Nushim
Nushim Traits
Ability Score Increase: Your Charisma score increases by 1.
Additional Score: Fiend Types: +1 Intelligence, Dexterity +1, Strength +1 (Choose one).
Size: Medium.
Speed: 30 feet.
Feat: One feat of their choice.
Shapeshifter: You can cast disguise self with this trait, using Wisdom as your spellcasting ability for it. Once you cast this spell, you can’t cast it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Shapechange Alternative: Choose a single, specific humanoid appearance. You can cast alter self with this trait to change into the appearance. At level 5, you may choose a second humanoid appearance.
Languages: Common, infernal, and a language of your choice.
Cat’s Claws: Because of your claws, you have a climbing speed of 20 feet. In addition, your claws are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Darkvision: Your ancestors have long since become used to being active in the night, becoming accustomed to little source of light. You have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see up to 60 feet in dim light as if it were bright light and darkness as if it were dim light. You cannot detect any colour in darkness, only a grayscale.
Pick one Fiend Type:
Dark Magic. You know the minor illusion cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the invisibility spell once per day. When you reach 5th level, you can also cast the major illusion spell once per day. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these spells. .
Adaptive Combatant. After an enemy makes an attack against you, their next attack against you is at the disadvantage.
Weapon/Armor Proficiencies:Proficiency with light and medium armor.
Basic Information
Biological Traits
"Shapeshifting is ego death. If you can get over your attachment to labeling yourself and your cherishing of your identity, you can be virtually anybody, even God."
The Nushim have bizarre physical features that, unless masked, are a giveaway to their fiendish nature. They have reversed hands (palm to back), which is the hallmark of their kind. However, it is not uncommon for whole limbs or even their heads to be twisted and facing the wrong way. They can have thick, shaggy coats resembling large cats (tigers, lions, pumas, jaguars, ect.). Manes, horns, overgrown canines, can be apart of their original, non-shapeshifted form.
They are usually bulky or "well-fed", and those who present feminine qualities are buxom and curvy. Their shapeshifting can take on many forms, from creatures to humanoids. Nushim usually become quite attached to one or two particular forms and spend decades perfecting the physical form.
Genetics and Reproduction
Nushim, like thier ancestors, can reproduce with one another to create new life. Because of their solitary lifestyle, it is incredibly rare to motivate a Nushim to form anything deeper than a business-like relationship with another of its kind.
What's more is the concern that creating more Nushim would flood the "market" of Vaeruin, causing less need or desire for the already established fiendfolk.
If the rare circumstance where attraction, desire, and convenience line up, a cub can be created. Fiendfolk reproduce physically, needing the seed from one to be passed onto the other. This sexual experience is flexible, seeing as the Nushim are shapeshifters and can possess all necessary parts. Both the masculine-presenting or feminine-presenting Nushim can carry the cub to term, which is usually 10 months.
A cub's birth happens in secret in order to keep them safe from other fiendfolk looking to steal or bargain the child away.
Growth Rate & Stages
Cubs grow incredibly slow in physical form, but gain mental skills very quickly. The young fiendfolk are taught that they are special, godlike, and set apart because of their origins.
Before knowledge, there was ignorance.
Before day, there was night.
Before gods,
before mortals,
there were rakshasas.
Because of the danger of being a young Nushim - an easy target for slavers and exotic buyers - the cubs are taught to maintain a shapeshift as soon as they can understand basic concepts. The more convincing and inconspicious the shapeshift, the safer the cub will be.
Young Nushim are considered mature enough to be on their own around age 100, and it is at this point that they may even become wary or competitive of their own parent. AT this age, or sooner, they leave the protection and guidance and seek out their own territory and endeavor.
Adult Nushim spend their lives establishing personal power large enough to rule the world, which may mean emmassing wealth, control over mortals, or mastering their own self. Elder Nushim seek to live their remaining days tending to their schemes, hoping to be reborn into Ravana after death.
Ecology and Habitats
In other worlds, their parent species, Rakshasa, prefer warm climates. Marshes, jungles, islands were some of the common territories chosen by the fiendfolk. In Vaeruin, a much more chilly climate, the Nushim have had to adapt.
Nushim have learned to deal with the colder climate by growing heavier pelts and wearing warmer fashion. To deal with the smaller constraints of the world (and the utter impossibility of leaving), the fiendfolk have turned to more creative ways to deal with overpopulation or encroaching territories.
“When the fox hears the rabbit scream he comes a-runnin', but not to help.”
Dietary Needs and Habits
Taking after their Rakshasa ancestors, Nushim are carnivores who enjoy their food freshly killed, and sometimes still alive. They take a particular delight in the flesh and organs of sentient beings seasoned in rarest of spices. That said, they can eat anything humanoids can. Indeed, many fiendfolk have cultivated palates that would make any gourmet weep for joy. They are sensual creatures, and food to them is a source of pleasure as much as a physical need. This also leaves them vulnerable to poisons, and a wise Nushim will watch its chef carefully.
Additional Information
Social Structure
While Nushin are solitary creatures who rarely live together, much less cooperate with each other, they are drawn to other sentient beings. While although they would never admit it, these descendants of Rakshasas need other thinking creatures in order to be content with their own existence.
Each Nushim place themselves at the top of their own social pyramid.Even the least ambitious fiendfolk sees itself as the rightful monarch of all mortals who cross its path, and those with the grandest dreams are plotting to displace the gods - even the God of Endings - themselves.
