World Of Darkness: Oversimplified

Thorn_ · Sep 13, 2020

Due to the sheer amount of content to go over, I thought I would slowly create a kind of source thread for all World of Darkness needs on my own initative, trying to dumb down some of the bulk for people.

While the wikis don't make it easy, but I'll to condense things the best way possible The love of making up words to describe simple concepts can be somewhat annoying. I'll try to avoid using the random terms they like to throw out.

Chyrsalis: means when a fairy discovers their fae nature. The fae in this world are made from dreams and can manifest in lot's of different ways, generally feeling like outsiders in mortal communities until they have their Chyraslis making them aware of what they are. It's entirely possible for someone to be undergoing one and just reject it happening, meaning they never awaken into what they actually are. The fairies have two forces to deal with. Glamour and Banality. Glamor is the belief of magic and banality is the reverse.

The modern world leans towards disbelieving in it and it's entirely possible for a fairy to end drifting so far into banality that they revert back to their dormant state of seeming like a human and forgetting they're fairies. Made more dangerous as those risk becoming Dauntain. Fairies who can't deal with the reality letting their fears changed them as they gave into Banality. They may or may not be aware of what they're facing but often still know to use iron weapons to exploit the weakness of the fae.

Seemings: is the term for appearances. Each race of changelings has different, young, youth and old, but all of them before they awaken have the seeming(appearance) of a human. Glamour is the essence of magic for Kithains(Fairies) They can gather this in a number of ways, not limited to just murdering people and taking it, with or without consent.

Fairies are born from dreams and as a result need dreamers. Mortals who are a good source of glamour and not ruined by the boring real world with banality. They're a coveted resource and farming them for glamour through ravaging(Murder or direct force) is considered short sighted and immoral. But only some think that way.

They have two primary courts:
The seelie court: Helpful fairies for mortals, but not "Good" by human definitions by default.The Seelie court believes that if you have to die to keep your personal honor intact, then that's a small price to pay. While they believe in always repaying debts, they aren't obligated to repay debts to solely nice people or even care about the morals. Honor is morality, and their actions can't be wrong if means fulfilling their duties. However, this also extends to the fact they also emphasis never letting go of a grudge for any reason. Preserving beauty is an honor in itself and true love conquers all.

The unseelie court: Chaotic beings that see change as a good thing. Follow emotions before duty. The notions of honor don't hold a place in the modern human world, the key to enlightenment is seeking out answers for yourself instead of looking to tradition for them. Glamour shouldn't be selfishly hoarded. It's everywhere and you can always get more. Impulses need to be acted upon otherwise you'll end up regretting it and it makes no sense to ignore what you really want if it doesn't make you happy.

Now to gather all this up. You have chaos and order fairies who insist on getting the glamour they need to live from mortals in different ways.

They describe such methods as Epiphany, of which there is four ways to do it:
Seelie approved:
Reverie: Muses. Inspiring art, hope, love and trust. To be clear, the Seelie's reasoning for why this is the best way is almost purely for it being the most sustainable. It usually takes a lot of time to teach a mortal to tap into the glamour for their work, but when they draw it out, the fairies are rewarded. Not that an Unseelie won't still do it, but they generally see it as too much time for too little reward, though Seelies see it as keeping the creativity of a person flowing and making them sustainable is a smarter course of action than risking severing a connection permanently for short term gains.

Rapture: Both courts see this as really hard to accomplish and tend to prefer to other means before looking at this one. This is a changeling using the fact they also have a mortal nature to their advantage. Being able to become their own source of glamour as if they were dreaming like a human was. Enlightenment, so to speak. In order to accomplish this means they must make a breakthrough in creative endeavours and not a simple one either. They must become the source of their own magic and wonder which can drive some mad just trying to determine how to do this.While considered acceptable by both courts, it's seen as something too difficult for most to accomplish as a reliable way to fuel their power.

Unseelie: They actually approve of any method, but don't consider it bad to use these two that are considered illegal practices by the Seelie:
Ravaging: Force. Ripping away that glamour however they have to, even risking damaging a permanent connection. The changeling acquires the glamour by the fairy giving a mortal their own banality to forcibly flush the glamour out of a mortals body. This is mostly common down by childlings(Children) who don't know much better. The methods it's done can be in physical force by "hunting." Like vampiries, a fae practicing ravaging can have a preferred hunting ground. There is a more complex method where they perform a psychic assault but it requires sacrifices to do. Usually the mortal's life. The psychic assault entails building some sort of relationship with a mortal, positive or negative, then invading the mortal's mind. How this is done can vary from something as simple as an emotional conversation to sex. Seelie don't consider it a necessary method and a short sighted one that risk permanently killing their own farm of magic, while Unseelie see it as a needed way for them to eat to live.

Rhapsody: The changeling puts raw glamour into the mortal to the point that it burns them from the inside out. It gives the dreamer or artist one final massive burst of creation before being depleted forever. Even Unseelie refuse to use this technique. If it doesn't kill the dreamer, they often end up committing suicide or dying from stress. However, this results in massive amounts of glamour the quantity that makes it an attractive prospect for particularly malicious fae provided they feel confident making an enemy out of both the entire Seelie and Unseelie court(Except for House Leanhaun which does this in secret and relies on it.).

Escheat(Laws): With that fairies believe in certain rights(Ideologies and interpretations varying): The codex for the fae folk recorded law is Escheat. These aren't oaths where someone is expected to follow a certain code they pledge themselves to(Punishments unique among factions.) Escheat will be enforced and those caught breaking these laws will be brought down on by the authorities.

Thus, there are six major laws:
Right to Demense: A lord or lady rules their domain. They absolutely can say what a crime is, how bad it is, and pass judgment on it. Vassals must obey nobles and show the proper respect and nobles must do this with those above them. However, to compete with the way of the modern world they have had to allow some democracy. A few tend to still use force while others prefer to rule with brains, but a populist uprising should be avoided if you want to be the ruler of anything for long.

It's not hard to find commoners who point out the nobles only hide behind this law to protect themselves. And protests have followed, especially with new commoners coming into a noble area. With each allowed to make their own rules, it's possible for immigrants to be detained not even realizing they did anything in the first place or don't respect the absolute authority rule(Which many smaller nobles are painfully aware they have to give into some demands to keep their own heads.)

Right to Dream: The mortals are allowed to dream. Stealing directly will risk killing the source and is a punishable crime. A lot of fae consider this to apply specifically to Ravaging a source and it's not uncommon for this to be blatantly ignored by fae that don't feel it's convenient. Those who get convicted of Ravaging often end up being made an example out of.

Common folk generally accept this rule, mostly the Seelie who will avoid ravaging(Unless slighted or provoked in someway) However the commoners at large, feel if they have a need to eat, they will feel guilty about ravaging and then move on if not doing so would mean they would die. It's still considered ideal to work with the mortals to improve things rather than take the Glamour by force.

Right of Ignorance: Keep mortals oblivious of the fae world. If humanity knows they existed, they would hunt them and end up destroying sacred places or inadvertently killing all the fairies with banality in their attempts to use the fae magic for themselves. Both Seelie and Unseelie generally agree that this is just common sense. Not to mention it would take a lot of Glamour to have mortals witness the dreaming and more to wipe their memories and evidence afterwards.

Right of Rescue Fae should work together to ensure each other's survival. You have a legal and moral obligation to save other fae in critical danger from Banality. Both courts are willing to forget their differences for a while to do this and while they will swoop in to save trolls or unicorns, there's still only a few that will stop to consider a Chimera.

The threat of banality is serious enough, that differences don't matter and commoners expect it's the right of everyone to expect rescue from it and for them to come through for their community. However, there are seldom rare occasions where they are reluctant to help someone who is a new arrival to their community. It's not often, but has happened.

Right of Safe Haven: Everywhere in the Dreaming is scared and fairies are expected to keep it pure from banality, keep violence out of it and anyone expecting safety must be allowed. Much harder to enforce and argued the allowing of some people is what can potentially lead to these places being threatened. Commoners however, welcome other changelings regardless of their court. While nobles have refused low borns in the past, they care more about the Dreaming too much. Even a lowborn Unseelie when faced with a Seelie noble asking for refuge will allow them(Albeit, after fucking with them a little bit first.)

Right to Life: Fairies do not kill other fairies. The only circumstances where this is accepted in some capacity by the law is an agreed duel, provided the use of chimercial weapons that inflict banality. When "killed" they simply revert back to their mortal seeming until infused with glamour and reawakened again. Duels with other weapons are allowed if it's only to the first blood. This is enforced and upheld by the courts strictly.

However while most commoners believe it's generally good to refrain from killing others, some see this as hypocritical as they only make these laws to protect themselves but the nobility is still directly responsible for killing a bunch of commoners such as in the events of the Night of The Iron Knives. Most commoners who refute this law are Unseelie, though even some Seelie question laws that the practicing authority won't stand by themselves as soon as it no longer benefits them to do so. This is generally a vocal minority, however.

Short fat hairy things, they aren't unlike brownies. They believe in being generous and charitable to the point of it becoming a frailty(weakness). When they hear someone needs help, it's a test of willpower for them to not just drop everything they're doing and help them. They believe in doing nice things for people because they want to and the idea of debts is banal to them. It would mean they're forced to work. Obligated. They love freedom and adventure and don't want those freedoms trampled. But because of their need to help people, if they are in a debt, they MUST repay it. This makes them pretty wary of accepting bargains from anybody. They will almost always honor their service and while they don't actively look to be rewarded for what they do, they enjoy the acknowledgment. They can't think of any other way than doing things for other people and not really asking for a lot in return.

There is still a division of unseelie boggans who aren't different in the conventional sense of being innately malicious(Though they can be.) They like to do housekeeping and making things, but also maintain you only get what you pay for. They might install themselves as servants for the joy of doing housework and also to spread gossip and watch the chaos to ensue though it can be seen as them trying to demonstrate that your dark secrets will always find a way back to you. The majority of the race are members of the Seelie court by default however.

Even an unseelie boggan still cares about their dreamers and often both types find a way to get close to their dreamers and look after them in some capacity, but if an Unseelie Boggan is desperate for Glamour, they will do whatever they have to, putting their own survival before the mortal's first.
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Birthright:
Affinity: Actor
Craftwork: The Boggans are exceptional craftsman and can accomplish any task in a third of the time, provided they work unobserved. They cannot botch a Crafts roll.

Social Dynamics: With the time they spend around others, Boggans have a gift for working out the relationships in a community. With a successful Perception + Empathy (or Subterfuge) roll, a boggan can puzzle out a group's social dynamics.
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Frailty:
Call of the Needy: When faced with someone in legitimate need, a Boggan must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 8) to avoid helping in some way.
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Boggan views of the Escheat:
Demense: Seelie will support nobles and are happy to advise them or express concerns for the people. Unseelie, will act as spies to inform proud nobles who is plotting against who and watch them act out. They aren't looking to take over any positions of power, but just want the nobles too busy fight each other to notice or care what the Unseelie is up to.

Dream: They heavily support though an Unseelie may ravage if they absolutely have to.
Ignorance: Seelie follow it strictly, Unseelie Boggan think they are helping by exposing people to the magical world. At least if only for a little while.
Rescue: From either court, they will never hesitate to help those in need.
Safe Haven: Unseelie tend to expect at least some measure of compensation for putting up with those thinking haven, but will almost always accept them like the Seelie would.
Life: Both groups never like to be the source of violence. Sometimes not even acting out in self defense.

You've heard of leprechauns. They aren't quite like that, though they enjoy making sure everyone has a good time as well as working hard. Natural mediators, social and the overwhelmingly majority of them are Irish. Seelie are responsible and Unseelie make a point of being annoying when everyone wants quiet just to do the reverse of what everyone wants out of them. Balanced at a lot of things, they do stand out for musical talents. They travel about, expressing themselves through stories and music. As much as they love liquor, they really should not be around it.
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Birth Right:
Affinity: Actor

Twinkling of an Eye — Clurichaun have a talent for disappearing from potentially troublesome situations. Should someone take their eye off a clurichaun, even if only for a moment, the wily fae can disappear into the nearest cover so quickly that its impossible for anyone to find him or her. One minute they're there, the next they're gone! They can effect this trick even if being grasped by someone, but not if they themselves are blind-folded (or otherwise unable to see) or if bound with iron.

Insight — Whenever a clurichaun is in a social situation (i.e., when not alone), he or she can roll their Charisma + Empathy (difficulty 7) to assess what the most appropriate response to it is. They can then say the right thing or perform the correct actions (the player may need a judicious Storyteller hint or two) to smooth things or make the situation more pleasant. Unseelie may, of course, do or say the opposite of whatever is indicated if it suits them. (Note: This does not take the place of good roleplaying. If a player is misusing the Birthright by constant overuse, she's probably burned out the talent for awhile.)
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Frailty:
Tippling — Clurichaun have a terrible time resisting alcohol, and whenever they tipple, they undergo a change. Those of the Seelie persuasion become maudlin and incapable of anything but singing sad songs and telling sad, often pointless, tales. To take action when in this state, a clurichaun must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 8). Unseelie clurichauns evince extreme cruelty. Their jests are barbed, their stories and humor bitter and angry. Unseelie clurichaun must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 8) whenever they drink alcohol to avoid picking a fight with the nearest person (or group).

West African and Middle Eastern, they're wanderers and storytellers. Willing to take on insane risks, they are confident because of their nature. Having been there since the beginning. Olorun, ruler of the sky, saw the emptiness of the world and decided to fill it. His youngest son, Obatala, filled it with magic creatures of all sorts. His older son, Orunmila made sure the world ran. After Olorun had made this all possible he sent Eshu to take the sacrifices he was owed for making all of this. Eshu was given control over roads and gates and he was happy to do so. Not being about good or bad, he played tricks to teach the good, and punish those who didn't show the respect due to him. Eventually, Eshu had children who grew up to be like their father, not content to stay in one place and wander.

His children came in two groups.
The Ojo: Those who wanted to be like their father punished the bad and became what others call Seelie. They followed the light and order.
The Iku: Those who resented their father for leaving and followed the ways of chaos and death.

Eventually, humans started worshiping them instead of him. He was annoyed at first, but eventually realized it was his children that were acting in his place and he found it hilarious. Needing to still punish them, he ordered them all to gather. Some ran away to prey on the weak. Those who stayed he told a great secret. Those who ran turned into Aithu, those who stayed to hear this secret had became the Elegbra, the chosen children. Getting them to take pride and enjoy the job, he had them do it for him without needing to work himself.

The Elegebra traveled, crossing the seas to meat the Sidhe. While the Sidhe acted as friendly the Eshu realized the Sidhe never truly thought they were equals. Underwhelmed by the Sidhe's assertions of beauty and strength, tensions mounted. The Sidhe realized their tactics wouldn't win over the Eshu and the Eshu wouldn't humor the slightest demands as an affront to their personal honor. It mounted into the Sidhe attempting to get them to submit by force, only to fail. The Eshu beat the Sidhe and news spread to the other fae races of those who would not cater to Sidhe demands. A slander campaign began against the Eshu to protect the balance of power. And the Eshu would tell their own stories.

Eventually after many events in the human world, they acted as diplomats eventually being somewhat reluctantly accepted and acknowledged a role in the fae world.
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Birthright:
Spirit Pathways: Eshu always show up in the right place at the right time by the most exciting route possible.
Talecraft: Eshu are consummate storytellers. In game terms, an eshu gets an additional experience point in any session they learn a fantastic new story or perform a tale-worthy feat. They can never botch Performance rolls.
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Frailty:
Recklessness: Eshu always think they will succeed at their tasks. They will accept any challenge as long as it isn't an obvious suicide mission.
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Fairies of nature, even dormant as mortals, they often are drawn to some ties with nature. The exact coloration varies on age. The youngest taking the colors of spring, the youthful taking the appearance of summer and the eldest changing to resemble the Autmn season.Once a powerful species, few remained after the Sundering, several either seeking out death by iron or going dormant into mortal coils to save themselves.
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Affinity- Nature
Nature's Bounty: All seemings receive this Birthright. The Ghille Dhu may harvest Glamour from nature just like the Nonnehu on top of other Ravaging.
Spin the Wheel: Spring Seeming Only! Young Ghille dhu can re-roll any one roll without spending Willpower once per Story.
Rose and Oak: Summer Seeming Only! The Ghille dhu are not only beautiful but strong. They gain a dot of Appearance and Strength, even if it takes them above 5. This birthright is effective in both mortal seeming and fae mien.
Wisdom of the Ages: Autumn Seeming Only! Old ghille dhu have a mystic contact with the Dreaming and its cycles. Once per Story, a ghille dhu may meditate upon a question concerning the fae. This must be done in a natural spot, such as a place they might be able to harvest Glamour. (Not in a potted plant in a mall!) A successful Willpower roll nets them an answer from the Dreaming. A simple yes/no question is difficulty 7, more difficult questions have higher difficulties. A botch means that no more answers will be given on that subject, no matter how cleverly worded. This ability can generally be used once per lunar cycle. The difficulty increases by one for each additional use. Using this ability to excess is said to be extremely dangerous and has resulted in the sudden disappearance of the ghille dhu who defy this tradition.
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Frailty:
The Kiss of Winter: Ghille dhu who suffer a Chimerical Death automatically age to the next seeming. Additionally every time the character gains a permanent point of Banality the character must succeed in a Glamour roll (difficulty equal to their current Banality rating) or pass into the next seeming. This rapid aging only affects the character's fae mien, not his mortal seeming. If the changeling's seeming is already Autumn, the fae mien dies. There is no chance of recovery for the ghille dhu. The fae spirit is gone until reborn in another body.

Often lawyers or historians of the mortal world, when they awaken they become the entrusted keepers of the dreaming secret's, secrets that aren't allowed to be shared but must always be remembered.
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Birthright:
Affinity - Fae
Testament - At the moment of their Chrysalis, the Dreaming entrusts one of its greatest secrets to the korred. It might be the location of an ancient, powerful treasure. It might be the key to entering a freehold that was once the seat of power for the High Kings of antiquity. It might even be how to reopen Silver's Gate. Whatever the secret, revealing it widely would rock kithain society. Additionally, once per scene involving places or creatures of the Dreaming, a korred can make an Intelligence + Gremayre roll (difficulty 8) to see if they know any secrets relevant to the current situation.
Balance - A korred's quest for knowledge makes them intimately aware of the dangers of the Dreaming to an extent unparalleled by other kithain. Because of this, they can recognize when they begin to favor Glamour at the expense their mundane life and vice versa. Because of this they are better able to stay in the dreaming for long periods without losing their psychic balance and can resist Bedlam longer than other kith.
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Truth - As the chosen guardians of the Dreaming's secrets and traditions, a korred is forbidden from altering any of it. They may never knowingly tell a lie. They may elect not to share the information or word a statement in a misleading way, but the letter of everything they say must be true.

Every now and then, they'll take human form to revisits some of their former human friends, but they belong to the sea. Namely, the Kingdom Of Tides. Located in France, they have a political role. As a species, they range from the ones known to save sailors in their times of need, to others luring and drowning victims for little reason other than they could.
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Affinity - Actor
Born of the Sea - A morganed is at home in the ocean. While immersed in water, their legs merge to became a caudal fin similar to that of the merfolk and any rolls involving Dexterity are made at -2 difficulty. The pressure of the ocean's depth doesn't bother them and they are able to hold their breath for 5 minutes per point of Stamina. In the oceans of the Dreaming, they can breathe water as easily as air.
Song of the Sea - The siren song of the morganed is a captivating and haunting melody. It is as inescapable as the tides on the shore and as soothing as the wind humming through the planks of a pier. Any mortal within 165 feet (50 meters) per dot of the morganed's Manipulation who can hear the song must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) or be rendered docile and compelled to seek out the source of the song. The effect lasts until the morganed ends their song or the mortal is threatened or harmed.
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Frailty:
Bound to the Sea: A Morganed begins to dry out and wither if they remain too long away from the ocean. They lose one point of Glamour per day that they don't immerse themselves for at least an hour in salt water.

Usually pale white, they aren't nice to look, but oddly clean. They dress well, but they rarely have good verbal skills. The Bes Din is the only social structure of their kind. It exists to create a patent on Nocker inventions and exists in pretty much all of their holdings. While it's a closely guarded secret, the reason their society made so many remarkable advances was from borrowing Autumn(Human) world science and using it for themselves. It's more efficient to apply human physics than Dreaming ones. But they will throw out the conventional laws of science for their own, more often than not with great success. Their inventions are primarily steam powered, though if you want any of their tech for yourself, you better be willing to cough up some coin. Or they might even just feel their secrets are only things they are allowed to know.
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Birth Right:
Forge Chimera: Even aside from their special Art of Infusion, nockers can create simple, non-living chimera. If the artisan has a basic working knowledge of how a device operates, they can conceive of how to build a better version. In general the creation can't use electricity, magnetism, or chemical reactions (though that's storyteller prerogative). To create a chimera the nocker needs raw chimerical material and a forge or machine shoppe of some kind. The creative process is represented by extended rolls of Intelligence + Crafts. The difficulty and number of successes depends on the size an complexity of the project. 5 successes at difficulty 5 makes simple things like doors and baseball bats. 10 or more successes at difficulty 9 can result win things like siege engines, semi-automatic knife throwers, and so on. They must also have some degree of privacy. They can work in front of other fae, they'd rather not, and its impossible to work with chimerical materials around sots.

Fix It: Nockers are masters of machines and everyone knows it. A few well chosen words or well-timed threats can intimidate a malfunctioning machine into working properly. They can fix nearly any mechanical device with a successful Intelligence + Crafts or Intimidation roll with difficulties ranging from 5 for simple, familiar problems to as high as 10 for a couples machine that's really acting up. This takes time and a lot go hostility but the average nocker has both. On top of this, at character creation, a nocker can choose one specialty. Seelie characters must choose an anachronistic device (water wheels, steam engine, pulleys, etc...) and get a -1 difficulty on any roll involved with that type of device. Unseelie get the same bonus with a type of high-tech or modern device. This functions normally when in the presence of mortals.
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Frality:
Flaws: Nockers are cynical because they're perfectionists. They always see ways to make things work better but can never achieve their ideals. Some think this is a curse from the First Artisan; others claim it's karmic debt for a bad attitude. Either way, anything a nocker makes will have one trivial and irreparable flaw. This is a constant frustration to the one who crafted it. No matter how well they succeed on the creation roll, there will be a flaw. Depending on the crafting, those flaws can be annoying to the user or even catastrophic.

Thorn_ · Sep 13, 2020

Bedlam: A point where fairies are overtook by Banality to the point of insanity. The world of the fae is magic by default and can screw with a changeling who still has a mortal states perception of what's real and what isn't. This is what happens when a fae feeds on too much Glamour, where it overtakes their willpower to handle it. It comes in Three Thresholds:

First Threshold: It starts by messing with the senses. Hearing things not really there, things in different colors, weird lights and feelings on their skin may be things. Exposure to Banality of the mortal world is actually the treatment process by leveling back down the less grand and more magical situations brought on by this state.

Second Threshold: The madness becomes apparent to others. Maybe delusions of grandeur, believing objects are actually alive with their own thoughts. They believe themselves in some alien planet or ancient era. They can regain sanity at points and come off as normal. Their version of reality starts to become what's real to them and the Glamour of the Changeling is affected. To cure this stage requires the use of magic and therapy against Banality. It's madness bleeding into both their fae and mortal state, and both must be treated.

Third Threshold: They retain all the issues they had, but delve deeper into their madness to the point of becoming unintelligible, violent and berserk. It's also contagious and other fae are at risk of contracting first thershold Bedlam just by being around them for too long. The only cure at this stage is to drink from the Cup of Dreams lost somewhere in the dreams, allegedly guarded by dragons.

These are the Elegebra who stayed behind instead of seeking new lands like their brothers and sisters. They gave up the freedom of the roads to act as guardians preserving stories and heritage of their race.

Looking much like their Eshu cousins, they keep a loose command structure of the tribe, gathering twice a year to discuss the well being of it. Ojo(Seelie) or Iku(Unseelie) are all expected to make laws based on fairness and respect. Often disguising their messages in stories, Eshu will know hidden words when they hear them, but Oba are often the only ones who know what they mean.

After one undergoes the ritual to assume leadership, the differences become much more clear. Almost glowing divinely, more heavenly in appearance, to a degree, resembling the Indian gods. Or perhaps their gods resembling the Oba. The constant glow of their leaders brightens and darkens based on their mood. Despite their beauty, they don't make themselves known. An extremely secretive tribe that see themselves as the only real pure blood Eshu remaining and refuse to make themselves known and broadcast their importance to the enemy.
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Birth Right:
Affinity: Scene

Tale Craft: This is identical to the birthright of the Eshu. Their tales hold great weight and impart wisdom to the Tribe.

Spirit Pathways: This birthright is identical to the Eshu birthright of the same ways and is a reflection of their early years of freedom before settling down into responsibility. When the Oba assumes a title, this birthright is immediately lost and replaced with a new birthright.

Mantle of the Orishas: Identical to the sidhe Birthright, Awe and Beauty. Only oba who have lawfully claimed a title and preside over territory recognized by their fellows receive this Birthright. Until then, they are considered too immature and untested to receive the glory of this power, regardless of what their actual age and life experience might be. When oba are found eligible, this Birthright is activated as part of the secret ceremonies required for coronation. Oba cannot bond with lands outside of Africa, India or the Middle East; all attemps to claim lands elsewhere have failed, and in one instance even resulted in the death of the oba as the very earth rebelled and swallowed her whole. For that reason, oba will rarely, if ever, be found outside these lands except in the most extreme circumstances.

