Urdefhan

Urdefhan

(Creature)

Type

Outsider
(native)

CR

3

Environment

Any Darklands

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Images of urdefhans

Source: Bestiary 2, pg(s). 276

Urdefhans are a warlike race of clear-skinned bloodsuckers who live in the Darklands realm of Orv, sometimes called Orvian vampires. They are the offspring of the daemons of Abaddon, and like their progenitors, seek to extinguish all other life.

Appearance

Urdefhans are roughly humanoid in form, supposedly created in humanity's image by the ruler of daemonkind, the Oinodaemon. In a mockery of surface life, they have translucent skin that exposes their internal organs. While they possess the same basic body structure as a humanoid, their facial features further distinguish them from their less vile counterparts—wide mouths that stretch almost to their ears, filled with razor-sharp teeth. Urdefhans are also known for their menacing and unique swords—rhoka swords—and armor that resembles the wrappings of mummies.

History

The first urdefhans were created by the Oinodaemon, from the hunted shades of Abaddon, as part of an experiment to seed the Universe with daemon worshippers. Knowing that the urdefhans will be hunted since their creation, the Oinodaemon put them in the vault of Minos-Pashat in Orv, away from other races, and kept them hidden from the conflicts of the alghollthus, neothelids, xoarians, and xiomorns around them.

When the Oinodaemon was defeated and imprisoned by the Apocalypse Riders, the urdefhans lost the ability to reproduce and left Minos-Pashat out of anger at this imprisonment and respect for their creator. In an act of 'charity', the Rider of War offered them the ability to reproduce with daemons. The urdefhans later approached the Rider of Famine for further daemonic mentors, overlords, and mating partners but, in exchange, this Rider marked them with a hunger for blood.

Ecology and behavior

The majority of urdefhan males are sterile. In ancient times, their reproduction was mostly handled by the Oinodaemon, while after his defeat, the Rider of War allowed them to mate with daemons. The resulting offspring are urdefhans, with a small minority also being half-fiends. The most common daemonic parents of urdefhans are erodaemons and lacridaemons. Ceustodaemons are summoned to serve as mates only when the offspring's intelligence is unimportant. Hydrodaemons, piscodaemons, and thanadaemons are chosen to give birth to aquatic urdefhans, and megalomaniacal ones sometimes sacrifice entire settlements to an olethrodaemon, calming it so it could produce even a single child.

Urdefhans can drain the blood from living things, weakening their victims and leaving their flesh bloodless and transparent. In some rare cases, victims of an urdefhan's bite who were already destined to be sent to Abaddon can rise hours after death as an urdefhan with only vague memories of their former lives. Some daemonic cults seek out urdefhans to feed on their members, but most such cultists merely die instead of achieving their goal of becoming an urdefhan.

Society and culture

They sometimes train and ride undead, ghoulish mobats called skavelings.

Religion

Urdefhans worship all of the Apocalypse Riders as their creators, but are particularly close to Szuriel and Trelmarixian, who continue to encourage the urdefhan toward continual warfare with weapons and disease.

These creatures possess "un-souls" made of negative energy that constantly drive them toward death. While an urdefhan's "un-soul" allows it to be healed by negative energy in a similar fashion to how mortal creatures are healed by positive energy, it also allows the urdefhan to effectively detonate its volatile soul, killing it and releasing its energy in a wide-ranging, destructive burst.

Urdefhans believe that after their death, their souls travel to Abaddon, where they are tortured by their makers.

On Golarion

The vault of Doga-Delloth in Orv is the heart of urdefhan power on Golarion. They have also established outposts elsewhere in Orv, including a strong presence in Urkalla, one of the districts of Ilvarandin, the Black Desert, and on islands in the Sightless Sea.

Urdefhans also trouble the surface folk in villages close to the Kodar Mountains in northern Varisia.

References

Paizo published a major article about urdefhans in Darklands Revisited.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.