Character Creation
Who are you, what kind of Awakened are you?
Tapestry of Fate
Fold down center vertically, then fold down center again horizontally.
Choose an Awakened
You may pick from any of the five available Awakened that exist, the: Aos Si, Aswang, Haltia, Max’ji, or the Nahual. Each has a variety of abilities they may excel in. Once you have chosen an Awakened you may opt to take Sui Generis available to them, but it is not required. For every positive Sui Generis you choose you must take a negative one as well. You may take negative Sui Generis without having to choose a positive one.
Choose a Realm to originate from (not required)
The Region is far and wide and we exist mostly within the United Realms (UR) along with Lowlan Borough. Each Realm has developed its own cultural aether residuals that are bestowed upon the people who live within them.
Choose a single starting Trade (not required) or spend extra Free XP
Choose from the Trades available and spend 15 XP in free points on Gramaryes and Talents or choose to pass on having an official Trade for now and instead, spend 25 XP in free points on Gramaryes and Talents.
Choose Vagaries from those available
You may pick three Vagaries in total from those available to you. Your Awakened, Realm, or Trade may make extra Vagaries available to you to choose from. Up to two more Vagaries may be purchased at a later time.
Choose starting Gramaryes & Talents
Depending on whether you chose a starting Trade or not determines your point pool for your starting Gramaryes and Talents. If you took a Trade you have 15 points, if not you have 25 points to spend on the Gramaryes and Talents of your choosing from those available to you through the character choices you’ve made up to this point.
Pick your Aptitudes
Aptitudes determine whether you meet the base requirement for a variety of actions from being strong enough to pick something up to being smart enough to attempt a cipher, and so on. You have 23 points to spend on them.
Spend free points
10 free XP to spend on any part of your character.
Choosing an Awakened
The first step in character creation is choosing the kind of Awakened you’d like to be. This determines your physical appearance, amount of Saturation you’ll have, your strengths and predispositions, Sui Generis options, and open a Vagary pool to pick from.
There are five kinds of Awakened, but their customization covers an expansive field of creativity. Be as unique as you’d like and let your imagination run wild. Try and keep in mind that, as your Saturation builds and you begin to lose Regens, the unique features your Awakened have become more prominent, so try to start play with a more simplistic image than what you ultimately imagine yourself being and become more elaborate as you experience that Saturation build up.
Essentially, if you can think it, you can be it.
On rare occasions certain character builds may net you the option to choose from a set of variant stats. Before character approval by an Intake Skald you’ll be alerted to whether your character concept will grant you a different set of stats and you’ll have the choice to either accept those stats or adjust your character concept to remain within the normal Awakened stats. This is a rare occurrence, but there are legitimate reasons why this might happen which you’ll have to discover via lore (DVL or “dēvil it”).
Choosing a Realm
When aether rushed into the world it imbued powers into the land itself. Each realm is both proficient and inefficient in a Key Dominion of aether. Furthermore, each realm has been found to imbue those born in the area with a unique ability. Adding to this are the various regional Vagaries, specialties, skills, and goods. There are benefits and difficulties to every place one may call home.
Being commonfolk (not choosing a Realm when creating a character) doesn’t net the character any realm specific Vagaries. However, if a player chooses to be from a later unlocked realm they will have the option to naturalize their character to that realm at no extra cost. This will allow them to swap any active Vagaries they have for realm specific ones of their new chosen homeland on a one for one point basis.
Choosing a Trade... or not
A Trade is the field in which a character is trained in. A character’s Trade determines their available free Talents, starting pool for Talent tiers, any extra Talent trees, and their base body defense. Some people’s chosen Trade may even make certain starting plot or later in game plot available to them.
During character creation players may choose up to one Trade to start with for free. This will be known as a character’s “Main Trade”. A max of two Trades, per character, may be learned at this time. Point costs for purchasing a secondary Trade’s talents come at a higher price.
Once a character has entered play, they must find someone to train them in any new Trades they wish to learn.
Choosing Vagaries
Vagaries are specialty abilities that are unique to each individual depending on a variety of factors. During character creation you may pick any 3 that are available to you. You may purchase up to 2 more once the character has entered play.
Your type of Awakened, Trade, and Realm can open up unique Vagaries for you to choose from. There are also Vagaries available to all players.
Vagaries
Choosing Gramaryes & Talents
Depending on whether you chose a starting Trade or not determines your point pool for your starting Gramaryes and Talents. If you took a Trade you have 15 points, if not you have 25 points to spend on the Gramaryes and Talents of your choosing from those available to you through the character choices you’ve made up to this point.
Pick Your Aptitudes
Aptitudes are a character’s base abilities and determine whether you meet the requirement for a variety of actions from being strong enough to pick something up to being smart enough to attempt a cipher, and so on. At character creation no player may purchase past a 3rd tier ranking in an Aptitude. A Shadow mark must first be purchased in each tier before a shining mark may be purchased. You have 23 points to spend on them. If you do not have at least one Shadow Mark in a stat you run the risk of negative effects. At character creation you may not buy past the third tier, but creation buffs may make it possible to do so. Earn a free additional Shadow Mark at 6 months of cumulative play and again at 12 months. 2 shadow marks equal a shining mark for purposes of added free marks or in play buffs.
✩ = First rank, “Shadow mark” ★ = Second rank, “Shining Mark”
Example of what a full card may look like
Tier | Intellect | Sagacity | Adroitness | Force | Appeal | Vitality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | ✩ | ✩ | ★ | ✩ | ★ | ★ |
1 | ★ | ✩ | ✩ | |||
2 | ★ | |||||
3 | ★ | |||||
4 | ||||||
♛ |