Dhampir

Trapped between the world of the living and the damnation of undeath, dhampirs are living beings born from intelligent undead; typically vampires, but sometimes liches, ghouls, or worse. Most common upon a ruined moon, dhampirs are often sent off by their undead overlords into the realms of the living to act as emissaries to the living peoples of the galaxy. However, dhampirs are often all-too aware of how suspicious and fearful the living are of their kind, and as a result they seldom stay in one place for long once their duties are done. Delighting in the comforts of the living but ultimately welcome to partake in them, dhampirs usually find themselves drifting from space port to space port, never allowing themselves to grow too attached to wherever they go or whomever they meet.

Physical Description

Dhampirs typically appear as pale, lithe individuals of virtually any humanoid race. The vast majority of dhampirs resemble humanoids or urame—the unaltered progenitors of the deoxyian race. Urame dhampirs are hairless humanoids with pale violet skin, long, spindly digits, tentacle-like protrusions from their jaws, pure black eyes, long tails, and digitigrade legs with three-toed feet that each sport a wicked talon. Surprisingly enough, urame dhampirs outnumber their human counterparts (as well as any other subrace of dhampirs) because they spawn from the dark rituals of the undead inhabitants of the near-lifeless home of the deoxyian race before they took to the stars.

Although intelligent undead can be found anywhere in the galaxy, they are most populous on the dhampir’s home world, resulting in large dhampir populations that, to deoxyians, appear as ghostly echoes of what their race once was. Dhampirs are living creatures—they eat, breathe, and sleep. However, the unusual circumstances of their birth leaves them tainted by undeath, and as a result they react to many spells and remedies as if they were undead beings.

Among the most curious of these immunities is to the phenomenon of dangerous areas of space itself—where other races are corrupted and twisted by abyssal energies upon making direct contact with such spaces, dhampirs are unharmed and untwisted by the stuff; perhaps the only true mercy nature has bestowed upon their kind.

Home World

The closest world that dhampirs have to a home world is the ruined moon the deoxyians left behind. After the deoxyians strip mined their home into inhabitability and took to the stars, those who chose to stay behind knew that the atmosphere was fading, and life could not be supported on their once vibrant home. So they forsake life, transforming themselves into undead monstrosities in order to continue inhabiting their home.

At some point during a previous age, the undead of the moon came back into contact with the empire, and ultimately decided to join the recently devastated federation from a position of strength. Dhampirs are—and continue to be—the direct result of the the dead’s attempts to integrate into the world of the living. Yet despite this, dhampirs rarely stay upon their home itself—as living beings, the blighted world holds no majesty for them, and their slow-beating hearts yearn for the warmth of life even as their hearts beat with the chill of undeath.

Society And Alignment

Dhampirs tend to skulk quietly through the societies of other races, particularly living ones. Trapped in a twilight between life and unlife, dhampirs seldom find themselves comfortable in either, and often lead lonely experiences on the fringe of society. Though the twilight of their existence would likely cause nihilistic despair in other, less mentally fortuitous races, dhampirs are also all-too familiar with the icy chill of death, and value their lives and the manifold gifts of the living immensely. As a result, many dhampirs are surprisingly upbeat regarding their need to constantly move about, seeing it as an excuse to get the most out of life as opposed to settling down and stagnating as so many humans are want to do. The few dhampirs who do settle down often find themselves welcome in towns that involve the harvesting or traversing through dangerous parts of space, making full use of their kind’s strange immunity to corrupting effects.

Relations

Dhampirs tend to have few relationships with others, preferring to wander along before becoming too attacked to someone who’s likely to either reject them for their undead heritage or ultimately die long before the dhampir shows any real sign of aging. As a result, dhampirs are usually closest with other old souls, especially elves and samsarans. Dhampirs find strong comradery among aasimars, tieflings, and the so-called geniekin races because of their inhuman lineage, relating more with monstrous tieflings than celestially blessed aasimars.

Dhampirs are also surprisingly popular among wayangs, whose dour outlook on life and strong ties to darkness and shadow make them surprisingly good company for gloomy dhampirs. The only race that dhampirs tend to cross with, more so urame dhampirs than others, are the deoxyians, who often look down on dhampirs for their unmodified forms at best or loathe them for the unsolicited reminder of their race’s origins that such dhampirs represent at worse.

Adventurers

A life of adventure is extremely appealing to many dhampirs, who see an adventurer’s life as a way to make the most of their lot in life. Adventuring in the galaxy is often a low attachment job filled with daring and excitement, as well as a rare means of changing others’ opinions about them, assuming the dhampir hasn’t shut themselves down to interpersonal relationships entirely. Dhampirs are often sent off of their home world as ambassadors and emissaries to the living world, and as a result they’re often pressed into the life of an envoy. Additionally, their lithe frames coupled with a penchant for seduction and deception makes the talents of an operative come naturally to them, and those willing to devote themselves entirely to the dualistic philosophies of life and death often find parallel in the cyclical nature of stars and black holes, ultimately leading many dhampir down the path of the solarion.

Names

Dhampir names tend to reflect the naming conventions of their parent race, as no true dhampir culture exists. When a dhampir comes of age and leaves home, however, some choose to eschew their former names in favor of a name that better suits their ideologies and temperament. So detached are dhampirs from their names that some choose to change their names every few decades as part of their intent to experience life to the fullest—sometimes, many dhampirs reason, one needs a new name and a new identity in order to appreciate new experiences and walks of life.

Racial Traits

+2 Dex, +2 Cha, –2 Con

Hit Points: 4

Size and Type

Dhampirs are humanoids with the dhampir subtype and are Medium. They have a base speed of 30 feet.

Special Abilities

Acute Vision: Dhampirs have low-light vision and darkvision. As a result, they can see in dim light as if it were normal light, and they can see with no light source at all to a range of 60 feet in black and white only. Dhampirs are dazzled in areas of bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell. See the low-light vision and darkvision

Manipulative: Dhampirs gain a +2 racial bonus on Bluff and Perception checks.

Resist Level Drain: Dhampirs take no penalties from energy drain effects, though they still die if they accrue more negative levels then they have character levels. After 24 hours, any negative levels a dhampir has are removed without the need for an additional saving throw.

Undead Resistance: Dhampirs gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against disease and mind-affecting effects.