Second Soul (5e Background)
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Second Soul[edit]
At some point in your life, one way or another, you became a host to another entity's soul. This may have been a loved one, a complete stranger, an enemy, or even some spirit—or animal; you may have done it on purpose, by accident, or it may have been done to you. You may or may not have any idea that the second soul is there at all.
Unlike in true possession, this other soul has limited to no capacity to control you—only exert minor influence, often unintentionally. While it is perceptible to some at a subconscious level, it has fused with your mind and body to the extent that clerics, necromancers, mediums, and other experts of death and the arcane are unlikely to register its presence—at least not by accident.
Regardless of the nature of your bond, your this second soul now has occasional consequences in your life—for better, or for worse.
Soul symbiont[edit]
Work together with your GM to craft the identity of your second soul, or "symbiont."
You should decide on the basic concept—how it is that you came to have their soul—on your own, or roll for it using the table below.
| d10 | Symbiont provenance |
|---|---|
| 1 | I attempted to bring a loved one back to life, and it went terribly wrong. |
| 2 | A loved one or loyal follower successfully brought me back to life—at great personal cost. |
| 3 | I did my best to save a patient—and thought I had failed. |
| 4 | The two of us were unwilling subjects to necromantic experiments. |
| 5 | I underestimated the power of one of my victims. |
| 6 | Someone I visited on their death bed is using me to escape their fate. |
| 7 | Through sheer dumb luck, a stranger bearing a curse happened to die near me. |
| 8 | I am only the most recent in a long line of hosts for a parasitic spirit. |
| 9 | A bored denizen of another plane tried to possess me, but failed—and got stuck. |
| 10 | The powerful being to whom I am sworn secretly imbued me with a fragment of their soul. |
Once you have your symbiont's basic concept, you may decide on their general life story, overall personality, who they were to you, how exactly they died, and how aware you are of their lingering presence; alternatively, you may leave some or all of these decisions up to your GM.
More specific information on your symbiont's past life will be decided on by the GM. This includes the specific places your symbiont lived or travelled to, the exact people they knew or were related to, and any lingering fears or unfinished business they may have with the mortal world. Your GM may or may not consult you in these decisions, and may even keep them secret from you.
Proficiencies and Equipment[edit]
Skills and Tools: Choose two skills and up to two tools with which to become proficient. These may be based entirely on your symbiont's former profession, hobbies, or other areas of expertise, or some of them may come from your own backstory.
Languages: In lieu of tools, you may choose one to two languages based on your character's backstory. If you want to choose languages that your symbiont spoke, the Creeping Awareness gameplay suggestion is heavily recommended.
Alternate proficiencies selection: You may allow your GM to select some or all of your skills, tools, and/or languages for you, based on their secret knowledge of your symbiont. Your GM may decide to not immediately inform you which proficiencies they have selected for you. Furthermore, at their discretion, in place of one new skill, they may choose to give you expertise in one skill that they think suits your symbiont and which your character is already proficient in from another source.
Starting Equipment Select a "secondary background" which makes sense with your character's personal life history—probably a background related to a simple profession or birth status. Take the equipment conferred by that background. (You do not gain access to any other aspect of that background.)
Feature: Foreign Familiarity[edit]
On occasion, strangers will react differently to you than they do to other people—almost as if they've already met you, or at least, someone you remind them of…
When you meet a person your symbiont was familiar with in life, your GM may elect to give that NPC an immediate, intuitive feeling about you, that they do not necessarily extend to other party members. This may be a sense of trust, suspicion, attraction, disgust, superiority, fear, or a simple nagging feeling that they must have met you somewhere before, haven't they? Those who had a positive relationship with the symbiont will not necessarily have positive feelings towards you, as the illogical sense of familiarity may instead make them feel confused, uneasy, or distressed.
Feature: Enigmatic Emotions[edit]
Sometimes, you feel things that don't make any sense to you, and you may react to a situation in a way that leaves you utterly baffled.