When multiple Nushim are operating within the same territory, such as the town of Falsehold, they will often create elaborate agreements marking out which one of them has control over which interesting mortals.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Nushim are newer to the world of Vaeruin, but they did not take long to settle in. It is unknown how many fiendfolk there are in the world due to their ability to take on the identities of others. Only the the book kept in Lastwell, the Ǫnd Stokkr lists the names and information of the Nushim who came from the Boiling Void.
These fiendfolk tend have the most known activity in Falsehold, but that is only because they appear to want to be known there.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Nushim are masterminds of deception and illusion, pulling from both necessity and their fiendish nature. They tend to stay ahead of news and trouble through astonishing illusory means, such as disappearing or taking on the shape or form of another creature.
"Nushim are only seen when they want to be seen."
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Nushim use traditional Rakshasa names, believing that this makes them closer to becomming Ravanna.
Some Nushim name examples:
Prattiyi
Bisva
Ramangad
Hidhra
Podhi
Bgalu
Tirgas
Major Organizations
The Nushim, or at least one, are rumored to be behind some of the more seedy illegal networks of Vaeruin. This theory makes sense when considering how difficult it is for governing bodies to track down and stop these factions.
Beauty Ideals
This sensualism has its roots in the long lives of the descendants of the Rakshasas, as well as their innate powers. After a few dozen years, daily life can become dull and repetitive; several hundred years simply magnify the problem. Momentary bursts of pleasure and novelty are a welcome diversion for the immortal. The same impulses that drive them to complicated and flamboyant schemes lead them into sensory indulgence – a need to master all facets of existence, and a desire to show off.
Dramatic beauty in all forms calls to them. Clothing, adornments, foods, drinks. Land, houses, natural beauty, constructed beauty.
Even more satisfying to the Nushim mind is convincing others to acquire the thing of beauty on their behalf. Rather than simply hiring minions to steal jewelry and art, a fiendfolk will use its innate powers to spin an irresistible story. Gullible adventurers or desparate nobles might agree to these tasks, providing an easy victory.
Relationship Ideals
It is rare for Nushim to live together, even rarer for those who do to be anything more than diplomatic or business partners with similar goals. When this does happen, the mere rumor could be enough to put a target on their back, especially if they are reproducing.
It is important to remember that underlying all fiendfolk's actions, hedonistic or devoted, is an awful malice. Just because a given Nushim is devoted to the music of a particular singer, or partnered romantically, or has spent the last 50 years standing on a mountaintop and considering the universe, does not mean the creature is any less malevolent .
Major Language Groups and Dialects
The Infernal language can be like liquid honey and gold, sweet and beautiful, or as demonic and terrifying as guttural screams. Nushim can communicate with other fiends, if they find any.
Common Etiquette Rules
If you believe that you have found a Nushim - seen through their disguise - it is considered rude to call them out in public. In fact, Nushim find much gratification holding their even most private meetings out in the open under disguise. To throw back the curtain on their act could create a powerful enemy.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
Nushim carry the beliefs of their origin species, specifically, that their great King Ravana is still whole and will return reincarnated. Many of them therefore seek to gain power over others, gaining the respect of their peers and spreading fear among their inferiors. The game of thrones and kings is one of their favorite pastimes. Some fiendfolk seek to rule directly, while others prefer to be the power behind the scenes. The former group is smaller, but some of the most powerful Nushim are found in its ranks, even in Vaeruin. Once a Nushim is secure in its position, it may even reveal itself to its subjects and rule openly, confident in its ability to survive all challenges. In Vaeruin, this has yet to be seen.
Those who prefer to rule in disguise rarely aim for control of a kingdom or other large area of ground. Instead they take control of guilds, temples, and the like. This allows them greater freedom to run events from behind the scenes if they wish, acting as a valued adviser for a series of puppet leaders. They enjoy watching mortal puppets dance unknowingly. Of course, such manipulation still must take place on a suitably grand scale. No proud Nushim would be content taking control of a small province’s blacksmithing guild, unless it was the first step in a much bigger plan. A fiendfolk gains some amusement out of controlling mortals, and can while away an evening playing with the people in an inn’s common room, but it won’t be satisfied for long.
Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals
The Nushim have trouble accepting the existence of beings more powerful than themselves. Even if confronted with such a creature, such as the God of Endings, almost all will attempt to manipulate it for their own ends. Not surprisingly, they don’t worship the gods followed by mortal races. To a rakshasa - to a Nushim -, these “gods” are nothing more than reincarnated mortals with ideas above their stations.
Common Taboos
It is incredibly strange for a Nushim to join mortals in any kind of relationship or venture that does not strictly benefit the Nushim.
History
Short History of Nushim in Vaeruin
Hunted. Cursed. Abomination.
With their thousand-year lifespan, many Nushim grow weary of the games. Though masters at deception, some desire a bit more authenticity from their life on this plane. Power in any form is worth great risk.
It could be ironic that Vaeruin, a land created by a God, became a sort of unspoken haven for the fiends who desired something different.
Some Nushim in their old age accepted the terms and walked into Vaeruin to spend the remainder of their lives in solitude, not bothered by hunters or other fiends. A means to introspect, to gain self-mastery so they could possibly become the reincarnation of Ravanna. Other Nushim, however, aren’t so pure in their intentions. To them, Vaeruin is a new land to sow the seeds of deception and self-centered greed.
“ If a baby deer frolicked out from between the buildings trying to cuddle up, I would roar. I wouldn’t bite it, but I would roar.."
Common Myths and Legends
It is a proud legend that in every world a Rakshasa, or subspecies, is hidden among the powerful.
Also Known As:
- "Fiendfolk"