VE - Death - Duskwalker

A duskwalker isn't born; they are instead created, each manifesting as a mortal child in a location with close ties to death. They embody the somber powers of the psychopomps, immortal guardians and shepherds of the dead, and they maintain a fascination with and deep understanding of death throughout their lives. More singular than other versatile heritages, duskwalkers don't have different lineages.

The first duskwalkers manifested as the result of a bargain between two powerful psychopomps, the immortal guardians and guides of souls after death. One believed that souls who helped preserve the cycle of life and death—but had their own lives cut short—deserved reincarnation, while the other felt this would too greatly violate that same cycle. In the end, duskwalkers rose from a concession between the two psychopomps: such rebirths could occur, but in limited frequency. Only a finite number of duskwalkers ever exist at any one point in time.

When a duskwalker perishes and faces final judgment, a new one incarnates within a year from a deserving soul, typically somewhere far from the previous duskwalker's birthplace. Duskwalkers manifest in locations with a sanctified connection to death, such as graveyards or temples, and begin their lives at adolescence. No duskwalker is capable of bearing or siring biological children, but this doesn't prevent them from establishing families, typically through adoption.

Duskwalkers have an inherent understanding of the cycle of life and death. In most cases this manifests as a deep respect for that cycle and pushes the duskwalker toward occupations that help them to protect it, such as hunters of the undead, midwives, morticians, and priests.