Homebrew Elioud Species Details

The Elioud are ancient serpentine beings hailing from the distant planet of Elia. Each individual comprised of a plurality of distinct souls and capable of telepathy, the Elioud grew to have great empathy for one another and their society flourished largely free of conflict.

Physiology

The Elioud naturally came in two varieties: Gemini-class, the smaller of the two and housing two souls, and Cerberus-class, the larger and housing three. An Elioud that had only a single soul, often victims of powerful magic or near-fatal injury, were referred to as Odin-class and were often looked upon with pity by other Elioud. That being said, even an Odin-class was immensely powerful and measured 60 feet from head to tail, and they only got larger and more powerful from there.

The Elioud are incredibly intelligent and have innate psionic powers, including telepathy, telekinesis, and psionic extensions of their body known as phantom limbs. Although the Elioud do not have any appendages coming off of their long, serpentine bodies, they can still engage in activities typically requiring fine motor functions through the use of these phantom limbs, which they have surgical control over and convey the sensations of touch, temperature, and pressure. Many Elioud also study magic and are talented spellcasters, often combining learned magic with their innate abilities to achieve wondrous results.

Although the Elioud are not immortal in the strictest sense, they are unaging. Furthermore, they do not require food, water, or air, and instead subsist off sunlight. These features, combined with their ability to fly, made the Elioud a space-faring civilization early on in their development. Furthermore, Elioud are able to survive for hundreds of years with very little sunlight by entering a stasis, making long interstellar voyages possible. When sunlight is abundant, an Elioud's scales will shimmer and take on one of many bold colors, referred to as their "natural" color. When sunlight is scarce, their scales will become matte black, attempting to absorb as much of the electromagnetic spectrum as possible.

Elioud reproduce through a ritual known as Animus Permutatio, which involves the exchange of a soul between two Elioud. The soul exchange, taking the form of an airborne dance, often takes days to complete and the couple must remain in close proximity and maintain a constant telepathic link for the entire duration; separating physically or psychically prematurely means having to repeat the ritual at best or the transitioning souls being lost at worst. At the conclusion of the dance, the pair descends to the surface to rest, at which point a bud arises from the soil between the two and flowers to reveal an infant Elioud. Because the exchange of souls required by Animus Permutatio is permanent, Elioud are extremely selective with their partners and often mate for life.

Environment

Their homeworld, Elia, is not a conventional planet, but rather a Dyson sphere - a massive shell surrounding a star and located within its habitable zone, whose interior surface consists of land and oceans. It is unknown even to the Elioud whether the design of their world was a byproduct of their ability to photosynthesize or if the environment of their world guided their evolution towards photosynthesis. Either way, Elia succeeds in capturing almost all the light and heat put out by their sun, giving the Elioud an abundance of energy to fuel both their populations and their technology.

Buildings found on Elia take on the shapes of wide, sweeping spirals to accommodate their frames and the winding motions they use during flight. Designed with their need for light in mind, transparent materials make up the majority of their walls, floors, and ceilings and their architecture often features ornate stained glass. Their cities reached or even exceeded most cultures’ depictions of Utopia, and their expeditions to other worlds – riddled with war, famine, and disease – made them all-too-aware of how unique their situation was.

History

Their un-aging bodies combined with centuries of peace afforded many Elioud the freedom to indulge in intellectual pursuits, and they delved into both physics and metaphysics with great curiosity. Although they often approached the subject of their research dispassionately, one discovery altered their perception of the universe in a way that was, to put it lightly, irreversible: the existence of the Chamber of Guf.

Regardless of world or plane, every living and sentient creature in the universe houses within its body a soul – and, in rare cases, several – a fact so well-understood that many take it for granted. What many did not know, was that these souls are immeasurably vast in number but ultimately finite. When a being dies, its soul, unless earmarked for some divinity or fiend, returns to the Chamber of Guf, where they await the birth of a new vessel to which they will be bound. The singular Guf, otherwise known as the vault of unborn souls, fuels the wheel of reincarnation for every world in every plane. The Elioud realized this had some chilling implications.