Looking identical to the Eshu normally, their command structure is very loose. Twice a year they will discuss matters of the tribe in secret. Ojo(Seelie) or Iku(Unseelie) are still expected to provide laws based on fairness and respect. Often disgusing their messages
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Frailty:
Reckless - This frailty is identical to the Eshu Frailty. It is immediately and forever lost when the oba assumes a title and is replaced by a new frailty.

Native Soil - Oba are literally tied to the lands they love. Once a title is assumed they are bonded to their land and cannot leave it or its Near Dreaming counterpart for long. If they do they become sickly and eventually waste away to nothing. This does not included traveling to the Far or Deep Dreamings, though they are still loathe to leave their lands for long and will not unless the need is truly great. They may only leave their lands for up to one full cycle of the moon before they start to loose health levels at the rate of one per day. this loss cannot be healed by any means until they are returned to their land. Plus, outside their land they receive a +1 difficulty to all rolls because of constant pain and distraction.
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Nomadic by nature, and natural tricksters. They often go wherever they find the most interesting. Seelie ones are optimistic where the Unseelie among them can be openly vicious. The distinguishing feature is their silver hair, that both men and women of the race take pride in. Many of them find themselves following and attached to humans who travel a lot. When dormant, it's not uncommon for them to take jobs that require lot's of travel and exploration.
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Affinity- Actor
Nimble: All Piskies add +1 to the Dexterity, even if that raises the trait above 5. This birthright is in effect at all times.
Human Bonds: Piskies are especially sensitive to the emotions of humans and even more especially to children. The difficulty of any Empathy roll when dealing with mortals is at -2 for adults and -3 for children, to a minimum difficulty of 3. They are also incredibly adaptable to their surroundings and cannot botch a Survival roll.
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Frality:
Kleptomania: If a piskey sees something the strikes their fancy, the simply have to have it. It doesn't have to be anything terribly valuable by human standards; a pretty rock paperweight could be just as interesting to them as a gold watch. To resist the impulse, the player must succeed at a Willpower roll, difficulty 8. Most Seelie piskies give back taken property, if they are caught, with no hard feelings. The Unseelie can be a different matter entirely.

Well liked by mortals and fae folk, they are still rarely trusted despite being at the center of so many stories. Pooka are shape changers often tied in with many stories as coyotes or foxes or whatever trickster being. Even if their lives depend on it, they are compelled to lie just as their animal forms are driven by bestial urges. Enigmatic, it's no surprise the Seelie can be endearing stories of bad people punished for their greed, and the Unseelie make up many of the stories of monstrous fairy beings that should not be crossed. Bug pooka, househould pooka, wild ones and whatever else. Whatever form they come in, trickery comes with it.

Every pooka has an animal mien with which they will eventually get into trouble. For this reason, it’s important to establish, in advance, what that animal’s statistics look like. In their animal mien, the pooka has either greater or lesser Attributes than they does in their fae mien. You can record these numbers on the pooka’s character sheet, following their regular statistics.

Because every animal has its own unique qualities, strengths and weaknesses, and because there are so very many different animals in the world, an attempt to catalog them would be pointless. When you are creating your pooka, you should work closely with your Storyteller to write statistics for your character’s animal form consistent with the game balance your Storyteller has established.

Physical Attributes - An animal’s size often determines its Physical Attributes but you’ll find exceptions to every rule. For example, while a boa constrictor has immense Strength, it would not necessarily be considered a large animal. Stamina should never drop below the pooka’s own score. Although one would think that a bird would have less Stamina than a faerie, it has supernatural qualities because it is a faerie in a different guise. In some instances, however, the animal mien will have a higher Stamina than the faerie mien. A pooka’s Dexterity could vary greatly between forms, however, either adding dots or removing them, based on the affinity.

Social Attributes - An animal’s Manipulation score mirrors that of the pooka, however their Charisma and Appearance totals may differ between forms. A particularly frightening animal Appearance will affect any Charisma rolls and vice-versa. Whereas a pooka may have only two dots in Charisma when they are in their faerie mien, they may have four dots in it if their animal affinity is an adorable puppy. By the same token, even if the pooka has four dots in Appearance when in their faerie mien, it’s ridiculous to imagine a spider with that many. The animal mien’s score reflects the change in appearance via lower scores.

Mental Attributes - When in their animal mien, a pooka’s Mental Attributes do not change from what they are in their faerie mien. Any special benefits such as enhanced hearing or sight, which could affect Perception, should be purchased as Merits and these then extend to the pooka in their human guise. Pooka have access to their full brain capacity and memories in their animal miens, so neither their Intelligence nor their Wits change

Abilities - Many of a pooka’s Abilities become practically useless when the faerie changes shape. For example, Firearms rarely does the pooka any good in their animal mien. However, many Abilities remain constant and useful. Still others might become enhanced with the shift into animal form. For the most part, a pooka’s Knowledges don’t change. Neither do their Skills, with the possible exception of Stealth, which could increase or decrease, dependent upon the nature of the affinity. Tiny animals may have as many as ten dots in Stealth, whereas an elephant would have none. A pooka’s Talents will more than likely change in animal form, with the exception of Empathy, Kenning, Persuasion, and Streetwise. These four remain constant (although the pooka may have a difficult time persuading someone she can’t talk to).

Backgrounds - Background scores do not change in animal mien, though access to them may be hampered. If the pooka's contact is the same animal they are, communication is normal. A human will not understand any requests. Remembrance is just as useful in either form. As stated above, Chimerical objects change with the pooka. Treasures, unless specifically made to do so, do not. Storyteller discretion is advised.

Tempers - Willpower, Glamour, and Banality scores do not change in animal form.

Cantrips - Pooka may cast cantrips as usual when in the mien of their animal affinity; their bunks, however, obviously have a completely different flavor. Rather than recite poetry, the pooka may chase their own tail around and around ten times, or they may sit up and do an odd sort of dance. In addition, pooka spend Glamour as normal, and acquire Banality just as easily.

Animal Attacks - Animals have any number of ways they can do damage to another creature. To list just a few, they bite, claw, sting, butt, trample, kick, squeeze, and crush. All of these attacks cause standard, non-chimerical damage. Their success is determined by a roll of Dexterity + Brawl (difficulty 6). Determine the damage resulting from the attack by rolling the animal mien’s Strength (difficulty 6) and subtract any successes the victim gets on a Stamina roll (difficulty 6). This is done exactly as per the standard hand-to-hand combat rules.

Venom - Some animals have the ability to introduce venom to their victims. Not all venomous creatures actually kill with their bites or stings. Some, like bees and certain spiders, cause only a single wound level unless the victim has an allergy to that poison. Others may cause serious illness and possibly death. For the sake of simplicity, the following rule is suggested when dealing with a potentially fatal venom. A pooka with a venom attack has 4 venom damage dice. When the player rolls a successful attack, they not only roll their standard Strength damage dice, but they also begins to roll their venom damage dice. Over time, they roll a total of four times, each time reducing the number of dice they roll by one. One roll is made every half hour of in-game time that passes. The victim reduces the damage each time with a Stamina soak roll, like any other type of damage. Unless the victim receives aid, the damage accumulates over this two-hour period, with the potential for death ever present. This applies only to venom that is potentially fatal, such as that of the rattlesnake, the black widow spider, or the scorpion. It is highly recommended that the Storyteller require the player to take the Venomous Attack Merit in order to use a venom attack during play. Few pooka should have venom this strong.

The Pooka Kithbook offers a way of thinking of the rarity of the pooka on a scale of 0 to 5. The book suggests the Storyteller assign freebie point costs based on that value. The current editor finds that problematic as the rarity of the breed doesn't give any benefits aside from rarity. What follows is not an exhaustive list of possible pooka breeds.

Common Level 0

House Cats of all kinds

House Dogs of all kinds

Small Mammals: mouse, rat, squirrel, chipmunk, skunk, raccoon, hamster, gerbil

Common Level 1

Birds: sparrow, crow, pigeon, duck, robin, turkey, chicken, seagull, canary

Burrowers: mole, shrew, hedgehog, ground hog, badger

Farm Animals: pig, sheep, goat, cow, horse

Fish: catfish, perch, goldfish, lionfish, clownfish, bass, salmon, tuna, bluegill, tetra, anchovy

Other: crab, crayfish, lobster, king crab

Uncommon Level 2

Birds: penguin, peacock, cardinal, blue jay, splendid fairy wren, geese, pelican, kingfisher, warbler

Fish: pantherfish, blue tang, filefish, sea bass, angelfish, rock beauty, Spanish hogfish, lookdown, moonfish, short big-eye, yellowbelly hamlet, scrawled cowfish, rainbow parrotfish, queen triggerfish, silver king tarpon, puffer fish, African pompano, red hind, piranha, mudskipper

Large Mammals: moose, deer, mountain goat, bear, musk ox, chamois, ibex

Reptiles: turtle, tortoise, lizard, toad, common frog, salamander, newt, mudpuppy, iguana

Small Mammals: chimpanzee, slender loris, koala, fox, otter, beaver, hedgehog, porcupine, spider monkey, tapir, lemming, vole, meercat, muskrat, armadillo, bat

Snakes: copperhead, rattler, coral, garden, grass snake

Exotic Level 3

Birds: golden eagle, owl, scarlet macaw, great argus pheasant, green- backed heron, Andean condor, harlequin duck, green woodpecker, wandering albatross, sparrowhawk, ostrich, vulture, toucan, parrot, falcon

Fish: hammerhead shark, bonnethead shark, Atlantic sturgeon, electric eel, barracuda, lemon shark, swordfish

Reptiles: chameleon, thorny devil, frilled lizard, gecko

Exotic Level 4

Large Mammals: giraffe, elephant, zebra, okapi, kangaroo, humpback whale, dolphin, manatee, sea lion, gorilla, orangutan, wolf, bighorn sheep, camel, elk, polar bear, reindeer, caribou, cougar, jaguar, panther, mountain lion, lion, tiger, leopard

Small Mammals: rhesus monkey, wombat, wart hog, flying squirrel, platypus, baboon, steenbok, dik-dik, anteater, spotted cus-cus

Snakes: cobra, boa constrictor, asp, viper, adder

Endangered Level 5

Birds: king bird of paradise, Atlantic puffin, secretary bird, kea, superb lyrebird, whale-headed stork, whooping crane, flamingo, bald eagle, hoatzin, yellow-bellied sapsucker, quetzal, great crested grebe, dodo, moas, passenger pigeon, tragopan pheasant, kiwi, ibis, cassowary, emu, booby, bluebird, hummingbird

Fish: sea horse, octopus, snaggle tooth fish, viper fish, great white shark

Large Mammals: panda, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, narwhal, killer whale, blue whale, sperm whale, walrus, vicuña, springbok antelope, pronghorn antelope

Reptiles: crocodile, alligator

Small Mammals: Tasmanian devil, uakari monkey, lemur, bandicoot, aye-aye

Insects Level 5

Butterflies and Moths of all varieties

Spiders of all varieties

Other: wasp, common house fly, horse fly, termite, stag beetle, bumble bee, dragonfly, mantis, mosquito, flea, ladybug, ant, earthworm

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Birth Right:
Shapechanging: Each pooka has an affinity with a mundane animal (no unicorns or griffins or such things). When completely alone, he or she may shapeshift into that animal (or back) over one turn. It costs one point of Glamour to change into animal form, though it is free to return to mortal seeming. The pooka has all the animal's natural abilities. The animal affinity affects the appearance and mannerisms of the fae in question.

Confidant: Pooka naturally break down the barriers of even the coldest of people. With their curiosity, they make outstanding confidants. Once during a conversation, the pooka my roll their Perception + Empathy (or Subterfuge) to get another person to spill their guts. The difficulty is the target's Willpower. Each success allows for one truthful answer to a personal question. This isn't instantaneous, though. It takes time, effort, (and roleplaying) to coax out the information. This Birthright functions normally in front of mortals. Also, a pooka can never botch an Empathy or Subterfuge roll.
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Frailty:
Lies: People may trust pooka, but no one would believe one. No matter how important the issue, they must always mix in a lie. They have to make a Willpower roll, difficulty 8, to tell the whole truth. Different pooka have different styles. Some Seelie always say the opposite of what they mean while some Unseelie will purposefully tell the truth at times to keep people guessing. If the pooka makes their Willpower roll, they can mix truth and lies freely.

Dreams made from violence, and almost close to a nightmare. Everybody hates them and that's fine, because they hate everyone right back. For every reason. They could want you dead for refusing to share your water with them. Share you water with them, and you're a stupid asshole who would help these grumpy jerks. The Seelie side? It's generally accepted that there is no Seelie. It's all Unseelie because of a mass genocide they committed on their own species. This isn't quite true. They mostly lean towards Unseelie, but rarely one might be a Seelie, however briefly before deciding they are already treated like dirt enough too much. They're perfectly comfortable outright eating other species, though not too commonly. They don't shy away from it however.

The species organizes with corbies which are basically just gangs where they try to assert dominance over the rest. If you don't like the way things are run, you can leave whenever you want and they won't stop you. Joining a Corby however means putting up with whatever initiation rites the boss says. Red Caps aren't motivated to fight for profit or songs of glory. They fight just because they enjoy it. They don't respect Trolls fighting for honor because the Red Caps are motivated by winning by all else, not by how glamorous it looks. They don't even like the other violent races of the fae. How do you think the rest measure up? A few Red Caps might acknowledge the occasional high point of a race, but don't be expecting to make friends with them.

One of the races like the Eshu that predates some of the other fae species, they personally remember the Sidhe and them running from the Dreaming only to come back later claiming they had always been there. The Eshu and Redcaps having been around for long enough are aware these are lies or aren't brainwashed. If the Redcaps are too be believed, they are actually smarter than other races would expect, they are just too misanthropic to get anyone to ever actually listen.
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Birth Right:
Realm Affinity: Nature

Dark Appetite: Redcaps can eat anything. They chew through cars and eat their way through walls. Their teeth are either brutally flat or sharp and hard as steel. Their digestive systems (thankfully) remain a mystery. Most prefer human or animal meat but when hunger strikes, anything will do. Anything. As long as they can put it in their mouth, they can eat it. Large objects can be chewed into smaller pieces. Digesting something particularly vile or tough (like wood, steel, romance novels, or toxic waste) requires the expenditure of a point of Glamour. If they attempt to use this Birthright in combat, they must also spend a point of Glamour, as if trying to eat something not normally edible. The base damage is Strength + 2 (difficulty 5). Additionally they may try to sever an opponent's limb. This requires 5 successes on a Dexterity + Brawl roll (difficulty 8) or three successes if the victim is grappled. The attack inflicts a minimum of three health levels of damage if successful, in addition to any damage rolled.

Bully Browbeat: Redcaps can intimidate anything, even chimera. The difficulties of all Intimidation rolls are reduced by one. A successful roll causes chimera to obey without question; sentient creatures can resist with Willpower rolled at a difficulty of the redcaps's Willpower. This Birthright functions normally at all times, even in the presence of mortals or unenchanted supernaturals.
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Frailty:
Bad Attitude: No one likes a redcap, not even other redcaps. Some noble freeholds try to ostracize or kill them on general principle. As part of this stigma, they suffer a +2 difficulty (or greater) on any social situation other than browbeating.

A subspecies of Red Caps. They stick mostly to the water as the name implies making the folklore of why people are so afraid of it.
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Birth Right:
Affinity: Nature
Dark Appetite: Like redcaps, River hags can eat anything. They chew through cars and eat their way through walls. Their teeth are sharp and hard as steel. Their digestive systems (thankfully) remain a mystery. Most prefer human or animal meat but when hunger strikes, anything will do. Anything. As long as they can put it in their mouth, they can eat it. Large objects can be chewed into smaller pieces. Digesting something particularly vile or tough (like wood, steel, romance novels, or toxic waste) requires the expenditure of a point of Glamour. If they attempt to use this birthright in combat, they must also spend a point of Glamour, as if trying to eat something not normally edible. The base damage is Strength + 2 (difficulty 5). Additionally they may try to sever an opponent's limb. This rewires 5 successes on a Dexterity+ Brawl roll (difficulty 8) or three successes if the victim is grappled. The attack inflicts a minimum of three health levels off damage if successful, in addition to any damage rolled.

Bully Browbeat: River Hags can intimidate anything, even chimera. The difficulties of all Intimidation rolls are reduced by one. A successful roll causes chimera to obey without question; sentient creatures can resist with Willpower rolled at a difficulty of the River Hag's Willpower. This Birthright functions normally at all times, even in the presence of mortals or unenchanted supernaturals.

Into The Depths: A river hag may submerge underwater and breathe indefinitely.
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Frailty:
Bad Attitude: No one likes a River hag, not even other river hags. Some noble freeholds try to ostracize or kill them on general principle. As part of this stigma, they suffer a +2 difficulty (or greater) on any social situation other than browbeating.

Tied To the River: A river hag may leave her river and use cantrips to hide her appearance to walk among other fae and mortals. However, she may not be away from her river for more than a week. After one week, the hag must return and immerse immediately in the water, or else wither up at a rate of one aggravated damage per day (that cannot be healed outside of the hag’s river).

Notes:
No River Hag can have an appearance greater than 1.
A River Hag must have at last two dots in the secondary skill of Swimming or the primary skill of Athletics plus at least one dot in Brawl.

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Moon Satyrs(Unseelie) are known for especially deviant behavior, though even a Sun(Seelie) Satyr isn't exactly above this. More than the Escheat, the Satyr, operate on their own Code of Living.

Live and let live.

Be yourself.

Listen to your instincts.

Seize the day.

Perfection is possible; go for it.

Look for love in all things.

Run free.

Don't be afraid.

Don't hesitate.

Don't look back.

Satyr aren't interested in conventional standards of honor and even the most benign of them tend to be chaotic forces. They shouldn't be underestimated as just clowns. Establishing themselves as surprisingly competent fighters in the Accordance War along with the Trolls and Red Caps, they proved they had the brains the other two didn't. Allegedly the Night Of Iron Knives occurred due to a Satyr offending a noble by outwitting them during a party. No stranger to wars, they rarely seek to fight them. They would rather party than fight, but unlike other glib species, they aren't afraid of getting their hands dirty or just punching out a problem if they see it as necessary.

The origins can be traced back obviously to the Greek era. But before that was Arcadia. Simon Frost a Seelie Sidhe had aimed to take the throne only for an Unseelie to trick him killing another Seelie. The Unseelie was punished with exile. After Zeus was outcast from Arcadia along with the other Unseelie Sidhe working under him, he quickly found himself enjoying establishing himself as a menace on earth. He and the other Unseelies that composed his court became seen as gods, and one known as Dionysus reveled in the hedonism to an extreme. Eventually while everyone liked him at first, they got sick of him and he left to live among the nymphs where Zeus told Hermes to ensure a few specific nymphs would take good care of him. But it became apparent that they wanted nothing to do with him anymore refusing to keep contact with him. He got mad. Dionysus charmed the mortals to grow his cult to outshine and embarrass Zeus. The rituals they take became such hedonistic displays that eventually the first satyr was born in Arcadia from all the revelry. It's name was Pan. The old fae folk ridiculed him and this new satyr race eventually finding their way to Dionysus and becoming friends.
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Birth Right:
Gift of Pan: Dionysian revelry is high ritual to satyrs. Singing, music, and dance can be used to stir fae and mortals alike to the height of carnal passion. Anyone who fails a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) is swept away by hidden desires and the activities of the evening. After an hour or two, the Banality of those in the area slowly drops. Everyone involved, mortal or not, has their permanent Banality lowered by one for as long as the satyr performs and a tragos can combine their efforts to lower it even further. Each satyr fueling the music can lower the revelers' Banality by one more, to a minimum of 2. These effects last only for as long as the satyrs perform. Lost Banality returns at a rate of one point per hour.

Physical Prowess: All goats add one to their Stamina, even if this increases the trait above 5. This bonus is in effect at all times. When the call upon the Wyrd and take faerie form, or when not in the presence of mortals or the unenchanted, their goat legs can carry them at shocking speeds. Each turn they can move 25 yards + 3 times their Dexterity. On top of that they can never botch Athletics rolls.
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Frailty:
Passion's Curse: Passion has its unpleasant moments as well. Satyrs are prone to wild mood swings, especially when drunk. With the slightest provocation, they may explode into a torrent of fury or a fit of weeping. Furthermore, on those rare occasions when they try to resist temptation, the difficulties of all Willpower rolls are increased by 2.

They constantly shift between being creatures of land and sea. They can range greatly in personality. Not lot's to talk about with them.
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Affinity: Nature

Seal's Beauty: All selkies possess a natural magnetism. In game terms, they gain a +2 on Charisma when interacting with someone who might be sexually or romantically attracted to them and only in situations where animal magnetism applies. It's good for Seduction and Leadership but has few uses for Intimidation or Subterfuge.

Ocean's Grace: A silk may lower the difficulty for all Dexterity rolls by 2 when in the water and can never botch a Swimming roll, even in human form. However, the difficulties for all Dexterity rolls are at +1 when on dry land.
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Longing of the Ocean Shore: Selkies are creatures of the shoreline. For every day they remain away from the ocean shore, they gain a point of temporary Banality until their Banality exceeds their Glamour and they forget their selkie nature. They may erase this Banality, even permanent Banality, by spending a day in their altershape for each point gained, but selkies lost to their fae nature can only be awakened by forcibly placing them in their sealskin and dropping them into the sea. This abrupt change runs the risk of Bedlam, though it is often the only therapy that works. Sadly, even this is often not enough.

Seal Coat: If a selkie's sealskin is destroyed, their fae self is destroyed forever. In addition, the mortal that remains must make a Stamina roll (difficulty 8). Failure means the character enters a coma; a botch indicates the character dies.
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The Sidhe. Often making up most of the nobility of the fae as one of the oldest races. Their story goes something like this. They were the first race, before all others. Some humans hailed them as gods. Tuatha de Danaan, the first faeries. The ones that gave humans the ability to dream. They gave humans the powers to make the time of legends. Hydras, goblins, all made from dreams. Eventually perversions of faeries like werewolves and vampires began to surface and tension mounted with humans being driving to the age of sundering. The Iron Age. Humanity had started pushing back against the fae and the Sidhe realized they could no longer liver as one, returning to Arcadia. How much of that is true might be iffy, but the other old fae races can remember them leaving behind the rest of the fae folk to save themselves. When they returned the five Great Sidhe houses tried to assume power only for it to fall on their faces, no longer capable of the stranglehold over the rest of the fae they once had.

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Awe and Beauty: Sidhe get two extra dots of Appearance during character creation, even if this increases their score above 5. They cannot help but stand out in a crowd. The fury of a sidhe scorned is a majestic and terrifying sight. When impassioned, all their Social rolls (especially Empathy or Intimidation rolls) are at a -2 difficulty. Anyone who tries to attack an angry sidhe head-on must make a Willpower roll; the difficulty ranges from 6 (for the average sidhe) to an 8 or 9 (for one of suitable high station). This birthright only affects other Kithain and the Enchanted, unless the sidhe calls upon the Wyrd.

Noble Bearing: Whether heroes or villains, all sidhe are dignified. Any cantrip that would directly make them look foolish immediately fails.

Sidhe cannot botch Etiquette rolls.
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Banality's Curse: Sidhe are not truly of this world. The taint of Banality affects them more strongly than it does other fae. Each temporary point of Banality that a Dream Lord gains becomes two points. If a sidhe character must make a roll at a difficulty equal their Banality (or a roll resisted by Banality), treat it as one level higher.

Sidhe are also prone to fits of depression. The weakest of them can overcome these fits by changing their Legacies back and forth. When this happens, the spell must last from moonrise to moonrise or sunset to sunset. Strong-willed sidhe escape this mania by retreating further into their Legacies; Seelie become impossibly idealistic and Unseelie sink to the very depths of villainy. Their great extremes can make them almost unendurable.
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Despite their appearances, they aren't an all Unseelie race. The Seelie among them are some of the most benevolent, not desiring the need for any special recognition for what they do. However, the Unseelie of them are quite dangerous. Their race has two rules for their own conflicts between each other. Neither really follows or pays a lot attention to the courts, believing themselves to be independent. While Unseelie Sluagh are a little more public, they difference is marginal. Mostly isolated lives sticking to dens, occasionally taking jobs as assassins. Known as crawlers, the looks between each contrast wildly, but they are rarely pleasant looking undead creatures to say the least.

If you use cold iron, it can be used on you - This is self-explanatory. Only rarely does this shadow war have real victims; most victories are in the lines of counting coup for opponents dispatched chimerically.

No one outside the sluagh can know about it - It's a family matter and family matters are never put on display for anyone else. Period. Anyone who speaks of it to outsiders... lover, friend, priest, or psychologist, is silenced in the traditional crawler manner, and with Cold Iron. Often the one to whom the secret was spilled is made part of the punishment as well.

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Birth Right:
Squirm: Dislocating body parts is a popular pastime for the crawlers. Confining them is almost impossible. Though they cannot change shape or mass, they can contort into disquieting shapes with supernatural ease. When using the Birthright, a sluagh is capable of redistributing their body mass within their skin any way they please, so long as there is no deviation from the basic humanoid figure. They may choose to manifest as a grotesquely swollen head attached to a shrunken doll's body, or to dislocate their shoulders and roll them so far behind their back that they meet. This requires a few moments of entertainment and a roll of Dexterity + Athletics with difficulties ranging from a 6 to escape ropes, to 10 to squirm through the bars of a locked cell. They only substance that can bind them completely is, of course, Cold Iron.

