Homebrew Zweigon Species Details

Witches of Light who shine in the dark,
the zweigons hide and leave no mark.
Protecting against those who do innocents harm,
their magic then made a false cause for alarm.

In droves they were slain,
till one would remain,
herself but a coward, last brood of the flame.

Not knights, but darkness, which then swallowed her whole.
No longer a victim, nor a meek little foal.

Growing in strength, a grotesque abbomination,
mind lost but now powerful without limitation.
Devouring the knight's kingdom without any hesitation,
as its fate had been sealed by their miscommunication.

— Tortezelia B. M. Fortens, "Elegy for Bibliogezoth"

The zweigon were a powerful group of witches, born of the union between man and symbiotic wyrms. Fed to their children while the wyrms were still tiny larvae, they would grow to replace much of the hair on the head of each member, acting as a powerful conduit for magic and focus.

Wyrmic Magiks

Named zweigon for their hair-like symbiotic cranial wyrms and gorgon-like appearance, the endonym of this tribe has been lost to history alongside their destruction. These human-drake symbionts are currently thought to be extinct in the world, and even in their hay day were hardly numerous. They appeared as humans in most ways, save for their white, hair-like wyrms which grow out of their skulls. While a pair of two wyrms was most common, hence the name 'zweigon', variants with only one or up to five or more have been recorded to have existed, with one notable figure apparently sporting an entire 8 wyrms before dying before entering adulthood due to wyrm-related health complications. Despite their name, zweigon have no relation to gorgons, with few instances of interaction.

The wyrms of a zweigon share a telepathic bond so strong with their symbiont host that their minds, while they bore distinct personalities, may as well have been one and the same for the purposes of magic, such as curses or enchantments. While wyrms were nonsapient beings with no capacity for higher, empathy-related emotions, basal emotions were often shared between the host and symbiotes, with the wyrms often betraying these basal emotions for zweigon who would have otherwise wished to hide them. Many zweigon specifically trained their wyrms not to give away such information, with varying levels of success based on the personalities of all parties involved. While records indicate that wyrms often had similar personalities to their zweigon host, this was claimed to be a product of them being raised alongside each other with constantly shared thoughts and experiences, rather than it having been an innate property of the symbiosis.

The weight of these wyrms was never an issue, as wyrms were, likely due to their magic, only optionally affected by gravity. While force could still push them, and they still were affected by momentum meaning that without practice one might have lost their balance if feeling unwell, the wyrms had no weight to them unless they wanted to, and so didn't burden their host's neck with the effort needed to keep them aloft. All the better, as, even though they were sessile due to being attached to their host, wyrms were very hyperactive and curious, often nipping at each other or their host's hair, or looking around at various noises or fleeting bits of movement their sharp vision spotted. Had they bore any weight upon their host, balancing such immense movement would have been impossible.

Aetherwyrms and Voidwyrms

The wyrms themselves were a nearly extinct species, relics of some other or previous world which they were brought to. While in the past they were great, growing to the size of mountains and enacting tyranny or benevolence upon all those who would oppose them, by the time records mention the zweigon the wyrms had long become distant legends. The only remnant of such a time was the split between aetherwyrms and voidwyrms, which fed on different sources of the mind to survive and produce their immense magical abilities.

Aetherwyrms, being a bright white in color, were said to feed on the hopes and dreams of creatures. Voidwyrms were the opposite, feeding on the regrets and nightmares of mortals and spirits long dead alike. Far from removing or exhausting these emotions, both types of creature often amplified the feelings they consumed in regions near to where they nested, causing spiritual fulfillment near aetherwyrm nests and strife near voidwyrm nests. Despite this, the personality of a wyrm is generally playful and amicable regardless of its type, the animal's nature having little if anything to do with its feeding habits.

Despite this truth, voidwyrms still represented an existential threat to mortals. The discovery of the ability to consume aetherwyrm larvae to become a zweigon was vital in the extermination and containment effort of voidwyrms, who seemed to exist hidden in all places of strife regardless of how many were slaughtered, sometimes even appearing in places previously thought long cleansed. Some theorized, in hushed circles of only the most heretical members of their society, that a wyrm's type was not a product of ancestry but of environment, but such claims were vehemently denied by the zweigon until their destruction.

The precise benefits of having a symbiotic draconid growing out of one's skull have been lost to time, but common reports were enhanced magical abilities, as well as enhanced perception due to the simple reality of having an increased number of eyes and ears. Another change that was extremely well-recorded was a change in size, as wyrms grew in size proportionally to the amount of magical power circulated in their bodies. Perhaps in order to keep their host alive, this property was shared with them, with particularly powerful mages among zweigon society being noticably larger in a variety of ways, from becoming bulky or tall and slender to simply directly increasing in size. There is no theoretical limit to the size of a zweigon, as legends of wyrms contain members much larger than any recorded symbiotic wyrms, meaning this potential maximum was likely never reached before the demise of the zweigon.

Extradited Extermination

The fate of the zweigon was well-documented, even despite occuring in ages long past. A mixture of regional superstition with serpent-like monsters and a series of mishaps involving violence and the destruction of property and deaths of several knights of the kingdom the zweigon were currently navigating through led to the declaration of their sect as inherently heretical to the kingdom's religion. All members were ordered to remove their wyrms and assimilate at once, on penalty of death. Whether the kingdom's clergy knew that removal of the wyrms from a zweigon resulted in rapid onset sickness and death is still unknown, but the result came the same. Some surrendered and died, most did not and also died. The last stand of the race resulted in their creation of the White Egg Temple (later the Black Egg Temple, as it darkened in coloration over the centuries for unknown reasons) and the death of all known members.

