Changeling

Changelings are a humanoid race who are distantly descended from doppelgangers and share their shapeshifting qualities. Their shapeshifting has led to them being used as spies and assassins, which has, in turn, led to them being mistrusted amongst the people of Dünya.

Description

While changelings can look like anyone, they do have a true form. Their natural look can be scary to some due to their lack of detail and distinctive features. Their skin tone is always pale, either white or light gray, and they tend to have slender bodies with limbs slightly longer in proportion to other humanoids. They have large colorless eyes circled by thick black rings. Their hair color is most commonly a light shade of silver followed by platinum and blonde. In rarer cases, their hair can be pale shades of green, pink, and blue. Similar to elves, changelings lack body and facial hair.
However, most changelings are rarely seen in their true form and prefer to adopt all kinds of humanoid shapes, treating their appearance like others treat clothes. This includes gender.
Changelings reach maturity slightly faster than a Human did, and usually lived as long, typically about 80 years.

A changeling mid-transformation

Personality

Most changelings prefer to keep a low profile and often do not take passionate stances that would draw attention. However, changelings can be of any moral stance, and often readily adapt to the culture they are raised in.
Changelings have long been persecuted by other races, seen at best as tricksters and con-artists, at worst as thieves and assassins. Many people find it hard to trust changelings, and while their talents make them natural spies and criminals, in reality, a changeling is just as likely as any creature to turn to good or evil. Changelings' inborn abilities leave them uniquely suited to professions that rely on subterfuge or disguise. Some changelings work hard to remove this stigma, but each time a changeling is caught robbing from a wealthy merchant or sneaking about where they are not welcome, it only perpetuates the stereotype.
In general, changelings are prudent and cautious, preferring to take risks only when they feel that their chances are good or the payoff is worth it. They appreciate the finer things in life and take great pleasure in the comforts of a wealthy lifestyle when they can obtain it. They avoid direct confrontation, preferring stealthy strikes and hasty retreats whenever possible. In conversation, they are soft-spoken but have a gift for drawing out more information than the other party usually plans to reveal.
Having no culture of their own, changelings slip into other's societies and blend in. Rather than creating their own art and achievements, changelings are happy with claiming other societies' as their own. This nomadic lifestyle has led changelings to become exceptionally adaptable people. Changelings will not simply shapeshift into a new person but rather create a new whole one. Most changelings will set up a handful of personas so if one is compromised they can disappear and switch to one of their others. Their personas are incredibly realistic and have their own personality traits, backgrounds, and a network of friends. Changelings can be evasive and will often try to avoid confrontation or anything that will draw attention to themselves.
Without a longstanding history or home of their own, changelings have a natural curiosity about the cultures of other races. Many strike out as adventurers to learn (and adopt) as much as they can. Changeling names are typically very short, usually one syllable. These names are unisex.

Society

Changelings live among humans, goblinoids, and other races, blending in among them and living in their shadow. They are commonly found in large cities, where their talents can be used as entertainers, government agents, or adventurers, but also for more criminal purposes. Rarely, changelings live in stable communities where they are open about their true nature, while most live in nomadic communities that hide their ability to shapeshift from outsiders.
Many changelings take up one of three philosophical beliefs when it comes to their mutable forms and these philosophies guide many aspects of a changeling's day-to-day life: Passers are changelings who wish to fit in with conventional society and live life in only one form or at the least suppress their shape-changing abilities to better fit in with those around them. Other changelings will often view passers with contempt and use slang words such as "pretender" or "actor" to mock them. Becomers believe that to be a changeling is to possess many different shapes and often different identities and lives altogether. A becomer takes the concept of a dual life to a whole new degree and some will successfully live as several "different people" for many years. Seekers or "reality seekers" are convinced that a great truth exists that only the changelings can discover; they suppress their shapechanging abilities even more than passers and prefer to live or socialize with other changelings.

Religion & Origins

Due to their nature, changelings do not have much recorded history. It is thought that they are the result of interbreeding between humans and doppelgangers. However, it is also claimed that changelings originated first, and doppelgangers were twisted changelings.
All changelings refer to a figure known as the 'Traveler' who is said to have given them their gift. In this legend, the 'Traveler' appeared to a woman who had a hundred children. As rivals conspired against her to kill her and her children, she prayed for help to any god who would listen, though none seemed to answer. As she fled from town to town, a lonely traveler took her hand and told her that he could protect her children if she took his advice. She agreed, and the traveler gave her his cloak which she draped over her children. Once she did this, their faces melted away and they became shapechangers.
Scholars have long debated who this figure was, with most changelings themselves settling on the 'Traveler' being an avatar of Alltud. Some changelings, particularly evil ones, consider the 'Traveler' to be an avatar of Strì who created the race to be his vesels for thievery and mischief.
The result of this is that most changelings tend to worship either Alltud or Strì as their patron. Although, a changeling raised in non-human cultures are just as likely to worship gods from the pantheon they grew up in. Usually these were gods of deception or reclusivity, such as the Elf gods Naamio and Naamioitu, the Gnome god Lusie Bewaker, the Halfling god Ladro, etc.

Player Race Features

• Ability Scores. Choose any +2; choose any other +1.
• Size. Medium.
• Speed: 30 feet.
• Changeling Instincts. You gain proficiency with two of the following skills of your choice: Deception, Insight, Intimidation, and Persuasion.
• Shapechanger. As an action, you change your appearance and your voice. You determine the specifics of the changes, including your coloration, hair length, and sex. You can also adjust your height between Medium and Small. You can make yourself appear as a member of another race, though none of your game statistics change. You can't duplicate the appearance of an individual you've never seen, and you must adopt a form that has the same basic arrangement of limbs that you have. Your clothing and equipment aren't changed by this trait.You stay in the new form until you use an action to revert to your true form or until you die.
• Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and two other languages of your choice.