Seraph

Seraphs are creatures from the Feywild known for their varied appearance and unusually serious personality in the Feywild. Seeking largely to be left alone, they are rarely found outside of their ancient ancestral homes and even more rarely in the Material Plane where they often masquerade as common animals.

Description

Seraphs were small and very slender, usually standing between 3 and 4 feet tall and weighing about 25 pounds. Seraphs appeared as a strange combination of animals with a range of fur/feather colouration from more 'natural' browns, greys, oranges, and whites to vibrant greens, blues, pinks, and purples. There appeared to be little rhyme or reason to their animalistic appearance as some appeared to be very similar to a bird except lacking any feathers whilst others could appear like foxes but with bright plumage instead of fur.
Despite the presence of feathers, it was exceptionally rare for a seraph to have wings and be able to fly.
Due to the lack of common knowledge of fey creatures, when a seraph was found by people in the Material Plane they were often mistaken for a small Harengon or Owlin. Unlike these other races, however, seraph very rarely appeared consistently as one animal. For example, it was perfectly possible for a seraph to have the head of an owl, with antlers like a deer, a lion's mane, the body of a fox, and a short bushy rabbits tail with feathers instead of fur.

Subraces

Trunk

Trunk seraph tended to be somewhat larger than their kin, and were more physically strong. Their strength was so remarkable as to be comperable to a dwarf or human. Trunk seraph tended to have faces of ground dwelling mammals, most commonly foxes, rabbits, small antelope, and cats.

Treetop

These seraph were not as strong as their kin, however what they lacked in physical strength they made up for in their innate magical abilities. They tended to make very gifted wizards and druids due to their magical ability and wisdom. Treetop seraph had the faces of birds and had a greater propensity to grow feathers.

A trunk seraph warrior (left) and treetop seraph wizard (right)

Society

Seraph society is very complex, and largely centres around their service to the Archfey Liilia Flower-Keeper and her attempts to stop mortals from approaching Teades All-Known. Their origins are largely unknown, but it is believed that they formed from ancient clans of lycanthrope in the Feywild who fully embraced their animal appearance in order to shrug off their evil alignment.
Seraphs often speak in proverbs or ‘wisdoms’ and thus are frustrating for visitors to understand. They have a strong sense of hospitality towards visitors and rarely question their guests reasons for visiting, allowing them to stay as long as they need to which often results in travelling seraphs feeling disappointed with other cultures’ comparative lack of hospitality. Despite their strong sense of hospitality, they were a very cautious and isolated race who were invariably committed in their goal to guard Teades from outsiders. As such, almost no one outside of the Feywild knows of their existence, with the even the majority of fey creatures being unaware of the seraph communities.

Religion

Similarly to the rest of the inhabitants of the feywild, seraphs largely followed the Elvish Pantheon as well as being largely committed to the Archfey who ruled the plane. In particular, seraphs were mostly committed to the nature goddess Tammi.
Despite this, seraphs were borderline zealous in their following of Liilia, even when compared to the subservience of other Feywild creatures to Archfey. Many seraph believed that they were created by Liilia herself, and it was only when she went missing that they returned to worship Tammi more frequently again.

Player Race Features

• Ability Scores. Choose any +2; choose any other +1.
• Size. Small.
• Speed. 30 feet.
• Creature Type. You are a Fey.
• Darkvision. Accustomed to twilit forests and the night sky, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. 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 can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
• Speak with Small Beasts. Through sounds and gestures, you can communicate simple ideas with Small or smaller beasts.
• Mask of the Wild. You can attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena.
• Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Sylvan.
  

Subrace: Trunk

• Heavy Weapon Carrier. Forest Seraphs are strong enough to be able to use heavy weapons effectively despite their small structure. They do not have disadvantage when using heavy weapons.
• Natural Armor. You have tough skin. When you aren't wearing armor, your base AC is 13 + Dexterity modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.
  

Subrace: Treetop

• Seraph Magic. You know the druidcraft cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the faerie fire spell once with this trait; you regain the ability to cast it when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can also cast the hold person spell once per day with this trait; you regain the ability to cast it when you finish a long rest. Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells when you cast them with this trait (choose when you select this race).