Sharpened Senses: The unusual upbringing of the sluagh heightens their senses. The difficulty of any Perception roll they make is reduced by 2, to a minimum difficulty of 3. They may even see through illusory magic by making a Perception + Alertness roll at difficulty 7. The same roll allows them to see wraiths as well, though they must spend a point of Glamour to speak or listen to them. This birthright always functions normally.

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Frailty:
Curse of Silence: A sluagh cannot speak above a whisper, no matter how hard they strain to be heard. Since they dislike social situations and hold very odd rules of etiquette, they also add two to the difficulty of all Social rolls. While they may not appear to whisper to mortal ears, the individual in question will still be very soft-spoken. But, as they say, a whisper is more terrifying than a shout

Honor and duty bound. They are often muscle behind the nobility. (A long history of it, but character limits. You know what a troll is though.) Unseelie Ogres are generally almost identical in behavior to the Seelie Giants, however. They both believe in the code of honor and their duty, but have incredibly different belief doctrines of what exactly that means.
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Birth Right:
Affinity: Fae
Titan's Power: Wilders gain an additional Bruised Health Level and an additional dot of Strength during character creation, even if this raises the Trait above 5. Grumps get two extra dots in Strength and two additional Bruised Levels (for a total of 9 Health levels). Grumps, though, also add a +1 difficulty to all Dexterity-based rolls. This extra strength does not function in the presence of mortals to the unenchanted unless the troll has called upon the Wyrd.

Stubbornness: Nothing can interfere with a troll's devotion to duty. When in the service of a cause, they get an extra two dice to any Willpower roll to resist temptation or distraction. This Birthright is always in effect.
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Frailty:
Bond of Duty: Any troll who dares to renege on a sworn contract or oath becomes sickly and looses their Titan's Power. Only by atoning for the lapse of trust can they regain their strength. Usually this involves fulfilling a new oath. Seelie trolls never lie to fae they are protecting; Unseelie ogres uphold their bond of duty, but usually prefer to support more disreputable fae. This trust must extend both ways; if a troll's trust is betrayed, they will be filled with anger and must roll Willpower, difficulty 8, to avoid becoming violent. Their stoicism belies great rage, perhaps one that has been with them since the Earth was young

Miners, laborers and workers, they are very rough around the edges. They must do their jobs and aren't really happy doing anything else. Grumpy and surly for the court life, if they are taking any time away from the factory floor or mines it's to cut loose at the bar and drink the other under table. Next morning, hang over or not, it's back to work.
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Birth Right:
Affinity: Scene
Dowsing: Wichtel are born miners and can innately tell where the Earth hides her secrets. With a Perception + Kenning roll (difficulty 6) they can determine just where to dig to uncover any naturally-occurring treasure, whether it be precious stones, metals, oil, coal, natural gas, water, or anything else they might desire.

Industrious: Hard labor is the lifeblood of this kith and no task is too exhausting for them. They gain an additional point of Stamina at creation, even if it brings them over 5. Additionally, they cannot botch any roll involving manual labor.
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Frailty:
Vengeful: A wichtel can't let even the smallest slight go. If they feel wronged, cheated, or treated unfairly, the offense consumes their thoughts, making it difficult to focus on anything else other than the object of their anger. Until the offender is paid back in kind or somehow makes amends, the wichtel gains +2 difficulty on all rolls, except those involving vengeance on the target.

Chimeras. They aren't actually a new species to the Dreaming itself, but they are new to be integrated into the Kithain(Fairy) society. Formerly a chimera in the sense they used to be a minor one, they were made from the folklore of Germany until spreading all over the world. The Resurgence strengthened their dream, having them become full fledged fairies. Being just recently established, they haven't figured out their place in society or even know how exactly they came to be, unsure of what to do or even having established a proper culture of their own. Most have a greater hunger than other faefolk, so they often leave not wanting to use up resources that others need or must be forced out.
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Birth Right:
Affinity: Nature
Voracious Grazing: As chimera, competition for Glamour was fierce. They developed a method of quickly consuming as much Glamour as possible. When a wolpertinger gains Glamour from a freehold they gain an additional point.

Prey Alertness: Before they were Kithain, wolpertinger were prey animals hunted for their Glamour. To survive they developed a keen situational awareness. Any attempts to sneak up on or surprise one of them by mundane means automatically fail. Additionally they gain a -2 difficulty to see through magical means of deception.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Frailty:
Unquenchable Appetite - What was once a survival mechanism is now a liability. A wolpertinger takes Glamour from freeholds faster than the balefire can replenish itself. For every week they spend in a freehold, the freehold's rating is reduced by one. If they leave before the site is reduced to zero, the freehold regains its rating by one point per week.

Thorn_ · Sep 13, 2020

Tier One: Cell: Small groups defending their neighborhoods and communities. Generally going to be the weakest. There's loads of these kinds, but they are under equipped and rarely know what they're doing. "Scrubs" basically. These could range from virtually anything, so there's not really anything to list.

Tier Two: Compacts: Organized groups of cells but most are relatively recent, but their size and resources is generally better and this makes them more of a problem. There's more than a few of these, but there's some particularly notable ones for mostly recent chapters of hunters since Compacts were only founded for a couple generations of mortals at the most.They're more organized and tend to have more clear cut objectives but they don't always know how to get to there. They're relatively easy to join up with and not that hard to find in most cases, but they have some specific standards of what they want out of a hunter.

Tier Three: Conspiracies:
The oldest and biggest groups, a lot harder to find and more elite than the lower tiers. Some of them even get access to supernatural abilities of their own and they harbor private army levels of weapons and competence. Hunters part of a conspiracy get access to endowments which gives them some crazy ass powers of their own.

Ahl al-Jabal: A splinter cell of the Hashshashin. Originally born from a group of Nizari Isma'ili fundamentalists, the group was what created the modern term for assassins. Defenders of the faith, they operated with a strict subterfuge policy. When cell leader Sinan had discovered a strange monstrous enemy infiltrating strongholds, he believed the Sultan was responsible, and unbeknownst to him, the Sultan believed Sinan to be a vampire trying to sabotage his army. The plan by the vampiric society to get them to kill each other, very nearly succeeded, but when they realized they had both been played, they joined together creating a new enemy for vampire kind. The Islamic group used it's position to become effective at hunting and in modern times, bolsters it's ranks through the prison population in the states. They understand the risks of a militant middle eastern organization being seen operating in the U.S. and make a point of avoiding coordinating with other Hunter groups. They will lay down their lives for the cause, but the notion of suicide bombing is abhorrent to them and they operate strictly on ensuring they're will be no collateral damage or unnecessary violence due to their actions, even trying to avoid causalities against humans who are slaves to the supernatural. Their minimal violence policy does not meant they haven't racked up quite the track record in disposing of the vampire menace.

Ashwood Abbey(Fuck these guys): From 1885, they were born from a Hellfire club in Scotland. These clubs in the British empire were focused on breaking taboos. While most weren't too bad, those ones weren't led by the Reverend Doctor, Marcus Ogilvy. His group in one of their hedonist parties unknowingly defiled sacred ground to werewolves who responded by killing and eating some of the members. Marcus's people game back with guns and ignored the warning the werewolves had left, defiling the site again, this time to ambush them and shoot the wolves. After that, the Ashwood Abbey came about with the sole motive of killing things(at minimum) just because it's fun. They're so widely reviled, that a number of other Hunter groups even employ a Kill On Sight policy.

Competitors: Everything they do is a game, even willing to allow a murderous spirit to possess people and then kill the possess person, but allow the spirit to escape just to hunt it later. They aim to be the first at doing whatever nasty shit the club is into.
Pursuit: Focused on the thrill of the hunt and making it as interesting as possible.
Libertines: Even the rest of the Ashwood Abbey considers them disgusting hedonists, trying to break every taboo they can. They see themselves as inventing new moral paradigms, though nobody else thinks that.

The Bear Lodge: Glasgow, Montana, 1901. The first meeting of them. Don Edwards, a local hunter, talked about a monster that tore apart the rest of his hunting party, managing to kill one and survive the encounter. Fascinated by this, the other hunters agreed that this was the apex predator at the high point of hunting achievement to kill. They might bump into vampires or mummies, but they don't care about any of that. They just want werewolves. The Vigilantes among them are a faction that go after supernatural not just for the thrill of the hunt, but to defend people as a whole, whether or not the killer is even supernatural in origin. Trappers come up with death traps to take down their prey and keep their members safe. Sportsmen on the other hand, simply enjoy the thrill of the hunt and can't think of any better game than werewolves. A member of one lodge is counted as a member of any lodge, though they must still prove themselves by killing a werewolf in their next hunt. This however, puts a target on their back and they even lost the original lodge due to be overrun with werewolf attacks they couldn't contend with.

Barrett Commission: The funds meant for the federal government is coming up low? Someone is skimming? John Adams put Col. Shaun Barrett in charge of getting to the bottom of it. Along with Alfred Bredelmeyer, and his niece, Elizabeth Ducat, the trio realized these funds were going to a vampire instead of the governor. Killing the vampire, Barrett was going to blow the lid off this whole case until he was killed on his way back to report it and Alfred was killed, leaving Ms.Ducat with the evidence but unable to get the government's attention, creating the mission to stop vampires from gaining political and corporate power. A small group, but one backed by senators and CEOS, dedicated to countering vampiric interests with their own political firepower.

Division Six: A outside the U.S. government cell called in to eliminate Supernatural threats, their primary focus is witches, though they'll still kill anything that seems dangerous. They aren't informed of why their targets are threats. Just that they are and that's what they're paid for. They employ a no questions asked policy.

Department Alpha is the planning stage of any operation. Organizing cell members to a mission, Alpha agents are the ones who receive the cell's orders from Panopticon.

Department Charlie is made up of reconnaissance specialists, hazardous when tracking reality deviants known for paranoia. Quite often, Charlie agents are also used to plant bombs to take out deviants in a swift blow.

Department Whiskey is the most active of their cells, the ones who make the kill any way they can. Though a valued part of the compact, many Division Six members tend to be wary of the assassins.

Habbit Ma:

"In 1998, Eme Amun Hassan lost her husband and two grown sons to a suicide cult. Lacking the support of her extended family, and unable to bring the cult leader to justice through legal means, she took on the job of an agent of justice modeled after Ma'at. Using her small fortune, she retained the brightest psychologists, attorneys, and private security professionals she could find for the purpose of disbanding cults and returning their members to their worried families safely.

The Habibti Ma’s tactics, grounded in law and psychological sciences, haven’t changed much since their inception. The compact is slowly educating itself about the World of Darkness and the supernatural creatures who might orchestrate a cult to better help rescued victims. The “addicts” they’ve found in vampire cults, for example, can be treated better when identified as such. Those pulled in by ancient monsters like mummies may require further study; that effort may translate into failures along the quest for knowledge. Justice is necessary, sure, but it’s not always fair. The concept of fairness is one Hassan and her compact continually struggle with.

Members are beginning to realize that their techniques seem to work best when accompanied by prayer. Even those who weren’t particularly religious before have found that, in their work rescuing cultists, calling upon a human god has impacted cultists who serve the undying. No one understands why this technique is effective. It may be the gods mummies have long-forgotten are not the same as those worshipped in modern day? It could also be true that targeting a cultist’s faith — their true set of beliefs — engages a primal defense mechanism.

The Habibti Ma also recognizes these specific cults are participating in politics and city power structures and are starting to thwart their efforts. They are rapidly becoming a secondary, legal threat, forcing this compact to tangle with their enemies on two fronts. The third front, the physical front, has yet to be explored by the Habibti Ma. By and large, Hassan considers themselves to be angels of mercy — not swords or vigilantes. However, this may not remain true forever."

The Hunt Club: They'll hunt anything. Even people. Each Club might have it's own specific guidelines, but the only reason they got involved in the supernatural was when the Hunt Club realized one of the people it was targeting was actually a supernatural creature. That gave them the idea for more exciting game. They still almost exclusively hunt humans. But they don't just want to kill. They want to do it as grandly and stylish as possible. Almost universally considered basically just a glorified serial killer club, they believe they do the world a favor by removing "undesirables" from the population for their game.

The Illuminated Brotherhood: They aren't actually fighters and they die quickly. They are drug seekers believing supernatural drugs will help awaken a revelation about the truth of the universe. Founded by an experiment with hallucinogenics that lead to mess death in the patients and a government cover up, a few survived and got together believing they could discover some great truth if they had access to just a bit harder drugs.

Keepers of the Source: Keeping Mother Earth safe, especially from those trying to tap into the Source and hurt her. They have a special hatred for mages because of this. A new age mystic Starflower had a connection to the source which she thought as Mother Earth's life, after attending a festival where a witch called on her powers from the source, she believed that to be the cause. All she really meant to do was persuade them into stopping the use of their powers, but was ignored. Once a werewolf attacked and put her in the hospital, her lieutenant Redgrove took charge and shifted the groups focus to militant action. When Starflower recovered and saw what they turned into, she left the group she had founded and they had became mage hunters by any means necessary. But their agenda doesn't stop purely for mages, even willing to act as eco-terrorists in defense of the earth putting them in a bad light among other hunting groups who see them as actually just violent assholes using their alleged agenda of a clean earth as an excuse.

The Long Night: Nobody knows their exact origins other than it was sometime around the 1970's or even if they actually kill mages, since they give them a chance to repent, and may just capture them instead. The members see the end having already came. The Christian group sees this as the trials and tribulations before the rapture to prove they're worthy of ascending. Others think the rapture already happened without them and they're now fighting against the supernatural as an attempt to atone and earn their place in heaven.

Loyalists of Thule: German occultists, trying to find the Ultimate Source. A civilization that started all others. Among their members were a couple who would take the concepts they talked about and form the nazi party. As a result, Thule was dismantled for the loose association. Their work had even lead them to finding circles in the vampire communities. They're work is almost purely more scientific than militant, though they won't say no to stopping an evil vampire along the way to their goal. Senior members try to trace the source from where the supernatural game so they can properly eradicate it, attempting to redeem the group for their role in giving rise to the nazi party's popularity. Some remain only interested in the science, though most of the group hopes that their discoveries into the supernatural can be used to improve humanity as a whole.

(1:33am. I'll need to break before going back to finish the compact list.)

Thorn_ · Sep 14, 2020

Professions: https://wodan.obsidianportal.com/wiki_pages/profession-style-professional-training

"Professions give you Asset Skills; each profession has two, and you choose one that gives you the extra specialty. The merit Professional Training gives you more of them, and lets you do more with them.

At Professional Training ••, you get a 3rd Asset skill. If this is character creation, you can pick your specialty from here.

At Professional Training •••, Specialties in your Asset skills only cost 2xp.

At Professional Training •••••, you can spend a willpower point to treat the next roll with that skill as a Rote Action (in some circumstances)."

Professional Training Dots:
• Networking: At the first level of Professional Training, your character builds connections within her chosen field. Take two dots of Contacts relating to that field.

•• Continuing Education: With repeated efforts in her field of choice, your character tends toward greater successes. When making a roll with her Asset Skills, she benefits from the 9-again quality.

••• Breadth of Knowledge: Due to advancement in her field, she’s picked up a number of particular bits of information and skill unique to her work. Choose a third Asset Skill and take two Specialties in your character’s Asset Skills.

•••• On the Job Training: With the resources at her disposal, your character has access to extensive educational tools and mentorship available. Take a Skill dot in an Asset Skill. Whenever you purchase a new Asset Skill dot, take a Beat.

••••• The Routine: With such extensive experience in her field, her Asset Skills have been honed to a fine edge and she’s almost guaranteed at least a marginal success. Before rolling, spend a Willpower point to apply the rote action quality to an Asset Skill. This allows you to reroll all the failed dice on the first roll.

Has to be pretty much just linked to save space and time trying to list all of them.

Maiden's Blood Sisterhood: The Ivy League Seven Sisters, 1957. Professor Agatha Brewer realized that vampires were targeting her students. Recruiting some other teachers and promising students they routed out the vampire and began the foundations for protecting their campuses from vampires. As a sorority, they do fund raisers for charity, and hunt scourges of the undead against the community. They're concerns are mostly for vampires, but they will hunt whatever seems threatening enough. However, when one of their hunts ended with killing a suspected witch who was actually innocent, they tend to leave witches alone and it's suspected several of their members are practitioners of witchcraft. Made up of graduates and backed by wealthy parents and influential alumni. the lack of numbers is made up by having a good access to resources and a good deal of influence in their respective local communities.

Network Zero: An amateur filmmaker by the name of Jim Harison had received footage of a massive dog like being running in the woods. His experience told him, this kind of thing wasn't possible to replicate through typical special effects. Fascinated by this, he started broadcasting a few short films with the footage. He even got a show on cable access in Dallas, Texas dedicated to debunking the supernatural. Evidence suggested that this footage was genuine. The foundation for a website known as Network Zero was made, people sending in all of their alleged sightings(A lot of fakes, but every now and then, something will stand out.) The 2.0 revolution of the Net means compact members are capable of uploading their findings from pretty much anywhere in the world. They spread to be a mostly internet based culture rather than television and that flocked lots of conspiracy theorists or people looking for answers on something they can't explain. Harison still owns and operates the web and the respect members get is based on findings and proof of them being genuine. The members might be out looking to get famous from their findings or wanting to reveal it for the sake of the public's safety, and it's only a small fraction of the website community as a whole that actually looks to actively hunt and kill the supernatural. They'd rather gather enough overwhelming evidence to prove it as a whole. Thus, the site is divided into crews who are split about what their mission means.

Record Keepers are like professional journalists, in that they do their best to simply report the evidence of what they record, without any modification.

The Army of Truth goes beyond this, doing whatever it takes to release the true information on the Darkness to the world, even going so far as pirating data feeds and using viral memes to spread the truth, along with being the most heavily armed of the crews.

Secret Keepers are a total opposite. Instead of hijacking the cable news and websites, the members of the Secret Keepers prefer to gather their information, waiting for the right time to release their information to the world.

Night Watch: Gangsters trying to repel the vampire invasion on their territory. While they might not have the same kind of organization level of other compacts, an access to guns and funding from criminal activity does make them a notable threat. Some members might want to protect the places they control out of personal profit, or concern for the places they grew up, but it's generally best to only expect violence from their actions. Vampires had always played a role in the criminal underground and out of desperation, Vietnam veteran. Riley Lewis and Andre Sandoval whose father was a police officer killed, had joined together to burn down a vampire lair, though not after killing all the perfectly mortal people who protected the vampire. But the neighborhood was thrilled. Cheering them on for standing up to the vampire, the two along with Pedro "Pookie" Baez and Leonard Witherspoon, became four people who were the starting members of the Night Watch. Leonard and Pookie were immediately killed by vampires in retaliation. Riots broke out against the vampires and the corrupt police force and despite Pittsburgh's attempts to contain it, the fervor had fanned the flames in other cities. Even after Lewis was killed by a vampire and Sandoval was later left in a wheelchair, it has done nothing to deter the group's efforts, only more determined to eliminate the undead than when they started. Gracie May Ramirez, Sandoval's girlfriend often handles much of the groups activities on his behalf, but he's still acknowledged as the head and the one giving the orders.

Street Angels are the gang's most visible facet, taking their name from a potential victim who was saved by Sandoval, who called them "street angels". They primarily patrol the streets and public transportation, keeping those out at night safe.

Archangels are the "elite" of the group, with no less than three kills to their claim. They are easily identified by the wings tattooed on their neck, which symbolizes how their shoulder angels keep the leeches from getting to them.

The Chain Gang are the oldest of the gang's members, organizing the group's activities and members. Public minded members are even inclined to be the group's face to the police and populace, organizing seminars to educate others.

Null Mysteriis: Jean-Pierre Brattel in 1893 had attended a Parisian Theosophist Society meeting only to discover that instead of being actual scientists, they were a religious oriented organization. Not satisfied with what he saw, he made what he called the "Organization for Rational Assessment of the Supernatural" or "Null Mysteriis". During World War One his group found itself with unprecedented levels of membership. But both the first and second World War would kill much of the following before it began. Finally establishing a base of operations in London during 1941, they saw a massive spike of membership in 70's and in the 20th century, returned to their Golden Age. Unlike say, Network Zero, the Null Mysteriis wants to debunk the supernatural and prove there is a logical reason for everything. If they end up hunting it's only because they are searching for answers and science explanations rather than any actual belief the supernatural exists.

Rationalists feel that everything in their world can be explained with the scientific method, no matter how long it takes. The group, led by Watt, makes up the majority of the organization.

Open Minds, under Fielding, have a more open approach, using methods that can be considered pseudoscience, or at times things that can be called "unscientific", to approach the truth. The group is rapidly growing in numbers under Fielding's leadership.

Cataclysmicists hold a highly varied worldview from their peers in the group, that the scientific method is not enough, and that outright mysticism is the only way to unlock the secrets of their world, only with a much darker bent; they believe the world will end soon, no matter what anyone does.

The Promethean Brotherhood: Apprentice mage Jacob Hite in 1867 wanted to learn the powers of his master, but couldn't accomplish the same level of success, no matter what ritual he tried. Uncovering an Papyrus Scroll in Macedonia, he found an ancient rite to Hecate that required the sacrifice of another mage to take that power for himself. Killing his own master, he enjoyed his new found power for about a week before realizing it was temporary. He did however pick up a number of followers also wanting the same powers and they hunted many witches in efforts to obtain it. After Hite died and the old guard died out, the new members got less concerned with actively seeking witches and understanding the ritual of Hecate and how it worked. They will still take the occasional witch for experiments. A vampire or werewolf might be hunted, but they focus almost exclusively on the realm of magic and witches. Currently headquartered in Vienna, it's not uncommon for other hunter groups to get the impression that the Promthean Brotherhood are witches themselves.

Talbot Group: Eight Seattle teenagers in the 80's kill almost 48 people in three day, the teens known as the Harvest Moon Massacres until they disappeared. Paul Talbot believed the psychotic breakdown of his son was preventable. Descended from doctor parents, he originally thought to improve counselling in schools and community resources to prevent this from happening. His wife, Isabelle Talbot believed their son to still be alive and tracked sightings until 1989 where in Mexico she had found him. She was later hospitalized and when Paul spoke to her she told him that the attack was from their son Andrew and some kind of monster. They split in focus. Her husband focusing on providing psychological reasoning and Isabelle looking to gather up proof to convince him. Paul would make the Talbot Group in 1992, with the aid of a fellow psychologist, Dr. Robert Courtland. Courtland convinced Paul that his wife wasn't overcome with grief and Paul began to relax his stance on the paranormal. To this day, their focus is on how werewolves came to be and avoiding the damage that that an out of control werewolf can do. They try to help and treat werewolves to repress their urges and remove potential spiritual hotspots that seem to provoke them. The Talbots and Courtland still remain in control of the group, limiting their hunters only to what they actually need so they can provide for the group when resources actually become important. They also operate on secrecy. They mainly work with werewolf children and fear adult werewolves needing to "rescue" their kin from the Group's efforts to treat them. While most of what they work with is more often than not, just mentally disturbed youth, who they will still treat, they do find the occasional werewolf which remains the groups priority when it comes to the supernatural. They may still hire other hunters if needed, but the Talbot isn't a violent group by intent nor is it meant to be their purpose.

The Union: Birthed from the Labor Union to improve working conditions, in 1999, Holly Ramirez, had realized laborers and strikers were being made mysteriously quiet and not by the conventional means. Fusing together the cells to create their compact, the Union doesn't focus on the specifics of what a monster is. It's a threat to them and their families and it has to go. However, they won't remain solely against supernatural forces, willing to protest or in some cases, even assassinate a corrupt corporate executive if they've mistreated their workers too much. They aren't interested in the more complex goals of preventing vampire political power or the psychological reasoning behind a werewolves actions. They find the monsters. They kill it. End of discussion.

Home First takes the acronym NIMBY, Not In My Backyard, to heart. The second a monster of man starts to make trouble in an area controlled by a Home First cell, they are quickly set upon and ejected from the area.

General Strike believers hold to the idea that they must be more proactive in their hunts. They prefer to go out into the area they frequent, finding the enemies that hunt them before the creatures can make it to their homes. Among the Union, it is known for having a high proportion of casualties.

Politicals are the most vocal and active members of the Union, going so far as to partake in terrorist actions to prove their point about what they fight for. Their targets are not limited to monsters, either. Business magnates and company heads are more than perfect targets for the Politicals.

Utopia Now: William Horn had uncovered dark secrets about the tech company he worked for. Learning about the existence of demons, he decided the only way to be rid of them would be to purge these institutions entirely. Going back to school to get his PhD, and making money from a mobile start up app, he uses his money for some of the most ambitious plans of any compact. First, he will construct a network of boats off the coast of California to create a floating city. It will be self sufficient and self governed. With 3-D printing and the tech his company provides, they could provide goods from themselves, the only issue being the space limiting the ability to build a good medical infrastructure and this project still requiring tons of power to operate. Horn's goal is to route out Institutional demons, have them exorcised and scavenge the remains to use their tech and demonic souls to power this Utopia. Ideally, he wants to discover a way to properly dismantle the demonic influence altogether and re purpose it as clean energy, though he has no way to be sure if this is really possible. The Utopia Now project doesn't want to just get rid of demon power entirely. It wants to reuse it. Healing from injuries, longer living, among other things. They just want to dismantle the demonic forces so they can put it to better uses.

The Cure are the most traditional hunters of the lot. They scavenge occult lore, they run monsters to the ground, and they end them, making sure that they can't parasitically corrupt their utopia.

