Homebrew Hagspawn Species Details
Origin
Typically, hags propogate by devouring a humanoid infant, then a week later giving birth to a daughter who looks like said race but then transforms into a hag. Sometimes they raise this child and groom it to become a hag, other times they give the child to the grieving parents and watch from the shadows for the child to bring horror on the parents. However, this is not the only way that hags propogate. A woman who approaches a hag desiring fertility, or a man seeking a cure for impotence, might be given a charm or potion that “cures” them, but ensures the children they sire will be Hagspawn. Some hags, rather than giving birth by eating an infant, become impregnated by traditional means, though almost always with a cruel twist. This may be a night hag impersonated a man’s lover, or a green hag pretending to be a distressed damsel who will do anything to thank her “rescuers,” or a sea hag who abuses sailors she has captured. In any event, the hag becomes pregnant, and usually gives the child away in a manner to cause the most grief, such as to the wife of the man who sired the child or into an orphanage where she hopes it will cause the other children to suffer.
Marked for Corruption
Hagspawn appear to be normal humanoid children, always female, though they tend to be taller, slender, and more beautiful than typical girls. This is intended to make them initially more accepted into the community and make their subsequent transformation all the more terrible. Hags have a mental link to the Hagspawn that they create, which they use to send corrupting dreams. Young Hagspawn find their dreams always encouraging them to chaos and evil. At first they are pushed to milder forms of mischief, but cronespawn are encouraged further and further to greater and greater malice. The dreams urge them to nurse grudges against people who have wronged them, to resent any and all authority, and to ignore any rules and laws that they do not like. They promise Hagspawn power for revenge, enjoyment, and a sympathetic figure as the Hagspawn becomes more socially isolated. They also instruct the Hagspawn how to become a hag; at some point after her thirteenth birthday, she must kill and eat a prepubescent humanoid child, at which point she will instantly transform into a hag.
As the Hagspawn matures, the magic innate within it begins to manifest, subtly affecting the world around it: milk will sour, clothes will soil, odd odors and strange sounds will follow them, and other such effects. These effects last until the Hagspawn gets a grasp upon her magic, but until she does the effects sow distrust and distress into the community, and further isolate the Hagspawn. This comes to its height on the midnight of her thirteenth birthday, where her body will develop physical signs of her hag origin. All Hagspawn will find their eyes mismatched colors, their skin a slightly different shade, and other changes based on their hag mother’s origin. Usually this is a confirmation of what many in the community have already suspected and gossiped about, and many react with aggression and fear, worrying that she will kill their children and become a hag.
Fighting Mother's Call
Fortunately, most hags do not actively seek their Hagspawn for a variety of reasons, such as delighting in the torment rebellious cronespawn feel every night, prefer subtlety to direct action, surety that their cronespawn’s resistance cannot hold out forever and she will eventually sink to the dark sisterhood, or even being unable to easily find or reach her daughter. And most Hagspawn do indeed become hags. If a Hagspawn reaches adulthood without becoming a hag, it almost always indicates that she is fighting the call to become a hag. Lack of means or opportunity is almost never the case, for Hagspawn that desire to become a hag but lack opportunity to do so themselves are then guided by their hag mother to her lair, where she provides the means to transform. Thus, almost all Hagspawn that are not hags are so because of conscious effort and resistance to their hag mother’s call. The only exception is when their hag mother is killed when they are very young, for if the hag mother is killed the dreams stop and the Hagspawn develop without her temptation.
Because the death of their hag mother will stop her constant troubling dreams, many Hagspawn make it a personal quest to hunt down their hag mother and slay her. As such an inordinate amount of Hagspawn gravitate towards adventuring compared to other races. However, Hagspawn are still very rare, since children produced by hags are themselves a rarity and those who resist their hag mother’s call are a small fraction of that. Other Hagspawn, particular those whose hag mother is a grandmother hag, resign themselves to their dreams and instead try to make the best of their lot in life. Hagspawn typically have trouble with their identity, refusing to embrace their hag side and being shunned by most other communities.
Feared and Shunned
Most people hate and shun hags, and for good reason. Cronespawn too tend to be feared and ostracized by both ignorant and learned, superstitious and rational. The ignorant do not understand the difference between cronespawn and hags, seeing cronespawn as just a lesser form of hag, and thus a danger to the community and themselves. Those who know more of the cronespawn also know that they can become a hag any time they desire and face constant temptation to do so. They thus tend to view them like a sword that hangs from a fraying rope, which could snap and destroy at any time. Cronespawn highly cherish those who know she is a cronespawn and still show her any measure of charity and acceptance. Still, cronespawn know that the vast majority of people will hate and fear them because of their hag heritage. This is another reason why they tend to be drawn to adventuring, for adventuring parties, often outcasts themselves, have usually seen all manner of strange creatures, temptations, and weird magics. This greater worldly exposure, their own often unique nature, and perhaps even their confidence that they could deal with her if she does become a hag means they are one of the groups most likely to treat a conespawn as a person and not a monster. As such cronespawn adventurers often have a very strong attachment to their fellow adventurers.
Cronespawn almost always have some ideal or very strong reason for why they have not become a hag, particularly when so many shun, fear, and hate them simply for what they are. There are very powerful lures to accept their hag mother’s call: promise of power for revenge and do as they please, to make people seek them out for favors instead of running them out of town, to never worry about aging, and more. Those who resist need a powerful motivator to fight this temptation. Here are a few examples of such ideals:
d6
Reason to Resist the Call
1
Morality: What my hag mother calls me to do, and the nature of hags, is evil, and I refuse to become evil. (Good)
2
Vanity: I am beautiful. Hags are ugly. I don’t want to become ugly. Perhaps I will reconsider becoming a hag when age has stolen my beauty. (Evil)
3
Personal Bond: There is someone in particular, be it a person, a family, an organization, or even a deity, who I cherish and who does not want me to become a hag. They believe in me; I will not fail them. (Lawful)
4
Self-determination: Becoming a hag might give more power to do what I want, but this is the path my hag mother is trying to force me down. I will forge my own path, chosen by me and not her. (Chaotic)
5
Identity: I am not a hag now. If I become a hag, I as I am now will cease to be: my personality, mind, and body would irrevocably change from human to hag. To become a hag is effectively to die, and I don’t want to die. (Neutral)
6
Spite: I hate my hag mother. To become a hag is to let her win. I refuse to let that vile creature win. (Evil)
Hagspawn Traits
Your Hagspawn lineage character has the following racial traits.Speed
Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Ability Score Increase or Feat
Choose to either increase two Ability Scores by one, or select a Feat.
Languages
Your character can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for the character. The Player’s Handbook offers a list of widespread languages to choose from. The DM is free to add or remove languages from that list for a particular campaign. If you are replacing your race with a lineage, you retain any languages you had and gain no new languages.
Creature Type
Every creature in D&D, including every player character, has a special tag in the rules that identifies the type of creature they are. Most player characters are of the Humanoid type. A race option presented here tells you what your character’s creature type is.
Your creature type is both Humanoid and Fey.
If an effect works on at least one of a creature’s types, that effect can work on that creature. For example, if you are both a Humanoid and an Undead, cure wounds works on you, since the spell works on a Humanoid.
Size
Your size is Medium or Small (choose when you gain this lineage).
Darkvision
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.
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