Celestial Troupers

Wielders of popular or celestial magic for the purpose of entertaining.

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Graceful

A dancer who creates magical grace.

Gracefuls gain their powers in the moment. They are believers in the powers of hope and miracles, and in the act of dance, they find small moments of pure grace. If they notice and draw it in, they can store it for later and wield it. This is something only the most profound believers in hope and miracles, the most optimistic and kind people can sense and wield. Any pessimism or cruelty in their personalities will weaken and eventually take their powers away.

All of their powers derive from dance:

• Flower Blossoming: a wide gesture that instills grace for three rounds during combat or for three minutes out of it in everyone who believes in hope and miracles within 30’.

• Swallow Return: inward gesture that increases ATH for three rounds in combat or three minutes out of it.

• Bounding Lemur: leap of 50’ that allows for standing on walls or ceilings for one round.

• Shadow Wide: a wide gesture that spreads celestial shadow in a 30’ radius, providing a 1% chance of a miracle for anyone who believes (other than the graceful).

• Lilac Chain: anyone the graceful touches and anyone that person touches within 1d4 rounds (in combat) or minutes (out of combat) gains +1 PRS for every person touched.

Someone with grace instilled in them automatically succeeds on dodge rolls, gets the benefit of the doubt when speaking up for themself (target takes low die), and resistance to infernal magic (+6).

Belief in miracles must be marked in the character’s motivations for PCs, and for NPCs, if there’s any chance of belief in miracles, GM rolls a d100. One a 1-10, they do.

Gracefuls’ beliefs are rare and seen as naive by most. Any evidence of their powers working will be treated as a blasphemy by the authorities in the colonized lands.

PRO +1 ATH +5 STR +1 AWA +2 WIL / PRS +2 STH +1

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Harmonist

A musician whose harmonic music bonds people together. All music has some magical power to it. Music that unites, connects, and empowers people against imperial powers is celestial. This music is dominated by harmony, polyrhythms, and syncopation.

To learn celestial music, harmonists must learn from other harmonists. They need to be trained not only in how to play or sing music, but also how to emotionally connect with others, how to understand their own emotions, and how to work a crowd. They must also be devoted to uniting the people, not the powers that exploit, oppress, abuse, or harm the people.

After years of training and playing with a mentor, harmonists are encouraged to perform before a crowd on their own to test their powers. If they succeed in uniting and empowering the crowd on their own, they unlock their abilities. As harmony is important to their magic, they are much, much more powerful with other musicians, especially other harmonists, but their magic allows them to create harmony without another musician. Most stick with bands and their mentor, but some go work on their own, usually for personal reasons.

Their powers may vary by their chosen instrument and style, but some common powers include the following:

• Looping: in order to create solo harmonies or polyrhythms, harmonists can capture loops of music magically and let them continue playing. They do this by physically grabbing the music out of the air and tying it to their instrument or themselves. This is required for their music to work if they don’t have other musicians or harmonists present. Difficulty is 8. Failure means the looping fails. Successes mean it lasts 3 rounds per success level before needing to be restored. One loop adds enough to a song to activate their magic; two loops adds +2 to their magical music, and another +1 for every loop added thereafter.

• Harmonic unification: anyone who even so much as matches a rhythm or note of the song will sense the emotions of everyone around them and be drawn into the same emotional content (sincerely). If this is sustained for three rounds in combat or three minutes out of combat, certain effects will take place (see below). Difficulty is 14 and must be re-rolled each round. Looping is required.

• Nightingale’s song: a version of harmonic unification possible if songbirds have joined in the song. This is difficulty 17, but does not require re-rolling and is +3 above harmonic unification’s powers.

• Polyrhythmic empowerment: one person per rhythm chooses one skill, ability, or power to give +3 to. Difficulty is 11 and lasts three rounds per success level. Critical failure gives -3 penalties to the chosen score for 12 rounds and cannot be re-attempted in the same amount of time, exceptional failure gives -1 for 9 rounds and cannot be re-attempted in the same amount of time, special means the rhythm cannot be attempted again for 6 rounds, normal failure means it cannot be reattempted for 3 rounds. Tie means +1 to the chosen power, ability, or skill for one round. Looping is required.

