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The Rasa

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We will watch you from behind your faces.
—Meseampur, Sultana of Al Tufail

The Rasa were once Asag's servants, primordial lifeforms who roamed the world before Yevna claimed it for her own. While the Lords' Alliance drove much of Asag’s forces into the Northern Wastes, the Rasa proved far more difficult to banish, due to their bodiless natures. The earthbound spirits that remain in Midworld encase themselves in the form of monstrous beastmen, manipulating events from the shadows. In the Dune Sea of Mamara, for example, their influence seeps into the minds of sultans, offering forbidden knowledge and power.

Like the High People, the Rasa are immortal, but there is only one generation of them known to exist. Upon death, Rasan spirits are re-implanted into new vessels, ensuring their continued presence in the world. This unbroken cycle grants them a unique perspective, as they carry the memory of countless lifetimes. Legends claim the Rasa possess shapeshifting abilities capable of perfect mimicry of others.

The nature of their society, if it exists, remains a mystery.

The Rasa are less a race of people and more a malevolent network of individuals united by their shared allegiance to chaos. Their presence in Mamara is particularly insidious, for example: they thrive wherever there is discord, bending rulers to their secret will.

Adventure Hook

Thematically, the Rasa are specters of the past. They represent an old vengeance that has been left over in the world, and their chaotic forms are a reflection of Asag’s wrath. The Rasa function best as puzzles to solve, rather than outright encounters to be defeated. A Rasa that has taken the body of a series of victims in order to enact revenge against its true enemy must be rooted out and contained, since it can jump bodies if slain. A Rasa that has possessed a vizier in a royal court is a threat that must be outsmarted by defeating its policies, rather than its physical form. A Rasa that commands a cult to steal children so it can consume their souls must be exposed in order for the cult to abandon what it’s doing and thereby disempower their master.

The party hears rumors of a Sultan in Mamara who has begun enacting strange, cruel policies, guided by a new and mysterious advisor. When the party investigates, they discover the advisor is a Rasa. The party must uncover and expose the Rasa’s influence without provoking the Sultan’s wrath or destabilizing the region.

How can the party reveal the truth without alienating the Sultan or his court?
What might the Rasa gain by corrupting the Sultan, and what larger plan could they be advancing?
Should the party destroy the Rasa or try to force it to reveal information about its kind?

Tags: Races

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