Homebrew Astrean Species Details

Unnatural Beauty
Astreans are uniquely beautiful, with glowing white eyes and deep black or purple skin with sparkling specks and sometimes splotches of color which closely mimic the night sky. They have a slender build and tend to have the same height as humans, being as low as 4'9 and as high as 6'10, but usually being around 5'8.

Intrinsic Artists 
Astreans have a deep affinity for self expression in all forms, and are proud to show this in even the most basic parts of their society. Their language by the same name is a flowing, melodic tongue that incorporates a wide range of tonal inflections and musical cadences, this makes it difficult to learn and speak, but some learn it specifically for this reason since it is a naturally ideal language for poetry and musical performances. Astrean living spaces tend to be well decorated, inside with various trinkets and customarily a sunroof in the bedroom, and on the outside with banners and symbols representing the groups and ideals which the owner associates themselves and their family with. It is not uncommon to find art, whether verbal, physical, or otherwise, made by Astreans to depict the universe at large and Astreans' connection to it.

A Cosmic Connection 
Astreans often find themselves drawn to the night sky, and their culture is littered with depictions of the cosmos and the Astreans being connected to it, their legends even depicting that they were born from the stars themselves. In times of loss and confusion, Astreans often look to the night sky for some form of guidance or comfort, it could be said that they consider the stars their gods, but this is not a clean comparison.

Reproduction                                                        Astreans only have one gender and reproduce asexually through full body division. This process does not create two identical Astreans but rather two different ones which are similar to the original. Due to the differences when an Astrean reproduces both are considered new Astreans who choose new names. This process is also quite taxing, taking 1d4 weeks for them to recover and having disadvantage on all ability checks and half of their max HP until they recover. An Astrean who is ready to split will have an abnormally large amount of sparkles or "stars" on their body, which split evenly between the two newborns. The Astreans keep their memories through the division, some having memories which span back thousands of years, but the older the memories are the more faded they become and only some Astrean sages are said to be able to remember all the way back to their creation. The age of an Astrean is counted in years from the last time they split. They tend to divide once every 5-10 years and cannot choose when they split, however they can somewhat influence it via lifestyle changes to make it come sooner or later. When an adventurer Astrean splits, it splits into with half of the levels of the original Astrean each, rounded up, usually splitting the levels into each class evenly, so one with 2 levels in fighter and 5 in ranger will spawn 2 Astreans, both with 1 level in fighter and 3 in ranger, their xp rounding down to the minimum needed for their levels. The caviat to this is of a 20th level Astrean splits, their excess XP, or the difference between their current XP and how much is needed to achieve level 20, will be split evenly to both descendants, making it possible but unlikely for a 20th Astrean to split into two 20th level Astreans. Their chosen class options and feats may be changed upon splitting and their ability scores must be re-generated for each new Astrean. After 5 generations, unless there is a concerted effort, decided by the dm, to keep the skills and powers from held classes and levels, they will be lost, the equivalent amount of xp being lost as well.

Frail But Graceful                                                  Astreans tend to be frail and have a natural -1 to constitution, this forces them to lean towards diplomacy and peace more often than not. This is not to say that Astreans cannot participate in combat or live as adventurers, they make excellent bards and wizards for their natural abilities of light manipulation.

Names                                                                          Astreans tend to come up with names for themselves after division, sometimes being based off of their previous name, other times being entirely made up. Someone know names include: Novan, Lyra, Stella, Nearus, and Pollaeran.

Communities                                                            Astrean communities are usually heavily intertwined, sometimes all originating from a single Astrean. This causes them to be very close and distrusting of outsiders, though when outsiders are accepted into the community they are usually treated with the same closeness.

Romance                                                                       While Astreans cannot have children, have short life spans, and are incapable of conventional sex they are capable of romantic love. When Astreans enter relationships with other races, the division process can be complicated. When an Astrean divides, it is possible for neither, only one, or both descendants to retain the attraction to their previous partner, which can result is the destruction, or the expansion of the relationship.

Alignment                                                               Astreans tend towards chaotic neutral, straying from the business of others and expecting the same towards them, and they refuse to be governed by rigorous social structures and lifestyles. Due in part to their reproductive cycle, they prefer to ride the chaos than try to make a life they are content with.

Political Relations                                                          Astreans don't make much effort towards, or even make effort against interacting with neighboring towns or the other races of the region, some Astrean communities are even isolationist, however, when interaction is made they are amiable to most but take a special liking to elves.

Astrean Traits

Your Astrean character will gain a multitude of abilities from their cosmic origin and nature.

Born From Stars

You have a minor natural control over lights, giving you the minor illusion cantrip but you can only use it for visual illusions, and the dancing lights cantrip. You can also cast the faerie fire spell as at will. Once you reach 5th level you also learn the hypnotic pattern and can use it once per long rest. These spells use your CHA modifier.

Dim

As a bonus action you can dim your star patterns to turn almost pitch black, this does not affect your glowing eyes however.

Ability Score Increase

Your Dexterity score is increased by 1, your Intelligence, and Wisdom scores are increases by 2 each, and your Constitution score is decreased by 1.

Age

You do not age but have a maximum expended lifespan of 12 years, though in rare cases you may live to be 20 before you divide.

Size

Astreans range from slightly above 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision

Astreans tend to be nocturnal and most have naturally gained darkvision from the many years of skywatching, though some rare members have not made this adaptation.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and can speak Astrean. Astrean has no written language and Astreans tend to rely on the most common written language of the area, usually defaulting to common.