• Song of the heart: the emotions the harmonist is feeling is spread to everyone who hears the song. Difficulty is 11, +3 more per target above three targets. It lasts 3 rounds per level of success. Looping is required.

• Syncopation: a target of the harmonist’s choice who can hear the song gets an extra action. Looping is required. Difficulty is 11.

• Emerald note: a single note of pure celestial power will cause harm to any infernal being within 24’. Difficulty is 14 for a protection of power 10, +3 more difficulty for every +2 points above 10. No looping required.

• Ninth chord: on the ninth round or in the ninth minute of a song, a special chord can be played to eradicate any infernal effects on listeners. Difficulty is 11, +1 more for every target above three. Looping is required.

• Shimmering air: a light air gives everyone who hears it whom the harmonist chooses +3 ATH temporarily (one round or one minute). Difficulty is 11, +3 per target after three targets. No looping required.

• Passerine dance: targets who can hear the song may dance and summon songbirds. Difficulty for the harmonist is 14, +3 per target above three. Targets must roll dancing ability vs. difficulty 8, gaining +3 to dancing for special success on the harmonist’s part, +6 exceptional, +9 critical. Looping is required. Songbirds may sing and alleviate need for looping once they are summoned.

• Rousing flourish: a flourish within the song can break stun, LNA, or unconsciousness (but not coma or death). Difficulty is 8 for LNA, 11 for stun, 14 for unconsciousness, +3 per target above three. No looping required.

• Thrush’s song: a song of pure love that makes anyone who sincerely loves another person think of that person and either gain empowerment to act for them or lose time thinking of that person, depending on the harmonist’s intent. Difficulty is 17, +1 per person above three, success rate determines duration and bonuses. Looping is required.

• Alouette: the target (if they can hear the song) will fall apart, one body part per round. Difficulty is 17. Looping is required.

• Chanticleer’s call: a bright rooster call that all allies to the harmonist within 24 miles can hear and respond to. Difficulty is 17. No looping required.

• People’s melody: a song that gains power as more people join in, empowering them against oppressors, abusers, exploiters, or infernal powers. Difficulty is 17. Bonuses scale up as success level does. Looping is required.

• Cumulative song: a song that builds on itself, giving +1 to a skill, ability, or power on all who are affected every round/minute it is played. Difficulty is 14, +3 per target above three. Looping is required.

Harmonic unification has the following effects after three rounds/minutes:

• Empathic communication: all affected by the song can silently communicate via empathic resonance.

• Harmonic action: all affected by the song can act together for every turn.

• Unifying resonance: every subsequent round/minute, anyone hearing but not affected must roll to resist or be drawn in.

Many other abilities are possible. Consult the GM.

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

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Rhapsode

A bard whose stories and songs draw from the magic of romantic love.

Bards are traditionally employed by a leader or group to maintain oral traditions, entertain, maintain genealogies, and praise the leader or group. Rhapsodes may be employed in this fashion, or they may be wandering entertainers who keep these practices from their nation, culture, or community.

The powers or a rhapsode come from romantic love. To be a rhapsode, one must have experienced romantic love (or be experiencing it), and they must not be someone who has abused, assaulted, or otherwise deeply harmed a loved one intentionally. If they have, they must have quested for redemption and gained the nearly impossible feat of true forgiveness - not the false forgiveness of one gaslit by an alleged lover, but true forgiveness only possible if one has truly been redeemed. If they meet this condition, they must be trained in the abilities of a rhapsode by another rhapsode.

Rhapsodes use their love or memory of love to infuse their work. If they are near others who have experienced or are experiencing romantic love, their own emotions will resonate with it and become stronger. Their own romantic love gives them a base of 10. For every person within 10’ per point of AWA above 8 the rhapsode has, they get +1 if that person has experienced or is experiencing romantic love AND if that person is not working against the rhapsode in some way AND if that person is not a wielder of infernal powers. PCs must have this listed as a Motivation. Any important NPCs should have it noted. Random NPCs, the GM rolls a d100 and anything above 55 means the NPC meets the criteria.

