Doppelganger
Doppelgangers are the subject of urban legends in Caelsimilian culture and these stories have reached across the Lendover Mountains as time went on. For most people, the existence of doppelgangers is nothing more than a tale spun to keep misbehaving children in line. They speak of these beings stealing the faces of their parents and dragging them off to the Blackwater swamps where they'll never be seen again. Every story that exists of them is one of horror and misdeeds committed by them in an effort to push their hidden agendas. As such, when a doppelganger is somehow found among the local populace, it can lead to witch hunts to kill them.
Not an entirely unreasonable resolution to come to as the majority of doppelgangers do have ill intentions for those around them. They're beings created through ritualistic magic by corrupted mages. These mages seek to unravel the society around them as punishment for any perceived slights they've experienced throughout their lives. Rather than act directly, they create doppelgangers to infiltrate the population and destroy it on a deeper level. The rumors that spread breed paranoia and people will turn on each other if they grow suspicious of another.
Doppelgangers are capable of living among humanoid societies for decades without their presence being known. Their only mission in life is to plant the seeds of distrust among strangers and friends alike. The more time they spend among the people does have its downsides though, at least to the mages that created them. Doppelgangers experience a period of mental growth when exposed to mortals for extended periods of time. With this growth, they can develop personalities and a sense of self that is unique to them. While some continue to carry on with a life of trickery and evil, others break away from that to try and build a new life for themselves elsewhere.
They'll take on a single disguise for years, only changing once somebody's grown suspicious of them. They're nomadic, though not by choice. The world is dangerous for their kind, even if they've broken the chains that bound them to corruption. They move from place to place, never truly having a home to call their own. The lucky ones either find a place among other shapechangers or settle down in homesteads far from civilization, but for the most part, many doppelgangers perish before they reach the age of fifty. While they're immune to diseases that affect mortals, they're not immune from the elements or the violence that follows them.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Doppelgangers in their default state are the stuff of nightmares. While their form is very much humanoid, it's twisted and disproportionate. Their facial features are either partially formed or non-existent and their eyes are stark white. Their skin is gray and cool to the touch. While a majority of them lack hair all over their body, some of them are able to grow it in their period of "maturing".
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Faceless Stalkers and standard doppelgangers do not have a personal name. They're seen as objects to their masters, nothing more than tools to further their own selfish desires. Naming a doppelganger is seen as cursing oneself as the door to self-preservation and individuality will be open to them, causing them to question their place in the world. Nethersouls, on the other hand, do take on personal names. Sometimes it's given to them by their former masters, other times, they take a name as a symbol of their freedom. There's no shortage of potential names a nethersoul will take as they're inspired by all walks of life. They may change their names as frequently as their faces or hold onto a single name for an entire lifetime.
Gender Ideals
All doppelgangers are sexless inherently, lacking any definable features that would have them leaning one way or another. They're comfortable in any skin regardless of gender, but it's not uncommon for nethersouls to favor one gender over others.
History
While most doppelgangers can only take the shape of another living being, there are some among their kind who have far superior shapechanging capabilities. Nethersouls, as they're called in legends, are doppelgangers that can also gain their target's memories, skills, and even supernatural abilities. While it's a powerful ability, these powers and knowledge gained are temporary. Once they drop that disguise, that person's memories and skills are their own and theirs alone once more. For nethersouls to do this, they need to study their target for at least a week to absorb as much of that person's presence as possible.
Nethersouls are also capable of "creating" a body to act as their default state when they reach a certain point in their lives. These bodies are still strange and otherworldly, but rather than terrifying, most choose to give themselves the appearance of something alien, but beautiful. The process of creating a nethersoul varies from that of doppelgangers as the magic to make them is wrought with mistakes. When the ritualistic magic is tampered with to a certain, and sometimes incredibly specific extent, their mages are left with a sentient being that is out of their control.
They're "born" with their own consciousness and as such, are unwilling to be slaves to somebody else's wicked whims. Nethersouls are a rarity and because of their innate power, their survival rates compared to common doppelgangers is significantly higher. One such nethersoul is Paxton, who's been relatively safe within Florence's walls due to his friendship with Zakina Kociak-Falenmir and Rikius Falenmir.
Faceless Stalkers are another brand of doppelganger, though they are much more violent and sadistic in nature. Their ruthless ways are the result of trauma inflicted on them by their masters, usually due to the stalker failing at a task its been given. Like doppelgangers, faceless stalkers are mostly featureless in their default state. Their eyes are black and sunken in, their mouths mangled and twisted into a perpetual frown. They're much taller than standard doppelgangers, making the disproportionate nature of their default forms even more obvious.
They're considered abominations, even by others of their species. Stalkers are a result of failed rituals, much like the nethersouls. They're a far more common result to those mistakes than them though. Their intelligence is on par with a common peasant and their large forms are clumsy, making it difficult for them to get around with any kind of subtly. While they can take the form of any mortal they come across, they usually only do so for the burst of euphoria they get when they drop the disguise. They also take delight in the fear that this act causes if someone witnesses it, so they prefer to horrify their targets before they kill them.
Stalkers, while they can experience emotion, don't understand or comprehend the reasons for them. Emotions to them are constantly shifting and unexplained, so they don't know what to do with them. People who've encountered faceless stalkers say that they're emotionally and socially stunted to a severe degree, as well as incredibly dangerous.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Doppelgangers of all kinds aren't treated with the same respect granted to other sentient species. Their existence causes waves of paranoia in the communities they hide in and the revelation of their true identity is, more times than not, a death sentence. While fey have been known to befriend doppelgangers because of their innate cunning and love of trickery, the only mortal group known to celebrate their existence are gnomes. Gnomes are known to be playful and mischievous, so they readily take in doppelgangers who wish to escape persecution.
Scientific Name
Monstrous Humanoid
Geographic Distribution
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