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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Andor" data-source="post: 4959275" data-attributes="member: 1879">Ok, so you want origin descriptions for a steampunkish victorian horror campaign? I think you have blocked out too many possible origins as cliche frankly. It's kind of like saying "I want a handgun but not powered by magic or physics, any ideas?" That said I'll take a stab at it...Vampires. Almost always of supernatural origin, either by a curse or a magical virus kind of thing. Instead: The Plintre are a race of refugees. Colonies of intelligent slime mold like creatures they were some of the first other-dimensional creatures humanity encountered/summoned when we relearned how to use the gates. They sought a new home and offerred up some of their own as payment for a set of dismal tidal pools to call home. A plintre colony can merge with a human host granting them greatly enhanced physical powers as well as the wisdom of an alien species whispered into the backs of their minds. On the downside the plintree colony survives by consuming some of the hosts blood and so the hosts need a transfusion of at least a pint of blood a day. For unknown reasons they also start to display some obsessive-compulsive tendencies. (Note they have no fangs and get nothing from drinking blood. Instead they require an actual transfusion as a medical procedure. Of course sometimes the donor table has straps...)Were-Creatures. I'm not familliar with a non-supernatural origin for weres. Nor can I think of one if you actually want shapeshifters. For a twist perhaps they are members of an ascetic order that practices shape-shifting magic in an attempt to either transcend their humanity or gain a broader perspective of reality. Fae. Good luck coming up with a new twist on these guys.Undead. A result of using a mixture of technology and magic to preserve life after death. The skull is supplemented by a glass jar and series of hoses that preserve the brain with classic green ichor. Lenses replace the eyes. The flesh and muscles waste away in death and so are removed. Instead the skeleton is moved by clockwork mechanisms bolted to the bones and powered by an engine nested within the ribcage. Most are voiceless, but some are experimenting with vocal instruments employing woodwind mechanisms.Amphibian-folk. No whacky origin needed. They were always there, they just dwelt too deep for us to know of untill early scuba divers discovered them and set up a profitable trade in deepsea artifacts for forged metal goods. Dragons. Another race discovered on the otherside of the clockwork gates. There is some speculation that they are refugees too, but the dragons laugh at the notion and no one wants to seriously contemplate what creatures as powerful as the dragons could possibly be running from.</blockquote>

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