Every birth had an opportunity cost, as it was a soul that could no longer be born anywhere else. Conversely, every death was an opportunity to roll the cosmic dice and wind up somewhere better, or perhaps worse.

For countless years, the Elioud observed the suffering of other species with heavy hearts but did not intervene – they had concluded that it was an unfortunate inevitability of their natures. Men and elves and dwarves and tieflings could not escape the constant pull of conflict any more than they could cease being men and elves and dwarves and tieflings – the Elioud had long made peace with this idea. But discovery of the long-unknown mechanics of rebirth forced the ancient serpents to re-evaluate their non-interventionist policy. Every flawed and short-lived creature was simply an Elioud waiting to realize its potential – they only needed the opportunity to recast the die of fate. Death was no longer an unfortunate end-state, but rather the only means of escape from the meat threshers that were the worlds beyond Elia. Once this was understood, their mission fell out like the solution to simple equation: one by one, they must liberate the souls of the countless worlds. And when the last doomed creature met its end, the occupants of Guf would have no choice but to be reborn as Elioud – the only possible victory in an otherwise-rigged game. Thus began their campaigns.

Just as there are oceans of void between every star, so too are worlds housing sentient life vastly outnumbered by sterile rocks caught in freefall. Despite their vast wisdom and power, the Elioud found they had no choice but to send scouts that would slowly and methodically move from world to world, only calling home when they found souls in need of liberation. Although the Elioud were powerful by nearly every metric, a single member stood no chance against a world or even a nation united to resist their “kindness”, something the serpents discovered firsthand during their early campaigns, and many of their kin paid the price for their overconfidence. Their insistence on being honest about their intentions to their would-be victims certainly didn’t help, either, driven by a naïve hope that these pitiful creatures would see reason once the truth of reincarnation was revealed to them. Thus, when persuading the aliens into mass suicide inevitably failed, the scouts were instructed to immediately signal for reinforcements, their numerous slithering shadows heralding the inevitability of a merciful extinction.

Elioud Traits

Your Elioud character has the following racial traits.

Ability Score Increase

Your Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, Constitution, and Strength scores all increase by 5.

Age

From birth, it takes centuries for an Elioud to reach full size. They cease to age once they reach adulthood.

Alignment

Elioud come from a culture built on deep empathy and intellectual pursuits. As a result, they are usually lawful good or lawful neutral.

Size

Elioud are massive, often 60 to 120 feet in length, depending on their class. Your size is Huge.

Speed

Fine control of the fabric of spacetime surrounding their bodies grants Elioud the ability to levitate and fly. You have a walking speed of 30 feet, a swimming speed of 60 feet, and a flying speed of 60 feet.

Heightened Senses

Millennia of space travel has granted your kind the ability to discern objects even in the blackness of deep space. You can see in dim light within 120 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. You perception is further augmented by innate psychic abilities, allowing you to perceive your immediate surroundings without relying on sight. You have blindsight up to 60 feet.

Mental Fortress

Your mind's defenses are formidable. You have resistance to psychic damage. Additionally, you cannot be charmed or frightened and you gain proficiency in Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws.

Distortion Aura

Your body emits an aura that distorts the fabric of spacetime immediately within your vicinity. The geometry of the space you occupy is non-Euclidean, causing attacks made at range against you to have disadvantage. A creature whose attack was subjected to this effect can attempt to compensate for this distortion by making an Intelligence check (DC 15). On a success, the creature's attacks are no longer affected by this trait.

Photosynthesis

You are immune to radiant damage. Additionally, you regain 20 hit points the first time you're exposed to a source of sunlight and an additional 20 hit points every time you start your turn in sunlight. You do not require food, water, or air to survive. You cannot survive longer than 30 days without sunlight unless you enter stasis.

