Celestial Seekers

Those who use celestial or popular magic to investigate, hunt, or explore.

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Anveshak

Type: Investigator

To uphold the law is to uphold the will of the ruling class; to uphold true justice requires something greater. Anveshaks wield the power of celestial or popular justice, which allows them to sense injustice and mete out true justice. They carry throwing blades and lariats.

True justice is not defined by the laws of mortals nor Divines. True justice is about an objective right and wrong based on what represents the survival of a mortal species and the individuals that make up that species. It is the rights of the many over the luxury of the few. The crimes an anveshak is concerned with are determined by an ancient code. The code of the anveshak is symbolized by the swan, which their legends say brought them the laws that are above mortal or Divine. The Code specifies the most grievous crimes, the conduct expected of an anveshak, and guidance on the grey areas.

There are crimes that are considered unforgivable. These include murder (including genocide or war), rape and sexual assault, enslavement and imprisonment, abuse and torture, exploitation and oppression, polluting the world, and so on. These are crimes often done on mass scale or done by the powerful to the disenfranchised. The Code has room for mercy and redemption. Even the most egregious crimes can be redeemed, but they require the perpetrator be willing to spend their life fighting against the injustices they used to inflict, profit from, or champion. When an anveshak shows mercy, they expect a devotion to redemption. When an anveshak metes out justice in the form of death, they must have ascertained there is no hope for redemption, no value to mercy for the perpetrator, then side with mercy for the aggrieved.

In many cases, anveshaks will capture even the worst perpetrators and bring them back to face judgment by a council of anveshaks. In the field, there are times when someone's life is in danger when an anveshak must pass judgment themselves, and there are times when a crime is so egregious judgment is too clear to ignore. But most, even some of the worst, are captured and brought in. If an anveshak metes out judgment of death, they must return to the council to prove it was justified. If they mete out other judgment but show mercy, they must return and ensure the perpetrator is truly seeking redemption. If the perpetrator fails, the anveshak will often bring them in for judgment before the magistrates.

Those who are chosen to be anveshaks must be those who have experienced deep injustice. They must feel its evil in their bones, it is said. Anveshaks are always called within their hearts and driven to seek out justice, true justice, in the face of grievous injustice. As such, they gain compassion for others who suffered injustice. When an anveshak is called within their heart, they often find themselves visited by agents of justice, usually swans, which challenge them. If they are found worthy by these agents, they are sent via a vision to find an anveshak to be their mentor. Many, many anveshaks come from other law enforcement groups that work for ruling classes. Often times they are true believers in justice who conflate it with law and order or the authority of the king or president. Eventually, they see the truth and become disillusioned with the lies of the powerful. Many such simply quit or suffer through, but some few who experience or witness grievous injustice find it in themselves to become true fighters for justice. However, if they have spent much time serving injustice, they must redeem themselves first with a quest. A potential anveshak seeking redemption for former crimes (be they disillusioned former law enforcement or others who have done harm before) must go on a quest either to confront the powers that once commanded them or to pay resitution to their victims. If neither is applicable or possible (or simply too big to be reasonable), they are sent to confront unrelated evil.

The swans, or other agents of justice, who test anveshaks test them three times: once when they are first called, once when they finish training, and once when they seek to become an independent anveshak:

• Calling: an internal trial wherein they face their own fears, regrets, and shame.
• Deputization: once they finish training, they are deputized and face their mentor in several tests of knowledge, combat, tracking, and ethics.
• Matriculation: after a year or so, they are tested again to see if they are ready to work on their own, this time facing a independent mission as a trial.

At teach trial, they gain new powers as yellow light suffuses their bodies.

Once someone is an independent anveshak, they are able to conduct their own investigations into any injustice they sense or are told about. They are aided in their investigations by having both PRS bonuses (+1 as deputy, +3 as anveshak) only during investigation.

If the target of their investigation flees or seeks to escape somehow, they gain temporary tracking abilities of 13 or +3 if they have a 13 or more already.

