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Author's Notes

# Carnees

Story
The long oak table was set with silver plates and crystal goblets. Candles burned low, their light dancing across grey skin and cold eyes.
At the center of the table, bound iron rings, a woman still breathed. Her chest rose and fell in quick, panicked gasps, eyes darting from face to face.
Cutter Malthren stood over him, sleeves rolled, knives gleaming in a row beside him. With a patient smile, he drew the first cut, shallow, just enough to draw a cry. The coven leaned forward, listening as though it were music.
One of them, Lady Serotha, licked her lips and reached for a slice of roasted fruit, savoring the contrast of sweet and salt as the victim screamed again.
Malthren worked slowly, carving, suturing, carving again, each motion practiced. The victim begged, voice breaking, but no one at the table stirred with pity. They murmured instead about the artistry, the precision, as if discussing a fine painting.
Hours passed like this, with dishes brought forth, wines, spiced meats, cheeses, but all side courses, preludes to the true meal. At last, when the victim's body was little more than a trembling husk, Malthren took the final knife.
The table hushed.
He opened the skull with swift grace, steam rising. Then, with practiced hands, he lifted the brain and placed it on a silver platter.
Lord Kaelthir raised his goblet. "To refinement."
The Carnees bent their heads in toast, as the main course was served.

Info
Old wives' tales speak of the Carnees, pale folk with eyes like knives who creep through alleys and noble halls alike. Some say they are elves twisted by a curse, others claim they are demons dressed in velvet. All agree they hunger for what no beast should, the flesh and blood of men.
Stories tell they gather in secret banquets, dining by candlelight on captives kept alive until the final toast. In some versions they drink blood like vampires, in others they devour hearts, in yet others they steal voices and wear them as masks. No two tales match, and perhaps that is the most frightening thing.
Folk mutter that Carnees can walk unseen, hiding behind illusions so strong that even kings might keep them at court without knowing. A few even swear whole noble houses are Carnees in disguise, their strange tastes and long lives explained at last.
Whether they exist or not, every city has its share of vanishings and its share of whispers. And if you pass a dark cellar window at night, and see candlelight flicker across grey faces at a long table, pray it is only your imagination.

Carnees admiring the cutter's work

The Carnees are whispered about in taverns and alleyways, always as shadows and myths, yet behind their tales lies a grim and terrible truth.

They resemble tall elves, but their grey-tinged skin and cold, cruel eyes betray their true nature. They move with elegance, dress with taste, and speak in soft cultured voices, but beneath the surface is hunger, not just for brains but for the anguish of others.

## Origins

Legends speak of the first Carnee, Syrath Veylan, a scholar who sought to unlock the secrets of immortality. His experiments warped his bloodline and all his descendants share his curse: to live, they must devour flesh, most importantly the brain. They could eat any brain, but choose sentient brains out of pure malice.

## Culture and Customs

Carnees call themselves the Noble Kin, seeing themselves as the rightful elite of the world. They do not eat crudely; they dine. Their feasts are ceremonies, carefully planned events of horror masked in refinement.

At such banquets, a master butcher known as a Cutter presides. The cutter is not only skilled with blade and sinew but also with magic that prolongs life and intensifies pain. The most famous in whispered tales is Cutter Malthren, said to be able to keep a victim screaming for an entire night, carving and cauterizing with merciless precision until the brain is finally consumed at dawn.

Meals are surrounded with elaborate rituals. The flesh of the victim is paired with wine, spiced fruits, or roasted meats, as though the suffering were simply another course. Among the Carnees, the cruelty itself is art.

## Magic

Carnees are masters of Thaumaturgy of Flesh and Mind. Their spells focus on bending the mind, dulling the will, disguising their own features, or warping the body of their prey. A Carnee gathering can appear as a noble ball or salon until the illusions peel away and the guests find themselves bound for the knife.

## Society and Hierarchy

Carnees live in Covens of 10 to 20, sometimes much more, hidden in great cities where they can vanish into crowds. Each coven is led by a Host, who organizes food supply, oversees secrecy, and decides who among them will prepare the food. The Hosts meet rarely, but when they do, the feasts are spoken of in hushed terror as Grand Tables, nights of unmatched horror.

Their gatherings are strange, for unlike most predators, Carnees rarely feud. They understand that secrecy is survival, and so disputes are muted or resolved behind masks of civility.

They adapt names to their current culture, but tend to go for grandness. Names often bear a smooth, aristocratic sound: Veylan, Ascarith, Malthren, Serotha, Kaelthir, Dravenna.

## The Structure of a Coven

A Carnee coven mirrors the aristocratic houses they long to imitate. They dress like nobles, speak in the tongue of courts, and maintain an inner order of titles. All of this is illusion of refinement, draped over blood and horror.