The egg, roughly the size of a medium-sized building, would remain largely undisturbed after several decades of attempting to break inside by inquisitors. The local religion would later mellow after a century and largely come to regret its extermination, and local folk beliefs considered the Black Egg Temple to be a sacred place, planting a grove surrounding it and performing celebrations of the old culture of the zweigon in attempts to apologize and leave their spirits to rest, should any remain.

The ultimate fate of the temple is unknown, as it and all living things in the former kingdom were utterly annihilated immediately following the awakening of Bibliogezoth. While exploration has commenced following the slaying of the beast after its century of terror and genocide, reports on the egg are conflicting. While all parties agree that the egg was smashed in some manner, it is the source of much highly contested debate on whether the egg was broken from the inside or outside, or if it was destroyed by some unknown magical means. Regardless, the temple is no more, the last remnant of that noble race now gone forever.

Zweigon Traits

Your draconic symbiosis manifests in the following features and abilities, granted by your bond with your wyrms.

Ability Score Increase

One ability score of your choice increases by 2, and another of your choice increases by 1. Alternatively, three separate ability scores of your choice each increase by 1.

Age

Zweigon young are born identical to human children, save for the occasional strange hair color or forked tongue, but are fed their future wyrm symbiotes, themselves mere larvae and almost too small to see with the naked eye, mere minutes after being born.

Zweigon grow to adulthood at the same rate as their human cousins, with their wyrm symbiotes growing with them. By age 2 the wyrms become visible as bulges covering the sides of the skull, and by age 3 their mouths have emerged and minds become conscious. At age 6 the wyrms would have fully completed their telekinetic synchronization with their host, as well as having grown up to 2 feet in length. At 10 years they reached 3 feet, 4 feet at 14 years, and by adulthood at 18 years most wyrm symbionts would have reached 6 feet in length, often having keep themselves aloft using their magic in order to not drag on the ground. After this age growth stopped being linear, and instead became reliant on magical talent.

Zweigon have no known maximum age, with the eldest having been thousands of years old, some even having claimed to have been among the first. Due to violence with others and constant danger their mortality rate was high, however, with few reaching over 300 before being slain.

Size

Zweigon are humans living in bodily symbiosis with their wyrms, and unless extremely magically powerful (thus causing the wyrms and themselves to change in size and shape) they were the same height as humans. They were also the same weight, as wyrms only follow the laws of gravity conditionally, choosing not to the vast majority of the time. Regardless of where you lie on the human spectrum, your size is Medium.

Wyrm length varies based on age and magically-induced-growth, but most adult zweigon's wyrms grew from 5 to 6 feet in length.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 35 feet. The (usually) weightless wyrms were capable of moving in any direction they wished through the air as they hovered. While they could no longer do so when attached to a zweigon's skull, they could and usually still did use this magical propulsion to help their host move faster than the ordinary human.

Darkvision

Enhanced by the shared vision of your wyrm symbionts, as well as their magic enhancing your own eyes, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Three-Factor Authentication

Having three minds in one body, a zweigon had constant companions to snap it out of enchantments and other unwilling mental alterations.

You have Advantage on saving throws to resist being Charmed or put to sleep by any means.

Manipulator Maws

Your wyrms act as little jaws hanging off of you, too soft to attack yet perfect for long-range object manipulation.

You can perform any simple, easily-mentally-explainable task using your wyrms by telepathically explaining the task to them. They wyrms can perform this task up to 10 feet away from you. The wyrms cannot perform tasks which require complex thought, reading or writing, making attacks or using magic items, or speech beyond single-word sentences in a language you understand. Despite the complexity of speech they can listen for you, as while they cannot understand it themselves you can tune into their hearing and listen to it directly.

In addition, you count as one size larger for the purpose of determining your carry and push, pull, and lift capacities.

Additional Senses

A zweigon's wyrms share their minds with their host, giving them linearly enhanced awareness as they take in the information gathered from their symbiont's senses.

You have proficiency in the Perception skill.

In addition, your ability to persuade your wyrms to watch your back increases as your power does. At level 5, your passive Perception and passive Investigation scores are permanently increased by 5.

Carnage Cannons

Your wyrms are fueled by magic, and can be used as conduits for your magical prowess, no matter how basic or complex.

You learn one damage-dealing cantrip of your choice. This cantrip has double its normal range for you, or a range of 10ft. if its range was Touch.

Additionally, you gain the ability to cast through your wyrms. Your wyrms count as a spellcasting focus, and can be used even while you are carrying objects in one or both of your hands. When used in this way, you may also enhance the distance of one of your spells.

When casting a spell or cantrip that is either targeted, area of effect, or has a range of touch, you may choose one of the following effects:

• If the spell or cantrip is targeted, double the range of the spell for that casting.
• If the spell or cantrip has an area of effect, double the numerical range of the spell in feet and change its shape to Cone for that casting.
• If the spell or cantrip has a range of touch, change the range to targeted at 10 feet for that casting.

You may use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency modifier, regaining all spent uses on a long rest.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Draconic. Draconic is thought to be one of the oldest languages and was used frequently by the zweigon to communicate with other dragons or dragon-aligned creatures. Additionally, the wyrms they possessed could also speak Draconic, though their simple minds limited their speech's usefulness. The language sounds harsh to most other creatures and includes numerous hard consonants and sibilants.