Individual anveshaks have powers that are usually circumstantial:

• Sensing injustice: their bones resonate when active injustice is played out near them and as a faint buzz when they are near major, ongoing injustices. Because within class societies, injustice is everywhere, many anveshaks learn to ignore the buzz.
• Deputizing: anveshaks can temporaily deputize others for up to 25 hours, granting them faint injustice sense and bonuses to tracking, reaction, and prowess.
• Rallying: when in desperate danger, when in most need, anveshaks can call other anveshaks who are within range of rescuing them.
• Steed: many anveshaks form an emotional bond with their mounts and can speak to them rudimentarily, call them if they are in range, and move gracefully with them.
• Stunning rope: if a target is caught in their rope and is truly believed to be a source of injustice, their rope will stun them into insensibility at command.
• Speed draw: anveshaks can give themselves higher reaction, but it will slow them down later, depending on the bonuses they apply. The higher the bonus, the quicker the come down, capping at +6 for one round of combat, -6 the next.
• Swansong: if an anveshak is about to die, they can sing to the swans and call upon a flock from anywhere in the world to continue their present fight.

Collective powers are less circumstantial, but require a number of anveshaks working together:

• Yellowflare: a brief flare of yellow energy stuns all alleged perpetrators within 30 yards of a group of three anveshaks working together to invoke this power.
• Blackrope: a single rope becomes as long as the ropes of all anveshaks within 30 yards and has the stun and entangling power of all ropes together.
• True invocation: 12 or more anveshaks together may place hands upon a target and invoke the truth, forcing them to speak honestly.
• Speaking the Code: 12 or more anveshaks together may speak the Code, word for word, in unison, to make it the binding law of a place delineated by their riding around it.
• Red badge: a single anveshak's badge glows red, giving its wearer major protections from infernal powers, if seven or more anveshaks place their power in the chosen anveshak.
• Blue star: a single anveshak's badge glows blue, giving its wearer major bonuses to combat against infernal powers, if seven or more anveshaks place their power in the chosen anveshak.
• Light of justice: 12 or more anveshaks together may call upon the light of justice to burn the unjust within 30 yards.

An anveshak is given three items to serve justice: a badge, a lariat, and a weapon. The weapon is usually a throwing blade or staff. Many have steeds. Steeds vary greatly by culture for anveshaks, but they are almost always a supernatural version of the commonest steed available.

They are outlawed in imperial lands.

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

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Dreptor

Type: Hunter

A dreptor is a common person who is filled with outrage at the harm the undead have done and finds the power to hunt and destroy them.

The undead are corrupted souls or bodies who have continued acting alive despite being dead, and they need to harm the living to continue existing. They are violations of natural law and all things good, and what they do to survive is parasitic, cruel, and wrong. Some are cursed to be undead unfairly, and the injustice of their existence is outrageous. Others have chosen to become undead for the sake of power, and what they do is an act of tyranny.

Dreptori are usually people who have been harmed by the undead or lost a loved one to them. Or seen the damage they do to communities. Or seen someone they loved enslaved by the power of undeath. They have some personal story, and it fills with them righteous anger. And that anger has fueled them to take up arms and magic to fight the undead.

Their righteous anger is a fuel so intense that they often become driven and obsessed, giving up their past lives. They are never very rich, never very powerful to begin with. They are common folk, serfs, peasants, slaves, workers, people who have nothing and know the injustice of it. And they see the undead as the culmination of that. They live their outrage, and that gives them magical power.

Usually, this ends with them dying horribly or ending up enslaved by the undead. But sometimes, they find the anger within them deep enough and strong enough to draw it forth as raw celestial fire and lightning. And they use it to fight the undead. This usually happens in a desperate moment when they are facing off against some relatively weak undead that is still too much for them. They find their anger, and they lash out, and the blue burning magic comes forth, and they are transformed.

