D&D Risen

## The Risen

### Physical Description

The Risen are a race of creatures that look much like zombies. They are not quite skeletal, as they have flesh, but the flesh is rotted. Several Risen are sometimes so rotted away that their jaws have completely fallen off, leaving their mouth as nothing more than a gaping hole with a twisted tongue. Risen generally lack flesh around their arms and legs, usually having bones that connect to a hand or foot that has but a few patches of flesh remaining on it. Despite their undead state, though, something in their bodies continues to produce the fibers to make up hair on their heads.

### History

Risen were once humans that lived in the city of Emberhelm. They were an ordinary people, living their daily lives. That is, until the Grim Reaper - the God of Death - came to their land. He sought an army to destroy life, and so he cultivated the souls of those in the city. He then returned them to life as his personal army.

The Risen had a special feature, they could spread their undeath to anything around them. Ground began to blight where they walked, animals would fall sick, their skin rotting away while they were still alive. The Risen would march against the cities of the living, spreading their undeath plague to all around them. However, they were challenged by a powerful force of life, Arminian - the God of Birth and Renewal.

Arminian managed to halt the undead assaults by means of a powerful stone, a tear of the sky. However, the Grim Reaper also held a tear of the sky and the two clashed with near limitless power. The two fought for forty days and forty nights endlessly, neither gaining a foothold over the other. As the forty-first day began, Arminian had had enough of the fighting. He pulled the Grim Reaper below the earth into a place called the Underworld.

For a brief moment, as they traveled to the Underworld, the Grim Reaper lost control over his army. While he was able to reclaim control over most, some now had freedom. These free undead claimed themselves as a race and bound themselves to one of the Grim Reaper's highest soldiers who had also been freed. This "Dark Queen" now ruled over them, and they created the city of Necroshire where the Risen now live.

### Risen Traits

As a Risen, you have the following traits:

***Of Another Race.*** Because you are undead, you once had a race. This race counts as a subrace of either human, elf, orc, or dwarf, and so you gain all of the properties of that race.

***Ability Score Adjustment.*** Because of your undead state, you lack physical muscle. Your Strength score decreases by 2.

***Age.*** Risen are undead and as such are ageless. You also are immune to any magical effect that would alter your age.

***Alignment.*** Risen usually followed the Dark Queen and as such are Neutral Evil. However, some are independent. Those who are independent are usually still neutral in some way as "law" has abandoned them, calling them unnatural and corrupt.

***Speed.*** Your undeath gives you a slightly slower walk than your original race. Your base speed decreases by 5.

***Risen From the Grave.*** While the world classifies you as undead, something about the way that you were risen has given you a soul and classifies you as humanoid. As such, you gain the following benefits: You are immune to any spell or effect that would alter your form. You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned and are resistant to poison damage. You are immune to disease. You do not need to eat, drink, or breathe. You do not need to sleep and do not suffer the effects of exhaustion due to lack of rest, and magic can't put you to sleep.

***Undead Resilience.*** When you drop to 0 hit points, you can use this ability to instead drop to 1 hit point. You cannot use this ability again until you have finished a long rest.

***Languages.*** Aside from the languages you knew in life, you also know the language of undeath known as Gutterspeak.