Curtainborn

Introduction

“And thus the babe was brought to bear, its blood tied to the Curtain. Their lineage touched by celestial or infernal origin will influence their path, but not determine it.”

– High Apencan Priestess Ellisandra

The divine nature of the Curtainborn is physically visible. They appear at first glance to be the same race as their mortal parentage, but their divine nature manifests as purple, blue, or orange blood, occasionally dependent on the nature of the divine parent but just as often random. This colours the eye sockets and the veins around the eyes in the colour of their divine blood, sometimes also visible elsewhere on the face or across the body.

A new race to the plane of Ariel, the oldest known Curtainborn recorded being born in 1976 A.T. with no other Curtainborn having been seen or known to exist before this.

Racial Bonuses

• Begin with Default Skill Points (SP)
• Begin with 4 Life Points (LP)
• Begin with 2 Resurrections
• Begin with 5 Spiritual Energy skill
• Begin with the Spirit Sense skill
• May purchase LP up to a maximum of 10 LP
• May purchase Devotion skill for 4 SP each
• May purchase Prayer skill for 4 SP each
• Always receive +1 Armour Points (AP) from the Bless spell
• Always receive +1 Armour Points (AP) from the Aid spell
• No effect taken from healing from any Herbalism
• No effect from the Physician Skills: First Aid, Field Medic, Patient Care, Prolong, Restore, and Heal
• Cannot purchase Rapid Healing skill
• Must pay an additional 1 SP per level for all Trade Skills
• Must pay an additional 1 SP for the Physical Endurance skill

Mandatory Costuming

Base Mandatory Costuming of race origin required
Prominent veins around the eyes: Blue, Purple, or Orange

Racial Aging

Youth	Elderly	Aging	Max. Age
25 years	60 years	20 years	260 years

Youth: This is the minimum starting age for a given race. This is also the minimum age that can be achieved through rejuvenating spells.

Elderly: This is the age when the effects of time begin to take their toll and benchmarks aging negatives for a character, eventually affecting their Life Points.

Aging: Upon reaching the age indicated in the “Elderly” column, a character’s maximum LP decreases 1 Life Point for every increment of years indicated in the “Aging” column. For example, if the racial maximum LP for a goblin is 8 LP, a 42-year-old goblin character would have a maximum Life Points of 6. (A 42-year-old Goblin is 12 years over “Elderly” and, marking two increments of aging at 5 years each, reducing that characters’ Life Points by 2.)

Maximum Age: Upon reaching the age indicated in “Max. Age” the character is deceased and may not resurrect.

Nations and Lands

Curtainborns have no kingdom, nation, or empire of their own. They are found in many places across Harodom and beyond, and may be born to non-Curtainborn parents of any race.

Playing a Curtainborn

Regardless of a Curtainborn’s origin, one thing is indisputable: they are intrinsically connected to the divine. Whether naturally drawn to the worship of their divine lineage, or nurtured and reared in a church chosen by others, it is incredibly rare for a Curtainborn to not be devoted to a god, even if most of their energy is focused on other pursuits. They have no real overarching cultural practices, adopting much of the culture of their mortal parents. The unifying features of the race are their divine connection and their outsider status among their birth cultures, leading many to feel the need to stick together. They often refer to each other as cousins, even when divine allegiances would suggest more conflict. 

Perhaps the most unusual thing about Curtainborn, however, is their relatively recent appearance. They have only begun to be born into the most recent few generations, with the first known Curtainborn being born in 1976 AT. Their unusual and recent appearance is largely unexplained, and though many theories exist their true nature is poorly understood, including by the Curtainborn themselves. 

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

The Curtainborn are marked as distinct from their birth race by the blue, orange, or purple blood that runs through their veins. This is most visible around the eyes, but can often be seen where the veins come close to the skin such as the neck and wrists. Beyond that a curtainborn will look identical to their parent race, regardless of what that may be. 

Beyond the visual difference a Curtainborn’s divine blood makes them naturally powerful clerics, able to produce and recover spiritual energy with ease. This semi divine nature, however, comes with drawbacks. Curtainborn are physically weaker, and while they bear the appearance of veins and certainly bleed, their bodies do not function as normal mortals and as a result react poorly to the ministrations of a doctor, and they cannot be healed by herbalism. They are also less adept at learning such skills themselves, and have difficulty with the physical labour of trade skills. 

