Stigmata

Bleed For Your Faith

“Every saint in the old frescoes bears a wound. What no one painted was the reliquary waiting beside the body.”

— Canon Rhaelon Vestir, On Sacred Intrusions

Stigmata are supernatural marks carried upon the body, granting strange abilities to those who bear them. Before manifesting, each stigma exists as a physical vessel, often a relic, devotional object, fragment, or other item whose appearance offers little certainty about what it will become. When a creature accepts the stigma, the vessel disappears and its power emerges upon the flesh.
A stigma may resemble a wound, scar, brand, discoloration, growth, altered feature, or symbol beneath the skin. Its manifestation cannot be removed through ordinary injury, and damage to the marked flesh does not diminish its power. If the affected part of the body is lost, the stigma appears elsewhere. It remains until the bond ends, at which point the mark vanishes and the vessel returns.

The Mark Upon the Flesh

“The mark did not prove the gods had spoken. It proved only that something had been written upon him, and that heaven had declined to explain the words.”

— Canon Elara Venn, Meditations on the Unanswered Flesh

The word stigma carries more weight than the simple description of a magical mark. A tattoo is placed upon the body. A scar is left behind by injury. A stigma does not belong comfortably to either category. It appears because something that once existed outside the body has crossed the boundary of flesh and become part of the person who bears it.

That distinction is difficult to ignore.

Before the bond is formed, the stigma can be held in the hand. It possesses weight, texture, and form. It can be wrapped in cloth, locked inside a chest, passed from one owner to another, or placed upon an altar. Then the vessel disappears, and something appears upon the bearer’s body in its place.

Nothing is visibly carried from the vessel into the flesh. There is no residue left behind. The object simply ceases to exist as an object, and the body acquires something it did not possess before.

Scholars may describe this as a change of state. Priests may call it incarnation, communion, possession, or grace. Those explanations offer language, but they do not make the transformation less disturbing. An object has become a bodily feature, and no known examination can always determine where the bearer ends and the stigma begins.

Wounds That Are Not Wounds

“If the soul is invisible and the gods are silent, then a mark upon the flesh becomes a terrible kind of scripture. Everyone can read it, and no one can agree who wrote it.”

— Sister Ameline Rhos, The Theology of the Righteous Wounded

Many stigmata imitate injury.
They appear as punctures, burns, scars, bruises, brands, split skin, discolored veins, or wounds that seem fresh despite producing no blood. Some resemble old injuries so convincingly that healers attempt to treat them before realizing there is nothing to mend. Others appear too deliberate to be mistaken for ordinary harm, forming symbols, patterns, or shapes that no accident could have produced.
A stigma may look painful without causing pain. It may cause pain without displaying any visible injury. It may resemble a mortal wound upon a bearer who remains perfectly healthy.
The body reacts to these manifestations inconsistently. Skin may grow around them, but never over them. Hair may refuse to grow across the marked area. Scar tissue can form nearby while leaving the stigma untouched. Blood may run across it without entering it. Dirt may collect in its contours, yet the manifestation itself remains unchanged beneath the filth.
This persistence is one of the first things that unsettles those who study them. Living flesh is always changing. It ages, heals, stretches, wrinkles, and decays. A stigma participates in none of these processes unless its nature specifically demands it.
It rests upon the body with the permanence of something that does not recognize the body’s authority over itself.

The Body Cannot Refuse It

“The body was once considered the vessel of the spirit. Stigmata force the opposite question. What if the spirit is only the place where the vessel is opened?”

— Philosopher Cael Vorrin, On Flesh, Relics, and the Borrowed Self

Once manifested, a stigma cannot be removed as an ordinary object because it is no longer an ordinary object. Cutting it away only wounds the bearer. Burning it only burns the bearer. Removing the marked limb does not free the creature from the stigma. The manifestation simply returns elsewhere.
This has led to desperate acts.
There are accounts of bearers who carved at their own skin until they could no longer recognize the original mark. Others submitted to cauterization, surgical removal, acid, ritual cleansing, or deliberate mutilation. The results were consistent. The body suffered. The stigma remained.
The lesson is cruel but clear. A stigma does not merely occupy a place upon the body. It claims the bearer as the place in which it exists.
The exact location of the mark may change, but the bond does not. Flesh is replaceable. The bearer is not.
This truth carries implications that many temples prefer not to discuss openly. If a sacred wound cannot be cut away, then the sanctity of the mark does not depend upon the flesh it resembles. If a condemnation survives the destruction of the branded skin, then the punishment is not truly written upon the body. It is written upon the person.
What that means for the relationship between body, soul, and magic remains fiercely disputed.

The Returning Vessel

“The worst part is not the mark itself. It is the instant when everyone in the room realizes the body has become evidence of something none of them are prepared to name.”

— High Confessor Elian Vor, On the Terror of Visible Grace

The vessel returns when the bond ends.
This is usually presented as reassurance. The object is not lost. The stigma can pass to another bearer. Its existence continues in a form that can once again be contained, transported, studied, or hidden.
The return is not always comforting.
When a bearer dies, the manifestation disappears and the vessel reappears immediately. A wound that may have been carried for decades vanishes from the corpse, leaving behind an ordinary body and an extraordinary object. The dead no longer appear chosen, condemned, blessed, or changed. Whatever marked them has withdrawn.
The vessel may return beside the body, beneath it, or among the blood and ruined possessions surrounding it. Those who recover such objects often describe the experience as witnessing something leave the dead.
There is no lingering loyalty. If the bearer is later restored to life, the stigma does not return with them. The bond must be formed again.
To some theologians, this proves that stigmata are not part of the soul. To others, it proves only that they abandon the soul at death.
Neither conclusion is especially reassuring.

