Changelings, 2nd Variant (5e Race)
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Changelings[edit]
Physical Description[edit]
Insectoid Beings with the ability to manipulate their appearance, old worlds prefering darker appearances with almost wasp like wings while Metamorphosed Changelings take more elegant appearances, choosing their own colours and often taking butterfly like wings that when folded away appear similar to a tail
History[edit]
Throughout all known history the changelings had been 'evil' love sucking beings that cared for themselves alone, lead by Queen Chrysalis their origins are magic in origin, being born of a decayed acorn that fell into a magical pool underneath a graveyard, forming a carnivorous plant that soon grew into the changeling hive, first discovered by starswirl, a powerful wizard, seen as the creator of gods in the form of Princess Celestia and Luna, and seemingly connections to how Princess Cadence and Twilight Sparkle gained their unified racial powers of all three of their subspecies. he declared the location under quarantine, never noticing the necromantic powers of the new 'hive'
in 1002 PLB (Post Luna Banisment) a single Changeling named Thorax appears near the Crystal Empire. With several reported Changeling sightings spreading mass panic and with all the love from the new Princess Flurry Heart making the citizens of the Crystal Empire a likely target for Chrysalis, Prince and former Royal Guard Captain Shining Armour, Princess Cadence and Royal Crystaler Sunburst call Princess Twilight, her student Starlight and their dragon assistant who had saved the Empire in the past Spike to the Crystal Empire. After explaining their situation, Starlight and Twilight are assigned with helping protecting their Niece Flurry Heart and the Empire and Spike volunteer to go outside with a small troop of guards to find the Changeling. After sending the guards away, Spike accidentally falls down a hole and encounters the Changeling in an underground cave. After saving Spike's life, the Changeling, named Thorax, explains that he isn't actually evil and just wants to make a few friends so he doesn't have to steal the love of others to survive, as he randomly freaks out and tries to steal love when he's around other people. Spike decides to return to the Empire and tell his friends this. He returns and tells his friends that Thorax isn't evil and Twilight is proud of Spike for trying to defend someone that everyone, including himself, misjudged. Thorax is then accepted as an official citizen of the Crystal Empire.
One night a few months later, Starlight has a bad dream about her village and figured that Princess of the night Luna would show up and help her face her fears, however, Luna appears in a rather frantic manner and quickly informs her not to trust everyone she meets and that the Changelings had captured every powerful pony in Equestria, including her and Celestia. Starlight quickly escapes the castle to get her friend Trixie who she knew she could trust as she had just spent the whole day right next to her and the two unicorns break back in to find the Changelings communicating with Chrysalis about their successful mission. The two escape and consider getting help from Cadence and Shining Armour, only for Thorax to show up and tell them that they had been taken as well (while also scaring the living daylights out of Trixie). Starlight also notices that Thorax's wings had become sparkly and shiny, and he states that they had been like that ever since he made a lot of friends, which was also the same time he stopped needing to eat love.
While wondering what to do, Discord Lord of Chaos appears, frustrated that no one ever calls him during magical emergencies. Upon learning that the Changelings took Fluttershy, his best friend and future wife, an infuriated Discord teleports them to the Changeling kingdom, stating that he actually wanted to teleport inside Chrysalis's throne room. While ignoring Thorax, Discord launches multiple attacks on the kingdom, only for them to all disappear when they hit the boarder, leading to Thorax telling them that all non-Changeling magic doesn't work inside the kingdom because of the power of Chrysalis' throne.
The unlikely group enters the kingdom and sneak into the Changeling hive, the structure of which is constantly changing like the Changelings themselves. Thorax navigates them through the hive while they are constantly under the threat of alerting hundreds of soldiers. When Discord accidentally alerts the soldiers, Trixie and Thorax use their smoke-bombs and shape-shifting to divert them, and two soldiers break off from the group and head for Chrysalis, and the group follows them. Discord distracts the Changeling guards with bad stand-up and the group proceeds to the next room. Discord is then captured by an army of Changelings pretending to be Fluttershy.
