Reborn

“We are feeble vessels, with feebler souls. They will cast aside the prop of death, only to continue to face greater hardship.”

Origin

The origin of the race was manufactured, not a growth from nature or a faulty cause of chaos. Kharn, The Grand Necromancer, started uniting the arcane threads and every basic foundation of Necromancy. His first desire was to create a servant that would have enough intelligence to wield a consciousness, feeding its vessel an arcane core that will draw power from the energy of the world - much like the essence of a soul.
However to create the vessels was the easy part, getting the bodies of those who perished in the world of Shar. The problem was the arcane core, which is the concept of a soul. Whatever body he could find would have their soul fragmented, the gaps extending enough to be unable to raise a creature completely, not in the way he intended.
A new concept raised from the project, the arcane core can entangle itself with other energies regardless of its origin, pieces of the puzzles that could be mixed with different memories without crashing the personality of the vessel. At first it seemed like a hard concept to develop, until people that died in extreme ways as their arcane core would be driven with strong emotions, causing it to draw the echoes of others.
It is a slow process which varies according to each individual, most take a prolonged amount of time, some awake the next day their mind driven in madness. Some can’t accept the fact they passed away. Some are just so separated from the time they die, they ignore it completely as they just see it as part of long lost history.
They are not viewed as a race since the cases of their existence have gone unnoticed, there are very few and most historians label it a case of strange magic most likely powered by a Lich or some form of experimentational necromancy magic rather than an occurrence by the aforementioned factors.

Features

The Reborn rarely have simple personalities or only one to begin with. Their ideas and concepts can be fractured by time-lapses, tormented by severe trauma or massively transmuted by long-term madness. Their souls, rather than navigare into the river Styx, grapple against the world through their trauma until the concept of their individuality is damaged, only restored by outside intervention.
Their vessels can’t properly heal because the core isn’t entirely theirs, no magic can handle every thread of their life. Their arcane core gives it its own healing by natural gathering power from the loose echoes of energy which they siphon within their vessel - the further their bodies sustain damage, the more memories and sensations from other worldly creatures they gather to further exploit their repository of mind. Since their arcane core can’t be healed, it has the unnatural ability to pulse with abnormal amounts of power - making it self capable to come back to life even after receiving extensive corporeal damage.
The killing blow or aspect of its passing remains like a grotesque scar on their flesh. It can be virtually anything that doesn’t completely destroy a limb or makes the vessel unusable. Another reason there are not thousands of them, for most corpses are burned or put to rest in holy grounds.
One way or the other, they feel some form of attachment with dead nature and undead. They relate to their loss in a subconscious level making them less propense to break under stress. Their body does not produce its own heat, it doesn’t need nourishment or air; all aspects are covered from their constant gathering of whatever they can passively absorb from their current plane. It is easy to compare them to a flower that blooms at the sight of the sun, though this flower is rotten.
Because of their characteristics, they also are the most curious individuals, even if they were not in the past or lack ambition or passion of their own. They can’t shy away from experimenting, or retreat from the chance to learn. Perhaps because they subconsciously lose their fear of death; or perhaps something glooms largely behind this reason - and there is something truly sinister controlling their every action, tipping it towards an end.

Social Ranking

Reborns are divided in social-hierarchy, ranked by the time they had been awake in their new form as it is a direct indication of their capabilities in their new vessel:
The Resurgents: Those who have awakened from the dead and still seek to understand their new state. They are guided by those with deeper knowledge, if lucky. They are often wandering aimless vessels that still struggle to discern between the past and the present. There are not many who actually are capable of moving past this state, often because of their own personal trauma that keeps them from any change from who they were before. They ultimately would behave no better than a wild-beast or a twisted drone with a dormant consciousness. At best, they do not know where they are, who they are or what they are doing.
The Grims: Those who have gained control of their abilities and are able to act independently in more dangerous tasks. The experience has given them a bleak outlook on life more often than not. At this stage, a Reborn would be capable of harnessing some concept of necromancy - if not its foundations if they weren’t magically inclined - viewing other undead as just another living being. As an individual, they are capable of performing any task anyone else could.
The Dark Ones: Those who have lived as Reborns for a long time and have honed their skills. They are able to lead other Reborns and make important decisions in their community. It is already established that they possess a certain connection between them, however time and discipline give them the innate ability to detect their kin and those with similar undead personification. These individuals are already capable enough to lead others, inspire, form communities of their own, establish a long-term plan and much more. (*)
The Spectrals: Those who have lived as Reborns for an exceptionally long time and are revered for their wisdom and experience. They serve as counselors and indisputable spiritual leaders in their communities. At this stage most important questions have an answer, any skill mastered with absolute mimicry. They are heralds of divine providence or masters of their own social-structure. However, Spectrals could easily be counted by the fingers of a single hand - making the chances of ever finding one roaming in the wild rather scant.(*)
(*) Because the time needed for these creatures to survive in a harsh world is a beastly prolonged one, it should always be considered that players can’t start from either of these spectrums.