Relics That Remember Nothing

“You expect blood, but there is none. You expect the wound to close, but it does not. Then you understand that what you are looking at was never an injury.”

— Brother Caldus Merin, Witness Before the Veiled Altar

A vessel offers no obvious account of those who carried it before.
It may have appeared upon saints, murderers, monarchs, martyrs, or creatures whose names were never recorded. It may have crossed generations without leaving any physical trace of its passage. Once the manifestation withdraws, the vessel returns to its former shape, apparently unchanged by the life that contained it.
This absence has inspired countless rituals of examination. Priests listen for echoes of prayer. Diviners search for emotional impressions. Historians compare the vessel’s known appearances across surviving records. Healers inspect bearers for inherited alterations. Most find less than they hoped.
The stigma may preserve its own nature perfectly while preserving nothing of the people who bore it.
That possibility is among the darkest implications of the phenomenon. A bearer may carry the same mark that rested upon a revered ancestor, yet the stigma offers no recognition. It may grant the same power, occupy the same flesh, and produce the same sacred wound without distinguishing one life from another.
The vessel endures. The bearers pass through it.

Blessing, Condemnation, or Claim

“There is comfort in a god who answers prayer. There is terror in a god who answers by changing the shape of the one who prayed.”

— Theologian Marael Thorne, On Devotion and Divine Possession

No culture interprets stigmata in precisely the same way.
Some regard them as evidence that higher powers still intervene directly in mortal life. A person marked by a stigma may be treated as chosen, protected, or entrusted with a sacred responsibility. Their manifestation may become a sign of office, a source of authority, or the center of a religious identity they did not possess before receiving it.
Others see the same phenomenon as an invasion.
To them, a stigma is an object that enters the body, resists removal, survives mutilation, and leaves only when the bond is broken or the bearer dies. Whatever benefits it grants do not erase what it has done. The bearer has accepted something that replaced part of its physical existence with itself.
The distinction between blessing and violation often depends upon consent, but even consent does not settle every question. A person may willingly accept a vessel without understanding its manifestation. They may know the power they will receive but not the social meaning others will impose upon the mark. They may discover that the stigma is easier to accept than to live with.
Once visible, the manifestation can become a public declaration the bearer never intended to make.
A mark associated with mercy may attract the desperate. A stigma believed to signify judgment may make strangers confess in fear. A manifestation claimed by one religion may be condemned as blasphemy by another. The bearer may be praised for a holiness they do not possess or blamed for a corruption they did not choose.
The stigma grants power. The world supplies the interpretation.

The Fear of Counterfeit Holiness

“There are symbols worn in devotion, and there are symbols that make devotion unavoidable. Wisdom lies in knowing which one has appeared upon the flesh.”

— Mother Halene Vorr, Sermons from the Closed Reliquary

Stigmata also disturb religious authorities because they can produce the outward signs of divine intervention without proving that any god was involved.
A sacred wound may be genuine as a magical phenomenon while every belief surrounding it is false. A bearer may display a mark identical to one found in scripture yet have no connection to the faith that reveres it. A condemned criminal might inherit a vessel once carried by a saint. A priest may spend a lifetime seeking a sign that later appears upon a thief who found the vessel in a ruined cellar.
The phenomenon does not respect doctrine.
This creates a dangerous uncertainty. If the mark itself cannot establish its source, then holiness must be judged by conduct, history, revelation, or institutional authority. Each method is vulnerable to error, manipulation, and ambition.
Some temples therefore conceal known vessels rather than risk an unsuitable bearer. Others preserve them as holy relics but forbid attunement. A few actively seek bearers, believing that a stigma without flesh is incomplete. Still others destroy any vessel they can find, convinced that no object should possess the power to make a body resemble revelation.
Such destruction does not always appear sacrilegious to those who perform it. Sometimes it is presented as an act of mercy.

“A miracle that leaves no wound upon the witness is easy to praise. A miracle that remains upon the body demands a more honest kind of faith.”

— Canon Ilyra Senn, The Cost of Being Seen

Most magic items remain visibly separate from their owners. They can be surrendered, stolen, displayed, or set aside. Even when treasured, they remain possessions.
A manifested stigma reverses that relationship.
The bearer does not appear to carry the item. The item appears to have rewritten the bearer.
This does not mean that stigmata possess minds or intentions. No universal evidence suggests that every stigma thinks, chooses, hungers, or judges. Many may be no more conscious than swords, rings, or cloaks.
The discomfort comes from the fact that consciousness is not required.
A door does not need to hate someone to imprison them. A flame does not need malice to consume a house. A stigma does not need a will of its own to make the bearer’s body its dwelling place.
That is why even beneficial stigmata inspire unease among those who understand them. The power may heal, protect, reveal, or strengthen. It may save the bearer’s life many times over. None of that changes the underlying fact.
Something that was once an object has entered living flesh.
It will remain there through injury, transformation, and attempted removal.
When the bearer dies, it will leave the body behind and become an object again.
Then it will wait for someone else.

“There is comfort in a god who answers prayer. There is terror in a god who answers by changing the shape of the one who prayed.”

— Theologian Marael Thorne, On Devotion and Divine Possession

Stigma of the Vigil

Wondrous Item (Stigma), Uncommon (Requires Attunement)

The Stigma of the Vigil denies its bearer the comfort of unguarded rest, sharpening their awareness of approaching danger and allowing them to rouse others before violence begins.

