Tiny, star-headed beings with wispy bodies of darkness, possessed of a mischievous nature and indefatigable curiosity. Their forms are small but their shadows stride the world like colossi. They speak in theremin-wobbles like tiny birds, and laugh like children, yet the youngest of them has far outlived this world. It goes without saying that you should not look them directly in the eye. In fact, any contact with them comes with a heavy price, as their poisonous light corrupts your cells and sears your mind.
Rumors of the Starfolk
1. In an ancient age, the first giant bent his great bow towards the heavens and began to strike down the stars one by one. Those that fell to earth could never return to the heavens, and so spent the long ages tormenting the first giant for his crimes.
2. The live as long as stars, and instead of dying, their heads collapse into black holes.
3. Ancient civilizations would trap them in cold-iron sarcophagi and harness their strange energies to power nightmarish machines.
4. They want only to help, but human forms and ways are so alien to them that their attempts always end in tragedy and ruin. (This does not seem to deter them.)
5. They will always answer when asked upon, if you know how. The question, however, is when.
6. When Starfolk fall in love, they enter orbit with each other, forming binary, or perhaps even trinary, Starfolk.
7. When a civilization reaches a certain level of technology, the Starfolk descend to greet them.
8. They fear and abhor the moon, an ancient emnity caused by a long-lost cosmic conflict during the formation of the world.
9. The size of their shadow determines their emotional state. If a Starfolk's shadow begins to swallow up the horizon, run. (It's probably too late anyways.)
Signs of the Starfolk
1. Scorchmarks tracing human outlines, emitted from below.
2. A new constellation appears in the sky for a prime number of days, then disappears.
3. A normally star-filled part of the sky empties into a starless void for a prime number of days.
4. The inhabitants of a village suffer from severe sunburns, all at once.
5. Massive designs of incredible complexity are found scorched into the landscape.
6. A civilization or population notices an increase in cases of a mutating, wasting illness.
7. Reports of strange lights leading travelers off well-worn roads.
8. Radios and other devices operating on electromagnetic wavelengths periodically fade to static and emit only high-pitched voices chanting in unknown tongues.
What do the star-headed want?
1. To free one of their kin who is imprisoned in a sarcophagus deep underground, powering a nightmare-factory of the ancient times.
2. A folk song from the region translated into high-frequency electromagnetic waves.
3. To repair an ancient observatory in order to intently study a far-off galaxy. (Are they surveying for threats, or just checking up on family?)
4. The person who called them died of star-sickness. Now they want to "help" the next person they saw... you.
What will they give in return?
Gifts from the far heavens always come with a price.
1. An epic tale of their stellar culture, seared into your brain... (20,000 cash to storytellers/naturalists if translated successfully, -1 Thought/Int permanently)
2. Spell: Solar Crown - You will bear on your brow the echoes of interstellar royalty. Your
words will crackle with fusion energy and your glare will carry the
silent weight of light-years. They cannot bear to look at you, they will
follow your every word as the commandments of the stars... for a time.
Once it ends, you will be ever-eclipsed, for the astral priests spoke true:
Heaven's knowledge burns. Your skull will be forever scarred, and
a part of your brain will have boiled: a bright white star sitting
amidst your thoughts, ever hungry. You become monarch of the universe until your brain fries. Everything you try to do will go as well as it can possibly go, but every time this happens, test your Aura (or Wis). If you fail, your Aura (or Wis) permanently decreases by 1. The mantle of monarch is a final, grave responsibility: there is no way to cast off this mantle before the thermokinetic death of your soul.
3. You become star-crossed. You will meet your destined love on the crossroads of fate. (Player in question can design a follower of their devising of equal level to their character. Both their character and the follower have advantage to tests made to aid or protect the other.) They are fated to meet a tragic end worthy of song.
4. You receive knowledge of an advanced technology or invention that the ruling government or inquisition will find absolutely heretical and will stop at nothing to eliminate at all costs.
