Rakshasa

The rakshasa employs delicacy and misdirection in its pursuit of dominion over others. Few creatures ever see the fiend in its true form, for it can take on any guise it wants, although it prefers to masquerade as someone powerful or influential: a noble, cardinal, or rich merchant, for example. A rakshasa's true form combines the features of a human and a tiger, with one noteworthy deformity: its palms are where the backs of the hands would be on a human. Rakshasas originated long ago in the Nine Hells, when powerful Devils created a dark ritual to free their essence from their fiendish bodies in order to escape the Underworld. A rakshasa enters the other planes to feed its appetite for humanoid flesh and evil schemes. It selects its prey with care, taking pains to keep its presence in the world a secret. For a rakshasa, death on other planes means an agonizing and torturous return to the Nine Hells, where its essence remains trapped until its body reforms; a process that can take months or years. When the rakshasa is reborn, it has all the memories and knowledge of its former life, and it seeks retribution against the one who slew it. If the target has somehow slipped through its grasp, the rakshasa might punish its killer's family, friends, or descendants. Like devils, rakshasas killed in the Nine Hells are forever destroyed.

Genetic Ancestor(s)