### The Host

Every coven has one who presides over the Grand Table, deciding when the coven hunts and how victims are chosen. The Host is usually the eldest or most cunning, chosen not by blood but by terror and respect. He or she is the arbiter of secrecy, and failure to protect it is punished with death. Example: Lord Kaelthir Veyran, remembered for turning entire households of servants into meat and wine in his hidden halls.

### The Cutter

More than a butcher, the Cutter is revered as an artist. They know how to carve flesh while keeping the victim alive, how to pair pain with taste. The coven defers to their skill during feasts, and some Cutters are so valued that covens fight over them. Example: Cutter Malthren Soryth, known as the "Singer of Bones," who stitched his victims back together with flesh-shaping magic to prolong their agony.

### The Cellar Keeper

Captives must be kept hidden until they are needed. The Cellar Keeper is responsible for prisons, chains, drugs, and spells that keep victims weak but alive. They are also tasked with disposing of remains that cannot be eaten. A clever Cellar Keeper uses illusion and bribery to keep neighbors from noticing screams in the night. Example: Serotha Draevenna, infamous for her "hanging gardens," where gagged captives hang in sacks until the feast day.

Carnee cellar keeper

### The Masked

These are Carnees who specialize in living double lives. They infiltrate noble courts, guilds, and priesthoods, using illusion and subtle mind magic to gain trust. They are the voice of the coven in the outside world, ensuring bribes are paid and suspicions eased. Example: Eryth Velan, who served as treasurer to a duke for forty years while secretly funneling victims into the coven's halls.

### The Bloodless

Some Carnees are too reckless or clumsy to serve in the higher roles. They form the bulk of the coven, attending hunts, helping to abduct victims, and serving at the Grand Table. Their loyalty is demanded, but their voices are rarely heard in decisions.

## The Banquet

When the Grand Table is called, each role gathers. The Cellar Keeper presents the chosen victims, the Masked ensure no suspicions fall, the Cutter presides over the meal, and the Host gives the signal to begin. The Bloodless serve wine and clean the gore while the Bound perform menial tasks.

The feast lasts until the last brain is consumed, and when it ends the coven is silent. They disperse, illusions cloaked around them, until the Host calls again.

Carnee banquet

## Religion

The Carnees follow no open religion, but within their covens they whisper prayers to what they call The Table Eternal. They believe the act of feasting is itself sacred, a reflection of a higher order where predator and prey are fixed by fate. Each banquet is a ritual, the victim a sacrifice whose agony "seasoned" the soul for refinement.

They do not worship gods in the common sense. Instead they honor Syrath Veylan, their first ancestor, as a figure who transcended mortality through hunger. Some covens speak of him as a prophet, others as a living presence whose spirit still watches from the shadows of every Grand Table.

Their prayers are not long sermons but murmured toasts: cups raised before the first cut, blessings of refinement before the brain is served. A Carnee coven's feast is both meal and liturgy, cruelty dressed in velvet and silver.

### The Empty Chalice

The most common Carnee symbol is the empty chalice, an upside down chalice, signifying both hunger and the promise of the feast. Some covens carve it into the underside of their tables, while Masked Carnees wear small silver pins or rings shaped like goblets. In folklore, any noble hall decorated with chalices is eyed with suspicion, though most dismiss it as superstition.

## Folklore and Fear

Among common folk, the Carnee has merged with the idea of the vampire, an people usually can't tell them apart. Stories tell of pale-eyed nobles who prey on peasants, draining their life. Yet in truth, the Carnee is worse: he eats flesh and relishes screams. Mothers warn their children not to stray into alleys, for the Carnee might take them.

In noble courts, rumors swirl of certain houses with strange tastes, of missing beggars in cities where the aristocracy never seems to age.

Despite rumours of Carnees hunting victims through elaborate schemes, the truth is that usually, they just buy them at the local slave market.

## Weakness and Survival

Carnees live long lives only so long as they continue to eat brains. Without them, age catches up in months, withering them into dried husks. They have no unnatural resilience; a sword through the chest kills them as surely as any man.

When exposed, the hunt is merciless. The Empire, for instance, has whole orders dedicated to rooting them out. Inquisitors still whisper the name Serotha of Veyrun, a Carnee noblewoman who once enthralled half a city with her illusions, until she was dragged screaming into a pyre.

But for every Carnee burned, another remains hidden in velvet halls, waiting for the next banquet.

## Allies in the Shadows

Although universally hated if discovered, the Carnees are not always forced to live as mere parasites. Some rulers and syndicates find them useful, and in the quiet corners of politics and crime, bargains are struck.

