Calamatist

The energies of fortune and misfortune are impossible to fully control, but many have learned to sense them and nudge them. Calamatists take on misfortune unto themselves in order to become sources of the energy, then go about rigging games of chance in order to spread misfortune to others.

Winds of Fortune

In order to sense misfortune, a calamatist must reach the lowest moment in their life, usually after a personal disaster or calamity, and believe (rightly or wrongly) that they witnessed an omen that warned of this misfortune. They must then live by this supersitition.

Gathering Misfortune

To gather misfortune, to generate it, a calamatist insults luck itself. The winds of fortune cannot be controlled, but someone who defies them invites them to turn on them. Thus, a calamatist seeks out ways to act against good fortune. They do this in various ways, but the six commonest are as follows:

• Murdering someone with good fortune
• Destroying a lucky charm (burning a lucky rabbit's foot)
• Intentionally invoking an omen of misfortune (breaking a mirror, walking under a ladder)
• Cheating when luck is clearly on their side
• Benefiting off the misfortune of an innocent whose luck turns
• Tricking someone into believing they have good luck when their luck is bad

Once a calamatist has done this, they will seek out their personal omen and embrace the very next bad thing that happens to them. In doing this, they inflict upon themself permanent misfortune.

Releasing Misfortune

In order to cause their misfortune to spread to others, they simply need to be near them, but certain actions trigger the amplification of bad luck more than others: cheating at games of chance, intentionally violating superstitions of good fortune, and benefitting from others' misfortune. Even so, there's still an element of chance to this. Calamatists operate on a modifier luck scale.

Levels of Misfortune

1. Calamity
2. Very bad luck
3. Bad luck
4. Neutral luck
5. Minorly good luck
6. Good luck

They can never achieve very good luck or miraculous luck. Calamity means they always take the low die and horrific things happen all around them. Very bad luck means they always take the low die and bad things happen around them. Bad luck means they take the low die, but not narrated misfortunes occur. Neutral luck means they take the middle die and no narrated events occur around them, luck-wise. Minorly good luck means they may sometimes take the high die. Good luck means they take the high die, and no narrated good thins happen around them. Their luck changes as they release misfortune, which they must then restore through acts of gathering.

Calamities

Unlike a person aided by good luck, a calamatist sees terrible events occur on triple rolls with only the exception of triple 7s:

• Triple 0s: a major disaster occurs around them.
• Triple 1s: a moderate disaster occurs around them.
• Triple 2s: a minor disaster occurs around them.
• Triple 3s: a minor disaster happens to them.
• Triple 4s: a moderate disaster happens to them.
• Triple 5s: a major disaster happens to them.
• Triple 6s: a massive catastrophe occurs to them and around them.
• Triple 7s: their luck turns good and they temporarily lose their powers.
• Triple 8s: a massive catastrophe occurs around them.
• Triple 9s: a massive catastrophe happens to them.

Omens

Calamatists will receive a genuine omen of disaster upon a straight roll.

• 012 roll: minor omen - a warning of a brief shift in fortune.
• 050 roll: moderate omen - a warning of an extended shift in fortune.
• 123 roll: major omen - a warning of a potentially permanent shift in fortune.
• 234 roll: minor omen - a warning of a small shift in fortune (move up one or down one).
• 246 roll: moderate omen - a warning of a moderate shift in fortune (move up 2 or down 2).
• 345 roll: major omen - a warning of a major shift in fortune (move up 3 or down 3).
• 369 roll: minor omen - a warning of a small disaster coming soon.
• 567 roll: moderate omen - a warning of a moderate disaster coming within the year.
• 678 roll: major omen - a warning of a major disaster in the distant future.
• 789 roll: vague omen - a warning that something will happen, though unspecified.
• 890 roll: explicit omen - a vision of a specific, clear event of misfortune.

Inventory

Calamatists often used objects to cheat fortune and invoke misfortune.

Rigged Games

Any game of chance that can be rigged can be wielded by a calamatist to insult fortune itself.

Dice

Loaded dice are very commonly used by calamatists.

Cards

Marked cards are also commonly used, allowing them to invoke the house of spades especially.

Variations

Some variants include

• Affettatrice: a warrior calamatist who wields short weapons, usually a large dagger, to cheat in combat.
• Amoosu: a witch who hexes people with bad luck.
• Anthony After: a calamatist who works as a carnival worker to rig games and spread misfortunes.
• Cheater: a calamatist who specializes in games of chance and makes them as an occupation.
• Despot: a ruler who takes control predatorily after disasters and rules with terror.
• Digter: a poet of bad luck.
• Hofnar: a calamatist who engages in tomfoolery to mask their powers.
• Nkume nzu oku: lime burners who burn the fortune out of the substance in order to create a bad-luck powder.

Societal Role

Calamatists are usually on the edges of society simply because their powers are so disruptive, but some find ways to wield their powers to great fortune and power, though they usually hide what they are in doing so.

Skills

Some common skills include

• Cheating
• Gambling
• Cold reading
• Manipulation
• Opportunistic trading

Stats

Modifiers from base of nation/species:

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