Abilities Explained

The Connection between the dead - Knowledge from a Past Life -
Reborns hold a tight connection with the overshadowing power of the Grand Necromancer, the magic that echoes through the world of Shar can be felt even through different planes. Those who walked the soil before leave their mark, part of their emotions, part of their soul, part of themselves. A faint echo that could be taken out of necessity to learn of their deeds, or draw inspiration out of their lives; or perhaps just grow in sympathy and reflect their own lives to theirs, or their own previous lives or loved ones who now they miss dearly.
These echoes can’t grasp that which is still living and breathing, making this connection often somber and painful at the end, considering you are watching ghosts. Most of the time this exchange is active rather than a passive, but it could be something eventful. A strong emotion that is still in place, a near graveyard filled with flowers or on the contrary. The remnants of an old battlefield, a garden with a striking scenery where people come to confess. Anything that could leave an echo - and it is already dead - could strike the Reborn unsurprisingly during their rest in which they contemplate and dwell on their thoughts.
1 You recall a physically painful moment. What mark or scar on your body does it relate to? 2 A memory brings tears to your eyes. Is it a bitter or cheerful memory? Does recalling it make you feel the same way? 3 You recall a childhood memory. What about that event or who you were still influences you? 4 A memory brings with it the voice of someone once close to you. How do they advise you? 5 You recall enjoying something that you can’t stand doing now. What is it? Why don’t you like it now? 6 A memory carries a vivid smell or sensation. What are you going to do to recreate that experience?

Legate of the dead - Ancestral Legacy

The Reborns have but enough eternal immortality to gain more skills than any living being could on their short compass of their lives. They both have skills gained from their experience, their backgrounds, their professions. But Reborns do not have to drink, eat or sleep - leaving a drastic amount of time with little to do except which they find passion over.

Kharn's Gift

Reborn are dead. The full compass of what that entails is simple, they do not have needs, they rarely tire or need sleep, they have no purpose to breath and most of their body are already too injured or strange to be affected by disease or poison.
That alone is powerful enough and defiant against nature’s order. However the gift of Kharn also makes them powerfully resilient to the idea of returning back to the River Stix. Whatever is that wrestled against life, their traumatized consciousness would be bound now with the Grand Necromancer’s influence, holding them to their life.
Their vessel, their bodies, will be forever under the service of eternal life - so long as it remains with enough of its former self, another soul or the same could return. It could be as fast as the following six seconds, or take over a hundred of years.

Necrotic Regeneration - (Long/Short Rest)

Where a human sleeps and recovers through their rest their old wounds - A Reborn regenerates its vessels periodically through their contemplation and motionless state. The nature of their healing is magical entirely, coming from the center of their core.
In this state, they can not perform any activity that would force them to move their body as a whole - limbs such as extending an arm out, stretching its legs or anything that won’t require to stop their contemplation for a longer period of time like patrolling around. However simple tasks like reading a book, star-gazing, thinking, and a low-volume conversation.