### Criminal Alliances

In the underworld, Carnees are dreaded but respected. Ruthless gangs or assassins may deliver captives in exchange for coin, protection, or magical favors. The Red Knives of Myrnath, for example, are said to have thrived for decades under the patronage of a Carnee coven. Their victims disappeared without trace, and in return the Knives were shielded by powerful illusions and mind-magic that confounded their rivals.

### Rulers and Nobility

Even kings and dukes have been tempted. A Carnee coven offers discreet removal of enemies, spells to bend minds, ways to extract information, and knowledge gleaned from centuries of life. A desperate ruler might look away from their banquets if it means their throne remains secure. Whispered histories tell of Duke Elaron of Rhavess, who knowingly harbored a coven beneath his castle in return for enchantments that kept his rivals loyal. His line died out in fire, yet some claim the coven survived, slipping into another city.

### The Price of Aid

Those who deal with Carnees always pay a cost. The coven does not serve freely; they demand victims. Sometimes it begins with prisoners and outlaws, then beggars and foreigners, and at last the coven grows bold, demanding citizens or courtiers. By then, the ruler is ensnared in secrecy and complicit in horror.

## The Dance of Secrecy

Carnees cultivate an air of sophistication to ease these alliances. They hold salons, disguised by illusion, where nobles think themselves attending a private dinner only to find themselves enthralled by subtle enchantments. Most leave alive, never knowing how close they came to the knife, and so rumors spread of "strange but charming hosts."

Yet rulers and criminals alike know one thing: a Carnee ally is never truly loyal. They work for their own hunger and survival. Once the balance tips, once secrecy fails, even kings turn on them, for no power can protect a revealed coven from the hatred of the people.

## Famous Deals of Infamy

- The Pact of Sarneth: A forgotten barony where the entire ruling family was replaced by Carnees, their illusions so perfect that no outsider realized for three generations.
- The Shadows of Althyr: A thieves' guild that became the private hunting ground of the coven that funded it, until the thieves themselves were devoured.
- The Golden Mask of Vorlin: A high priest who struck bargains with a Carnee coven to maintain his authority. His sermons against "false myths of vampires" were a smokescreen that fed the Carnees fresh victims from inquisitorial cells.

## Possible Secrets

### The Hunger's Source

The need for brains might not be a defect, but a tether. Each mind they consume could feed something beyond themselves, a slumbering entity, a forgotten god, or even Syrath Veylan himself, who still exists as a consciousness bound in shadow.

### The Hidden Feud

Though secrecy binds them, there may be one schism between covens so bitter it spans centuries. The Grand Tables are not always united, somewhere, two lines of Carnees plot each other's destruction, risking exposure in their rivalry.

### The Noble Lineages

Certain noble families might secretly carry Carnee blood. They maintain wealth and longevity through generations, hiding their true nature behind wealth and influence.

### The Banquet of Banquets

An old prophecy, or perhaps just a tale, speaks of a final Grand Table where every coven will gather to feast. Some believe it will mark their ascension into godhood. Others whisper it will be their undoing, the moment when secrecy ends forever.

## Adventure Hooks

### The Missing Heir

A noble's son or daughter has vanished in the city. Rumors say kidnappers, but the truth is that a Carnee coven has them stored for an upcoming banquet. The party must track the captive before the Grand Table begins.

### The Cutter's Challenge

A famous Cutter has been taken alive by inquisitors. The Carnees want him freed, or killed, before he reveals names under torture, and the adventurers are approached by agents to aid in a prison break, or hired to ensure he never escapes.

### Banquet in Disguise

The characters stumble upon a Carnee feast by accident - perhaps chasing a thief, perhaps seeking shelter from a storm, and must escape with their lives before the coven realizes what they've seen.

### The Disappearing Guild

Members of a particular trade guild vanish one by one. The adventurers discover the guildmaster is working with the Carnees, trading workers for profit and protection.

### A Job Too Easy

The adventurers are hired to kidnap a criminal or enemy and deliver them to a shadowy patron. Payment is generous, but later they learn the victim was delivered to a Carnee coven. Do they go back to rescue them, or hide their own guilt?

### The Grand Table Approaches

The adventurers hear whispers of an upcoming feast, with multiple covens gathering in one place. The adventurers can attempt to infiltrate, disrupt, or burn the gathering before it begins.

### The Carnee Courtier

A charming noble befriends the adventurers and even proves useful in their endeavors. Later, they discover their ally is a Masked Carnee, feeding information and victims to their coven. Do they kill, expose, or bargain with them?

### Silent Street

An entire street in a city has grown oddly quiet. Shops close early, people disappear after dusk, and no one speaks of it. The Carnee coven has simply taken the street as their hunting ground, and fear keeps the neighbors complicit.

### The Rival Hunt

Two covens have laid claim to the same city. The adventurers are caught in the middle when one side tries to recruit them and the other tries to silence them.

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