Elemental Troupers

Those who wield elemental magic for art or entertainment.

---

Frostsinger

Type: Musician

The ancient frostsingers of the polar regions, these are the wielders of the elemental magic of the cold, of ice and snow via song.

In order to wield elemental snow and ice with their voices, frostsingers must have some source of it from nature, freshly fallen snow being best. They hold this in their mouths as they sing, at least at first, in order to command the cold with their voices.

Frostsingers eventually learn how to lower their own body temperatures in order to be able to always wield the cold with their voices. They do this by a series of meditations and ice baths, followed by singing sessions and wearing heavy blankets and furs. They do this over and over again for six winters, and they will, if they are skilled and dedicated enough, have mastered their own body temperatures, allowing them to live at several degrees below normal body temperature for their species.

Because their body temperature is vital to their craft, they become weak if their temperature rises due to fever. A fever can render their powers unusable, sometimes permanently. As such, they guard against disease rigorously via diet, exercise, and preventative medicines.

The frostsinger's music is heavy on words and requires no instrumentation. The special words used are chanted rhythmically, in combination with their lower body temperatures, in order to draw forth the cold and send it where their voices land. Every time they use their music, they lose some of their body cold and must restore it later. The better a singer they are, the more efficient they are with their magic.

These are the commonest powers of their songs:

• Freezing chant: cause any object's temperature to lower by chanting at it.
• Dance of the snowflakes: control existing snow or ice via song.
• Aura of frost: give others the ability to survive lowered body temperature by singing an aura of frost around them.
• Chilling air: make the air uncomfortably, painfully cold and fill it with tiny icicles.
• Deep sounding ice: make water colder, painfully so, and create blocks of ice within it.
• Icicle melody: turn the moisture in the air into an icicle to wield as a weapon.
• Hoarfrost tune: leave a rime of frost around a target.
• Hailstorm lyric: make it hail.
• Sleet rhythm: make it sleet.
• Song of snow: make it snow.
• Icy wind wail: blasts of ferocious, icy winds.
• Split ice echo: open fissures in sheets of ice.
• Polar life calls: call or control animals, plants, or fungi that live in arctic/antarctic cold.
• Coldfire thrum: create a white flame that is cold instead of hot, that freezes to the point of "burning".
• Bloodfreeze chorus: freeze the blood in someone's body, usually killing them.
• Heartdrain dirge: drain emotions from a target.

Frostsingers working in a group, singing in deep-voiced harmony, can do much more powerful things with their songs:

• Iceberg rumble: especially useful at sea, a group of frostsingers can create, control, or call icebergs.
• Blizzard symphony: creating a blizzard.
• Thundersnow bombast: creating a thunderstorm with snow.
• Coldfire-storm thrum: creating a massive area attack of coldfire.
• Frostwall blast: a wall of freezing fog.
• Winterstorm cycle: massive blizzard.
• Snowwhirl dance: creating a tornado from icy winds.
• Elemental call: call or control ice elementals.
• Fissuring echo: open crevasses in glaciers.
• Heartfreeze dirge: completely destroy a person's emotional capacity.
• Icequake depth: cause massive ice-sheets or glaciers to rumble.
• Song of the North Wind: commune with and channel the powers of the North Wind.
• Glacial low: control or move entire fucking glaciers.
• Cryovolcanic scream: cause a cryovolcanic eruption or control an existing cryovolcano.
• Winter-dawning music: bring upon the season of winter, even if only temporarily, over an area.

Some frostsingers are a special kind called rimesingers, musicians whose songs bring the winter. Their powers are very similar, but more of them focus on aspects of winter beyond snow. Their powers attune to the seasons and get stronger in winter and weaker in summer, and they must perform special rites and festivals in the winter to maintain their powers.

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

---

Juxidin

Type: Athlete

A juxidin is an athlete who plays a special game in outer space called juxid.

Juxid is played along the orbit of any body orbiting the sun, a game involving a ball of heavy metal, free-floating players, and the orbital pull of spinning bodies. A juxidin must be attuned to the orbits of various orbital bodies, a friend to the cosmos and to nature, and able via innate power or technological means to survive in the void of space. If they are athletic and have these qualities, they will be recruited to one of the juxid teams, though many children living among the cosmic species and nations learn it growing up. A professional juxidin is an elite athlete.