Some powers of the rhapsode include the following:

• Tale of romance: the rhapsode may tell a story - taking no less than ten minutes to tell and no more than ten days - that gives anyone who hears it protection from certain infernal magicks (baleblood, feirua, hollow energy, gossamer light), +1 to +6 PRS when determining if someone’s love is sincere, and +3 to protect their romantic love if they have one. This lasts the same length of time the story took to tell. Difficulty is 14, +3 per target above five.

• Verse of love: the rhapsode may write and perform a poem that amplifies the romantic love anyone who hears it feels (+3 to protect loved ones) and instills a sense of missing something (LNA to stun) to anyone who does not feel it. Difficulty is 11. Difficulty is 3 less if the player actually writes and reads the poem.

• Lover’s ballad: the rhapsode may perform (and possibly write) a song that all who hear it feel moved by. Anyone affected must roll PRS or fall asleep and dream of them. Difficulty is 11. Difficulty is 3 less if the player actually writes and sings the song.

• Romantic lore: the rhapsode has a deep knowledge of romantic stories and histories.

• Bloodline tracing: the rhapsode’s knowledge of genealogy may be rolled when meeting someone and learning their full name (not True Name, though that works, too) to see what they know of their family history.

• Satirical observation: the rhapsode may make a wry observation about someone’s love life and have the impact of a taunt or mockery - inspiring them to sadness, good feelings, or rage. They roll PRS vs. AWA.

• Invocation of tradition: the rhapsode may invoke a tradition of the family, group, or person they are employed by or come from and enforce its rules once per year. Consult the GM to come up with the details of this based on the family, group, or person.

• Romantic archetype: the rhapsode may tap into an archetypical romantic figure from story or history and employ powers, abilities, or skills of that figure by telling their story (ten minute minimum). Difficulty is 11, +1 for every point above 8.

Other abilities may be possible. Consult the GM.

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

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Uninetsv

An uninetsv (oo-nee-nay-chuh, meaning "words") is one who leads a communal dance that bonds the community together. This bond allows them to protect one another and share qualities. It is a power originating with native peoples, but any oppressed or exploited group may wield it if they are truly a community.

The group being bonded must be a group who live and work together, who are part of an existing community. They must live in a communal, cooperative environment without hierarchy or dominion over others.

An uninetsv often wear special clothin, and the ceremony must take place in the appropriate time, place, and with the right accoutrement. The appropriate time is after wild onions have grown in the springtime. These onions are gathered for special communal meals. New bonding ceremonies can be held once per week until the start of summer, but they usually only happen once a month.

The place must be a central communal location like a townhouse or councilhouse, a community center, or some other place where everyone can dance together.

The uninetsv must bathe in the nearest river before the ceremony, washing away impurities, infernal energies, and old bonds. To do this last part, the old bonds, they must wash and use special stones and sticks to scour their skin. They must also abstain from alcohol or drugs for a week beforehand.

Every communal bonding happens via dancing together. These dances are on a central raised structure inside the place used for the dance which vary by community and occur in rounds throughout the night. They start before midnight but after sunset, and they end at dawn. Those who are to be bonded must participate all night and touch medicine (see below) multiple times.

The uninetsv will either be a man calling upon different people to lead the dances with song, or a woman wearing shakers (shells or boxes or other materials) who dances with each dance. If they are of neither gender, they may choose which role they take. Whatever role they take, they will be speaking/singing the poetic words of bonding (yahas) throughout the night.

The song is call-and-response, always in the tongue of the local community, and the woman with the shakers creates the rhythm. The dance leader will lead four songs as everyone dances around the sacred fire in the center of the raised space. At the end of their four songs, the dance leader will either choose someone from the dancers to enter the fire or do so themself. The person in the fire calls and is responded to, then steps out purified. After this, everyone rests until a new dance is called.