(*) Undead Vampirism

Reborns could potentially siphon some necrotic energy from willing undead servants to accelerate their healing capacity. These servants are not harmed by this nor suffer from the exchange. However, whatever it be, zombie, skeleton or some other form; they automatically must go under the process of Necrotic restoration that the Reborn would undergo on their own.
Reborns believe this to be a way to create unity with their servants, since it is not just the magic bound to their bones and flesh the one they take - but also any raw memory of their past life or anything they may convey to them. It could be as simple as a short compliment, a plea to polish their bones in their absence or take care of their rotten skin, a question they wanted to ask for a long while, or something more absolute and discouraging like “Please let me die.” if they were to be unwilling servants.
(This does not mean the Reborn itself has gained the effect of either a short / long rest, they are just healed much like a magical cure-wounds )
(* - This ability is homebrew, not official. Thought with the idea of making Reborns an Undead type creature. If so, suggesting different methods for healing )

Character of Interest

Lydia “The First” Nocturna

Lydia “the First” Nocturna. If there were to be a register of the first ever Reborn walking the land, it would be her. Before she passed, she was a very logical Kelemvor Priestess, she used to guide people through their passage and their fear of the end. She died in a robbery as a result of rival guild companies fighting over territory, disguised as underdogs street brawl - she was listed as ‘collateral’.
She awoke to a new world as the gaping hole on her stomach remained. She could never ever heal from it. When she raise, everyone she once knew was long gone and as far she could understand, there was nothing for her to gather beside to return to the known city she hail from and start a new… but her nature couldn’t be share to others, the work she had to take were nothing but particular unnerving. Every day that passed, she gained further memories and echoes from outside creatures, eventually it grew to the point she got drawn to study magic itself.
She started to research and study her own nature - the nature of the Reborn, while also hiding it from prying eyes. Until she began to feel not alone, as others began to raise with the same symptoms. Their thoughts entangle with hers in some way, like a connection all Reborns felt through the shade of the arcane. However this communication was barely short sentences long, exchanged by unknown voices through the void of their rest.
She felt intrigued and began her search to find others like her and establish a community, though there were not enough of them to properly establish their identity. They couldn’t reproduce, regardless of their organs and they never manage to comprehend the moment in which they start showing signs of becoming Reborn, for other worst things could happen to the dead, or take control of them.
She refined the enslavement of the spell to Animate the Dead, raising either zombies or skeletons to mundane work, having the dead travel long distances in the disguise of grave-diggers to deliver precious resources to other Reborns. They are not considered to be slaves of the caster - but part of their own community like serfs, taking care of them as if they were themselves.
Eventually they decided to call themselves The Unearthed.

Heathcote Zarek

A male Tiefling who was once a highwayman, dying doing what he liked to do - prom to violence ever since. He died in a robbery gone wrong, festering and bleeding out from an open wound, crawling into a dark cave. He angrily grappled against his life up to the point his mind broke before his body did - turning himself insane.
When he awoke, like a long nightmare still taking its toll, his soul got driven with rage from his own memories. His desire to keep on assaulting caravans never wavering. People thought it to have an absurd amount of strength and intelligence for a simple skeleton, wraith or zombie. He became a known menace that was sought out for many days and nights thought to be at first a mindless being capable of a sizable ability for mayhem.
Eventually, Zarek found himself with another one of his own kin. He knew he was in before an immortal being that could not withered and die. He could however, still beat it to an inch of its own life and hold it against the ropes. He knew only that at the time, as marauder and leader of dispitiful people. He tortured the soul cased in the vessel until he could turn it into a violent nature - intimidating it until it was ready to follow his own steps. That was just the beginning…
The proof of his undying and relentling patience rewarded him with allies of its own. Brutes of incredibly fighting capacity and relentless killing machines until they became a community of its own called - “The Hunters of the Abyss” However indistinguishable from any other creature created from the art of necromancy, they always found a way to pin the blame of their action to any demonic being or undead-kin in the vicinity such as a small tomb, a roaming hollow group, hunting demon parties or the very same wild-life from the hostile desert.
Being nothing but dead corpses marching senselessly with nothing more than a desire for violence, a desire to feel anything but the warmth touch of blood by the stains of someone’s life - they often are ignored by most creatures of ever domination, withered from inside out to begin with, nothing is left to taint but that of a broken soul.
And so he became Warlord of its own new highwayman’s crew - someone who had been killing people for over thousands of years, twisting and tormenting others to join as well. The amount of its treasury and riches is as ancient and large as its own lifespan has allowed him to grow.

