the most nomadic of the three nations, and they roam the largest area of the Tundra—all inland territories west of the Tiiki river and north to the Eska Mountains. But the Chuniigi populace is sparse relative to their territories, and they share the wild northern lands with many human and Neander­thal tribes. In recent years, the northern Tashana has been ravaged by the terrible Kalaak barbar­ians, and these incursions have reduced the Chuniigi's numbers further still.

Previous to the rise of the Inspired in Riedra, a branch of the Qiku nation roamed far south into the lands that are now the Dor Maleer region. As the Inspired came to power, they enslaved these southern tribes, who have since evolved into an elite warrior caste serving in Riedra's Savage Legion. Some individual skinwalkers and small packs have also made homes in the wilds of Syrkarn.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

They can see twice as well as humans in low-light conditions, and often possess superior sense of smell when in their altered form.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Skinwalkers use the same names as humans, often ones that sound rustic to city-dwellers.

Beauty Ideals

Although shifters have little use for permanent or stationary art, they have perfected two art forms that accentuate their admiration for self-reliance and individuality.

Totem Braids: Shifters often have intricate and unusual braids. The braids are mostly used just for expression or looks, but sometimes a shifter associates a certain braid with an oath, a task, or a run of good luck. In these cases, the shifter keeps the braid for the duration of the task or until the oath is fulfilled, then cuts the braid off cleanly.

Shifter Tattoos: Shifters often use tattoos to symbolize important experiences or ties to other individuals or groups. Shifter tattoos are intricate affairs that differ greatly, but there are two broad categories of tattoos that all shifters recognize: morphic tattoos and static tattoos. A morphic tattoo is rendered in such a way that its pattern and appearance change to a new, different image when a shifter uses his shifting ability. These tattoos are used to note individual accomplishments, especially great mental or physical trials that the shifter has endured. A static tattoo is crafted to retain its look and design even when the shifter uses his shifting ability. These tattoos are typically used to represent a bond with another individual or a binding association with a particular group.

Average Technological Level

Skinwalkers believe in nothing as much as they believe in self-reliance, and they prefer tools they can carry with them at all times. Their technology, while not primitive, emphasizes the simple and portable rather than the grand achievements of the Five Nations or other cultures. While they have never reached the heights of magical power or architectural skill that have allowed other races and cultures to build great cities or cross mighty oceans, they never regard this as a failing. Instead, they look to the perfection of their own abilities and the development of the tools an individual needs to survive in the wild as the greatest possible accomplishments.
Skinwalker crafters are much more likely to spend their time and effort creating one masterwork weapon or tool that they plan on using themselves rather than a large number of lesser items to sell. The Skinwalker race includes merchants and traders, but these individuals believe in keeping a small, valuable inventory rather than a large or diverse selection of less valuable items. Even the wealthiest Skinwalker merchants limit their goods on hand to a small number of valuable, versatile items that they can carry themselves, remaining ready for the journey yet to come.
Even Skinwalker magic emphasizes the personal and portable rather than the grand designs of other spellcasters. Almost all Skinwalker spellcasters are druids, and these capable, self-reliant nature priests focus on crafting items and spells that help a single Skinwalker survive a wide variety of situations and encounters. A Skinwalker spellcaster rarely spends long periods creating magic items. Instead, he creates one item that will serve in a wide variety of situations and then moves on, perfecting his skill with that item and developing his own skills to complement the item’s powers before creating another.