If something occurs to which your symbiont would have a strong emotional reaction, your GM may choose to make your character feel those emotions. In most cases, these episodes will be minor, and will simply leave you confused or uneasy. At other times they may drive you to panic, rage, grief, anguish, joy, regret, or lovestruck idiocy. And on rare occasions, that strange feeling of confidence or unease might help you make the business deal of a lifetime, or avoid misplacing your trust in the wrong person.
Gameplay suggestion: Creeping Awareness[edit]
It may take some time for your character to become aware of their symbiont's presence, to gain full command of the abilities it has conferred to them, or to realize that their performance in a certain area has drastically improved. This could manifest in-game in a variety of different ways.
If you opted to learn a language that your symbiont knows, your character may not begin as a fluent speaker. For example, they may start off with no conscious understanding of the language at all, but glean some unclear clues via the Enigmatic Emotions feature; they may understand the words, but not be able to formulate a response; or they may even be told, to their surprise, that they've just spoken in a language that they still can't understand a word of. In this situation, your character would "learn" the rest of the language incredibly quickly—they simply require a bit of exposure and awareness first.
If you allowed your GM to decide on any of your proficiencies, they may elect to not immediately inform you what they have chosen. In this situation, they will secretly add the appropriate bonuses to eligible rolls on your behalf. Eventually, you and your character will probably figure out the pattern, at which point you can mark it on your character sheet.
As your character becomes more aware of their second soul and learns more about its backstory, they may be able to start making more sense of the effects of the Foreign Familiarity and Enigmatic Emotions features. For example, they may have an easier time distinguishing between their own emotions and those of the symbiont; they may then have a good idea of whether to interpret their symbiont's fear as a serious warning or as nothing to worry about, depending on whether the symbiont was particularly brave or cowardly.
On the other hand, as the symbiont becomes more used to its new home, it too may grow more powerful, or learn better self-control. Depending on its personality, and the relationship it forms with its host, it may begin trying actively to help—or hinder.
Suggested Characteristics[edit]
| d8 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | When I feel socially uncomfortable, I make up for it with humour. |
| 2 | I fear I may be losing my mind. |
| 3 | I am an exceedingly empathetic person; it is beyond me to betray another. |
| 4 | I often feel slightly disconnected from reality, as if there is fog between me and the world. |
| 5 | My friends all know they can rely on me. |
| 6 | |
| 7 | |
| 8 |
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Nihilism. If I cannot predict myself, I cannot predict anything—so I may as well not worry about it. (Neutral) |
| 2 | Humour. I'm beginning to suspect that some powerful being is playing a prank on me—and I'm laughing along with them. (Chaos) |
| 3 | Self-control. No matter the odds, I will not allow myself to descend into madness. (Lawful) |
| 4 | Altruism. I should use any means available to me to help those less fortunate, even if it is confusing or unpleasant. (Good) |
| 5 | Knowledge. I am fascinated by the absurd and the obscene, even when they're ruining my life. (Any) |
| 6 | Hedonism. I wish to do as I please, and any power I may gain only serves to further my goals. (Evil) |
| d6 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | Now that I know of it, my symbiont is the only one I trust. |
| 2 | I will do anything to be rid of this parasite. |
| 3 | There is someone who has wronged me. I seek answers, retribution, or vengeance. |
| 4 | There is someone I have wronged, or who I owe. I seek to right this. |
| 5 | I can no longer trust myself, nor strangers; I need my family, more than ever. |
| 6 | I cannot let go of someone I have lost. |
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | A harrowing experience has traumatized me profoundly. |
| 2 | When something happens that I can't understand, I will obsess over it until I do. |
| 3 | I distrust strangers more and more with each passing day. |
| 4 | It is possibly too easy for me to be cruel. |
| 5 | I will use any excuse I can find to avoid admitting to my own weaknesses or mistakes. |
| 6 | Standing up for myself is not my nature; I am what you would call a doormat. |
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