Now that the general game mechanics of playing a naked player character in 5e is covered, let’s dive in with a sample warlock patron to give a good excuse for using those mechanics.
The Serenwych
Other Names: The Grand Star, Étonnante, Beauty’s Gleam
The Serenwych is an intelligent piece of jewelry with power to rival that of angels and fiends, or even of the archfey of the courts of the feywild where it has spent a great deal of the last several hundred years with its various bearers. It has existed for so long—and spent so much time in various planes of existence where time moves unpredictably—that not even it can recall when, where, or by whom it was created.
Peerless in its craftsmanship and elegant beauty, the Serenwych is a hand chain—a network of jeweled chains linking a bracelet with two rings—made with various precious and rare metals, set with large and masterfully cut gems, including a pair of matching star sapphires positioned over the palm and back of the bearer’s hand.
While the Serenwych is generally benevolent and independent of power factions (making it valued greatly as an arbiter between the fey courts), it is vain and jealous regarding its own beauty and status, as well as that of anyone it chooses to grant magic to. It will typically not tolerate a bearer or recipient of its power wearing clothing or other jewelry except for absolute necessity or ritual or symbolic symbols of status. It will also grudgingly accept sharing a bearer with non-intelligent magical items (but not intelligent ones), so long as they are less prominent than the beauty of the bearer’s body or the Serenwych itself. Likewise its bearer (and recipients of its power should it choose to share with more than just one individual) must take exceptional care of their personal appearance even (and especially) if circumstances may make such efforts inconvenient. To be worthy to wield the Serenwych’s power, they must strive to be a shining star of beauty even in the darkest of places.
How to use The Serenwych in the game
The Serenwych is designed to be flexible enough to serve as just about any type of patron with a little bit of massaging, but is especially suitable as an archfey, celestial, or hexblade patron.
- For it to serve as a Fiend patron, emphasize its blazing, burning light, its vanity, and its temper if disrespected. Also consider giving it a subtle scheming nature to ensure its benevolent and lauded acts always provide some clever benefit to itself.
- To serve as a Great Old One patron, emphasize its connection to the stars and its unknown and unrecorded origins.
- For the Genie, you might disregard the noble genie itself and treat the Serenwych as a conduit of primal, elemental power of the kind from which genies manifest and draw. It also serves as an ideal vessel, itself.
- For a Fathomless or Undying patron, it may be a creation of, remnant of, or the vessel for the spirit and mind of some incalculably ancient being.
Additionally, some flare can be added based on the type of pact the warlock has. Since the warlock is likely to be wearing The Serenwych, pact weapons for a Pact of the Blade warlock could be formed from energy projected directly from the gem on the palm of the warlock’s hand. Also in the case of Pact of the Talisman, it is likely that The Serenwych would expect the wearer of the talisman to likewise be as nude as the warlock.
Here is a pregenerated character with The Serenwych as a patron, if you want to just dive straight in.
