Unaligned Wranglers

Bulecreier

Type: Amphibianist

Bulecreiers are people who use chemicals from local amphibians to enhance their minds, link their minds to said amphibians, and become wielders of psionic magic. They are an obscure occupation found mostly in Rendru, amongst the peoples living along the Fluxul Zeitei.

To become a bulecreier one must usually be apprenticed to another bulecreier, and one must study for years. One must train the mind to both be able to extend itself beyond the head and to think like an amphibian. To do this, they study them closely, usually after capturing and keeping them for as long as they can manage to keep them alive. When they die, they eat them to absorb the mental chemicals in them. After many years of study and diet, they are able to extend their mental magic and connect with a specific amphibian. The amphibian they first do this with becomes their creipriet (“brain friend”) and close amphibious companion, a hive-minded animal they share every thought with (and vice versa).

So long as they have their creipriet, they have magical abilities to link minds with all amphibians:

• Sense amphibian minds: they can sense the minds of any amphibians within range (5' per point of AWA).

• Read amphibian thoughts: they can read the thoughts of nearby amphibians.

• Mind control amphibian: they can control an amphibian's mind.

• Amphibian instinct: they can invoke the instincts of amphibians, meaning they know when to leap away, when to hide, and when to catch and eat a fly.

Their creipriet will sometimes have control of their mind. This leads to awkward moments of trying to climb things, eat flies, jump, swim, or otherwise act like an animal at inopportune times. If they lose their creipriet, they may link with another after a period of living as a wild amphibian - they lose their minds and are taken over as the whole brain fills theirs. This varies by animal and bulecreier. This will require attuning to a different set of amphibian bodily chemicals, meaning a week or so of consuming them.

The commonest amphibians the player may choose from are as follows:

• Frogs: agile frogs, common frogs, edible frogs, marsh frogs, moor frogs, pool frogs, [european] tree frogs

• Newts: alpine newts, [danube] crested newts, northern crested newts, smooth newts, [greek] smooth newts

• Salamanders: fire salamanders

• Toads: common toads, common spadefoots, eastern spadefoot toads, [european] fire-bellied toads, [european] green toads, [european] toads, yellow-bellied toads

Bulecreiers become resistant and disease to poison by eating so many amphibians.

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

Cherv’kop

Type: Wormer

Cherv’kop are those who use worms to find the magical mineral resource known as menab’e. Menab’e is pure resource; it can be turned into almost anything. It is magical, potent, and dark red, almost black in color.

It can be found in an ore that must be collected into special sacks that help draw out the menab'e, the raw energy of resource, within it, which they then convert to special objects that allow them to draw on the esoteric resource in different ways.

In Ranu, the cherv’kops have learned to train and use worms to find menab’e. The worms are fed on tiny bits of it, which make them turn the same ruddy red as the mineral. A cherv’kop is usually trained by another cherv’kop, who gives them their first worms, and they learn how to care for the worms, train them, and feed them. The worms can sense the menab’e and dig for it, leaving a deep near-black red stain where the menab’e is located, usually near riverbeds or along cliffs. Once the menab’e is found, the cherv’kop must dig it out with unaligned or non-magical tools.

The ore is then collected into ruddysacks, which are used to smelt the ore as well as carry it. If someone else tries to carry it or use the menab’e they mined before they smelt and mold it, it will lose its power. They add water from the stream to the fire to make it capable of melting the ore or dividing the minerals, then pour the results into the ruddysack. They then carry it to a special location, pour it into a receptacle with stream water, let it separate and cool, forming cool liquid metal or a mineral solution and a separate muddy mixture. The mixture is removed, the solution is taken to a specially designed mold. In the mold, it hardens, creating a tool that can be used by anyone.

