Nebulous Changelings

**Nebulous Changelings** or **Nebula** (***nebulae** plural*.) are very similar to their Eberron counterparts; However, with a key difference in being that they are made of stardust and are able to change their appearance based on mass.

## **Nebulous Changeling Features**

Driven by the need to wander and travel the stars and every world within every universe, Nebulous Changelings are the masters of disguise, able to take on any form of any race that is capable of speech and sentient thought.

* **Ability Score Increase.** Your Charisma score increases by 1, Constitution score by 1
* **Age**. Nebulous changelings are ageless and those with greater mass cannot be fully killed and instead divide into new parts, and so can appear as any age and any form depending on their mass. However when holding onto a face for a long time, that face can begin to show signs of age (wear and tear).
* **Alignment:** Changelings hate to be bound in any way. Most tend toward pragmatic neutrality as opposed to being concerned with lofty ideals. Despite common fears, few changelings embrace evil.
* **Size**: In a base humanoid form, changelings average between 5 to 6 feet in height, with a slender build. Your size is Medium. Your average mass is between 50-75kg. This can vary depending on mass extremes.
* **Speed**: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
* **Skill Proficiency**: You gain proficiency with two of the following skills of your choice: Deception, Insight, Intimidation, and Persuasion.
* **Languages**: You can speak, read, and write Common and two other languages of your choice.
* **Resistances**: Poison Resistance.

## **Appearance**

**Natural Appearance:** The natural appearance of a Nebula is a starry mass of gasses, elements, and energy held together around a central star point. Most nebula give themselves (or contain themselves within) a humanoid body for convenience of having hands and legs to walk and move around. In a natural undisguised state, their skin is vanta black and shifts and shimmers with tiny specks of star dust, making them look like the night sky.

In a contained form depending on their mass, they may give themselves long flowing ‘hair’ which are extensions of their body as much as their arms are, but is used disperse their mass more easily. The only way to distinguish a nebulous changeling when they're disguised is by looking at their eyes as they will have a white pupil that can appear 'star shaped' and sometimes sparkle with stardust.

**Change Appearance**. As an action, you can 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 and size, but your mass remains the same. If you make yourself smaller your mass has to go somewhere into the new form or you will become dense and slow. Conversely, if you make yourself tall you will become less dense but more fragile. You can make yourself appear as a member of another race, though none of your game statistics change. No matter what form, all hair-like structures are still part of the body and alive, and cutting and damaging it will hurt.

## **Nebulous Changeling Names**

Nebulous Changelings will take their names after Stars, Planets, Constellations, Galaxies and Solar systems, taking their 'Star Name' (surname) from the original Nebulous they were a part of, and adopting a new name for themselves.

Their chosen name can change multiple times throughout their existence, however many will choose a short version which is no longer than three to five letters long.

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Examples:

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Koeia Eridanus = Ko or Koi

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Alpheca Eridanus = Ali

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Markab Eridanus = Mako

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## **Biology**

Nebulous Changelings do not have a brain in one part of their body like a human, but instead have brains all across their bodies in an advanced nervous system very much like a cephalopod (squids, octopi).

Because of this and their regenerative abilities they can reform their bodies to replace lost 'limbs' however if they loose more than half of their mass and there is enough for the two forms to reform, they will become independent organisms as Nebulae reproduce via mitosis rather than sexually.

Because they need to retain mass to survive, injury and amputation can be highly dangerous. An arm can reform if it is cut off, but the mass for that needs to be taken from the rest of the body and the body has to compensate for this loss with either reshaping or having holes in the form around the skeleton of their chosen shape. The skeleton is usually only there as an anchor point rather than actual bone, and Nebulous changelings do not truly have organs. They do have a form of blood though which is the loose and natural substance of their true gaseous form, this moves around the body structure to help repair damage and stabilise mass.

Cutting off the hair is the same as cutting off limbs. When injured or loosing a limb, they can regenerate the body part however it will be in its natural starry-black state for a long time. When a Nebulous changeling is killed with not enough mass to reform they disperse into a cloud of stardust that will dissipate into the environment all around, leaving no body.