Common Etiquette Rules

Many Skinwalkers carry overt traits associated with their animal natures. Some are boorish or crude, while others are quiet and shifty. In addition to these behaviors, Skinwalkers share three main aspects of their psychology: a struggle with their powerful emotional responses, a steadfast belief in the virtue of self-reliance, and a deep desire for personal freedom.
Skinwalkers have a raw connection to instinct that members of other races seldom understand. Fueled by their ancient legacy, Skinwalkers hold within them extremes of emotion that strive to dominate their thoughts and actions. This raw inner turmoil comes forth in some Skinwalker warriors as a barbaric rage, enabling the Skinwalker to perform berserk feats of strength when he enters combat. Other Skinwalkers suppress all emotion, dealing with their bestial instincts in their own way and remaining stoic in the face of any situation lest their powerful emotions overwhelm them.
Self-reliance has long been the most important virtue in the Skinwalker mind. The greatest heroes of Skinwalker folklore are often described as remaining constantly ready for surprise encounters and drawing on great reserves of inner strength rather than asking for help. Skinwalkers refer to their constant state of readiness as “preparing for the journey yet to come.” Skinwalkers believe that life can change surprisingly quickly and that one should always be ready to move on to avoid the danger. Although they are not nomads, Skinwalkers prefer simple, well-made items that they can carry with them in a pinch. Even when they have permanent homes of their own, most Skinwalkers keep a simple pack loaded and ready for travel.
Skinwalkers believe that the reward for self-reliance is freedom. No Skinwalker is comfortable with those who forcibly impose their will on others. While Skinwalkers cannot break free of their own physical forms in the way that a true lycanthrope can, they still carry a physical reminder that even one’s own form is a mutable thing, governed as much by choice as by nature. If self-reliance remains the greatest Skinwalker virtue, the race’s greatest treasure is certainly freedom. This is in part why many Skinwalkers choose the freedom of life in the remote corners of the Eldeen Reaches over a more comfortable but more structured existence in the human cities of the Five Nations.

Culture and Cultural Heritage

Spread over many nations and nearly always a minority population, Skinwalkers struggle to maintain a sense of racial unity and a cohesive view of their society and culture. Despite the efforts of community leaders and others who work to preserve a uniform vision of Skinwalker society, two distinct types of Skinwalker communities have become prominent. The first, and by far the most numerous, is a small enclave of Skinwalkers within a larger community of some other race, most often humans.

These enclaves are welcomed by some Skinwalkers, since they give members of the oft-shunned race a sense of community and belonging much greater than what they receive from the larger populace. Others view these enclaves as subtle traps, preserving the rift between Skinwalkers and the other races. While these individuals see the virtues of encouraging the natural Skinwalker inclination to associate with others of their kind, they also worry that the enclaves encourage other races to view the Skinwalkers as apart from the rest of society. In light of the unpleasant effects of the Church of the Silver Flame’s crusade against lycanthropes on the Skinwalker populace, such concerns are well founded.

Although Skinwalker parents are as dedicated to raising their children as members of any race, the family group is not the core of Skinwalker society as it is among many other civilized races. Instead, Skinwalkers form their strongest bonds with a group of friends near their own age. These groups, although usually made up of Skinwalkers from many families, are often the strongest personal bonds that a Skinwalker forms. When compared to the social interactions of other races, these peer groups are loose, disorganized affairs that emphasize the Skinwalker’s self-reliance and personal space more than the cohesiveness of the group. In the individualized and reticent society of the Skinwalkers, however, they stand out as a vital and important social norm.

The second type of Skinwalker community exists apart from the Five Nations, usually sheltered deep within the forests of the Eldeen Reaches. Whether driven by the inquisition of the Church of the Silver Flame, the repercussions of the Last War, their own traditions, or the simple desire to live free of the nations governed by other races, many Skinwalkers have gathered into barbaric tribes and scattered communities across the wild lands of the Eldeen Reaches. These communities reinforce the Skinwalker’s preference for bonding with fellow Skinwalkers rather than members of other races, and the Skinwalker enclaves in the cities of other races resemble these Skinwalker-only communities more than they resemble the surrounding cities. While Skinwalkers are not isolationists, they greatly prefer the company of fellow Skinwalkers, for few members of other races understand that the Skinwalker's reticence and personal distance are respectful in their own way, and members of other races often seek out frequent social interactions—interactions that feel in many ways invasive to the Skinwalker’s sense of privacy and self-reliant attitude.

RELIGION

Scarred by the suspicion that they endured during the crusade against lycanthropes, Skinwalkers remain suspicious of outside religions. Knowing their power to motivate members of other races, Skinwalkers view intense or conflict-prone religions as terrifying forces capable of causing great harm. Their own beliefs, perhaps in reaction to this mindset, are varied and mild. The most common Skinwalker religion centers on the druid faiths of the Eldeen Reaches, and the most powerful Skinwalker religious figures are an order of druids known as the moonspeakers. The moonspeakers tie great meaning to the movements of the moons, believing that the moons’ ties to the Skinwalkers’ lycanthropic heritage give them great power over the lives of Skinwalkers. Other Skinwalkers, particularly those living in enclaves within the cities of other races, revere Balinor and Boldrei of the Sovereign Host, and many Skinwalker adventurers follow the ways of the Traveler.
Some Skinwalkers responded to the inquisition against lycanthropes by adopting the faith of the Church of the Silver Flame and wholeheartedly participating in that crusade of extermination. A lingering sense of guilt persists in many Skinwalkers because of that complicity. Some Skinwalkers still remain active in the Church of the Silver Flame, their faith standing as a bulwark against the scorn of their kin and their own feelings of guilt.
Skinwalkers celebrate several racial holidays, although individual Skinwalkers and specific communities often celebrate other holidays linked to their own religious choices.

