Homebrew Cinderveil Species Details

 

The Cinderveil are not a natural people.

They are what happens when magic burns wrong.

In 625 BPT, during the Burning of the Great Libraries, entire halls of ancient spellcraft were reduced to ash. These were not ordinary libraries. They held divine records, altar-stone studies, war spells from before the Peace Treaty, dead gods’ names, maps to sealed ruins, forbidden rituals, and early writings on the shaping of mortal souls.

When the libraries burned, the knowledge inside them did not simply disappear.

It became smoke.

It became ash.

It became hunger.

The first Cinderveil were survivors who breathed that cursed ash into their lungs. Some died screaming black smoke. Some went blind. Some forgot their own names. But a few lived, and the magic that should have killed them settled into their bloodline.

Their children were born with ember-glow behind the eyes. Their grandchildren coughed ash before their first words. Generations later, the Cinderveil still walk Lustria as living descendants of burned magic.

In Hidun, they are often called Ash-Souled.

In Behar, many call them Spell-Eaters.

In old Margi records, they are listed as residual arcane casualties.

In the private ledgers of the East Lustrian Trading Company, they are marked as:

“Unstable magical persons. Useful. Dangerous. Do not store near active relics.”

A Cinderveil does not hold magic safely. Their soul is like a furnace with a cracked door. Small magic burns away too quickly. Large magic can survive for only a moment before the body consumes it.

That is why they do not cast magic like other people.

They burn it.

“A wizard shapes a spell. A priest calls a blessing. A Cinderveil opens the wound in their soul and lets the fire out.”
— Master Odran Vey, banned Margi lecture notes

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Why Cinderveil Cannot Use Cantrips

Cantrips are small, stable pieces of magic. They are meant to be repeated over and over without using up real power.

A normal caster can shape a little spark into Fire Bolt.
A normal mage can twist a thread of force into Mage Hand.
A normal priest can call a tiny blessing with Guidance.

A Cinderveil cannot.

Their soul devours small magic before it becomes a spell. The moment they try to form a cantrip, the magic catches inside them and burns out. The power is too thin to survive the furnace of their blood.

This is called the Little Death of Magic.

Most Cinderveil discover it as children. They try to copy a simple spell from a parent, teacher, priest, or classmate. For one heartbeat, the spell forms. Then their veins glow, their mouth fills with the taste of smoke, and the magic vanishes.

Some children cry.

Some laugh.

Some cough up gray ash for hours.

“The boy tried to light a candle with a simple flame trick. The candle stayed cold. His fingers burned for three days.”
— Tri-Point Academy medical record, sealed by Sharima staff

This does not mean Cinderveil are powerless. Larger magic is different. Spell slots have weight, shape, and force. They are strong enough to survive inside a Cinderveil for a few seconds before being consumed.

But once consumed, that magic does not become a normal spell.

It becomes violence.

It becomes silence.

It becomes speed.

It becomes survival.

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Ash-Souled

You cannot cast cantrips.

This applies to cantrips gained from any class, subclass, feat, species trait, magic item, blessing, pact, or other feature.

If something would give you a cantrip, you do not gain that cantrip.

Instead, you gain Ashen Spark.

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Ashen Spark

The tiny magic that would normally become cantrips instead breaks apart inside you, leaving behind brief sparks of instinct, awareness, and ash-fed luck.

When you fail an Arcana, Stealth, Survival, or Perception check, you may add 1d4 to the roll, potentially turning the failure into a success.

You can use Ashen Spark a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus.

You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

“They cannot make a cup dance across a table. They cannot summon a harmless spark. But they know when a ruin is watching them. They know when ash has moved against the wind.”
— Behar ruin-guide saying

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Cinder-Sight

You have darkvision out to 60 feet.

You can see in dim light as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light.

In addition, burned magic leaves traces you can sense. You have advantage on Arcana checks made to identify whether magic was used in an area within the last hour.

In old ruins, destroyed libraries, altar sites, dead temples, and places touched by forgotten gods, your eyes may glow like embers under ash.

Some Cinderveil see magic as drifting sparks.
Some smell it like smoke after rain.
Some hear it as pages turning in an empty room.