TEMPERAMENT

When it comes to personality the individuals are as varied as their parent race, but many Curtainborn are united in their existential questions: what am I, why was I created, am I part of some divine plan? While many races may ponder such philosophical musings, the relatively recent appearance of Curtainborn and their inherent divine nature lends weight to their questions. Are Curtainborn the result of a freak accident? A build-up of magical energy? An intentional divine creation with purpose? Though no concrete answers have yet been forthcoming, there is no shortage of theories. 

Existential questions aside, Curtainborn are a uniquely liminal race and often face ostracization because of it. This leads many Curtainborn to seek a sense of belonging, whether that is in their home culture, in their church, or with a new found family, and many curtainborn who have never met another of their kind will often travel to meet others like them, even if they shortly return home again. 

CULTURE

Being born so sporadically and rarely, and among so many different races, it is rare that curtainborn get to spend any real amount of time amongst other Curtainborn. Curtainborn are quite rare and born seemingly randomly among the races of Ariel, and this sporadic occurrence means they really don’t have any distinct culture of their own. They are united in their divine connection, their outsider status in their home culture, and in a single shared experience: the first time they see a spirit.

Curtainborn are inherently able to see the spirits of the recently departed. All other races need study and practice to develop such a talent, but from birth Curtainborn are able to see the souls that wander the land. Of course in most childhood homes the spirits of the recently departed are not likely to be common, and as such some Curtainborn children can get almost to adulthood before seeing such a being. Other less lucky children are traumatized by haunting and possibly grisly spirits that nobody else in their family can see or acknowledge. Most Curtainborn can recall this experience specifically, as it was also, for many, the moment they realized how different from their family or friends they truly were. 

Often separate from their birth culture to some degree due to their divine nature, Curtainborn often find camaraderie with each other, recognizing a kindred spirit. Many believe it is important to support each other, and encourage this camaraderie by referring to other Curtainborn as “cousin”, related by their divine ancestry. Curtainborn are known to go out of their way to support other Curtainborn, regardless of the church to which they belong. 

While their divine connection creates this sense of connection, in a way it also creates a separation. While Curtainborn are the most likely of any race to observe the holy days of as many gods as possible, the inherently different and sometimes contradictory nature of the gods means true universal cooperation among Curtainborn is nearly impossible. 

BEING BORN A CURTAINBORN

A curtainborn is born when there is divine influence in a bloodline. This can happen from direct trysts with an Outsider, pacts made by parents or distant ancestors, or other powerful divine influences. While having a divine “parent” is possible, Gods do not tarry directly, and a celestial or infernal “parent” is a much more surreal and magical experience than that of a regular mortal. Infernals and Celestials, often though not necessarily associated with a deity, are the influence that causes mortals to give birth to Curtainborn. Regardless of how it comes about, the birth of a Curtainborn is rare, and more often than not highly unexpected. A Curtainborn is very unlikely to ever have direct contact with the outsider that originated them, and unless their parent had direct dealings with an outsider and disclosed that to their child, the Curtainborn is unlikely to even know what their divine parentage is. 

Though some races are more accepting than others, there is no hiding that a Curtainborn child is completely different from their siblings. Some families happily embrace the child and the oddities that come with it. Other families outright reject a Curtainborn child and abandon them to churches and orphanages. Most commonly however a Curtainborn’s family will seek out a church to aid them in raising a divine child. How much of a role a Curtainborn’s family plays in their life is very individual: some families may stay in constant contact even if a Curtainborn is raised solely by a church, others are raised wholey by their family with minimal church involvement, and of course some families are completely absent. If the lineage of a Curtainborn is known that can also have a large influence on how the child is treated, for good or ill. Reactions vary greatly, but the only rare scenario is a family not seeking divine guidance unless they are already a highly devout family themselves.

Below is a list of generalized cultural views on Curtainborn children born into that culture. It is not how cultures view adult Curtainborn, or Curtainborn of other cultures. Individual reactions vary greatly and this should be viewed as general trends, not as hard rules:

Dwarves: Dwarven Curtainborn are often ostracized. While Dwarves are very loyal to family and are unlikely to abandon a Curtainborn child, they are viewed as physically weak and their difficulty in learning crafting skills leads many Dwarves to treat Curtainborn children as incompetent burdens. 