It can at this point be wielded by anyone who has been taught the method to tap into it - literally a tapping pattern that is determined by the shape of the mold and the ruddy who made it. No more than seven taps, no less than three, it is always in an arrhythmic pattern designed to be hard to guess. Once tapped, the mold will flash red and the user will have esoteric resources to draw upon. Tapped molds can do one of the following:

• Improve base stats temporarily

• Improve skills temporarily

• Improve powers temporarily

• Fuel unaligned powers or magic

• Fuel a battery or other power source

• Give temporary abilities

• Stave off death or unconsciousness for a round

• Remove penalties for a brief period, or some penalties

• Improve weapons, armor, or items temporarily

• Convert into aligned energies at the cost of the entire mold

Other uses are possible. Tapped molds get used up when the menab'e is gone. How much menab'e is in them depends on the original ore and the skill of the cherv’kop who made it.

Some of the menab’e must be used to feed the worms.

Cherv’kops will start with two molded objects with 10 points each, 25 points of unrefined menab’e, and a handful of tools.

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

Duhroi

Type: Pluribist

The duhroi are an Affarian cabal who follow a specific philosophy of attuning to their magical essence via meditation, study, and eating unexpected concoctions.

Long ago, the region they dwell in was under a vast sea that has now dried away or subsided (the histories are unclear). The remnants of what used to live there are found in the muck and dirt of Affaria and gathered by the duhroi to make into special powders, which they consume in rituals. They mix consuming this with meditations, exercises, and potent incenses and drugs. After many years of this, they have visions and dreams of the ancient animals that once lived in the seas, mostly lancelets (small, slender proto-fish).

After they start having these visions, they learn to draw from their own souls the ontological memories of these animals and create metaphysical versions of them, which float around them and form protective barriers, magical attacks, and other effects.

Every duhroi gains certain metaphysical lancelets that are imbued with powers related to their species, their parentage, and any milestones of their life thus far. If they have spent their whole life learning to be a duhroi, their magic is limited; thus, many are sent out into the world to amplify their magic and expand their abilities. All duhroi have the following to start:

• Soulswarm: they can summon a massive floating swarm of metaphysical lancelets around themselves. These can be used for different abilities or remain around them as an inherent magical defense.

• Lancelet lance: they can send up to a dozen metaphysical lancelets in a direct line attack at a target, harming its ESS.

• Metaphysical filtering: they can send a dozen lancelets at a target to feed off their magic, filtering out specific powers or abilities if they have seen the person use the power or ability.

They will also start with two other abilities based on their species or life milestones.

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

Glodach

Type: Rodentist

Glodaches (pronounced with a soft ch) are an Ottavian sect who are able to influence and control certain rodents by giving themselves up in a state of near-death. They must accept their mortality, give themselves over to the rodents to be devoured, and come through it as one with them.

The ritual to become a glodach is one in which the candidate gives up their belief in any Divine salvation or afterlife, believing only that they are their body, and that their body will become part of the rodents’. They cut a vital blood vessel, lie amongst the rodents of their choice (see below), and wait. If their belief is sincere and strong enough, the rodents lick their wounds closed, and they rise up able to speak to and influence them. If they are not, they die.

Most people spend many years in the sect and in study before they try this, and many die in the process. Those who die in the process are left to be devoured.

The sect keeps several species of rodent for their rites:

• Alpine marmot: climbing+3
• Snow vole: cold resistance+3
• Field vole: STH+1
• Tundra vole: endurance+3
• Souslik: ATH+1

They will have one of these as a permanent companion. Other rodents are acceptable, but never, ever any kind of rat, which they view as dangerous. The player may choose any rodent that lives in Eastern Europe, but the above come with the listed special abilities on top of some of the following:

• Rodentspeech: they can speak to any kind of rodent.
• Tiny size: they can make themselves tinier (reducing their size to 1/12th their normal size).
• Aestivate: they can go dormant for up to a month in the summer, coming out of it completely healed from injuries or disease.
• Disease resistance: they are much more resistant to common diseases.
• Rodent influence: they can persuade (roll PRS) any rodent other than rats to do what they want.
• Rodent’s time: they can know how close a specific rodent is to death.
• Soulbond: they can send their soul into the specific rodent they first bonded with, sensing via its senses and controlling it. If their main body dies while they are doing this, they become the rodent.
• Predator sense: they know when a dangerous predator is near, both for their rodents and themselves.
• Metaphysical bound: they can give up a point of ESS temporarily and turn it into 3 points of an ATH substat - running, jumping, climbing, swimming, or squeezing through narrow spaces.
• Mortal release: if they take a mortal wound, they can give up their life to let a swarm of rodents of their choice rise out of their body and attack their killers.