To play juxid, one must be able to spin in an intense and consistent way, drawing in the heavy metal ball, which will orbit them until they stop. They must be able to stop suddenly and be able to target where the ball will go, all without ever touching it. Touching the ball - whether you touch it or it touches you - is a penalty. The object is to get the ball through one of the glowing rings at the edge of the three-dimensional playing zone. There are dozens of rings, each one colored to one of the six teams fielded at once. If a player gets six penalties, they are forced out of the zone for the rest of the game.

There are six balls in play, each one coded to a color, belonging to a team. Red, yellow, blue, green, violet, and white are the teams and the ball colors. Red gets one point for any goal except its own or white. It loses a point if it goes in a red goal, and it gains two points for white. Yellow gains two points for violet and loses one for yellow, and gains one for all others. Blue gains one point for green, loses a point for blue, and one point for all others. Green then is doubled for blue, loses one for its own, and gets one point for all others. Violet then is two points for yellow, loses one for its own, and gains one for all others. And white gains two for red, loses one for white, and gains one for all others. Colors are assigned by referees an hour before game.

Play lasts an hour. The team with the most points wins.

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

---

Parhelion

Type: Dancer

A parhelion is someone who wields elemental solar magic via special movements.

The dance of a parhelion takes the form of an analemma, a graph of the sun's position in the sky throughout the day, forming a figure eight. Through this dance, they gather the elemental magic to them, and with special ribbons, they guide its flow. At the start of the dance, they must look directly into the sun, and for this, they wear special veils.

Honeyed water is used by all parhelions in order to capture solar magic. Honey absorbs the energy, and the water cools it so it does not burn whatever is washed in the mixture. Parhelions dance with special ribbons made of sunsilk (+3) or any fabric washed in honeyed water (+0). These ribbons gather and guide the solar magic, and when whipped or moved in a different pattern, hurl the solar magic as directed by the parhelion.

Veils worn by parhelions that allow them to look directly at the sun are made either from a sunsilk gauze (+3) or from any kind of fabric washed in honeyed water (+0). When they look through these veils into the sun, they draw the solar magic into themselves, and then it flows out into the ribbons as they dance.

Parhelions who wish to use their powers after sunset or in enclosed spaces may gather solar magic by using a sundial. The sundial must be washed in honeyed water (+0) or made from sunstone (+2) or some other elemental solar material. The sundial will gather the magic during daylight hours and will lose it rapidly during night hours. In order to use the magic, the parhelion must perform a dance of gathering upon the sundial before the sun sets. Stored solar magic fades away rapidly outside of sunlight, but it can be preserved by further washing the ribbons (of any material) in honeyed water.

A heliostat is a device of mirrors that directs sunlight to a specific spot and holds it there. These devices are sometimes used by parhelions to make up for gathering or wielding of solar magic during a weaker point in the day.

The position of the sun and the planet the parhelion is on (presumed in this write up to be Shem). The closer the sun is to the planet, the more power the parhelion has; however, counterintuitively, the parhelion is stronger at dawn than noon, though noon is second in power during a typical day.

• Dawn: the most potent time of day for a parhelion (+6). As the sun rises, the parhelion can capture the first of its rays, which have the most elemental magic within them. After the sun has been up for about an hour, its power wanes (+5 to +1) until halfway (+0) to noon, when it begins to wax again (+1 to +4).
• Noon: at high noon, the sun is once again at great strength (+5), almost as strong as dawn, and then begins to wane until sunset (+4 to +0).
• Sunset: at sunset, the sun has a final flare of power (+1), making it marginally stronger than an hour or so before sunset.
• Night: at night, the sun's power is almost nonexistent, unless the parhelion has found some other source of solar magic (an enchanted object, for instance). Sunlight reflected off the moons becomes moonlight, and thus has lunar magic that weakens parhelions. (+0 to -6)
• Midnight Sun: in places where the sun does not set, it maintains power through the night, but does not reach the same power it does during the day. (+1 to +3)
• Perihelion: the perihelion, about two weeks after winter solstice (northern hemisphere), is the point at which the sun is most potent on Shem (dawn on the perihelion). (+3)
• Aphelion: the aphelion, about two weeks after the summer solstice (northern hemisphere), is the point at which the sun is least potent on Shem (sunset on the aphelion). (-3)
• Equinoxes: on the equinox, the sun is in perfect balance with the world, and thus, no bonuses or penalties apply. (+0)
• Summer Solstice: in either hemisphere, the summer solstice is stronger than other parts of the year. (+1)
• Winter Solstice: in either hemisphere, the winter solstice is weaker than other parts of the year. (-1)
• Eclipse: an eclipse affects the power of a parhelion based on the totality or lack thereof of the eclipse. A total eclipse weakens them the most (-6).

