Shadeborn

Shadeborn are a rare and unsettling people whose first breath is tied to death. Most are born during periods of open conflict—especially in the wake of a Riftspawn war—when the boundary between life and the Rift thins under the strain of mass suffering. The most common account is brutally simple: a Shadeborn child is conceived normally, but the father dies while the child is still unborn, often after prolonged exposure to Rift Corruption. In recent years, healers and wardens have recorded a second path to the same end: if the mother endures Shadow Plague or Rift Corruption during pregnancy, the unborn child may “take hold” in a different way—surviving, but changed, as if the soul learned to breathe in darkness before it ever knew air.
Physically, Shadeborn are unmistakable. Their skin tends toward pallid grey or ashen white, cool to the touch even in warm climates. They are typically hairless—no scalp hair, no brows, and little body hair—giving them a smooth, almost unfinished appearance. Their eyes are their most unnerving feature: dark, glossy irises that seem to swallow light rather than reflect it. Many Shadeborn move with a quiet economy, speaking little and wasting fewer gestures, as if the world is something to be measured and endured rather than performed for. They do not “hear voices” or whisper to the unseen; their eeriness comes instead from how still they can be, and how quickly their gaze finds what others miss.
Shadeborn communities are rarely old, large, or openly celebrated. In most places they grow up in the margins: tolerated as laborers, scouts, and watchmen, or pressed into the service of those who value results over comfort. Some cities maintain informal “pale quarters,” not always by law, but by the slow gravity of fear and rumor. Superstitions cling to Shadeborn like fog—claims that they bring bad luck, that they cannot love, that they cannot be redeemed, that they are “already halfway gone.” Shadeborn learn early that kindness can be conditional, and that stability is often something you build with your own hands.
Despite the stigma, Shadeborn are not monsters. Many develop an iron practicality and a fierce loyalty to those who treat them as people rather than omens. They often gravitate toward work that rewards composure: night sentries, investigators, salvage crews, undertakers, boundary-runners, and anyone who must keep moving when the dark becomes crowded. A Shadeborn adventurer commonly sets out for one of three reasons: to prove they are more than a consequence of catastrophe, to hunt the source of the corruption that shaped them, or to find a place—any place—where their existence isn’t treated like a prophecy.
Among Shadeborn themselves, the prevailing belief is not that they were chosen, but that they were made—and that what the world made can still decide what it becomes.

Shadeborn Traits

Creature Type: Humanoid
Size: Medium (about 4–7 feet tall) or Small (about 2–4 feet tall), chosen when you select this species
Speed: 30 feet

As an Shadeborn, you have these special traits.

Blighted Resistance

You have resistance to Necrotic and Poison damage. You also have Advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the Poisoned condition.

Darkvision

You have Darkvision with a range of 60 feet.

Shadeborn Magic

You know the Parallax Delusions cantrip. Starting at level 3, you can cast the False Life spell with this trait, without requiring a material component. Starting at 5th level, you can also cast the Invisibility spell with this trait, without requiring a material component. Once you cast either of these spells using this trait, you can’t cast that spell with it again until you finish a Long Rest. You can also cast the spell using any spell slots you have of the appropriate level.
Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for the spells you cast with this trait (choose the ability when you select this species).

Shroudsight

As a Bonus Action, you gain Blindsight with a range of 10 feet for 1 minute. If you already have Blindsight when you use this feature, its range increases by 10 feet.
You can use this Bonus Action a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.

Genetic Ancestor(s)

• Human