Celestial Piners

Those who use popular or celestial magic for common labor.

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Ablutive

One who has cleansing magic that can affect physical reality and more.

Ablutives are cleaners who gain magical powers from acts of sincere service, forgiveness, kindness, or support and the emotional resonance that comes from it. They are taught how to wield this magic by mentors, often starting when they are young.

They engage in acts of service, usually cleaning for others, to other oppressed, exploited, abused, enslaved, indentured, imprisoned, or impoverished people. The emotional resonance forms with both the emotion and the act of support, and the ablution captures it either in a dumaqu jewel (which is very rare) or in a piece of soapstone.

Once captured, they keep this token to gather more as they continue to serve and support others. Though they must find wage labor, usually cleaning for oppressors and exploiters, to survive, they spend other time working for their fellow oppressed to build magic. As they do this, they gain certain abilities:

• Cleansing stone: their soapstone can be wielded to cleans anything it touches in a 20’ radius. It is an 8 difficulty to clean things physically, 11 to alleviate emotional turmoil, 14 to clarify thoughts, 17 to purify a soul, and 20 to clean all four at once.

• Waters of purification: they can infuse waters so that they purify that which they wash, magically removing hexes, curses, geases, etc. as well as removing infernal effects.

• Restorative scouring: they can scour a place, person, or thing clean with an hour’s work to remove curses, hexes, and infernal effects at a power of 10. For more magical power, they must spend more time on it at a rate of four hours per point above 10.

• Redeeming anointment: someone who has done grievous harm to the ablutive may be offered a task or quest for redemption by being anointed with magical water used in a restorative scouring if they are both willing and redeemable.

• Ritual of relief: the ablutive can perform a ritual around a person carrying a heavy burden - physical, emotional, mental, or metaphysical - and bring them relief at a power of 10, with greater power possible by adding to the complexity of the ritual. The relief will only be temporary unless they succeed critically.

• Release from service: if someone is bonded in service either magically or mundanely (including enslavement, imprisonment, or indenture), ablutives can break that bond magically via a ritual that sacrifices their soapstone (requiring them make another).

• Drop of innocence: an ablutive can take a single drop of water used in a restorative scouring that can be placed on someone. If it glows upon touching the target, the target is innocent of an accusation (stated before being dropped). If it burns, they are guilty. They can do this once per year.

• Bubble of forgiveness: an ablutive can use water from a restorative scouring to create a bubble that floats over someone who has aggrieved them. If they take accountability or find redemption within six days, the bubble pops and gives them a magical reward. If they fail, it pops and burns the with celestial acid.

• Merciful word: the ablutive can speak a word that alleviates all pain and suffering for exactly one minute, once per year.

Abilities may vary. Consult the GM.

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

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Bombero

A firefighter who follows the winds of serendipity to neatly remove flame, smoke, and heat from a burning structure.

The winds of fortune are fickle and powerful, but some rare people who use their keen senses to follow those winds use their abilities to help others. These folks gain the ability to sense moments of serendipity, using them to grant good luck to others.

Bomberos gain the power to sense the winds of fortune by careful study of those who win and those who lose at games of chance, then moving on to study when random events benefit the less fortunate in the world. They learned to distinguish between random chance and problems brought on by oppression, exploitation, abuse, manipulation, and cheating. They learn to distinguish between chaos and order.

Once this is clear, they must then seek the source of the winds of fortune, of chaos. To do this, they must find a moment of it, then intentionally focus and bear witness, carrying it in their mind and soul for seven days and six. Upon the end of the thirteenth day, they must look to where the winds blow, and they must follow them until they stop, walking against the current. When they reach the place where it stops, they must burn something, anything they own that represents order, oppression, exploitation, manipulation, cheating, or abuse. Something that represents their place in those systems, whether victim or perpetrator, and then burn themself in the resultant fire.

If their intentions are sincere, the fire will not harm them, but instead, fill their eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. For a moment, they will feel lighter than air, lifted by the winds of fortune, and they will come to seven miles and six away, aware now of the constant flow of serendipity in the world.

A true user of serendipity will only use it for others. But they must never use it for their own personal gain, using no gains from it for anything more than a meal or a roof over their head. Bomberos wield it to rescue people from burning buildings, put out fires, and serve the community fighting fires. They disguise their powers and work with mundane firefighters or ones using other magicks, because their magic is criminalized.

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

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Boniface

An innkeeper who has the knack of knowing what a customer needs. They gain this ability by living amongst those they serve for a long time, usually because they are born amongst them, though this is not a prerequisite. As they live amongst those they serve, they come to know them, giving them mundane insights into them. In order to take that to a magical level, they need a mentor who will teach them to listen to unspoken words (and thus, unspoken needs) and to connect to the energy of providing.

Necessity is a powerful force. It drives most living things and many unliving things, and fulfilling it is as potent as appeasing a Divine. Bonifaces learn to connect to necessity by fulfilling it, finding ways to meet the needs of those around them, then seeing the flickers of its power within those moments and capturing it. They capture it in special capsules called simulfabs. Their mentors provide them their first simulfabs, which they use to capture their first bits of necessity. Eventually, they fill up enough simulfabs to begin using them to wield their powers.

All bonifaces work as innkeepers. They enchant all or part of the inns they work at with simulfabs, making rooms and features to serve the people using their magic. Consult the GM to design the inn.

Simulfabs can be used for the following:

• Create capsule: though it is possible to create a simulfab without already having one, it is easier to use one to make more. A full simulfab can make ten empty ones.

