Dark Fantasy X Race Deep Dive: Seraphim

There's been a long and storied history of mythology about angelic beings mating with humans, giving rise to hybrids. Frankly, the stories of most of the Greek heroes aren't far removed from this paradigm either; Theseus is a semideus son of Poseidon, Herakles of Zeus, Perseus of Zeus, etc. Gilgamesh is also supposed to be a demigod, as is the Irish hero Cú Chulainn (or Cuhullin as he's sometimes known in older English texts) who was a son of Lugh.

In the famous yet disappointing RPG originally written and developed in the northern Midwest, but now under the ownership of terrible yet ridiculous people from Seattle, angel-blooded mortals are relatively common. Known as aasimars, they have appeared in many scenarios and settings as NPCs and are available as a player character race in many editions, including spin-off games like Pathfinder. Curiously, the idea of an unwed knocking up of a human by a mortal (or vice-versa, I suppose) is—in typical Seattle fashion—seen as a good thing, as is the actual marriage of a mortal and an immortal. I mean, even the Greeks didn't think Zeus' philandering was an admirable trait. I've never thought this made any sense; if angels are bangin' mortals, that is pretty much the default condition for being a fallen angel, and therefore hardly a creature of good.

Hebrew mythology, which has infected some weird apocryphal Christian beliefs, takes a similar tack, and refers to the Sons of Men, or The Watchers, in some cases, as angels who fell for some human girls and spawned a race of giants... although conveniently forgotten is that giant meaning "an extremely physically large person" is only one meaning of the word, and not necessarily the most likely or common one from the past, or necessarily the best interpretation of how the original word which was translated into English as giant should have been translated. Jotunn is also frequently translated as giant, and yet we see that many of them were normal sized peers of the Aesir, not gigantic monstrous creatures; although sometimes they were indeed monstrous, gigantic, fanged, many-headed, etc. But also, Odin himself is half jotunn, Loki is usually considered a jotunn, or at least half jotunn, depending on the source, Mimir, the advice-head of Odin is a normal-sized jotunn, etc. The same verse that calls the sons of children of the "Sons of God and the daughters of men" giants, refers to their great renown, which is almost certainly a better indicator of their being giant. I've even heard a description of the term meaning that they were like criminal warlords, who ruled as giants on the earth. I don't know that that's what was meant, but it sounds reasonable to me and I like it.

My own church takes a more conservative position than that of fallen angels, which is echoed by many other sects of Christianity to greater or lesser degree; that the Sons of God were actually the descendants of Seth who had made covenants with God and received his priesthood, thus becoming his sons. Their abandonment of their covenants to chase after those who were not of their faith (often considered to be mostly the offspring of Cain—but I don't believe that Adam and Eve's named children in Genesis were truly their only children; merely the ones that were mentioned because they were important enough to be mentioned for whatever reason) is their defining feature. In doing so, their progeny became the Nephilim, which is probably more accurately translated as "the fallen ones" than anything like giants. But they weren't fallen angels, they were fallen people who had the truth of the Gospel and authority passed down to them from God through Adam himself and his righteous descendants. 

But still; while I consider the mortal offspring of fallen angels to be mythological rather than theological, fantasy borrows a ton of cool ideas from mythology. And it fits perfectly with my conception of demihumans. For a long time, I had nephilim as a playable character race, as a kind of darker mirror to D&D's rather facile and shallow concept of aasimar... but I didn't really love the name. I also envisioned them maybe as more mortal rather than really very angelic; like the highmen of Age of Wonders fame, or even the Numenoreans of the Lord of the Rings before they became corrupted and "degraded" to being "just regular men" status. I struggled with the idea of a society for them, but ultimately decided that they were too rare to have their own society; they showed up—sometimes generations after any such fallen angel union—among normal people and normal societies, and their nature wasn't necessarily recognized right away; they might just be considered extremely handsome children, although as their platinum blond hair and light gray eyes turned to pure silver chrome as they entered adolescence, the cat was usually out of the bag. 

