The final step is for a dopplekin to ‘sample a shadow’. This process is simple, where the dopplekin stalks their victim until they get close enough to step into their shadow. Once there, they snip off a piece of that shadow with their claws, which is bottled for later or inhaled at that moment. A dark, smoky living echo of their victim that is the foundation of a dopplekin’s transformation. If bottled, this allows a dopplekin to smell a person’s shadow later, refreshing their perfectly memorized patterns if they need to use it.
Through this, the dopplekin becomes a living echo of their victim. A glamour they can pull on when they need to with only a small amount of concentration. If they lack the time to study the pattern of their victim, or sample their shadow, dopplekin can still transform. But it will never be a perfect likeness, merely a resemblance of their victim at best.
Some dopplekin use this to craft their own ‘human guise’ made from a collection of humans they’ve stalked over the years. Pulling pieces and parts together into a unique appearance they find appealing. A talent that has let many a dopplekin vanish into a crowd to avoid the curious, or the occasional hunter.
Truth Behind the Echo
Behind their stolen human face, a dopplekin’s natural form is both elegant, beautiful in its way, and deeply unnerving. Some of this is in part to the rise of human myths over the centuries for succubi, incubi, dark elves of the Unseelie Courts, and worse. There are many stories of a spirit or demon that seduced a mortal. A creature that copied a lover’s face, or stole a child’s reflection can often be traced to a dopplekin in one way or another.
Some of those are the fault of careless dopplekin. But others are the tireless product of dryads and the dryad’s Court Viridis, who see themselves as rivals to dopplekin.
The true form of a dopplekin, either male or female, is roughly the same. They’re graceful, humanoid creatures with smooth, flawless skin that’s pale as moonstone. Dopplekin eyes are solid black, like polished orbs of obsidian that barely reflect any light. There are retractable onyx claws on hands and feet, along with dark—often midnight black—hair that is always straight. Subtle feline fangs, and gently pointed ears, complete a face too perfect to be human with angular features, but too human to be a beast. Last would be a spade-tipped tail that is almost prehensile, but certainly expresses their silent emotions.
They can subtly adjust height, weight, and mass within reasonable limits of their humanoid shape. But in their natural form, most dopplekin men are slightly taller and heavier than the women. On average, dopplekin have the same height and weight range as any human, with their hair going snow white with advanced age. Which, for a dopplekin, can stretch into two centuries, if not a little more. Any other physical attributes, such as raw strength, are only slightly better than the average human. Placing them in the same category as a healthy, moderately athletic human.
It’s these physical attributes, combined with their shadowshifting, that fuel the dangerous legends about them. But despite the myth, they are living creatures like skinshapers, bloodleeches, dryads and others. Ones that possess a long, ancient nature that brushes deep, primal fears.
Nature of the Mutable
“Dangerous? Certainly. But not all-powerful. Even the dopplekin have their limits.” — Elias Brindle Hawthorne, Bestiary of the Uncanny
A dopplekin’s powers, and so their continued survival, hinges on what some nighthunters and scholars call the mutable truth of Darklight. It’s practically a mystical law to the dopplekin, meaning the ability to let reality bend without breaking. This natural law is both a protection and a curse for the dopplekin. It protects them by granting immunity from dryad pollen, nightjar mesmerization, and other compulsive glamours. This is simply because such Darklight-driven abilities cannot overwrite what is itself a transformation of self.
But this protection, and their Darklight glamour, comes at a deep price. Over the long decades, assuming another’s face and reflection chip away at their sense of self. Eroding the certainty of who a dopplekin really is. As a result, older dopplekin will often adopt various methods such as tattoos, rhythmic names, or keepsakes to anchor their memory. So by anchoring their memory, they anchor their own personal identity before it drowns in the sea of lives they’ve worn.
Predators and Pretenders
In their natural or assumed form, dopplekin can move with unnerving calm or a disarming, haunting allure. They almost instinctively adjust their mannerisms to disarm prey. It could be seductive for some, comforting to others, but still deeply terrifying when threatened. This isn’t a universal truth, but as malleable as they are, since it relies on the dopplekin accurately reading the person, or people, they are dealing with.
But above all, while they are apex mimics, they aren’t parasites. Neither do they kill unless cornered. Despite that, history remembers otherwise. There are long tales of demons stealing a person’s breath, swapping children, or fae lovers who drain vitality from a kiss. All of which are distortions on a dopplekin’s ‘shadow sampling’, or with draining vitality—are pure dryad-driven slander based on a bloodleech assault.
