Vetalarana

Vetalarana
Psychic vampire

(Creature)

Undead

Vampire

Level

+1

Alignment

Varies

Source: Book of the Dead, pg(s). 161–164

Type

Undead
(augmented)

CR

+2

Environment

Any

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Source: Occult Bestiary, pg(s). 59

Ⅰ

Ⅱ

See also: Vetala

Vetalaranas, also called psychic vampires, are vampires who feed on memory, emotion, and thought.

Appearance

Vetalaranas are gaunt and have vivid, hungry, single-colored eyes, ashen skin, and unnaturally long, clawed fingernails. A hungry vetalarana appears pale but can pass for a living creature when well fed. Although not harmed by sunlight, they nonetheless avoid it, as their pale skin can betray their true nature.

Abilities

Vetalaranas prey on victims of any intelligence, even meager beings such as animals, and can also prey on planar beings and intelligent undead. They prefer living intelligent humanoids, however, and feeding on powerful emotive and mental energies revitalizes a vetalarana's appearance to the point of being able to pass as a living being.

This feeding drains their victims into living but inert, thoughtless, comatose husks who lack all memory or identity. The body of a physically slain vetalarana crumbles into ash, but it persists as a mental force that can still possess one of these husks. Powerful vetalaranas can also manipulate these possessed husks as living puppets.

The ultimate destruction of a vetalarana requires the destruction of its brain, after which these husks regain consciousness. Many slowly recover their lost memories over months—sometimes decades—and often in the wrong order, with the memories of others the vetalarana fed upon bleeding into their own. A victim whose body was possessed by a vetalarana regains their memories faster, but are also corrupted by the vetalarana's thoughts and doomed to become a new vetalarana soon after recovering.

Vetalaranas can sense all nearby thinking creatures, but can neither sense nor see through cold iron or magical force. These properties can also protect victims from being possessed by a vetalarana. While they enjoy consuming secrets, vetalaranas are physically repulsed by those who openly share intimate secrets voluntarily.

Ecology

A vetalarana forms when a creature capable of psychic or occult abilities dies in a state of denial. It tries to cling to the Universe by drawing on the occult energy of itself and nearby creatures in vain. Due to their lack of unfinished mortal business, the creature cannot rise as a ghost; however, if its willpower is strong enough, it arises as a vetalarana that now sustains its existence by draining others' mental energies.

Vetalaranas are not affected by religious mantras and superstitions, though most vetalaranas that were religious in life are not aware of this and often react with fear toward these mantras until they realise that they are harmless. Vetalaranas have difficulty tolerating and approaching an opponent who is openly defiant and fearless toward it.

The most powerful vetalaranas are sometimes known as manipulators, or alternatively as doyens or thoughtseers if the creature had its own psychic abilities before transforming into a vetalarana. In addition to being able to control the bodies of those they have drained, the more mentally resistant manipulators can also twist and modify their victims' memories and paralyze those they touch. These manipulators are also more selective about the memories they consume and often prefer those that grant them the skills or talents of their prey.

Habitat

The homes of vetalaranas look deceptively mundane, filled with supplies that undead creatures do not need; vetalaranas keep them to feed their chattel who provide them with psychic energy and bodies to be possessed.

External links

• Vetala (real-world mythical creature) on Wikipedia