The location of a parhelion on Shem can affect their dance as well.

• Altitude: though most changes in altitude do not affect the power of a parhelion, being above the cloudline or in the upper atmosphere (where air is dangerously thin) can give a small bonus (+1 to +3).
• Weather: light cloudcover will not affect a parhelion's power, but if it is enough to be overcast (-1) it starts to affect it. A major thunderstorm can make it impossible to perform the dance (enough to black out the sky). Other things (ash, floating islands, etc.) can also cause blackouts or weakening. Fog and heavy mist may similarly cause problems.
• Indoors: being indoors obviously can make it impossible to perform the dance. If there's enough room to dance, a room with open windows and doors will cause a minor penalty (-1). Closed, clear, clean windows are a little more (-2). Tinted or colored glass further impede it (-3). And anything where there is no window or door means it is impossible. The less sunlight, the harder it is.
• Underwater: parhelions in who are under water but still in sight of the sun can theoretically perform the dance (with penalties to movement), but suffer from the heavy distortion of the sun (-6 and down). If the sun is not visible, the dance cannot be performed. If they are beings who live underwater, they have no penalties to the dance, but they still have due to distortion.
• Moons: on the moons, the dance is impossible.
• Cosmic: if a parhelion is in outerspace and not on a planet, their distance from the sun determines their power. The closer, the stronger. If they are close enough to die from its heat and radiation, they max out at +12. If they are outside the solar system, the solar magic's character changes into cosmic elemental energy.
• Sunspots: sunspots have a random effect on the dance of the parhelion (-9 to +9, roll a d20, reroll on a 20).

The dances of a parhelion reflect the phenomena and characteristics of the sun:

• Solar flares: the most basic attack used by a parhelion is a flare, a burst of solar magic flame.
• Solar wind: solar wind is a very hot wind blast that a parhelion can throw via their dances.
• Aurora / proton storm: aurora and proton storm dances are used by parhelions who release their powers at night. They light up the night sky with colorful displays and send cold blasts of solar magic that cause radioactive damage.
• Prominences or filaments: these are much, much stronger forms of flares that require a larger amount of magic.
• Magnetic field: the sun's magnetic field can be mirrored by the parhelion in a special dance, sending a wave of magnetism instead of solarflame.
• Solar disc: a solar disc is a black disc of solar magic that can be throw by a parhelion.
• Sun shield: a sun shield is a shield of glowing, molten fajari that is formed by the dance of a powerful parhelion and blocks esoteric attacks.
• Corona: the parhelion can imitate the effect of the corona (an aura of solar magic) through a special dance, which uses an enormous amount of magic to create a protective aura around the dancer.
• Solar elemental: parhelions can summon weaker solar elementals with a moderate amount of elemental magic via their dance.
• Solar hawk: the dance of the Solar Hawk unleashes a hawk-shaped solar elemental that acts as an independent being and fights of the parhelion for a brief period. This requires a large amount of magic.
• Solar lion: the dance of the Solar Lion unleashes a lion-shaped solar elemental that acts as an independent being and fights for the parhelion for a brief period. This requires a large amount of magic.
• Nova: a parhelion can perform a nova eruption (a sudden flash of solar magic and then rapid dimming) via a special dance that will deplete them of energy and leave them in a near-coma state for up to a year.
• Binary suns: two parhelions dancing together form a "binary sun" dance that doubles their power.
• Kilonova or luminor red nova: two parhelions dancing together can perform a these dances, which is essentially a double nova that nearly kills both dancers.
• Supernova: a supernova dance will kill the parhelion, but cause a devastating wave of solar magic.
• Sol Invictus: the dance of Sol Invictus lets the parhelion become an invicible solar elemental for a brief period. This requires a year's worth of stored up solar magic and leaves the parhelion very weak afterward for a year

Other powers may be possible. Consult the GM.

