Spirits, some refer to as gods, of the wounded earth within Hesa, born from the cosmic fracture and bound to the physical realm by unresolved trauma, broken oaths, or the lingering rot of history. Denied to exist by Hesa's Imperial Wundenbund (the gods should be dead), and Hesa's noble class considers the Nachbleibenden a leftover rural superstition.
NPC Race Traits When you create a Nachbleibender NPC, apply the following traits to their base stat block:
Creature Type: Their creature type changes to Undead. They do not require air, food, drink, or sleep.
Speed: 30 ft. (Many hover inches above the ground, leaving no tracks except the frost or mud that falls from their form).
Ability Score Adjustments: +2 Constitution (for their stubborn endurance), +1 Charisma (for their chilling spiritual presence).
Alignment: Typically Lawful Neutral or True Neutral. They are bound by ancient, archaic rules of reciprocity (like the toll at the Drowned Shrine) and feed on grief rather than malice.
Special Features
Born of the Wound: The NPC has resistance to Cold and Necrotic damage, and immunity to the Poisoned condition.
Echoes of Erbbruch: The Nachbleibender automatically senses if a creature within 30 feet has recently broken a significant oath, committed an act of deep betrayal, or is harboring profound, suppressed guilt. They often address the creature by their sin rather than their name.
Earth-Bound Step: The NPC ignores non-magical difficult terrain composed of earth, mud, ice, or snow.
Languages: Understands Hesan and ancient dialects. They can sometimes appear and speak like a human. They can also speak through telepathic whispers, or their voices sound like grinding stones, snapping twigs, or freezing wind.
The Starving Earth: They are not inherently evil; they are hungry. The "Eternal Carving" of the Empire starves them of acknowledgment, so they feed on raw emotion, memory, and physical offerings (like a drop of blood or a rusted nail).
Fatalistic Honesty: They do not lie. They view the world exactly as it is—a rotting, wounded battlefield. They find the political posturing of the Hesan nobility to be absurd and will bluntly mock titles and crests.
The Unblinking Gaze: They do not fidget or breathe. They will remain unnervingly still, forcing the living to fill the agonizing silence. They will naturally gravitate toward characters like Heide, recognizing a soul that acknowledges the "world below."