Vessel. The stigma’s vessel is a thin bronze funerary coin engraved with an open eye on one face and a closed eye on the other.
Whenever the vessel is left unattended, the open eye slowly turns toward the nearest living creature within 30 feet of it. If no living creature is within range, the closed eye faces upward instead.
This movement indicates only the direction of the nearest living creature. It does not identify that creature, reveal its exact location or distance, or detect a creature that is not living.
Manifestation. When a creature attunes to the stigma, the vessel disappears, and a small puncture wound opens at the outer corner of each of the bearer’s eyes.
If the bearer’s current form has only one eye, both wounds appear beside that eye. If the bearer has no eyes, the wounds appear beside its primary sensory organs. If it has no discernible sensory organs, a pair of wounds appears on opposite sides of its head or nearest analogous body part.
The wounds cause no damage and do not impair the bearer’s senses. They remain closed under ordinary circumstances but open and bleed briefly whenever the bearer expends one or more of the stigma’s charges.
Charges. The stigma has 2 charges and regains 1d2 expended charges daily at dawn.
Unblinking Watch. While you are conscious and not Incapacitated, you can’t be surprised.
In addition, you have Advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks you make to detect a creature that is hidden from you.
Sound the Alarm. When Initiative is about to be rolled, after surprise has been determined but before any creature makes its roll, you can expend 1 charge and choose another creature that you can see within 30 feet of yourself and that can hear you. No action is required.
You warn the chosen creature. If it would be surprised by the start of that combat, it isn’t surprised.
You can use this property only once each time Initiative is rolled.

Stigma of the Steadfast

Wondrous Item (Stigma), Uncommon (Requires Attunement)

The Stigma of the Steadfast fortifies its bearer against supernatural terror and allows their resolve to steady another creature at the moment courage fails.

Vessel. The stigma’s vessel is a bent iron nail wrapped once with faded red thread. The nail can’t be straightened by nonmagical means.
When a creature holding the vessel becomes Frightened, the thread pulls taut around the nail until that condition ends.
Manifestation. When a creature attunes to the stigma, the vessel disappears, and a narrow puncture wound opens over the center of the bearer’s sternum.
If the bearer’s current form has no sternum or discernible chest, the wound appears over the portion of its body nearest its physical center.
The wound causes no damage and does not impair the bearer’s movement or breathing. It remains closed under ordinary circumstances but opens and bleeds briefly whenever the bearer expends one or more of the stigma’s charges.
Charges. The stigma has 2 charges and regains 1d2 expended charges daily at dawn.
Heart Unshaken. You have Advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the Frightened condition.
Hold Fast. When you or another creature that you can see within 30 feet of yourself fails a saving throw against becoming Frightened, but before the effects of that failed saving throw are resolved, you can use your Reaction and expend 1 charge to rally the creature.
If the creature is not you, it must be able to see or hear you.
The creature rerolls the saving throw. The new roll determines only whether the creature becomes Frightened.
If the new roll succeeds, the creature does not become Frightened. If the new roll fails, it becomes Frightened as normal. The original saving throw’s result continues to determine every other effect caused by that saving throw.
A creature can benefit from this property only once against the same saving throw.

Stigma of the Gentle Hand

Wondrous Item (Stigma), Uncommon (Requires Attunement)

The Stigma of the Gentle Hand steadies the dying and allows its bearer to restore a small measure of life through direct contact.

Vessel. The stigma’s vessel is a slender ivory needle wound with a length of white thread. The thread is always warm to the touch and can’t be stained by blood, dirt, or dye.
The thread is part of the stigma’s vessel. Cutting or removing it does not damage the stigma. It reforms around the needle after the vessel next spends 1 hour unattended.
Manifestation. When a creature attunes to the stigma, the vessel disappears, and a small puncture wound opens in the center of each of the bearer’s palms.
If the bearer’s current form has no hands, the wounds appear on the limbs or structures it primarily uses to manipulate objects. If it has no such structures, a single puncture wound appears on the portion of its body it most often uses to make physical contact with another creature.
The wounds cause no damage and do not impair the bearer’s movement or ability to hold or manipulate objects. They remain closed under ordinary circumstances but open and bleed briefly whenever the bearer expends one or more of the stigma’s charges.
Charges. The stigma has 2 charges and regains 1d2 expended charges daily at dawn.
Practiced Mercy. You have Advantage on Wisdom (Medicine) checks.
In addition, when you use an Action to administer first aid to a creature within your reach that has 0 Hit Points, you can stabilize it without making a Wisdom (Medicine) check or expending a use of a Healer’s Kit.
This property is not considered the use of a Healer’s Kit and does not satisfy a requirement that you possess one or expend one of its uses.
Recall the Breath. As a Bonus Action, you can expend 1 charge and touch a creature other than a Construct or Undead that has 0 Hit Points and is not dead.
The creature regains Hit Points equal to 1d6 plus your Proficiency Bonus.
Once a creature regains Hit Points from this property, it can’t do so again until it finishes a Short or Long Rest.

Stigma of the Drowned

Wondrous Item (Stigma), Uncommon (Requires Attunement)

The Stigma of the Drowned permits its bearer to survive beneath the surface and temporarily share that unnatural breath with another creature.