Brightfest

A unique holiday that celebrates the coming of spring, Brightfest lasts for the first three days of Therendor. During Brightfest, Skinwalkers celebrate late into the night, usually with song, dance, and athletic competitions. In agricultural communities, the Skinwalkers use Brightfest to blow off steam, celebrate the end of the winter season, and ready themselves for the hard work of the planting season.

The Reachrace

The Reachrace is at once a celebration and an athletic contest. During the third week of Lharvion, Skinwalker communities hold numerous races and other athletic competitions, culminating in a day-long marathon on the last day of the week. Each community has different preferences and traditions considering the Reachrace, but in general the week begins with trials of strength and agility and ends with tests of endurance. Communities celebrate throughout the week, recognizing winners in individual events, overall victors for each day, and a single champion for the week-long celebration.

Art

Although Skinwalkers have little use for permanent or stationary art, they have perfected two art forms that accentuate their admiration for self-reliance and individuality.

Totem Braids

Skinwalkers often have intricate and unusual braids. The braids are mostly used just for expression or looks, but sometimes a Skinwalker associates a certain braid with an oath, a task, or a run of good luck. In these cases, the Skinwalker keeps the braid for the duration of the task or until the oath is fulfilled, then cuts the braid off cleanly.

Tattoos

Skinwalker often use tattoos to symbolize important experiences or ties to other individuals or groups. Skinwalker tattoos are intricate affairs that differ greatly, but there are two broad categories of tattoos that all Skinwalkers recognize: morphic tattoos and static tattoos.
A morphic tattoo is rendered in such a way that its pattern and appearance change to a new, different image when a Skinwalker uses his change shape ability. These tattoos are used to note individual accomplishments, especially great mental or physical trials that the Skinwalker has endured.
A static tattoo is crafted to retain its look and design even when the Skinwalker uses his shifting ability. These tattoos are typically used to represent a bond with another individual or a binding association with a particular group.

Warfare

Warfare has touched the Skinwalker race in many ways throughout history, but Skinwalkers have yet to be the driving force behind the conflicts. The fiercely independent Skinwalker communities of the Eldeen Reaches skirmish with each other and with other creatures on a regular basis, but even these long-brewing conflicts have never gone beyond limited engagements and guerrilla-style raids.
War truly came to the Skinwalkers sixty years before the start of the Last War, when the Church of the Silver Flame began its inquisition to destroy lycanthropes. At first, Skinwalkers were lumped in with lycanthropes, and quite a few fell in the first years of the crusade. Three years into the crusade, the Church recognized Skinwalkers as a separate species untouched by the taint of lycanthropy. Some believe that the Church took this step after making a deal with some Skinwalkers—a deal that required Skinwalkers to hunt down and reveal the locations of lycanthropes to the Church. Though only a few Skinwalkers cooperated with the Church in this manner, all felt shame and guilt over these actions. Whatever people individually thought of the Church’s crusade, the prejudice against lycanthropy spread throughout the continent’s subconscious. Some of this taint became associated with Skinwalkers , as well, but moreover, people saw Skinwalkers as betrayers of their own kind, despite the limited number of incidents and the fact that Skinwalkers and lycanthropes have a distant connection at best. Because of this, the crusade affected the thoughts and lives of every Skinwalkers in Khorvaire to some extent, leaving a lingering distrust between Skinwalkers and members of other races that still affects relations today.
While no other conflicts dealt as directly with Skinwalkers as the great crusade against lycanthropes, the great wars of Khorvaire’s history have almost always featured Skinwalker scouts. These scouts are in such demand that both sides of a given conflict often employ them. Although they did not participate in the ancient wars that shattered the goblin empire, Skinwalkers have been involved in at least some small way in most of the wars that have occurred since.
Because they have been touched by so many conflicts without having a cohesive racial role, Skinwalkers look at war as an individual choice. Survival and self-reliance are the backbone of Skinwalker culture and the center of a Skinwalker's self-image, and this means that Skinwalkers must decide for themselves whether they wish to be involved in a war or whether they’d be better served by just picking up and moving on to a new location untouched by the conflict. Because much of this process is internal, members of other races view Skinwalkers with suspicion, not trusting them to stick with a nation or community in times of war or conflict. While Skinwalkers have a high degree of personal honor, that honor is tied up in the individual’s decisions and self-reliance, and they regard the other race’s passionate views of nation and national warfare as somewhat weak and incomprehensible.

Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals

As with any race, Skinwalkers include a diverse and interesting mix of individuals, but a few important roles in Skinwalker society are unique to the race.

Moonspeaker

From the rural communities of the Eldeen Reaches to Skinwalker enclaves in the great cities of Khorvaire, the moonspeaker druids guide much of the religious beliefs of the Skinwalker race. The moonspeakers perform a valuable role among many Skinwalkers: Because they often travel from one Skinwalker community to another, they maintain the bond between the various communities. Moonspeakers provide a feeling of belonging to a group larger than the immediate Skinwalker populace, a racial bond that the fragmented and often distrusted Skinwalkers find immensely comforting.

Loreguard

: Perhaps the greatest secret of the Skinwalker race, the loreguard serves as the race’s first line of defense against the suspicion and prejudice of other races. Lacking the numbers of other races and fearful of powerful forces such as the Church of the Silver Flame, Skinwalkers long ago began training some of their most gifted individuals to prepare their race to avoid and respond to such suspicion and hatred from other races. The legacy of this training is the loreguard, a secretive group of Skinwalkers trained to interact with members of other races, discreetly promote Skinwalker interests, and above all ensure that nothing like the Church of the Silver Flame’s inquisition ever targets the Skinwalker race again. Consummate spies, well-meaning diplomats, and deadly assassins all have places within the loreguard, but none is ever admitted without first proving that loyalty to the Skinwalker race comes first and foremost.

History

Recent Skinwalker history has been shaped and tainted by the terrible zealotry of the Church of the Silver Flame. When the Church began its great crusade to rid the world of lycanthropy, it made little distinction between the rare and powerful true lycanthropes and their more civilized offshoots, the Skinwalkers. Although the Skinwalkers had long since become their own race, their ability to shift their forms, the trappings of their moon worship, and their relatively small numbers made them ideal targets of the Church’s zeal. Compared to true lycanthropes, which are decidedly difficult to find and track and exceedingly powerful, Skinwalkers were easy for the Church to find and attack. It’s little surprise, then, that most of the Church’s early “successes” were at the expense of the Skinwalker race.
The Church used its efforts against the Skinwalkers as proof that its crusade against lycanthropy was both right and destined for success. Although it reversed its view on Skinwalkers in the early years of its crusade and later acknowledged that Skinwalkers are a separate race, the damage was already done. Some of the Church’s less than honorable leaders used the crusade as an excuse to pursue private vendettas against Skinwalker communities or to gather great profit at the expense of Skinwalker lives. In war-torn Khorvaire, it’s unlikely that such pain and suspicion will find healing or resolution soon.
More recently, Skinwalkers—as all the peoples of Khorvaire—were touched by the violence and pain of the Last War. Whether in small units of their own kind, as individual scouts, or as members of larger mixed-race units, Skinwalkers fought on the side of every nation that took part in the war. Even though the majority of the Skinwalker populace did not take part directly in the battles and sieges, the hundred years of strife touched Skinwalker communities within the great cities and smaller towns of Khorvaire. Even the most sheltered communities in the Eldeen Reaches had some of their number involved in the distant battles.
As the conflict grew, Skinwalkers were sought more and more frequently as scouts and trackers. With the spellcasters of every nation caught between the pressing needs of building the magical tools of warfare and bringing their spells to bear in battle, they had less and less opportunity to spy out enemy troop movements with magic, and the role of mundane scouts and outriders became ever more important.

Historical Figures

Karmos Render

One of the greatest Skinwalker heroes of the Last War, Karmos Render was a savage warrior who fought in the service of Aundair. Throughout the war, Karmos performed many great deeds, including single-handedly destroying a powerful warforged titan. After the signing of the Treaty of Thronehold, Aundair gathered several of its most powerful champions and sent them to investigate the growing dangers of the Mournland. As a skilled tracker and physically powerful warrior, Karmos was one of the cornerstones of the expedition with his mighty axe. The group was considered the best Aundair had to offer, and its quick return was awaited with high hopes. Such a triumph, though, was not meant to be. Despite the efforts of powerful diviners beholden to the kingdom of Aundair, no word nor trace of the expedition has been found since it set out on the 4th of Vult in the year 996 CY.

