New hollow-heart species for dnd 5.5
I would like to introduce you to the playable psychological archetype, a syndrome rather than a species for dnd 5.5**:**
The Hollow Heart — The Unliving
In Regressia, the line between psyche and reality fractures—where identity itself can decay, distort… or disappear. A world where “high fantasy collides with the strange geometry of the human psyche.”
And in that world, something hollow endures.
The Hollow Heart—also known as the tainted, the broken—are not undead… but not truly alive.
They are those who have lost, buried, or severed their own essence, leaving only absence behind.
Some had their hearts torn from them.
Others removed it themselves—locking it away for safekeeping.
What remains is a body that moves… and a self that is gone.
They are the Unliving.
What defines a Hollow Heart?
A void where identity once lived
A body that mimics life, but slowly decays
Emotions reduced to echoes, distortions, or nothing at all
A quiet, persistent hunger—for something they cannot name
Among the Unliving of Regressia, they pass the closest as human…
but the illusion never fully holds.
Themes you bring to the table:
Trauma made manifest
The absence of self
Humanity as performance
The question: if your heart is gone… what are you becoming?