#fext

So the Fext are probably the most "benign" of the Tainted in that a large part of their population are people who are cursed to need to drink blood for sustenance, but they're otherwise not typically inherently violent (though of course this varies, and some definitely are). Shades, being the offspring of Endarkened and Mages, have to destroy things because their powers are fueled by destruction, violence, etc.--just like Endarkened themselves--so people fear them a lot more due to the unavoidable chaos of their natures; similarly, Ghasts are driven to feed and cannibalize, and Balor (Ket-Endarkened mix) have a biological imperative towards violence, conquering, and war. The demonic heritage manifests in all kinds of malevolent ways, which is what generally makes Tainted so dangerous, and it often causes the inherited traits from the Child of Light parentage to warp or mutate or rebound in odd ways. Like, those traits are often present, but they're just... twisted, corrupted, like a bad painting smeared into a tawdry mockery of the real thing. Endarkened love doing stuff like that.

However, while Fext have to drink blood to survive (as a consequence of their demonic ancestry), their minds are largely more rational, so they're much better at hiding their true natures from society and going incognito. Of course, this doesn't make them that much less feared: a normal (albeit beautiful-looking immortal) person that's actually secretly a blood-drinker isn't exactly a comforting thought. However, a lot of people tend to forget about their existence or not think of them as much: certainly not as much as outright, straightforward threats like Banshees or Nightgaunts, which are liable to swoop in and snatch travelers right off of the road!

The defining characteristics of Fext are that they're as beautiful and long-lived as Elves; they need to drink blood to survive; their senses are often overwhelmed by sunlight (but they don't burn or anything in it, it's more that their eyes are so sensitive that it causes them headaches); and they're in possession of some "small magics" in the same way that the Elves are. They can live on animal blood, but while it's sustaining, it's never satisfying. They also start appearing notably aged when they've gone a long time without access to human blood, which sometimes they use to their advantage to pass themselves off as different people (your 80-year-old neighbor is my elderly aunt who passed away and left me this house, that kind of thing). Notably, they're solitary when it comes to each other (Fext don't like to operate in the same 'territory' as each other because of the competition and the increased risk of exposure) and almost never associate with each other. It's about half and half, the ones who chose to live out in the wilderness, preying occasionally on sleeping travelers or farmers or 'van guards, versus the ones who live in cities and try to pass through the streets undetected.

Some of their small magics include use of the mesmer, a kind of enthralling, hypnotic power they have to lure, confuse, bewitch, or subdue victims. It typically only works on one person at a time, though, so it's not something they really use in battle. They also, of course, possess superhuman strength, speed, and agility when running at max capacity! They typically look like Elves, maybe with oddly-colored eyes or particularly sharp features, but there are no obvious tells like having really pale skin or being really cold or anything like that. They're very good at hunting, tracking, and stalking their prey, just like their sylvan cousins...

The one big downfall for the Fext that they inherited from the Endarkened (other than the whole blood-drinking thing) is their propensity for obsessiveness. They typically try to stay on the DL, but there are occasions when a kind of madness or fixation arises in them and they become utterly obsessed with a particular victim. Typically when they drink blood, they prefer not to kill, because it's not sustainable and draws a lot of attention; they prefer to feed from a target multiple times if they can, so killing is a moot point unless they're a particularly sadistic individual. But sometimes a kind of mania descends on them, an orgiastic compulsion and desire to consume (which takes hold of Endarkened in Hael at their worst), and they get so fixated that they accidentally end up over-indulging and killing their victim. It's kind of like the uncontrollable fits of lycanthropy, they lose all rational thinking and become quite monstrous. This is typically what leads to them getting caught and destroyed themselves!

Last crumb: in the novels, Croelle had a kind of Fext servant/familiar/lieutenant/companion who become fixated on him in this way, but couldn't drink his blood (Tainted can't drink the blood of other Tainted, it doesn't do anything for them), so he just... followed him around and did whatever Croelle told him to do, lol.

Art Source

The Fext is a strange kind of monster. Like many, it was born of hubris, but not the simple hubris of a mage believing themselves a god, or a god believing themselves a demiurge. No, the Fext was born of the hubris of those who believed themselves too powerful or wealthy to be struck down. Most believe the first Fext were created by nobles seeking invincible servants, and who called spirits from the Veil or perhaps even the esoteric Plane of Mirrors into human bodies.

The fext are gaunt figures, with pale, skeletal figures and frequently exposed teeth or sunken eyes. Alongside this, many sport various deformities such as small growths across their arms or most frequently, crusted wounds that ooze yellow blood. However, as many Fext are encountered wearing armour or noble finery, their undead nature is frequently hidden.

Whilst they may be mistaken for a common wight or ghoul at first glance, a Fext is a far more dangerous foe. They possess extraordinary regenerative abilities alongside foul, acidic blood which results in horrific wounds to those who attempt to slay them conventionally. Furthermore, Fext are immune to the majority of common spells, shurgging off fireballs, magical storms and even physic attacks with relative ease. However, there is one substance that seems to both halt their regeneration and slow their acidic blood.

Glass.

Why this is the case is unknown, with some suggesting it relates to the vanity displayed by the nobles created them, or a strange quirk of their possible heritage in the Plane of Mirrors. What is appreciated, however, is the irony of the Fext's existence. Whilst they are extremely proficient in most forms of combat, and are able to tear through duellists, mages and whole battalions with ease, they can be felled by a couple of thrown bottles and a peasant mob. For this reason, Fext have never seen widespread adoption as thralls, although many vampires or members of factions such as the Princeps may keep them as prize fighters or attack dogs.