• Core of outrage: a burning core of raw strength that allows them to ignore exhaustion.
• Righteous retaliation: if they find the specific kind of undead that harmed their loved one or caused them to start being a dreptor, they take high die on all rolls against them.
• Soul resistance: they can draw from their outrage to increase their ESS (by draining some PRS) when rolling against undeath magic to protect themselves from it.
• Justice’s instrument: the dreptor can give up their WIL (their free will) entirely and allow Justice to carry them in combat against a powerful undead, losing permanently up to 6 points of WIL but gaining bonuses (equal to penalties) to any stat, skill, or magic they need to defeat their foe.
• Transformation of judgment: they can call upon the power of judgment, the fires of celestial justice, to transform any common tool or object into a weapon against the undead, so long as it can reasonably be wielded as a weapon (so hammers, rakes, knives, and chair legs rather than paper, shirts, and egg shells).
• Unbidden lore: they can draw upon their outrage to have memories of undead lore that they could not possibly have, pulling it from the memories of all those unjustly harmed by the undead.
• Tracking flame: they can call upon their outrage if they see an undead being to mark it with their blue flames so they can sense it when it is within a few miles of them.
• Holy vengeance: if they meet the actual specific individual undead on whom they seek vengeance, they may give up their life to destroy them, but the power might not be enough to automagically succeed.

Dreptori usually follow up their transformation by seeking out knowledge and skills to become an effective undead hunter. Often, they have some mundane hunting skill because they live in a medieval society, but they spend much time becoming better at it. And they seek out knowledge and magic to fight the undead, finding the many tales that tell of how to defeat them. Often they seek to inspire others to join them. They are loath to hide their task, but they sometimes do in imperial lands, where they are seen as criminals.

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

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Morilec

Type: Wagoneer

A morilec is one who carries others to sanctuary. There are many dangers in the world, and a morilec studies them and knows what places best protect against them, and knows how to lead people to them. If a storm is coming, they know where to find a storm cellar. If a fire is raging, they know which way it is spreading and which way to flee. And if the undead are stalking the land, they know where holy ground is.

To become a morilec, one must believe in protecting others and be willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of others. They must consider themselves a living sanctuary and want to provide protection for any in need - if they are not purveyors of abuse, oppression, or exploitation. They must study the dangers common to their area and the magicks present, and they must live up to their values day in and day out. And they must work as a wagoneer on the dangerous roads of Ranu.

If they prove themselves as true believers in the virtue of sanctuary, and if they live as a guide and guardian, they will find magic growing within them to help with this responsibility. Many are trained by other morilec, but some come to it simply by believing in the virtue. Eventually, after years of work, they gain special abilities:

• Sense danger: the morilec can sense nearby dangers.
• Protective ward: the morilec can touch a target and take wounds for them.
• Guardian cloak: the morilec can cast a cloak, blanket, or other fabric they are carrying or wearing over another target and make it like a solid shell of armor for one attack.
• Sanctuary finding: the morilec can sense the safest place nearby.
• Rescuer’s rush: the morilec can carry someone in danger and gain bonuses to speed and movement to rush them to safety.
• Safe wagon: they may make their wagon into a temporary magical sanctuary for a night.

In imperial lands, morileci are criminalized. In Ranu in general, they keep themselves secret but offer support to those who must travel through dangerous areas, often asking little in return. They are well-versed in the magicks of the area, including how to protect against the many kinds of undead. They are good with horses and wagons.

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

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Povratnik

Type: Guide

Povratniki are those who can always find their way home. A povratnik is someone who has a deep and powerful bond to their home, magically so, and can help others get to their homes as well.

To become a povratnik, one must build their own home. They must perform special rites over the hearth in the home. They must obey the laws of hospitality. And they must use no infernal, imperial, or industrial methods or materials in the building of the home. Then, they must live in the home for a year and a day, learning every part of it, and spending time being an active and positive part of their local community.

After a year and a day, they will feel a sense of belonging deep within themselves, and this magic will let them recognize the need in others for a similar sense. They will then go and seek those who need a home and offer them help. They either take people into their own home, help them find a place for themselves, or help them claim the home they are in. They respect the nuances between stewardship and sovereignty, but they also defy the lords in terms of who has the rights to the land, the homes, and the resources therein.

