Blood Demon Art: Chordic Domain

An aspiring musician born decades before our story began, your talent with the shamisen was once unrivalled in its practice — your songs capable of masterfully invoking flavours of emotion and expression on command, of bringing the music you had always imagined within yourself to the wider world. For much of your life, you had found happiness in bringing happiness to others, and life was good.

Until one day, when you performed the wrong melody for the wrong man.

Your family never knew the specifics of your disappearance. Some say that you were brutally murdered in the alleyway next to the teahouse you worked at, the mysterious blood coating every inch of the walls that night belonging to none other than you. Some say that your ability to bring forth such powerful emotion in your music was unnatural, that those small portals into your inner world attracted the wrong type of attention from a deranged listener of yours. Others believe that you were spirited away in the night by the supernatural, attempting to explain why it is that such a renowned musician disappeared in the twilt of night. The truth, however, was much more sinister and twisted than all of the above combined, a truth that implies the existence of dangers within the night — of unholy creatures that stalk the innocent and feast on their flesh.

The truth, of Demons.

Decades passed by you in a blur, decades that you spent consumed by rage, fear, and a ferociously oppressive hunger that permeated your senses. You've killed humans before in this haze, tearing apart their bodies piece by piece, morsel by morsel. You remember the looks of sheer terror and agony on their faces as they died, even though their features escape you now. You remember the sweet taste of flesh and how the hunger would abate if only for a scant moment, small moments that you would chase for years on end. You remember hunting the smell of a merechi through the dark streets of Asakusa, and you remember the scent trailing through trees and bushes, over rooftops and fences — ending at a nondescript, immemorable brick wall. Moments later something happened, and you awoke in a bed at Lady Tamayo's estate, the hunger far from sated but dulled to an incredible degree.

Then, and only then, did you truly remember.

From that moment forth you swore revenge on Kibutsuji Muzan, and rather than work with Lady Tamayo and bide your time in safety you pursued the mysterious Demon Slayer Corps with a letter of recommendation from Lady Tamayo herself. Though the Demon Slayer Corps is far from trusting of you, Kagaya Ubayashiki has faith in your resolve and has deemed you a member of a new, unorthodox strike party of Demon Slayers.

Though only time can tell, your duty is as follows — to slay any and every demon without exception in an effort to protect those unaware of the demons and the danger they bring.

You are now a part of humanity's first and last line of defence against the demons. The lives of countless innocents depend on you.

Do not fail them.

Blood Demon Art: Chordic Rifts

Your blood saturates the strings of your shamisen as you strike a sonorous note, the chord resonating with your very being. Suddenly, two large doors appear without apparent regard for the laws of reality, opening to reveal that which exists at the other's entrance.

Starting at 3rd level, you can tear rifts into your Chordic Domain — a pocket dimensional manifestation of the very soul of your music — and use these rifts to warp the relationships between points in space, repositioning friends and foes alike.

As an action, you may expend one Bardic Inspiration die and open a pair of rifts, with each rift being conjured on a point in space you can see within 30 feet of you. The points that these rifts inhabit can be arbitrary, but cannot intersect one another or intersect with a point that would be considered solid terrain. Additionally, these rifts must maintain the shape of any regular polygon, but may be decorated or stylized however you wish.

Your rifts can be no larger than 5 feet in diameter, and both rifts must be identical in size and shape. The linked rifts last until the start of your next turn, but you may use a bonus action to keep both rifts open for an additional round and reposition an existing rift or conjure a new one, so long as at least one rift already exists — if two rifts already exist, your oldest rift vanishes. If a rift is ever more than 30 feet away from you, it vanishes.

If your linked rifts would forcibly reposition a creature, the creature may make a Dexterity saving throw against your spell save DC, attempting to dodge or avoid your rift. If the creature fails this saving throw, it appears at the other linked rift. This movement, if forced, provokes attacks of opportunity.

Chordic Resonance

Starting at 6th level, your ability to manipulate your Blood Demon Art: Chordic Domain improves, resulting in greater control over your Chordic Rifts.

The range of your rifts increases by 30 feet. As an action, you may conjure an additional pair of rifts so long as one set of rifts already exists. This new set of rifts is separate from your first set of rifts, and only two sets of rifts may exist at one time. Otherwise, the new set of rifts behaves exactly like the first and disappears at the start of your next turn. Using a bonus action to maintain your Blood Demon Art: Chordic Rifts allows you to maintain both pairs of rifts, as well as create or reposition one rift belonging to both pairs of rifts.

Additionally, travelling through your Chordic Domain becomes a taxing experience for individuals hostile to you, as they are unused to the distinct chord of your soul. Any hostile creature travelling through your Chordic Rifts must make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. If the creature fails this save, it exits your rifts disoriented and suffers from disadvantage on saving throws until the start of its next turn.

Blood Demon Art: Domain Expansion

Your blood crystallizes upon the strings of your shamisen — almost seeming to sing and thrum in tandem with each and every one of your heartfelt strikes, letting lose a series of resounding chords. Your song intensifies further and further, growing closer to your soul and almost overbearing in its power, before reality begins to shift and warp around you — reflecting your Chordic Domain.

Starting at 14th level, your mastery over your Blood Demon Art: Chordic Domain reaches a critical threshold and you gain the ability to manifest a fragment of your Chordic Domain, pulling it into the physical world by tearing reality around you asunder and bringing forth an expanded representation of your Domain. As a full-round action, you may begin invoking your Blood Demon Art: Domain Expansion. Until the end of your next turn, you must maintain concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell) or this feature ends prematurely. Additionally, you are considered paralyzed until your Domain Expansion invocation ends.

At the end of your next turn, an area of reality in a 60-foot radius around you is warped into your Domain Expansion and may be considered difficult terrain for any creatures you choose. While your Domain Expansion is active, you may choose to cast spells with a range of self on any number of creatures equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1) within your Domain. Additionally, every creature within the Domain is considered to be within your melee threat range.

As a reaction whenever you see a creature make an attack roll, saving throw or ability check within your Domain, you may expend a Bardic Inspiration die and force the creature to reroll, choosing whether the creature must use the first or second roll. You may use this ability after you see whether the creature's roll succeeds or fails.

Allies within your Domain Expansion have their resolve bolstered, gaining a bonus to attack rolls, saving throws and ability checks equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of +1), and enemies within the Domain are deafened by the resounding note of your soul.

You may use this feature once per long rest. The Domain Expansion lasts for 1 minute and requires that you maintain concentration (as if concentrating on a spell), or else the effect ends prematurely. The effect ends if you leave the boundaries of your Domain, and there is no barrier stopping creatures from simply entering or exiting your Domain.