Elemental Seekers

Those who use magic to seek, investigate, travel, or communicate.

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Aeropallon

Type: Balloonist

Aeropallons use elemental magic of air to fly balloons. While they do make simple toy balloons, their main focus is on larger balloons (called mongolfiera) used to fly with. This is a rare magic used by obscure communities. In the Talunese region, they have become novelties and use their powers as part of entertainment, but they can also use it for travel.

Wielding elemental air requires advanced breathing techniques, meditation, and a devotion to nature and the winds. Aeropallons are chosen from those who find enthusiasm for the skies and flying the balloons within their small communities, and the aeropallons mentor the best of them. There is a tendency to value a sense of adventure and flight over sensibility and wisdom in choosing aeropallons, but it is not requisite. So long as someone is against polluting the air, destroying nature, and being bound to the ground, one can be an aeropallon.

After years of training, aeropallans are tested on their ability to pilot their balloons, sent far into the sky, and challenged by air elementals. If they prove worthy, the elementals give them access to the magic of elemental air. To wield it, one must breathe deeply of clean air and hold it for half an hour - something they train for most of their lives - transforming it into magic in their lungs:

• Deep breathing: the ability to hold one's breath for 30 minutes and transform it into elemental air magic.
• Mass exhalation: unleashing the fullness of one's magical breath, a powerful gale that costs every point of air magic the aeropallon has.
• Propelling gust: a short gust exhaled to propel the balloon laterally or horizontally, using a small amount of air magic.
• Filling puff: a series of short puffs that fills the balloon with air to lift it.
• Long whistle: a whistle that lasts up to five minutes that sends messages to other aeropallons or wielders of air magic.

Aeropallons generally do not work for imperials, keeping to their own small communities, using their balloons for entertaining displays and travel.

PRO / ATH +3 STR +2 Breathing +6 AWA +2 WIL +1 PRS +1 STH -2

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Cielobast

Type: Pilot

A cieloblast uses elemental magic to fly through the skies on special elemental craft.

Few airships exist in this era. Some rudimentary balloons, kites, and gliders exist, but nothing that can carry many people. Some few use giant flying beasts, whether giant birds, flying whales, or other strange creatures, but there are some rare communities with elemental magic that allows them to fly special craft that are essentially wood-framed winged "planes" called mechikari. Cieloblasts come from these.

To become a cieloblast, one must spend most of their life in communion with the sky. Most come from mountains or the flying continent of Gyrah. Many are flying beings to begin with. Some few come from places with tall trees. But most come from the mountains, and in these heights, they spend their time running with the wind, studying the clouds, dancing with the weather, and connecting with the sun, moons, and stars. At some point, if they have shown aptitude, a cieloblast will take them under their wing (see what I did there) and train them properly.

Early days of training focus on the basics, rudimentary physics, wind dynamics, and the importance of respecting nature and the skies. When their mentor deems them ready, they are taken out in the mechikari to watch the cieloblast work, slowly but surely transitioning to piloting with their teacher with them. Before they ever go on a solo flight, however, they are tested repeatedly in the power of the sky. The tests involve being sent out to walk in harsh weather, lying on the ground to watch the winds and clouds, and eventually, leaping off great heights. This culminates in their leaping from an impossible, deadly height, only to be caught by an elemental of the skies. In the arms of this elemental, they face extreme tests. If they pass, they are given abilities. If they fail, they are cast to the ground (and if they are lucky, they survive when their mentor catches them). Nature is not kind.

If they pass and gain elemental magic, they are allowed to try solo flights, training until they are good at it. Their craft cannot carry more than six people at most, but most are single-person mechikari.

Their abilities include the following:

• Skytreading: they can glide through the open sky in their mechikari even if the air is still.
• Windslicing: they can slice the winds and influence their strength and direction with a simple gesture of the wings.
• Cloudbouncing: they can bounce off clouds like a skipping stone in their mechikari.
• Uplifting whistle: their whistle can cause a great updraft.
• Spiraling dive: they can enter a spiraling dive and create a small whirlwind.
• Jetstream tunnel: they can hit the jetstream and tunnel into it, going against it, and teleporting vast distances away.
• Stormshielding: in a storm, they can draw in the winds to create a shield against hail, lightning, and rain.

Outside their craft, they can whistle to call the wind, snap to make it stop, and dance to bring clouds and rain.

Cieloblasts are very rare and only work for their own communities. They rarely work for imperials, and only taking them as passengers at most. They never serve in a military or fully take employment from them, and they despise industrial magic, which destroys their skies and poisons them.

PRO +1 ATH +3 STR +1 AWA +3 WIL / PRS / STH /

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Coastcutter

Type: Sailor

Coastcutters are sailors who are attuned to the coastlands. They are those who sail the coasts exclusively, growing so familiar with them they know the elementals that dwell there and gain magic from them.