Vessel. The stigma’s vessel is a perfectly round black pearl with a narrow hole passing through its center. The pearl remains wet regardless of its surroundings, but the moisture never drips from its surface.
When submerged, the vessel slowly releases a stream of bubbles despite containing no visible air.
Manifestation. When a creature attunes to the stigma, the vessel disappears, and a row of narrow wounds opens along each side of the bearer’s neck.
If the bearer’s current form has no neck, the wounds appear along the sides of its chest or torso. If it has no discernible chest or torso, the wounds appear on opposite sides of its body near its physical center.
The wounds cause no damage and do not impair the bearer’s breathing or speech. They remain closed while the bearer is in air but open beneath the surface of a liquid, moving faintly as though drawing breath.
Charges. The stigma has 2 charges and regains 1d2 expended charges daily at dawn.
Between Two Breaths. You can breathe air and water.
In addition, you gain a Swim Speed of 30 feet. If you already have a Swim Speed greater than 30 feet, this property does not reduce it.
Lend the Tide. As an Action, you can expend 1 charge and touch another willing creature.
For 1 hour, the creature can breathe air and water. It also gains a Swim Speed equal to its current walking Speed. If it has no walking Speed, the granted Swim Speed is 30 feet instead.
A change to the creature’s walking Speed changes the Swim Speed granted by this property accordingly. If the creature ceases to have a walking Speed, the granted Swim Speed becomes 30 feet. If its existing Swim Speed is greater than the speed granted by this property, it uses the greater speed.
This property does not protect the creature from extreme cold, water pressure, hazardous liquids, or any other environmental danger unrelated to breathing or swimming.

Stigma of the Witness

Wondrous Item (Stigma), Rare (Requires Attunement)

The Stigma of the Witness allows its bearer to perceive hidden forms and judge the sincerity of another creature’s testimony.

Vessel. The stigma’s vessel is an oval shard of polished obsidian pierced through its center by a silver wire. A creature reflected in the obsidian appears to blink a moment after the creature actually does.
The silver wire is part of the stigma’s vessel. Removing or breaking the wire does not damage the stigma. The wire reforms at the next dawn if the vessel is present, or immediately when the vessel next reappears if that dawn has already passed.
Manifestation. When a creature attunes to the stigma, the vessel disappears, and a narrow wound opens beneath each of the bearer’s eyes, extending down the cheek like a track left by a tear.
If the bearer’s current form has no eyes, the wounds appear around its primary sensory organs. If the bearer has no discernible sensory organs, a single vertical wound appears in the center of its forehead.
The wounds cause no damage and do not impair the bearer’s senses. They remain closed under ordinary circumstances but open and bleed while the bearer uses one of the stigma’s properties.
Charges. The stigma has 3 charges and regains 1d3 expended charges daily at dawn.
Judge Testimony. When a creature that you can see within 30 feet of you finishes giving a spoken or telepathic answer to a question you directly asked it, you can use your Reaction and expend 1 charge to judge its answer.
The creature must make a DC 15 Charisma saving throw. A willing creature can choose to fail this saving throw.
On a failed save, you learn whether the creature believed its answer to be entirely true, entirely false, or neither. An answer is neither if the creature believes it contains both truth and falsehood or is uncertain whether any part of it is true. On a successful save, you learn nothing.
This property judges only the creature’s own belief. It does not determine whether the answer is objectively correct, reveal omitted information, expose an evasive but technically truthful response, or compel the creature to answer.
Whether the saving throw succeeds or fails, the creature knows that magic examined its answer, though it does not know what you learned.
Open the Inner Eye. As an Action, you can expend 2 charges to gain Truesight with a range of 60 feet for 10 minutes.
For the duration, the wounds beneath your eyes remain open and bleed continuously. This bleeding causes no damage and does not impair your vision.

Stigma of the Martyr

Wondrous Item (Stigma), Rare (Requires Attunement)

The Stigma of the Martyr allows its bearer to intercept the suffering of other creatures, drawing their injuries into the bearer’s own body.

Vessel. The stigma’s vessel is a long silver nail housed within a narrow crystal reliquary. A single drop of blood moves continuously around the nail but never touches the bottom of the reliquary.
The reliquary is a protective casing and is not part of the magic item. Breaking it does not damage the stigma. The silver nail remains the stigma’s vessel.
Manifestation. When a creature attunes to the stigma, the vessel disappears, and a narrow wound opens through the center of each of the bearer’s palms.
If the bearer’s current form has no hands, the wounds instead appear on two analogous limbs. If the bearer has no appropriate limbs, a single wound appears over the sternum.
The wounds cause no damage and do not impair the use of the bearer’s limbs. They do not bleed under ordinary circumstances but open and bleed briefly whenever the bearer uses one of the stigma’s properties.
Charges. The stigma has 3 charges and regains 1d3 expended charges daily at dawn.
Bear the Wound. When another creature that you can see within 30 feet of you would take damage, you can use your Reaction and expend 1 charge to intercede. Resolve this Reaction after resistance, vulnerability, and any other modifiers to the triggering damage have been applied, but before the damage is dealt.
Roll 2d10 and add your Proficiency Bonus. Reduce the triggering damage by an amount equal to the total, to a minimum of 0.
You then take necrotic damage equal to the amount by which the triggering damage was reduced. This damage ignores resistance and immunity and can’t be reduced, prevented, transferred, or redirected. Temporary Hit Points can absorb this damage normally.
Refuse the Grave. When another creature that you can see within 30 feet of you makes a death saving throw and would fail it, you can use your Reaction and expend 2 charges to cause that saving throw to succeed instead.
If the triggering roll was a 1, it counts as one successful death saving throw instead of causing two failures.
You then take 2d10 necrotic damage. This damage ignores resistance and immunity and can’t be reduced, prevented, transferred, or redirected. Temporary Hit Points can absorb this damage normally.
Using this property changes only the result of the triggering death saving throw. It doesn’t restore Hit Points, remove any previous successes or failures, or cause the creature to regain consciousness.
Martyrdom. If damage caused by one of the stigma’s properties reduces you to 0 Hit Points, the protection already provided by that property is not undone.
If the damage does not kill you outright, you fall Unconscious and begin making death saving throws as normal. The creature you protected suffers no additional consequence, and any damage or failed death saving throw prevented by the stigma remains prevented.

