Umbriel - Moon of Death, Secrets, Memory, and the Underworld

UMBRIEL – MOON OF DEATH, SECRETS, MEMORY, UNDERWORLD

Themes:
Respectful death, psychopomps, necromancy with taboos, ancestral memory, secrets, the quiet underworld.

Role:
An Umbriel Cleric is:

• Psychopomp, mortician, keeper of the dead, warden of tombs.
• Guardian of memory: preserver of names and stories, punisher of those who desecrate graves.
• In combat: a control/debuff and anti‑undead specialist, with some necromancy that is disciplined, ritualized, not chaotic.

Visually: dark reddish‑gray moon; priests favor muted colors, bone or obsidian symbols, memory‑knots, funeral masks.

UMBRIEL DOMAIN FEATURES BY LEVEL

These are in addition to the base Lunar Cleric class features.

Level 1 – Domain Spells & Gravekeeper of Umbriel

Domain Spells

Always prepared; don’t count against prepared spells.

• 1st:bane, false life
• 3rd:gentle repose, see invisibility (perceived as seeing spirits/echoes)
• 5th:speak with dead, revivify
• 7th:death ward, shadow of moil
• 9th:antilife shell, danse macabre (or your preferred 5e‑style necro mass spell)

You can later reskin shadow of moil as “shroud in Underworld dusk.”

Gravekeeper of Umbriel

You are consecrated as a warden of the dead and their memories.

• You gain proficiency in Religion or History (your choice).
• You have advantage on Intelligence checks to recall information about:
• Undead, funerary customs, burial sites, underworld myths.
• Rite of Quiet Passing:
• You can spend 10 minutes performing a rite over a corpse.
• For the next 24 hours:
• Attempts to raise that corpse as undead suffer disadvantage on any required checks, and
• Attempts to scry on the corpse or the soul that inhabited it must succeed on a check vs your spell save DC or fail.
• You can maintain rites on a number of corpses at once equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1 new rites beyond this end the oldest.

This reflects Umbriel’s doctrine: the dead deserve rest unless properly petitioned.

Level 2 – Channel Divinity: Command the Remembered

You gain a domain‑specific Channel Divinity option.

Channel Divinity: Command the Remembered

When you call on Umbriel, you either command the dead or speak with their echoes.

Choose one mode when you use this Channel:

1. Grave Command
2. As an action, present your holy symbol and call Umbriel’s authority over death.
3. Each undead of your choice within 30 ft that can see or hear you must make a Wisdom save vs your spell DC.
4. On a failure:
5. The creature is charmed by you for 1 minute or until it takes damage.
6. While charmed, it regards you as a superior and will not willingly attack you; you can issue simple commands (as command but thematic, no extra saves).
7. On a success:
8. It is instead turned as by Turn the Profane (or your base Turn feature) until the end of your next turn.
9. This does not stack with your base Turn use for the same action; you choose which Channel option you’re using.
10. Echo of the Dead
11. As an action, you touch a corpse that has been dead for no more than 7 days.
12. You ask one question aloud.
13. The lingering echo of the soul responds in a brief, truthful phrase (like a single‑question speak with dead).
14. The echo may be cryptic but cannot outright lie; it knows only what the person knew in life.

You expend one use of Channel Divinity when you choose either option.

(You still retain the generic Turn the Profane from the base class.)

Level 3 – (Base: Secondary Moon Influence I)

No Umbriel‑specific feature here; you choose your first secondary moon.

Level 4 – (Base ASI)

Level 5 – Memory Mark

At 5th level, you gain an additional way to control your enemies and track them.

Memory Mark

Umbriel binds a thread of memory between you and a target.

• When you cast a spell that:
• Deals necrotic damage, or
• Targets a single creature with a save (e.g. bane, hold person, bestow curse),
• You can choose one of those creatures to Mark with Umbriel’s memory.

Effects of the Mark:

• The mark lasts for 24 hours or until you mark a new creature.
• While a creature is Marked:
• You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) and Wisdom (Insight) checks made to notice or read that creature.
• You have advantage on ability checks made to track it.
• The first time each turn that the Marked creature fails a saving throw against one of your spells, it takes an extra 1d8 necrotic damage.

Uses:

• You can apply Memory MarkWisdom modifier times per long rest (minimum 1).
• You can only have one active Mark at a time; marking a new creature ends the previous Mark.

Level 6 – Channel Divinity: Shroud of Umbriel

At 6th level, you gain a second Umbriel‑specific Channel option.

Channel Divinity: Shroud of Umbriel

You wrap the battlefield in underworld dusk.

• As an action, you create a Shroud centered on yourself:
• 20‑ft‑radius sphere, lasting 1 minute (concentration).
• Within the Shroud:
• Light is dim; bright light is reduced to dim, dim to near darkness.
• You and allies you choose within the Shroud:
• Gain resistance to necrotic damage.
• Have advantage on Stealth checks.
• Enemies within the Shroud:
• Have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks relying on sight.
• When they first enter the Shroud on a turn or start their turn there, must make a Wisdom save vs your spell DC:
• On failure: they are frightened of you until the start of their next turn.

You expend a use of Channel Divinity to create the Shroud.

This represents Umbriel’s “veil between worlds,” favoring the living faithful and unsettling the unworthy.

