Awnshegh

The awnshegh, plural awnsheghlien, which literally means "Blood of Darkness" in elfish, are an extremely broad category of monster in Cerilia, the Birthright campaign setting.

Within the setting, a being can be a "blooded" or "blood scion," possessed of supernatural power from fragments of the old gods. The oldest of these old gods was Azrai, the god of lies and darkness whom all the others sacrificed themselves to destroy permanently, and those blooded by Azrai's power often find themselves warped in body, mind, and soul, which is only fitting for a wicked god obsessed with "improving" on the natural order and the progenitor of all beastmen.

An "awnshegh" is a being who was once a scion of Azrai that was twisted out of humanity by their dark power, committed bloodtheft (stealing the power of a blood scion with a deathblow to the heart) on a scion of Azrai, or simply had a particularly strong awnshegh parent. They take a variety of forms, some humanoid, some not. Some were once ordinary people, some were once animals, and some are just fucking weird.

Now, having the blood of Azrai doesn't necessarily make you a villain in and of itself. Indeed, some awnsheghlien aren't even necessarily bad people in their own right. But, the dark power of the Lord of Chaos resists being used responsibly, and while not all of them are evil, most of them are, and none are truly good. (Well, okay, the Banshegh sort of is, but Justina Heughlou is barely an awnshegh.)

Awnsheghlien take the place of most "common" monsters in a normal D&D setting. Rather than entire races of monstrous foes for parties to slay for loots, a given awnshegh is a unique, powerful creature, much like the monsters of mythology. Some awnsheghlien produce lesser "spawn" races, either by sexual or asexual reproduction, creating henchmen for parties to fight. And, of course, just like any other scion, awnsheghlien can take up Holdings, bonding to the land and twisting it with their dark power, gaining strength and potency from expanding or cultivating their territory.

Awnsheghlien, being unique and powerful antagonists, have access to powerful blood abilities, including their signature, Azrai-exclusive "bloodform" power, which physically twists the user in accordance with their inner nature as they use their blood powers or gain new ones in a manner beyond the user's control. Azrai's bloodline also has access to lots of good offensive and defensive swag, such as Regeneration and the Invulnerability power, which literally makes it impossible for the user to die unless killed in a specific and unique fashion... and some mysterious awnsheghlien don't have listed means of putting them down for the count.

They were detailed in the Blood Enemies: Abominations of Cerilia sourcebook, which was presented at least partly as an in-universe text reported to the reader by a sage, one who actually compiled lists of research, and even interviews with some of the more-sapient and negotiable ones. As a result, some of its information is fairly incomplete.

There's also a benevolent counterpart to the awnsheghlien called the Ehrshegh (Ehrsheghlien for the plural), which means "Blood of Light".

The Apocalypse

A mysterious, evil cloud, which drifts over the land, in which a hungry bearded face with pointed teeth sometimes appears, sucking the blood and life out of settlements it falls over. It may have been created when a town suffering from a mysterious plague was torched, and thus caused what was once a magical disease to become an atmospheric vampire, or it may, according to an unreliable corpse interrogated under the effects of speak with dead, be the literal breath of Azrai searching for his body. Either way, it's almost impossible to harm by any means (it's not technically immune to magic weapons, but it doesn't even have a listed AC or HP total), and those it comes into contact with it have their blood and life essence sucked out and begin rotting alive over the course of days unless they're given simultaneous remove curse and dispel magic spells. A pretty creepy monster, but not super usable except as an obstacle for a lord to have to try to deal with.

The Banshegh

No, I didn't misspell it. The Banshegh is the first of the more interesting and complex of the awnshegh on this list. By day, Justina Heulough is a just, fair, wise elven noble ruler over her largely human domain in the Mountains of the Silent Watch, and not to put too fine a point on it, an absolutely gorgeous, fuckable woman with a lovely personality, who's done a great job of running the place since her human husband died thirty years ago. By night, the Banshegh rises from her sleeping body and terrorizes her domain and her neighbors, looking like a spectral, translucent blue version of her and appearing in the dreams of her prey, terrifying to death or aging rapidly those it hunts. Unfortunately, while outside her domain the fact that the two are somehow bound together or even the same being is well-documented through the use of spells like locate person that return two simultaneous results, Justine is in denial about the link, putting bounties on the Banshegh and having herself locked into her bedroom from the outside as publicity stunts. And even her own people are torn: Justine would just about be an ideal ruler, if not for the fact that she's got some kind of undead spirit problem she doesn't want to admit even to herself.

How this happened is a subject of much debate. Some scholars theorize that Justina simply has a really off-kilter bloodform manifestation (the Banshegh started showing up shortly after her husband died, suggesting an awakening of sorts), others that the Banshegh is a kind of spiritual parasite, a divine fragment that somehow survived 1,500 years before latching onto a hostess it leaves at night to feed. One source, twenty years old, states that she was cursed by a priest of the dead god Azrai and had her essence bound up with a being from the Shadow World. This is important because the one sure-fire way of getting rid of the Banshegh is killing Justina, which no one really wants to do, and no one's certain what destroying the Banshegh separately would do to her, or even whether it might just destroy their connection and unleash a deadly awnshegh from the one thing restraining it from being even worse.

It's a bit academic, though, as both have the Invulnerability power with no listed method of destruction (though it's also clarified that they do not have the same blood powers, so presumably these methods aren't even necessarily the same as one another). Justina has some powers related to being good at ruling (mostly mind-reading immunity and persuasion), while the Banshegh not only has its dream-entering-age-to-death-through-fear attack, but a standard wail, a withering touch, and a bunch of defensive powers. Definitely a creative monster with an inherent mystery and moral dilemma.