Fey Enlighteners

Those who wield fey magic to teach, learn, or gather information.

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Dialectician

Type: Historian

Dialectics is the study of how things change through history. Esoteric dialecticians learn to use the power of the past, which is the vast reserve of power from that which comes before by using special lenses to "review" the past, using memorization techniques to picture specific moments, and then drawing those moments. Once they are drawn, those moments can be invoked to give skills, powers, and insights from the past.

With a special lens, a dialectician can look into the past at their location. The past is a chain, a line that has been made and cannot be unmade without great risk to the present. In order to review it, one can only look to where the past has been, not where it could have been. This includes locations. The past is linked to place as much as anything else. The location of a planet changes greatly over a 100 years, but the past is a rigid line. Thus, if you look into the past 100 years while in your bedroom, you will see where your bedroom was 100 years ago.

What a dialectician does see is the flow of forces within the space they look into. This will be in the form of sepia-toned light that moves and shades based on the forces at play. They will also be able to see moments play out on loop. The amount of time they can go back, how long the loop is, and how far they can explore within that moment are determined by their own will and by the power of the lens they have.

A moment can be reviewed eight times before it is inaccessible to the reviewer. If the reviewer does not return to the moment within a year and a day of the first reviewing, that moment is then lost to them even if they did not review it eight times. One may only review a moment once per month (28 days). If the moment is invoked, it must be re-reviewed in order to be invoked again. Furthermore, because moments are all tied to one another, moments cannot be reviewed if they are connected. One may only choose one moment on a major chain. Identifying where a chain begins and ends is part of the study of history and dialectics done by the dialectician.

In order to create a dialectical lens, one must have the proper materials. The glass must be imbued with the energy of what has come before while it is made, and it helps if the glass is made from hari, a special kind of glass already imbued with the past. However, one can imbue glass with this energy during the glass-making process by special timing procedures that require a lot of waiting, a lot of heating of the materials, and observation of the world around. This usually requires a special place (a high mountain-top, for instance) where one can watch the world and its goings on. And then one must wait until something significant happens while they observe, then time the blowing of the glass to that. This creates distorted, strange glass pieces which are then broken up and ground into lenses.

Then the hard part begins. The lenses as they are have minor amounts of that which has come before, and are thus not useful to reviewing. If they are used fresh, they will be used up immediately. Instead, they lenses are placed into special cases (usually carrying eight lenses at a time), and these cases are carried on a long journey. The lenses must be in movement for at least a year and a day before they are usable. Truly useful lenses are used sparingly, once a year at most, usually once every ten years, until they have observed and absorbed many, many, many special moments and events in history. The best lenses are passed down through generations in a family.

New lenses are made every year, but the ones commonly in use have been in use for thousands of years.

Age of Lens	Number of Uses	Reviewing Distance	Moment Area	Sensitivity to Forces
1 day	1	10 years	10'	-6
1 year and 1 day	10	100 years	100'	-3
1,000 years	2,000	5,000 years	1,000'	+6
2,000 years	4,000	10,000 years	1,250'	+9
5,000 years	10,000	50,000 years	2,000'	+12
10 years	100	500 years	500'	0
10,000 years	20,000	500,000 years	5,000'	+15
100 years	1,000	1,000 years	750'	+3

Once reviewing a moment in the past, a dialectician must memorize the moment and the forces at play. This means memorizing as much as possible about it. Color, size, shape, people, sounds, tastes, smells, everything. To do this, they practice memorization and meditation for hours every day, as well as studying the history they are about to look into. The more they know, the more they can understand the forces at play. A good dialectician will be able to render what they memorized in significant detail. Sketching is best done on paper with simple drawing tools, charcoal or graphite. The better the sketch, the easier the invocation. The sketch must capture moments, and thus, usually, it is multiple sketches. If they render a perfect sketch, they will then be able to do one of the following things:

• Drawing from the past: the dialectician can temporarily take skills, stats, abilities, or powers from the people in their drawings as if they experienced the past in the same way as the person, thus gaining their scores. This uses up a certain amount of the sketch's power - 1 point per skill point, 2 points per substat, 3 points per main stat, 4 points per ability, 5 points per power.
• Historical insight: the dialectician can learn something from a sketch that gives them an understanding of the historical moment it is from. This is simply a roll of history, dialectics, or AWA, but the more complex the information they seek, the higher the difficulty.
• Ancient object: the dialectician can take an object from a sketch and make it temporarily real in the present moment. If they return it to the sketch, the past remains unchanged, but if they do not return it within eight minutes, the past is altered dangerously. The size and power of the object determines the difficulty of drawing it out.
• Present location: the dialectician can locate an object, descendant, or location from the sketch in the present by studying the sketch for eight minutes per 10 miles of distance from the present location of the dialectician.
• Deriving the present: by studying the sketch for eight hours, the dialectician can determine the present condition of the location in the sketch.
• Internal review: the sketch can be taken from for raw energy by the dialectician to examine their own past via meditation, 1 point per 5 years into the dialectician's past.
• Recreate: if the entire power of the sketch is used up, the dialectician can recreate the moment in the present in an illusory manner to learn everything about it.
• Alter the sketch: the dialectician can use the same materials they used to make the sketch to change it, thus changing the past, which is absurdly dangerous and renders the sketch useless

Sometimes a dialectician will seek a greater resonance with the past, and will thus either recreate costumes or other trappings of the moment, or they will find actual objects that were present at the time. This can give significant bonuses if done well.

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

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Enlightener

Type: Philosopher

Enlighteners study meaning, symbols, and learning. They find symbols in everything and understand them, find deep meaning in them, and are able to predict upcoming events, find secrets, and discover information others might not understand via the symbols present. The only local culture with enlighteners are on the Green Moon.

