Shade, Stygian (TP)

Life leaves echoes in its wake, whether crumbled remnants of a bygone civilization, tales of heroes and gods that spawn new beliefs, or even the echo of an individual soul left behind to haunt the living worla. Fantasy worlds are no strangers to ghosts and specters that linger beyond death, but sometimes a person's passion, purpose, and will to live are so strong, their tie to the living world so unbreakable, that their memories create a vessel for their soul after their body dies. These people are called shades. Shades can arise from any living race. There are rumors of darakhul or other undead leaving shades behind after destruction, but there are no reliable accounts of such a creature. It is more likely that an undead creature with strong enough will to become a shade becomes a shade of the race they were in true life.

You are a Stygian shade, your identity stripped by the waters of the Shadow Realm, which sets you apart from most other shades.

The River Styx winds through the Shadow Realm, full of mindless shades that live only to consume the memories of those they can drown. An unfortunate few of these shades bound to the plane retain their mental faculties yet suffer daily to recall who they once were. Shades from the Shadow Realm are different from those of the mortal realms because they specifically lack most of their memories, and the drive to find what was lost propels them. Newly born shades are difficult to distinguish from ghosts, but most settlements in the Shadow Realm are familiar enough with the phenomenon to recognize a new shade when they stumble into town with no recollection of where they came from. The city of Soriglass has become a haven for various undead, and shades congregate there in large numbers. It is often called the City of Shades. And a small community of shades have set up camp near the River Styx in hopes of preemptively finding and guiding the unfortunate individuals who wander out of its waters. This growing community is dedicated to helping shades of the Shadow Realm and to gathering resources to help its members discover who they once were.

A shade possesses a physical body that looks, acts, and feels similar to a living member of their original race, at least superficially. Shades must breathe, consume food and drink, and require shelter from adverse weather. Despite the functional similarities to a living body, a shade isn't composed of flesh and blood. Their bodies are a memory of who they once were, inhabited and quickened by the presence of their soul. Exhaustion, deprivation, and injury take their toll on a shade's body, disrupting their body's ability to maintain the connection to their soul. Food, drink, and air aren't necessary to nourish their bodies but merely to help them maintain the sense of being a living, breathing creature. Similarly, shades appear to sleep, but they do not require it. The more injured or exhausted a shade, the less corporeal they appear. The colors of their body wash out to pale, desaturated tones, and light begins to pass through them. Blood from their wounds starts out as red and vibrant as any humanoid's, but closer to death, their wounds cease to bleed and seem to evaporate at the edges.

The strength of a shade's memory of themselves and their place in life is the core of their being. Newer shades are almost impossible to distinguish from their prior, fully-living selves. Like anything exposed to the gnawing ravages of time, however, memory fades. The older a shade gets, the memories that keep them tethered to the living world begin to fray. They might grow forgetful, losing track of where they are or what year it is. Their memories might drift together, causing them to see people around them as figures from their past. Many shades keep detailed memoirs, tending to them with the same devotion that any living creature shows seeking out food and water. Shades can theoretically live forever, but in practice, the memories that tether them to life can't hold out indefinitely. Journals and other personal mementos help shades keep hold of themselves and allow them to last longer, sometimes for centuries.

Because they can arise from any people, shades come from all corners of the world and from all walks of life. Station and wealth are no guarantee to help one linger on after the body's death either. It's not unheard of for a person to die only to rise as a shade with little understanding that anything changed. Some even hide or dispose of their original remains, sometimes suppressing or deeply denying the act at all, and resume their life with no disruption. Anyone could secretly, sometimes even to themselves, be a shade. Some traveling shades leave their old lives behind, particularly those who were alone in life with no one to mourn them or fuel their memory. Such shades make up the majority of adventurers. Other more established shades might set out on a quest for the means to restore their true life or to protect loved ones from a threat.

Shades of the Shadow Realm awaken with little to no memory of who they were in life and rarely know their own names. Rediscovering one's name is a huge piece of reclaiming identity, so shades that do learn their own names use them with pride. For shades who don't yet remember, they often choose and discard different names for themselves as they attempt to find something that feels familiar.

Your Constitution score increases by 2, and one other ability score of your choice increases by 1.

Shades appear as the age they were when they died. They potentially have no limit to their lifespan, but realistically, ancient shades grow weary and lose their will to hold onto reality, fading away near 750 years old or so.

Stygian shades come from all walks of life but tend toward neutrality. Those that can't recover their memories or grow to resent their condition often drift toward evil alignments.

Choose whether you are Small or Medium sized.

Your existence beyond death makes you at home in the dark. You can see in dim light within 60 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.

As an action, you can strip away your veneer of life and expose your true spectral face. All non-undead creatures within 30 feet that can see you must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened for 1 minute. A frightened target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the frightened condition on itself on a success. If a target's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the target is immune to your Death Mask for the next 24 hours. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to your Constitution modifier.

Starting at 3rd level, you can use your action to dissolve your physical body into the ephemeral stuff of spirits. You become translucent and devoid of color, and the air around you grows cold. Your transformation lasts for 1 minute or until you end it as a bonus action. During it, you have a flying speed of 30 feet with the ability to hover, and you have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks that aren't made with silvered weapons. In addition, you have advantage on ability checks and saving throws made to escape a grapple or against being restrained, and you can move through creatures and solid objects as if they were difficult terrain. If you end your turn inside an object, you take 1d10 force damage. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

You are a humanoid, but your partial transition into undeath makes you susceptible to effects that target undead. Though you can regain hit points from spells like cure wounds, you can also be affected by game effects that specifically target undead, such as a cleric's Turn Undead feature. Game effects that raise a creature from the dead work on you as normal, but they return you to life as a shade. A true resurrection or wish spell can restore you to life as a fully living member of your original race.

You have advantage on saving throws against poison and disease, and you have resistance to necrotic damage.

You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language spoken by your Living Origin.

Stygian shades are born with almost no memory of their former lives but have an innate desire to remember who they are. When you create your stygian shade, decide which one of these questions you know the answer to. The rest are questions you seek to answer:

• What is your name!
• Where are you from!
• Who were the people you loved most?
• How did you die!
• What unfinished business has caused you to rise as a shade?