Grimgor The Wise

Grimgor is a wise and thoughtful Reborn, he died at the right time by laws of nature but not to himself. A Sage who sought not to know but to ask every possible question that he could muster through. As so, his philosophical demeanor never left him even in death.
Eventually, as he was reawaken as a Reborn, he felt the calling, the echoing voices of its kin. He wandered into the deep end in the search for others to whom speak his questions. He would find himself reunited by a small community of its own kin in an abandoned village of the time, drawn by its cemetery.
Being so far from other civilizations and the prying eyes of the living beings, they found themselves in a paradise of peace and tranquility where they could start their own settlement. Thus the foundation of The Oblivion Cemetery.
Grimgor was not its founder as he arrived at the time when it was being constructed, but he quickly became one of the most prestigious members of the group as he brought new ideas and ways to work on the dead land. Eventually making him leader and one of the wisest being “alive” inside their community.
He made their community and the cemetery a “holy” place for the undead and his kin. A place of meditation and debate, a place where one’s belief could be fully expressed and augmented, where life and death was no longer a constraint or a taboo but just another topic of the day. Grimgor helped found this place, making it a place of solitude filled with alike minds. An open minded individual that could not wait to bring more people to the fold.

Communities

The Unearthed. - Vessels

A dozen Reborns that keep their identity hidden from civilization, passing by as grave diggers or low-social status individuals that try to trade their goods for anything useful. Their objective would be to attempt to find corpses that are about to be burned or buried in holy grounds (Unless they are under the protection of a ward-undead). They seek to buy them off and carry them out back to their commune, hoping to have more members in their family in the long run.
These undead have strong connection to the memories from the chaotic magic that they all seem capable of achieving almost every task from that of any professional without currently mastering it. They carry as many corpses as they can with several carts, treating the dead like actual living people, skeletons and zombies following around, aiding with the basic tasks for them.
They seem to be completely without purpose besides sharing the eternity of the curse of life, roaming for long long periods of times like nomads - avoiding to reach the same place twice. They wish for more companions to share their lot, and claim their place among the caravan that could not grow on its own.
They are generally cautious, as any undead would be from the living - knowing full well it would scare them off by just staring at an empty skull. They aren’t harmless by any means since they can't tire themselves like most creatures could, thus making them powerful against most obstacles in their way. The great majority of this small community are trained hunters or scouts, having enough experience and chances for trial and error. The rest are but tailors, smiths, scavengers and other professionals that could be useful to disguise the appearances of a trade company.
Where they are located changes with every passing day, rarely staying in one place for long enough to be found the next day.
They have a strong idea of what is going on around the nearby civilizations before beginning to leech from their production ( their dead ). Whatever the means, scout parties, scribes, exchanging information with a passing caravan; they generally fill up their own daily reports of where they can establish and further increase their “population”.
To win the favor of this community, you would need to trade goods or offer carcasses to them.

The Hunters of the Abyss - Hunter

They are the reason sometimes adventurers do not come back from a simple extermination mission against a small pack of zombies and skeletons, blaming themselves for their inability to prepare to the unknown Ghaul, Gaist, Ghost or Wraith - they are the hidden black hand of road-wandering killers that fight with the sole purpose of doing so.
They operate with a certain sense of planning, laying in wait in newly discovered undead presence - waiting for the right time to strike unprepared and unattended forces from the outside world.
Their equipment can’t be forged, so they often work with what little they can find on each assault. the community being large enough to create rotation between “hunts” in which the senior killers give their weapons and tactics to newly formed members.
They are extremely dangerous, they can’t feel pain, they do not tire, relentless like a horde of zombies and are tactically versed in the art of combat.
Their base of operation and place of rest is a large abandoned temple that contains underground catacombs where all their members reside along, most likely, family members and otherwise long passed dead companions of their previous life that they have gathered inside.
They do not find a reason to trade off with outsiders, though they are greedy and ambitious. They rather take what they want before considering diplomacy. The only possible way to open in trade, would be tactically and in combat size superior to them.