D’Shunn: The natural talents of the Curtainborn are most in line with the talents of the D’Shunn, and as well as looking physically the most similar they are the least likely of any race to be treated differently for their heritage. 

Elves: Elven Curtainborn are the most likely to be given over to a church to raise, though not because Elven parents reject their child. Recognized as clearly divine, most Elves would view this as giving the child the highest chance to succeed in the highly competitive Elvish culture, and many families would remain in contact. Because of this approach many Elven Curtainborn would be dedicated to one of the major Elven gods regardless of divine parentage, primarily Apenca. 

Gnomes: Gnomes tend towards an individualistic approach. They value trade skills that Curtainborn lack proficiency in, but they are talented in other ways and a Gnome can respect that. Plus Gnomes are already brightly coloured. 

Goblins:  With their inability to learn magery, an innately divine child is often seen as a blessing, someone to excel in magic and bring blessings to their family.

Humans: most varied between cultures. Often viewed as weird other-planar creatures and potentially dangerous, they are just as likely to be viewed as auspicious and useful. The more superstitious a society is, the more likely they are to be distrustful of a Curtainborn’s divine blood. 

Lizardfolk: Lizardfolk have trouble with reading and writing. Curtainborn may be physically weaker but their ability to be strong-willed and more learned than the average Lizardfolk allows them to rise to positions of spiritual leadership within Lizardfolk culture, and Curtainborn children are very valued as a result. 

Malkin: An extreme distrust of mages lead Malkin to be highly suspicious of innately magical children, as well as the interaction with celestials or infernals necessary to create them. Because of this, on the very rare occasion that a Curtainborn is born to a Malkin they are often hidden away from society. Regardless of the personal feelings of those involved, a Curtainborn child is always highly controversial.

Minotaur: Because Minotaur have difficulty with magic a Curtainborn is considered very valuable in the protection of the Kindred. Due to their weaker stature, however, they are often incredibly sheltered and treated as precious, fragile things; not often allowed to adventure or stray far from their kin.

Orcs: One of the more hostile races to Curtainborn children, Orcs tend to view the physically weaker Curtainborn as a burden in a culture that heavily emphasizes strength and endurance. If a child survives into adulthood they may gain more acceptance since they’ve proven they can survive, but they are still often treated as an outcast. 

History

The only historical note relevant to all Curtainborn is the birth of the first known curtainborn.  A Human-born Curtainborn named Jonathan Hargrave was born in the Kingdom of Harodom in the year 1976 AT. His parents, unsure of what he was but fearing he was cursed, brought Hargrave to the church of Fiona to study and learn about what he was, abandoning him there. Hargrave was raised by the church and became an invested cleric at an astonishingly young age. While his parents had thought him cursed, his natural talent had him rising through the ranks of the church as a prodigy where his quick wit and inquisitive mind had many calling him a gift from Fiona herself.

 It wasn’t long before more reports of such children began cropping up across Ariel, and many scholars began researching in earnest. These children were named Curtainborn as their births were clearly influenced by powers from beyond the Curtain. Many such children, hearing of Hargrave, would travel to Harodom seeking answers, though they would likely be disappointed to find that no such answers exist. 

As time went on it became clear that while Curtainborn resemble their parents, they share more in common with each other than their parent race. People began to advocate that the Curtainborn should be treated as a unique race. Some argued against this stance, believing that the Curtainborn were simply a blessed version of their parent race, granted powers by the gods. Others believed them to be cursed, ill omens sent by demons. Debates went back and forth all across Ariel, some accepting, some denying, some dismissive. In Harodom, however, the call for recognition was led by a highly respected and influential priest of Fiona, Hargrave himself. 

In 2020A.T. the Kingdom of Harodom (among many others) formally recognized the Curtainborn as a unique race. The ongoing research in Harodom, led by the church of Fiona, has drawn many Curtainborn here seeking answers; though few exist. Because of this Harodom has one of the largest Curtainborn populations on the continent, though their rarity means they are still relatively few. 

In recent years Hargrave has stepped back from politics and retired to his cottage where he supposedly maintains an enviable personable library that he uses to continue his research into things beyond the Curtain, and possible origins for the Curtainborn. 

Authored by: Shoshana Watson

Fantasy Alive Lore Team 2022

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