Glodachs are followers of the philosophy of mortalism, but their version of it is somewhat twisted. Other mortalists find them off-putttng and dangerous.

PRO +1 ATH +2 STR -2 AWA +1 WIL / PRS Mortals -2 Rodents +4 STH +1 ESS +2

Nepsakal

Type: Zoanthrope

Nepsakals have a magical code which they follow that allows them to transform themselves into a golden jackal to enforce.

To become a nepsakal, they must be trained in the code of their order (A Rézfog Rendje, Order of the Copper Fang) and prove their loyalty to it. After years of training, they are taken to the sanctum of their order, where they are tested. They are tested on their loyalty, their skill, and their knowledge of the code.

After the test, they must wait for anywhere between seven hours and six days. During that time, a jackal will come up and sniff them, someone in the order calls their name, or the time will pass and no reaction will occur. The latter means they are found unworthy; if they are found unworthy, they may try again five more times, once per year.

Then they take another six months to learn the final lessons of the order. The last step is spending six days in meditation upon the code, then facing their mentor in a special challenge designed to call out their own weaknesses. If they succeed, they are given a jackalskin. Once they put on the jackalskin, they gain the magic to take jackal form in service to enforcing the code.

Their magic allows them to invoke the code when facing violators of it:

• Jackal form: they may take the form of a large golden jackal, giving them superior senses, combat skill, and ferocity.

• Immunity to copper: any copper weapon will cause them no harm.

• Pack sense and call: they can sense when other nepsakals are near and can call to them.

• Invocation of the code: in jackal form, if they invoke the code, they take high die against violators.

• Sense violation: the jackal form can smell when someone has violated the code.

Nepsakals are from Idangar, where they serve as enforcers of an ancient code derived from the rituals and practices of the oldest Idangarian cultures.

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

Pchelar

Type: Apiarist

Pchelars belong to an Ottavian sect known as the Divine Hive (Božanska Košnica), an obscure faith who serve unaligned deities through beekeeping. They believe the bees represent the perfect method of serving the Divine - through communal living, constant labor, and connectedness through mind and soul. They seek through spiritual practice to achieve this amongst each other.

Two most common unaligned Divines worshiped among the Cesti are the most common served by pchelars:

• Četvrti, the Four Faces of Being, a four-in-one Divine who represents the mind, the body, the soul, and the heart (emotion)

• Sodba, the Law-Father, he who taught law to mortality

But others are possible, as long as they are unaligned.

To become one with the bee hive, they must study the faith for many years. They must also be trained in bee-keeping, building a bond with the bees not just as a caretaker but also as one of them, letting them touch their bodies without protection. (Those who are allergic are carefully kept away from this activity and allowed to just be secondary members of the sect. They’re not cruel, but your PC will not be allergic. In fact, they’ll be resistant.)

Faith in their Divine is the key to their communion with the bees and vice versa. They must believe their Divine will protect them from the bees, and they must believe service to and emulation of the bees pleases their Divine. There are some variations depending on the Divine they worship, but there are rites and rituals that indoctrinate them and initiate them. When they are ready, they soak themselves in honey, rest amongst the bees, let them cover them, and commune until they sense the mind of the hive. Once this is done, they believe they see the face of their Divine as well.

After this, they may roll their Divine favor to control and influence the bees, and they may build Divine favor by serving and working with the bees. The abilities that come with this vary by Divine.

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

Proiectant

Type: Reptilianist

Proiectants design new, experimental reptiles using magical science. They tap into this power via using themselves as an experiment, allowing their mind to connect to the energy of experiments, then using that to heighten themselves and allow them to see and sense the energies, wielding them for further experimentation.

The process starts with a simple thought experiment, usually taught to them by a mentor or teacher, in which they imagine something within a glass container. They study the theory of the magic and the fundamentals of science (as understood in this era), then write out how something they have imagined would work. If it is scientifically sound within the bounds of reality and magic, they are allowed to try the thought experiment again. After years of practice at this, they will make a spark appear in the glass container (which is usually a special kind of glass).