To counter this they need to eat a lot, however this doesn't mean they have to eat ordinary food. Nebulous Changelings have a resistance to poison, and are able to unhinge their jaws to eat things that are large or tough, and can digest almost anything from fur and bone to acids and metals. Eating soft metals like gold, copper, lead, and aluminum are easy, as they are very easily malleable and easily accessible, and can add mass quickly but are hard to break down into their chemical components to be used across the body. They need a balance of all minerals and some are harder to obtain than others, particularly potassium and noble gasses.

The only other way to quickly regain mass is cannibalism of other Nebulous Changelings since the bodies of others already have enough parts. Gigantic and Colossal sized changelings are feared as they can eat almost anything, including smaller races such as humans and even giants.

## **Mass**

As Nebula shape changing abilities are driven by mass, it is vital for them to maintain as much mass as possible.

When injured or cut in half, they can divide via mitosis and reform into two separate bodies. They may not retain all of their memories as the same original person, but are two separate individuals once they split.

### **Mass Limits**

        **Tiny Mass (under 20kg):**

o  So tiny are these Nebulous changelings that they are in great danger of being absorbed by much larger massed changelings. As they are so small, they often take on the form of children or very tiny races, needing time to build up their mass again. This can take years. Shapeshifting is highly limited.

        **Small Mass (20-50kg):**

o  Limited shapeshifting capabilities, but more control when stressed and emotional due to not having enough form to reshape themselves too much or quickly. Too little mass however means that they are at risk of becoming dispersed more easily if their form is disrupted (killed)

**Average Mass (50-100kg):**

o  Average shapeshifting capabilities, a very stable form, but can be subject to emotional changing which can disrupt their form. These are stable changelings, that are not so small that they can easily be absorbed by others, but can absorb those of tiny mass. If they are divided, they will either be reduced to a small mass, or be divided in to two tiny masses if there is enough of them.

        **Large Mass (100-200kg):**

o  Wide range of shapeshifting, but highly sensitive to emotional effects of stress which can destabilise the shape they are taking. Because of this they are highly expressive and sometimes considered chaotic and dangerous by others, who may see the need to divide them into more stable forms. At this point, they can Split via Mitosis and form two Average Nebulae, or Four Small massed Nebulae.

        **Gigantic Mass (200-500kg)**

o  Highly flexible in their shapeshifting, however limited in how small they can become, Gigantic massed Nebula can often appear monstrous depending on what shape they take. Due to their size they often have to be submerged in water to not be affected by gravity as they have a lot of form to shift and move. Gigantic masses can be divided up into almost anything smaller than its original self, and one gigantic nebulae can potentially become 10 small nebulae.

        **Colossal (500+)**

o   So large is this body that they begin to have an affect on the world around them. They are weighed down by gravity unless they are able to escape to space, and due to having so much mass to keep in motion need to eat a lot. Killing a Colossal changeling is hard unless they are segmented into smaller pieces, however a direct explosion from inside can shatter them into many tiny 'meteorites' that are small changelings.

### **Mass Effects**

**Too Little Mass:** too little mass means that they are at risk of permanent death and injury, and can easily be cannibalised by much larger Nebulae.

**Too Much Mass:** If a Nebula takes on too much mass then they are at risk of becoming stuck and unable to travel as gravity becomes too much for them to handle. With this risk, a Nebula can split into as many separate new nebulas as it needs to so that it can continue wandering.

**Loosing Mass:** If a nebula looses a limb or hair, or blood, they loose mass. Cutting a nebula’s hair can be a very sudden way of loosing mass and is physically painful if it is a lot of hair lost.

## **Passive Abilities**

**Regeneration:** The shape of the Nebulous Changeling can reform if parts are lost, but HP must still be recovered.

**Startracker**: When a Nebula splits, the new nebulas can sense one another when they are close by through passive perception.

**Absorption and Mitosis**: When mass becomes too little or too great the Nebulous changeling can either split into two or more new Nebulas to reduce their mass so they can continue traveling, or absorb elements to gain mass: they can also absorb other Nebulas and cannibalise their atoms to gain mass. Nebulas who have split from the same original Nebula can sense when the other is near.

## **Known Nebulous Changelings**

* Ko Eridanus
* Ali Eridanus
* Mako

## **Trivia**

* Nebulous changeling features are partially based on invertebrates that are able to divide as well as cephalopods like squid and octopi both for their nervous systems and their camouflage abilities.
* Young or small Nebulous Changelings are called Nebby,