Daiharu
Daiharu
The daiharu are the first non-human race to arise after the war and sundering. According to dated texts, the original daiharu were mindless creatures similar to mythical vampires; hunting and feeding upon the blood of humanity.
With enough time came sapience; intelligence, thoughts, emotions, and eventually culture. Two distinct cultural identities arose from the primal daiharu, each with their own suites of abilities and talents but unified in their basic needs.
Still requiring human blood as their only true sustenance, the daiharu began to protect human settlements in exchange for food. Immune to the blight that would turn them into the mindless undead, and inherently and supernaturally aware of areas of blight, the daiharu became the trusted leaders and advisors to the surviving humans.
The radiant were much more fervent about their desires to protect their human communities. It was not uncommon for young radiant to spend their youths zealously hunting zombies and plotting blighted lands. Umbrals became concerned with the growing and mutating undead populations, and so began their long research into the issue.
Despite their vampire-like origins, daiharu are not former humans. Further, unlike the Theru, a daiharu cannot interbreed or produce young with humans (except in very rare and specific cases). All daiharu young are born from daiharu parents with their cultural identity as a Radiant or Umbral decided based on personal choice. A child born of Radiant but raised by Umbral would most likely choose to become an Umbral.
Daiharu may (and frequently do) consume the same food as a human; however they gain most of their sustenance through a daily intake of fresh human blood; blood from beasts, Theru, or other daiharu provides no benefit. The amount of blood a daiharu requires for peak condition is trivial to most humans, but may leave those with frail constitutions weakened.
The original primitive daiharu fed off of humans in a barbaric style, slicing open veins and literally drinking the blood from their victim without any regard. Modern daiharu have developed a much more refined system of gaining blood from their human allies and servants. With the aid of Unicorn sorcerers, both daiharu cultures invented a magical ritual called the blood pact, which had the effect of forming a symbiotic binding between particular human (called a familiar) and daiharu.
When starting the game, a daiharu character should have access to a reliable source of food. This often drawn from their familiar, as described above, a human that your have formed a blood pact with. Most commonly a member of your household, the human does not necessarily need to be so in order to willingly perform the ritual with you.
While the familiar might be any simple NPC under the game-master's control, it could be extended to another player at the table. There are many tales of the noble Radiant paladin and her heroic Ember squire campaigning against the foul undead blighting the lands. If the game master does not with allow you to begin with a familiar (or your familiar is dead), then you must still find another source of food. It is usually possible to find a donor in any reasonably large town or city. Donors will usually charge a small fee for a single day’s worth of sustenance.
Religion. Daiharu do not have racial deities in the same fashion as the Theru. Culturally, each daiharu tends to form a relationship with any number of minor gods that occupy their property or serve the same interest as them. Think of these minor gods as something akin to Japanese kami. Some daiharu instead convert to the worship of one of the Theru deities, or they worship Phoenix, Dragon, or the Fates directly.
The Twilight is a church formed by Radiant and Umbral priests that do not worship any particular god, but proselytize the return and redemption of Phoenix. The priests are focused on tasks of healing, identifying and removing corruption in humans, forming paladin and templar organizations, or sending missionaries to heal and assist barbarians.
Blood Pact
While the mechanics of the blood pact ritual will vary from game to game, the following points should always be true:
The ritual may be performed by anyone who has the ability (daiharu, human, Theru, and even some demons or gods). In some games this may be explained as a feat, a racial trait, a low-level spell, or an appropriate number of dots in a Background advantage.
The ritual only works between a single daiharu and a single human. Both individuals must be willing to undergo the ritual, without the aid of supernaturally enforced consent. The daiharu is referred to as the master and the human as the familiar. Any human may be eligible to be a familiar, regardless of the origin. Any attempt to make a familiar of a non-human (such as a Theru, demon, god, another daiharu, or even a beast) automatically fails.
A master can have any number of familiars, but a familiar may only have one master. The bond created is close, but it does not necessarily allow any supernatural influence upon the familiar. If the human chooses, they may easily ignore any demands placed upon them by their master.
The familiar's aging slows dramatically, granting them anywhere from 50 to 75 years of healthy activity (assuming the ritual is performed relatively early in their life). They gain the benefit of enhanced senses, supernatural physical robustness, and a high tolerance or resistance for blight. A familiar who dies in a blighted area is highly unlikely to become undead. Finally, while the familiar would be weakened as any other human after being fed upon, her new physical robustness allows her to shrug off the effects with relative impunity. There should never be any mechanical disadvantage to the player of a familiar for donating blood to their master.
The master can call the familiar's blood to her at any distance of up to 60 feet. and can detect their familiar within 1 mile. This not only allows her to feed without truly harming her familiar, but also allows her to know the approximate location of her familiar should they become separated.
Role-playing Note. A daiharu's need to feed on blood should be largely a role-playing opportunity, and not a mechanical disadvantage or trial to undergo. Finding a blood donor can be interesting and fun, but it can tend to drag on the storytelling of the game if the task becomes the focus of every session. On the other hand, if other players are likewise starving or dying of thirst, it would be appropriate to levy the same penalties on your daiharu player.
Daiharu Traits
Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2.
Age. Daiharu mature at about the same rate as humans, but show few effects of age past adulthood. The first sign of age in a Daharu is the bleaching of their hair towards a more uniform gray or white. You might well live to be well over 200 years old, and remain vigorous almost to the end.
Size. Daiharu have the same range of height and weight as humans. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
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. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Bite. You are proficient with your bite, which is a natural weapon and counts as a simple melee weapon. Your bite deals 1d4 piercing damage on a hit, and you may add your Constitution modifier instead of your Strength to the attack and damage rolls. (When biting your familiar, you may choose to deal no damage.)
Resistances. You have resistance to necrotic damage and radiant damage.
Detect Corruption. You may cast the detect corruption spell without using a spell slot. You are not limited on the number of times per day you may cast the spell.