#those games had such awesome and horrible ideas

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.