Lycan

The great schism of the lycan came in the Age of Water. At paired monoliths now lost in the Marrow Wall and Eldercrown Mountains respectively, thousands of the prey caste were sacrificed in a staggering druidic ritual led by the ancient shamans of the Circle of Ga. They sought to stem the maddened tide of eldritch power by pushing the Ecculus, the eclipsing moon of the Lighted, and the Shadowed, the planet on the northern axis further from the world. As the ritual failed, the prey and predator castes clashed, seeing the failings in each others’ ways. As the predator caste gained power within the Packs of the Lycan, the prey caste became the hunted and indentured by their own kind and many lineages were brought to an end. In the Age of Water the Lycan became a people divided.

With the end of the War of Extinction, the peace of Arkyme took hold, and the prey caste who had long stayed hidden or been ignored heard the call of a world anew. Rumbles of resistance began, but it was not until the rise of the one known as the Barren King. A were-elephant once known as Oyinyumba Inkosi was indentured to serve the Ga Shaman Rishtana, the high priest of the druidic faith of the Southern Pack. The abuses heaped upon him and the injustices he saw at the hands of the predator caste one day was beyond what anyone could suffer. He killed the Ga Shaman in a rage and fled Zudishu to the Marrow Wall. For all the hurt he held within, something in the Marrow Wall fed his pain and made him strong. He began to bring other like minded prey caste into his “Hurting Herd” as he discovered the monolith of ancient days, and the truth of the schism between the lycan. Yet the strong voice never left him. For nearly fifty years he gained in infamy as the voice that came to him soon fed upon the hatred the prey felt for the predators, forming a psychic manifestation of the prey’s hatred.

Sparked by the intervention of Wardens of Arkyme. Lethallan of Tal’dalen in the north, a werefox bard and her companions were among the first to truly recognize the depth of the schism of the lycan people. Sent to capture the Barren King as a murdering dissident by Arkyme for the Circle of Ga, instead these Wardens took the manifestation of the prey caste. A weapon named Zoraxter, an eldritch relic that promised to kill the Heart Baoi Tree of Zudishu, giving the prey caste and the Barren King their vengeance. Lethallan and the Wardens chose to imprison Zoraxter within one of the Abastiv’s demiplanes, though the spark of the prey caste’s retribution had been lit.

The Barren King led the horde of prey caste across the Barrens killing druids of the Circle of Ga, those who enforced the laws of the cycle of predator and prey. Though the strange psychic bond began to break down with Warden’s actions, and yet the Barren King would not stop.

Further resolution to be detailed...

Lycan Traits

Ability Score Increase - Your Constitution score increases by 2.

Age - Lycan mature the same rate as humans, but due to their nature live well into a century.

Alignment - Lycans favor no alignment like their human counterparts, but packs are of lawful alignment.

Death - The souls of lycans, much like their human brethren, pass into realms beyond due the devotion shown to the powers they serve. Most hold to the joining of a soul to its nature, seeing themselves as imbued by the gods to dwell on the Prime and pass on their life to sustain it.

Size - They share the same varied characteristics of the humans ranging between 5 to 6 feet and your size is medium. Their other forms alter these norms.

Speed - Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision - While in your Hybrid or Bestial form your Lycan ancestry has granted you the ability to see in dim light up to 60 feet as if it were brightly lit.

Keen Senses - While in your Hybrid or Bestial form you have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.

Pack Tactics - You have advantage on attacks rolls against a creature if at least one of your allies is within 5 feet of the creature and that ally isn't incapacitated.

Shapechange - You can choose to use your action to shapechange into a hybrid of the lycan form or into a Large bestial form, or back into your true form, which is humanoid. Your statistics, other than size are the same in each form. Any equipment you are wearing or carrying isn't transformed. You revert to your true form if you die.

Hybrid Form - You gain a +1 AC while not wearing heavy armor and your walking speed increases 5 feet. You can take the same actions you would as in your true form.

Bestial Form - You gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage made by non magical attacks and your walking speed increases by 10 feet. You have advantage on Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution checks as well as Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution saving throws, You are unable to wield objects, perform somatic components, or wear armor in your bestial form unless made for this form. Your unarmed attacks deal 1d6 slashing damage plus your Strength modifier.

Languages - You speak, read, and write Common.

Subrace - There are twelve subraces that are part of the Northern and Southern Lycan packs. Different traits and abilities are among them: those of the predator caste Werebear, Werefox, and Werewolf of the North. The Werehyena, Werejackal, and Werecat of the South. Then there are those of the prey caste Weremammoth, Werehare, and Werestag of the North. The Were-elephant, Wererat, and Weregnu of the South.

Werebear and Werehyena

Ability Score Increase - Your Strength score is increased by 1.

Relentless Endurance - When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you drop to 1 hit point instead. You can't use this feature again until after a long rest.