By dawn, everyone who will be bonded must have been transformed in the fire, including the uninetsv.

Every participant should wear a mask. Those who wish to bond must wear special masks made of gourds, hornets' nests, buckeye wood, animal skins, or poplar wood. The mask will burn away in the fire during the dance, transforming into being a part of the dancer. Most fire is sacred, but some kinds of uninetsv may use a specific kind of fire special to their community. The sacred fire is lit by the uninetsv right before the dancing starts and is tended by them throughout the night. If the fire goes out before dawn, the bonds die. Medicine for bonding ceremonies is made from special plants and their roots by the uninetsv and/or their helpers the dawn before the dance.

During the ceremony, the uninetsv guides each bondee to make sure they perform correctly. Everyone in the ceremony makes rolls on each important aspect of it - dancing, singing, mask creation, medicine creation, and bond creation in the fire - that they are part of. Every success adds points ot the final total, every failure takes from it, leading to a tally that determines the length of time the bond lasts.

Some rolls have significant impact; if a medicine roll is failed, every time the medicine is touched, that degree of failure is added to the final tally (i.e., if someone has a normal failure in creating the medicine, the final tally loses a point for the failure and each subsequent touching of the medicine during the ceremony). This is why the uninetsv must be vigilant on every aspect. Since the medicine must be made the dawn before the ceremony, there is almost never time to remake it. Therefore, it must be made up for throughout the ceremony with better singing and dancing. If the medicine is not touched at all during the ceremony, the whole ceremony fails.

Furthermore, if the uninetsv does not wash in the river properly, everything they do will bring penalties to the final tally, often leading to a complete failure to bond.

The determinants are as follows:

• Shared work
• Timing
• Place
• Riverwash
• Making medicine
• Outfits
• Masks
• Calling the dance
• Rhythm
• Dance-leading
• Maintaining the dance
• Touching medicine
• Sacred fire

Consult the GM for details. Every ten points is an hour of bond.

All bonded groups must have a form of balance. This can be a balance in what genders are bonded (men, women, third gender, etc.); in what roles they take (hunter, healer, planter, caretaker, warrior, etc.); in what species they are (human, spirit, tortoise folk, pit viper folk, swift folk, bluebird folk...); in what kinds of weapons they use if they are all warriors (bow, spear, club, etc.); in what kinds of plants they work with if they are all planters (corn, potato, onion, etc.), and so on. It varies greatly by bonding ceremony. At the center of this balance must be the uninetsv.

Once the bond is formed, all members will share certain qualities as determined by the uninetsv. The uninetsv's role is to be a filter as much as a sharer, making sure that no one shares too much. At times, this means someone dies, but whether a life is saved or not, it means a whole community is saved.

Those in the communal bond may share powers, stats, skills, thoughts, emotions, information, and more. This makes it an excellent medium for communication and for collective actions. The goal of the uninetsv is to ensure no one is left out and that everyone has a role to play. They have some control over what is shared, as it all goes through them, but they may be overriden if the whole group disagrees.

Communications are the most difficult to filter - they may turn it on or off, but may not mute or block someone while the communication is on, unless they sever their bond entirely.
Powers, skills, and stats are much easier to limit, as they may control the number of points of each that get through. This can be a general filter (1 pt/rd for anything) or specific (STR is limited to 1 pt/3 rds) or even character-specific (Inali may only share 1 pt of Hunting skill per day). Any shared point is lost to the original user unless shared to all users. However, sharing to all users weakens the bond over time. For every point shared amongst the entire group, the bond loses an hour of time (10 points) for every 10 seconds of use. Universal sharing may be refused by the uninetsv at the time it is attempted.

Every individual in the bond has the right and the ability to refuse to share or to refuse to accept something shared. If a universal share is refused, it is not a universal share. Sharing to multiple people eats up multiple points if not a universal share.

They can, however, also convert points from the hours into points shared universally or individually, thus lessening time but adding points to stats without sharing. The uninetsv has veto over this.

Permanent sharing is impossible. Once the bond is over, it is over until a new dance.

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