Operators do the footwork to track down the really big targets, the institutional demons Horn wants to dissect. They analyze financial reports, police blotters, and any other information they can get their hands on to identify demons. Then they eliminate them using a combination of business acumen (to break the institution) and old school exorcism (to get rid of any remaining part that might seek revenge). Afterward, their acquisitions group takes apart the demon’s physical components and ships them back to Silicon Valley.

Incubators examine the occult patterns on which institutional demons were built, seeing if they can rearrange them for a better world. They take the reactors that run on blood, and determine what they can boot up using artificial plasma.

Thorn_ · Sep 14, 2020

Aegis Kai Doru: Antediluvian. Members of the Aegis insist they are the original generation of vampire and existed before the great flood. Also made up of powerful mages and legendary warriors tasked with guarding the most valuable treasure and artifacts in the world. When the supernatural eventually caused the old kingdom to fall, the Aegis as guardians of the relics took them and began to focus on revenge against the supernatural for the collapse of their kingdom, taking the name Aegis Kai Doru. "Shield and Spear." Their priorities in the modern era haven't shifted. Gather relics. Use them to fight back against the supernatural. Namely, werewolves and mages. Led by the inner circle in Athens, these nine council members lead the group keeping records of the groups. Members have initiation rites.

First Initiation: The prospective member is drugged and left in a maze and must find their way out before down. If they do, they can take the vow to become a member of The Sword.
Second Initiation: An accomplished member may take this to be allowed access to the deeper secrets of the conspiracy if they pass.

The Sword: The biggest and with the express purpose of killing supernatural wherever they find it.
The Temple: Guards relics the group controls like they did in the old kingdom and seeks out new or lost ones.
The Scroll: The historians of the conspiracy and the ones who perform study and testing of new relics they find.

Ascending Ones: The Cult of the Phoenix formed in Egypt, had it's regular sect, then the second sect. The Cult of Set that was tasked with defending people from the supernatural. They ultimately died out leaving the original cult to remain. One of the leaders trying to discover a way to fight back against the darkness discovered the power of potions and elixirs. Later being known as the Ascending Ones, they are a religious oriented organization, often tied with Christianity and Islamic groups. To support their cult against the darkness they use their knowledge of potions to create opium and other drugs to sell leaving them dabbling in organized crime. They focus on defending people from the supernatural and making sure people remain unaware of the forces that slither in the dark. They will at first try to reason with monsters if it can helped to shy them away from hurting innocent people and will even mediate between enemy monster factions, but are perfectly willing to kill monster if they have to with violence of their own if a peaceful solution can't be reached.

The Caninite Heresy: Originally ghouls and thralls of the vampires of Rome, the cult turned against the vampires and turned into a sect of hunters, resources provided by mysterious patronages. An extremely varied group, they're cells and factions don't really adhere to any one specific structure or leader. Cells may operate as they see fit as long it carries out the general purpose and objective of their cause. Some cells might have councils or democratic, but some might have a singular leader, for life. The things they have in common is that secrecy is fundamental to them and the leaders are capable of tapping into old world magic. They also have the Mysterious Sources to send them emails, supplies or whatever else might help them on their quest.

Extremists want to see the vampires destroyed now. The only hope for the human race’s survival is a solution to humanity’s vampire problem. They counsel mass destruction, hoping to make the vampires public, so that they might get the world’s governments on their side. They imagine the day when the authorities will know and understand, and dream up plans for means and facilities to imprison and exterminate the undead in vast numbers.

On the other hand, Revolutionists take the view that the authorities and the large media out- lets are hopelessly compromised, and so the mass destruction of the vampires must happen at the hands of the people. They’re the ones who try to get information into mass media, out on the inter- net and in pamphlets handed out on street corners. Unlike the Extremists, who try to appear sensible and reasonable, Revolutionists sometimes come across as wild-eyed, fervent... and a little crazy.

Fatalists comprise the biggest number among the Cainites. They simply believe that although trying to alert authorities and people is all well and good, the only people who really have the tools at hand to defeat the monsters are the Cainites. The danger is that they sometimes have a tendency to take non-Cainite lives a little lightly. And that’s a slippery slope to go down.

The Cheiron Group: Edward Barrett, founder of a pharmaceutical company is a corporation dedicated to collecting supernatural, managed by their board of directors who don't let in their motives to anyone but themselves, though they throw around the word "colonization." Joining the Field's division means you are guaranteed the position for life, but aren't allowed to leave it. Even your corpse is company property. They are generous with what they will provide operatives as long as they remain subtle enough to avoid a scandal or destroying their public image. The Field division also has three Sub-Divisions for specific tasks. They are capable of granting bizarre supernatural abilities to their members by the process of medical implants.

Retrieval are the most numerous agents in the FPD. It is their job to find and capture the monsters.

Recruitment agents are always looking out for other hunters to bring into the company, for no other reason than the fact that Field Projects can go through its agents quickly.

Field Research are little more than observers, monitoring other hunters, often to scavenge from the dust and rubble for the company before disappearing

The Faithful of Shulpae: A cult that worships the supernatural. Their rites allow to consume the flesh of the things they believe to be gods and gain some of these abilities for themselves. Little is known about their origins or who their leaders are. Everything about the cult is closely guarded.

Keepers maintain the temples of the Faithful, and hold much of the political power within the conspiracy. It is their job to watch over the "slumbering" gods between Feasts, maintain the Feasting calendar, and decide who gets to participate in which Feasts. Keepers sometimes take part in small personal libations in cases where gods seem to be waking too quickly. The Keepers are considered secret weapons against any who would attack one of their temples.

Guides are the most charming of the Faithful. They search for signs of gods walking, as well as evidence of rare, eccentric souls who would make ideal candidates for the Faithful. These potential candidates are brought to Feasts, but rarely have the Feasts explained to them.

Celebrants are those who Feast heavily and are unafraid to risk life and limb to bring gods to the table, and have their sacrifices written down in books to remembered for generations to come. Those who take the greatest risks have the first plate at the table.

Knights of Saint Adrian: Originally bounty hunters, headed by Casey Howard, they turned into mercenaries. After Howard suffered an accident she was approached by an angel and accepted the deal to carry out the work using the endowments of angelically blessed Ink tattoos to destroy the demonic taint. The knights are still mercenaries and take their pay from Howard Investigative Services. The pay differs based on their status and amount of tattoos.

Dispatchers cover a lot of the logistical side of things. A dispatcher gives out assignments, but also provides needed services like non-demonic bounty hunting jobs that a field team can use as cover.

Hounds do most of the fieldwork, from finding their way into private property to fighting the demons themselves. Unlike a normal fugitive, demons never go quietly, so most Hounds can handle themselves in a fight.

Deliverers take care of the esoteric handling requirements necessary to keep a demon subdued, as well as the strange ways and places the client wants them handed over.

The Knights Of Saint George: Since the reign of Richard Lionheart, there were witches. When Aquitane was invaded, a witch in the court of Henry the Young King, sought to place a curse on Lionheart. The knights loyal to Richard discovered the curse and slew the witch. Granted their own order as the Knights of Saint George, they are held in high standing to the Anglican Church. Despite this, their actual beliefs predate Christianity and stem back into the primitive tribal era. To them, all supernatural are the enemy. Especially witches being the key of their hunts.

A Squire is the base member of their order. To become a knight, they must go through the three revelations. That the supernatural exists, understand that they aren't Christian Knights and their work is to satisfy even more ancient forces to prevent the world's end, that they Knights know a lot of things and this makes them a target for the forces of Darkness. A leader of the order must be descended from King Richard himself. From illegitimate children are fine, but they must have the king's royal blood. Because of this, they put in a lot of work of tracking the bloodline and heritage and forcing the descendants to join since otherwise they'd have no leadership.

Les Mysteres: A widespread conspiracy with next to nothing in the way of proper organized ranks, they are put together by the common goal of looking to speak with spirits. The earliest recorded history of them is the Yoruba tribe in West Africa who taught their ways of communing with spirits to the other tribes. Spreading through Africa, the slave trade brought it to the Americas, as well as Haiti. Their method is to talk to spirits and use the spirits to stop dangerous dark forces. In most cases this is werewolves due to their natural interactions with the spirit realm which makes them disruptive and troublesome for the spirits that are friends of the organization. The cells can hold wildly different beliefs and some members may simply want to speak with spirits for their own personal gain, though others want to prevent the dangers of the night from happening. No official leader to be noted, cells mostly run themselves with a loose affiliation with the other cells. Cells that remain too unfocused however, eventually die out or merge with other Cells due to the need for resources and while beliefs, differ, they have four major philosophies.

Path of Fellowship: Using spirits to make a better community for those around you.
Path of Spirit: Understanding the spiritual realm and strengthening the connection with spirits.
Path of Beasts: Focusing on learning of things like werewolves and vampires to combat them.
Path of the Soul: The spiritual duty and higher calling of what these gifts to commune with spirits actually mean. A sense of direction and purpose./SPOILER]

Lucifuge: Literal sons of Satan. At any given time, they always number exactly 666 members. The name of the founder is only known as the Lucifuge, the Lady of Milan. Every seven generations, a family had the potential to produce a child touched by demonic power. If they started displaying signs of their dark power, they were given the option to reject Satan or perish. Those who chose to reject the devil, joined and created the conspiracy known as the Lucifuge. Eventually their numbers became entirely all children filled with demonic taint. These demon children believe that fighting and killing evil supernatural beings is their way to earn their salvation. They pity monsters who became them without a choice or don't have control over their powers, but won't hesitate to kill those who knowingly use their powers for evil and enjoy hurting others. While they have demonic powers from their heritage, they are usually unwilling to use these abilities until they absolutely must.

Denial ones are the most common and the simplest in beliefs: the devil is evil, and they must do away with that evil to redeem themselves.

Reconciliation members are a bit more complex; they believe they are not redeeming themselves, but rather their ancestor Lucifer so that he can rejoin God and put an end to the existence of hell.

Truth types are the rarest; they are the skeptics, curious as to the motives of the Lucifuge (both the person and the organization) and their role in the whole affair.

Malleus Maleifcarum: Made from the middle ages of the Inquisition. They followed a guide book to identifying witches known as the Malleus Maleficarum. Ambrogio Baudolino, a minor bishop had been put in place of a secret branch of the Catholic Church, while the Pope denounced the book, publicly. Baudolino was one a vampire slave and wanted to spare others from receiving such a fate. The group's major targets are demons and vampires which they will strike down calling on the power of God, but will kill any supernatural that threatens the flock of their churches. Allegedly, some members suspect Baudolino is still alive due to the vampire blood and running the society, and has ties to the Lucifuge. This puts them in an uneasy alliance with the Lucifuge. They acknowledge them as repenting demons, but members still can't help but wonder how easy it would be for one of them to become corrupt with their power. They aren't hostile to the Lucifuge however, and on occasion may try to point a demon who wants to repent in their direction if they feel the sins aren't too heavy to overlook.

The Order of St. Longinus are the dedicated vampire hunters of the group.

The Order of St. Ambrose are the scholars and investigators, looking for information to assist the Malleus Maleficarum; they often cross paths with mages.

The Brotherhood of St. Athanasius are less mental and more physical, preferring swift violence to careful investigation.

Task Force: VALKYRIE: Having been around since the time of Abraham Lincoln and the civil war, the team leader, Gordon West was faced with a problem. Federal troops couldn't save Lincoln. So they used a double to fake an assassination and hired John Wilkes Booth to be play the part of the "assassin." Believing the reason for their failing in saving the president was too much red tape, the Valkyries operate outside of the official U.S. government. During World War 2, the nazis had obtained supernatural allies and America needed an answer. The task force reformed the task force was dedicated both to taking out nazi sympathizers and vampire aid. In modern times, their duties are to access any reports of supernatural activity that threatens to state, then the agent access the situation, reports it and neutralizes the threat. They have their own procedures, but were made to cut red tape and even the president isn't aware of their existence, only a handful in the entire Congress aware they exist.

Project TWILIGHT is the answer to Extra Normal Entities that can pass and socialize in a manner similar to humans, or even are human. Despite this, they specialize in surveillance, often infiltrating underground groups to destroy them from within.

Project FORT has its interests in not only aliens, but demons, fairies, and other Fortean creatures. Though relying more on legend than hard science, the agents of FORT are often unruly.

Operation ADAMSKI works with information. Specifically, disinformation. By spreading around obviously bogus photos and stories through the many madmen on the internet and in the world, ADAMSKI disorients the obvious truth seekers trying to break through the deception.

Vanguard Serial Crimes Unit: Hunters who work in the FBI. They get jurisdiction of any or all mass killings on U.S. soil and have the benefit of all their members capable of using psychic powers. They're main job is to catch, Slashers. Serial killers. Human or not. Originating since the time of Scotland yard, due to Jack The Ripper. The British detectives never managed to catch him but prevented more killings from happening. Eventually following the U.S. and serial killers starting to pop up, the FBi creating task forces to deal with them, the Vanguard is a shadow in the FBI that few know about. They track down serial killers, looking at motives, patterns, and using their own agents to take down serial killers, super natural or not.

Thorn_ · Sep 14, 2020

Endowments: Something that gives a hunter an edge over the competition. They're a merit, not a trait and can range from something occult to something mundane. A hunter cell never has the resources to possess endowments and rarely a compact will have some form of endowment. Conspiracies can grant their members various things, due to the age, influence and access to all manner of things.

Compact Endowments:

The Endowment goes by many names among the various chapters of the Abbey, and is performed in just as many ways. Regardless of the name or trappings, however, the Bacchanal takes the form of an extravagant social gathering in which hunters flaunt their privilege, gaining a number of advantages in the process.

Once per story, a member of Ashwood Abbey may host a Bacchanal, drawing roughly 20 times her dot rating in the Endowment in attendees. During the event, the hunter can spend up to twice her dots to obtain the following advantages:

Abbey Influence: The hunter gains a bonus to Social actions among the compact for the rest of the story equal to the points spent.

Famous Guests: The hunter guarantees the attendance of a celebrity guest with Fame equal to the points spent.

Sphere of Influence: The hunter makes inroads with a specific personal or professional community, gaining a bonus to Social actions with that group for the rest of the story equal to points spent.

Supernatural Sway: The hunter invites a specific supernatural entity to the event, gaining a bonus to Social actions with that entity for the rest of the story equal to points spent.

Tactical Advantage: The hunter grants bonus dice to secondary actors while a tactic is used during the event.

A member of the Long Night can spend a full hour in prayer before sleeping, and in doing so, bolster his faith and become capable of extraordinary feats of willpower. At the dawn of each day the hunter does this, he gains a pool of prayer points that can be put toward any of the following benefits:

Exchange prayer points for Willpower.

Transfer a point of Willpower from the hunter to another hunter in the cell.

Ignore wound penalties for a turn.

Resist mind-controlling powers for a turn.

The Endowment draws on the collected lore of the whole compact, allowing a hunter access to knowledge kept by a fellow Indebted. Once per story, the hunter can gain a number of secrets about the enemy at hand equal to his Endowment dot rating. In addition, the Endowment functions as a form of Contacts, with each dot representing an entity the hunter can probe for information.

The Endowment allows hunters of the Secret Frequency to tap into ordinarily private streams of information such as security feeds or GPS trackers. The hunter must have access to a computer and the network being hacked. Each dot provides access to a separate system. Reckless use of the All-Seeing Eye can lead to getting caught by the authorities, however.

The Endowment requires the application of the scientific method and access to scientific equipment. After at least five minutes of study and observation, the hunter can discern evidence of the supernatural, learning some objective fact about the monster at hand or applying the evidence to better exploit the monster's weaknesses.

The Endowment represents the compact's connections with the local neighborhoods and communities each cell cultivates. Each chapter, a hunter in the Union can draw on one benefit reflecting a favor from one of his local allies:

A Safehouse with a dot rating equal to the hunter's Endowment dots.

A bonus to Social actions with one local resident, in exchange for a small favor.

An instance of the Allies Merit representing an aspect of the local community, with a dot rating equal to Endowment dots.

A bonus equal to Endowment dots for any Drive rolls made in the neighborhood

Conspiracy Endowments:

As a modern, progressive group of hunters with a huge amount of resources at their disposal, VALKYRIE has focused on the technical and scientific aspects of fighting creatures of darkness instead of worrying over magic. The equipment they have developed is quite powerful and extremely hush-hush. In order for any VALKYRIE agent to use the weapons and armor of the conspiracy, they must have a special RFID chip implanted in their body, which releases a special frequency that allows the instrument to be used; anyone who attempts to use a weapon without having the chip will have it lock up.

There are a few armory types that are "renewable"; that is, they are expended upon use and must be replaced before the next mission or encounter. A VALKYRIE agent, depending on their status and mission, is only issued so much renewable equipment at a time.

Armory Tools:

1 to 5 Compound Rounds: Renewable. Bullets that utilize a mixture of different supernatural weaknesses at once. Deal Lethal damage (even against supernatural creatures that normally only take Bashing from bullets) and 9-Again.

1 to 5 Etheric Rounds: Renewable. A bullet bombarded by special energy that allows it to pierce spirit matter.

1 Witch Buster: An electronic bait that projects a false signal, triggering the Unseen Sense Merit.

2 or 3 Etheric Goggles: Along with acting as regular night-vision goggles, these allow the wearer to see objects in Twilight.

2 The Bleeder: A tool that forces blood out of a vampire's body when used.

2 Gleipnir Restraints: A tool that allows the hunter to capture supernatural beings unless they are able to summon strength twice that of the user.

3 Equalizer Grenade: Renewable. A special grenade that emits a frequency to prevent shapechanging.

3 The Gatekeeper Device: A black, full-body suit that allows for transportation to and from alternate realms such as the Underworld and the Shadow. Only five exist.

3 or 4 Gungnir Multi-Function Targeting System: A scope that automatically targets any supernatural creature.

3 VDSB: A bomb that momentarily resembles sunlight.

5 Etheric Tracker: A gun that fires pellets that can be used to track creatures in ethereal and physical realms.

4 Munin Serum: Renewable. A drug that erases up to six hours of a person's memory.

4 or 5 Mjolnir Cannon: A "ray gun" that emits an extremely strong electromagnetic beam that fries any targets in its path.

Witch Hunting Tools:

3 Screamer Pistol: A gun that generates an ultra-low pitch, disrupting concentration in living beings.

Anti-Hemophage Tools:

1 Hod Rounds: Bullets of mistletoe used against vampires. Sheathed in tough fibers, the rounds splinter on impact, functioning as miniature stakes.

2 or 3 Huginn Visor: Specially treated sunglasses that prevent a vampire from seeing into the hunter's mind. Higher end versions come in contact form.

3 Odin Reticle: Attached to the larger version of the Huginn, the Odin Reticle uses advanced after-image software to pinpoint vampires.

5 Logehamarr Personal Flamethrower: Customized for anti-personnel use, the Logehamarr is wielded to combat ENEs on the ground using fire to push them back.

Predator Hunting Tools:

2 Frequency Pulse Emitter: Renewable A grenade that releases a high-pitched noise that affects the heightened senses of the supernatural.

5 Urban Response Vehicle: Special A light-armored vehicle with special armory and features that is disguised as an ordinary van.

Serial Killer Hunting Tools:

1 to 5 Tranq Rounds: Renewable Specially manufactured bullets that fit into ordinary guns and release fast-acting tranquilizers upon contact with a body. The more powerful and complex the weapon, the higher the number of dots an agent will need to acquire these.

Anthropophagy is the secret ability for members of the Faithful to absorb the immortality and abilities of monsters, i.e. "gods", they eat.

A hunter with this Endowment can eat a monster and absorb its Dread Powers. To use Anthropophagy, she must kill the monster and eat pounds of its flesh equal to the dots she seeks to acquire. This devouring occurs in a single setting.

In the case of a monster with the Revivify Endowment, that creature can return to life after a number of weeks equal to the hunter’s Anthropophagy dots. If the hunters do not successfully kill the monster first, feasting on a pound of flesh causes the monster one lethal level of damage.

A group of hunters with Anthropophagy can share a single corpse, but only one given hunter can gain any given Dread Power; the character with the highest Anthropophagy dots gets first pick. The monster must have enough flesh to feed the entire group. As a rule, a monster has about three pounds of edible flesh per dot of Size. This amount may be reduced in the procurement; every health level of lethal damage on the monster counts for one pound that’s effectively rendered inedible.

The human stomach is not meant to process that much raw flesh. For every pound devoured in excess of a hunter’s Stamina dots, that hunter suffers one lethal damage as a result.

Once a hunter has devoured the monster, she may spend a point of Willpower. After doing so, the hunter gains a dot in any one of the monster’s Dread Powers that are greater than that of the hunter’s, up to the number of dots she’s earned in Anthropophagy.

The hunter can have a number of dots in the Revivify Dread Power equal to her Anthropophagy dots, and a number of dots equal to her Anthropophagy in other Dread Powers as well. Those dots may be divided however she chooses among any other combination of Dread Powers.

The hunter may abandon any of these Dread Powers at any point in time, reflexively. To fuel them, she’ll use her own Willpower. Additionally, killing someone and devouring their flesh breaks Integrity.

Benedictions originate in ancient rites of the Catholic church and feature calling on various saints to intervene on behalf of the hunter. This endowment is subject to a number of modifications, including the faith and morality of the user, how sacred (or blasphemous) a place or object is, and if the ritual is performed on the feast day of the saint called upon. Failures in using Benediction are usually caused if the prayer offered to the saint is not sincere enough or exhibits enough faith.

Benedictions, unlike most Endowments, have no levels; rather, the stronger the Endowment Merit, the more powerful the ritual becomes.

Rituals:

The Apostle's Teachings: The hunter inspires others to perform acts of good faith or righteousness.

Armor of St. Martin: The hunter gains a blessed "armor" that protects them in battle.

Blessed Protection of St. Agrippina: The hunter creates a blessed area of protection that can safeguard against supernatural creatures.

The Boon of Lazarus: A hunter can revive an ally who has only been dead for a few minutes at the cost of their sanity.

Epipodian Safeguard: The hunter can safeguard themselves against mind control.

Fortitude of St. George: A hunter gains temporary spiritual fortitude in the form of Stamina as well as having no need for rest or food while this ritual lasts.

Hands of St. Luke: A hunter can heal the injured through prayer.

Sanctification of the Blessed Virgin: The hunter turns a mundane object into a blessed object.

Saint Collen's Clarity: Causes all supernatural powers that affect the senses to be ignored by the hunter for the remainder of the scene.

Shepard's Blessing: The hunter can temporarily escape any notice so long as they pray continuously.

True Sight of St. Abel: The hunter can distinguish supernatural from mortal.

Vade Retro Satana: A hunter performs a powerful exorcising ritual on a possessed target.

Wrathful Sword of St. Michael the Archangel: A regular weapon temporarily becomes a holy weapon that deals aggravated damage to all supernaturals at the cost of durability.

Others:
Revelationes Coelestes: The hunter's prayer causes any witches in the area to begin bleeding.
Miracle of Gadarene: A hunter casts a demon out of a person and into an animal representing the opposite of the demon's powers.
Binding of St. Amabilis: A hunter sings a song that temporarily causes a werewolf to lose their healing abilities.
Peace of St. Joseph: This Benediction saps the vigor from dead flesh, no matter what force animates it, even the technically not-undead Prometheans(with a -3 penalty). The creature suffers a penalty to Initiative, Speed, and any Physical actions equal to the hunter’s Benediction rating for as long as the creature remains within 30 feet of the hunter.
Saint Agathius' Call: The hunter mystically draws all attention to themselves, leaving their companions unseen by the target

While the Castigation rituals are quite powerful, many of the Lucifuge are reluctant to employ them, as using Castigation requires them to call on their dark, demonic side. In some cases, a Lucifuge that loses control of a ritual is likely to lose Morality, and possibly pick up or strengthen a derangement. That said, the abilities offered by Castigation are extremely useful in the right circumstances, as the Lucifuge come the closest of any hunter to matching the supernatural in strength and power.

Castigation has no levels, as the abilities are innate. Instead, a Lucifuge may have one ritual for every dot they have in the Endowment Merit. A Lucifuge may know no more than five rituals at any time, but can "forget" rituals to learn new ones if needed.

Rituals:
Calling Forth the Pit: A hunter can call forth a demon from Hell, or force one to return there.
Coils of Iniquity: Provides bonuses to interacting with persons who serve a particular Vice.
Familiar: The hunter can call a lesser demon to serve him, either as a spirit with no body or a demon in the form of a small animal.
Family Vestment: The Lucifuge manifests a physical change reflecting his demonic heritage, such as wings, claws/fangs, armored flesh, or other alterations.
Gaze of the Penitent: If the hunter has a bit of a target's person on him (hair, blood, and so on), they may force the target to endure visions of the torments of Hell.
Gulf of Hades: Upon choosing a target within twenty feet, the hunter causes that target to either suffer from extreme cold (and take damage) or an object to shut down.
Hellfire: A hunter can call and manipulate the flames of Hell itself.
Infernal Visions: A hunter may gain supernatural insight on a question or topic once every night.
Mandate of Hell: The hunter can easily manipulate lesser demons.
Sense of the Unrighteous: A hunter can sense and read the sins of others.
Shackles of Pandemonium: The hunter can trap a demon in a ritual circle.
Tongue of Babel: The hunter can speak and understand every language on Earth as long as it is spoken out loud.
Unholy Aura: Gain a bonus to Social rolls.
Unholy Escapologist: Ropes, handcuffs, and locks unbind themselves to allow an imprisoned Lucifuge to go free.

