Dullahans

Singular; Dullahan. Plural: Dullahans.

There once was a little girl named Molly, always sleeping with her little dolly. One night she found herself alone in bed, and so leapt out and found her toy in the shed. Yet with her dolly she found a mischievous fey, and the monster took Molly away. No one ever heard of little Molly, her parents now sad and melancholy. Molly had become a dullahan and lost her head, now a creature so scary her sight would drop you dead! And that's why little ones should stay in bed, for those who don't become headless instead! - Galderan nursery tale for children.

A dullahan is never born out of love and care; it is an individual experimented and reborn by fey to become part mortal, part fey, and a part undead. Any race can become a dullahan, but the cost of such attempts may cost them their memories or their very lives. While each fey court has different approaches to how they make their dullahan, the end result is always the same; a figure now tied to the fey court that remade them, the mark of the process visible in bleached tones and a detachable, horrific head.

Art by Maxkayart!

A New Beginning

How a child ended up on the path to become a dullahan varies wildly. Individuals and warlocks who seek the aid of fey may often find their payment to be an offering of their firstborn, to which the child is taken to be made anew. In rarer cases, noble families who wish to continue their alliance with fey allies may send their youngest child as tribute, perhaps providing them a better life than one they might have as the last of the royal litter.

Beyond firstborns, the faerie courts have their own manners of acquiring their warriors. The dullahans wandering the halls of the Summer Court are often composed of children who lost themselves in the wild or wandered too deep. Children adopted by the Fall Court are often orphans, having made a new family with the members of the court after having lost their old one.

On the opposite end, the Winter Court is often to blame for the tales of fey taking children from their homes to turn them into monsters. Counter to that, the Spring Court adopts the unwanted, those of which their family left behind and never wanted.

A Tool for Change

While the children live their lives in the courts abodes, they are tested time and time again to see what potential lies within them. What is seen above all from their faerie godparents is adaptability; those who cannot improvise to adversity cannot be fit to become dullahan.

Those who survive to the end are given one final test; The Cocoon of Change. Here these children, now adults, undertake days of heavy dosages of fey magic and necrotic concoctions, buried deep in a cocoon-esque tomb. Those with great will, great resilience, and great understanding of the past tests will adapt and overcome this process. Those who don't are left to die.

As tribute to succeeding their trial, each fledging dullahan is given the chance to be made anew before the conclusive ceremony. Some take on new names, some take on new appearances, but all of this to show their true self before they are fully one with their court.

This final ceremony proves the trials each dullahan has overcome in their time at the court, represented by an act of decapitation. Having overcome a universally lethal execution, the newly decapitated head reveals the dead past that lingers within them, to chill and terrify those that would slight their court.

Nevertheless, these trials and experiments leave each Dullahan physically marked. Many are branded with a silver mark, a memento of their mortal self. While often seen through a silver circle where the blade met their neck, other marks may appear throughout their bodies. Most often, these appear as bleached eyes, hair, skin, or organs.

A Headless Horror

A unique trait to dullahans is the ability to harmlessly behead themselves. With both parts capable of functioning while separated, dullahans use this ability in a variety of ways, be it for fear, scouting, spellcasting, or more. However, separate the two too much, and the magic that binds them begins to weaken, eventually leading to the dullahan's demise.

Dullahans exist to ensure that their court is respected, ordered to slay those who disrespect or attack them. As a result, dullahans have received a reputation of being creatures of death, their arrival a foul omen that someone will soon die.

A dullahan's head, when detached, is unique from one dullahan to another. One may have their head appear as a flaming skull, while another may have their head contorted into a smiling and rotting head. Some instead have smoke pour out from their neck, or white flames fuming out.

Dullahan Names

A dullahan's name is that of their choice. Be it keeping their old name, making one of their own, or taking one from a fallen comrade, a dullahan's name is held dearly. Their last names are also remade, though given by their court to further link the dullahan to the magic that made them who they are now.

Male Names. Aelar, Bertil, Gawain, Hector, Jeral, Lloyd, Pythero, Perseus, Xarean.
Female Names. Antinua, Caela, Hela, Guinevere, Protea, Sarael.
Court. Ambrosia, Dawn, Dew, Ember, Gale, Fog, Frost, Storm.

Dullahan Traits

Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2, and your Charisma score increases by 1.
Age. Dullahans live around half a century longer than their parental race, unless the latter was already partly fey.
Creature Type. You are Humanoid, but count as a Fey or Undead for the purposes of being detected. (your choice when selecting this race).
Rarity. Scarce. Dullahans are rarely able to produce dullahan children, thus their population rests in the hands of those who have transformed them. They are most common in the feywild or visiting a Fey's court.
Size. Dullahans share the same height as their parental race. You are Medium or Small (your choice when selecting this race).
Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision. Thanks to your fey connection, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of green.
Fey-Touched. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed.
Innate Spellcasting. You know the Encode Thoughts cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the Sleep spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the Levitate spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells (choose upon making your character).
Photosynthesis. You don't need to eat. However, you can't finish a long rest so long as you have spent 1 continuous hour doing nothing more than light activities in bright or dim sunlight since the end of your last long rest.
Beheaded. Your head has been magically severed from your body. You can detach or reattach your head from your body as a bonus action. You cannot be killed by decapitation, and while your head is removed, you gain the following properties.
- Your head is considered Tiny, and has a 10 foot walking speed.
- If both your head and body take damage from the same source, you only take this damage once.
- Your head has an AC of 10 + your Constitution modifier, and has disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws. If you are wearing medium or heavy armor, this AC is 13 + your Constitution modifier.
- Your body always knows the general direction to your head, unless it is in a different plane of existence or hidden through divination magic.
- When using your head for an attack, you treat the attack as if making an unarmed strike. You also treat your head as having the Thrown property, with a range of 20/40.
- Your body has blindsight for up to 5 feet around it, and is immune to being Blinded or Deafened.
- If you can cast spells, you cast spells with the verbal (V) component through your head's space. Otherwise, your spells are delivered through your body's space.
Draining Seperation. Your head cannot be separated from your body for up to a number of feet equal to 10 times your character level. As soon as you go beyond this range you take 1 level of exhaustion, and you gain another level of exhaustion every time you spend a number of hours equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum 1) without your head within this range. These levels of exhaustion disappear after you spend a long rest with your head reattached.
- While your head is out of range, your body loses its blindsight.
Fell Legacy. You know the Chill Touch cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the Gentle Repose spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the Phantom Steed spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells (choose upon making your character).
Fey Warrior. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed and frightened.

d6	Dullahan Characteristics
1	I find civilizations outside of the feywild as wondrous and magical as normal folks see the Feywilds.
2	I have been told I am too hardheaded in my desire to fulfill my courts wishes. To those who say so, they discover my fist is harder.
3	The trials I have overcome to become what I am know have awakened something from my past, something that refuses to be left behind.
4	I was raised in my fey court ever since I was a baby. Despite it being my home, my heart yearns to know what happened to my old family, and who they were.
5	I was left for dead before I was taken in by the fey. That desire for revenge has kept me alive since, and I will stop at nothing to bring fear to the hearts of those who left me to die.
6	My time overcoming these fae trials has made me learn many things about the place I call home. With this knowledge and power at my fingertips, perhaps I can find a way to create dullahans free from the reliance of fey courts.