One of the Changelings changes into Discord and tries to lead the rest of the group into a trap, however, they all realize this and Trixie distracts the Discord-Changeling long enough for the others to escape, but ends up getting captured. Starlight then enters Chrysalis's throne room and she has Starlight restrained by her minions. While explaining her master plan, Starlight informs Chrysalis about Thorax and that there is another way, only for her to order Starlight not to mention "that traitor's" name. She soon realizes that Starlight is just a disguised Thorax and that the real Starlight is trying to destroy her throne which suppressed all 'non changeling' magic. After capturing her, Chrysalis decides to make an example of Thorax by stealing his love, only for him to give her the love willingly, reaching a new form. Realizing that Thorax was right all along, all the Changelings give love and reach the same new form. With Chrysalis defeated and the others freed, Thorax becomes the leader of the reformed Changelings.
Under a year later during the coronation of Princess Twilight Sparkle, Chrysalis tried to attack Equestria with the help of the Centaur magic thief Lord Tirek and an ex-helper of Twilight, Cosy-Glow who tried to erase all magic from the world, and almost succeeding, the three charged up with the power of an ancient threat, only being stopped by a collection of all of Equestria, the changeling hive, the dragon badlands, Yakistan, The Hypogriphs and the Kirin, Sealing all three of them in stone, together, seen as the worst fate possible for them, as decided by Chaos Lord Discord
Society[edit]
Changelings live in a hive-society that over the years has split into two depending on subraces, The Metamorphosed changelings are communal and see hope in any species and any person, usually detesting violence, their community is lead by a King or Queen,
Unreformed Changelings however are near opposite, they act as a hive who only wants to devour for their queen/king, they can very much still be reformed but hate the idea of friendship even bullying each other only ever working together under the orders or protection of the queen
Changeling Names[edit]
Names are usually based on a part of a plant, except for the one exception we know of, Chrysalis, which could suggest a different naming scheme for natural Kings and Queens Male: Thorax, Pharynx Female: Chrysalis, Ocellus, Urtica
Changeling Traits[edit]
Changelings from the popular show My Little Pony, insect Quadrupedal creatures with the ability to copy anyone's appearance
Ability Score Increase. Age. Changelings live a good 300 years and mature after 20
Alignment. Old world lean towards Evil alignments and Metamorphosed lean towards Good alignments
Size. Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Changeling Wings. Changelings have wings on their back, which allows for flight, they can fly at 30 speed,
Changeling Magic. Thanks to the evolution of the changelings they have grown to use magic for both Infiltration and manipulation, Changelings know the Polymorph as a cantrip with infinite duration with a range of 'self' and the Mage Hand spell with infinite duration
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common.
Old World[edit]
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 1
Hunger for love. You can absorb love from Grappled creature as a bonus action, reducing their strength by 1 each turn temporarily (Regenerates after a long rest) but if they reach 0 strength they instantly die, you must absorb at least 5 strength a day or suffer from a level of fatigue
Metamorphism. Upon gaining at least 10 friends that are not of any convenience upon actually sharing love willingly, you will become a Metamorphosed Changeling
Metamorphosed[edit]
Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 1 If morphing from Old world do not lose your +1 strength
Lack of Hunger. Changelings who have accepted Friendship and Harmony have grown to naturally produce love which acts as food for them, they can eat normal food or feed off of others like an old world changeling but it is purely for personal preference
Suggested Characteristics[edit]
When creating a Changeling character, you can use the following table of traits, ideals, bonds and flaws to help flesh out your character. Use these tables in addition to or in place of your background's characteristics.
| d6 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | You feel your purpose is guarding and protecting your hive, your party and those you work with |
| 2 | You feel your purpose is a worker, building, carrying and deconstructing is your life |
| 3 | You feel your purpose is leading, you want to make sure each of your people and those around you do things right |
| 4 | You feel your purpose is to teach, to make sure everyone knows their purpose and how to complete it |
| 5 | You feel your purpose is Family, to bring unity and make sure your people don't have any mental or physical issues |
| 6 | You feel your purpose is undiscovered, maybe it's the reason you feel beckoned to leave the hive to find so |
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | You always feel hungry, no matter how much food or love you consume |
| 2 | You feel too much empathy, you can't bring yourself to hurt something unless it's 100% necessary |
| 3 | Even with the way the changelings are now you don't feel safe, nor happy around non-changelings |
| 4 | You're too open, you aren't one to hide how you feel, speaking your feeling no matter how soft or blunt |
| 5 | You even now don't trust anyone, not your family, not your friends, not your people, and definitely not other species |
| 6 | When alone your mind starts to have flashes of the past, the evils of your kind, not even just your own, your whole species |
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