Homebrew Exomind (Destiny) Species Details

Populus Ex Machina

Exos were constructed with as wide a range of physical variation as exists in natural human bodies. Since many people converted to Exos to serve as soldiers before the Collapse, the averages skew slightly toward leaner, taller bodies. However, Exos exist with almost every body type and stature found in human populations. Their external surfaces do not attempt to mimic skin, but Exos’ cladding exhibits a dazzling diversity of coloration and design. Its components may be assembled in almost any pattern that generally conforms to the underlying musculature, and finished with any coloration. Some Exos maintain subdued hues for a sleek, understated look, but many adopt bright splashes of brilliant color to accent their faces, or even cover their whole bodies in raucous patterns. Cranial configuration and facial features, far from being standardized, were constructed with immense variety, resulting in an individually distinct face for every Exo.

A Forgotten Advent

The origins of the project to produce the Exos are unknown, but it was the Golden Age tech megacorporation Clovis Bray that eventually undertook and completed the work. It is believed a primary motivation for their effort was the creation of superior soldiers to combat the Vex, and many Exos’ fragmentary memories of dire, ancient battles seem to bear out that conclusion. Yet obviously not all Exos were soldiers, and it is easily imagined that people may have elected to become Exos for other reasons, such as escaping chronic or terminal illness.

Survivors of the Ages

Exos are the only survivors of the Collapse still living among humanity, and they are unique among Guardians as the only race to sometimes retain snatches of memory from their past lives. However, even among those who lived during the Golden Age and experienced the Collapse directly, very few possess clear recollection after so many centuries. Those who might harbor such memories tend to be extremely secretive and often become recluses. Most Exos live alongside the other survivors of humanity in and around the Last City, or elsewhere on Earth in holdout settlements or as refugees seeking respite along the desolate pilgrim roads. Despite their extreme longevity, Exos generally participate fully in human communities wherever they exist. Prejudicial attitudes between Exos and other humans are rare, but not nonexistent.

Fractured Memories

Despite their artificial construction, Exos are no more merely machines than natural-born humans are. In particular, their minds are wholly human, merely transferred from organic tissue into a different substrate. While their engineered bodies and brains may give Exos some mental capabilities beyond typical humans, they do not possess computer-like perfect recall or flawless eidetic memory. Generally, Exos’ memories behave similarly to those of other humans, changing and fading over time. Another factor complicates the stability of Exos’ memories, an inheritance from the imperfect transference process. That process caused Dissociative Exomind Rejection (DER), a cognitive disorder resulting from severe dissonance between the transferred human consciousness and the Exo body which could destabilize the new Exo’s mind, eventually causing death. Clovis Bray’s engineers counteracted this destabilization by devising a process to reset the transferred consciousness in its new body. Rebooting the mind in this way, often repeatedly, succeeds in averting rejection, but carries an increasingly heavy cost: each reboot causes worsening fragmentation and outright loss of memory. The number appended to an Exo’s name indicates the number of such mind-reboots they have undergone. Contrary to popular misconception, it has nothing to do with the number of times an Exo Lightbearer has died.

Exomind (Destiny) Traits

Mechanical body, human mind.

Age

To all outside observation, Exos are ageless. However, Exos whose minds have been reset many times exhibit symptoms of senility.

Darkvision

Exo optical sensors are tuned to the human visible spectrum by default, but can also perceive additional wavelengths to achieve superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 30 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light.

Launguages

Exo vocal modulators are not simple speakers, but sophisticated electromechanical organs capable of producing all the sounds of human language. You can speak, read, and write common.

Living Machine

Even though you are a machine, your mind and much of the functionality of your body is no different from the average human. As such, you are considered a living creature, and you appear on scanners as one. You are immune to disease. You do not need to eat or drink, but you can if you want to. You do still need to sleep each day, but you typically only sleep for 4–6 hours, gaining the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep when you do. During your sleep, you sometimes experience dreams that feel like snatches of memory. In these dreams, you witness hideous, neverending battles in dark, lifeless places, and see yourself fighting in them. Many other Exos have described similar dreams, and the experience, though unsettling, is considered normal.

Resistant Design

You resist poison damage, and you have advantage on saving throws you make to prevent yourself from Burning or becoming Poisoned. You also have advantage on saving throws you make to end an effect on yourself that is causing a Burning or Poisoned condition

Model

There are three common model-types of Exo. Choose one.