Plot Hooks with Fext

Fext are most common within the Veil, where they serve the various undead that rule that place. As such, glass-studded clubs or machuahuitl are becoming increasingly common, although Banshees and Vampires alike have begun to crack down on such trades.

Deep within the Plane of Mirrors, a mage attempted to perfect the creation of the Fext. Instead, they fractured their consciousness across 33 imperfect glass clones of themself. Now, the gate that led the mage to the plane has once more opened, and the 33 have began a crusade against the undead duchies of the Veil, seeming to target Fext with especial ferocity.

A fext is said to haunt the ruins of an ancient kingdom, attacking any who travel through that place. Now, however, the region has been conquered by a bandit lord apparently descended from the original nobility, who has been using the Fext as a brutally efficient enforcer.

Ancardia's Greatest Monstrosities--the Fext

Classification: Monstrosity (undead)

Habitat: Very specific areas for creation or natural generation; proximity to large-scale war burials, plague burials, or massacres are required.

mythology aesthetics

FEXT

Fext from Slavic mythology.

It is said that the Fext is invincible to bullets, except bullets made of glass. Some of the great generals of that time were called Fexts because of their assumed immortality.

The common ritual to become a fext requires that a child is born from its mother’s womb in an amniotic cavity; the attached placenta is removed, dried and stored. When the child is old enough, the preserved placenta is held (or sometimes sewn) under the child’s left arm. In some cases, the child may immediately die and return as a fext, while in other cases, the child may continue with life as normal, only to return as a fext after natural death.

It is also possible to return from death as a fext by use of dark magic, or by making a pact with dark forces (such as in exchange for one’s soul).

The appearance of the fext is, for all intents and purposes, its appearance in life, beautified. One would be extremely hard-pressed to find an ugly or unattractive fext. Their skin may be any color possible for their race, but it will almost always be clear, free of spots, blemishes, wrinkles or scars. Their eyes may be any color, but will always be bright and vivid, or deep and thoughtful. Their hair may be any length, texture or color, but will always be kink-free. They will almost always seem at the peak of health, beauty and vitality. For this reason, when they are discovered as being undead, they are often mistaken, at first, for being vampires.

However, a fext maintaining its beauty is not guaranteed. If their origins are brought about by the practice of dark magic, the results can be a bit…sketchy. Though, typically, employing dark forces is successful to become a fext, there are cases in which consulting with a malevolent entity will result in being tricked. The resulting fext may lose his soul in the deal, and still end up vulnerable to age, or the decomposition of death. These are often mistaken, as time wears on, for being zombies.

 Back in the days of past editions of The World’s Oldest Roleplaying Game, the opposite of a paladin was not an antipaladin, but rather a blackguard, servants of lawful evil that occur when an evil god picks up the slack of the power residing within a fallen paladin, taking them under their sinister wings. Where once a warrior of justice and the people once stood, now only an agent of tyranny stands.

Today’s archetype is not a blackguard, but a demonstration of how a lawful evil unholy warrior would work by tweaking the baseline assumption of the antipaladin, creating a counterpart of a different alignment. Who knows? Perhaps in the near future the PF2 Champion will receive an update for antipaladins, tyrants, and a neutral evil counterpart?

In any case, while the classic antipaladin is self-serving with no interest in law or structure (and often a keen interest in destroying such things), the tyrant has more interest in control, whether it be the tyranny and insidious contracts of hell, cruel and organized manipulation and espionage, or something else, a tyrant wants control in a way that even the most demanding antipaladin does not, ruling or throwing around power in ways other than physical or mystical might. (which isn’t to say that antipaladins can’t be manipulators, far from it, but there is nuance there).

Of course, just like both paladins, antipaladins, and other champions of different moral compasses, there is plenty of nuance and the like to explore in the interpretation of their edicts and other behavior. It’s a complex little dance, but that’s a discussion for another time, possibly a previous time if you’d like to look up my previous talks about alignment.

 This archetype is fairly simple, in addition to the changes to their required aligment and code, tyrants are better diplomats than they are riders.

They also gain different choices with their fiendish servant, able to pick lawful evil outsiders or fiendish animals, rather than chaotic evil.

Additionally, while it does not say so in the archetype proper, errata suggests that chaotic aligned-spells and abilities, such as various anti-law defensive and offensive spells, as well as the temporary ability to make a weapon anarchic, should be replaced with their lawful counterparts. Arrow of law and order’s wrath instead of shard of chaos/chaos hammer, protection from chaos, shield of law, and the axiomatic weapon enchant, and other such things.

Wanna play an evil paladin type, but dislike chaotic evil? This archetype might be exactly what you’re looking for. You definitely have options here, so the variety of builds is pretty much the same as any antipaladin, with perhaps a slightly larger emphasis on diplomacy, and the option of infernal patrons.

 You know, working backwards with this archetype and its associated errata, one could in theory recreate the liberator and redeemer P2E Champion causes as paladin archetypes, a neutral evil antipaladin archetype, and with a theoretical neutral alternate class, archetypes for that as well, covering all 9 alignments with relative ease all by extrapolating this one, with only a few changes here and there. Useful for someone that prefers Pathfinder to P2E.

  Finding perfect order in the predictable nature of oozes, Lord Malgrik keeps several types in his dungeons as combination executioner and torture implements, and employs slithering trackers as spies and assassins, whenever he doesn’t decide to take care of his enemies personally with his acid-dripping unholy mace, blessed by his diabolic patron.

 Rumors abound about the true nature of General Undriad. Some say he is a fext, or a graveknight, or some other lethal terror. What cannot be denied however is his unholy magics and the totality with which he dominates his enemies.