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Spellburn Body

Your body can consume spell slots to empower your Cinderveil traits.

Whenever a Cinderveil trait tells you to burn a spell slot, you expend one spell slot of 1st level or higher. The spell slot is spent, but you do not cast a spell.

You can burn a spell slot for a Cinderveil trait only once per turn.

A Cinderveil trait can never burn a spell slot higher than 5th level.

You can only burn spell slots that belong to you. The magic must come from your own spellcasting, pact magic, or class features.

“Never lend a Cinderveil magic unless you are prepared to lose it.”
— East Lustrian Trading Company field warning

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Cinder Strike

When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, unarmed strike, or spell attack, you may burn one spell slot to force unstable ash-magic through the wound.

The attack deals extra damage based on the level of the spell slot burned.

The damage type is your choice of fire, necrotic, or radiant each time you use this trait.

You can use Cinder Strike only once per turn.

Cinderveil from Hidun often burn red-gold, like desert glass under the sun.

Cinderveil touched by old Myrkul ruins sometimes burn black, their strikes leaving veins of dead ash in the wound.

Those affected by altar-stone energy may flare white, their skin cracking with painful radiant light.

“The blade did not catch fire. That would have been easier to understand. The wound did.”
— Guard report recovered after a Lower Flowers ambush

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Ashen Step

When you make a Dexterity (Stealth) check, you may burn one spell slot to blur your outline with smoke, heat shimmer, and old library dust.

You add a bonus to the roll equal to:

1d4 + the level of the spell slot burned.

If you burn a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you may also move up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks immediately after making the check.

If you burn a spell slot of 4th level or higher, you become lightly obscured by ash until the end of your current turn.

This is not invisibility. A Cinderveil using Ashen Step can still be seen. But their shape becomes hard to trust. They blur at the edge. Their footsteps land half a second after they move. Their shadow lingers where they used to be.

The Lower Flowers hate Cinderveil spies for this reason. A trained Cinderveil can cross a candlelit hall like smoke dragged under a door.

There is an old story that Hermes the Sparrow once survived a Cinderveil assassin only because he noticed ash drifting against the draft.

“The room had no fireplace. That was how Hermes knew someone had come to kill him.”
— Guild story, usually told in whispers

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Ember Reflex

When a creature you can see hits you with an attack, you may use your reaction and burn one spell slot to harden your body with glowing cracks of compressed magic.

Reduce the damage by:

1d8 per level of the spell slot burned.

If this reduces the damage to 0, you may move up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks.

Tri-Point Academy instructors call this the Second Flinch.

It is not armor. It is not a shield. It is the Cinderveil’s body burning magic faster than pain can reach the mind.

For one instant, the body becomes charcoal-hard and ember-bright. Blades scrape over burning skin. Arrows turn aside in a puff of ash. A hammer blow lands, but the Cinderveil is already moving with smoke trailing from the wound.

Tarmi respects this ability.
Sharima fears how useful it is.
Margi wants to study it far too closely.

“A shield blocks a strike. A Cinderveil argues with the moment it lands.”
— Tarmi combat instructor

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Smoke-Thief Veil

As a bonus action, you may burn one spell slot to cloak yourself in smoke, heat shimmer, or pale ash.

For 1 minute, choose one of the following benefits.

Shadow Veil

You gain advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks while in dim light, darkness, smoke, fog, heavy rain, crowds, ruins, libraries, or natural cover.

Heat Mirage

Ranged attacks against you from more than 30 feet away take a -2 penalty to hit you.

Silent Cinder

Your movement makes no sound, and you have advantage on checks made to hide your tracks.

Once you use Smoke-Thief Veil, you cannot use it again until you finish a short or long rest, unless you burn a spell slot of 3rd level or higher to use it again.

In the old days, Cinderveil were used to smuggle records out of burning cities. Later, noble houses used them as spies. Then the East Lustrian Trading Company tried to buy them as battlefield scouts.

That mistake is still remembered.

Cinderveil do not like being owned.

“They offered coin. Then contracts. Then chains. The Cinderveil accepted none of them, though they did leave the building with the contracts, the coin, and the captain’s left hand.”
— Behar tavern tale, likely exaggerated

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Burning Focus

When you fail a saving throw against being charmed, frightened, blinded, deafened, or restrained, you may burn one spell slot to reroll the saving throw.