Others:
Prima Dictum: The hunter calls upon his own cursed blood to defile the blood in a vampire's body
Abbadon's Call: The hunter raises a corpse to have it do his bidding.
The Mark of Lucifuge: The hunter brands the vampire with the symbol of Cain so that others will recognize the vampire as a creature of evil.
Abyssal Bondage: The hunter puts the power of the Abyss into their blood, causing any mages splashed with it to have their spells misfire.
Familiar Betrayal: A hunter can call, bind, and command a werewolf pack familiar.
Mark of the Beast: A hunter channels their own physical form into a demonic one.
Guilt's Bloody Trial: The hunter forces the blood of a victim to pour from stigmate-type wounds on the killer.
Rebuke Lies: Pierce a Demon's Cover or destroy it entirely (or remove false memories for a scene).

1 to 3 Hound Mark: Perceive monsters within five feet.

1 Crocodile Tears: The hunter appears to be extremely ill until they are ready to unveil their strength.

1 Eye of Ra: A hunter may gain bonuses to their perception.

1 Liar Pill: Betray no emotion (and lie convincingly) for a scene.

2 Breath of Ma'at: A hunter can ease the burdens of their sins by acquiring a feeling of truth and justice.

2 Elixir of the Fiery Heart: A hunter becomes completely fearless in the face of confrontation.

3 Bennu-Bird Feather: The hunter can accelerate the healing of any of their injuries.

3 A Glimpse of After: A hunter gains a vision of their heavenly reward (or hellish punishment) and can ignore any minor injuries.

3 Mind-Talking Drug: The hunter gains temporarily telepathic abilities, including mental communication.

4 Breath of the Dragon: The hunter can exhale a toxic cloud of gas.

4 Amun's Water: A hunter can turn themselves completely and truly invisible.

4 Incense of the Next World: A hunter can leave their body and travel through Twilight.

5 Blood of the Cobra: Along with making their blood poisonous, a hunter acquires extra strength and dexterity.

5 Mesmeric Vapors: The hunter exhales a special smoke that has a psychotropic effect on anyone in range and allows the hunter to plant a hypnotic suggestion

3 The Tallyman's Eyes The hunter can see strange traces around mages, slashers, and other abnormal humans.

2 Vapors of Mercury: The hunter turns their own blood into a silver-like substance harmful to werewolves.

4 Balm of Chronos: The hunter slows how they perceive time, enabling them to move faster.

2 Gentle Mind: The hunter is rendered better able to resist the effects of Disqueit(Promethean aura).

1 Hunting Sight of the Asp: The hunter can see into the thermal spectrum, allowing bonuses to locate anyone hiding from them, tell if someone is a vampire (as well as a few other supernaturals) and help determine people's emotional states.

5 Nehebkau Tears: The hunter temporarily becomes a vampire.

2 Drop of Dreams: This milky, oily elixir has a pearlescent sheen and must be kept away from light once brewed. It’s tough to swallow, like barium milk with a subtle citrus flavor. Once imbibed, the drinker falls into a deep sleep. Her subconscious drifts off into the world of primordial nightmares.

To First Revelation members and those of deep Christian faith, the Gospels are lost teachings of Jesus Christ, given by Him to banish "demons". The older, more experienced members know that underneath the iconography are the tools to manipulate the powers of the ancient gods that lie beneath the existence of the world. As the Knights are centered around the destruction of witches, the Gospels revolve around the disruption and control of magic.

There are three branches of the Gospels: the Gospel of Agares, which breaks magical connections, the Gospel of Amon, which causes feelings of guilt and sin, and the Gospel of Beleth, which affects the Merit represents the highest ability they may take. In addition, a Knight may have no more than five total dots in Goetic Gospels; for every dot above five, they must take a severe derangement. Most Knights chose to focus on a single branch.

1 Lie of the Heart: The Knight avoids any magic spells in an area.

2 Crocodile Armor: The Knight calls a demon that serves as an armor against magic.

3 Agares' Goosehawk: The Knight slowly erodes away a witch's spell.

4 Envy's Barb: The Knight conjures a demon that soaks up magic, effectively countering a spell.

5 Flagellant's Denial: The Knight injures himself, summoning a demon which prevents all magic from being cast.

1 Stolen Vice: The Knight attaches a Willpower-soaking demon to a witch.

2 Maddening Whispers: The Knight calls a demon that whispers crazed thoughts to a mage.

3 Magpie Mysteries: The Knight cuts off a mage's access to one of their Mysteries.

4 Vicious Cycle: The Knight summons a demon that forces a witch to relive their worst sin.

5 Demon King of Nothing: The Knight merges a demon to a mage, causing the mage to gain Paradox on all magic used.

1 Gluttonous Devourer: The Knight conjures a Source-eating demon.

2 Servitor of Sloth: The Knight forces a witch to use Willpower when casting spells.

3 Poison Baubles: The Knight can poison the Source within a witch's body.

The angel who fixed up Casey Howard’s arm did it by tattooing her in angelic script that appears both high tech and arcane. Every so often, he comes by to outfit the new hires with Ink, holy marks that help in the endless hunt for demons. Where demons are generally subtle, Inks are more blunt instruments.

A character’s total dots in Endowment determine how many pieces of Ink he or she has. There is not a limit to five dots in this regard.

When inactive, Ink looks like an ordinary tattoo, though they tend to fade a little faster, making them look like mementos of times gone by rather than a recent personal statement. When active, Ink marks don’t quite glow. They catch the light in a way that makes them look almost luminescent.

Tatoos:
Bear Mace: The flats of your palms glow with patterns that cause extreme pain to demons. The attack inflicts extreme pain and the Stunned Tilt in addition to unarmed attack damage. It only affects supernatural creatures (including people possessed by lesser demons). Cannot be used simultaneously with Fist of Revelation. This Ink draws heavily on the angelic energy in the Knight’s system, and can only be used as many times per scene as the character’s dots in Endowment (Ink).

Brother Road: This particular Ink is subtler than most. It lets you read the signs to speak to the road and the places that are part of it. It lets you ask questions of the stretches of asphalt regarding recent occurrences.

Fist of Revelation: When the character successfully deals damage with an unarmed attack, a greater demon loses any benefits of Cover for the rest of the scene, and immediately reveals its Apocalyptic Form. It cannot return to human form for the rest of the scene. It also suffers the Knocked Down Tilt. This Ink cannot be used simultaneously with Bear Mace, and can only be used on one demon per scene.

King of the Road: The Ink requires an arcane paint job for the vehicle as well as the driver, but this can be concealed with another paint job. This Ink requires the Knight designate a specific motor vehicle. Not a type, as with The Lord Provides, but an individual car, truck, or motorcycle to which the driver has a strong emotional attachment. Whenever this vehicle takes damage within excess of half its Structure, or gets lost, like by driving off a cliff or into a body of water, the vehicle reappears in a parking area the character visits somewhere in the next 24 hours.

The Lord Provides: The image of a specific firearm is depicted as part of the tattoo. When using a gun of that model, you never run out of ammunition. This is limited to mundane ammunition, and not specialized versions.

LOVE/HATE: A combination of two sets of knuckle tattoos, each with different effects.

Right (LOVE): Gain Informed Condition regarding a person while shaking their hand and general feeling if they are trustworthy.

Left (HATE): Brawl attacks are Lethal rather than Bashing, as if using a weapon.

Pain Magnet: For the rest of the scene, or until the character decides to stop, damage inflicted on a set of subjects the character chooses are redirected to the Knight instead. These subjects have to be in the same general area as the character. Generally, the user needs to be in the fight, or close enough to be. How this looks varies with the hunter’s personality. A character with his or her last health box marked can’t redirect any additional damage.

Tough as the Last Guy: Store a supernatural opponent's rating in Strength, Dexterity, Brawl, Firearms or Weaponry to use in a future scene. Manifests as script on the user's biceps and the back of the neck.

While there are many marvelous but trifling Relics that would not help the average member of Aegis Kai Doru in the field, only a few truly useful in the battle against the supernatural are granted to agents. Agents who have gained possession of a Relic to use must have proven themselves extensively, and to have one is a symbol of great status among the Aegis Kai Doru's numbers. Likewise, no greater shame can befall an agent than to have a Relic broken, stolen, or lost on a mission; many who do so ritually kill themselves, especially if the Relic falls into the hands of the supernatural creature they were attempting to defeat with it.

Unlike many other Endowments, Relics can be used by anyone who knows the correct way to activate it; they are not limited to agents, hunters, or supernaturals.

Relics:

1 One-Eyed Kings: A set of two coins that can be used to spy on events in another nearby location.

1 Skeleton Key: A key that cannot only unlock doors, but remove any trace of an intruder's passage.

2 Eye of Hubris: A crystal that interferes with the use of magic in its vicinity.

2 Orpheus' Eye: An apparently glass eye that allows the bearer to see into Twilight when held in the palm of the hand.

3 Icarine Servitor: A wax doll that can be used as a servant or spy.

3 Ringsel: Stones from the remains of a Buddhist master that allow the agent to heal themselves.

3 Watchful Keris: A specially-made dagger that allows the bearer to gain the upper hand in an attack.

4 Heart of Stone: When an electric current is passed through this stone, it causes great envy and eventually attracts monsters.

4 Witch-Candle: A special candlestick with carvings that will attack anyone using magic nearby.

5 Aegis Talisman: The agent who wears one gains special protection from physical and magical attacks.

5 Dead Man's Face: A mask that can briefly allow a corpse to speak for a few minutes.

5 Doru Talisman: A small spear amulet that can be used in the same way as full-sized weapon when needed.

5 Centurion's Gladius: An ancient Roman sword that deactivates magical items.

2 Blood of Pope Joan: A blessed item that also causes werewolves in its presence to weaken.

4 Idol of Gévaudan: A small stone wolf idol, which causes werewolves to fight ferociously over it when splashed with werewolf blood.

5 Phylactery of Commius: An ancient, small box that, when bound with a spirit, slows the aging of the bearer, causes the spirit to take damage for them, and helps the bearer speak with spirits.

2 The Silver Key: A key that opens a door to the Hedge for approximately one minute, once per location.

2 Heart of the Succubus: A round, bronze object about the size of a large man’s palm, and resembles a modern-day compass that detects demons in defiance of their Cover.

2 Dream Relic: This isn’t a normal Relic; it’s an enhancement or modification to an existing Relic. This represents a Relic that’s been physically destroyed or otherwise lost forever, so now it only exists within the scope of dreams. The user is somehow bound to the destroyed Relic, so it appears with her whenever she manifests in a dream.

3 Perseus' Mirrored Shield: The story goes, Athena gave this shield to Perseus so he could look into it and see Medusa’s reflection, protecting him from her petrifying gaze. He used this to behead the Beast. Now, the shield has a similar use; it protects the wielder from bestial Dread Powers.

5 Saint George's Sword: This ancient broadsword was used by a soldier in Libya over one thousand years ago. The story says that fifteen thousand people converted to Christianity as recompense for the soldier’s work in slaying a great, poisonous dragon. Now, the sword has been kept as a legendary monster-slaying tool, specifically used against monsters and able to cause bleeding easily.

3 Mask of Terror: Made from the face of a serial killer or a mask possessed by one, this relic inspires terror in those who look upon it similar to the terror the killer once inspired in a victim.

Spirit powers are tricky to borrow, as many spirits are unpredictable and often extremely emotional. Most spirits must be offered some sort of appeasement before they allow themselves to be used. Weak spirits most likely require a simple thanks and a small material offering, while the most powerful spirits may involve invocations or sacrifices to call down their talents. Spirits come in a variety of types, and the ways to invoke them are as diverse as the kinds that exist.

Spirit talkers are fiercely protective of their powers and abilities, and do not willingly share them with anyone, even others in other cells of Les Mystères. The number of dots by each ability represents how well known they are, with one dot being common knowledge, to five dots meaning a scarce few know the power. Often, a hunter who wishes to learn a high-level rite will have to do years of hunting and traveling to find someone willing to teach them. As with most other hunters, a character may not take a rite rated higher than their Endowment Merit.

Although the rites have names reminiscent of vodoo here, members around the world, especially those of different religious beliefs, will give them different names to reflect their culture.

The Rites:

1 Skin of the Loa: The spirit toughens the skin of the ridden.

1 Ephemeral Disguise: The spirit helps the ridden hide in plain sight.

2 Elemental Rebuke: An elemental spirit affects the body of a target.

2 Light as a Feather: Spirits of wind and air help the ridden's body float and bounce safely around.

3 The Hands of Raphael: The spirit of Raphael the archangel heals the hunter and bestows a special grace on them.

3 Spiritual Guidance: The ridden calls on a spirit talented in a specific skill to help them with a task.

4 Clinging Leech: A leech spirit can steal away health from any opponent the ridden touches.

4 Voodoo Doll: A spirit enters a specially-prepared doll, allowing the hunter to use it to manipulate a foe.

5 Deny the Moon: Spirits who oppose the moon can cut off werewolves' moon-strengthened powers.

5 Wearing the Baron's Hat: The ridden calls on Baron Samedi himself, who enhances the ridden's combat skills.

Thorn_ · Sep 14, 2020

Cainite rituals take a fairly simple form, but one that's odd enough that it probably should merit question, even though it doesn't. Every Cainite carries around a small glass phial of blood taken from other Cainites, enough to fill the small vessel. Most hang the phial around the neck or even the wrist, though some choose to protect the phials more stridently (even going so far to keep the glass phial in a small metal lockbox that can sit in one's coat pocket or glove-box).

Every Rite of Denial demands use of this blood -- it might be smeared on a lead pipe, drawn upon a wall (usually in the form of the Cainites' own sigil), or upended into the mouth so it can be spat out. No Cainite magic fails to make use of the collected blood. Usually the strange rituals demand other actions be taken, too -- a line of cakey sea salt drawn across a doorway, a bulb of garlic crushed beneath a bootheel, or a splinter of wood shimmied into the skin of the palm.

Think of it like an equation. In a simple equation, A + B = C, and the Rites of Denial are very much like that. Use the blood in just such a way, perform the other actions demanded with the reagents demanded, and a result occurs. No faith is necessary (though one must certainly concentrate and commit to the action, but Cainites are nothing if not committed). No prayer, no entreaties to distant powers. Some religious Cainites might evoke such additional details when casting one of the Rites of Denial, but it's by no means necessary. A plus B equals C. As such, each Rite requires an expenditure of one unit of Willpower and a designated amount of thimbles of blood per ritual.

1-Thimble Rites:

Behold: A sigil painted on the Hunter's forehead reveals vampires as what they are, except those using Stealth skills or Dread Powers to hide themselves.

Evade: The Cainite smears a line of blood on the ground with her thumb, and then steps over it, gaining an increase in speed for the remainder of the scene.

Reflect: The Cainite whispers the question, "Who is Cain?" and draws the evil eye over one of her own eyes in blood withdrawn from the phial. Before the blood dries, she must fleck it with kohl (ground galena), mascara, coal dust, or some other kind of black dirt or makeup. For a time, she is protected against some of the Dread Powers of the vampire.

Unmask: The Cainite daubs blood from the phial onto his own eyelids. The first vampire the Cainite looks upon is suddenly revealed to the world: The creature shows up perfectly in media and in mirrors (so perfectly, in fact, the creature stands out). In addition -- and to some Cainites, more importantly -- those nearby the vampire suddenly suffer an inexplicable fear of the creature, unconsciously recognizing it as a walking corpse. They do not instantly panic, but most humans (with Willpower of 5 or below) will hurry away with a steady step.

2-Thimble Rites:

Aggravate: Inscribed Cainite sigil on a weapon, causing it to vibrate and have a bonus in damage to vampires and their minions for the remainder of the scene.

Deny: A line of sea salt and blood left upon the threshold of a door can prevent a vampire from entering through that doorway unless invited in by the Cainite.

Mark: The Cainite lets a coin soak in phial's blood for up to one hour. Then, the Cainite must hold the coin and the blood in his mouth. His hand and eyes work with sudden determination and concentration when attempting to waylay a vampire.

Obligate: A rusted nail must be made slick with blood from the phial. When the nail is placed within the borders of the footprint, the vampire -- wherever he may be at the time -- is held in place, so long as the nail is placed before one hour has passed since the footprint was first made.

Prohibit: The Cainite drizzles some of the phial's blood on each wrist of one she hopes to protect -- then smears each into a forbidding 'x' upon the tender skin. She must ask the target a question, the question: "Who is Cain?" After which, the blood within the target grows colder, as if a saline rush runs suddenly through the veins. Vampires will find no sustenance from that blood, now, and in fact it will do the creature harm.

3-Thimble Rites:

Invoke: The Cainite must hold some of the phial blood in his mouth and then spit it over the folkloric apotrope, such as garlic, holy water, silver, poppy seeds, or wild roses. For a time, the object will repel vampires, and even harm them if it comes in contact with them.

Pilfer: Performing this rite demands that the Cainite put several drops of the phial's blood into her own ears before asking this question of the vampire: "What do you know?" Doing so will allow the Cainite to interrogate vampires to their hidden knowledge, whether spoken allowed or simply let into the mind of the Cainite telepathically.

4-Thimble Rites:

Befoul: Marking each of the walls in a location, the area becomes one in which vampires cannot slumber, use Dread Powers, or spend Willpower.

5-Thimble Rites:

Question: Those who know this ritual can poison the mind of a vampire with the question "Who is Cain?" as easily as a vampire can poison the mind of an unwitting mortal. The Cainite must paint her tongue and teeth with the blood one hour before she hopes to ask the question of a monster, and must also chew a sprig or leaf of mint. The question drives the vampire mad, creating a derangement of the Cainite's choice for one month per dot of the Cainite's prowess in the rites.

A requirement to join VASCU is to have innate psychic talent of some sort. In order to allow agents to truly tap into their potential, the agency works on unlocking their skills through drugs, amplifying their potential. Once the psychic skills have been refined, the agent's talents are classified into one of three areas and they are then put to work.

The skills found in VASCU agents tend towards one of three categories: Interviewing, in which the agent uses telepathic abilities to raid a target's mind; Investigation, which heightens an agent's normal senses to inhuman proportions, and Research that grants ESP-type powers to allow agents to view things as no other person can.

Interviewing Abilities:

1 Just One More Thing - An agent becomes especially sensitive to feelings of guilt relating to a short phrase.

2 Polygraph - The agent can read their subject's surface emotions.

3 Synchronization - An agent can make a copy of a target's mind within their own, allowing them free access to the target's memories, feelings, and, unfortunately, derangments.

4 The Talon - The agent mentally strikes out at specific parts of the target's mind, pressuring them to answer questions.

5 Tactical Co-ordination - An agent can create a mental network with other allies, using their own abilities as a center.

Investigation Abilities:

1 Psychometry - An agent can read special psychic traces on an item, revealing any basic secrets it holds.

2 Scene Read - The agent can quickly and mentally trace a basic idea of what happened at a crime scene.

3 Speed of Thought - An agent can speed up their mental processes, giving them inhuman abilities.

4 Postcognition - The agent mentally recreates a crime scene, able to accurately see the events that transpired there.

5 Hall of Mirrors - An agent enters another mental state that allows them to see a quick blast of the future.

Research Abilities:

1 Network - An agent instantly knows where to begin hunting for information on an inanimate object or a subject.

2 Deep Background - With a single piece of information, an agent can psychically direct themselves to anything about a subject online.

3 Bookworm - An agent can focus and instantly learn any information in an area on a subject they're researching.

4 Tag - The agent can use lenses and animals as eyes to follow a target subject.

5 Omnicompetence - An agent can temporarily learn any skill simply by doing enough research on it.

The Cheiron Group's use of science to examine the supernatural has produced an unusual and unstable mesh of the two. Thaumatechnology is almost frightening in how powerful it can potentially be, how horrifically wrong it can go, and, perhaps most importantly, how Cheiron agents must use it. They cannot simply be picked up and used; rather, all Thaumatechnology comes in the form of implants that require surgery to correctly connect them to the users' bodies.

Implants can be connected "in the field", but the surgical skill required is high, and things can go disastrously awry, even under the best of conditions.
Enhancements:

1 or 2 Weapon of Last Resort: An agent has a set of retractable claws of supernatural origin.

1 or 3 Voice of the Banshee: The stringy tendons of the vocal chords of a Banshee genetic offshoot of vampires allow the recipient to make a high-pitched keen just outside the range of human hearing. She emits a sub-aural wave of sound that will agitate animals and deafen anyone using supernaturally enhanced senses.

2 Ectocrine Gland: An injection of ectoplasm that allows the agent to view the realm of Twilight and speak with spirits.

3 Personal Defense Swarm: A set of "insects" made from supernatural metal and bile that attack any hostile targets when released.

3 Quick-Step: Implanted ligaments and tissue from vampires and werewolves that grants the agent extra speed.

3 Optic Thorn: A tiny bone spur implanted in the optic nerve of the left eye of a member of the Lucifuge, allowing the agent to detect other supernaturally-augmented hunters.

4 Twitcher: A spinal implant that improves the agent's reaction time.

5 Banality Worm: A creature from an unknown realm that grants resistance to supernatural powers when implanted near the heart.

5 Hand of Glory: A severed hand from a specially-prepared corpse that creates hypnotic fire.

Vampiric Enhancements:

1 Anger Patch: A square of vampire skin grafted onto the back of an agent's neck that allows them to detect vampires nearby.

1 or 3 Voice of the Banshee: Surgically extracted from the legendary wailing women, the voice of the banshee allows an agent to use supernatural hearing against a monster.

2 Lover's Lips: Vampiric tissue sacs that causes anyone tasting the blood spit from them to become attracted to the user.

3 Evil Eye: The agent gains the same abilities as the creature the eye came from, but suffers from a number of flaws.

Magic Enhancements:

4 Agonizer: A specially-implanted bug that feeds on magic from mages when it stings one.

Werewolf Enhancements:

3 Berserker Splice: A graft from the medulla oblongata of a werewolf allows the agent to respond fiercely in a stressful situation.

4 Regenerative Nodule: A werewolf "cyst" that temporarily gives the user a werewolf's fast healing ability.

Promethean Enhancements:

4 Vitriol Pump: A small, plastic device, about the size of a deck of cards, worn on an underarm harness with a tube leading into the hunter’s side. When necessary, the hunter pushes a button on a remote control (usually worn on the belt or wrist) and releases a cocktail of low-grade sedatives, saline solution, and a tiny amount of vitriol into her bloodstream. The vitriolic mixture grants the hunter access to past successes and to activate muscle memory, which is related to a moment when she acted correctly, to take over a current endeavor. This is accompanied by a flood of memories from the hunter and from the Promethean that the vitriol was taken from.

Changeling Enhancements:

4 Cranial Cortex Augmentation: Thin tissue slices extracted from the extrastriate visual areas of a Changeling's cortex is surgically layered into the same area of another individual’s brain, giving a temporary ability to mimic the Lost’s ability to enter and manipulate others’ dreams.

Sin-Eater Enhancements:

4 Plasmic Caul: The remains of a geist, implanted in the brain, allowing the agent to manifest limited Sin-Eater-like powers.

Demon Enhancements:

2 Devil's Eyes: The implanted eyes of a demon that allow the agent to see and read auras.

Slasher Enhancements:

3 Cortical Adaptation: Made from tumors or brain-defects found in some serial killers, these growths allow the agent to think like a slasher.

Attributes: Hunters don't have a mana pool like the supernatural and instead almost exclusively do abilities through Willpower. The trade off, is they can use Willpower on almost anything. Being mortals, they can't increase any specific attribute past 5 dots, but the lack of magic works in the favor letting them use all their points in skills instead.

It also helps they have a much higher starting point of points to spends things on, at 21 instead of 15 which lets them gather a lot of skills to compensate for being statistically weaker, which allows them with some preparation to deal with threats that do overpower them on average. https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Freebie_point

Practical Experience: Hunters get this from slaying monsters. A hunter does not necessarily need to be aware a monster was supernatural when they killed it, but it's still a learning experience for them and if they weren't aware of it's nature and didn't see it react in any interesting way, there would be no reason they learnt anything from it. This doesn't apply to things they know are supernatural. The lack of a reaction or seemingly normal ones from vampires or werewolves is knowledge in itself.

A player can spend a point to regain Willpower.

A player can spend Practical Experience to increase Skills and Merits (including Endowments), but not Attributes.

A troupe can spend Practical Experience to purchase Tactics for a cell, or to train a new member to use existing Tactics.

Tactics: They don't matter for our purposes specifically, but I'll link a list of things. http://wodcodex.com/wiki/Tactics_(1st_Edition) Other than fighting, they do include things like torching a place and customizing weapons. Tactics and Teamwork are group activities that require more in depth touching of the rules.

And that's about it. There's also Merits to go over for Hunters which is combat maneuvers, but that doesn't matter too much.

Thorn_ · Sep 24, 2020

Starting stats:
Character Concept: The idea behind your character. Doesn't mean anything really.
Tradition/Convention: Factions. Mages have Traditions, Technocrats have Conventions. You don't need to adhere to all principles of a faction entirely. Unlike vampires with clans, factions aren't necessarily made up of like minded people. A pagan witch can still realize the value of computers, and a punk rock mage might not follow the same view points of everyone. But Traditions are part of what a mage believes in. They would be in these groups for a reason. They would be drawn to a group because it's part of their believes.
Essence/Eidolon: The shape and form of a Mage's Avatar or a Technocrat's Genius.

" For all practical purposes, Eidolons and Essences are exactly the same thing. But in the world of Mage, perception and belief are the foundations of reality. Thus, a Technocrat or former Technocrat will utterly deny the existence of a metaphysical soul essence. Reality Deviants may have their silly little soul-faces, but a good Technocrat knows what such things really are: wisps of imagination wrapped around perfectly sensible expressions of Genius!"