A coastcutter usually starts learning their magic after being a sailor for many years. There are many ships designed to hug the coasts and stick close to the land, doing shipping only with certain regions, and many sailors find work on these. Some, usually from elemental communities, attune to the coasts, connecting to the elementals thereof, and becoming part of them. This process is often guided by a mentor who teaches the nascent coastcutter the importance of respecting sea and land, tide and beach, animal and plant, and so on. Once they understand the principles, their mentor will test them, taking them out in a small boat to be closer to nature. After a year and a day of intensive training, they will go diving in the coastal waters to seek elementals. If they are seen as worthy, the elementals will speak to them and commune with them.

From there, there are a series of trials, and if the coastcutter passes, they are connected to some aspect of the coast - the land, the water, the animals, the plants, or the tides themselves, usually. Then they must spend time with the next on the list until all aspects of the coast are part of them, giving them a host of abilities:

• Coastal sight: they can see along the coast far further than is natural.
• Tidal attunement: if they stay up all night, the next week they will be attuned to the tides and have the ability to influence them.
• Wave leaping: if they are swimming, they may leap from the top of one wave to the next. If they are on a ship or boat, they can make the boat do this once per day.
• Visual sounding: they can know the depth of the coastal waters at a glance.
• Crustacean speech: they can speak to any crustaceans along the coasts.

They gain many other abilities as they work as coastal sailors. Many of their abilities evolve into things that help their ships safely traverse complicated waters.

PRO / ATH +2 Swim +3 STR +1 AWA +2 WIL +1 PRS / STH /

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Escavator

Type: Digger

Escavatori wield the elemental magic present in mines to dig and delve.

This magic began in the earliest mines, as those digging sought to make the mines safer and met with the elementals dwelling there. They showed they knew how to excavate without poisoning the earth or abusing nature, becoming one with the caves and mines and veins of ore and mineral, eventually developing natural tools to dig with.

Escavatori usually dwell in small elemental communities centered on mining. They are never allowed into the mines as children, but they are taught about the mines, caves, metals, minerals, and ores, about the spirits and elementals within, and about the ways their communities work with nature and not against it. They learn to shape what comes from the mines to make it useful for their people. When they are old enough, if they wish to become an escavatori, they are brought into the mines in small increments until they show they can do so safely and wisely. Those who prove worthy are eventually sent on their own to meet the elementals of the mines and be tested. This ritual involves finding a vein of what is being mined, tapping it with a special tool, speaking into the darkness, and wearing the dust and dirt of the mine as they do so. If they do this, the mine elementals will recognize them and accept them.

Escavatori gain abilities relevant to their mines, but their focus is specifically the digging of the mines. They create tools of shaped stone and metal, not forged or crafted with any industrial or mechanical tool.

• Shafting drill: a simple twisted piece of sharp metal shaped with magic that drills deep shafts easily.
• Cleaving spade: a spade made of sharp metal shaped with magic that cuts stone easily.
• Passaging pick: a pick made of stone and metal shaped with magic that opens passages easily.
• Dust mask: a mask of dust from the mine that protects from toxic gases and makes it easier to breathe.
• Minesight: the ability to see in the dark of the mine.
• Whistling: whistling within the mines allows escavatori to communicate long distance.
• Warning flash: a flash that occurs if the escavator enters a dangerous area.
• Dark delving: wielding raw darkness to dig, the most potent digging magic they have.
• Mineral armor: protective gear made from the minerals of the mine that gives resistance to heat, cold, concussive damage, and explosions.
• Stone bubble: a thin bubble of stone that makes a given area of the mine secure and save from cave in.

Escavatori usually work for their own elemental communities, but some are recruited, conscripted, enslaved, or exploited by imperials, but it is difficult to do so without compromising their magic.

PRO +2 ATH +1 STR +3 AWA +1 WIL / PRS -1 STH +1

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Facchinepesa

Type: Porter

Faccihinepese are bearers of heavy loads who carry them via elemental magic. They wield the four fundamental forces to make portage easier. They come from ancient communities who studied sciences with a better understanding than current times, even, using elemental magic to see things long lost to the imperial cultures.

The ancient arts of wielding the elemental magical forces (gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear, and weak nuclear force - called by ancient names of cader, trahimp, ligat, and missi) are understood mystically but track to modern scientific understandings, just through a heavy veil of the magical. The facchinepese study them in their small communities, usually ones focused on a version of what the imperials call the ancient nature religion that was more scholarly and insular but with ambitions to move massive materials to build their temples, towers, and other structures. The facchinepese developed as the magical means to do this.