The Oblivion Cemetery

The Reborns have found this ancient place. The place itself is not adorned with anything facetious or joyful, it is a place of lament and nostalgia that reflects much of their own previous life. However much they marinate into the torment of immortality, they endure it together, creating a sense of unity.
They find purpose in searching unburied corpses through the land, burying those themselves in their sacred earth hoping they will soon come back to them and join their community.
Inside the community, most members deal in different trades such as their backgrounds before their passing. There is no such thing as a currency that is accepted, trade goods are exchanged by anything of equal value. They are through isolated communities, making an exchange for gold or silver completely useless and unproductive on their end. They find the same idea of buying or selling corpses, slaves or other concepts of individuality to be absolutely disgusting and disfavored by their community.
If someone were to ask to gain the favor of this community would be by exchanging prolonged debates inside their temple of rest, by doing successful trades and exchanging valuable goods ( such as raw materials ) or even protecting their territory from prying eyes and keeping it a secret.
Though they do not particularly are strong theologiest, they all question whether their creation was a manifestation of one of the Greater Nine or that of the God of Death. Arguments such as this are constantly being discussed openly inside the temple without much taboo or reserves in their thoughts - that does not mean the discussions are simple or short - but they could last weeks. Religions Khan’s Followers
Reborns, in most of their form, do not know of its involvement, but the signs of dark powers are there to guide it back on track. Not signs, but magical echoes that lead to the grand necromancer’s origin and influence.
The Reborns find reason to devote themselves to its teachings about necromancy and offering tribute to its altars as a way of repayment to allow them to live in what seems to be immortality. They would transverse a great distance, seeking only to pay it their respect.
Those who do, serve true to their purpose in both flesh and mind. They often create small altars and gather bones as offerings while during their travels; remains of a dead hunted animal, decorated skull with the markings of Khan. These followers often are gifted both chains and the properties needed to see more than they have before, quickly taken under the mantle of its hierarchical structure.
Since Reborns hold great qualities for further learning, keep their previous abilities and can contest against most mindless servants with ease, they outshine most during their training and capacitation.
Those with Khan’s influence shadowing over them soon find the teachings of necromancy and how to find a greater purpose of the dead. Powers which could only grow stronger and wider through the ceremony of Oath of Loyalty to Khan.
The great difference between the Reborns and most Lich Lords would be that Reborns do not let go of their humanity completely, holding on to empathy and are still fond of life in many ways. Emotional attachments that could be otherwise changed through their years of service. In a world of discipline and walking corpses, secrecy and dedication; they would eventually understand the world of the living would no longer welcome them with open arms - nor would they wish to hear what they have learned.
The Reborns known as Khan’s Followers, drawn to its influence could vary significantly depending on the main reason they seek it. Perhaps they have overtaxed their connection with the Grand Necromancer’s influence and can’t help but be drawn curiously to its tempting power, perhaps they seek others that share their binds, regardless of its nature and alignment; or perhaps they were gifted to begin with and The Cult of Khan could not miss the opportunity to recruit it.

Kelemvor‘s Followers

There are Reborns that, through their unity and familiarization with others of their own kin, distant themselves from the calling from The Grand Necromancer’s influence - or are physically too distant from it to be drawn into their fold.
For those who question the origin of their awakening, they come to the conclusion they must somehow come to peace with the Lord presiding for the Gray Waste if they were to wish for a stay at the Singing City or Pax Cloister - if eventually destroyed.
However it is known that such a god viewed truly poorly to the undead and those who tried to fool death itself.
These Reborns solemnly swear to return back to their rest once their goals are achieved, or a promise made is fulfilled. They often suffer pain in divine form crushing down on them like the weight of the astral plane falls on their back like a radiant whip of repent. They receive this punishment with open arms and with humility, for punishment meant that their god was still willing to offer means to repent - where silence could be met as absolut abandonment.
These followers hope not only for their eternal soul, often they also request for those they have lost a long time ago, they worry about their residence beyond the mortal one who wishes for their best. Eternal attendants to long past judgment. It could be a mother asking for forgiveness of the eternal soul of her children, it could be a brother that hoped to tell the god beyond that he forgive him of all illness, or a fiance that never managed to be fulfilled.
These followers suffer a great deal because of their expression of devotion, but do so willingly. They hope to gather those who are in the same situation as themselves to ensure all their worries are discarded without fear - that they are condemned to the Acid Swamps for something they were not in control of.