#homebrew

Homebrew Lineage: Vitreous Remnant

Inspired so very much by the Dawn Machine/Clockwork Sun of Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies. The whole light-that-turns-people-to-living-glass thing is such a horrific and cool idea to me. So. A 5e lineage, in the style of the Van Richten’s lineages, for characters who have survived the touch of an alien, vitrifying light on a world where such things exist, where an alien force called the Glow, an eldritch, perhaps sentient radiance, breaks through the walls of reality every so often and turns everything living around it into glass.

(THESUNTHESUNTHESUNTHESUNTHESU—)

VITREOUS REMNANT

Beings of living, moving glass, transparent and tinted just faintly golden, the faint shapes of what were once veins and muscles and organs visible beneath their surfaces: these are the vitreous remnants, the fearful results of exposure to the Glow, that hideous, unnatural radiance that haunts our world. Where the Glow emerges, forcing its way into the world once more, all living things beneath its gaze are transformed, slowly and horrifically, into glittering glass. For most, this vitrification is fatal. For some, perhaps less lucky, this transformation is the beginning of a new existence instead. Undying, no longer flesh and blood, regarded with pity or revulsion by most who encounter them, vitreous remnants must find or make their way anew in this world. The trauma of vitrification, the unnatural touch of the Glow, is immense. Some remnants go mad. Others forget, both their transformation and all that came before. And others, some few, remember everything, and cling with all their might to the memory and knowledge of who they once were, even if they can wear its shape no longer.

VITREOUS REMNANT TRAITS

Ability Score Increase. Choose one of: (a) Choose any +2; choose any other +1 (b) Choose any +1; choose any other +1; choose any other +1.

Size. You are small or medium. You choose the size when you gain this lineage.

Speed.30ft.

Ancestral Legacy. If you replace a race with this lineage, you can keep the following elements of that race: any skill proficiencies you gained from it and any climbing, flying, or swimming speed you gained from it.

If you don’t keep any of those elements or you choose this lineage at character creation, you gain proficiency in two skills of your choice.

Invisible Light. Your vitrified body still emits an echo of the radiance that transformed it, visible only to your own eyes. You can see normally in dim light and darkness to a range of 60ft.

Vitrified Existence. Your body has been transfigured by the vitrification you endured, with the following results:

• You have resistance to radiant damage.
• You don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe.
• You are immune to disease.
• You do not age and cannot be aged magically.
• You have advantage on saving throws to avoid being petrified or transformed against your will.

Echoes of Radiance. You know the Sacred Flame cantrip. Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for it (choose when you select this lineage).

Languages.You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for your character.

FUNCTIONARY

A functionary is a creature of lists and rosters, contracts, contacts and paperwork. They are the secretaries, the civil servants, the logistics officers, the clerks, the accountants and, occasionally, also the spies and the fixers and the numbers people of various illicit operations. A functionary is the person who knows who and what is supposed to be where and when, and can produce the paperwork (legitimate or otherwise) to back themselves up. Perhaps you were a court functionary, perhaps you were a city clerk, perhaps you were a noble’s secretary, perhaps you were a logistics officer for the army, perhaps you ran the accounts or the supply chains for a gang of smugglers. Whatever organisation you served and whichever side of the law you were on, you were a force of order (and paperwork) in the world around you.

Skill Proficiencies: Choose two from among History, Insight, Investigation, or Persuasion

Tool Proficiencies: Forgery kit

Languages: Any one of your choice

Equipment:Common clothes, an ink pen, a bottle of ink, a ledger, and a belt pouch with 10gp.

FEATURE: PROFESSIONAL EYE

You are adept at discerning the structure of any organisation or outfit you might be presented with. You know at a glance if an outfit is sloppily or tightly run, you know who likely runs the day to day operations, you know who to talk to about what or who is meant to be where (and how to arrange for either to be conveniently elsewhere), and you can get a sense of who is nominally in charge and who is actually in charge of any given area of responsibility. If permission needs to be gotten, you know where you’re likely to get it.

SUGGESTED CHARACTERISTICS

The essence of a functionary is the ability to work within and, if necessary, around a system. They need not be moral, they need not even be lawful, but they do know how to get things done within a particular set of constraints. They might admire the arcane, abstruse and complex bureaucracy they work within, or they might despise it, but either way they know how to work it. Perhaps they even know how to improve it, streamline it, or sidestep it altogether. Whatever their role, a functionary tends to be practical, detail-oriented, and adept at keeping tracking the rules and regulations that surround them, as well as sometimes the connections and methods necessary for expediting and/or ignoring them. They might also be fussy, obstructive, corrupt, crusading, or somewhat unmoored from reality, depending on day of the week and the system they happen to work within.

Personality Traits (d8):

1. I mutter constantly to myself under my breath, and neither notice nor care what anyone might think about it.
2. I like everything to be neat. Everything.
3. I make it a point to get to know someone useful everywhere I go.
4. I have a list of my favourite obscure and incredibly annoying rules and laws, ready to go at a moment’s notice.
5. I do my best to always know the location of the nearest good meal, good laundry, and fine paper merchant.
6. I hoard information of varying usefulness worse than any dragon.
7. If you are polite to me, I will do everything in my power to get you where you need to go. If you are impoliteto me … well. Good luck.
8. I have a wooden stamp and a pad of red ink, and I greatly enjoy using it.

Ideal (d6):

1. Order. The system, as much or more than its intended purpose, is its own reward. (Lawful)
2. Purpose. Organisation, civilisation, exists to deliver the greatest amount of good to the greatest amount of people possible. (Good)
3. Loopholes. The lines exist so that you can have all the fun in the world hopping in, around and over them as easily as your skill and competence allow. Only amateurs need to outright break things to get what they want. (Chaotic)
4. Corruption. The rules exist to get me what I want, while preventing anyone else from getting what they want. (Evil)
5. Efficiency. The point is to get whatever needs to be done done as quickly and efficiently as possible. (Neutral)
6. Aspiration. I am meant for more than just lowly paper-pushing. (Any)

Bond (d6):

1. You learn things in my position. Sometimes you learn the wrong things, and then people try to kill you for them. Ideally I would like to avoid that. The being killed part, that is.
2. There has recently been a serious disruption in my supply and/or information chain, and I don’t know why, but I am going to find out, and I am going to fix it.
3. Nobody has seen more people hurt because of numbers on a piece of paper than I have. I’ve had enough. Someone needs to do something.
4. Over the last few months, I’ve noticed some inconsistencies in my employer’s correspondence. Some dangerous inconsistencies. I need to find proof of my suspicions.
5. Paperwork eats your soul. I need to escape, to do something different and more exciting with my life.
6. I met these people ten minutes ago and I can already tell that if someone doesn’t get this outfit organised and fed on time and a decent stream of income, they’re all going to die. So, I guess that someone is me?

Flaw (d6):

1. Do you know how little functionaries get paid? It’s not a lot. I would like it to be more, and I’m willing to be morally flexible in how I achieve that.
2. I am the most boring conversationalist on the face of the planet, and several people have tried to stab me for it.
3. If I notice some little thing out of place, I will not let it go, no matter where it leads me.
4. You know that saying about speaking truth to power? Speaking procedure to power often has similar results. Doesn’t mean I can turn a blind eye, though.
5. The problem with jigging the system as often and as casually as I do is that, sooner or later, the system does notice.
6. Ihave to keep records of things. Even things I really, really shouldn’t put in writing.