Dynamic
A mage with a Dynamic Avatar would say that nothing is static, everything must change. Such mages are aligned with the cosmic principle of Dynamism, and feel a deep urge to create, innovate, and pursue novelty. Mages who have succumbed to the most extreme and imbalanced form of Dynamism are known as Marauders.

Pattern
A mage with a Pattern Avatar would say that strength comes from order and stability. Such mages are aligned with the cosmic principle of Stasis, and feel a deep urge to protect and preserve what they perceive as valuable. The mages who have succumbed to the most extreme and imbalanced form of Stasis are the technocrats known as Threat Null (especially the Autopolitans of Autochthonia).

Primordial
A mage with a Primordial Avatar subconsciously remembers the most primordial of times: the supreme tranquility of the time before Creation began. The ugliest parts of existence fill the Primordial mage with the urge to purge away that ugliness and restore a small measure of the primordial tranquility to current human existence. Such mages are aligned with the cosmic principle of Entropy, and feel a deep urge to purify existence by purging away the ugliest parts. Mages who have succumbed to the most extreme and imbalanced form of Entropy are known as Nephandi.

Questing
A mage with a Questing Avatar would say that purpose comes from the seeking and accomplishing of goals. Whereas the other three Essences are manifestations of fundamental cosmic principles, a Questing mage feels a deep urge to pursue the central concept itself which gives the three cosmic principles their direction: Quality. A Questing mage perpetually perceives a state of higher quality, and is ever questing toward it. Questing mages are the glue who seek to harmonize and balance the other mages and forces.

Attributes: 7 / 5 / 3 All mages start with one in each attribute, since they are in fact, alive.
Abilities: 13 / 9 / 5
Backgrounds: 7 dots
Beginning Arête: 1 (Maximum of three to start a game with)
Beginning Willpower: 5(Maximum of eight to start a game with)
Spheres: 5 + 1 (Tradition/Convention Specialty)

Freebie Points: Up to 30(Start with 15. More can be gotten by taking Flaws. General rule is no more than seven free points can be gotten this way, or depending on the dm's choice, a player can have any two flaws for any amount of points, but no more than those two flaws.)

Attribute : 5 per dot
Ability : 2 per dot
Sphere : 7 per dot
Background : 1 per dot
Arete : 4 per dot
Willpower : 1 per dot (Maximum beginning Willpower of 8)
Quintessence : 1 for 4 dots (Must have Prime 1 to hold more than your Avatar rating)

Mages can be divided into two groups. Traditions and Technocrats. The difference on the surface may look like, magic versus technology, but it's not exactly that. Mages are reality warping beings. How their powers work is what they believe to be real, is. Even if a Technocrat is using discredited science, if the Technocrat believes it will work, then it works the way he says it does. If a witch thinks sex powers her magic, she uses sex to power her magic. Ascension would be a stage where a mage or Technocrat discover it's not the tools or clothes that make the man, but the power comes from themselves entirely. However, this is extremely to difficult to accomplish. It's not simply a matter of intelligence. If a mage has relied on a wand or staff for a long time to use magic, then they simply wouldn't know what to do without it, even if they are potentially capable of everything they could do before and more. To call Technocrats, technology is only partially correct. It doesn't matter how faulty science is, as long as a Technocrat thinks their "gadget" works the way it should. If they believe a specially made tech suit gives them abilities, it will, because that is the reality they set for themselves. If a mage thinks their tattoos are fonts of runic power, they will work as intended, because that's what they think.

Arete/Enlightenment: This is a score of 1 to 10. To be a mage at all, you must have an Arete of at least one. Technocrats consider this to be Enlightenment. A mage can never grow their spheres of magic past their current Arete level. The most a mage can start a game with is an Arete level of 3 by spending points. To get more, they would need to undertake Seekings to bring about revelations that cause personal growth. This is more difficult for Technocrats to do.

"At Arete 1 and 2, a mage must focus his Arts through a paradigm, a practice, and at least seven instruments based upon that style.

Mystic mages begin to realize that magick comes from internal excellence, not from external focus. Beginning at Arete 3, a mystic mage can begin to discard the instruments she uses to focus her magickal style. Although she doesn’t have to stop using her tools, she can discard one instrument per dot in Arete over the second: one instrument at Arete 3, two at Arete 4, three at Arete 5, and so on. By Arete 9, she will have outgrown the need for instruments, thus become magick herself."

Until Arete 9, you still need your tools for magic to function. You don't need to utilize all your tools to cast one spell, but you will need at least one means to do so before that point. At Arete 10, that's the Ascension a mage becomes a literal near god like being. Much of the conflict of magic is based on the idea of trying to get all humans to achieve this, but the inability for paradigms to agree on how to do it.

Focus: These are the instruments, technological or otherwise that reality warpers use for their abilities. It's not about what a mage can do, but how they do it. If the technocrat wants to use their supernatural senses, they would have to use something like specially made googles or specially custom built contact lens.

Thus, the tools used for Focus come in three sets:
Generic instruments: no bonus aside from the normal ones for using two instruments instead of one. This can be pretty much anything ranging from music, to guns, to body armor, as long as the mage can justify it to themselves that it would work as they intended. A technocrat can't say to themselves "These books enable me to shoot fire from my hands". Things have "logical" explainations. That's insane. But a mage would say "This tome allows me to wield fire" and it would work. Inversely, the nature of Paradox prevents Traditions mages from using the technology of the Technocrats. Those aren't their tools or instruments. They don't work for them. They work for technocrats because they think it will. But if a Technocrat wanted to throw something like a fireball, they would use incendiary ammo or a heat ray.
Significant instruments: lowers the difficulty of casting by 1. These hold some importance to the particular mage and are harder to get a hold of than generic instruments. Engraved bullets, for instance.
Personalized instruments: keyed to a specific sphere, lowers the casting difficulty in that sphere by one. These are unique to the mage. Custom made pistols, or a sword that's been in the family for generations. They make casting from a certain sphere easier, but are locked into that sphere. These also have to be objects that a mage can potentially lose. While body tattoos may work as a generic tool, they don't cut it as personalized instruments.

Spheres/Magic
The nine spheres, and the fields they control, are as follows:

Sphere Field
Correspondence The element of connection between apparently different things.
Entropy The principle of chance, fate and mortality.
Forces The understanding of elemental energies.
Life The mysteries of life and death.
Matter The principles behind supposedly “inanimate” objects.
Mind The potentials of consciousness.
Prime An understanding of the Primal Energy within all things.
Spirit Comprehension of Otherworldly forces and inhabitants.
Time The strange workings of chronological forces and perceptions.
Tenth Most Traditions postulate the existence of a Tenth Sphere, but what exactly it entails is a matter of debate.

Thorn_ · Sep 24, 2020

Quintessence: The important thing to note, is unlike blood, quintessence is not innately needed for a mage to use their powers. It does however make using power easier and has a number of possible uses. However you can only store as many Quintessence/Primal Energy points as your Avatar/Genius rating. Naturally a strong, mage has a strong avatar. Quintessence comes from nodes where mages can absorb it. While typically an invisible force, a mage with the skills in the primal sphere is capable of perceiving it. It's not necessary to actually see it for a mage to absorb it, though it definitely makes the search for nodes and the sort easier.

• You can spend Quintessence to reduce the difficulty of a magick casting roll. Each point spent reduces that difficulty by 1, to a maximum reduction of -3.

• Your mage can also use Quintessence to counter Paradox or fuel countermagick.

• A mage can absorb Quintessence through her Avatar; through Prime Sphere spells or Procedures; or through Tass or some Wonder that recharges Quintessence, like a battery or energy drink.

• Channeling Quintessence through the Avatar requires meditation at a Node; channeling more than your Avatar rating through that Node requires Prime 1. To absorb Quintessence energy from the materialized Quintessence of Tass requires Prime 3. A Master can absorb Quintessence from anywhere by using a vulgar Prime 5 Effect. The number of Quintessence points that can be absorbed this way depend upon the success on the magick casting roll

• The Quintessence absorbed by your mage’s Avatar essentially becomes personal Quintessence and cannot be taken away from her – only spent by her. Your Avatar Background rating reflects the maximum amount of personal Quintessence you can store.

• In most cases, Quintessence remains invisible except to mages with the Prime Sphere. Characters with Awareness or other metaphysical perception abilities might feel Quintessence being shunted around, but they won’t be able to see it the way a Prime-skilled mage could. When respectable amounts of Quintessence (three points or more) get shifted around, lights tend to dim, breezes blow, and the area’s temperature might rise or fall several degrees. Folks feel ripples even if they have no idea what’s actually going on.

• Large or violent reality shifts that move around 10 points of Quintessence or more do become visible to mortal eyes. Bright lights, ribbons of color, explosions, sudden freezes, and so forth mark such disruptions. Effects at that level tear the fabric of the Tapestry, and so they’re always considered vulgar magick.

Paradox: So now to get to what Paradox is. If all humans have reality warping potential but only a mage can do it on a conscious level, then paradox is the accepted reality of the masses. A consensual reality, which to be put is the world we live in. How things should be. What mages think is real, and if the majority of the population see this mundane existence as the world, that's what it is. This is a problem for Technocrats too. Their innovations of technology can be shrugged as stuff that can't be done or science that is impossible. Remember, the only reason Technocrat science actually works is simply because they will say it will work. Thus, Technocrats don't really need to all have doctorates for their perception of science to succeed at what they want it too.(Though it helps). Paradox...is complicated. It can be considered like it's own force created by the minds of millions. Even a strong mage awakened to their powers has issues pushing back against the accepted reality and it can be detrimental to their health to try. Magic that defies what a person could logically do in the "Real world" is Vulgar. Rewinding time, zombies, or other means that a person should not do and make someone say "That's impossible!" risk Paradox. The risk of Paradox is reduced if nobody actually sees you do these things, but the force is constant in the world and you're still basically trying to push through a wall. But it's also possible for a mage to manipulate their powers to feasible circumstances that don't run the risk of Paradox. Paradox is the commonly accepted view and fighting against it is dangerous.

• Each time a mage employs vulgar magick, he gets at least one point of Paradox.

• Botching a magickal Effect also gathers Paradox, as noted on that same Casting Magickal Effects chart.

• Large amounts of Paradox energy can backlash on the mage, with hideous results – warped spells, explosions, insanity, and so forth.

• Your mage’s Paradox rating becomes his Paradox pool. When things go horribly wrong with her magick, the Storyteller rolls one die per point in that pool in order to see what happens. Thus, you’ll want to keep that Trait as low as possible; the higher the pool, the worse its effects.

• A mage who builds up a bit of Paradox energy can bleed it off by avoiding magick for a little while.

• If your mage accumulates 20 points or more without a backlash, she may drop into an intense Quiet, disappear through a crack in reality (possibly to return as a warped Marauder version of the person she once was), or simply explode.

• Certain modifications can give a character a permanent Paradox rating(Technocratic enhancements)

• Mages who store up large amounts of Paradox energy become walking blights upon reality. They manifest odd quirks of Resonance, display disturbing Paradox Flaws, and simply don’t feel right to other people. Although very few creatures will understand the nature of the problem, they’ll instinctually avoid a ’Doxy wizard, if only out of self-preservation.

So if the accepted reality decides the rules for people can and can't do, then the idea is simple. Change the rules. To change the accepted reality into one with your believes...but to do so would require making those millions of people refuting your definition to accept yours as the new common reality. Good or bad, a mage believes in their reality and to make paradox no longer a threat, it would require people accepting your idea for the world as the new commonplace belief system.

So what should the new reality be? Traditions tear themselves apart trying to answer that question. While they are all based on magic, they have completely different ideas of the world and how it functions. The nine traditions are divided where Technocrats can simply look to "Science" for the answers, which is part of a the factor of why they generally have the upper hand in the conflict. Traditions are more split, but Technocrats are united under Unification Theory which is to create a whole new world without vampires or werewolves or anything. They argue about how to do it, but unlike Traditions(Magic mages) they have an actual general agreement of what the end goal for humanity is.

The Disparate Alliance is a newly created network of independent Crafts that have chosen to take the matters of the Ascension War into their own hands, independently from the Technocratic Union or the Council of Nine Mystick Traditions.

While both the Council of Nine was a brainchild of the Renaissance and the Technocratic Union sprang from the Order of Reason during the Victorian Age, the Disparate Alliance came into being during the Information Age. During the events of the Avatar Storm, Armageddon seemed near. Many members of the Crafts deserted their brethren and joined the Traditions for safety. However, not all jumped at the call. The remainders concealed themselves even further, leaving no real evidence of their continued existence.

Even before, during the 1990s, many of these mages had made contact with other Crafts, utilizing the rapidly evolving global social media, virtual contact, and ideas of mutual protection to convince others to work together, outside of the Council. The first groups were those who had originally contact to the Traditions, like the Ahl-i-Batin, the Solificati or the Hollow Ones. As the Horizon, the various orphans in Heylel's army started talking to one another. Sure, the Council was broken and the Technocracy was worse, but the concept of a Disparate Alliance began to make sense. When the Technocracy locked its sights on the various Crafts, the networks established by those meetings helped those groups survive the purge.

The Disparates believe that the Technocracy is part of a Nephandic conspiracy to dump the world and its various cultures down the gutter. The Pogrom was just another evidence of this. Most see the Traditions as likewise riddled with Nephandi and corruption, although some maintain contact to those who have left their original Crafts behind to join a Tradition.

The Disparate Alliance is a secret organization, its existence the knowledge of initiated, influential Craft members. Most do not flout this knowledge or even their membership within a Craft. Being overlooked and ignored has been their greatest weapon for decades, and they intend to use this knowledge.

All mages of a faction must have at least one dot in one of their respective affinity spheres, though a mage can still use other points for any of the spheres. Except for the Ahl-i-Batin who can never take Entropy.

Akashayana/Akashic Brotherhood – Monks. Spiritual warriors. Masters of mind, body, and spirit through the Arts of personal discipline.
Affinity Spheres: Mind or Life

Cult of Ecstasy/ Sahajiya – Visionary seers who transcend limitations through sacred experience.
Affinity Spheres: Time, Life, or Mind

Religious Fevor-Celestial Chorus – Sacred singers who give a human Voice to the Divine Song.
Affinity Spheres: Prime, Forces, or Spirit

Dreamspeakers/ Kha’vadi – Preservers and protectors of both the Spirit Ways and the Earthly cultures that have been looted, abandoned, and oppressed.
Affinity Spheres: Spirit, Forces, Life, or Matter

Euthanatoi /Chakravanti – Disciples of mortality who purge corruption and bring merciful release from suffering.
Affinity Spheres: Entropy, Life, or Spirit

Order of Hermes – Classic Wizard/Harry Potter Mages.
Affinity Spheres: Forces

Society of Ether/Sons of Ether – Graceful saviors of scientific potential. They use more Archaic and outdated models of science that the Technocrats wouldn't use.
Affinity Spheres: Matter, Forces, or Prime

Verbena – Druids and Classic Witches.
Affinity Spheres: Life or Forces

Virtual Adepts – Reality-hackers devoted to rebooting their world.
Affinity Spheres: Correspondence/ Data or Forces

Iteration X – Metal Gear. The military branch of the Tech union.
Affinity Spheres: Forces, Matter, or Time

New World Order – Intelligence operators. The Men In Black of the world.
Affinity Spheres: Mind or Correspondence/ Data

Progenitors – Doctors and science. Patching people up or making Frankenstein monsters.
Affinity Spheres: Life or Prime

Syndicate – Kind of the SCP. Business modeled and provides the resources and funding.
Affinity Spheres: Entropy, Mind, or Primal Utility

Void Engineers – Space Marines, ghost busters. Those exploring the boundaries of other worlds.
Affinity Spheres: Dimensional Science, Correspondence, or Forces

Ahl-i-Batin – Seers of Unity through Divine connection and subtle influence.
Affinity Spheres: Correspondence or Mind (never Entropy)

Bata’a – Inheritors of voodoo, dedicated to restoring a broken world.
Affinity Spheres: Life or Spirit

Children of Knowledge – Crowned Ones devoted to alchemical perfection.
Affinity Sphere: Forces, Matter, Prime, or Entropy

Hollow Ones – Dark romantics laughing in the face of ruin.
Affinity Sphere: Any

Kopa Loei – Defenders of Nature, the Old Gods, and their culture.
Affinity Sphere: Any

Ngoma – African High Magi, sworn to restore what’s been taken from their home and people.
Affinity Spheres: Life, Mind, Prime, or Spirit

Orphans – Self-Awakened mages surviving in the shadows of other sects.
Affinity Sphere: Any

Sisters of Hippolyta – Guardians of the Sacred Feminine.
Affinity Spheres: Life or Mind

Taftâni – Middle Eastern mystics shaping the gifts of Allah and the Arts of man.
Affinity Spheres: Forces, Matter, Prime, or Spirit

Templar Knights – Bastions of chivalry in a corrupt age.
Affinity Spheres: Forces, Life, Mind, or Prime

Wu Lung – Preservers of heavenly wisdom, order, and nobility.
Affinity Sphere: Spirit, Forces, Matter, or Life

Thorn_ · Sep 24, 2020

Sphere: A sphere represents knowledge of one of the nine aspects of reality. A mage needs to have an understanding of it to manipulate it. As mentioned, a mage cannot have a higher understanding in a sphere than their Arete/Enlightenment levels. Because of the bulk of spheres, I can't list them all but their powers can be found here.
https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Sphere

Spheres aren't exclusive or even independent of each other. A mage may be able to use time 3 powers to reverse time, but without any skill in Mind(1) or Life(3) they would never remember the information they had prior. To do the really crazy shit, a combination of spheres can prove more than just having one strong power. Teleporting bullets inside targets or curving them. And the thing to note, is the variety these spheres are. Forces isn't just lightning or wind. It's radiation, light, and incorporeal energy. Matter would cover liquids and rocks, and minerals. Thus, it's important to note that other spheres enable amazing abilities or may be needed.

Adapt to Environment: Life 2 (3) Animate Corpse or Parts Life 2/ Prime 2
Animate Bones & Remains: Matter 2/ Prime 2
Cause/ Cure Disease: Life 2 (3)
Cosmetic Alteration: Life 2 (3)
Create Body: Life 2 (simple) or 5 (complex)/ Prime 2
Duplicate Body Life 5/ Prime 2
Grow New Limbs or Other Features: Life 3 (4)
Heal/ Harm Living Being: Life 2 (3)
Heal/ Harm: Fae Life 3/ Mind 3
Heal/ Harm Vampire: Life 3/ Matter 2
Heal/ Harm Werecreature: Life 3/ Spirit 2
Increase Physique/ Traits: Life 3 (4)
Increase/ Reduce Speed: Time 3
Revive Recently Dead Life: 4/ Spirit 4/ Prime 3
Rot Body Entropy: 4; or Life 4 Shapeshift Life 4 (5)
Sleep Spell: Mind 2 (suggest sleep); or Mind 4, Life 3, or both (compel instant slumber)
Soak Aggravated Damage: Life 3
Transform a Body into an Element Life: 3+/ [appropriate elemental Sphere] 3+ (Life 4+/ 3+[appropriate Sphere

Device: Prime 4 + [Spheres in Wonder’s Effects] Fetish Spirit 4 (to bind unwilling spirit); or Prime 4 (willing spirit)
Periapt/ Matrix Matter: 5 (inanimate); or Life 5 (living) + Prime 3
Talisman: Prime 4 + [Spheres in Wonder’s Effects]
Trinket: Prime 2 (to consecrate), or [Spheres used to craft Trinket’s special properties]

Mental Illusions: Mind 2+
Mental Illusions That Inflict Damage: Mind 3+; or Mind 3+/ Life 3+
“Physical” Illusions Forces: 2+/ Prime 2+
Immersive Illusions Forces: 4+/ Mind 4/ Prime 4+

Alter Probability Entropy 2+
Bless/ Curse Entropy 3/ Life 3; or Prime 5
Cause Decay Entropy 3+
Spot Weakness Entropy 1

Awaken Object’s Spirit Spirit 3
Bless/ Curse Entropy 3+; or Prime 5 Command Spirit Mind 4/ Spirit 4
Conjure Spirit Spirit 3 Create Fetish see Crafting Wonders
Drain Spirit’s Essence Prime 4/ Spirit 4
Harm Ghost Entropy 3/ Prime 2; or Spirit 3
Harm Spirit Spirit 3 (acts like Life 3)
Open/ Close Gateway Spirit 4
See Spirits Spirit 1
Speak to Spirits Spirit 2
Step Sideways Spirit 3
Touch Spirit Spirit 2

Call Storm Forces 4+/ Prime 2
Conjure Element Forces 3/ Prime 2 (fire, wind); or Matter 3/Prime 2 (earth, metal, water); or Life 3/ Prime 2 (living wood)
Conjure New Object Matter 3+/ Prime 2
Conjure Physical Illusion Forces 2+/ Prime 2
Direct Existing Elements Forces 2+
Disintegrate an Object Entropy 3/ Time 3; or Matter 3
Enchant Object/ Organism see Crafting Wonders
Invisibility/ Silence Field Forces 2
Invisibility on Living Being Forces 2/ Life 2
Consecrate/ Harden/ Perfect an Object Matter 3+; or Prime 2
Levitation/ Flying Forces 2+; or Correspondence 3/ Life 2; or Matter 2
Object Inflicts/ Resists Agg. Damage Prime 2
Speed/ Slow Velocity Forces 2+
Transform Objects Matter 2+/ [appropriate Sphere] 2
Transform Forces Forces 3+/ [appropriate Sphere] 2

Affect Distant Object/ Being Correspondence 2+
Aging/ Reversing Age* Time 3+/Life 4 (living being) or Matter 2 (object)
Conjure Earthly Being Correspondence 4/ Life 2
Create Multiple Images Correspondence 3; or Forces 2+/ Prime 2
Create Multiple Objects Correspondence 5/ Matter 3/ Prime 2
Open Gateway Between Locations Correspondence 4
Rewind Time Time 3*
Set Time Trigger Time 4 Speed/ Slow Time Time 3
Teleport Correspondence 3 (4)
Time Travel* Time 5
Ward/ Ban Correspondence 2+/ Prime 2+/ [appropriate Sphere] 2+
* Turning back time adds +3 difficulty and is always vulgar

Thorn_ · Sep 25, 2020

http://www.thelibraryofmyth.com/uploads/5/8/1/6/58166339/geist_-_the_sin-eaters.pdf

So with all the crazy supernatural and hunters with military grade weapons, being killed is a pretty easily possibility. A supernatural might pick on it's prey and kill a human, or humans kill each other, or they just die on their own for other reasons. And that's the end of that...except no. A human who dies, but doesn't die can become what's known as:

Sin Eater/Bound: Humans who once died, but returned to life by making The Bargain. The cost of this deal, is they share their body with a Geist. It shares their life now, for better and worse, and depending on the situation, trying to appease it may actually be worse than anything they would have faced in death. However, there's many Bound who are perfectly fine with the badass powers they have in exchange of having someone along for the ride.

Geists: A form of ghosts. Not necessarily malicious by default. The reasons for these ghosts existence can vary wildly. Dead so long, they've forgotten what being human means and their motives and wishes can be almost alien and bizarre for the living to fathom. In a few cases, some not even realizing they're dead. A geist might be simply wanting to experience the pleasures of mortal life again, or need someone to act out it's revenge. More often than not, the powers a Sin Eater gets out of it as well as living again, make them usually just fine with this. Besides, most geists are pretty selective of who they want to fuse with and usually are looking for people under certain circumstances. Mortals can vary wildly in nature as well and Geists know this, usually picking one suited towards their purposes.

Burden: The mortal has business themselves they want to finish and something they want to do. This is what makes a geist take interest in them in the first place. The right cause of death, and the right motives to make them a suitable candidate. What unfinished business for an individual means can vary, but there's some generally agreed upon Burdens.

The Abiding - People who died with no legacy left behind.

The Bereaved - People who lost someone, either in the same way that they died or years before.

The Hungry - People who left something behind that they couldn’t bear to live without.

The Kindly - People that recognized a great wrong they did in life, now seeking to correct it.

The Vengeful - People that blame another for their demise, seeking vengeance.

Plasm: Vampires have their blood, fairies have Glamour. The Geists have Plasm. Plasm however, isn't exactly easy to get ahold of despite how important it is for the spirits. It's the material ghosts are made from, and fuel for their powers. Naturally, this makes it crucially important for them.

Psyche: The potency of the bond between a Sin Eater and Geist. If Arete is what mages have for the rough power level of their magic, Psyche is how ghosts know which ghosts are more powerful than others. Like mages, to be a Sin-Eater at all, they must have at least some measure of bond with a Geist, meaning all Sin-Eaters have one dot in this to begin with minimum since they must have some measure of connection with the geist to even exist as a Sin-Eater.

Synergy: "A Sin-Eater in alignment with his attendant geist benefits from the close connection, which grants a certain peace of mind and an affinity for the little details of the Underworld. Sin-Eaters who flout the needs of their geist or who reject or abuse their relationship to the Underworld can quickly spiral into a circle of degeneration that deadens the Psyche and makes the Sin-Eater’s job as a psychopomp very difficult to complete. Of course, no Sin-Eater is perfect, so more than a few give in to various temptations and find themselves dealing with the friction that grows when Sin-Eater and geist fail to harmonize.

Synergy takes the place of Morality, but is even less of a barometer of how “moral” a character is. It represents how well the Bound has integrated with the urges and drives of her geist, which may be a positive thing but not necessarily a good thing."

Keys: There are eleven Keys with which a Sin-Eater can "unlock" Manifestations. They represent various aspects of death. Each Bound gains two Keys at creation: one determined by their Threshold, and one of their choice, usually one representing an aspect of their death, or an aspect of their Geist.

