All Monsters in "Fetch"
Source Feybound pg. 104A fetch is a twisted, deviant simulacrum of a humanoid creature that exists or existed at one point on
the Universe. While there are rumors of fetches who are reflections of beings from other planes, if such exist, they must still be duplicates of a sapient creature. A fetch can manifest spontaneously when a powerful person undergoes a significant emotional event or dies, either while in the
First World or in an area significantly influenced by that plane. However, they've also been created by potent entities like the
Eldest to torment and vex those who've annoyed them. While a fetch manifests from a soul's “reflection,” and as such bears a striking resemblance to that soul's appearance, they have no true memories of their own. They hold fragments of false remembrances from their source, as if they experienced them in a half-remembered dream—which ensures the fetch is enraged by and jealous of their original.
A fetch is similar in appearance to the creature whose soul spawned them, except that they often possess
fey-like features such as pointed ears, plant elements, or supernatural grace. A fetch who seeks to impersonate a still-living source must take care to hide these features and manifest a fetch weapon that their living template wields.
When a fetch dies, they fade away along with all of their manifested items into a bloom of plant life, their soul instantly recycled into the First World, leaving behind a patch of weeds and thorny flowers roughly in the shape they held while alive.
Freed Fetch
If a fetch replaces their creature of origin by slaying them and taking their place in society, it can become a freed fetch. These are unique entities and should be handcrafted as needed. All fetches begin their lives hateful and unruly, but once they claim their place in the cycle of souls, they can (albeit rarely) find redemption. Fetches created by powerful entities after the source soul has moved on to be judged can never become freed, for they exist only at the whim of their creator.
Inversion of Undeath?
Scholars have theorized that fetches are a sort of inversion of
undead, in that their creation is linked to a living creature's soul—either forming when that soul experiences a powerful emotional event or manifesting alongside the creature's death. Yet unlike an undead creature, a fetch is its own being, not a corruption or transformation of another creature's soul. Fetches have souls themselves, yet since these souls are “borrowed” from energies underlying the
First World, they have no capacity to gain in power after they're created. As such, fetches who live for any appreciable length of time grow increasingly frustrated with the stagnation of their personal growth, something of a curse that forces many of them to take increasingly dangerous risks. A fetch created from a still-living creature can, upon slaying their source, sometimes shed this limitation—in effect, taking their original's place in reality. This drives most fetches to seek out their source, murder them in secret, and try to replace them. Yet unless the original was as depraved and twisted as they, such deceptions are inevitably laid bare when a fetch's malign nature becomes apparent.