I also changed the name to seraph (plural seraphs or seraphim) which, I know, is a type of angel in Hebrew angelology, because I think it's a better name than nephilim, which doesn't even have a real singular form. As an editorial comment (I'm both writer and editor in this case, of course) I'm actually not all that fond of the concept anymore, although I'm loth to remove it. That said, I'm in some ways equally not all that fond of any of the PC demihuman races, although I see a place for them. I would probably run a Dark Fantasy X game with the rule that you can only play human characters until your group at least meets another non-human or demihuman PC, at which point, you "unlock" access to that race in your game. Of course, because you already have a character, you're not likely to kill him off or bench him just to run off and play an orc or Hyperborean, or whatever, keeping the strong humano-centric theme of the game, while technically allowing deviations from it in a small way. I think the craziness of 3e-5e is in large part driven by the designers' fascination with the bizarre, which translates to a fascination among the player base because the designers have written their weirdo races with so much passion. Of course, 5e has gone so far off the reservation in that regard that animal-people furries are common, and the game feels more like a strange cosmic and deranged cartoon version of The Avengers or the Justice League in fantasy drag rather than an actual fantasy setting in any kind of traditional sense. And that's fine if that's what it wants to be, but let's acknowledge that that isn't what is used to be, and there's certainly a big place within the market for more traditional fantasy that's grounded in our shared Western civilization European Medievalist culture. 

Given that, seraphs may not be very likely to appear in many of my games, and I don't have an iconic character who's a seraph. I also have a pretty vague curse on them (there's a reason my setting used to be called Dark•Heritage, and all of the demi-human races have their dark side.) Given the fallen angel status of their angelic forebear, seraphs all struggle with very base emotions and urges, and many—if not most—of them are profoundly flawed individuals. This, of course, makes them even more difficult as player characters, but here's a list of flaws I found long ago that could serve as a point of inspiration on where to point our character. Many seraphs who are unable to conquer their fallen impulse are truly psychopathic, sociopathic, narcissistic, perverted, sadistic or otherwise truly disturbing individuals. (SJWs and other leftist hangers-on, if you will. The Kyle Brink of Dark Fantasy X.)

That said, seraphs do exist in the Dark Fantasy X setting, and they are playable, depending on the GM. (Let's be honest; I'm the only one who would ever GM this, and I'd be unlikely to have a seraph in any game of mine, unless some player down the line after the game was already running really got a hankering to play one.) They don't have a specific society, because they are born into human society—but they are always outsiders who don't quite fit in to the societies in which they live. Sometimes they are predators and parasites, using their Dark Triad traits to manipulate those around them, sometimes they are merely loners and outsiders, or they are life of the party, popular, but in a shallow sense that excludes much in the way of deep personal connections with the people around them.

Of course, everyone is fallen; that's a key point of Christian doctrine. For the seraphim, however, their struggle with their fallen nature should be a more crucial part of their character arc and one of the main themes for using the race at all.

Anyway, maybe this isn't the deepest of race deep dives, but that's likely because the seraphs aren't ever going to be a deep part of the setting anyway. Here, as is my wont, is my Hero Forge collection of seraphs—smaller than for some of the other races that I have a clearer idea of what to do with. Some of them advertise their fallen nature fairly well, but many of them just look like normal people with silver hair and eyes.

This seraph adventurer is more likely to represent a player character than most here.

This one, on the other hand, probably represents a notorious highwayman or outlaw

Another seraph who gives away little of his character other than his lineage

This guy was modeled (loosely) on a piece of art I saw somewhere, including the metal hand. I thought he looked more like a seraph than anything else

A seraph assassin

This seraph more closely resembles the semi-angelic Roman look of the highmen from Age of Wonders; probably because the Roman-like lorica segmentata gives off a vaguely angelic and classical vibe

Another seraph bad guy of some kind or another.

A seraph good guy for a change; one who works hard to conquer his fallen nature and works as a colleague alongside guys like the Clevengers in the Ranger Corps

As normal, let's finish off with the text from the game itself.

Seraphim: The seraphim, or seraphs, claim that their exotic ancestry is angelic, and they do look the part, with beautiful, well-proportioned bodies, pale skin, silver-white hair, chrome eyes and clear voices. However, if angels left progeny amongst mortals, then they must, by definition, be fallen angels… A seraph gains a +1 to MND and a +1 to Knowledge and Communication. They are rare enough that they don’t have any specific homelands or communities, but live among others.

These last few images have nothing whatsoever to do with the seraphs. But I like them, and want to include them. I'm working on how exactly to incorporate them into Dark Fantasy X somehow.

The King in Yellow. He was actually a figure of some consequence in Dark•Heritage, so maybe it's appropriate to port him over.

An ancient iron golem or other animated statue of some kind, covered in rust and vines. I actually only have flesh golem stats in the monster list. I always wanted to include stone and iron, but then again, maybe there's no point in having slightly different stats for them anyway when one set works just fine

Based on an illustration I found once long ago for a gnophkeh, one of the Lovecraftian races who were supposedly responsible for chasing the people of Zobna away from their homeland to Lomar. I've always said that the thurse stats could represent everything from ogres and bugbears to sasquatches, yeti and gnophkeh, so here's yet another interpretation of a thurse, I suppose.