You must use the new roll.

If the spell slot burned is 3rd level or higher, you may add 1d4 to the reroll.

Once you succeed using this trait, you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.

Cinderveil are difficult to control because their souls are already partially ruined. Fear, chains, illusions, and divine pressure have trouble finding something whole to grab.

This does not make them fearless.

It makes them damaged in a useful way.

Many Cinderveil describe the feeling as burning away the part of themselves that would obey.

“The charm touched her mind and found only a locked room full of smoke.”
— Sharima interrogation note

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Hunger of the Burned Page

When you take damage from a spell or magical effect, you may use your reaction to let your ash-soul bite into the magic.

Reduce the damage by an amount equal to your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier.

If this reduces the damage to 0, you may immediately use Ashen Spark without expending a use.

You can use Hunger of the Burned Page a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus.

You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

This is the trait that makes scholars nervous.

Cinderveil do not truly counter magic. They do not unravel spells like trained abjurers. They do not pray against them like clerics.

They eat the edge of the spell.

Only a little.

Only enough to survive.

But that little bit proves something terrifying: the ash inside them still recognizes magic as fuel.

“The spell struck the child and guttered like a candle in a sealed jar. She looked up at us with smoke leaking from her teeth and asked if there was more.”
— Margi altar-stone report, sealed

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How Lustria Sees the Cinderveil

Hidun

Hidun treats Cinderveil with suspicion. Their bloodline is tied to the Burning of the Great Libraries, and Hidun does not easily forgive anything connected to lost knowledge.

Some noble families hide Cinderveil children.

Some train them.

Some sell them quietly to people who know what they are worth.

To Hidun officials, a Cinderveil is both a reminder and a warning: proof that old mistakes can still have children.

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Behar

Behar is more accepting. Many Cinderveil work as ruin-guides, ash-readers, trackers, monster hunters, scouts, and bodyguards.

Behar’s people know that strange blood is not always cursed blood. They care more about whether someone can survive the wilds and keep their word.

A Behar saying goes:

“Take a Cinderveil into a ruin. If the walls remember fire, they will know before you do.”

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Tri-Point Academy

Tri-Point Academy does not ban Cinderveil, but every school watches them differently.

Tarmi sees them as survivors and potential leaders. A Cinderveil who learns discipline can become terrifyingly hard to break.

Sharima sees them as political weapons. A person who can burn magic into stealth, resist control, and survive ambushes is useful in all the wrong rooms.

Margi sees them as living historical evidence. Some Margi teachers are respectful. Others are not. A Cinderveil student learns quickly which instructors look at them like a person and which look at them like a locked book.

“Do not let Margi measure your scars unless you trust the hand holding the ink.”
— Advice passed between Cinderveil students

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The Lower Flowers

The Lower Flowers dislike Cinderveil because Cinderveil are hard to frighten, hard to track, and dangerous in darkness.

A normal spy leaves footprints.
A good spy leaves nothing.
A Cinderveil leaves ash where there should not be ash, which is somehow worse.

Lower Flowers handlers are trained to watch candles, dust, curtains, and breathing patterns when they suspect a Cinderveil is near.

Their private rule is simple:

“If the ash moves first, run.”

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East Lustrian Trading Company

The East Lustrian Trading Company officially calls Cinderveil unstable.

Unofficially, they have tried to recruit them, purchase them, study them, and contain them.

The ELTC is especially interested in Cinderveil who can survive magical blasts, infiltrate ruins, or burn spell slots into combat ability. They see them as living assets.

Cinderveil communities remember this.

They do not forgive easily.

“The Company wanted soldiers that could eat spells and walk through smoke. What they got were people who knew exactly what chains smelled like when they started to heat.”
— Anonymous Cinderveil account

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Cinderveil Appearance

Cinderveil can look almost human, or they can be clearly marked by the ash in their blood.

Common signs include:

Some Cinderveil smell faintly of smoke, old paper, rain on stone, or burnt herbs.

Some leave ash behind when frightened.

Some have voices that rasp when they lie.

Cinderveil Traits

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