Changelings

Changelings are typically born when a hag tricks a male of another species into coupling with her. The hag normally murders and eats the changeling's father before he can ever see his child. After giving birth, the hag then abandons the child with a family or organisation of the father's ancestry that she believes will care for the child, such as a temple. Changelings can also be born when a hag coven performs ritual magic near a settlement, and such babies are often soon abandoned or orphaned. They can be of any gender, and often possess an aura of oddness that prevents them being fully accepted into their birth-father's society.

Most Changelings do not know of their monstrous origins, but there comes a time in every changeling’s life when these roots begin to call out to their host, urging the confused changeling toward some end she cannot identify. The limited powers inherited from the changeling's hag mother normally manifest around puberty. The changeling finds themself able to see in the dark, their skin gains a supernatural hardness, or their nails subtly change become sharp and hard enough to effectively function as claws.

Changelings live wherever hags dwell, such as Varisia, the River Kingdoms, and the fey-haunted Verduran Forest. They are comparatively common in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings, where they associated with the powerful seeress norns; the witch kingdom of Irrisen; and most commonly in the haunted kingdom of Ustalav.

They occupy a terrifying place amongst the folklore of the Inner Sea region, representing some primal feeling that even people they think they know might not be what they seem. In these tales, a changeling is a manipulative monster using their human form to torment their community. Unfortunately, these often false tales can lead to the very real persecution of any changeling whose heritage is discovered. The same folklore also claims that changelings who resist the Call are rewarded after death by Pharasma, who turns their souls into shoki psychopomp.

Changelings can be of any ancestry, including dwarves, gnomes, orcs, and goblins, but humans are most common.

Though a changeling generally resembles an ordinary member of their ancestry, their distinctive eyes, each a different color, set them apart. One of their eyes matches that of their father's lineage, while the other matches the color of their hag mother's, often in an unnatural shade such as violet or vivid green. Not everyone with differently colored eyes is a changeling, but this manifestation of changeling heritage makes it difficult for them to hide their nature and can lead to banishment.

Changelings are mostly always female, tall, and slender. A changeling’s hair is typically dark and their skin abnormally pale, but they otherwise look for all practical purposes like a member of her father’s race. A frequent but not universal trait of changelings is their mismatched, different-colored eyes.

Changelings grow up in the society of their fathers and this shapes much of their character. Despite their monstrous mother, they have no predisposition towards evil, but their innate otherness often marks a changeling as an outcast, and as a result they often relate easiest with other mixed heritage outsiders, especially aiuvarins. Those who are embraced by their adopted society, however, find it easiest to ignore the sinister Call of their progenitor.

Depending who the father was, changelings are always abandoned to fathers family or society at large. Thus picking up on their way and style of life. Of course being of such mysterious origins they can easily end up outcasted or discarded. Especially as changelings mature and get struck with the call.

Those who follow the Call are abducted and subjected to an horrific ritual that harnesses their innate magic and twists their physical form eventually resulting in the birth of a new hag. Some changelings who have been subjected to rejection and persecution actually embrace this wicked metamorphosis, while those with stronger social bonds or deep druidic beliefs resist it and live out their mortal lives typically as solitary changeling exiles.

Same as relations, it all depends on the fathers ancestry, who exatcly adopted them and where they have been raised. Depenending on that, and if they were accepted or shunned in their youth, their alligments can shift to any according to the upbringing. Which will all manifest the most when the call happens, will they follow it or deny their accursed mothers.

Around the same time that changelings develop their new-found abilities, they also hear the Call, a powerful psychic cry issued by their hag mother that is designed to lure them away from their foster communities. Most changelings feel it as wanderlust, but its origin is much more sinister: the changeling's mother forms a coven with at least two other hags to summon their wayward children home.

Changelings can be any gender, but women in particular are vulnerable to the Call, a psychic influence that urges them to abandon their mortal life, join the hag's coven, and eventually become a hag themselves. A the Call primarily targets female changelings, and this prevalence led to a long-held mistaken belief that all changelings are female. The secret heritage of male changelings is therefore more hidden within their paternal ancestry. Changelings who understand their heritage often fear the Call and work to resist its pull. Those who remain ignorant of their origin may find themselves subject to a terrible compulsion without knowing why.