Level 7 – (Base: Secondary Moon Influence II)

No Umbriel‑specific feature here.

Level 8 – (Base ASI)

Level 9 – Psychopomp’s Veil

At 9th level, Umbriel grants you clearer sight into the boundary between life and death.

Psychopomp’s Veil

• You permanently gain the ability to see ethereal and incorporeal undead within 30 feet, even if they are invisible or in the Ethereal Plane (as long as they overlap your position).
• You can always tell if a creature you can see is:
• Undead, or
• Under the effect of a curse, possession, or death‑related enchantment (GM adjudication).

Additionally:

• Once per long rest, you can extend this sight to up to 6 willing creatures:
• As an action, you grant them the ability to see ethereal/ghostly undead within 30 ft for 1 hour.

This makes Umbriel Clerics excellent in haunted or cursed locations.

Level 10 – Lunar Intervention (Base Class)

Same chassis as other Lunar Clerics; Umbriel’s responses might manifest as:

• A ghostly psychopomp appearing and pointing the way.
• A chill wind extinguishing hostile magic.
• A spectral chain dragging an escaping soul back into its body.

No extra Umbriel mechanics beyond flavor.

Level 11 – Warden of the Restful Dead

At 11th, you deepen your role as guardian of graves and memories.

Warden of the Restful Dead

You project a subtle aura of funerary authority.

• Allies within 10 feet of you gain a +1 bonus to saving throws against:
• Fear
• Charm
• Necrotic effects
• Undead within 10 feet of you:
• Have disadvantage on attack rolls against any creature other than you.
• Additionally, once per long rest, when an undead:
• Enters your aura for the first time on a turn, or
• Starts its turn there,
• You can use your reaction to force it to make a Wisdom saving throw vs your spell DC:
• On a failure, it is stunned until the end of its next turn as Umbriel’s authority overwhelms it.

At level 18, this aura expands (see below).

Level 12 – (Base ASI)

Level 13 – Law of the Underworld

Umbriel enforces the rules of death.

Law of the Underworld

You gain the following:

• You cannot be possessed by undead or fiends, and have advantage on saving throws vs:
• Effects that would turn you into undead.
• Spells that would trap or devour your soul (soul cage‑like effects).
• When you cast a spell that returns a creature to life (e.g., revivify, raise dead):
• You can choose to impose a Geas of Memory:
• For 7 days, the revived creature:
• Has advantage on Wisdom saves vs fear while defending loved ones or sacred sites.
• Suffers disadvantage on attempts to willingly desecrate graves or cause needless death (GM: disadvantage on such attack rolls or checks).
• The creature is aware of this and may refuse the geas (in which case, the spell still works, but no geas applies).

This is a soft narrative tool enforcing Umbriel’s ethos.

Level 14 – (Base: Third Moon / Deeper Influence)

No additional Umbriel‑specific feature.

Level 15 – Nightwatch Zenith (Base Class)

Umbriel’s Nightwatch manifestations:

• Ghost‑lights hovering around camp.
• Whispers of ancestral voices warning of danger.
• A sense of “someone watching” that unsettles enemies.

No extra mechanics beyond base Nightwatch.

Level 16 – (Base ASI)

Level 17 – Umbriel’s Confluence

At 17th, your Lunar Confluence gains an Umbriel‑specific rider.

Umbriel’s Confluence

While Lunar Confluence is active (1 minute):

• Your spells that deal necrotic damage:
• Ignore resistance, and
• Treat immunity as resistance (immune creatures still take half unless they are constructs or GM‑ruled true Void/Outer beings).
• When a creature within 30 ft of you:
• Dies, and
• You can see it,
• You can use your reaction to either:
• Bind its spirit briefly, preventing it from being raised as undead or having its soul captured for 24 hours, or
• Ask a single yes/no question, to which the fading spirit answers truthfully (no save, but the spirit may be confused if death was sudden).

Once per Confluence, you can also cast either:

• revivifywithout expending a spell slot, or
• speak with deadas a bonus action without a slot,

provided the body is present.

Level 18 – Psychopomp Avatar

Your spiritual authority over death and memory becomes profound.

Psychopomp Avatar

• Your Warden of the Restful Dead aura radius increases to 30 feet.
• While conscious, you and allies in the aura:
• Gain resistance to necrotic damage.
• Cannot be frightened by undead.
• Once per long rest, when an ally within 30 ft would be reduced to 0 HP:
• You can use your reaction to instead:
• Leave them at 1 HP, and
• You take necrotic damage equal to half your Cleric level (rounded up) as you “hold” their soul in place.
• In addition, you automatically know when:
• A named individual whose true name you know dies anywhere on Aurelia:
• You receive a brief vision: where, roughly how, and whether the death felt “natural” or was warped by Void/outer influences (GM’s narrative hook).

Level 19 – (Base ASI)

Level 20 – Lunar Avatar (Base)

Your base Lunar Avatar capstone covers the mythic transformation. For an Umbriel Cleric, it manifests as:

• Your form wreathed in pale underworld fire.
• A procession of ghostly figures walking in your wake.
• Undead crumbling to dust under your gaze, or bowing in submission.

No extra mechanical numbers beyond the base capstone; it’s flavor alignment.