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| Nation | Facestealer |
| Species | Abomination |
| Classification | Construct |
| Sphere | Envy |
| Origin | Followers of Haeddiannol created them via rituals of thorn energy |
| Lifespan | Inmortal |
| Habitat | Forests |
| Food | Identity |
| Description | A facestealer appears to be a tall, slender, hunched figure (7' erect) with a mantle of green, molding flesh over its body. Its face is either blank, or that of one of their victims. They have a distinct, pungent aroma. |
| Procreation | Facestealers are created from the victims of those consumed by doppelgangers via rituals of thorn energy. |
| Esoterica | Facestealers are beings of thorn energy and arnum. They are skilled users of both. They are also often seen to use infernum, gossamer light, black nommos, cacophony, quaestus, razdavit', feirua, sin, uafas, hollow energy, and parasitic energy. They sometimes use prasinofos, tyvka vlast, kiiric yihi, or true shadow, and gemtkhereg, arcanum, and lunar aether are not unknown among them. Poioumenon, misfortune, emotional resonance, humors, b'qar, flux, and unfugl are also found among them. Celestial energies are impossible for them to use. |
| Special Powers | A facestealer can steal the identity of a person by looking them directly in the eyes (using the place where their eyes would be if they have none). This operates similarly to a doppelganger's consuming touch, but it only drains away part of a person: their appearance, their memories, and their voice. Other parts remain behind, though the person is left faceless, with no memory (not even basics like how to walk or breathe), or voice. Because they cannot remember instinctual, basic functions, they usually die without special intervention. Facestealers have keen senses, as they survive by hunting, and they are skilled stalkers. |
| Weaknesses | Yahas can harm them, and those strong in yahas are immune to their powers. |
| Maleficing | There is a moment when a victim of a doppelganger is still alive after they have been consumed. It is in this moment when facestealers can be fashioned. A user of thorn energy must take the living victim and apply intense pain to them (usually done via special thorns or blunt assault), then inscribe either their own Name or a Name of thorn energy into the body before it dies. A facestealer will then be formed. To control a facestealer, one must either have the Name used to make it, or the Name or heart of a facestealer's victim(s), or to pierce the facestealer with a special thorn. The thorns are made by washing them in the blood of 100 consumed corpses (that have not become wiedergangers). If one has the heart of a facestealer's victim, they must burn said heart while chanting a Name of power. If they have a thorn, they must chant a Name when they pierce the facestealer. Thorns are mostly used to control facestealers who have not consumed a victim but whose creator-Name is not known. To summon a facestealer, one must take a mask of flesh and wear it at midnight under the boughs of a tree of thorns. Under this tree, they must draw a circle of blood and either invoke the creator-Name of the facestealer, burn the heart of one of their victims while chanting a Name of power, or slit the throat of a still living doppelganger victim while chanting a Name. |
| Culture | Facestealers are rarely kept as slaves. Dewin drains and other thorn followers view them as sacred hunters that are created in order to protect certain territories. They are rarely made, but when they are, it is with the intention of making a section of a forest unpassable. Because facestealers are made from identity-less bodies, they have no memories of their former selves. They simply know their desire to have an identity, and so they begin to hunt immediately upon being formed. They sometimes devour their creators, if they can. An identity-less facestealer will hunt until they have one, forming no bonds nor interacting at all. Once they have an identity captured, they know the pain of their existence, and they feel envious of those who are born with identity. They seek to devour more. At times, small groups of facestealers form, rarely more than three at a time, and only of those facestealers who have at least one identity. These hunting groups team up to take on stronger prey. Once a facestealer has more than ten identities, they grow strong enough to have reason and intelligence beyond the tragic echoes of what they once were. Their envy dominates their personality, warping the amalgam of identities they have taken. They use the voices and memories of their victims to lure new victims, develop skills (though they cannot take skills directly, the memories of those skills can be used to re-learn some of them), and communicate among themselves. Eventually, they will have a powerful hunting party. These triads come to dominate a region of forest as apex predators and haranguers of travelers. They use their skills with other esoteric arts to create illusory paths to trap people, terrorize them, trick them, confuse them, enslave them, or weaken them. Sometimes they play with their food, keep them as slaves (though they think of them as pets), or use them as lures. Facestealers are cunning and complex beings, having many identities within them. This means they vary greatly. Each triad creates their own conglomerate of cultures and behaviors, but their desire to devour identities always overrides any kindness or compassion their victims once had. Some rare occasions a facestealer will regain memories of their past selves from someone who once knew them, and if this happens, they may gain some independence from their envy and desire. These facestealers usually commit suicide, but those that do not live horrible lives of sorrow and regret. |
| Religion | Their goddess is the Poacher, the Huntress who takes their prey, the powerful figure who lurks beyond vision and stalks the forests. They wish to be her, they emulate her, and they seek to become one with her. Their memories of other Divines all become mixed in with their envy of those with identities, and thus, they become confused and strange. |
| Notables | Dimwyneb, Facestealer Manifest, Stalker of the Great Thorn Wood |
| Notable Occupations | Hunter, Illusionist, Dewin Drain, Ponomancer, |
| Mortal Interactions | Facestealers are little known outside their own territories, but they are feared even by those who create them. |
| Sample statistics | PRO 11 ATH 12 STR 10 AWA 14 WIL 10 ROG 14 Facestealing 16 |
GrandGuignol
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