While not indepth scholars, they do study enough the ancient sciences to know the four basic forces, how they relate to nature, the importance of defending nature in accessing their magic, and the methods of wielding them. The elementals of fundamental force are both ubiquitous and rare - though they are everywhere, they are hard to sense and rarely powerful enough to last very long. Finding them is the main part of a facchinepesa's work after learning the basics. To do so, they do something other elemental magic users rarely do - they seek to capture them, if only temporarily.

To capture a cader elemental, they must capture an object mid-fall and seal it in a heavy elemental stone box. To capture a trahimp elemental, they must create electrical charge (usually static electricity) or find something magnetic then place it in an elemental glass jar. To capture a ligat or missi elemental is nearly impossible, but they have found that fusing things together or breaking them apart simulates their function well enough that they can use this in a repetitive manner to eventually draw one of each and capture them in a drop of elemental water. Once these four have been collected, they are all put together in an egg of elemental metal. This is then taken by heavy lifting up an enormous incline - a hill, mountain, or structure - and placed atop it. Then the porter meditates for four days and nights until the elementals ask to be released. Once released, they test the facchinepesa until they pass and are given abilities, (or until they irrevocably fail):

• Hovering touch: in defiance of gravity, the facchinepesa places a hand on something and makes it levitate a foot or so. This cannot be something alive or contain something alive.
• Attracting cross: crossing their arms and focusing on something not alive or containing something alive allows them to draw it toward them as if magnetic.
• Repelling release: releasing their crossed arms does the opposite, repelling the object as if via magnetism.
• Ritual of decay: a ritual involving shedding symbolic ornamentation that allows the facchinepesa to cause an object's atomic structure to decay and alter.
• Ritual of binding: a ritual involving symbolic connections of multiple faccinepese to allow them to bind atoms and fashion small objects.
• Lightning jar: using the ritual of binding to create a magical jar allows the facchinepesa to capture lightning in it and release it later.

Mostly, they use their hovering touch, attracting cross, and repelling release to move massive stones and other materials. They work for their ancient cultures, though some have been recruited by imperials.

PRO +1 ATH / STR +2 AWA +2 WIL +1 PRS -2 STH /

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Fiorume

Type: Riverboater

Fiorumi are riverboat sailors who have the power to shift between rivers magically. They attune to the flow of rivers and water itself via rituals and long years of work on their boats to gain their abilities.

Fiorumi spend years communing with the rivers they sail upon. They start as children, usually, living in elemental communities along the rivers or as riverboat nomads. They learn to swim at an early age, learn to tell what is dangerous water and what isn't, and learn to listen to the waters. They spend years bathing in, swimming in, sailing on, and traveling on the rivers, and every month, they spend a night communing, soaking, and diving deep into their home river, seeking to connect with it. Eventually, after years, they meet a river elemental and bond, learning its ways after being tested. This culminates in them taking a solo raft or canoe or similar small craft into the rapids, intentionally capsizing, drowning, and rising up as one with the river. They can only do this if they are protectors of and friends of nature and the waters.

A new fiorume learns these abilities:

• Riversong: if they sing a song to the rhythm of the river, they can communicate with anyone else sailing on it for miles.
• Sounding: they can magically sound the depths even with a short pole or simple string.
• Flow reading: if they place a pole in the moving waters, they can sense the pace of the flow the whole length of the river.
• Flow shifting: if they have a pole in the water, they can turn or twist it to shift to the next river over once per hour.
• Unleveling: if they sound a river, they can send their pole to the bottom of it no matter the depth and cause it to rise or fall.

They learn many other abilities over the course of their lives as fiorumi. They usually serve their original communities. Some end up working for imperial powers, but they are loyal first to the waters.

PRO / ATH +2 Swim +4 STR +1 AWA +2 WIL / PRS / STH /

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Gondoliere

Type: Gondoleer

Gondlieri are gondoleers who wield the elemental magic of the waters of the canals themselves.

Not unlike fiorumi, gondolieri gain their powers after years of working on, living in and around, and connecting with the waters of the canals. Originally, the magic came from waters in channels and connecting waterways between natural waterways, some hand-dug, some themselves natural, but this magic evolved as canals did. In the cities and towns with deep and extensive canals, the waters maintain their elemental power despite the cultivation by mortal hands.

A gondoliere connects to the canal waters by making them an integral part of their lives. They work as a gondoleer long before they gain any magic, often helping their parents while children. If they show an aptitude for connecting to the waters, they are trained more extensively when they are older. The magic of the canals comes via rituals that engage the senses with every aspect of the canals - the feel of the walls and the waters, the smell of the canals, the sight of their length and breadth, the sounds that echo through them, even the taste of the waters. Not all of these are particularly pleasant, but understanding them is necessary; one must know a healthy canal with elemental magic in it from one tainted by industrial poisons. This is far more common in the canals than in other bodies of water in the region.

