Category:Caliban

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

		Ravenloft Third Edition
		Ravenloft Third Edition - p30
		Ravenloft Third Edition - pp30-31
		Ravenloft Third Edition - pp30-31

Calibans are a human subspecies only found in the Demiplane of Dread, representing individuals corrupted by malefic spiritual energies either in utero, at conception, or at birth. They could, in a very real sense, be considered the Planetouched of the Demiplane of Dread. The sources of contamination are multitudinous, and include black magic, dark alchemy, curses, the malign aura of powerful and malicious magical beings such as hags or fiends, the taint of unholy acts such as rape, incest, necrophilia or cannibalism, or even prolonged exposure to intense negative emotions. The corruption imbues calibans with preternatural strength and vitality, but curses them with all manner of deformities and mental maladies, which lead to them being at best ostracized from human society.

The caliban race was introduced to Ravenloft canon with the Ravenloft Campaign Setting in Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition, replacing the Half-Orc of D&D "canon" as the "big brutish bruiser" race by possessing a backstory that better meshed with Ravenloft's own lore. Mechanically, calibans simply used the half-orc racial profile.

Calibans did not return in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, perhaps due to their invention at the hands of White Wolf.

Caliban Subspecies

This section contains netbook-canon info from netbooks

Whilst calibans come in a seemingly infinite array of hideously unique forms, the article Brutes and Banshees from Quoth the Raven Issue 08 introduced the concept that five distinct "races" or calibans can be distinguished amongst the individual calibans.

Banshees are eerily beautiful female calibans with a morbid streak and an affinity for grief, loss, despair and death.

Brutes are calibans marked by extraordinary size and strength, the closest to the race's conceptual lineage of half-orcs, half-ogres and hagspawn.

Bestials are calibans whose features resemble a hybrid of man and beast, or sometimes more than one beast.

Cannibals are lean, wiry and sinister-featured calibans with distinctly ghoulish traits.

Witchspawn are calibans who possess an innate affinity for magic, and whose mutations tend towards traits associated in folklore with fiends and witches.

These subraces were converted to 5th edition in the article A Primer to the Umbra Peoples in Quoth the Raven Issue 28.