Dopplekin do not consume a victim’s blood or life-force. Instead, similar to skinshapers, dopplekin do eat ordinary food such as salads, and fresh meat. The more natural foods, the better. Highly processed human foods can, and often will, make a dopplekin sick for a short time.
Interestingly enough, dopplekin feed off the very shadows they sample. This residue of resonance is lingering emotional energy from a person or creature. Over the centuries, through misunderstanding or malicious rumor, this has been the source of darker myths such as succubi, incubi, or worse.
This latter food source is also why dopplekin will harvest, or ‘snip’, shadows from animals or even people. It doesn’t hurt the victim, and at worst confuses them for a moment. But a dopplekin often bottles this to keep for later to season a meal.
Dopplekin can go for a few days without adding shadow essence to their diet. But any longer, and the prolonged absence will take its toll. Dopplekin will physically look drained, if not slightly starved, especially if in a duplicated shape. Lack of this shadow essence causes a dopplekin’s Darklight glamour to unravel unexpectedly, revealing the pale marble of their true skin and form.
Any dopplekin deprived of this shadow essence long enough will go wild and primal. Those poor souls are called Hollows. They are mad, murderous dopplekin who hunt humans and other Children of the Night freely. Hollows are always hunted down by dopplekin as quickly as possible to help them. If help isn’t possible, put them out of their misery.
Origins and Myths
“There are as many ideas on where they came from as shapes they can take.” — Elias Brindle Hawthorne, Bestiary of the Uncanny
The origin of dopplekin is a subject of long debate. Some say that dopplekin are an ancient evolutionary branch of humans twisted by Darklight. Other rumors suggest they are an ancient, strange creation of dryad experiments. Ones that the ancient dryads lost control over.
As for the dopplekin themselves, they maintain an oral history that contains fragments of where they came from. Their stories talk about a First Mirror that cracked between worlds. Lost children who stepped through mirrored water, only to find they couldn’t remember their own faces.
None of the fragments directly connect, yet they contain suggested seeds of truth. Small bits that almost, but not quite explain that the dopplekin are the sole, last remaining custodians of the Forgotten First Glamour of Darklight. A power that it was rumored many, including the dryads, once had but have since lost.
Behavior and Society
Unlike skinshapers, dryads, or even bloodleeches to a smaller extent, there are no known dopplekin settlements or communities. The sole exception to that is the dopplekin clans. A loose familial affiliation centered as much around ‘hunting territory’ or regions as around bloodline. But normally, most dopplekin travel alone or in small family groups. At best, they are transient pairs by necessity.
Rumors and fanciful stories talk about ancient dopplekin cities. Elaborate places in the distant past where the dopplekin clans lived among each other. Places that, according to legend, were shattered through calamity over a long-forgotten grievance with the dryads of Court Viridis.
Today, when dopplekin clans gather, it’s done for serious reasons of survival and only at certain locations under a full moon. Most often these are old crossroads, lakes whose water is so still it mirrors the night sky, abandoned theaters and more. Places where identity can blur with reality.
When they meet, all dopplekin use an ancient, traditional greeting called The Veiled Oath.
“Steal no face unwillingly. Leave no echo unfinished.” — The Veiled Oath, a traditional dopplekin greeting
Cracks in the Mirror
Dopplekin aren’t without their own weaknesses, though they are rather unusual. Silver mirrors trimmed with polished obsidian shards can mesmerize a dopplekin, paralyzing them until released. Likewise, ‘truth-bound relics’, which is another name for items sanctified by an oath such as wedding rings, cause searing burns. That is unless the oath is made by the dopplekin, in which case they will honor it until death, or be burned as a result.
Last of all, while dopplekin heal quickly, and can mimic most any human and some animals, they can’t mimic the dead. To them, lifeless flesh doesn’t hold any shadow essence or emotional resonance left to imprint on.
But powers and nimbleness aside, dopplekin are living creatures—ones who can be bruised, cut, and even bleed like anyone else. They can even be killed, though it is easier said than done.
“We called them demons because we saw our own deceit in their eyes. We hunted them to stop having to see it.” — Father Silas Greaves, Nighthunter’s Journal, 1703
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