Stigma of the Pilgrim

Wondrous Item (Stigma), Rare (Requires Attunement)

The Stigma of the Pilgrim carries its bearer across obstructed roads, broken boundaries, and restraints meant to halt their passage.

Vessel. The stigma’s vessel is a black iron hobnail worn smooth at its head. A thin line engraved around its shaft depicts a road with neither beginning nor end.
No matter how the vessel is placed on a surface, its point slowly turns toward the nearest traveled road or path.
Manifestation. When a creature attunes to the stigma, the vessel disappears, and a narrow puncture wound opens through the sole of each of the bearer’s feet.
If the bearer’s current form has no feet, the wounds appear on the limbs or surfaces of its body that it primarily uses for movement. If the bearer has no discernible means of locomotion, a pair of wounds appears at the lowest point of its body.
The wounds cause no damage and do not impair the bearer’s movement. They remain closed under ordinary circumstances but open and bleed briefly whenever the bearer expends one or more of the stigma’s charges.
Charges. The stigma has 3 charges and regains 1d3 expended charges daily at dawn.
Unbroken Road. Your walking Speed increases by 10 feet, and moving through Difficult Terrain costs you no extra movement.
If your current form has no walking Speed, choose one other movement speed it possesses. That speed increases by 10 feet instead. You make this choice when you finish attuning to the stigma and whenever a change to your form causes you to no longer possess the chosen movement speed.
No Bond Can Hold Me. When you become Grappled or Restrained, or when an effect directly causes your Speed to become 0, you can use your Reaction and expend 1 charge. Choose one instance of the Grappled or Restrained condition affecting you, or one reduction that directly causes your Speed to be 0. The chosen condition or reduction ends for you.
After ending the chosen condition or reduction, choose one of your movement speeds. You can immediately move up to half that speed using the corresponding form of movement without provoking Opportunity Attacks. This movement does not expend your movement for the current turn.
This property ends only the chosen condition or reduction. The source of that condition or reduction continues and retains all its other effects. This property does not destroy or open a physical barrier, and it does not allow you to enter an occupied space, pass through a solid object, or move in a manner for which you lack the appropriate movement speed. Any other effect that restricts or prevents your movement continues to apply.
Cross the Lost Distance. As a Bonus Action, you can expend 2 charges to teleport to an unoccupied space that you can see within 60 feet of yourself.
You can bring along objects you are wearing or carrying, subject to your carrying capacity. No other creature can accompany you.
When you disappear, a bloody footprint briefly appears in the space you left. A matching footprint appears in your destination space and fades at the start of your next turn.

Stigma of the Last Word

Wondrous Item (Stigma), Rare (Requires Attunement)

The Stigma of the Last Word allows its bearer to seize authority over speech, denying another creature the power to voice commands, invocations, or spells.

Vessel. The stigma’s vessel is a tarnished bronze bell clapper no longer attached to a bell. When the clapper strikes a solid object, it produces no audible sound, but every creature within 10 feet of it feels a faint vibration in its teeth or jaw.
Manifestation. When a creature attunes to the stigma, the vessel disappears, and two narrow puncture wounds open on opposite sides of the bearer’s throat.
If the bearer’s current form has no throat, the wounds appear beside the organ or structure it primarily uses to produce speech or other vocal sounds. If the bearer has no such structure, a single horizontal wound appears across the lower portion of its face or head. If it has no discernible face or head, the wound appears across the nearest analogous portion of its body.
The wounds cause no damage and do not impair the bearer’s breathing, speech, or ability to provide verbal components. They remain closed under ordinary circumstances but open and bleed briefly whenever the bearer expends one or more of the stigma’s charges.
Charges. The stigma has 3 charges and regains 1d3 expended charges daily at dawn.
Deny the Voice. As an Action, you can expend 1 charge and choose one creature that you can see within 60 feet of yourself and that can hear you. You speak a word of prohibition audible to that creature.
The target must succeed on a DC 15 Charisma saving throw or become unable to speak or intentionally produce any vocal sound until the end of your next turn.
While affected, the target can’t cast a spell with a verbal component or use any property, feature, or magic item that requires it to speak, utter a command word, or produce a vocal sound. The target can still communicate through telepathy, gestures, writing, or any other method that does not require vocalization.
This property does not prevent involuntary sounds, interfere with breathing, end Concentration, or otherwise impede the target’s actions.
Claim the Last Word. When a creature that you can see and hear within 60 feet of yourself casts a spell that includes a verbal component, but before the spell’s effects are resolved, you can use your Reaction and expend 2 charges to attempt to suppress the spell as it is spoken.
The creature must make a DC 15 Charisma saving throw. On a failed save, the spell fails and has no effect. The action, Bonus Action, Reaction, casting time, or other activity used to cast the spell is wasted. Any spell slot, charge, or other limited-use resource expended to cast the spell remains expended.
On a successful save, the spell is cast normally.
This property can affect a spell regardless of its level. It has no effect on a spell cast without a verbal component or on a magical effect that is not the casting of a spell.

Stigma of the Exile

Wondrous Item (Stigma), Very Rare (Requires Attunement)

The Stigma of the Exile anchors its bearer to the world beneath their feet and grants them authority to deny passage between distant places and planes.