The final test of a gondliere is a solo journey through the canals of the entire town or city, ending in a deep dive into the deepest part to meet the water elementals dwelling there. They will test the gondoliere; if they pass, they are given abilities, but they must swear to keep the canals as clean from industrial magic as possible:

• Sounding: with a glance, they can know the depths of the canals.
• Still waters flowing: if the waters are still, they can always will the gondola to move on a non-extant current anyway.
• Unleveing: they can hit the bottom with their pole and make the water level rise or fall.
• Resounding voice: they can sing and echo their voice through the entire canal system.
• Rescue bubble: they can send a bubble down by blowing into the water to save someone who has fallen in.
• Navigational call: they may call out and know the layout of the canals.
• Wall climb: they can climb up walls like a lizard, ignoring wetness, steepness, and smoothness.

Gondolieri work for themselves, usually, but some take employment from the town or city or some local group, but never one that is industrial in nature.

PRO / ATH +1 Swim +3 STR +1 AWA +2 WIL / PRS +1 STH -1

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Metacam

Type: Seeker

In astronomy, centaurs are orbital objects that are a cross between a comet and an asteroid. They are made of ice and stone and have irregular orbits. They are hard to detect by mundane means, and so only the most ancient and intesive elemental cultures have observed them, using astronomical magicks long lost to imperials. To attune to them, metacami study them for many years, seeking out specific ones, and send magical messages into the deep space of the solar system.

Eventually, the message will be answered. It will come as a shooting star that only they can see, and it will only be seen in their special elemental scope, something passed down metacam to metacam for millennia. Once this happens, they set out to seek where this landed, knowing it to be a centaur (the orbital body) that came to visit them. After years of seeking, they find it, and the elemental of it gives them a specific quest involving the cosmos and protecting the world from industrial powers or astronomical disasters. The quest takes their whole lives, usually.

As a seeker, a metacam gains abilities on their quest so long as they remain focused on it. Some of their abilities include the following:

• Centaurian meandering: if they have no idea where to go next, they may wander irregularly and be guided by the centaur elemental.
• Ice tail: if they run, a streaming tail of ice particles forms behind them and chills those it crosses.
• Amorphous reaction: if attacked, they may once per combat take an amorphous, gaseous form to let the attack go through them.
• Cometic aura: they may release an aura of dust and gas that is irradiative and dangerous to those around them.
• Asterskin: sparkling stone skin forms on their bodies to protect them at night.
• Dual nature: a metacam may embrace the dissonance of the dual nature of the centaur and transform themselves, taking on new features of a different species they are familiar with.

The more the player knows about the orbital body centaurs, the better they may come up with new abilities themselves. Metacami rarely work for imperials, except to take odd jobs while on their quests.

PRO +1 ATH +3 STR +1 AWA +2 WIL / PRS / STH +1

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Metapol

Type: Investigator

Metapoliticians, or more commonly, metapols, are those who can read the flows of elemental water within any moving water by placing a pole within it and meditating upon how the pole moves or pulls.

Metapolitics is the study of the political, social, esoteric, narrative, and other metaphysical currents that affect the world and peoples' lives by using actual currents in water to tap into them and sense them. This is done through a form of meditative, repetitive action and priming with elemental powers. Most water has elemental magic in it. When the water moves, the magic is empowered, intensified, and connected to the world around it. Thus, moving water has more potent elemental magic in it, and therefore, it is possible to connect to the elemental magic in it simply by touching it, as it will naturally connect to the currents that are part of you. Metapolitics is a form of sympathetic magic. The currents of water symbolize the currents in one's life. From the broad scale of class struggle or the winds of fortune to the minuscule level of personal relationships and office politics, the currents can represent anything. A skilled metapol knows how to read these to know what is going on in the rest of the world, likely upcoming events, and the motivations and stories of those connected to them.

A person's feet are most connected to the metaphysical currents in their life, thus they make the best connection to the magic in moving water. Bare feet are best. If a being is not primarily propelled by their feet, the part of their body responsible for that works best. For example, avians may have feet (talons), but wings are their primary means of movement, thus their wings should be in the water instead. Merfolk's fins, lamias' tails, and so on work best. However, this is not enough to sense the currents or analyze them without some tool. Instead, they use poles. The push and pull on the poles tell them much, drew up the magic into their senses. Poles made of wood that does not rot quickly is best, lacquered or treated woods, woods coated in elemental metals, or poles made of special forms of stone work best. Underwater, because merfolk, undines, and other underwater beings do not need poles to propel them through water, they learn metapolitics through their use of other objects, using tridents, which move through the water with less resistance, to connect to the currents. This also allowed them to take control of and command the waters, willing it through the tines of the tridents.

