Baobhan Sith (Bah-van-she)

Baobhan sith are a type of vampiric fey that are notorious for their manipulation and mischievous deception, as well as their merciless brutality. They prey on naive wanderers by seducing them, luring them into a magically entrancing dance, toying with them, and sometimes even copulating with them before opening up their throats with their talons and draining their blood.
Baobhan sith are afraid of dogs and horses. The reason is unclear, though both of these animals resemble more terrifying fey creatures than dwell in Alfheim. Baobhan sith are also susceptible to cold iron, just like many fey creatures, and can be paralysed by being impaled through the heart with an ash or witchwood stake. Furthermore, their innate ability to transform into a crow is stunted if they are in contact with salt. Finally, as with most fey, baobhan sith cannot lie, though their manipulative proficiency often removes the need to speak at all to entice their victims. Being adepts of manipulation themselves, baobhan sith are innately immune to supernatural charming and highly resistant to manipulation of any kind.
Many baobhan sith learn the magical art of spellweaving, allowing them to weave magic without uttering a word and subtly work their somatic gestures into their entrancing dances, obscuring their intentions until it is too late.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Baobhan sith have a humanoid body morphology, appearing as an elven woman but for their cloven feet. They can adopt the shape of a crow, though it is widely accepted that their more humanoid form is their "true form".

Genetics and Reproduction

Baobhan sith may toy with their prey, even going as far as to copulate with the unsuspecting men they lure in, but this is all part of the hunt rather than for reproduction. Rather, baobhan sith create more baobhan sith through a vampiric embrace, draining any female victims they encounter of all of their blood and resurrecting them as another baobhan sith to join their hunt. This process is almost identical to the method by which other, more conventional vampires sire new vampires.

Growth Rate & Stages

Baobhan sith do not visibly age; their fey nature and the vitality they drain from their victims keep them forever young, beautiful, and spritely, always ready to lure another naive wanderer in with an intoxicating dance.

Ecology and Habitats

Baobhan sith tend to favour dark, hidden locations within which to build their lairs, such as forests, caves, or most commonly ruins. The lair needs to be dark enough for the baobhan sith to benefit from greater vision than her prey, obfuscated enough to avoid being interrupted whilst feeding, away from well-built roads that might see a lot of horses pass by, but close enough to a beaten track as to catch the eye of unsuspecting travellers to hunt.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Baobhan sith are not simply killers, they are spitefully playful and mischievous. A baobhan sith will firstly seduce its target as best it can. If flirting is not adequate, it uses its supernatural entrancing dancing to draw its target in, enticing them to join her until they are exhausted and giddy with arousal and glee. The baobhan sith may even have sex with the target just to further tire them out and misdirect any suspicion or hostility away from her. Though baobhan sith have teeth capable of puncturing mortal flesh, many seem to opt for opening their target's jugular with their talons, simply for the game of pretending to stroke their face and watching her betrayal sink in.
Much like vampires, baobhan sith a obligate sanguivores; they must feed on the blood of a living creature, and they are perpetually hungry. They are also indulgent, and will predate groups of prey that outnumber her if the promise of a grand feast is tempting enough. Baobhan sith favour male humanoids as prey, but in a pinch they can survive on the blood of women or other animals.

Behaviour

Baobhan sith are generally solitary, though they may sire another and share a territory for a time whilst they teach the new baobhan sith the art of hunting with seduction. The sire will often take the opportunity of having an ally to take down larger groups of wanderers, which is often what draws attention to the presence of the baobhan sith.
Baobhan sith are the epitome of playing with one's food. Their entire interaction with their prey is a drawn out and twisted game, where the baobhan sith will opt not to take the easy kill in favour of drawing out her dance long enough to see her prey struggle to keep up, or continue copulating with her target right to the edge of bliss, just to see the shock when instead of a climax he receives death by exsanguination. Baobhan sith's fey demeanour is most evident when they are dancing and singing and frolicking with their intended meal, mere moments before she slaughters them without mercy or hesitation.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Baobhan sith seldom live with other baobhan sith. When they do, it is often a sire and child cohabiting whilst the former teaches the latter. In such scenarios, the sire inexplicably maintains dominance over the child until their progeny decides to leave to find territory of their own.
In instances where baobhan sith cohabit with redcaps the baobhan sith is almost always dominant. Her endless thirst for blood puts any redcap that defies her at risk of being drained of any blood sustaining them without warning, and the baobhan sith's entrancing dancing easily overpowers the minds of most redcaps.