Personal thoughts: Geists in the corebook have attributes of 5/4/3, but given it's kind of outdated and modern games of almost all creatures including humans are updated for a 7/5/3 split, I'd say it's acceptable to use that. While it defines it's skills as 11/7/4, these are first edition rules and reflecting the update in rules to everything else, I would say it's fine to go:
Attributes: 7/5/3
Abilities: 13/9/5

What should be noted, is Geists aren't limited by an up to 5 cap for attributes and actually have a default max of 7. They have a minimum of one in each stat. Some people might argue they should start at 0, but by the rules outlined in the book it explicitly states that:
"All characters begin with a single dot in each Attribute, representing the basic capabilities that every character possesses."-page 62, Geistcvr

Sin-Eaters spend a lot of time thinking about death. Even those who celebrate life do so as a reaction to death. Your archetype defines your relationship with and philosophy regarding death. Your Sin-Eater’s archetype may not utterly express her beliefs, but it should express the gist of her outlook. It is also worth noting that two Sin-Eaters with the same archetype may have very different approaches.
•Reaper — Judges and Executioners, choosing who lives and who dies.
•Celebrant — Those who have seen death and embrace life to its fullest.
• Gatekeeper — Protectors of the paths between life and death.
• Mourner — Devotees/addicts to the passions of the bereaved or of the dead.
• Bonepicker — Scavengers that use their otherworldly powers to make this world more comfortable.
• Advocate — Dedicated to finishing the unfinished business of the dead.
• Necromancer — Seekers of knowledge of the dead and the occult lore of death.
• Pilgrim — Those that try to purify themselves and others, so that they might move on.

A geist can't have just any mortal who dies and strike a deal. No. There's a certain criteria. Potential Sin Eaters who die in a certain way, attract a certain type of geist.
The Torn: Death by Violence — Victims of murder or suicide. Those who have had great trauma inflicted on them, or inflicted great trauma on others.
Key: Passion and Stigmata.

The Silent: Death by Deprivation — Those who die for lack of something vital: starvation, suffocation, dehydration, or heartbreak.
Key: Stillness and Cold Wind.

The Prey: Death by Nature — The victims of exposure or animals; those taken by the wild.
Key: Primeval and Grave-Dirt.

The Stricken: Death by Sickness — Plague victims, those taken by disease.
Key: Phantasm and Tear-Stained.

The Forgotten: Death by Chance — Victims of freak accidents, those who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Key: Industrial and Pyre-Flame.

Your Sin-Eater begins with three dots of Manifestations, chosen however you like: one dot in three separate Manifestations, two dots in one, and one dot in another, or all three in one Manifestation.

Sin-Eaters tread the line between the physical, living world, and the ephemeral twilight state of ghosts. Geists are unable to affect the physical world without a conduit, and the Sin-Eater himself acts as that conduit, working with his geist to manifest strange and haunting powers. There are seven major families of Manifestations, though some Sin-Eaters whisper of other, more esoteric powers.

There are twelve types of Haunts in all; the Haunt a Bound has access to is dictated by their Burden. In addition, they can be influenced or unlocked by Keys. Quite simply, while the Haunt tells how a Bound can use their powers, the Key dictates what will be affected by them. Haunts are always dictated by a Bound's Attributes and, once called upon and successfully activated, will last for an entire scene unless the Bound chooses otherwise. Most Haunts do not require much in the way of sacrifice from a Bound, perhaps a point of Plasm, but some of the most powerful and damaging skills will require much more to call upon, including Willpower.

https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Haunt_(GtSE)

The Boneyard allows the Sin-Eater to assert control over her immediate environment, usually by triggering “haunting” effects.

The Caul permits the Sin-Eater to reshape his own body as needed, often in esoteric and frightening ways.

The Curse enables the Sin-Eater to afflict her enemies with strange curses and ailments, and to subtly influence their minds.

The Marionette allows the Sin-Eater to control physical objects, animals, and even other people, manipulating their bodies like a twisted puppeteer.

The Oracle grants the Sin-Eater heightened sensory powers, clairvoyance, and even precognitive abilities.

The Rage represents the Sin-Eater’s power to strike at others with pure, unadulterated power.

The Shroud governs effects that alter or improve the Sin-Eater’s own body in some way, most often as a form of protection.

Keys represent a particular way of interfacing with the energies of death and the Underworld. They are, in a sense, crystallized symbols that take on supernatural relevance to a character. The Stigmata Key, for instance, represents a particular connection to the flow of blood and ectoplasm. Perhaps a Sin-Eater with this Key was drenched in his own blood during the Bargain, and the Key emerged from this pivotal moment. Or perhaps his geist is a thing of weeping wounds, the Key a measure of its own nature.

By using a Key to unlock a Manifestation, a Sin-Eater gives that ghostly energy focus and form. A Sin-Eater begins play with two Keys, but may purchase others with experience points. The purchase of a new Key usually represents the geist evolving into something greater and more versatile even as the Bound gains mastery over a new aspect of death: only together can they become something greater than they were at the moment of the Bargain.

The Elemental Keys are a cluster of four separate Keys, each of which must be purchased individually. Loosely associated with the four elements of classical alchemy, each of these Keys combines an archetypal element with the symbolism of death and decay.

Cold Wind Key: is associated with the element of air, with storms and cold, and with the last gasp of the dying.

Grave-Dirt Key: is associated with the element of earth, with subterranean environments, and with cemeteries and catacombs.

Pyre-Flame Key: is associated with the element of fire, with ashy remains, and with those who have died of immolation.

Tear-Stained Key: is associated with the element of water, with drowning, and with burial at sea. Generally, an Elemental Key may only be used to unlock a Manifestation in an elementally favorable environment or else the Manifestation will be less useful in a contrary elemental environment.

The Industrial Key: grants influence over the trappings of (relatively) modern society. Manifestation effects that allow the Sin-Eater to control machinery, to “see” through a telephone, or to destroy a computer with a mere touch require the Industrial Key to unlock. However, the Industrial Key is usually only of use within a civilized setting and is of little utility in rural areas. Ironically, it is also less valuable in areas that are too civilized. The Industrial Key works best on archaic or anachronistic technology and suffers heavy penalties when affected with modern technological devices.

The Passion Key: allows the Sin-Eater to shape the emotional responses of other people and to instill emotional resonances within places or things. If a particular house frightens away children or a particular lake attracts young lovers, it is likely because such locales carry the emotional resonances governed by this Key. Use of this Key can alter the Sin-Eater’s own emotions, though to a much lesser degree, as something of a side effect — many Bound find themselves moved by haunting currents of wrath or sorrow when they unlock another’s passion.

The Phantasmal Key: aids the Sin-Eater in shaping illusions. But these illusions are far more than simple glamours — when used to unlock the most powerful Manifestations, the Phantasmal Key can create an illusion so terrifying that it can drive men mad or so realistic that it can cause physical injury. The Bound who use this Key frequently are themselves given to glimpses of odd hallucinations now and again. Experience allows a Sin-Eater to ignore these figments easily enough, but some grow to almost enjoy the experience.

The Primeval Key: unlocks Manifestations that grant influence over nature and forests. It also grants authority over the animal kingdom and allows the Sin-Eater to acquire animalistic traits. Finally, it allows for influence over certain phenomena associated with ancient fertility rites pertaining to death and rebirth. The Primeval Key is the Key most commonly associated with raw physical power and with nature. Primeval Manifestations may trigger a faint feral response in the Sin-Eater for their duration. The Sin-Eater does not lose her cognitive abilities, but she grows somewhat more prone to think in terms of “fight or flight.”

The Stigmata Key: uses blood and sacrifice to assert dominance over the spirit world. To Sin-Eaters, blood is more than a bodily fluid — it is the river of life, and it has been used both to propitiate and to bind both ghosts and spirits since time immemorial. Manifestations unlocked by the Stigmata Key allow the Sin-Eater to influence or even harm ghosts and spirits, to bind them in place, and to mimic their special properties.

Unless stated differently under a particular Manifestation’s description, a character unlocking a Manifestation with the Stigmata Key may choose to take a point of lethal damage in lieu of spending a Willpower point, or a point of bashing damage instead of spending a point of plasm. The damage must be deliberate and ritualistic in nature. Damage inflicted in combat (whether upon the Sin-Eater or by him) will not satisfy this requirement.

The Stillness Key: assists the Sin-Eater in her more subtle endeavors. Manifestations unlocked with it aid in stealth, invisibility, and in dulling the senses of others. The Stillness Key seems to work best when the Sin-Eater remains utterly silent. Be it superstition or something more potent, those who use this Key tend to avoid speaking even to friends when its powers are in play.

Thorn_ · Sep 26, 2020

https://thetrove.is/Books/World of Darkness/CofD/Changeling - The Lost/Changeling the Lost 2e.pdf

Already having covered the bulk of changelings, it's important to note, that not all games of them work under the same ways. The above, is how Changelings are outlined in The Dreaming. The Lost, Changelings, however, are quite a bit different. Personally, this variation appeals to me quite a bit more than Awakening does.

So the Dreaming Changelings have the Seelie and Unseelie courts. Their cousins in the Lost however, divide their courts by seasons and directions. A Changeling doesn't need a court and they can leave and join another one, but this isn't an easy thing to do and they will almost always be mistrusted. Unlike, vampire clans, a changelings innate abilities aren't tied to their specific faction.

How are Lost Changelings different from Awakened? An awakened changeling is a natural born changeling who discovers their power. A lot changeling was once a regular person who was taken to Fairy Land(Arcadia). They were once normal enough humans and they came back...changed. Having escaped the fairies who have s

Races: In World Of Darkness as a whole, if something is not defined as a preexisting supernatural race, it's a changeling. Changelings are half fairies and some of the strongest creatures in world of darkness lore. Changelings are half fairies. While there's only about 1% of the pure blood fairy population left, they are the strongest races and not to be crossed. Dividing the Seemings would be into the sub categories of Kith. However they are really broad categories with too many to properly list. Essentially from Chimeras to Succubi, virtually anything will find it's way into some group of changeling. The groups of seemings are broad strokes with a few consistent traits, but to the same degree as you find in other races. They're chaotic, magical and unknowable and as such, it can be difficult for even other fae to pin down where someone belongs.
Seemings:
Beast: Savage survivalists, passionate and deadly. Not all of them are entirely mindless, but it's not common to meet ones among their kith who like to think things through. They have great physical ability and animal magnetism, but lost a good bit of their mental ability. They lose Clarity if their impulsiveness ends up with negative consequences for other people.(Steed Regalia)

Darkling: (First edition) Lurkers hiding in the shadows, silent but ever watchful. Mortals who were kidnapped and punished for breaking some kind of fairy law, whether they realized it or not. Sent to the land of nightmares to turn into nightmares themselves, they are succubi, gargoyle, boogeyman and whatever else goes bump in the dark. (Second edition) Those who escaped Arcadia by being clever and using ingenuity. Despite appearances, they are just as capable of being friendly as other groups...or turn out to be exactly what they appear to be. They lose Clarity if secrets and knowledge they obtain turns out to not actually be true.(Mirror Regalia)

Elemental: Unbridled and unchained, the true forces of nature. Statues, pools, even clouds. These humans were kidnapped and turned into living inanimate objects for the Gentry's amusement. They are thrilled by their newfound freedom and lose Clarity when forced into doing something. (Sword Regalia)

Fairest: Stately and elegant, forever loved and craving true connection. Taken to be dancers, singers, or objects of beauty, the wyrd provided them with the means to be the leaders they wanted to be and they enjoy directing efforts. They lose Clarity if their leadership ends up failing the group.(Crown Regalia)

Ogre: Warriors and brutes, blunt and to the point. They weren't necessarily strong to begin with, but had to become strong to survive. Not just a seeming composed of mindless brutes, they can have those as clever as the cyclops, or as fast as redcaps. Once the hammer for the Gentry to impose it's will, these changelings broke away from the service of the Gentry to live their own lives. Much of them want to prove they are honorable and don't enjoy picking fights for any reason and they have ranks to Sorcerer Giants to Scholarly Hags. They lose Clarity if they scare someone away who isn't an enemy to them.(Shield Regalia)

Wizened: Crafters and builders, weary but not jaded. Usually people who were shy or socially isolated and targeted for their service skills. They can be something like Artists, Soldiers, or anything that pursues a trade, or something destructive like Gremlins who live to tinker and ruin and destroy things to make them worthless. They need to have things though and as priding themselves on being the smartest Seeming, they lose Clarity if something manages to take them by surprise.(Jewels Regalia)

Kiths: https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Kith_(CTL)
You'll find very few images to represent each group individually, though again, virtually anything that isn't predefined as vampire, mummy, ghost, promethean, werewolf or demon is considered a Changeling. From Sphinxes(Riddleseeker beasts) to Mirrorskins(Shapeshifting darklings whose real forms represent clay) Onis, Draconic(Fairest), It's even possible for some fae to have more than one seeming. For changelings, things like appearance can be considered a suggestion.

Kithless: It's possible for a changeling who comes back from the fairy world to not have any clear subrace, and be a kithless seeming but still not clearly discernable. Unlike Thinblodded vampires who have no clear clan, a Kithless isn't really weaker because of it, but simply referred to kithless as a term for not having an readily obvious group to fit into.

New mechanic: Clarity: "Clarity represents the right and strength of all thinking beings to trust their own perceptions and own their own past. A changeling’s Clarity is her bulwark against the illusions of the True Fae or other supernatural forces, as well as the mundane world trying to tell her that her supernatural experiences are delusions. Clarity grounds the changeling in her own experiences, helping her distinguish what is real, and what is a lie the True Fae or the mundane world are getting away with. When her Clarity is strong, she can trust that even the most improbable magical elements she sees are real, they affect her even if no one else can see them, and she understands her relationship to them. As her Clarity lowers, she doubts the validity of her own perception of these things, and either the Others or the mundane world begin to dictate her reality. She can no longer tell if she is simply seeing things when the Thorns reach out and scratch her, or if she is really in the Hedge. Weak Clarity is a dangerous prospect for many changelings, as they lose perspective and can slip into a dreamlike state if they have nothing grounding them against the two worlds."

Clarity System: "System: A changeling’s Clarity track has boxes equal to her Wits + Composure. Her player can’t buy additional Clarity boxes with Experiences, but they increase automatically as she purchases dots of Wits and Composure, and she can recover Icons, to add further boxes. There is no upper limit to the number of Clarity boxes a character can have. In dreams, her Clarity contributes to her dream form’s Health track ."

Differences between Glamour: "A changeling who falls to 0 Glamour suffers from physical deprivation as though starving, as well as suffering the Deprived Condition. No matter how much she eats or drinks, she cannot gain nourishment until she possesses at least one point of Glamour. More powerful changelings begin to starve at higher amounts of Glamour: Those with Wyrd 6+ suffer from this deprivation when their Glamour falls beneath their Wyrd rating. At high levels of Wyrd, changelings become physically and psychologically addicted to Glamour, and may gain the Glamour Addicted Condition . Characters gain this Condition when they harvest or reap any amount of Glamour each day for at least a week, at Wyrd 6+."

Courts:

Spring Court (Desire): The changelings of the Emerald Court reject the pain and sorrow of their time in Arcadia, drawing power from desire and joie de vivre.

Summer Court (Wrath): The changelings of the Crimson Court draw power from the anger they bear toward their captors, gathering strength to fight against anyone who would enslave them again.

Autumn Court (Fear): The changelings of the Ashen Court find their strength in fae magic, drawing the Glamour they need for their sorcery from the fears of mortals.

Winter Court (Sorrow): The changelings of the Onyx Court hide under layers of deception like a seed under snow-covered ground, hardening themselves on a diet of midwinter sorrow.

Courtless: Those who choose to go their own path are sometimes said to belong to the Colorless Court, outsiders in a dangerous world.

Directional Courts:
More common in the East, the Directional Courts follow the notion of the Mandate of Heaven, each playing its part under Heaven's command. All five Courts rule simultaneously, sharing power and working together, rather than passing the power along.

Court of the Black Tortoise - This Court believes that true enlightenment comes of suffering; as such, they eschew the comforts to which most cling.

Court of the Vermilion Bird - Focused on inducing change, the Vermilion Bird revels in rebellion, daring the enemy to attack.

Court of the Azure Serpent - The Azure Serpent views money in all its forms as being emblematic of true power. They gather money and utilize it to inspire envy.

Court of the White Tiger - Predisposed toward martial prowess, the White Tiger focuses on honor - a finicky emotion whose definition shifts from courtier to courtier.

Court of the Yellow Dragon - A Court of silence and reflection, the Yellow Dragon frequently takes ascends to power after another Court has concluded its business. Their primary focus is on reflection.

Rose Courts:
Born of the conflict known as the War of the Roses in the 1400s, these three Courts remained engaged in a cold war in the wake of its end.

Court of Ash - Tentatively allied with the Court of Snow, but staunchly neutral in their conflict, the Black Rose recruited among the fringes of society - the Catholics, the beggars, and the mad.

Court of Blood - Seeing itself as the natural leader of the freehold, the Red Lion has ruled since 1485, when Henry VII took the throne. Having supported the Lancasters, they considered the Court of Snow to be adversaries.

Court of Snow - Supporters of the Yorks, the White Rose plotted insurrection against the Court of Blood in the wake of the war's end. Their membership was primarily commoners.

Courts of Creations:
Composed of the Courts of Arts and Sciences, this system was active in 19th-century Mannheim, Germany.

Court of Arts - A Court focused on longing, the Folk Court was primarily comprised of the upper classes, until lower-class folk artists pulled off a coup.

Court of Sciences - A Court whose primary emotion is wonder, the Clockwork Court was manned by any who had interest in the physical world and invention.

Wyrd: Basically the fairy version of Arete or a Sin Eater's Pysche. The innate power of their magic. Thus, you need at least one dot of Wyrd to be a changeling at all.

Contracts: A fairy gets their abilities from somewhere, and that's by making deals and bargains. Most contracts need at least one dot of Wyrd to activate. Wyrd isn't spent like blood, buas the innate power of the fae, it's needed to use magical acts. A character gains a total of five dots to distribute among Contracts, at least two of which must be spent in one or two of his seeming or Court’s affinity Contracts.
Arcadian Contracts

Crown: The ability to grab control and give direction.

Jewels: The powers of perfection and lies.

Mirror: The ability to pierce all veils and transform the self.

Shield: The powers of protection and healing.

Steed: Power over all forms of movement and mindless beasts.

Sword: The powers of violence and forthrightness.

Court Contracts

Spring: Power over desire, growth, and rejuvenation.

Summer: Power over wrath, and the power to produce heat and vigor.

Autumn: Power over fear, and the life and death of growing things.

Winter: Power over sorrow, and the power to control snow and ice.

Goblin Contracts Tricky bargains with goblins who require debts to teach their powers.

Loopholes: "Every Contract has a Loophole, a way a changeling can get the Contract’s benefits without spending Glamour (although Willpower and other costs still apply). It takes the form of a ritual behavior that appeases the patron in lieu of Glamour payment. The Loophole is always thematically related to the Contract, based on symbolism or sympathetic magic. For example, a Contract that protects against extreme temperatures might allow a changeling to blow out a fading ember or burn something that belongs to the target instead of paying Glamour. Even better Loopholes represent a small risk, like stealing a sentimental object from the target or forcing them to break your skin. A Loophole should be something active or deliberate, usually performed within the scene in which the character activates the Contract."

Thorn_ · Feb 17, 2021

Sheet Pdf: https://mrgone.rocksolidshells.com/pdf/CtL/CtL_4-Pagev2_Editable.pdf

Lifespan Notes: For all their slippery nature, fae creatures are more permanent than mortals, and changelings are no exception. For every dot of Wyrd a changeling possesses, her natural lifespan increases by approximately 20 years.

Character Sheets:
Name: Obvious. Keeping in mind how Fairies work, this isn't something to just hand to people.
Gender: Really more of subjective to fae.
Mask: Your appearance to the mortal name.
Seeming: Your changeling race. The looks of which can vary wildly.
Kith: A subspecies of your Seeming. It is possible for a Changeling to have more than one kith, but they only have one Seeming. A Seeming is an arch group of how they changed or into what, but kiths are still massively wide species, and it's possible for a Changeling to be dual kith, having more than one magical form. The other kith forms they have can potentially be from any Seeming, but they won't have the powers of that Seeming, though they can have the same traits as the kith. So a Changeling may be a Chimera(Beast) and also a Inncubus(Darkling), but it would still only have the blessings of a Beast or a Darkling, but not both.
History:

Aspirations: Goals for the character. Something to be worked to over the course of the game.
Attributes: 7 / 5 / 3 All Changelings start with one in each dot. Every seeming has three favored Attributes from either Power, Finesse, or Resistance traits. Take an additional dot in one of these. This can only take an Attribute to five dots.

Beast- Resistance

Darkling- Finesse

Elemental- Resistance

Fairest- Power

Ogre- Power

Wizened- Finesse

Abilities: 13 / 9 / 5
Abilities: A Changeling cannot have more than 3 in a ability starting by character creation.

Court: The court where your fae belongs. It's possible to be courtless.
Specialty: Characters receive 3 Skill Specialties that may be spent on in any combination. Meaning all 3 Specialties can be applied to the same skill, or 1 Specialty each can be assigned to 3 separate skills, etc. Each Changeling gains a free Specialty either to Athletics, Brawl, or Stealth to represent the physical changes of becoming fae.
Contracts: Changelings receive 5 dots of Contracts to spend, at least two of which must be spent in one or two of his Seeming or Court's Affinity Contracts.
Wyrd: Wyrd for new Changelings is 1. Glamour pool is 10 and Glamour per turn is 1. A character starts with their Glamour pool at half-full.
Clarity: Changelings begin with a Clarity of 7. Any player may drop their character’s Clarity Trait buy up to 2 dots for 5 exp per dot that can be spent at character creation. This drop must be explained in the history.
Merits: Rules on these and how they work vary. If I have to give personal input, Changelings receive 7 dots to assign to Merits. Perks, so to speak. They are also the background of your character and the merits should tie in to the character's history of why this applies to them.

These can be found starting page 112 of the rulebook linked above. Also linked here: http://wodcodex.com/wiki/Merits,_Changeling_(2nd_Edition)

Thorn_ · Sep 29, 2020

It's not enough for courts to just exist. They have their own specific rules they follow and beliefs:
Spring Court: "When Spring reigns, it compels an odd, partial peace. The Gentry and their loyalists cannot do violence to a freehold where a Spring monarch rules, unless that violence is born of heart’s desire. Lesser urges cannot negate the geas. It halts a traitor attempting to line his pockets, even if he “desires wealth.” It stays a raging Huntsman, even if one might call her wrath “a desire for vengeance.” To pierce Spring’s Bargain, one must truly covet one’s target…such as a Keeper coming to reclaim its absolute very favorite, the one who got away. The Court of Desire encourages all of its members to be very honest about their relationships with their former Keeper and fellow servants, in order to keep track of who will be the greatest potential threat year round.

In true Emerald Court fashion, Spring’s Lost try not to think about the ramifications of the Bargain too much. If Spring will permit violence meted out in the name of true desire, then does that mean their patron is more sympathetic to certain True Fae than to the changelings they harm?"

Summer Court: "The Bargain of Summer is very straightforward: Where a Summer monarch holds power, the Others and their vassals must fight to the last. This compulsion isn’t courage — indeed, a True Fae may be hollowed out by panic when it realizes that its enemies will not flee, and it cannot. It can only try to push forward, hoping that it’s as invincible as it believes itself. The Iron Spear takes clever advantage of the Bargain during a hunt. If they can find a weaker enemy party, all they have to do is force the enemy to draw weapons in self-defense. The rest is bloody formality."

Autumn Court: "Autumn’s Bargain compels transparency. When the Court of Fear reigns, the Others and their pawns must give clear warning of their intentions before they attack. Autumn protects its children from the dread of uncertainty. The more powerful the Gentry, the further in advance it must announce its intentions; the time varies from a few hours to as much as a lunar month. The True Fae wriggle and writhe to find cryptic, unreadable ways that might announce their intentions only to someone capable of their riddle-thought, but these attempts inevitably fail. So the Others draw up their battle lines and send out liveried hobgoblin heralds, or they scatter engraved invitations to a slaughter, or they light runes of fire on the Hedge borders. If they aren’t permitted surprise, then they shall at least have grandeur."

Winter Court: "Winter’s Bargain is one of the strangest of them all. While the Onyx Court is in power, the Others and their hounds are compelled to mourn, to truly mourn, their victims. An invader cannot bloody its blade or talons a second time until it has ritually acknowledged the death of its first target. The Bargain makes a Winter battlefield a truly peculiar sight, for most True Fae have no real idea how to mourn and can only approximate some form of guess. A spidery figure crouches over a corpse, spinning and folding a sticky origami insect to lay on its chest. An ice-skinned lady twists the arm of her servant until tears well out of its eyes, and then daubs those tears on the eyelids of the fallen. A six-masked rider arranges its prey’s limbs into a mock-caper, and douses the carcass with blue fire from a Mobius decanter.

And that’s when Winter strikes. Against the Gentry, there’s no room to honor these formal mimicries."