While studying the currents, a metapol senses things happening elsewhere, similar to clairvoyance. Though they do not get in-depth information directly, the waves of sensations and experiences that hit them, a thousand upon a thousand impressions, form a mosaic of information that they learn to read over time. The information comes in the form of the five senses (or more, if the being has more, such as empathy or psionics):

• Sight: visions last less than a second, giving brief glimpses of what is going on in the world. Usually these go by so fast they do not consciously process them.
• Hearing: sounds can sometimes last long enough to form whole syllables or even short words, but they rarely have any obvious meaning.
• Smell: aromas reach the nose and fade quickly, but due to the nature of odors, they may linger longer than others. Usually they are too common to have much direct value.
• Taste: flavors fill the mouth and vanish, though the intensity of them can vary such that strong flavors are more clearly sensed. They do not on their own amount to much, however.
• Touch: sensations are felt in the fingers, as if lightly brushed. They generally are not valuable as stand alone data.

Metapols take in the information gained from the senses during their connection to the currents, and they interpret it. A skilled metapol will turn the impressions they got into distinct, even specific information sometimes.

The kind of water and where it is has an imapct on the effectiveness of the metapolitical connections and on the nature of them.

• Saltwater vs. Freshwater: Saltwater requires less intense movement to give a strong read, but freshwater, if running fast, comes through clearer.
• Vapor vs. Liquid: Liquid water works absolutely best, but vapor, if it is moving, can sometimes work. Clouds, fogs, mists, and so on can be tapped into, but they are very hard to read.
• Oceans and Seas: Oceans and seas are the most potent sources. The constant movement within them generates massive amounts of elemental water and excites it intensely. They are good for general information on just about anything.
• Rivers, Streams, and Creeks: Fast moving rivers are the next best to oceans and seas. The deeper one can send their pole into the river, the better. Streams, creeks, and other smaller water flows are therefore less potent. Rivers are best sources for information on places along their banks.
• Bayous and Wetlands: Bayous and wetlands of any kind are very slow moving and generally do not generate as much excitement in the elemental waters. Furthermore, interplay with other forms of elemental magic causes them to be less clear. However, the waters of wetlands are richly connected to the world itself, and one can learn much about the elemental currents of the world and of all life through them.
• Lakes, Ponds, and Pools: The stiller the body, the less potent it is. Larger lakes often have significant systems of currents and can be nearly as good as a strong river. Ponds and pools tend to be very weak. These weak waters can be used, however, to generate currents artificially by having several people get in and move the water about. In doing so, they can be used to read the connections between those people.
• Tides: The tides, pulled by the moons, have an intensity of movement that is poetic and graceful, and therefore they produce powerful elemental water. Though the tides push and pull the waters all over the world and create many currents, the splash and spray of waves on beaches is where they are most pronounced. A major wave or a neap tide can give some of the strongest reads, but they do not last as long. Tides give very strong reads on world events.
• Geysers: A very brief source of current, geysers are dangerous for obvious reasons. They also often involve distortion from other elemental magics. But they can be used particularly to find out information about upcoming disasters.
• Waterfalls: The constant torrents of a waterfall create a lot of excited elemental water, but it moves on very quickly. Therefore, it's much more rapidfire in its delivery of information, which can be very confusing. However, it can be used to get a lot of information quickly, if one is skilled enough to sort through it.
• Maelstroms: Maelstroms and whirlpools are extremely powerful currents that generate the best elemental water in the world, especially in the oceans. They are also very dangerous, and getting into one to sense anything is almost impossible, even for the most powerful undines.
• Floodwaters: Floodwaters quickly become corrupted by misfortune or other dangerous energies that can make them unreliable. Using them in their most intense moments can bring dramatic blasts of information, but that comes with obvious dangers. When they have stilled, they are almost useless.
• Rains: Rainstorms can, if the torrential downpour is strong enough, bring information from all over the world. However, the majority of rainstorms are too chaotic and confused to give good information. Only the very best can read them.
• Subterranean Waters: Flows of water underground often get distorted by kazaddarean, but this can be used to make special connections to things that are less fluid if one knows what one is doing.
• Sewers: Sewers are notoriously murky, aside from being disgusting to interact with. They are also full of polluted waters. Toshers and some others who often dwell or have long contact with them learn how to read them, however, often combining with other energies such as gemtkhereg. Most cannot read them very well.
• Islands: Waters near to islands, especially in archepelagos, often has ikehua lyua pele within it as well, making it useful for sensing tectonic flows, if need be.
• Mud: Mudslides are extremely dangerous and almost impossible to read. One would have to be desperate or stupid to try it, but it is theoretically possible.
• Blood: The flow of blood can be read by extremely skilled metapols, but it requires they put their poles into the flow (meaning creating a large wound). It will give extremely intimate information about the person whose blood it is.
• Tubs: One may get a strong sense of one's own currents by using a tub full of water and making it move rapidly, but it has limited range.
• Ice: Solid, unmoving ice is impossible to read, but glaciers do have some current in them. However, it is so slow that one must wait for years to get even a little bit of information. That information would be very profound, however.
• Polluted Waters: Polluted waters turn elemental water into industrial magic, which not only destroys any possibility of reading the currents, it could kill the metapol.
• Aridity: A metapol in an arid environment, such as a desert or an airless moon, will not only be powerless, they will feel stunted, frustrated, and blinded.