Innate Spellcasting (Psionics)

Elioud are gifted with natural psionic abilities that grow stronger with age and experience. You gain use of psionic spells at certain levels according to the table below:

Level	Psionic Spells	Uses per Day
1st	message, comprehend languages, command	Unlimited
3rd	calm emotions, detect thoughts	Unlimited
5th	sending, tongues	Unlimited
7th	dominate beast, locate creature	1
9th	dominate person, telepathic bond	1

Daily spell casts granted by this trait reset each day at dawn. Spells cast using this trait do not require components or concentration. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

Phantom Limbs

You have phantom limbs, telekinetic extensions of your body. These limbs grant you the effect of the mage hand spell but the hand is invisible, requires no components, conveys the sensation of touch, can be used at up to 60 feet, and requires only a bonus action to use. You can also use your action to focus greater power into your phantom limbs through the use of Telekinetic Grasp, granting you the benefits of the telekinesis without the need for concentration.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Deep Speech. You can also communicate telepathically.

Inner World

The empathic abilities of certain Elioud are so vast that they can manifest entire worlds out of particularly strong memories or important historical events. Starting at level 10, you can use Visions of the Past once per creature per day, briefly transporting the target, yourself (if different), and nearby creatures of your choosing to a lifelike facsimile of the past.

Frightful Presence

Massive, powerful, and otherworldly, Elioud easily intimidate most creatures with their mere presence. Starting at 5th level, you can use an action to instill fear in nearby foes. Each creature of your choice that is within 120 feet of you and aware of your presence must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw (DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier) or become frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to your Frightful Presence for the next 24 hours.

Serpentine Body

You serpentine body makes it impossible for you to use conventional equipment, but grants you powerful natural defenses and weapons. You cannot wear clothing or armor, but your thick hide and scales grant you an AC equal to 16 + your Dexterity modifier. You cannot wield weapons, but you can attack with your bite, dealing 2d10 + your Strength modifier piercing damage at 10 feet; or your tail, dealing 2d8 + your Strength modifier bludgeoning damage at 15 feet. You add your Strength modifier and your proficiency bonus when rolling to hit with these attacks. Your massive frame also makes you quite resilient, granting you an additional 3 hit points per level and proficiency in Constitution saving throws.

Multiattack

Once per turn, you can initiate a multiattack. First, you can choose to use your Frightful Presence. You then make two attacks: one with your bite and one with your tail.

Legendary Resistance

Starting at 5th level, you can use Legendary Resistance once per day to convert a failed saving throw into a success. The number of daily uses increases to two at level 9, three at level 13, and four at level 17. Uses of Legendary Resistance refresh at dawn each day.

Legendary Actions

You can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below:

Detect. You make a Wisdom (Perception) check.

Attack. You can make a bite or tail slam attack.

Cantrip. You can cast a cantrip.

Telekinetic Grasp. You exert your will on one creature or object that you can see within range, causing the appropriate effect below. You can affect the same target round after round, or choose a new one at any time. If you switch targets, the prior target is no longer affected.

Creature. You can try to move a Huge or smaller creature. Make an Intelligence check contested by the creature's Strength check. If you win the contest, you move the creature up to 30 feet in any direction, including upward but no further than 60 feet from you. Until the end of your next turn, the creature is restrained in your telekinetic grip. A creature lifted upward is suspended in mid-air.

On subsequent rounds, you can use your action to attempt to maintain your telekinetic grip on the creature by repeating the contest.

Object. You can try to move an object that weighs up to 1,000 pounds. If the object isn't being worn or carried, you automatically move it up to 30 feet in any direction, but no further than 60 feet from you.

If the object is worn or carried by a creature, you must make an Intelligence check contested by that creature's Strength check. If you succeed, you pull the object away from that creature and can move it up to 30 feet in any direction but no further than 60 feet from you.

You can exert fine control on objects with your telekinetic grip, such as manipulating a simple tool, opening a door or a container, stowing or retrieving an item from an open container, or pouring the contents from a vial.

Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. You regain spent legendary actions at the start of your turn.