Godtouched Races: Dreamlings

The world of Aarn has myths just like any other, and the dreamlings are the source of many of those myths. They seemed to vanish from the face of the planet far before human beings ever came onto the scene, and yet the stories and legends about them still persist. Creatures of lies and deception, some scholars even consider that dreamlings may have been fey that have since chosen a new form, and are not even godtouched creatures at all.

A great deal of the conflicting information that exists about dreamlings may stem directly from the fact that their patron goddess is Seikin herself, the hermaphroditic goddess of lies, deception and creativity. Due to this, all truths known about dreamlings are to be taken with a grain of salt, and all lies considered plausible.

Shape-shifters by nature, the knowledge of the true form of dreamlings is one that has been lost to history. However, in the event that one might actually find a dreamling in their true form, one would find a humanoid with night-black skin covered in silky smooth, velvet-like fur. Their faces would have no noses and their mouths would be particularly large. Their eyes would be oval and yellow, and quite large for their heads. Their eyelids would be sideways, with long, rainbow-colored eyelashes that trail off from the sides of their eyes, curling up and around like a handlebar mustache, or the trim of a masquerade mask. Their hair would be pink and often arranged in ornate tufts that look more like building molding than natural hair. They would also have tufts of rainbow fur growing from their ankles and their wrists, with small tails. They would have no discernible sex, being decidedly androgynous, and would be about the same height and weight as the average human.

Outside of legend, dreamlings almost never use their true form and instead adopt an appearance that allows them to blend in seamlessly with the dominant culture in the place they live. They are completely asexual creatures and cannot reproduce; though they are masters of manipulation and can indeed appear to have a sex drive, usually in an attempt to manipulate other creatures. Because it is completely implausible that all the dreamlings alive today were alive during the War of the Gods, it must be the case that Seikin still takes an active role in preserving her godtouched race, spontaneously generating new individuals when old ones die.

If dreamlings have a maximum lifespan, it is not known, and any average lifespan is immeasurable. This is especially compounded by the fact that all dreamlings are granted the gift of divine spellcasting by Seikin, similar to how all spirit animals have access to elemancy. The lifespans of divine spellcasters are artificially inflated by definition as the primal healing energies of the astral plane course through them on a near-constant basis.

If dreamlings do still exist, it is not known how many, or how few there might be. They act as Seikin's personal agents, and she insures through her own power as a goddess that their presence remains masked from spells that might divine such knowledge, so it is likely any knowledge about them will remain mythical.