Vessel. The stigma’s vessel is a black iron key broken through the center of its shaft. The two halves hover a hair’s breadth apart and move as though they were still a single object.
Neither half can be moved more than 1 inch from the other. If one half is transported without the other, the second half immediately appears beside it.
Manifestation. When a creature attunes to the stigma, the vessel disappears, and narrow wounds encircle one of the bearer’s wrists and the opposite ankle, resembling the impressions left by tightly fastened shackles.
If the bearer’s current form has no wrists or ankles, the wounds encircle two portions of its body associated with movement or physical restraint. If it has no analogous anatomy, two broken rings of wounds appear on opposite sides of its body near its physical center.
The wounds cause no damage and do not impair the bearer’s movement. They remain closed under ordinary circumstances but open and bleed briefly whenever the bearer expends one or more of the stigma’s charges.
Charges. The stigma has 5 charges and regains 1d4 + 1 expended charges daily at dawn.
Anchored in the World. Whenever an effect would teleport you or transport you to another plane, you can choose to remain in your current space instead.
If you remain, any portion of the effect unrelated to the teleportation or planar transportation resolves normally.
This property does not prevent ordinary movement, forced movement, or transportation that carries you continuously through intervening space.
Seal the Threshold. When another creature that you can see within 60 feet of yourself would teleport or be transported to another plane, but before that movement occurs, you can use your Reaction and expend 1 charge.
The creature must make a DC 17 Charisma saving throw. It can choose to fail this saving throw.
On a failed save, the creature remains in the space it occupied immediately before the triggering movement. On a successful save, the movement occurs normally.
The action, Bonus Action, Reaction, casting time, or other activity used to cause the movement is wasted if the movement is prevented. Any spell slot, charge, or other limited-use resource expended to cause it remains expended. Any portion of the triggering effect unrelated to the teleportation or planar transportation resolves normally.
If the triggering effect would transport multiple creatures, this property prevents only the chosen creature from being transported. The triggering effect determines whether any other creature can be transported without the chosen creature.
Neither this property nor Anchored in the World can prevent teleportation or planar transportation caused when an effect that previously moved the creature ends.
Pronounce Exile. As an Action, you can expend 3 charges to cast Banishment from the stigma. You must provide the spell’s verbal and somatic components, but not its material component.
The spell’s saving throw DC is 17, and you can target only one creature with it.
While you maintain Concentration on the spell, the wounds created by the stigma remain open and bleed continuously. This bleeding causes no damage.

Stigma of the Second Breath

Wondrous Item (Stigma), Very Rare (Requires Attunement)

The Stigma of the Second Breath allows its bearer to hold a departing life at the threshold of death and call it back before it passes beyond reach.

Vessel. The stigma’s vessel is a curved fragment of silver fashioned in the shape of a human rib. The fragment is hollow but has no opening or seam.
A curl of pale mist moves inside the silver as though the metal were transparent. The mist rises and falls at the rhythm of the nearest breathing creature within 10 feet of the vessel. If no breathing creature is within range, the mist becomes still.
Manifestation. When a creature attunes to the stigma, the vessel disappears, and a narrow puncture wound opens over the center of the bearer’s sternum. A matching wound appears directly opposite it on the bearer’s back.
If the bearer’s current form has no sternum, chest, or back, the wounds appear on opposite sides of its body near the organs or structures responsible for respiration. If it has no such organs or structures, the wounds appear on opposite sides of its body near its physical center.
The wounds cause no damage and do not impair the bearer’s breathing or movement. They remain closed under ordinary circumstances but open and release a brief curl of pale mist whenever the bearer expends one or more of the stigma’s charges.
Charges. The stigma has 5 charges and regains 1d4 + 1 expended charges daily at dawn.
Breath Held in Trust. You have Advantage on Death Saving Throws.
When you would become Stable as a result of succeeding on three Death Saving Throws, you regain 1 Hit Point instead.
This property does not cause you to regain Hit Points when you become Stable by any other means.
Deny the Last Breath. When you or another creature that you can see within 30 feet of yourself would be reduced to 0 Hit Points by damage without being killed outright, you can use your Reaction and expend 1 charge.
The creature drops to 1 Hit Point instead.
Any other consequence of the triggering damage or its source resolves normally unless it depends on the creature being reduced to 0 Hit Points.
This property cannot prevent death caused by massive damage or by an effect that kills the creature without reducing it to 0 Hit Points.
Call Breath Home. As an Action, you can expend 3 charges and touch the remains of a creature other than a Construct or Undead that died within the last minute.
If the creature’s soul is free and willing to return, the creature returns to life with 1 Hit Point.
This property can’t return a creature that died of old age, and it can’t restore missing body parts. These limitations follow the same central restrictions as Revivify.
The property does not remove any curse, disease, poison, condition, or other effect that was affecting the creature immediately before it died unless that effect normally ends when the creature dies.
If the creature’s remains are missing a body part necessary to sustain its life, this property fails unless that part has been reattached, restored, or replaced with a functioning equivalent before the property is used.

Stigma of the Worldroot

Wondrous Item (Stigma), Very Rare (Requires Attunement)

The Stigma of the Worldroot binds its bearer to the deep foundations of the world, allowing them to sense movement through solid ground and command the earth to seize those who cross it.