Some of their magical abilities include some of the following. Some are required, and some may be chosen by the player to fit their character:

• Home-finding: the povratnik can always sense where their own home is, where the home of anyone they have a positive Relationship Motivation for is, or, if they choose to use more of their magic, where someone might find a home if they have none
• Step of return: the povratnik can return to their own home with a single step no matter where they are on Shem, so long as the rites of hospitality are met and the home is secure
• Invocation of guest right: if visiting someone else’s home, the povratnik may invoke guest right and be safe for a night; this may extend to up to seven people with them
• Hearthfire: if the hearth is burning in their own home, the povratnik may either draw from it to provide warmth to another or put it out by unleashing its heat as an attack
• Power of invitation: the povratnik can invite someone to their home and give them free access, but if they make no invitation, no infernal being may enter their home
• Talisman of sanctuary: the povratnik can instill the power of their home into an object and hang that object within the home to give it more protections from the infernal
• Room of relief: the povratnik may designate a room in their own home or that of a consenting other as a room to provide emotional, mental, and physical relief from pain
• Room of comforts: the povratnik may designate a room in their own home or that of a consenting other as a room to provide basic comforts magically, creating food, water, sleeping needs, bathroom needs, or other basic mundane necessities for a certain amount of time
• Aura of belonging: the povratnik may invoke an aura about themselves that makes others feel like they belong
• Homemaking: the povratnik may perform a ritual cleaning, maintenance, and basic organizing for someone’s home in order to lighten the burdens of domestic work - in other words, they clean, repair, and organize (with consent), and the magic of it makes domestic work easier for a while longer
• Shared build: the povratnik, upon finding a place that they sense magically is a fitting spot for someone specific’s home, may call them and others together and complete the building of a home in a day and a night, assuming suitable materials are accessible
• Wall of salt: the povratnik may draw the strength of the walls of their home magically into a circle of salt to create a magical barrier
• Offer of guidance: the povratnik may offer bread, water, salt, or wine to someone, and grant them guidance on finding their own home
• Breaking bread: the povratnik may share bread with someone, even outside their own home, and invoke the power of hospitality
• Deep rest: the povratnik may allow someone to sleep in their home and help them recover faster form wounds, ailments, injuries, or illnesses
• Welcoming presence: if the povratnik says someone is welcome, they will feel it to the core of their being

Povratniki are very powerful, very rare, and very criminalized by imperials. They are feared and hated by the lords and the undead, for they represent a form of safety that is difficult to defeat.

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

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Tragachsrca

Type: Seeker

A tragachsrca (trah-gatch-sur-ca) is a seeker who is driven by romantic love to complete a quest. Usually, they have a tragic backstory involving the subject(s) of their romantic love being harmed somehow, and they go out on a quest to find some way to save them. The romantic love they feel empowers them as they seek answers and methods to save their loved ones.

To become a tragachsrca, one must experience a profound and powerful romantic love for someone or someones. This love must be sincere, healthy, and either requited or respectfully and healthily unrequited. And then tragedy strikes. Either a rare poison, a curse, the power of undeath, an illness, or something that is slow and awful but also potentially repaired, cured, healed, or lifted. And the tragachsrca must vow to find the repair, cure, heal, or lifting. This vow, fueled by their love, becomes the source of their magic.

If the tragachsrca has more than one subject of romantic love in their life, the player may choose to have only one of them afflicted, or all of them. If they choose the former, they may decide how the other subject of romantic love feels about the situation and help the GM design these NPCs. The player will also design the main subject of romantic love. Note that while these characters may be of any gender, imperial cultures are patriarchal and will oppress queer and trans characters - but fighting patriarchy is part of the fun of the story.

By their very nature, tragachsrca have their magic temporarily. Any other magical abilities they had in their old life fade as they begin to use their new magic:

• Heart’s desire: the tragachsrca can sense the feelings of those they have romantic feelings for and know their condition and location.
• Sapphire guidance: the tragachsrca can draw upon their love and unleash a beam of blue light that guides them in their journey, showing the next direction they should travel.
• Message of love: the tragachsrca can send an emotional message to anyone they have romantic feelings for from great distances.
• Romantic heroism: the tragachsrca takes the high die on a specific kind of roll for their quest. It can be a specific stat, substat, skill, lore, or innate power, decided by player in consultation with the GM.
• Dashing: a dashing hero/ine should dash - the tragachsrca can move with great speed in service to their quest on occasion.

Upon completion of their quest, they take high die on all PRS rolls with the subjects of their romantic love, but their tragachsrca abilities fade away unless a new quest presents itself.

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

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