Werewolf and Werejackal

Ability Score Increase - Your Wisdom score is increased by 1.

Steadfast - You can't be frightened while you can see an allied creature within 30 feet.

Werefox and Werecat

Ability Score Increase - Your Dexterity score is increased by 1.

Lucky - When you roll a 1 on the d20 for an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll.

Weremammoth and Were-elephant

The Weremammoth of the northern lycan have survived on the very fringes of the world. The far frozen reaches of the Eldercrown, even ranging into the Rimehold allowed these hidden herds to persist through the ages. To the south, the Were-elephants clung to their ways in the southern wastes of the Marrow Wall and the eastern wilds of the Endless Canopy in reclusive clans. Where in the north the predator caste largely ignored the weremammoth, in the south, the were-elephant were valued as indentured servants as a sign of a predator’s station.

The weremammoth and the were-elephant share a resolute and obstinate nature, and though separated by both the ages and the breadth of the world, these lycan much to offer their kin. Bearing strength of both body and will, these lycan seek to make their mark upon the world, and carry with them the wisdom of their ancestors.

The weremmamoth clans are defined by their mountain fortresses, their only parallel in stone work is that of the dwarves or stone giants. They keep to bonded family groups led by elders, sharing in shamanistic beliefs of the icy elemental spirits that truly ruled their lands. The weremammoth herds would migrate between their fortress as the elemental seasons shifted, keeping them from the scrutiny of the Northern Lycan pack and ensuring their continued survival.

The were-elephant tribes of the Endless Canopy have always prospered with their deep knowledge of the jungles, and by this they have survived the persecution of the Southern Lycan Pack. While the herds attempted to hide beyond the reach of the predator caste, they were unable to escape the predator hunters. So the herds begin to choose by lot, their kin to be taken by the Southern Lycan Pack. Those that could not abide in this, or those that escaped the bondage of the Southern Pack, fled to the Marrow Wall. These lost herds scraped out a living trading in scavenged remains and relics to the peoples that came to seek the bones of old.

Ability Score Increase - Your Strength or Intelligence score is increased by 1.

Mighty - When making a Strength check if your total is below your Strength ability score, the total becomes equal to your Strength score.

Werehare and Wererat

The Werehare of the north have long been forced to flee the marauding of the predator caste, driving many warrens of werehares to risk living on the edges of the Faemark or even encroach into the Windward Steppes. Adept at moving quickly in and out of danger, the werehare have been marked by guileless attempts in their history to claim lands for themselves, always sent off to hide yet in one more place across the north.

The Wererat lycan have long been spread far and wide into the places of other peoples and taken to scavenging in the Depths. The only places wererats were openly lycan was in the servitude of the Southern Lycan Pack. Wererats are the most known of the prey caste and over the ages as humanoid cities rose, foul stories of “ratmen” living in sewers or catacombs pervaded.

Both these lycan seek to go unseen and are leery of outsiders, keeping close to their large family units. Those werehares and wererats that leave their communes usually do so as part of a quest to aid their kin or have been exiled.

Ability Score Increase - Your Dexterity or Wisdom score is increased by 1.

Wary - When a hostile creature moves within 15 feet of you, as a reaction you can Dash or Disengage moving up to half your movement away from the creature.

Werestag and Weregnu

Roaming in herds across the outer reaches of lycan lands the werestag and weregnu have proven to be able to stand against the oppression of the lycan packs and any foe they meet. Of the prey caste these lycan have remained either the most rebellious or evasive. The aggressive outlook of both werestag and weregnu have made them respectively reviled and renowned by the lycan of the predator caste.

The werestag of the north have at times through the ages been openly contentious with the predators of the pack, meeting the marauding and oppression with renegade tactics. Werestag druidic warriors rival those of the predator caste, and through many deadly periods of violence the Northern Lycan Pack chose to ignore the werestag herds that roamed through the Mistaigan of the Vespered Timberlands.

Weregnu herds are among the largest gatherings of prey caste lycan on Kyme, though the tyranny of the Circle of Ga and their dogma of the prey and predator cycle made weregnu adept at thwarting the predator castes attempts at total subjugation. Through extreme survival tact and devotion to the harnessing of their physical self the weregnu persisted. A deep monastic tradition still holds to the wandering weregnu, though the united suffering of their people made it impossible for any to leave the herds of the far eastern Barrens until all were free to roam as they choose.

Ability Score Increase - Your Wisdom or Charisma score is increased by 1.

Challenging - When you move at least 10 feet toward a hostile creature, you force the creature to use their reaction, flinching at your approach, unless they are immune to the frightened condition. Once you use this feature on a creature they are immune to its effects for 24 hours.

Note on Prey Caste Lycan

There exist many lycan that share a bestial spirit with other animal forms though exceedingly rare. The DM could allow the primary playable choices to serve as a guide to other types of lycan forms. Working with your DM you can use the playable options as a guide to play another type of lycan.