Vessel. The stigma’s vessel is a fist-sized seed carved from petrified heartwood. Fine golden veins run through its surface in the pattern of spreading roots.
When the vessel rests on a solid surface, hair-thin roots emerge from it and press harmlessly into that surface. The roots withdraw immediately when the vessel is lifted and leave no mark behind.
Manifestation. When a creature attunes to the stigma, the vessel disappears, and a narrow wound opens vertically along the center of the bearer’s back. Smaller wounds branch from it across the bearer’s body like the roots of an ancient tree.
If the bearer’s current form has no back or discernible central axis, the primary wound appears along the longest structural line of its body, with the smaller wounds branching outward from it.
The wounds cause no damage and do not impair the bearer’s movement. They remain closed under ordinary circumstances but open and release a small amount of amber-colored sap whenever the bearer expends one or more of the stigma’s charges.
Charges. The stigma has 5 charges and regains 1d4 + 1 expended charges daily at dawn.
Hear the Deep Earth. While you are touching a solid surface, you have Tremorsense with a range of 30 feet through that surface.
This sense can pinpoint creatures and moving objects within range only while they are in contact with the same continuous surface. It can’t detect a creature or object that is separated from that surface and does not count as sight.
In addition, while you are touching a solid surface, you have Advantage on any saving throw or ability check you make to avoid being knocked Prone or being pushed, pulled, or otherwise moved through intervening space against your will.
This benefit does not apply to teleportation or planar transportation.
The World Takes Hold. When a creature that you can see within 60 feet of yourself, or that you can detect using the Tremorsense granted by this stigma, would move using one of its movement speeds while it is in contact with a solid surface, but before it leaves its current space, you can use your Reaction and expend 1 charge.
The creature must make a DC 17 Strength saving throw. It can choose to fail this saving throw.
On a failed save, roots, stone, or other material from the surface rise and bind the creature in place. Each of its movement speeds becomes 0 until the end of that turn. If turns are not being tracked, its movement speeds remain 0 for 6 seconds instead.
On a successful save, the creature moves normally.
This property changes only the creature’s movement speeds. A spell, feature, or other effect granting or modifying those speeds continues and retains all its other effects. When the binding ends, each movement speed returns to the value it would otherwise have.
This property does not prevent teleportation, forced movement, or any other movement that does not use one of the creature’s movement speeds. The binding material disappears when the creature’s movement speeds are restored.
Raise the Thorned Boundary. As an Action, you can expend 3 charges to cast Wall of Thorns from the stigma.
The spell’s saving throw DC is 17. You must provide its verbal and somatic components, but not its material component. The wall must emerge from a solid surface within the spell’s range.
While you maintain Concentration on the spell, the stigma’s wounds remain open and continuously release thin streams of amber-colored sap. This causes no damage and does not impair your Concentration.

Stigma of the Unsetting Sun

Wondrous Item (Stigma), Very Rare (Requires Attunement)

The Stigma of the Unsetting Sun kindles an inexhaustible radiance within its bearer, allowing them to endure deathly energies and answer violence with the merciless light of noon.

Vessel. The stigma’s vessel is a palm-sized disk of tarnished gold pierced through its center. Fine lines radiate from the opening like the rays of a stylized sun.
The vessel is always warm, though never hot enough to cause damage. When exposed to sunlight, its tarnished surface becomes brilliant until it is removed from the light.
Manifestation. When a creature attunes to the stigma, the vessel disappears, and a small puncture wound opens in the center of the bearer’s forehead. Narrow wounds extend outward from it in the pattern of radiating sunlight.
If the bearer’s current form has no forehead, the wounds appear around its primary sensory organs. If it has no discernible sensory organs, the wounds form a broken ring around the uppermost portion of its body. If its form has no discernible uppermost portion, they appear around its physical center.
The wounds cause no damage and do not impair the bearer’s senses. They remain closed under ordinary circumstances but open and shine with golden light whenever the stigma produces sunlight.
Charges. The stigma has 5 charges and regains 1d4 + 1 expended charges daily at dawn.
Light That Does Not Die. You have Resistance to Necrotic damage.
As a Bonus Action, you can cause the stigma to shed Bright Light in a 20-foot radius and Dim Light for an additional 20 feet. This light is sunlight.
You can extinguish the light as a Bonus Action. It also ends if your attunement to the stigma ends.
Judgment of Noon. Immediately after a creature that you can see within 60 feet of yourself deals damage to you or another creature that you can see within 60 feet of yourself, you can use your Reaction and expend 1 charge to condemn the triggering creature.
The triggering creature must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, it takes 4d8 Radiant damage and has the Blinded condition until the start of your next turn. On a successful save, it takes half as much damage and does not have the Blinded condition.
As this property resolves, the triggering creature is briefly engulfed in sunlight. The light ends immediately after the saving throw and damage are resolved.
Unseal the Sun. As an Action, you can expend 3 charges to cast Sunbeam from the stigma.
The spell’s saving throw DC is 17. You must provide the spell’s verbal and somatic components, but not its material component.
While you maintain Concentration on the spell, the wounds created by the stigma remain open and emit the sunlight created by the spell. The spell’s normal areas of Bright Light and Dim Light are unchanged.
When the spell ends, the wounds close unless Light That Does Not Die is active.

Creating a Stigma

“The bearer called it grace. His enemies called it judgment. The wound itself offered no argument, which only made both sides more certain.”

