Tomeblood

I am not really sure what to write here. Usually you'd write an excerpt from a story, but given the unique circumstance of the race it would be kind of weird. Since they're so outlandish it's mostly just other tomebloods that have seen tomebloods, and I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't know what happens when a tomeblood writes a book. Does that make a new tomeblood? You could get into some real eugenics stuff about just writing a book to make the strongest tomeblood. Or maybe you'd just make a tomeblood that is better at making better tomebloods. Wow, I should have thought this through.

-E. Manuel, Title

The Story of a Story

A tomeblood is born in the Vast Lexicon of Yaquesh when an author in another plane finishes writing a book, novel, encyclopedia, or other form of written text. Their personality is directly linked to the type of book that engendered their existence. They not only exhibit the themes of their book, but also have quirks like repeating a main character's catchphrase, mimic the author's writing style in their speech, and are prone to make excessive amounts of plays on words.

Most tomebloods are born as adults with fully developed personalities and memories. However, when an author does not finish a piece of text, an unfinished tomeblood is born. These unfinished tomebloods vary wildly in their capabilities. For some, they are passable for fully written tomebloods, but some are unpredictable, explosive, and confused. These tomebloods are shunned from tomeblood society.

Leather Bound

Tomebloods often take on the appearance of a humanoid main character of their story, if one exists. In the cases of dictionaries, encyclopedias, and works featuring non-humanoids, tomebloods take on the appearance of a human. Regardless of their appearance, one can always tell a creature is a tomeblood by the stitching that runs from the small of their back, over their head, and down their chest.

Despite their resemblances of other races, tomebloods gain no traits of the race they resemble.

A Great Duty

Each tomeblood is born with a duty, determined by the original work that created them. A tomeblood born of a noble prince who slew an evil dragon may have a vengeance for dragons, and wish to slay all of dragonkind.

Consider what your tomebloods duty is and how it relates to their original story.

Tomeblood Names

Tomebloods are born with an innate knowledge of their name, which is derived from the title of their book. Some tomebloods prefer nicknames that signify their duty.

Tomeblood Names: Adventure, Cook, Joke, Kingdom, Love, Lyric, Ocean, Princess, Sailor, Snake, Travel, Warrior

Tomeblood Traits

Your tomeblood character shares certain traits with all other tomebloods, which are all inherited from their beginnings as books.

Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 1.

Age. Tomebloods are born fully grown, even if they resemble children. They can live between 30 and 400 years, with romance tomebloods living the shortest, and history tomebloods living the longest.

Alignment. Due to an immense variety of authors, all alignments of tomebloods exist.

Size. Despite some tomebloods resembling smaller races such as gnomes or goblins, all tomebloods stand between 5 and 7 feet tall. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Foresight. You have a natural knowledge of tropes and how situations tend to play out. During a period of 10 minutes you can hallucinate and foretell a single event. At the end of your hallucination you cast the augury spell. You can't use this feature again until you finish a long rest.

Unbind. You can literally be opened like a book by unravelling your stitches. Inside is an extradimensional space which can hold up to 10 cubic feet of items. Items stored in this way have a weight of 0.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and an additional language of your choice.

Subrace. A wide variety of genres has lead to a separation between the tomebloods, forming several subraces: actions, dramas, histories, horrors, mysteries, romances, and unfinished tomebloods.

Action Tomeblood

Tales of death defying feats, slaughtering of enemy forces, and plunging into dangerous realms result in the creation of action tomebloods. These tomebloods are notoriously brave and nonchalant in hazardous situations.

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 1 and your Charisma score increases by 1.

Death Defying Personality. You gain proficiency in the Athletics skill.

Undying Might. When you fail a Strength or Dexterity saving throw, you may choose to succeed instead. You can't use this feature again until you finish a long rest.

Undying Spirit. When you fail a death saving throw, you may choose to succeed instead. You can't use this feature again until you finish a long rest.

Drama Tomeblood

Great stories of heroes, the rise and fall of rulers, and devasting tragedies all form into drama tomebloods. These tomebloods take pleasure in the journey, rather than the destination, and will often go out of their way if it makes their circumstance more theatrical.

Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2.

Dramatic Personality. You gain proficiency in the Performance skill.