• Capture necessity: simulfabs fill up after ten minor needs or three major needs are met.

• Deep listening: the ability to hear what someone needs from what they are saying, even if they don't say it. Effectively, read people +6 for that specific purpose.

• Anticipate need: if someone enters seeking to be a guest at boniface’s inn, they can spend a full simulfab to know what they will ask for and what they actually need.

• Alleviate hunger/thirst: a single full simulfab can alleviate hunger and thirst of a visitor for up to three days.

• Prepare space: the boniface can prepare a room with special amenities to meet the mundane physical needs of a visitor at the cost of at least three simulfabs, depending on the needs being met.

• Cabinet of provision: a boniface can create a cabinet of provision that will be full of basic needs for a month at the cost of five simulfabs per person it provides for.

Other uses may be possible. Consult with the GM.

If someone takes help from a boniface and sells it instead of using it, they cannot get more help from the boniface until they make up for it by providing something necessary to someone in need.

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

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Trencher

A cook who knows how to make foods magically nutritious.

All food on Shem is magical. Trenchers learn to find foods with celestial magic or to imbue it into foods such that it is more fulfilling and nourishing than it otherwise would be. They do this by first focusing on feeding others in general, going out and bringing food to those in need. They learn to cook foods well, and they learn what is good for people, but they also learn how to know what foods comfort and heal, what foods soothe and fill, and what foods bring joy and relief.

Eventually, they realize they can sense the magic in the foods they prepare, and after years of work, usually with a mentor, they can learn how to evoke magic within food to create specific properties:

• Nourishing portion: trenchers can prepare foods that fulfill needs of nourishment even when they might not otherwise do so. For example, if someone has a limited diet due to access issues or physical limitations, the trencher can prepare their food such that it fills all their needs regardless. This takes an hour to prepare.

• Filling morsel: if food is scarce, the trencher can make even the smallest morsel alleviate hunger, even if it does not meet all needs. This takes 20 minutes to prepare.

• Comfort food: if someone is in distress, the trencher can magically sense and prepare their comfort food and soothe them emotionally. Prep time varies by what the food is.

• Strengthening meal: the trencher can prepare a meal that gives everyone who eats it +3 STR for a day. This takes eight hours to fully prepare.

• Healing pastry: the trencher can create a sweet pastry that reduces wound levels by one. This takes an hour to prepare.

• Preserved food: the trencher can make healing pastries, filling morsels, or nourishing portions in a manner that lets them keep for up to a week without spoiling if they take an extra hour to prepare them.

Other foods are possible. Consult the GM.

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

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Uniter

A uniter works to generate magic by uniting workers and getting them to work for themselves. This energy is then wielded by the workers collectively to protect themselves from exploitation, oppression, and other acts of terror from the parasite class.

All work done in groups generates this magic. Most of the time, it's a minimal amount, and it goes away quickly as the work ends or the group divides itself. But if directed, guided, and carefully driven, it will build upon itself until the group at the core of it is invincible until the magic is used up. It generates within the bodies of the workers themselves. Working alone does not generate this magic, and working in a group that is divided by internal conflicts generates less than it would otherwise. The work must be work that produces something of value, and it must be collective. The most energy is generated when mass numbers of workers work for themselves and other works. However, even smaller acts of solidarity can generate magic:

The main task of the uniter is to organize the workers so that they can unite in their work and consciously generate this magic. Once enough workers are organized, they must begin to reorder the work they do so that it is generative. The goal is to make their work internally diversified but unified in purpose, and to make sure it creates something for the good of all. Once enough of the workers are organized, they can also begin making sure they are acting in solidarity with workers and others fighting oppression.

Once enough magic has been produced and kept by the workers, they will sense it in their own bodies, and they will be able to transfer it among themselves.

To wield the magic, a majority of the workers must gather and decide how it will be used. No single worker can channel it out of the original group who generated it. This can only be done if all of the workers give their magic to a single worker, or enough give their power to a small group of workers, etc. They must all agree to use it externally and vote upon who will use it by touching them to give them the power. Even then, if the one who has it tries to use it in a way the group disapproves of, it will fail. It will be assumed any player playing a uniter has completed this and become a focal point, unless they wish to roleplay becoming a uniter.

Common uses of the magic include the following:

• Allied eyesight: they can see through the eyes of someone else in their union (if the other consents) at will so long as they are awake and within three miles of each other. If the other does not consent, the attempt will fail automatically. It cannot be forced.

• Shared strength: they can act with the united physical STR of the union once per month, if all consent.

• Group defense: if they group is working in tandem on a job, all members of the union will have the defense score (PRO/parry/weapon skill+bonuses, ATH/dodge+bonuses, STR/toughness+armor+bonuses, AWA/perception+bonuses, WIL+bonuses) of the member with the highest defense for the applicable roll.

• Filled bellies: if one member of the union eats, they all eat.

• Resisting exploitation: any magical form of exploitation will suffer -6 to any rolls (including blood magic, infernal contracts, etc.) against the worker.

• Diffused damage: an attack on one is an attack on all - wound and stun are diffused amongst the entire union (if they consent), reducing ties and normal wound/stun to a barely felt sting, special wound/stun to a flesh wound/no stun, mortal wound/stun to a normal wound/stun, and critical wound/stun to a special wound/stun.

• Solidarizing touch: anyone who is engaged in struggle against oppression or exploitation will receive temporary bonuses when touched by the uniter.

Other powers may be possible. Consult the GM.

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