The information gained by a metapol varies by their intention and the other energies present. Metapols serve or work within elemental communities, usually connected to running waters, and protect them by keeping a watchful eye out for dangers or seeking the sources of dangers and pollutants. Some very few work for imperial powers.

PRO +1 ATH +2 Swimming +4 STR -1 AWA +3 WIL +1 PRS +2 STH +1

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Nuvolattore

Type: Shipper

Nuvolattori are wielders of weather magic who use it to guide and support ships and water transports.

A nuvolattorie are a form of weather mage who focuses their magic entirely on shipping concerns. They mostly work on ships, but they sometimes work in ports and send their magic to affect multiple ships.

They learn their magic from folk traditions. They are distrusted by the wider population and heavily regulated by imperials, and there's always the threat that they will be arrested for their magic despite its legality, if the church has its way.

The most basic thing a nuvuolattore can do is direct the weather. Targeting weather at an area requires merely nudging storm clouds or winds, usually, which requires using a vane, a special staff tipped with a weather vane (usually but not always made of bronze). The vane must be attuned every day to the local weather by letting it "soak" in the weather for the first hour after dawn (or the first hour after midnight if in a place where the sun does not rise or does not set within a 24 hour timeframe). After soaking the vane, in order to direct the weather, the nuvolattore must take the vane to the highest place they can find (the closer to the clouds, the better), and then sacrifice something--animal, vegetable, or something of personal value--with either a bronze knife or hammer. In order to direct the weather from that position, they must then take nine coins and place them on the ground in a circle around themselves, then tap the bottom of the vane to the coins in the direction they wish to direct the weather. If their will is powerful enough, it will work.

They must absorb the weather they want to send somewhere. The following kinds of weather are commonly available in the area:

• Aridity
• Bora wind: a cold winter wind
• Breeze
• Clear skies
• Clement weather
• Cloudy
• Cold wave
• Doldrum
• Drizzle
• Fog
• Gale
• Gust
• Haze
• Heat wave
• Hail
• Humidity
• Lightning
• Mist
• Overcast
• Rain
• Sleet
• Snow
• Sunshower
• Thunder
• Thunderstorm
• Torrent
• Wind

These are much rarer:

• Blizzard
• Cyclone
• Dustdevil
• Firewhirl
• Sandstorm
• Snowstorm
• Thundersnow
• Waterspout
• Whirlwind
• Windstorm

Once used, they must be reabsorbed to use again.

Large, loud bells, especially church bells, will dissipate a nuvolattore's storms if run twelve times in the midst of the storm. Flowers blessed by any legitimate faithful and tied to a post in an area targeted by a nuvolattore will protect crops from their magic.

Nuvalattori usually serve their own communities, but many have been recruited to imperial forces, guilds, and so on.

PRO / ATH +1 STR -1 AWA +3 WIL +4 PRS -1 STH -2

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Rombottore

Type: Wagonner

Rombottori are wagoneers who are attuned to the land. Their wagons are made of earth and stone rather than wood.

A rombottore learns to connect to the land from a young age. They usually come from families of rombottori. When they are toddlers, they are encouraged to eat raw dirt, and as children, they are not encouraged to bathe as often, letting the dirt and mud seep into them instead. They are often parts of nomadic elemental communities with an understanding of earth as something sacred. Eventually, if they take to the land the way their mentors do, they are taken under the wing of a rombottore and begin training to commune with the land more deeply. It takes years of training, meditation, and communion, but eventually, this culminates in them being buried alive in a special but safe ceremony. For this to work, they must be buried at least 10' deep, be at least a mile away from any significant body of water, and be at least 10 miles away from a town, village, or city, meaning it is harder and harder as time goes on for them to find a good spot.

During this sensory deprivation underground, they commune with the earth and are visited by elementals of the land they are in. The elementals train and test them for hours, spending 24 hours with them, eventually turning their bodies into earth and stone for the final hour. If the ritual works, they swim through the earth and rise up, returning to their flesh, blood, and bone bodies with an attunement to the land. They gain some of these abilities:

• Wagon guide: they can control their wagons if they are sitting on it even without touching any reins or other parts of it.
• Land sense: if they close their eyes and focus, they can sense the boundaries of the land they are on, natural and mortalmade, and know how far they are from various landmarks.
• Listening soil: if they put their ear to the earth itself, they can hear if anyone is walking on it within 10 miles.
• Rutsnap: a snap of their fingers can cause the ruts in the earth caused by their wheels to seal up.
• Smooth earth: if they hold their hands out flat and raise or lower them, they may alter the earth ahead of them temporarily.
• Stone road: if they are on uneven or rough terrain, they may stamp upon the ground and turn the road temporarily into smooth stone.