Here's the art that I loosely based it on:

Curses in DH5

I often describe DH5 as a humano-centric setting,but that's not strictly speaking true.  I certainly focus more on nations made up of humans, and my expectations are that humans make up a vast majority of the individuals that you'll find unless you wander farther afield than the portions of the setting that I intend to develop and detail.  That said, there are small pockets of demihuman communities in the Hill Country and Timischburg both, and any of them could potentially be found anywhere in either country.  Most of them would arouse curiosity, especially in the smaller towns where cosmopolitanism is completely unknown, but in larger cities, especially Simashki and Waychester (and to a lesser extent, Upwater) they are relatively commonly spotted for those who are looking for them, and there are a number of permanent residents of every demihuman race.

I use demihuman quite deliberately.  I'm not quite sure what Gary Gygax meant by the term; he seems to have used it for the most anthropomorphic of the non-human races; i.e., dwarfs, elfs, halflings, etc. were demihumans, but orcs, goblins, gnolls, etc. were not, because they were more savage and less anthropomorphic in rough terms.  I use demihuman to refer to the fact that the non-human races are, in fact, mostly human—their differences are the result of either a curse or a monstrous admixture into their genetic matrix at some point in the past (with the exception of orcs and goblins, who are simply monstrous non-human humanoids).  This is usually quite minor, but it has effects that are immediately obvious on their physical appearance, and more sinister in some cases than one may think.  Few of the human populations, hillmen, drylanders, Timischers or others are truly aware of the nature of these curses, and they often only manifest at very low levels among the population; but these dark secrets are not unknown to most members of the races in question, and they often police their own very carefully to avoid having these curses manifest among mixed populations, because they would make the race unwelcome in Hill Country, or anywhere else, for that matter, if they were better known.

In terms of the game (as opposed to the setting as a place for potential fiction) I'd suggest that unless a player wants to roleplay out the effects of one of these curses, that they be seen as not affecting PC characters.  I suggest, in fact, that they not affect major NPCs either, unless it's a theme or something that you want to explore deliberately.  I'd suggest that if you needed a statistical number for how likely it is to occur, that in every case, that number is less than 1%.  However... there are considerably more than a hundred individuals (or even a thousand, in most cases) of these races in the lands that I'm detailing, so if this is something that you want to use for whatever reason, you can.  I'll have a very brief section below on all of the available demihuman races.  And folks; although DARK•HERITAGE as a label is now out of date; i.e. the reason I picked that name no longer applies, the fact that every demihuman race is cursed, and there is still a fairly strong Lovecraftian vibe in the setting means that the label still works even so.

