Swanmay

Swanmay
Characteristics
Type	Humanoid
Image	Wizards.com image

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, swanmays are a sisterhood of humanoids who can assume a swan form. In normal form, they resemble slender, tawny, attractive human females, generally clad in light robes and some form of white, feathered garment. In swan form, they resemble swans.

Swanmays were inspired by the swanmay in Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions (1961), who in turn was based on swan maidens in folklore.

The swanmay first appeared in first edition in the original Monster Manual II (1983).

The swanmay appeared in second edition in the Monstrous Compendium Volume Two (1989), and reprinted in the Monstrous Manual (1993) with the bird maiden. The swanmay is presented as a playable character race in The Complete Book of Humanoids (1993), and is later presented as a playable character race again in Player's Option: Skills & Powers (1995). The bird maiden was further developed in Dragon #218 (June 1995). The black swanmay appeared as a player character race in Dragon #266 (December 1999).

The swanmay appeared in third edition as a prestige class in the Book of Exalted Deeds (2003).

Swanmays are all originally human females who were given their form of lycanthropy by voluntarily accepting a token, such as a feathered garment or signet ring, from a current swanmay. The true purposes of the swanmay sisterhood are not known, but they seem to be peaceful protectors of nature and, in particular, water birds. They live in small lodges on the banks of lakes in deep forests, and these can generally be recognized by the large number of swans and other water birds around them. Swanmay lodges are only lightly fortified against attacks, but contain two escape routes: a tunnel leading to the lake and a hatch onto the roof, which can be used by swanmays when in swan form. Swanmays seem to protect swans out of pity due to their similarity more than for any other reason.

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