Uses, Products & Exploitation

Baobhan sith blood is a material component in a blood magic ritual to summon a pathogenic demon that seeks out and infects nearby spellcasters with the red plague. This is an incurable magical disease that causes the afflicted to burn from the inside out with daemfire, often localised around their throats and worsening whenever the afflicted utters and incantation or prayer.

Facial characteristics

Baobhan sith almost always have hair in warm hues of red to gold. They have subtle, slightly reduced fangs. Their ears are pointed, the extent to which depends on their species prior to being embraced as a baobhan sith. Baobhan sith eyes are often bright shades of red, yellow, blue, or green, specialised for both seeing in the dark and drawing unsuspecting prey in with their beauty. They boast an unnatural beauty that has an almost hypnotic effect of the unsuspecting.

Average Intelligence

Baobhan sith share the same level of sapience as most other humanoids. They are cunning and wily, but their population exhibits the same variation in intelligence as humans do.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Baobhan sith have the visual capabilities to see in low light, granting them an advantage if they manage to lure wanderers into their dark lairs.

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

Baobhan sith tend to live amongst redcaps, their mutual need for blood giving them an aligned purpose, though the mutualistic coexistence only persists whilst the delicate balance between the baobhan sith's unquenchable thirst and the redcaps' need to soak in blood to survive remains.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Baobhan sith are sired, not born, and as such retain their names from their previous lives.

Beauty Ideals

Baobhan sith famously favour white or green dresses, the reason for which is unclear. Theories suggest this may be to accentuate their beauty to the mortal eyes, in contrast to their skin and hair colour; others suggest the baobhan sith's acute vision makes the appearance of red blood on white or green tantalising. Whatever the reason, baobhan sith consider such attire to be the measure of beauty.

Major Language Groups and Dialects

Baobhan sith tend to speak Alfaren, as well as any languages they knew in life.

Common Dress Code

Baobhan sith favour white or green dresses long enough to hide their cloven feet, and low cut enough to attract attention and arousal from potential prey.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Baobhan sith are looked down upon by many other fey for toeing the line between fey, undead, and even demons. However, it is hard to deny that they embody the fey affinity for fun and whimsy with complete disregard for the consequences. Indeed, baobhan sith experience joy and glee playing cruel games with their meals until their victim is exhausted and can provide little more entertainment than to act as a drinking vessel.

Scientific Name

Fey

Lifespan

As fey beings, baobhan sith do not exhibit senescence, and thus can live indefinitely.

Average Height

5'0" - 5'6"

Average Weight

50kg - 55kg

Average Physique

Baobhan sith are typically slender, their diet consisting almost exclusively of liquid with little to no fat. They are lithe, nimble, and beneath their clothes they may even appear emaciated. After feeding, however, a baobhan sith often gorges herself so much that her stomach becomes distended and bloated, giving the impression of pregnancy, until she digests her meal. All baobhan sith have hooves instead of feet, which help them gracefully spring about during their dancing. Their fingers terminate in corvid-like talons, which they often use to puncture blood vessels to feed from.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Baobhan sith skin betrays them as distant cousins of vampires; it is often deathly pale or even slightly grey like a corpse. They do, however, gain a ruddy blush after feeding.

Geographic Distribution

• The Baobhan Sith's Lair