Unaligned Leaders

Those who use unaligned magic for leadership or politics.

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Hyperstrategist

Type: Officer

Hyperstrategists are officers in existing miliary units who are employed because of their ability to quickly and magically come up with battle strategies and tactics. Though they often work for imperial or fey militaries, they wield unaligned magic and take care not to imbalance themselves so that their magic remains potent. Some work in independent, unaligned, or mercenarial military units, and some rare ones find themselves helping elemental or celestial militaires (either from elemental communities or resistance groups).

To become a hyperstrategist, one must be subjected to rigorous training for many years. Because hyperstrategists must undergo such intensive training that often harms them, they are sometimes recruited from the underclasses, though many are privileged. The training is intensive and involves ritual combat, deep study, and physical practice. Ultimately, the ritual combat evolves from duels and physical fights to games of strategy between two students, which leads to them challenging their teachers and mentors, which leads to them training in real life combat scenarios. Eventually, they perform a ritual in the blood of the battlefield, drawing in the energies of war, and use this power to sharpen their minds. When this happens, they gain magical abilities that come alive in combat:

• Tactical maneuvering: on the battlefield, the hyperstrategist may take extra movement per round to get into positions that give them an advantage on their next attack.
• Voice of command: they may take their turn in combat to speak commands to allies or neutral parties and gain bonuses to PRS to get them to follow them. If an ally follows a reasonable command given by this voice, it will give them +1 to +3 when they take that action.
• Advanced preparation: the hyperstrategist will have a free token each combat to say they were prepared for something that happens during the combat, giving them either bonuses to respond or defend or have an object or even person who was not previously stated to be there.
• Strategic insight: they can assess an enemy in or out of combat and gain knowledge of their weaknesses, strengths, and know what their next combat move might be.
• Three moves ahead: after three or more rounds of combat, thrice per campaign, the hyperstrategist may invoke this to rewind the last three rounds and replay them with knowledge of what happened. This is the hyperstrategist thinking through the combat ahead of time and advising characters what to do and what not to do.

Hyperstrategists are invaluable on the battlefield and often sought out by the powerful. They charge a hefty price for their service.

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

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Magnacrat

Type: Functionary

There are few systems more complex and effective than a mycelial network. Magnacrats view them not as living things, but as the perfect system, and they study them in order to create bureaucracies that reflect them. A magnacrat is a functionary who keeps fungi to create the most intricate bureacracy possible.

To become a magnacrat, one must study mushrooms as systems, not as living things, and must do so under the tutelage either of some academic or of another magnacrat. Magnacrats are cultivated by the ruling class due to their abilities in bureacracies. They study for decades before they are able to tap into the networks and understand them, before they are able to wield the magic within them, but once they do, they rapidly connect and become masters of the special systems they work with. Once they do, they gain certain magical abilities:

• Mycelial systemization: they can tap into the mycelial network in their garden and come up with a systemic or schematic that is intrinsic to them but unclear to others.
• Inscrutable organization: they can reorganize any set of things that they are capable of moving in such a way that others have a very hard time understanding.
• Communicative networking: they can tap into the networking of their mushrooms and replicate their means of communication amongst a chosen set of people.
• Fungal order: they can bring spores from their fungal garden and unleash them to put things in an order they choose in a certain area of effect.
• Complex garden: they keep their fungi, who are the source of their magic, in a special garden that defies physics, usually somewhere close to where they work.

Magnacrats work for imperial governments, often, but keep their magic balanced and unaligned.

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

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Ricodaretor

Type: Adviser

Ricodaretori are advisers to other leaders or groups who are attuned to their ancestral memory. They commune with their ancestors and gain guidance and abilites.

The methods of connecting to their ancestors are varied, but in the Talunese region, they usually involve studying their own genealogy and history, knowing them by rote, and meditating on memories of their most recent ancestors. If they have no memories even of their own parents, they may meditate on stories or histories. As they meditate, they form connections, and after years of practice, they gain access to the nearest non-living ancestor. From there, they begin to connect further and further back, going back hundreds or even thousands of years. They cannot go back before an event in history known as the Fall, which is a barrier all non-celestial ancestral memory has. Ancestral memory may connect a ricodaretor with their direct blood ancestors, with their communal ancestors, or with ancestors based on found family.

Ricodaretori can only connect with ancestors who have passed away. The further back they go, the harder it is to have a clear connection, but also, the more power they can draw. Most connect with a relatively recent ancestor as a guide. This is the start of their abilities:

• Ancestral guide: the ricodaretor can consult their ancestral guide so long as they are conscious, as if the ancestral guide is a present NPC, by spending 1 point of energy at any given time.
• Resounding inquiry: the ricodaretor may send a question into their ancestral memory, asking all who can hear them, spending 1 point per 5 generations back (roughly 100 years).
• Deep memory: the ricodaretor may direct their question or request back deep, going past the usual limits, by spending time meditating or focusing, spending 1 point per 20 generations back (roughly 400 years), but spending 10 minutes per generation instead of 1 round.
• Wisdom of the past: the ricodaretor may draw directly from the knowledge of the ancestors without asking a question, simply rolling the memory as a lore, but with less direct and guided results.
• Meditative learning: the ricodaretor may meditate and learn skills directly from the ancestors, spending four hours meditating per point above 4 of a skill, six hours per point above 7, eight hours per point above 10, twelve hours per point above 13, sixteen hours per point above 16, twenty hours per point above 19, etc.

Ricodaretori are employed by all sorts of groups or governments, but they keep their magic unaligned in order to be able to maintain their connection. Their role is always advisory, as they are conduits for the ancestors to supply advice. Often, they are related to those they advise.

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