PRO +2 ATH +4 STR +1 AWA +3 WIL +2 PRS +2 STH -2

---

Phasist

Type: Actor

A phasist is an actor who responds to the phases of the moon they are on. Their performances have different effects depending on the phase.

To become a phasist, an actor must first practice the arts of theatre well enough to impress another phasist, who will then seek them out and recruit them to one of the special lunar theatrical companies. In the company, they are trained to attune to the movements of the moon they are on, learning over the course of years. Eventually, they must go out into the wilds during each phase of the moon they are on and perform. If they are good enough, if they are worthy, they moon will give them special performance abilities.

• Crescent moon dance: an elegant twenty-minute dance (from a musical play) that brings the audience into a magical hunt together.
• Waxing moon poetic: a sitrring ten-minute poetic monologue that gives bonuses to the highest and lowest scores on the audience's character sheets.
• Gibbous moon pantomime: a two-minute physical performance with no words that gives bonuses to ATH to the audience, even more so if they get up and play along.
• Half moon intermission: a five-minute intermission that acts as a full eight hours of rest for the phasist.
• Full moon performance: a full performance of an entire play, three hours long, that shines throughout the night, giving the audience reflective auras that repel esoteric energies, vision even in the dark, and glowing inner beauty for PRS bonuses.
• Waning moon lullabye: a quiet three-minute song (from a musical play) that makes the audience sleepy.
• New moon soliloquy: a powerful two-minute monologue that fills the eyes of the audience with darkness.

Each ability can only be used during its phase.

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

---

Sandsinger

Type: Musician

Those who dance, sing, and especiall whisper in the the deep desert to control the whispers of the deserts, which allows them control of the winds and sandstorms. They carry elemental sand in hourglasses that dance to their voices.

To become a sandsinger, one must wander the desert for 40 lunar-days and 40 lunar-nights, carrying only one bottle or skin of water. They must not spill any water upon the desert sands - not even their own sweat or urine - and so they must capture it. They wear special clothing and carry special containers for this. They are not allowed to remain in an oasis or near a body of water (not that there are any on the moons) for longer than six hours total over the course of the entire 40 lunar-days. And when, during the height of their exhaustion, the desert speaks to them, they must whisper back, and follow the voice, until they can hear the whispers clearly. Then they must sing with them. If they survive, they become a sandsinger. If they do not survive, they were not worthy, were not a friend to the deserts, the moons, or to nature. Most who wish to become a sandsinger train for years before attempting this.

Once they finish their 40 lunar-days, if they have been found worthy, they return home (if they do not die but also do not become a sandsinger, they go home in shame). They are given sustenance, which they drink and eat their fill of, then rest. Once they are recovered. they go back into the desert under a clear sky and sing to the spirits to thank them. If the spirits respond, they are allowed to remain in their home. If they do not respond, they must wander the desert as a sandsinger until the spirits answer. If they are allowed to return home, they serve their people and help them travel through or survive in the desert.

The voice of a sandsinger is their most profound power. Their voice makes the desert whispers respond, which causes the desert to respond. Because the volume of their voice affects the strength of their spells, they almost always whisper (even if not singing). If they sing loudly, the desert will respond loudly - with a sandstorm. Thus, their clothing always cover their faces as well, to dampen sound.

A sandsinger must carry sand from their own desert with them if they leave it, or they will lose their powers. If they have sand on them, they can control the wind, drain the air of humidity, move any nearby sand, cause intense heat, create mirages, sense water, or become a sand whirl.

They keep their sand in hourglasses, for they can measure how much time they have to get back to the desert. Depending on their proximity, power, and usage of their powers, their time varies, but it usually measures out to three days per point of skill. If they break open their hourglasses, a sandstorm will emerge. If they flip it back over to reverse their flow, it will drain their power more quickly, so they avoid this assiduously.

They are usually riders of some magnificent steeds.

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