Derro

Deep beneath the earth, the derro wait in twisted cities built by their mad architects. These insane humanoids live, work, and somehow thrive in the lightless depths. They understand the truth about the uncaring gods that dwell between the stars, and they abandoned sanity long ago to save themselves. The derro hide within their insanity in the hope that the dark gods they fear will turn that sinister attention to other, saner races first.
Despite the great distances between their underground cities and the surface, derro outposts can be found in the slums of many cities, both above and below ground. Occasionally, a derro discovers the wider world and finds a path out of the madness.

Pale and Stunted

The derro are stunted, dwarflike humanoids, small of stature with wide shoulders and stubby limbs. They stand around 3 feet tall, with males only slightly taller than females on average. Their slender builds rarely weigh more than 40 pounds. Their pale skin is nearly translucent, revealing a ghostly web of blue veins. Their large, pure white staring eyes gleam in the dark.
Shorter than surface dawarves, derro are quick and erratic in their movements. Their elaborately braided or styled hair ranges from white to a pale straw color, Males take great pride in ttheir prodigious mustaches, which are often braided and waxed.

History of Madness

The true history of the derro is an incomprehensible tangle. The entire race embraced insanity long ago. Even when they keep records, their accounts conflict with each other and with observable reality. The various cults and clans of the derro embraced a wide variety of myths, mostly passed along by oral tradition and mind-bending artwork. Every new teller of a given tale twists or rewrites portions of the story to fit their own warped view of the world.
The derro have existed for ages, perhaps thriving even before the spread of humans across the surface. The more reliable histories of other races agree the derro were once allied with the drow. The drow regard them with a strange type of favor, almost like dim-witted children. The aboleths and duergar have historically used and abused the derro. The derro know no actual friends, but they are overawed by power and dominance. They serve beings whose assumed superiority impresses them, and, when led in this way, their insanity clears enough to keep them moving toward the leader's goals.

Culture and Rule

Love, as other races know it, is unheard of in the bizarre core family unit of the derro. Derro children are born sane, but they are deliberately driven mad by their relatives, usually by age four. Parents feed, clothe, and protect their children not out of a sense of love or tenderness, but because they know that every derro awakened to the mind-bending truth of their race brings them glory. The horrific rituals that break a young derro's sanity vary by tribe and even year to year. Details are sparse, but known ritual names include Staring into the Void, ENduring the Heartless Fire, and First Drink fo True Knowledge.
Derro are paranoid, unstable, and jittery, and many suffer powerful delusions of grandeur as well. Madness compels them to commit acts of cruelty against their companions or pets, and these acts ignite constant infighting among them. A few however, muster enough restraint and control to keep the entirety of derro society from crumbling.
Savants are powerful sorcerers who hold their madness at bay long enough to cobble together coherent plans, though even they are dangerously unpredictable. The derro's antipaladins are terrifying engines of crazed destruction who have looked deep into the void between stars and survived--and even the savants respect them for that. Clans that stick together long enough inadvertently create a witch queen among their ranks, a collective spirit of the clan. These derro become the leaders and central focuses of their clans, driving the clan to inscrutable ends. When one witch queen dies, her spirit transfers to another derro in the clan, transforming that derro into the next witch queen and perpetuating the clan.

Gods of the Derro

The derro worship a horde of bizarre and terrible beings, including demon lords. Perhaps the most disturbing of their deities are the Great Old Ones whose mere dymbolic presence melts minds and corrupts the world. Derro worshipers venerate Nyarlathotep and Shub-Niggurath, the Black Goat of the Woods, in particular. There is no pattern or reason that governs which dark being will catch a given derro's fancy, and devotees are violently hostile to worshipers of other entities.
Derro consider themselves the most exalted servants of the blasphemous figures they verate; the only beings in the entire multiverse who can truly understand tehir deity's glory. Specific rituals vary from cult ot cult, but the unifying thread of derro faith assertsthat their racial madness is a gift that makes communion with these deties possible. Further, the derro believe they are the harbingers of the end of time and that they alone will inherit the shattered husk of creation.

Derro Traits

Superior Darkvision. Accustomed to life underground, you can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Eldritch Resilience. You have advantage on Constitution saving throws against spells.
Sunlight Sensitivity. You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.
Subrace: Derro differ based on their location within derro communities, their clan's connections to the dark powers that sculpt and manipulate the derro race, and the manifestations of the changes their otherworldly patrons bestow on them. Most derro dwell happily and deeply in their culture-induced insanity for their entire existence, others escape the madness-inducing indoctrination, and others still go straight through the madness toward powers beyond waht derro usually enjoy.

Basic Information

Growth Rate & Stages

Derro stand around 3 feet tall with slender limbs and wide shoulders. They reach maturity by the age of 15 and live to be around 75.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Names are t hrust upon derro chlidren haphazardly and with no clear general customs. Derro who worship an ancestor god might give their children a variation on the exhalted figure's name or title, or a child might grow almost to maturity before any adult bothers to call them by the same jumble of sounds twice. Clan, tribe, and family names also lack any discernable pattern, though occasionally they form a coherent description.
Male Names: Akrath, Avrik, Brosh'Kal, Byrgryg, Crok'Til, Cyzyk, Daagrath, Durvin, Farq'shul, Folvig, Gaargth, Grolesh, Haaskrin, Hvorig, Korzh, Lormaq, Orvuld, Ostvyrk, Perk'rasz, Pulver'Kash, Quirth, Qvaalak, Saasqar, Vorqaar
Female Names: Aazha, Artriss, Bruen, Bylir, Dal'lyn, Drussil, Ealla, Erytl, Grunhaas, Gvarla, Heldraag, Hylala, Muerna, Mzish, Ophella, Ortys, Rushal, Synder, Thryka, Tonlix, Ulga, Veraka, Vilya, Wulfada, Xanka
Tribe Names: Aardsyn, Blackreach, Balerock, Crystaaq, Daash'Void, Guunhold, Hellsreach, Iirdvank, Laash'Kath, Moldheim, Nyar'Ryk, Ovildhaash, Rylstaaq, Slys'Kath, Xaalyf

Major Language Groups and Dialects

You can speak, read, and write Dwarvish and your choice of Common or Undercommon

Speed:
25ft
Creature Type:
Humanoid
Creature Size:
Small

Subrace: