Sinspawn

Sinspawn

Externally hosted image

(Creature)

Common

Medium

Aberration

Level

2

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Images of sinspawn

Source: Monster Core, pg(s). 310-311

Type

Aberration

CR

2

Environment

Any ruins

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Images of sinspawn

Source: Bestiary 2, pg(s). 246

First created by Alaznist, Runelord of Wrath, during the ancient Thassilonian empire, sinspawn are tortured mockeries of humans. Twisted by vile rune magic, they are consumed by an overwhelming sin toward all others.

Appearance

Each variant of sinspawn embodies the sin its creator most indulged in. Resembling deformed humanoids, sinspawn are emaciated horrors with unnaturally long arms and legs. Their hands each have two talon-tipped fingers and a thumb, and their legs bend like those of a dog. Veins bulge all over their bodies to form dark blue or red patterns that look like twisted [[rune]s. Their flesh is pale and hairless.

A sinspawn's head is curiously elongated and has only a pair of slits for a nose; its eyes are bulging and red with no visible eyebrows. Its lower jaw splits in half at the chin into pedipalps that end in tiny three-fingered hands that writhe about, eager to feed delicious morsels into an open gullet with a lolling tongue.

On average, a sinspawn is six-and-a-half feet tall and weighs a similar amount as an underweight human.

Abilities

Originally created by Alaznist as shock troops, sinspawn are born with the knowledge to wear armor and use most weapons. In addition, they are naturally stealthy creatures.

Being highly attuned to the sin they reflect, a wrathspawn can smell others who embody that sin and track their scent.

A creature bitten by a sinspawn is overcome with feelings of that sin. Those who succumb are so overwhelmed by these feelings that they have a hard time concentrating on much else. If they are bitten a second time, these feelings can become crippling.

History

Sinspawn were originally created by Alaznist. A student of fleshwarping, taught by her ally Yamasoth, Alaznist combined it with alchemy and alghollthu secrets on human test subjects, then sacrificed them to her runewell, creating the first sinspawn in -5782 AR. She quickly discovered that feeding the fresh blood of wrathful humanoids to the runewell allowed her to mass produce armies of sinspawn, and invested them with free will to develop their own power.

The other runelords set out to create their own sinspawn after Alaznist deployed them against her arch-enemy Karzoug, either by paying her directly, stealing her notes, or reverse-engineering captured sinspawn. All runelords eventually developed their own sinspawn, and if it were not for Earthfall, armies of sinspawn might have very well overrun Thassilon. Since the runelords abandoned their creations to retreat from Earthfall, sinspawn have remained in hiding and congregate near newly-awakened runewells, such as the one in the Catacombs of Wrath beneath the town of Sandpoint.

Habitat and ecology

Sajan attacks a wrathspawn.

Sinspawn can only be created with the use of an ancient Thassilonian device known as a runewell. When a person stained by the runewell's associated sin dies in the close vicinity of a runewell, its soul is drawn to the artifact, which stores an imprint of the associated sinful memories and emotions of the soul as it journeys to the afterlife. The stain of sin can be enhanced by magic, a sinspawn's bite, curses, or corruptions.

When enough soul energy has been collected (usually from at least four soul imprints) and an appropriate sacrifice is made (generally in the form of blood), the runewell can produce an adult sinspawn immediately available for action. These newly created sinspawn retain no loyalty to any runelord.

Sinspawn cannot procreate on their own, but they instinctively understand their connection to the runewell how how the devices create them, and can track souls associated with its sin. When possible, they drag their prey to their lair and infect the victims with their bite before killing them, accelerating the birth of more sinspawn.

Although they like the taste of humanoid meat, if they stay within a mile of a runewell sinspawn need no food or water and do not age; many currently living sinspawn have survived from the Age of Legend, but most live violent lives and are killed by intruders or other sinspawn. If their runewell goes dormant, sinspawn usually enter hibernation, stirring only when wounded or when the runewell is reactivated. If drawn away from their runewell, sinspawn usually die after a human lifetime.

Society

In the ancient Thassilonian realm of Bakrakhan, Runelord Alaznist kept whole villages of sinspawn at her beck and call. Due to their inherently violent natures, however, they required nearly constant monitoring. Other runelords similarly had to appease their sinspawn with offerings appropriate for their sin. They were trained as elite troops in fortified barracks near their runewells, hidden in remote areas.

In the modern era, sinspawn live in small, isolated cults near their runewells. Recognising the importance of their runewell, sinspawn organise hunts to keep them fed, and are willing to defend them to the death despite being not particularly brave. On the other hand, sinspawn also know that their siblings are also rivals, and collect equipment that give them an advantage. Due to their sinful, violent natures, sinspawn groups rarely exceed eight members, except when a leader is available and capable of directing their violence.

Sinspawn view most humanoids as inferior, and as a result tend to underestimate humanoid adventurers. The exception are giants, who often commanded them back when Thassilon still existed, so most sinspawn instinctively obey giants. They sometimes ally with other monsters, but usually end up squabbling with them over loot.

Sinspawn are usually very religious and venerate Rovagug, Lamashtu, an ancient Thassilonian deity, demon lords associated with their sin, or even the runewell that created them.

Variants

The original version of sinspawn created by Alaznist, also called wrathspawn after her associated sin, are the most numerous and muscular type of sinspawn. Other runelords experimented with sinspawn, imbuing their creations with their associated sin as well:

• Envyspawn are short, slight, and gaunt, and are obsessed with spying on their enemies and comparing them and their possessions to themselves. They are naturally skilled at lying, and their bite saps strength.
• Gluttonspawn, also known as gluttonyspawn, are corpulent but hardy, and their bites reduce their victims' vitality.
• Greedspawn are often taller and have with veins that glitter with gold. They are natural thieves, and their bite impairs one's dexterity.
• Lustspawn, created by Sorshen, have the same horrific face, claws, and legs as the others but have perfectly formed bodies capable of intercourse (but not sexual production). A bite from a lustspawn makes the subject burn with lust. They are good at diplomacy.
• Pridespawn are skeletally gaunt sinspawn who collect fashionable clothing and jewelry and carry themselves with a regal air. They are naturally intimidating.
• Slothspawn are covered in layers of excess skin, but that does not impede their speed in any way. They are most knowledgeable about societies and the most religious sinspawn, due to their preference for performing easy church rites rather than tough physical labour.

Alaznist also developed aquatic wrathspawn with gills and webbed hands and feet; Belimarius and Sorshen followed suit, creating aquatic envyspawn and aquatic lustspawn, while other types of aquatic sinspawn are very rare. Xanderghul believed that his sinspawn should be able to fly above their enemies, but he did not have time to create many aerial pridespawn before Earthfall; they now lurk in the ruins in the mountains of Cyrusian.

All varieties of sinspawn hate other types, particularly Alaznist's wrathspawn and Karzoug's greedspawn, due to the ancient rivalries encoded in them.

On Golarion

Sinspawn are limited to the Thassilonian ruins of the frontiers of modern-day Varisia where they were first created, but the means of crafting more still exist and might one day be used again.

References

Paizo published a major article about sinspawn in It Came from Hollow Mountain.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.