So what does a pure blood Fairy look like? Well...you wouldn't see them really in that way. Any perceivable form of a True Fairy is an aspect and Title. True Fae are literal parts of Arcadia themselves enabling them to be more than just reality warpers, but rather causality warpers, meaning even a great archmage is still mostly just a nuisance to the True Fae while inside Arcadia. It should be emphasized as True Fairy aren't set up something intended to be simply fought and killed at the end of the adventure. This is why Jack the Liar is an absolute legend among Changelings. He killed his True Fae. He's the Changeling who "won." However, they are not entirely invincible, but something very close to it.

https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/True_Fae_(CofD)

From what I gather, True Fae don't follow any courts, summing up with someone on discord said "the only way a Faerie can exist within reality without slowly becoming a human or just out right shriveling and dying is through the use of a Haven, a bubble of unreality" The True Fae as a whole aren't composed of something as regular as a "race." They are too unique and complex for that. One of the consistent facts is they are almost entirely sterile since they cannot produce anything. It's beyond rare for them to have any offspring with mortals. Though they can use mortal seed to extend the lives of failed creations. They have titles and names.

"A faerie can never intentionally violate a Contract he swears on his own name. When an Other commits to a namebound Contract, obeying it defines his existence. If he breaks his word, he destroys his Name — and for the Gentry, namelessness is obliteration."

"Fae" Capital F is used to refer to True Fae. "faerie" Refers to changelings or what is fae-touched. Changelings are still half fairies and the advantage they have is existing in the modern world. A True Fae can come to the mortal world, but not for long and it's basically reality literally rejecting their existence there. They are "weak" by fairy standards in the human world and they are incapable of creating mortal objects and have a poor understanding of electronics. They have a time limit to how long they can exist in the mortal world too and staying longer than that will end up literally hurting themselves to stay in against the fabric of reality trying to rip them away and they can't recover inside the mortal world. So basically, it's assumed the only real way to actually kill them for good is to kill them outside of Arcadia with cold iron. Dying like this inflicts a curse against them that forces them to remain in the mortal realm. They can work around this by turning into Charlatans. True Fae exiled who can't get back into the Hedge and Arcadia, most not even remembering who they were. Banished Charaltans remember most of their lives where reborn ones it's really difficult. A lot of True Fae will choose to die than become this.

Other than Banishment or death in the mortal world, forming connections with mortals in a strong capacity: "It happens, sometimes, that one of the Gentry makes a particularly close connection with a human being. The nature of the connection isn’t as important as its strength. That is, one of the Fae might come to love a human being, and this connection would be just as binding as if the Fae learn to hate the same person. Becoming a Charlatan by connecting with a human being is a much less unpleasant process than doing so by death or banishment. It’s also much slower."

"Generally speaking, the Others cannot survive long in the human world. However this may be true, some of the Fae can survive among humans indefinitely. Doing so obviously weakens them, and many such exiled Fae don’t even know what they are — but it happens. Changelings who are aware of these strange beings call them by many names. The most common (and the one used here) is “Charlatan”, for these Fae are not human, but pretend to be so convincingly that even they believe it."

"It is possible for a Charlatan to reclaim her rightful place. As with everything fae, the rules of banishment have catches. It’s just a matter of figuring them out and enacting them. Anything that banishes a Fae to the mortal realm, any spell or punishment that the other Gentry can levy, must have a loophole that the Charlatan can exploit.

Of course, these loopholes are generally so subtle that the Charlatan never discovers them (even if she remembers what she is enough to search), and so difficult that she is more likely to kill herself in the process of trying to exploit the loophole than succeed."

The Hedge is the boundary world between Mortals and Arcadia. Anyone can enter the hedge through a gateway that's activated by changelings or fae. A true fairy is weaker there, but still pretty effing strong.

"A door that is locked, bolted or rusted shut does not open for the changeling, which is why most fae use archways and other open apertures rather than doors. It remains open for a number of turns equal to the changeling's Wyrd after the gateway is no longer being used. For instance, if a changeling with a Wyrd rating of 1 activates a gateway and four of her friends use it, the gateway remains open for one turn after the last changeling has passed through it. While a gateway is open, anyone can blunder through it."

I think for our purposes it means you need Glamour to open the portal, but Wyrd for it to stay open longer and transport more people.

Leaving is kind of the same:
"Escaping the Hedge is simpler than entering, but by no means easier. To escape the Hedge, a changeling either needs to find an active (not necessarily open) gateway, or find a suitable door, archway, mirror or what-have-you to make into a gateway. Finding either from the Hedge is easy enough as long as the changeling can still see the mortal world through said gateway. If a changeling so much as turns her back on the mortal world, though, perspective is lost, and gateways simply become part of the landscape, while mortal-world features disappear entirely.

A changeling can search for an active gateway, and will probably find one, given enough time. Mortals and other supernatural beings can search for gateways in the same manner, but their players suffer a -3 dice modifier to the roll, as if they were attempting an unskilled Mental task. If such a character becomes practiced enough in traversing the Hedge to warrant an Investigation Specialty in "Hedge", this penalty no longer applies. Non-fae can only search for gateways in this manner. They cannot Navigate the Hedge in the same way that changelings can."

Basically? It's harder for mortals to know what the hell they are doing or how to get out.

The one advantage Changelings do have to fight against them is the fact that True Fae must adhere to their own rules and the rules Changelings set up. While they will gladly go to lengths to find their way around it, they cannot violate laws of hospitality unless someone has violated those laws themselves. Knowing this, a Changeling who lives long is one who learns how to use the rules laid out by the fae against them. Killing them isn't an option, but there's always the hope of making things just too frustrating for them to be willing to bother.

It's also good to note Changelings can lie, but they still have contracts. It's possible to not pay the cost of a contract, but only if you're okay, with reality of itself going out of it's way to fuck with you. Pledges are agreements between specific individuals and while not compelled to do these things, you are expected to follow through with them. Trying to get cute and not deliver on a Pledge means risking the wrath of the courts, offending the True Fae for lying, and if that's not enough, you will have the oathbreakers after you. It's not a question of if. They WILL hunt you down, wherever you try to hide, in the Hedge, Earth or even trying to run back to Arcadia. Changelings don't trust those marked from the oathbreakers. Pledges are the only source of trust between each other Changelings can expect.

True Faeries do not lie. Changelings generally work close to that on some level due to their fae nature.

"There is no such thing as the intent of Fae law. Only the letter."

Thorn_ · Feb 17, 2021

First note, is that some of the information regarding kiths and seemings is using 2e rules as opposed to the original 1e edition which has quite a bit more appeal. Updates to include the 1e versions pending.

So, the big question is where is Arcadia? Quite, simply, it altogether does not exist. It's imaginary. This is an important distinction since not only can Arcadia not be reached as a physical location other than through the hedge. Going back to our friends the mages. Mages are reality warpers. Arcadia and the hedge exists outside of reality....you might already guess what that means. In the realm of Arcadia, they are essentially powerless and almost worse than a normal human with their connection to their reality severed. The hedge is this to them to a lesser extent. While on earth, a similarly aged mage would almost always have the win over a changeling, in the hedge and arcadia the badasses of their own universe are rendered almost completely harmless.

Hobgoblins are almost any creature that lives in the hedge, and they can take virtually any form. Because they exist in the hedge, and are essentially proper created from the Fae instead of kidnapped and changed, that's what enables them to survive the conditions of the hedge that are nigh completely unlivable to most Changelings, let alone regular humans. Because elements and concepts come from having contracts with them, being something that exists outside of that contract means those elements, can be fickle and have no reason to act normal to you. Fire can altogether decide it doesn't want to warm you and meat has no reason to provide you as a means to satisfy your hunger. Fire a gun in the hedge and the bullet has no reason not to kill you....but it can just easily decide it would be better to explode on the other person because there's no laws formed in place with the person who fired it telling it, it's not supposed to. It's doing what it wants to, when it feels like it. Logic is illegal in the land of Fairies and that makes it a beyond dangerous place for anyone else.

This makes the hedge nearly unsurvivable for long periods of times for Changelings who only go there in the short gain. The hedge does have a lot of uses for them however, and two of the biggest ones is the existence of goblin fruits, the naturally grown fruit in the hedge. There is no counting the amount of species of goblin fruits that exist and all their effects and because of the nature of the fairy world, some may just simply decide to exist when they never existed before or even choose to do something else. The most common fruit of choice is Aramathane and Bloodapples that heal wounds, though this is a narrow escape of everything they could do. While most Changeling's can harvest fruits in the wild themselves, to get reliable quantities safely, a lot prefer the second big reason they use the hedge. The Goblin Market. Fruit is one of the main draws, as well as goblin contracts. Extremely powerful magic ranging from enabling Changelings to become fertile to even instant death spells with no saves. Goblin Contracts have the heaviest prices to pay, but their abilities are some of the most powerful. But like anything with the fae, the saying is "The price is too dam high." Changelings at least can shed Goblin Debt fairly easily compared to other creatures, but even then it's poorly advised they get too crazy with messing around with making deals with the goblins. However, even true fae will not under any circumstances violate market law, and many changelings love to use to their advantage. It should say something when even the true fae refuse to pick a fight with or steal from the goblin market on their own territory. Picture just how well that ends for other people then.

First Edition: Contracts:

http://wodcodex.com/wiki/Contracts_(1st_Edition)

It should be noted that while these are what is listed, contracts can effectively be made with ANY concept and their powers aren't necessarily subjected to just these ones alone.

Will be added soon.

Thorn_ · Mar 28, 2021

So, we got vampires, werewolves, mummies and what the hell else. The important question of it all, is how this all started. Well....

In the beginning, the universe was a perfect cosmic machine. Everything working and functioning perfectly to scale, running in sync in perfect harmony. God was the architect of the universe and it had became a perfect paradise. His agents were the Celestials. The Seraph and angels oversaw god's plans to make sure they would function to letter. And it all worked how it should. But there was one thing that a number of the angels were left scratching their heads about. After god had introduced human kind, he had refused to give them free will. While it was a point of contention among the angels, one who was close to god chose to press the issue. God quickly shut him down when he raised his objections. Partly fueled by his hurt pride and believing he would bring mankind freewill, Lucifer organized a rebellion, taking one third of the angels to war against the other two thirds. And things went well. Outnumbered and facing the Heavenly Host themselves, Lucifer's army still managed to get the upper hand and the tide only started to turn because of a few things.

Bringing free will brought something else. The first murder. His name was Caine. His punishment as becoming the first vampire and to wander the earth. But that was part of the thread that began to unravel. Caine had invented murder and with humanity's newfound free will, it made a mess of things quickly throwing paradise into complete chaos. The rebels who grew dissatisfied or pushed to insanity started becoming a bigger danger than the Heavenly Host and soon they had to deal with splinter cells of their own army popping up trying to eradicate all life to save the machine or releasing dangerous experimental monsters for no reason other than they could. With free will, it lead to the rebellions defeat and God placed his punishment down on the rebels.

Condemned to the abyss. A place where nothing existed. Disconnected from the very universe itself. On a fundamental level, the angels who rebelled were incapable of coping as completely disconnected from existence. Thousands of years trapped in a void of nothing didn't help a lot of them with their sanity. While some took the time to look within and reflect, many others turned into insane horrors or fundamental believers in Lucifer returning to lead them in a second war. After all, the Heavenly Host seems to have left the universe or just stopped caring. Maybe they're weak, but they could still a war when there was nobody left to contest them.

The demons who escaped the Void, became the fallen. Taking a mortal body by possessing it, they unnerve many other supernatural by their existence. Powerful, near impossible to truly kill, and many being violently insane.

As for Lucifer himself....who knows what happened. He was never in the abyss. Did he escape punishment? Did something else happen to him? Was he part of god's plan all along? Nobody knows the truth for sure other than the original leader of the rebellion is nowhere to be found.

Devils(Namaru): The house of the Morning Star himself. The devils wield the power to command humans and the ability to manipulate fire. More than that, half of the original rebellion was the house of the Namaru. These angels are known for their pride. After all, they were the first created. Heralds of gods, no less.

Leaders on both fronts of the war, and proud in their work of directing the cosmic machine. Many of them defected to Lucifer's rebellion out of loyalty and admiration for Lucifer and were known for their social skills. Social skills don't necessarily translate well into fighting, but they weren't weaklings in that department either. More importantly, their pride made them refuse to lose under any circumstance leading to their determination and being the backbone of the will of the rebellion to rage against the odds.

The house's biggest problem, however, has always been the complete inability to ever admit or acknowledge a mistake. Because of that, very few become Reconcilers due to being forced to admit they could be wrong and many rather chose to double down in their core beliefs as Luciferans. Raveners don't generally appeal to them, though many are drawn to Faustian tactics to running the world. Many want to feel the same kind of importance they once held and are in a constant reminder of their once glamorous position in heaven where they are no longer welcome. But to be a Reconclier would require for them to admit they made a mistake and beg which many are incapable of doing by their very nature. They are gleeful in taking positions of power they can use to bully others, but the more well meaning ones might use their authority to create change they otherwise couldn't.

They were cursed by god by....not being cursed. This might sound like an odd thing, but while they fell to the void, they faced no real punishment like the rest of the houses did. As the faces and leaders of the rebellion they could have endured everything....except for being not especially important and so beneath god's notice, he didn't concern himself with punishing them accordingly.

Scourges(Asharu): Guardian Angels. Assigned the duty of watching over humans, it's not even a wrong statement to say they're like dogs, something they even refer to themselves as, sometimes. As such, their house contained the second highest number of defectors to Lucifer's side and as fiercely loyal allies. Why? Well, their special closeness to humans worked in a good and bad way. They regarded humans as their own children and felt humanity's frustration along with them. The idea of granting their charges free will was attractive enough to send them into a spiral of being committed to serving Lucifer under the belief it was to provide to the best possible future for humanity.

Not just as warriors, but skilled spies for their abilities stemming from observing things in secret without making themselves known, they were assets on the battlefield and among the few houses actually designed for fighting, they were good at it.

The curse they faced was one they hated the most. Humans were stripped of immortality. No matter how much the guardians would work to save their beloved humans, they were doomed to still die eventually. A fact that pains them if they haven't completely given into despair.

After the war, Scourges for the most part, spent most of their energy pretty much immediately regretting it. Most are drawn to being Reconcilers, though they can get behind the Faustian's plan. They're are also some who after thousands of years in the void blame humanity's innate flaws and have convinced themselves it all deserves to be destroyed joining the Raveners.

The issue other demons face with the house is the fact that Scourges don't have neutral or "mostly" opinions about people. Either all humans are precious little creatures or they are all innately worthless garbage that deserves to be erased. A Scourge that believes all humans should be protected will even defend Genghis Khan and Hitler as part of the package of humanity that has to be accepted for all it's flaws. Scourges by design, do not have middle of the road opinions with humanity. A Scourge many inhabit something like a police officer to defend human life or even a convicted serial killer to prove all life can be redeemed.

Malefactors(Annukai):
The Annukai were literally tasked with being the hands of creation themselves in the beginning. This was something they were happy to do. They literally built Paradise from the ground up and always wanted more time to perfect their work. And they were good at what they did. So meticulous in detail they needed more time to get everything right down to the last detail of completely perfect. After a few millennia, Lucifer got fed up with the Annukai and demanded they just finish so the other houses could carry on with their work. Much of the Annukai always felt that the rushed design was imperfect well before the other angels realized it, leaving many of the Artifcer's to hold a grudge against Lucifer for rushing them into what they felt was a flawed design that could have been avoided, a few even going so far as to believe it was because of his own impatience that things ended up the way they did and had he just let them carry on with their work until it was truly ready, it all could have been avoided.

Artificer's and angels of special importance. Ones tasked with helping introduce technology to humanity and while good at what they did, the angels wanted to help humanity learn about materials, tools and machines, but found human minds to be just too narrow to understand how their divine tools worked. A source of frustration on both ends much like a teacher with a troubled student, several Annukai threw their hands up in frustration at humanity's inability to comprehended, while others believed the only way to help with their development was to expand their minds through free will. Unsurprisingly, their minds were great at devising the means for war making them important allies. While they have no great love for Lucifer, despite all their bitter resentment of humanity, they joined the war simply to use their tools to help humans survive the damage and minimize causalities on both sides.

The curse they faced was watching humanity use the tools they had intended for creation for destruction.

While Malefcator's are generally bitter and cynical, at their core, they still desire to create rather than destroy and have the least amount of defector's to Raveners. They were never fans of Lucifer in the first place and aren't especially interested in helping him, but many like the approach of the Faustians to have a direct influence on the world and get back to work trying to salvage something from the chaos. They value the bond of their own house typically over factions however, and generally care more about other Malefactor's than they do for their faction comrades.

Their weakness comes from having the least interaction with mortals and simply not understanding the human condition altogether. They often have an inferiority complex feeling like they were pushed around by the other angels and misunderstood in their actions.

Fiends(Nebru): Those who see the stars in the design. They peer into the cosmic order to derive details from it. The most isolated from humans directly, but the ones who see their fate and most other peoples. Looking into the stars they know everything that would happen.

Ahrimal saw a great calamity that was bound to happen. The Nebru discussed this vision and what it meant and while everyone in the house was allowed to decide for themselves, several banded together under the belief they'd prevent the great catastrophe. Their actions instead, lead to the Rebellion and the Fall. It's not an uncommon thought that they were failures as prophets that were the most responsible for things had they just been more careful about their interpretations. However, many still respect their knowledge and abilities to decipher deeper mysteries.

They were cursed with the fact that their knowledge no longer helped humans. Even with humans knowing what would happen, it wouldn't provide comfort and instead produce worry and fear.

Fiends were largely not committed to war or the host enough to lean heavily into Luciferans or Reconcilers. However, most of them are by nature Cryptics trying to unravel mysteries, simply because it's their nature. Flawed in design that when their is a puzzle or question before them, they will find an answer to it any cost.

Defilers(Lammasu):
Angels of the Sea. Sirens. While things of beauty, they were separated from humans by the barriers of the ocean to land, which many of them felt pained at by their nature built to love humans. They were the muses to provide pleasure and culture and couldn't do that in the oceans they ruled where there was nobody to hear their songs. Their role in the war was to inspire their allies even at the darkest and lowest points, rallying their forces to face what they were up against.

Other Houses often make fun of them by saying they had no real role in the hands of creation and were just tacked on later without any actual purpose. It didn't help that they were muses and inspirers and while loved to have around for celebrations, once the fighting started, that's where their use ended. Scourges might respect them providing culture to humanity but are prone to sneering at them for their inability to defend it. Malefactor's respect their contributions but lament not having the minds either to devise anything actually useful. Despite their beauty, they became pretty easy targets to be made fun of, though that doesn't change that a few silently acknowledge them as the whole reason tension between houses was smoothed over and their forces could work so successfully unified. Perhaps, because of this, it's why their punishment was considered relatively light compared to the other Houses.

The curse they faced is humanity would learn and develop, but become so hedonistic, any lessons the Lammasu had to teach would be completely dismissed. Yes, they were also committed to the void, but those that got out? They were now walking among the humans. Exactly what they had wanted in the first place!

Lammasu typically lean towards Faustians, delighted with humanity and wanting to use their newly found connection to humanity to do what they can. A few might be Reconcilers due to believing since they got what they wanted in the end, they were just acting out and being too rash and the void was a necessary punishment for their tantrum. But they do have some of the largest numbers of Raveners. Going out of their way to break heart and be cruel due to their disappointment with actually experiencing modern human civilization and want to spread tension and betrayal to make it destroy itself.

Their weakness comes from being contrary by nature. They can cling to lies long after it serves any real purpose and are moody creatures that might keep what their real conflict is bottled up only to lash out well after what sets them off. While they wish to be near humanity, they function poorly when they are too crowded while also craving attention.

Devourers(Rabisu):
House of the Wild. Dominion over the animals. Everything that lived, ran, and breathed, was under their domain. It would be easy to think they were just beasts or mindless savages, but in fact, when it came to the Heavenly Host, out of all the Houses, they were the ones most vocally opposed about fighting the Heavenly Host and their brethren at all. That didn't stop a handful from defecting, but much of their house remained loyal to the Host. Those that did defect usually followed the creed of their mission. They needed to protect and preserve wildlife, but the biggest problem they faced was humanity and they were forbidden from directly speaking to humans to address their complaints. Even the ones that stayed on the side of Heaven still silently admit had they just been allowed to actually say something instead of being silenced, their brothers and sisters probably wouldn't have acted out the way they did.

Those that did take Lucifer's side, were the fierce warriors that could be expected. Only Scourges and Slayers were truly capable of striking these angels down in one on one combat and as rebels against the heavens, they were as every bit as savage on the battlefield as people thought they actually were. Once finally, defeated, the Devourers had accepted their defeat and went to the void, quietly and willingly. At least....at first. Being disconnected from nature and the wilderness for so long, many fell to their savage and feral instincts, much of them becoming nearly completely mindless murder machines amongst the Raveners.

Many Raveners still believe in and support Lucifer while the other group they primarily resort to is as the core group behind the Raveners seeing the only way to save nature is by exterminating it's greatest threat. It's not unheard of for the occasional Ravener to tire of war and attempt atonement with the Reconcilers, but while other Houses wouldn't think it, their minds lead a good number to become Cryptics as well, usually finding marked success by other Houses frequently underestimating their intelligence. They still have a lot of respect for Lucifer and finding out any information about his disappearance is useful and a matter of honor and respect for themselves too to do everything they can to bring the circumstances to light. Not many possess the patience or interest to be Faustians, not to mention deceit is so alien to their nature, they struggle with not being upfront about everything, but there's still a rare few that will do it in order to subjugate mankind in order to preserve nature without hurting humanity too badly, which is a part of it.

Their weakness may come from, unsurprisingly, a distinct lack of subtlety. Straight to the point and brutally honest, it's not just mindless savagery, but part of their way of being open and clear about their intent and what they wish. This can leave them an easy target to be manipulated by other demons, but a good deal of demons would still carefully weigh the consequences before trying it, since if a Devourer realizes they've been tricked, it spells bad news for the demon trying to manipulate them.

Slayers(Halaku):
The last house and the last angels to be created. The angels of death. Humans have an innate fear of death, and by extension fear of it's agents as well. Tasked with removing failed experiments of life from the earth or destroying things in order to return their materials to the earth, while houses may not like what they do, most other angels acknowledge the importance of their role. Devils however, tend to look down on them as being the last to come along and Slayers never really felt especially concerned over the "noble" houses that looked down on them so much.

Halaku joined the war simply because they felt by fighting for free will among the rest of the angels, they would earn the respect and love of the humans they yearned for and with the aim of keeping human souls away from Heaven, since when humans died, they'd be taken away into the Second World, forbidden to the Slayers. Believing this unknown place the souls of the humans were being lead to was possible a fate worse than death, the Slayers developed the spirit realm as a place to keep human souls and hide them from Heaven's mainly believing this was for their own protection.

The Slayers as a whole, mainly weren't concerned with winning the war and worked to subvert the battle plans of the enemy. As a whole, not many of them actually would or even liked actively participating on the battlefield, much to the relief of the other Houses, because while they went out of their way to avoid doing what came so naturally to the agents of death, because once they did, it was a truly gruesome sight to watch the reapers who were designed for destruction work, leaving many happy with their reluctance to battle, though once they were on the field, even Rabisu and Asharu warriors would need to think twice about engaging them.

Slayers were never loyal to Lucifer in the first place and very few would entertain the idea of becoming Luciferians. As reapers, the ones that fell into insanity end up as Raveners, doing their work as angels of death, indiscriminately, finding all of creation flawed and needing to be deleted. Most however, often aim to become Reconcilers and return to having a proper place in Heaven again, many feeling responsible for humans becoming mortal and seeing themselves and feeling guilt over the state their actions caused. Given many felt forced into a war that they didn't really want, a lot of them wish to get back to trying to salvage and repair some of the damage of the state of the world. Cryptics are another group they usually fly towards too, unravelling deeper mysteries something that comes so natural to them.

Slayers look for humans that don't care about life, whether they don't care about their own or taking it from others. People who have attempted suicide being options, but the occasional Slayer might even take the body of someone well liked and popular just out of a desire to experience what they could never have for themselves.

Their flaw comes from the fact they are distant by humanity by their very nature of agents of death. This can make them come across as shockingly callous and indifferent about loss even when they mean well, and due to their inability to relate to humans on a more fundamental level more than even most other angels, save for Fiends and Malefactors, it leads to a point of frustration where they have a hard time admitting to any of their mistakes and chose to double down on something once they decided on a course of action, always believing it to be the right one.

Luciferans: Loyal to Lucifer and still believe in the cause. They believe Lucifer will return to lead them to glory or that they can still accomplish and win the war because the heavenly host seems to have checked out of the universe.

Faustians: Discovering that humans have a small spark of divinity(what mages are), they realize that while small, they have the same power of God, if only a little. Gather up enough sparks and get enough together, and you could make a fire. They believe they can engineer and run humanity from behind the scenes and work to perfecting the world, and who knows, maybe they can guide humans to their full potential, maybe eclipsing god one day.

Cryptics: They wish to unravel all the information they can about the fall. They have no specific alignment or exact organization, but want to look at asking the bigger questions about the rebellion, god's power and the will of heaven.

Raveners: Demons that want to erase all human life. This isn't necessarily just because their evil, though many will simply choose to be Raveners because they enjoy it. Creation is innately flawed and the only way to fix it is by destroying what is built so it can be rebuilt into paradise and perfection again.

Reconcilers: After spending thousands of years in the abyss, some demons took the time to reflect and came to the conclusion that the Heavenly Host was justified in their punishment of their Rebellion. They aim to make amends with God and be accepted back into heaven, or at the very least, do something to help improve the world around them. This isn't necessarily all good, as many are still celestials with a limited understanding of what humanity actually wants and their definitions of saving it might not line up with what humanity calls saving them. Their aim is to either redeem themselves or failing that, make the world for humanity better.

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