They can then take this and apply it, attempting to design a new reptile with the energies they create, or to redesign existing ones to feature aspects of other reptiles. A turtle with venom, a snake with pteranodon wings, a crocodile with a shell, etc. They must have a living reptile to work on. This specific scientific endeavor is part of a long tradition in Rendru especially, where the poiectants have been importing reptiles from around the world to their secret laboratories and exclusive universities. They are classic mad scientists.

Players will decide if they come from a secret tradition or a rich background.

Players may choose two reptiles from the below list. One will be the base, and the other will be the one they took a feature from to create their main reptilian companion / experiment subject.

• Chelonian: hawksbill sea turtles, loggerhead sea turtles, green sea turtles, [european] pond turtles

• Crocodilian (only if you’re rich): [nile] crocodiles are imported from the far south or the Island Bridge for various experiments, but only the richest or most successful poiectants can find them to work on.

• Dinosaur (aspect only): ajkaceratops, elopteryx, magyarosaurus (from Idangar), thecodontosaurus, zalmoxes

• Lizard: blue lizards, blue-throated keeled lizards, [european] copper skinks, eastern slowworms, [kotschy's] geckos, [pallas’s] glass lizard, [balkan] green lizards, [european] green lizards, [mediterranean] house geckos, [european[ legless lizards, sand lizards, [common] slowworms, [mediterranean] thin-toed geckos, viviparous lizards, [common] wall lizards

• Pelycosaur (only if you’re rich): just west of the region, pelycosaurs are a little more common.

• Plesiosaur (aspect only): plesiopteryxes

• Pteranodon (only if you’re rich): volgadraco is the commonest in the area, mostly from Vesturia.

• Snake: aspic vipers, [european] blind snake, blotched snakes, [european] cat snakes, dice snakes, grass snakes, [european] horned viper, meadow vipers, [european] ratsnakes, smooth snakes, [balkan] whip snakes

They will be able to experiment on this companion animal or capture new reptiles to work with. To take an aspect from one animal to another, they will need a lab space to work with. They will also need to have an example of that animal or a relevant part of its body.

If you choose to play this, prepare to research reptiles to be able to make experimental reptiles. Focus on ones from Eastern or East-Central Europe. Any reptile, extant or extinct, is fair game if it is from Eastern Europe. If it is not from Eastern or East-Central Europe, you must justify its presence via backstory. Consult the GM for magical reptiles or for what countries qualify.

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

Puternist

Type: Kennel

Puternists are those who use their own vital essence to tend, keep, and heal canines. They are bonded to specific canines by sharing vital essence, making it so that they live so long as the dog does and vice versa.

To do this, they must learn to sense and understand their own vital essence, an energy in their blood and viscera. This is done through special exercises, diet, and rituals of blood-letting and self-surgery that allow them to feel their insides. The gruesome work is done by their mentors, who vivisect them, keep them alive by feeding them the guts of the dog they are due to be bonded to, and show them their own organs so they learn them (just their guts, though).

The dog undergoes the same process. When this is done, if they survive, assuming they have done the right exercises and diet, they are bonded to the canine and know its lifeforce and their own. They can draw healing from the dog to heal themselves or other canines. They can feed the dog by feeding themselves; they can feed other dogs by feeding their dog. The bond is strange and inconsistent, but very powerful.

Dogs they may bond with include the following:

• [Polish] Aeslan hound
• [Transylvanian] Affarian hound
• Cesky terrier
• Cuvac dog
• [European] dhole
• Golden jackal
• Grey wolf
• Karakachan
• Komondor
• Mudi dog
• [Romanian] raven shepherd
• Rough-haired terrier
• Puli
• Pumi
• Vizsla

Affarian hounds are the most common, as this practice is most common in Affaria.

PRO +1 ATH +2 STR +2 AWA +1 Smell +1 Hearing +1 Vision -1 WIL -1 PRS -1 STH / ESS -1