A Brief History and Explanation of Dopples.

By I.C. Snipes.

You are walking in the woods, there’s no one around and your radio is dead, out of the corner of your eye you spot him. It’s you. He’s following you about 30 feet back, you turn to look at him and he seems to fade back into the woods. You flee in terror thinking you just saw an omen of death but in reality you just have encountered one of the most misunderstood races in Delanith the Dopples. No one quite knows how long they’ve been around but some believe they predate the Merge. I’ve been studying Dopples most of my adult life as their mysteries fascinate me and unlike that hack Dunmark I would not have published this paper unless I felt I had touched on some of the truth to their mysteries.

Let's start with their history. Dopples first became known without a doubt to the world three years after the merge. During a random patrol of Discord City a few soldiers stumbled upon a general within the side of magic just calmly strolling down the street. They immediately detained him as they had been engaged in a battle with him outside the cities walls and they were shocked he had managed to secretly enter. Much to their surprise the commander returned to the battlefield the next day while they still had him in their prison. After copious amounts of torture without the commander in bondage speaking a word he mysteriously escaped. It wasn’t until they saw the security footage and saw him shift into his natural form and then into that of a guard in order to stroll out the front that they knew they were dealing with a completely different race. A being completely unknown to them. It set off panic in both sides of the war once the discovery was made public. Apparently despite appearances the side of magic wasn’t intentionally using Dopples. That combined with the fact the general that was being impersonated fell in battle and died the very day of the Dopples escape was taken as a bad omen. Ever since then Dopples have been mistreated as spies or omens of death. However the truth of this race appears to be something completely different.

So what is a Dopple, and what is their true form you ask? A dopples true form is a humanoid, featureless, silhouette of pure white, black, grey, or a variety of colors. They have two black circles that seem to absorb the light around them where their eyes should be. However it is exceedingly rare for them to be seen in this form as without a mouth to speak they cannot communicate, however they do seem to be able to observe the world around them as the dopples that can control their transformations usually base them around someone in their immediate surroundings. Dopples can transform into any type of person or race of a size similar to themselves. As far as I can tell Dopples abilities to transform greatly change from Dopple to Dopple. Some have no control over their transformations and randomly swap based on mood or are constantly shifting features. Others seem to only be able to mirror people around them. And some even seem to have complete mastery not only being able to transform at control into anyone they’ve seen before but control their features to make their own ideal selves. Most Dopples I’ve managed to discover have limited control of their abilities to change form and are sometimes unaware they even look like others. I once met a dopple that had unconsciously copied me, it was odd because I could see a faint glow around his silhouette and it felt wrong to me. Like something had crawled into my skin and grabbed my heart but once I got over this initial gut reaction I had a chance to speak with a young, well I’m not sure if dopples have gender, but it felt like a young man. He was polite, friendly, and very intelligent. We spoke at length about his self identity issues. Apparently he’s only met a handful of dopples himself in his life however he knew he was born to a human mother who had apparently had sex with a dopple at some point in her life. It was a shock to her that he was born a dopple and he was quickly abandoned as a monster but was taken in by a nice older woman who helped him come to terms with himself. He couldn’t really control his power he would just shift into the form of people near him he was interested in or interested in understanding. He said he was chased out of many cities and villages because of his abilities and peoples fear of him. I could sense no ill will from him however so I invited him to stay on as my research assistant and he has been one of the most helpful I have ever known.

In his natural form he has almost no body heat however his organs seem similar to that of a human. I’m not sure if this is because of his human mother or if dopples are an offshoot of human evolution. I have had him switch into a variety of people however it seems no matter how many times he’s switched he can never fully control who he switches into, and his physical abilities do not change. Of course this may be different for other dopples as I’ve heard of dopples that can mimic people's powers, abilities, and completely control their shift but my assistant at least seems to have never gained that skill.

Dopples to me are a tragic misunderstood race. They seem to grapple strongly with identity issues, a sense of self, and a place to belong. I would like to invite any dopple reading this to come have a pot of tea with me and a long discussion about your life. To those who are not dopples reading this please do not treat them with fear and disgust they are people just like us. My assistant transformed into me many times over the last two years and my health is fine. They are not an omen of death, they are not spies or monsters, they are humans like beings, with human desires that are tragic creatures who can’t seem to control their own bodies. To me it seems like being a dopple would be a never ending horror show where you fought against your own body, but to my assistant he seems happy and treats it as nothing more than a minor inconvenience. I wish I had his strength some days. I hope this has shed some light on one of our world's most mysterious, rarest, and most misunderstood races.

Ichabod C. Snipes.

 

 

 

Tips For Dopples

  • Dopples are an interesting race that can really vary based off the player. Most Dopples will need to invest at least a minor ability into shifting unless they completely don't have control over their powers at which point plot staff will be able to step in and randomly shift you however they please. So as a tip at least spend a minor on getting some sort of ability to shift even if its just they can shift once a week into an ideal self or a combination of features they've seen recently.
  • A nice weakness for Dopples is they glow in the presence of someone they are duplicating. It's from the lore of dopplegangers themselves and just seems fascinating to me.
  • Dopples tend to have at least one personality disorder stemming from the circumstances that form as they grow up. 

 

Final Notes

coming eventually.