Rombottori work for their own communities and are loyal to the land first, but they sometimes hire out to anyone who needs a ride.

PRO +1 ATH / Endurance +3 STR +2 AWA +1 WIL +1 PRS -2 STH -1

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Scudocoll

Type: Ranger

Scudocolli live in the hills and piedmont regions, protecting the piedmont from industrial and infernal powers. They become aware of the hill lands and connect with them, drawing elemental magic from them. They are very similar to the briganti, but their focus is on protecting nature and not robbing imperials.

To become a scudocolli, one must dwell within the hill lands for at least a year and a day before they even notice the elemental magic there. They then must spend the next year and a day connecting with, living in harmony with, never harming, never neglecting, and always protecting the natural beauty and power of the region. This includes fighting any industrial development or magic in the area. Though they may hunt and scavenge, they must not over-hunt or take more than they need, ever. Any failure adds more time to their trial.

If they manage to complete their trial, they meet a powerful hill elemental who will then guide them in a specific task, usually related to protecting the hill lands (the lands themselves, not the people), and then testing them. If they complete the task and past the test, they meet an animal companion who is native to the piedmont. This companion teaches them to use their abilities.

• Territorial sense: while within their home territory, they know when industrial or infernal magic has entered the area.
• Nature speech : they can speak to any plant, animal, or fungus native to their home territory.
• Voice of the hills : they can invoke the breadth of the hill lands and speak in a booming voice heard throughout it.
• Hillstep: they can step from the top of one hill within their territory and go to the top of the next.
• Barrow key: the palm of their hand may open any hill and create a barrow in it.
• Earthen strength: they may draw strength from the earth of the hills and temporily become much stronger.

Every scudocoll has a specific region of the piedmont they are connected to. Outside of it, they can access their abilities, but weakened. They cannot connect to a territory within a city, town, or village, though some territories may contain a village (never a town or city). Some abilities only work within a territory, but most adapt to other areas, just different and a little weaker. Primarily, their magic is a form of elemental earth magic, and thus, they have some connections to other forms of earth and stone, but it also includes life native to their range.

Scudocolli protect the hill lands and bond with the life there. Some common animals of the piedmont they may have as companion include the following:

• Alpine marmot
• [European] badger
• Black grouse
• Chamois
• Eagle owl
• Firebug
• Green whip snake
• Hazel grouse
• [West European] hedgehog
• Horned viper
• Least weasel
• Mountain hare
• [Eurasian] nightjar
• Nymph of the marshes butterfly
• [European] polecat
• Red fox
• Rock partridge
• Roe deer
• Scarlet dragonfly
• Snow grouse
• Stoat
• Stone marten
• [Italian] wall lizard
• Wild boar

Each animal has its own magicks and bonuses it grants to the scudocoll, but all of them can speak to them and occasionally let them use their senses.

Scudocoll are enemies of the imperials.

PRO +2 ATH +2 STR +2 AWA +1 WIL +1 PRS -1 STH +1

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Tartarugattore

Type: Submariner

Tartarugattori are those who use turtles to travel underwater. There are those who bond to and use sea turtles, and those who bond to and use freshwater turtles.

A tartarugattore begins learning to commune with and communicate with turtles from a young age. Most grow up in elemental communities near large bodies of water who use turtles as a means to dive deep and harvest seaweed, algae, pearls, shells, coral, or other useful materials or food. They learn to swim at a young age, grow up with turtles as friends (not pets or livestock, always free to come and go), and are taught about waters and animals and the local environment in detail. If they find they have an affinity for it, they are taken when they are old enough to a special diving ceremony in which they seek to find a turtle to help them. They may fail this many times before it works, but once it does, they are tested and trained both by their mentors and community and by the turtles themselves. Eventually, they find they can speak to the turtles and understand them.

When this happens, they are sent on a set of trials designed to test their skills, their devotion to nature, turtles, and waters, and their understanding of elemental magic. If they are found worthy, a specific turtle becomes their guide and friend, and other turtles agree to support them. They gain different abilities from there:

• Guided dive: if they hold a turtle in their hands as they dive, they can swim as though they are the turtle and survive underwater for long periods of time.
• Chelonian chariot: if they attach a number of turtles (one if the turtle is large, dozens if small) to a chariot or similar vehicle, they can carry others underwater with them and travel long distances.
• Murk sight: they can see underwater in the dark and murk.
• Turtlespeech: they can speak to any kind of turtle, tortoise, or terrapin.
• Shellskin: they can turn their skin into turtle shell temporarily for defense.

