Kalashtar

The kalashtar are an ancient, reclusive bloodline of humans who had their souls intertwined with powerful, psychic spirits often called quori. This connection, deepened through generations of kalashtar, has warped them into their own people; they are capable of communicating with their quori when they sleep, receiving visions and memories from their spirit. This has also left the kalashtar with psychic powers, allowing them to link their minds with other living creatures, and also strengthen them against psychic attacks.

The original kalashtar bloodline is believed to have stemmed from a tribe of spirit worshipers from Kynvastas, now known as Dragoria. The spirits that this tribe worshiped were once esteemed celestial beings that scoured the Outer Planes to gather knowledge, but a cosmic force of pure evil corrupted the beings, destroying their bodies and forcing them into incorporeal, spiritual forms. The surviving celestials died out, and the spirits lived on, trying to salvage what was once a glorious empire and existence. In their fight, the spirits broke into two factions; one of light, and one of darkness. The faction of darkness was one that turned to evil, impatient in their quest to restore what once had been, and so they turned to mortals, seeing them as nothing more than vessels waiting to be inhabited.

The light spirits, the ones who remained virtuous, opposed the dark quori, who began to spread their evil. To protect mortals from the dark quori, the spirits of light approached those they deemed as worthy and pure of heart, and they bound themselves to those mortals, hoping to share their soul so that they may defeat the dark quori. What was unexpected to the quori of both light and darkness, however, was that their power was far too great for most mortals, and it warped them in a myriad of ways. For the dark quori who possessed a creature of great evil, it morphed into a nightmarish amalgamation with an imperfect visage and terrifying presence; the nightmare quori, so they were soon called. For the light quori who possessed a creature of pure good, the overpowering energy of purity caused the mortal to disintegrate, destroying their quori host with them. As the darkness permeated through these spirits, the light quori happened upon the realization that in order to properly share their soul, the mortal must be a near perfect balance of light and dark, of good and evil. This brought the light quori to the humans, a fledgling race whose common qualities fit just what the spirits had been looking for.

From then on, the quori bonded with humans, creating the first kalashtar. The spirits moved through the generations, tying themselves to a kalashtar's bloodline so that they may transcend the lifespan of their hosts. Over generations, this presence in the kalashtar bloodline strengthened, and they soon became their own distinct people, eternally tied to this omnipresent host that granted them with psychic powers. As centuries passed and wars raged, kalashtar society was displaced. Kalashtar children became orphans, unaware of their nature and passing off as any ordinary human, save for strange whispers they could hear in the back of their mind and the "dreams" they experienced as they slept. The few that have managed to stick together fight against all sorts of opposing forces in an effort to preserve their history and the knowledge of their bloodlines to lost kalashtar.

Appearance
Kalashtar appear nearly identical to humans, but subtle features give hint to an otherworldly presence. Kalashtar have symmetrical, slightly angular features, and their eyes are an array of different, unnatural colors, which often glow when they are focused or are expressing strong emotions. Kalashtar hair is also a peculiarity, and it also ranges from many unnatural colors, sometimes even streaked by more natural colors. Rarely, some kalashtar have a supernatural tint to their skin, giving it an almost iridescent quality.

Other than these subtle features, kalashtar are indistinguishable from humans, and their style of clothing and other mannerisms, even those raised by kalashtar society themselves, often reflects that which they grew up around. Oftentimes this leads to kalashtar blending in with humans and their socities, but this can also lead kalashtar to adopting strange, outlandish gear and style senses.

Spiritual Bond
While the kalashtar are bound to a spirit of light, they can't directly communicate with it. This develops a one-sided relationship with the kalashtar and quori, where the quori can communicate endlessly with their host, while the kalashtar can only listen to the whispers in their mind or to the visions and memories they see within their dreams. The quori attempts to communicate its purpose to the kalashtar through these means, to which the kalashtar can only understand on a base level, and without proper guidance, a kalashtar may begin to shut themselves off from the quori. This exchange only transpires when the kalashtar is fully aware of their nature, and those who are not are more prone to believing the whispers of their quori are a sign of some sort of omen, supernatural gift, the voice of a deity, or otherwise, which acts as a boon and a bane for the quori involved.

The quori influence on the kalashtar provides them with a partially indirect benefit of heightened psychic power, protecting their minds from prying eyes as well as being able to communicate with individuals mentally, whether they're aware of the psychic link or not. Some individuals who read the mind of a kalashtar or who communicate with them telepathically can sometimes hear a second voice within the kalashtar's mind, like a whispering cacophony of aimless voices whose words bring no meaning.

Most quori spirits are virtuous, though some also inhabit more varied personalities, being warriors or inquisitives. These traits can develop quirks with a kalashtar as a result of their shared mind, and it's often a development that goes unnoticed among most kalashtar. Work together with your DM to determine the nature of your linked spirit. Typically, a kalashtar knows the name and nature of their quori, but some may know nothing of their spirit or the source of their psychic gifts, especially in the case of an orphan kalashtar raised among strangers. If your kalashtar has a quirk from their spirit, consider rolling or selecting a trait from the table below.

An Eternal War
While the light quori were successful in their bonding with humans to create the kalashtar, the dark quori still waged war against them, and their nightmarish forces began to prowl the mortal world, hunting down the light quori and the kalashtar. Seeing as they couldn't bond with mortals without somehow corrupting them, the dark quori turned to deceit, filling the dreams of mortals with visions of chaos and terror at the hands of the kalashtar, who were painted as sleeper agents by the dark quori. These dreamers became paranoid by these reoccurring nightmares, and they began to believe in the phantom threat of the kalashtar, now taking up arms against their family and friends, unsure of who to trust.

This sowed chaos is only one of the oppressive forces facing the kalashtar, with the others being the dark quori themselves, some able to manifest into corporeal raging forms, and the nightmare quori that serve under them; the mutated beasts who have been warped beyond all recognition due to the failed bonding of a dark quori and an incompatible mortal vessel. These evil forces directly oppose the light quori and their ambitions, and so the kalashtar are expected to fight back against these forces, or at least evade them to preserve their own lives.

This struggle has seen the end of light quori and kalashtar bloodlines, as well as the defeat of dark quori overlords, and this conflict has even brought itself upon unaffiliated mortals, leading to the destruction of cities, empires, families, and countless innocents. With each of these catastrophes and the battles they bring forth, many kalashtar, especially those at the forefront, feel an overwhelming sense of guilt and dread when casualties befall innocents, as they know that they're one of the key factors in bringing about these disasters. This, however, also creates an ambition with the kalashtar, setting them on the path to defeat this evil, as well as to unearth the secrets and history of the ancient quori empires that existed before their time.