Reborn

The Reborn retain the basic form of their original ancestry—human, elf, dwarf, or otherwise—but with unmistakable signs of death and rebirth:

• Pallid or Ashen Skin: Often marked by a bloodless, waxy complexion, with bruising or discoloration around old wounds.
• Visible Scars or Stitching: Some bear surgical seams, ritual tattoos, or mystical sigils that glow faintly under certain conditions.
• Cold Flesh and Steady Breath: Their bodies are often cooler than a living person’s, their breaths slow and shallow.
• Eyes of the Beyond: Their gaze may seem distant or ghostly, as if they’re always looking a little past the present moment.

Despite these traits, Reborn are not mindless undead. They bleed, feel pain, and experience emotion—though often dulled or colored by their altered existence.

The Reborn typically possess strange capabilities that reflect their altered nature:

• Undying Resilience: They often shrug off pain or resist effects that would debilitate the living or frighten the weak-willed.
• Unsettling Vitality: Their bodies may heal in unnatural ways, or reject poisons and diseases that plague mortals.
• Memory Echoes: Their dreams may grant insight into arcane mysteries, languages, or skills from a past life.
• Deathsense: Some sense the presence of nearby undead, feel shifts in planar energies, or glimpse omens in the veil between life and death.

Despite these gifts, the Reborn are not immortal. They can be slain, though many fear what might happen after—whether they might rise again, and whether the person who wakes will still be them.

A hallmark of the Reborn condition is the fragmentation or distortion of memory. Many remember only portions of their past life, with certain names, faces, or events lost to a fog of death. Others experience dreams, flashes, or echoes of a past they do not fully understand—sometimes even fragments of lives that may not be their own.

Some embrace their rebirth with clarity and purpose, while others are haunted by questions:
Who was I? Why did I return? What debt remains unpaid?

This uncertainty makes Reborn highly introspective, curious, and often detached. They may struggle with identity, morality, and the fear of slipping back into death—or becoming something worse.

Reborn have no shared homeland or culture; they arise individually, scattered throughout the world. However, they sometimes find community among the marginalized: among the exiled, the forgotten, or the outcast. In some regions, they are revered as divine messengers or signs of prophecy. In others, they are hunted or shunned as abominations.

Some Reborn form clandestine brotherhoods, mausoleum circles, or death cults to explore their shared mysteries. Others isolate themselves in meditation, artistry, or study—attempting to piece together meaning from what remains of their memories.

They often gravitate toward professions that involve healing, divination, death rites, or magical research. Many are drawn to adventuring as a way of seeking answers—or of writing a new story for themselves.

There is no single path to becoming Reborn. Instead, many roads lead to this strange and haunting condition:

• Arcane Resurrection: Some were revived through forbidden necromancy, soul-binding rituals, or arcane experiments gone awry.
• Divine Defiance: Others defied death through sheer force of will or were returned by deities for unknown purposes.
• Cursed or Bound: Certain Reborn are cursed souls forced into new bodies or tethered to the material world by vengeance or unfinished tasks.
• Constructed or Grown: A few were created from remnants—fragments of flesh, bone, or soul—gathered and reanimated by powerful inventors, alchemists, or warlocks.
• Planar or Cosmic Influence: Rare Reborn may have crossed the boundary of death in realms beyond mortal comprehension, returning altered by the experience.

Their nature is thus both deeply personal and profoundly mysterious, with each Reborn’s story unique and haunting.

Reborn characters offer rich narrative potential:

• Amnesiac Wanderers: Those seeking answers to who they were—and why they live again.
• Living Experiments: Brought back by arcane or divine forces, exploring the limits of their existence.
• Haunted Warriors: Driven by vengeance, justice, or unfinished duty.
• Prophetic Figures: Interpreted as omens, sentinels, or chosen champions by cults or seers.
• Bridge Between Realms: Individuals tied to the boundaries of life, death, undeath, and rebirth.