Tartarugattori usually work for their own communities or themselves, but sometimes they hire out to imperials.

PRO / ATH +1 Swim +3 STR +2 AWA +1 WIL +1 PRS -1 STH /

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Trapanore

Type: Driller

Trapanori are very rare wielders of the elemental magic of meteorites. There have been many different uses of this magic over the ages, but in current times, the only one that is at all common enough to record is the trapanore, who uses the magic to drill into solid stone and create passages.

This strange craft began in areas where meteorites had fallen and people sought ways to harness the inherent power of them. It was clear they were destructive and potent, and eventually, after many used their power for war and violence, someone figured out they could be used to bore through rock and stone when the need arose. Legend has it, it was either a warior wielding the power already or their assistant who, in a time of crisis, turned the power toward tunneling when some miners were trapped. Regardless of its origin, in current times, the magic is still rare and closely guarded by the elemental communities who know their secrets.

There are perhaps ten such communities, all small and near mines and mountains, in the Talunese region. They keep the meteorite(s) secret and only pass on the magic of the trapanore to those they deem most worthy. One must have an understanding of the stars, a respect for nature, and a disdain for industrial magicks. They must also understand tunneling, digging, and stone, largely for their own safety. It's possible to be a trapanore who doesn't understand load-bearing structures in cave and tunnel systems, but not for very long.

To gain the magic, one must study astrology, astronomy, stone, mining and tunneling, and the meteorites themselves. Most communities with a meteorite and trapanori seek out other meteorites, collecting them for their magic. Because of their rarity, they are very selective about who becomes a trapanore. Once someone has been selected and agreed to it, they not only study for years and practice the work, they also spend hours meditating over the meteorites. Eventually, one of the meteorites will resonate with them, and they will be able to interact with the elemental within it. If they are worthy and knowledgeable, they will pass all tests and be given a sliver of the meteorite itself, known as a stellatrapano. With this, they have some of the following abilities:

• Impact drill: the basic use of the stellatrapano is that it can drill into stone or rock with a single tap and twist, creating a massive, explosive hole.
• Air burst: if the stellatrapano is thrown high enough, it will cause a massive explosion in the air above. It must be at least 50' above the trapanore, and they must will it to happen.
• Crystallizing twist: a special twisting pattern of the drill can create a lesser explosion and hole, but crystallize the rock around it.
• Sounding tap: if they tap a stone or rock structure with their stellatrapano, the sound it makes will tell them what cavities are beyond or within, as well as the composition of any liquid or gas within in terms of temperature and toxicity.
• Star mask: the trapanore can take crystals and molten rock from their drilling and shape them into a shimmering mask that protects from the effects of their impacts, filtering out dangerous gases, heat, and concussive power.

If they lose their stellatrapano, they cannot use any of their abilities. While the star mask protects their faces, they must wear heavy protective clothing as well.

PRO +2 ATH +2 STR +4 AWA +1 WIL +1 PRS -1 STH -1

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Wurtwarian

Type: Messenger

Wurtwarians deliver messages via plants' root systems. They do this by bonding with plants using elemental magic.

Living in places rich in greenery, wurtwarians draw their power from the roots of plants by sleeping amongst them. They will dig into the ground carefully around plants with expansive root systems and burrow in, sleeping there for long periods of time. They learn this practice from mentors in their communities, usually small elemental communities in forests, wetlands, or grasslands. They do this for years, connecting to the plants, having green dreams, and hearing strange things via the root systems, until one day, it starts to make sense to them. Part of their training is learning how to protect nature, why they must protect it, and the ways of tending and growing plants. They also learn to hold their breath for long periods of time.

Once they have connected to the plant elementals via their roots, they bond to a specific kind of plant with extensive roots. This plant latches onto them and has a small version of itself growing out of their flesh, giving them their abilities:

• Root sending: the most common and central ability is their ability to send messages via root systems, connecting one plant to another, sending messages from any plant to any other plant within a certain range that increases as they grow in power.
• Plant speech: they can speak to any plant that is connected to the soil of the ground (rather than in a pot, for example).
• Deep reach: they can put their feet under the earth and sense things happening deep below.
• Dirt armor: they can smear themselves in dirt and mud for a further +3/+3 defense and +1/+1 more vs. industrial magic.
• Absorbing touch: they can absorb nutrients and water with their touch, healing one wound level per round they do this in combat or minute out of combat.

Wurtwarians work for their own communities, though many take odd jobs sending messages for others.

PRO +1 ATH +1 STR +2 AWA +3 WIL +1 PRS -2 STH /