• Cursed: The Cursed are originally from the land of Zobna which is a subset of Hyperborea, but they were chased from that home country by the invasion of the savage Inutos.  They have since established a new home in Lomar, but that is under attack as well, and refugees have been fleeing southwards for many generations.  The most likely places to find Cursed are the seaside town of Inganok, and Daikos in the far north of the Hill Country.  The Cursed have been cursed many generations ago by the gnophkeh, whom they swept aside when they conquered Lomar.  This curse, when it manifests, takes the form of an uncontrollable urge towards cannibalism.  Nobody knows for sure how many cursed are cannibals (some engage in the practice culturally whether affected by the curse or not), but those who fall under the curse must consume human flesh, or they will slowly devolve into ghouls.  For the most part, the repast must happen once per month at the least.  Some Cursed in Inganok suspect that their own people, devolved into ghouls, and then clawed their way out of savagery into sentience again are the origin of the vampires of Timischburg; although that seems unlikely that it is the only source of such, given that the land of Timischburg, especially Grozavest itself, has been laboring under a dark curse for far longer than the Cursed have lived in the area anyway.
• Kemling: The Kemlings believe that their ancestor was a daemon-lord named Chernavog, who lived for a time among mortals and fathered seed who's daemonic traits are now watered down to represent their own race.  This is pseudo-legendary; nobody knows for sure that such a person actually lived, although by tradition, Chernavog's son Hutran Kutir, the Hex-King, is the founder of Baal Hamazi, their glorious empire of the past.  Whether that's true or not, it is true that the kemlings are more likely than any other race to fall victim to the Black Choler, a kind of violent madness.  Such victims are usually quietly locked away or even put down entirely for the good of the community.  In fact, the latter is often preferred, although family members sometimes object; in the worst case scenario, someone afflicted by the Black Choler may burst open when the condition is fully ripe, and a daemon (usually merely an imp or servitor daemon, but sometimes more powerful ones are able to latch on to the bloodline and follow it to the mortal world) will claw its way out of the bloody corpse to afflict everyone around.
• Jann: Ifrits are to jann as daemons are to the kemlings; i.e., supposedly an ifrit lord, possibly Hammu Qaiyu himself, is the mythical ancestor of the entire race.  While the jann are often fiery tempered and emotionally dramatic, a trait that they somewhat ruefully blame on their distant, legendary ancestor, the truth is that there is a connection of some sort between Muspelheim and the jann.  Any jann who move to the City of Brass (a bit of a non sequitur, since leaving the mortal realm is something hardly anyone knows how to do) are immune from this curse, but every once in a while, a burning flame will find its way from Muspelheim to a jann person, who will spontaneously combust in a wild conflagration that can consume entire houses, or any nearby people.  Luckily, this is rare, but it has been known to happen, and the jann themselves have a body of lore and old wives tales about spontaneous combustion, how to avoid it, how to cause it in your rivals, etc.
• Skraeling: Skraelings, or Wendaks, are often considered to be merely a highly variable race of humans; short and often lanky; dark-skinned, but with brown hair and bright blue eyes, very broad, flat faces, etc.  The Skraelings have some connection to lost Atlantis, however—they are either the degenerate descendants of the Atlanteans, or feral former slaves of the Atlanteans, or some-such; even their own folklore is unclear.  Atlantis is the most evil civilization that ever lived, however—even more than Baal Hamazi, or so it's mostly believed, and everyone associated with Atlantis bears a curse that fell upon the land, destroying it, and even tainting the survivors who weren't on Atlantis itself when it sank into the sea, such as the Wendaks.  The technology of the Skraelings is limited by their curse.  They do not work metal, and do not even keep metal taken from their neighbors, as it will cause the Shrieking Sickness to come upon those who possess it.  Skraelings, if they encounter the hillmen or other more "modern" people are xenophobic, surly, often violent, and primitive, refusing to trade or speak with other people as much as possible, and more likely to simply attack them or flee from them, depending on the circumstances.  The exceptions are outcasts from Skraeling society, which exist for various reasons, but they are relatively rare and tend to keep to themselves and try and hide, as much as possible, their ethnic origin if they travel among the other peoples of the land.  But even they still use stone, wood or bone tools as much as possible, and possess no metal.
• Orcs and Goblins: Orcs and goblins are not a cursed human race, but rather a unique race (well, two associated races; the relationship between them is a source of much discussion, even among themselves) that, while humanoid, have obvious physical differences.  Orcs are relatively large and robustly built, much like Neanderthals would have been.  They also have inch long (or occasionally more) tusks protruding from their lower jaw, and very flat noses but large pointed ears, and grayish-olive skin but they otherwise appear human enough.  Goblins, on the other hand, are quite small and sneaky, with brownish-gray skin, pointed ears and sharp teeth, and beady eyes.  Neither are cursed per se, but their obvious inhumanity puts them at a severe disadvantage socially.  Both are also creatures that are less at home in the daylight than humans are, and find the sun both irritatingly hot and bright during the day (their home country of Gunaakt is near the sea, and almost always overcast and/or foggy.)  While there isn't any mechanical penalty in game for this nocturnal or crepuscular preference, if you want, on extremely sunny days, you could give a -1 penalty to almost every roll that these guys make; although in a crepuscular environment (they prefer this to nocturnal; they don't see in the dark, after all, like kemlings do), they might have a +1.
• Nephilim: While people see the "angel-people" as both beautiful and avatars or exemplars of the glories of celestial life, the reality is that the only reason nephilim can exist is because of fallen angels, and therefore, the nephilim, rarely appearing as they are, are just as cursed as the kemlings are by their heritage.  If you're looking for a roleplaying hook for a nephilim character or NPC, consider giving him a specific temptation or weakness that is his weakness.  Here's a page that has a big list of potential flaws to choose from, but I'd stay away from the more prosaic, "that's kinda annoying" and look more towards the, "uh... dude, that's messed up" choices on the list.  If that makes sense.  Nephilim are the kinds of characters that may seem beautiful, charismatic and glorious at first blush, but as you get to know them, most of them are sociopaths, psychopaths, perverts, sadists, or have other truly disturbing personality traits that make them off-putting.
• Wose: Woses are the descendants of werewolves, and while the potency (and chaos) of the original werewolf curse is much reduced and diluted in their blood, in many cases it goes beyond them merely having an affinity to nature and a somewhat bestial physical appearance. (See image for example.)  However, in many of them, additional flaws and aspects of the curse of werewolfism lingers; during full moons, they are at -1 to all checks (except combat, where their savagery gives them a +1) and they may take additional damage, or suffer from nausea or other symptoms when in the presence of silver.