— Scholar Mereth Caul, On the Uses of Sacred Certainty

When creating a stigma, begin with the relationship between its vessel and its manifestation. The vessel should suggest something about the stigma without fully revealing what it becomes. A devotional object might produce a sacred wound, while a broken relic might manifest as a fracture, scar, missing feature, or other sign of damage. The two forms should feel connected, even if the connection is symbolic rather than literal.
The manifestation should be visually distinct enough to matter. A stigma is not merely a magic item hidden beneath clothing. Its presence upon the body is part of its identity. Consider what witnesses will think when they see it, whether the bearer can conceal it, and whether its appearance could be mistaken for injury, disease, divine favor, punishment, or corruption. A manifestation that has no social or emotional consequence loses much of what makes stigmata different from ordinary wondrous items.
Decide whether the manifestation is fixed or whether the bearer chooses its location. A fixed location can reinforce the stigma’s meaning, particularly when it appears over the heart, around the eyes, across the hands, or upon another symbolically important part of the body. A chosen location offers the bearer more control but may reduce the stigma’s sense of imposition. Any fixed manifestation should also explain how it adapts to creatures whose bodies lack the expected anatomy.
The stigma’s magical properties should follow the normal expectations of its rarity. Its bodily form does not justify granting it more power than another wondrous item of the same rarity. The manifestation is primarily a change in presentation, identity, and narrative consequence. Any additional mechanical benefit tied to being impossible to disarm or remove should be considered part of the item’s overall power.
A stigma should also have a clear answer for what happens when the bearer changes form. The standard rules allow the manifestation to adapt and remain present, but an individual stigma may impose a prerequisite or react differently to particular transformations. Any exception should be stated directly rather than left to interpretation during play.
Consider how the stigma ends. Most return to their vessel when attunement ends or the bearer dies, but unusual stigmata may have additional conditions governing release, destruction, or transfer. These conditions should create meaningful complications without trapping a character indefinitely unless the stigma is intentionally cursed and the curse is clearly presented.
The stigma’s origin and religious interpretation should support its theme without replacing its mechanical identity. A faith may call it a blessing, a wound of devotion, a sign of judgment, or proof of sacred office. Another culture may regard the same manifestation as blasphemy or contamination. These beliefs can shape the bearer’s experience, but the stigma remains a wondrous magic item rather than a separate divine reward system.
Finally, consider why the stigma must appear upon the body at all. If the item would lose nothing by remaining a ring, amulet, weapon, or charm, it may not need to be a stigma. The strongest stigmata use the body to make their power visible, intimate, and difficult to separate from the person who bears it.

“A faith that leaves its proof upon the body is not asking to be believed. It is declaring that doubt is no longer permitted.”

— Testimony of Father Oren Malrec before the Synod of Ash

Changed Within the Faith

A stigma can alter a bearer’s place within their own faith long before anyone agrees upon what the mark means. Those who once knew the bearer as an equal may begin to treat them as chosen, condemned, tested, or set apart. Familiar relationships can become strained beneath new expectations. Friends may speak more carefully around them. Priests may seek their counsel despite having greater learning. Strangers within the congregation may ask for blessings, confessions, judgments, or answers the bearer has no authority to give.
Religious institutions may struggle to distinguish reverence from control. Some will elevate the bearer, granting access, office, or ceremonial importance. Others will isolate them until the manifestation can be examined and interpreted. A faith that welcomes miracles in scripture may become far less comfortable when one appears in the flesh of a living person who can disagree, refuse instruction, or behave in ways that do not support established doctrine.
Even sincere devotion can become suspect. Every prayer offered by the bearer may be treated as revelation. Every doubt may be judged as ingratitude. Ordinary mistakes can become scandals, while acts of kindness may be transformed into evidence of sanctity. The bearer may find that their fellow worshipers no longer allow them the freedom to be uncertain, flawed, or private.
A stigma can therefore deepen faith while damaging belonging. The bearer may remain within the same temple, recite the same prayers, and worship the same god, yet discover that no one looks upon them as they did before. They have become a symbol within their own community, and symbols are rarely permitted the simple dignity of remaining human.

“They loved me when I believed beside them. They feared me when they decided the god had answered me first.”

— Sister Helene Reliah, testimony before the Conclave of Sacred Signs

Seen by Other Eyes

A stigma is rarely perceived as a private matter. Its presence upon the body invites interpretation, and those interpretations are shaped by the faith, customs, and fears of whoever sees it. To one community, the mark may be proof of divine favor. To another, the same wound may resemble blasphemy, punishment, corruption, or the theft of a sacred symbol that does not belong to the bearer.
This uncertainty becomes especially dangerous when a stigma appears beyond the culture that recognizes it. A wound revered in one temple may be treated as an omen in another. A mark believed to signify mercy may resemble the sign of a condemned heretic elsewhere. Even those who accept that the stigma is genuine may reject the explanation offered by its bearer. They may believe the wrong god has been credited, that the mark has been misunderstood, or that its presence proves something far darker than blessing.
The bearer is therefore judged not only by what the stigma does, but by what others believe it must mean. Strangers may kneel, recoil, demand confession, offer worship, or refuse hospitality. Religious authorities may seek to examine the manifestation, conceal it, claim it, or destroy the vessel should it ever return. In some places, displaying a stigma openly is treated as testimony. In others, it is treated as provocation.
No stigma carries a single meaning once it is seen. The wound may belong to the bearer, but its interpretation belongs to everyone who looks upon it.

d12	Random Stigma Vessel
1	A nail, spike, or needle made from an unusual metal
2	A coin, medallion, or funerary token
3	A tooth, bone fragment, or preserved piece of horn
4	A gemstone, pearl, or piece of polished glass
5	A key, lock, chain link, or broken shackle
6	A small bell, clapper, chime, or tuning fork
7	A seed, thorn, piece of bark, or petrified root
8	A vial containing blood, ash, tears, or luminous fluid
9	A strip of cloth, cord, thread, or ceremonial bandage
10	A shard from a weapon, tool, mirror, or religious object
11	A small figurine, carved icon, or fragment of a statue
12	Roll twice; both objects form a single vessel and cannot be separated.

d12	Random Stigma Location
1	Forehead, scalp, or crown
2	Around or beneath the eyes
3	Mouth, tongue, or jaw
4	Throat or neck
5	Chest or sternum
6	Back or spine
7	Shoulder or upper arm
8	Forearm or wrist
9	Hand, palm, or fingers
10	Abdomen, ribs, or hip
11	Leg, knee, or ankle
12	Foot or sole