Bennin Silverclaw

One of the Skinwalkers most responsible for the decision on the part of the Church of the Silver Flame that Skinwalkers were, in fact, a separate race—not part of the evil that was inherent in all lycanthropes according to Silver Flame doctrine—was a powerful warrior and tracker named Bennin Silverclaw. When the Church began its crusade against the werecreatures, Bennin joined in the effort with a zeal matched by only a few of the most fervent human converts. Bennin’s extraordinary abilities as a tracker and his claws coated with magical silver made him a terrible foe of all lycanthropes. The annals of the Church say that he found and killed no fewer than fifty lycanthropes of various types.
As with many other crusaders, Bennin found his end in violence. Attached to a large force of knights and clerics loyal to the Church of the Silver Flame, Bennin traveled deep into the Demon Wastes. The mighty expedition was aimed at a particularly powerful cult of lycanthropes that had long used its distant location and growing numbers to become a focal point of those opposed to the Church’s efforts to destroy lycanthropy. Such a lofty goal came at terrible cost. Hunger and the dangers of travel decimated the expedition, leaving them vulnerable. By the time they found the mighty enclave, they also stumbled into a carefully laid ambush that nearly finished the group for good. One of their number, infected by lycanthropy, led the expedition into the lycanthropes’ trap. Through the efforts of Bennin and the bravery of a few knights, a remnant of the mighty expedition escaped the trap.
Fueled by his hatred of the lycanthropes and still stinging from the betrayal, Bennin led his small band in a desperate assault on the cult’s stronghold. Although the expeditionary force was wiped out entirely, the cult was broken by their final efforts. A final sending told of Bennin’s lone battle against the three most powerful leaders of the cult. Whether the expedition wiped out the cult entirely might never be known, but Bennin and the other brave warriors ensured that it would never again serve as a focal point for resistance against the Church.

Common Myths and Legends

The Changegate

The Eldeen Reaches are home to many ancient and powerful druid orders, including the Gatekeepers, a fading cabal of druids tasked with defending the world against terrible creatures. Although tales of the druids who fought the powerful hordes of aberrations in ancient times are fading from modern Khorvaire, a dwindling sect of Skinwalker druids holds to an ancient promise.
More than a century ago, a small group of Skinwalker druids bound themselves and their descendants to a never-ending vigil over a portal known as the Changegate. For this dedication, the Gatekeeper druids promised the Skinwalkers protection and shelter in the face of the Church of the Silver Flame’s zealotry. Although the threat of the Church’s inquisition has passed, the Skinwalker hold to their ancient oaths.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Skinwalkers view members of other races with a great deal of suspicion. They have never felt like an integrated part of Khorvaire’s human-centric nations, and their self-reliant nature makes them slow to seek companionship or support from members of other races. Unlike the warforged, who hunger for interaction and contact with other races, Skinwalkers for the most part prefer to interact with fellow Skinwalkers. While Skinwalkers have no natural enemies on a racial level, they view the religions of humans with suspicion and view the creatures from the troubled Demon Wastes with growing concern.
Halflings, especially the rough and independent halflings who roam the Talenta Plains, get along well with Skinwalkers, seeing a kindred belief in the importance of relying on one’s own ability to survive. This bond is made easier on both peoples because of the great distance between the bulk of the Skinwalker population in the Eldeen Reaches and the eastern plains that the halflings call home. The two races meet infrequently enough that they rarely have an opportunity for their relations to become strained. Halflings who have integrated themselves into the Five Nations also get along well with Skinwalkers, filling the gaps in conversation left by the reticent Skinwalkers with their own musings, a situation that members of both races seem to find comfortable.
There is little organized effort to improve relations between Skinwalkers and other races, and most of the progress being made occurs in the form of individual Skinwalkers learning to trust and depend on adventuring companions of other races. As these adventuring Skinwalkers grow in prestige and power, they typically interact with influential members of other races, and more often than not the Skinwalkers slowly win the respect and admiration of those with whom they choose to interact.

Lifespan

72-90 years

Average Height

Males : 5'9" Females : 5'4"

Average Weight

Males : 175lbs Females : 140 lbs

Related Organizations

• The Ashbound

Skinwalker on D20SRD