# Race: Aasimar > [!info] Quick Facts > | | | > |---|---| > | **Rarity** | Very rare | > | **Perception in Gryth** | Positive, bordering on reverence. | > | **Guide Section** | Very Rare Races | ## Overview Aasimar are mortals who carry the power of one of the Outer Planes in their souls. Some were born, made or raised in those planes. Others are born on Gryth with that power already in them. They can draw on it to bring light, heal wounds and strike with the force of the plane that shaped them. Across Gryth they are met with something close to reverence. ## Where They Come From The celestial powers do not explain themselves. What is observable is that aasimar appear: in a farming family that has never left its valley, in a line of [[Region - High Salen|Salenian]] bishops, in a [[Continent - Norn|Nornian]] fishing village, in the slums of a city that has not thought about the Upper Planes in a century. Some are the descendants of a celestial who walked in the world generations back, the blood surfacing long after everyone concerned has been forgotten. Others carry no such ancestry at all and were simply filled, at some point before they could speak, with something that had decided it wanted a vessel. Scholars of the Salenian Church hold that every aasimar is an instrument of Taron’s cosmic mandate, placed where it will be needed. The Archangels of Solastea have never confirmed this, and aasimar themselves are divided on the question. A few know exactly what put the light in them. Most do not, and have spent their lives deciding what to do about that. ## Awe, and the Weight of It An aasimar walking into a room changes the room. The mark is visible, the light is real, and the reaction across almost all of Gryth is awe rather than suspicion. Doors open. Strangers defer. Clergy of faiths the aasimar has never heard of will treat their arrival as significant and start making arrangements accordingly. This is a heavier thing to carry than it sounds. An aasimar is rarely addressed as an individual, rarely disbelieved when they would prefer to be, and rarely permitted an ordinary life even when they want one badly. Many leave home young for precisely this reason. A village that has decided its aasimar is a sign from heaven is not a village that will ever let them be a thatcher. ## Three Roads Aasimar end up in three places more often than anywhere else, and the three have very little in common. The first is the adventuring party, which suits them: travelling company judges a person on what they do, the work is urgent and unglamorous, and nobody has time to venerate anybody. A great many aasimar have found the only ordinary friendships of their lives on the road. The second is penance. Religious orders devoted to atonement, pilgrimage and the harder kinds of service draw aasimar in numbers out of all proportion to their rarity. Some join believing they owe something for what was given to them. Others join because an order that has taken a vow of humility is one of the few places where the light is nobody’s business. The third is war. An aasimar at the head of a holy army is a sight that has ended sieges before a blow was struck, and the crusading orders of Gryth know it. Where an aasimar takes up a cause, the cause acquires a face, and armies form behind that face that would not have formed behind a banner. ## Will, and Nothing Else What the three roads share is the thing that actually defines an aasimar, which is will. An aasimar who has settled on a course is close to immovable. They do not tire of a thing, lose their nerve at the edge of it, or talk themselves out of it overnight. This makes a dangerous friend and a worse enemy. An aasimar convinced of something wrong is as unshakeable as one convinced of something right, and the light does not distinguish. The Salenian Church, which has produced more aasimar than any other institution and has also had to contain several, teaches that the celestial spark grants certainty rather than correctness, and that the two have been confused with appalling results more than once. ## Aasimar Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Charisma score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1. **Age.** Aasimar mature at the same rate as humans and live up to 160 years. **Creature Type.** You are a Humanoid. **Size.** You are Medium or Small. You choose the size when you select this race. **Speed.** Your 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 cannot discern colour in darkness, only shades of grey. **Celestial Resistance.** You have resistance to necrotic damage and radiant damage. **Healing Hands.** As an action, you can touch a creature and roll a number of d4s equal to your proficiency bonus. The creature regains a number of hit points equal to the total rolled. Once you use this trait, you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest. **Light Bearer.** You know the *light* cantrip. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for it. **Celestial Revelation.** When you reach 3rd level, choose one of the revelation options below. Thereafter, you can use a bonus action to unleash the celestial energy within yourself, gaining the benefits of that revelation. Your transformation lasts for 1 minute or until you end it as a bonus action. Once you transform using your revelation, you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest. ***Necrotic Shroud.*** Your eyes briefly become pools of darkness, and ghostly, flightless wings sprout from your back. Creatures other than your allies within 10 feet of you that can see you must succeed on a Charisma saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier) or become frightened of you until the end of your next turn. Until the transformation ends, once on each of your turns, you can deal extra necrotic damage to one target when you deal damage to it with an attack or a spell. The extra damage equals your proficiency bonus. ***Radiant Consumption.*** Searing light radiates from your eyes and mouth. For the duration, you shed bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light for an additional 10 feet, and at the end of each of your turns, each creature within 10 feet of you takes radiant damage equal to your proficiency bonus. Until the transformation ends, once on each of your turns, you can deal extra radiant damage to one target when you deal damage to it with an attack or a spell. The extra damage equals your proficiency bonus. ***Radiant Soul.*** Two luminous, spectral wings sprout from your back. Until the transformation ends, you have a flying speed equal to your walking speed, and once on each of your turns, you can deal extra radiant damage to one target when you deal damage to it with an attack or a spell. The extra damage equals your proficiency bonus. **Celestial Features.** You carry a visible mark of your heritage, subtle at first and more obvious once you can reveal your full nature. Choose a feature from the table below or roll for one. **Aasimar Celestial Features** | d6 | Celestial Feature | |---|---| | 1 | A dusting of metallic, white, or charcoal freckles | | 2 | Metallic, luminous, or dark eyes | | 3 | Starkly coloured hair | | 4 | An unusual hue tinting your shadow | | 5 | A ghostly halo crowning your head | | 6 | Rainbows gleaming on your skin | **Languages.** You can speak, read, and write Common and Celestial. ## Connections - [[Region - High Salen]] — Seat of the Salenian Church, which has produced more aasimar than any other institution - [[Continent - Norn]] — Aasimar appear even in Nornian fishing villages --- ## Gallery ![[Race - Aasimar.jpg]] --- *See also: [[Races]]*