Their study of symbols is indepth and takes years to master. Depending on how they are taught, they might end up with a different catalogue of symbols to work with. Imperials and colonials, workers, and locals all use different sets of symbols, but they often have similar meanings:

Green Moon	Imperial	Popular	Meaning
Avangeline (flower)	Bag	Hands	The presence of something bigger than expected.
Bangle	Stitch	Spear	A deeper meaning.
Dagger	Crowd	Crown	Danger.
Fish	Perfume	Footprint	Movement and currents. Flow. Journeys.
Green	Door	Circle	A place.
Hammer	Chain	Arm	Creation and crafting.
Jewel	Broken mirror	Mask	Many facets, many perspectives.
Line	Sword	Shield	A direction, a clear path. Fate.
Morning star (the star)	Blood	Owl	Guidance and understanding.
Nine	Three	Thirteen	Magic.
Pellet	Finger	Pebble	The presence of something smaller than expected.
Red	White	Blue	Conflict.
Silver	Serpent	Shawl	Beauty and grace, reflection and cycles.
Tiara	Crown	Check mark	Authority.
Violet (flower or color)	Yellow	Lilac	Stories / Control / Hope
Yellow	Powder	Laurel	Information and analysis.

It's not simply the presence of a symbol - many are often present or predictably present - but which symbols the enlightener notices when seeking guidance. Symbols come in batches of one to nine. The enlightener knows that if they close their eyes, focus and meditate, then open their eyes, the first set fo symbols they see will tell them what they need to know. A symbol may be present literally or figuratively (an actual sighting of the morning star or a drawing of one will suffice). Mechanically, the enlightener asks a question of the GM, rolls AWA after meditating, and the difficulty varies by question. The better their roll, the more symbols they see (Tie - one, NS - three, SS - five, ES - seven, CS - nine). Failures result in wrong symbols being reported in a reverse scale (the GM ALWAYS rolls where the player cannot see). The GM then answers their question by listing symbols, and the player uses the chart above to interpret. If their intrepretation is too far off, the GM should confirm or deny in order to help guide the player.

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

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Garta

Type: Critic

Gartai use their skills for analysis of stories and legends to find commonalities and discover magicks to wield. They wield magical scalpels made of magical fairy bronze that can cut into the fey energies of the world, dividing them into discrete parts, and allowing them to be used individually.

To gain this power, gartai either must make a deal with a powerful fey being or learn how to use them from a mentor or teacher; either way, the process always involve dissecting their own story using their own scalpel. As they do this, they must remove certain parts of it - erasing pieces of their past - and sacrifice them either to their fey benefactor or to fey energies as a concept. Regardless, they lose memories, skills, and lores when they do this, but they are replaced with abilities.

A garta uses their scalpel on the stories they research in order to improve them (as per their preference or that of their fey benefactor). They are careful only to do this to works of fiction; if they tried to do it to works of history, they might alter reality too much and cause real damage. Even their initiating alteration of themselves is a risk. Gartai collect certain stories they have altered and keep them as sources of power; drawing specific energies from them piece by piece.

Different energies do different things and are represented in the stories by different things. Some are obvious - fire in a story represents fire - while others are more complex. Some specific energies and symbols include the following:

Symbol	Represents	Effect	d100
Scalpel	Analysis	Sharpening the cuts made by the garta	1-11
Veil	Mystery and secrets, silence	Increased STH	12-14
Thread	Fate, certainty, the future	Predict target's next action	15-17
Net	Dream	See dreams	18-21
Mask	Character, perspective, mimicry, True Name	Bonus to read people substat (PRS)	22-25
Cup	Celebration, games, happiness, wine	Inebriate target	26-29
Mouth	Boasting, tall tales, exaggeration, hyperbole	Increase lowest or highest skill	30-32
Circle	Cycles, witchcraft, magic, Lore	Spell of protection	33-39
Cross	Crossroads, thresholds, transitions, crossings, bridges, connections	Teleport short distance	40-43
Mirror	Reflection, imagery, imagination, mind, thought, the subconscious	Glamour	44-47
Bag	Debt, weight, burden, quest, law, Tradition	Inflict geas	48-49
Antler	Hunt, death, Teind, endings	Increased PRO	50-51
Dawn	Harvest, light, rising	Increased STR	52-54
Walking stick	Journey, beginnings, middles, foolishness, uncertainty	Bonus to endurance substat (ATH)	55-58
Coin	Fortune, luck, wind	Alter target's luck	59-62
Eye	Truth, understanding, reporting	Improved AWA	63-66
Lens	The past, history, memory	Improved memory	67-70
Mountain tops	Lateral, nonlinear, jaggedness	Increased lowest stat	71-72
Wand	Magic, energy, learning, soul	Increased WIL	73-77
Yarn	Stories, performance, conflict, war, blood	Increased highest stat	78-85
Hand	Present, the now, life	Clairvoyance	86-89
Bull	Place, maze, defense, setting	Alter surrounding area	90-92
Tongue	Surprise, mischief, trouble, chaos, wild magic, emotion	Mockery	93-96
Voice	Communication, words, language	Understand language	97-100

When a garta alters a story, not just the symbols and energies they remove are affected. The whole story is altered. When they alter the story, they must reroll to see what symbols and how much of them are present. They begin the game with one story and roll a d100 (see fourth column of chart above) 4d6 times. When they roll something, they then roll a 3d8 to see how many points of it they have. If they roll the same thing more than once, they have that many more points in it.

This chart is only for the non-standard symbols. Standard symbols are fire (1-5), water (6-10), ice (11-15), metal (16-20), stone (21-25), wind (26-30), moons (31-35), sun (36-40), light (41-45), shadow (46-50), music (51-55), glass (56-60), landscapes (61-65), stars (66-70), microbes (71-75), food and drink (76-80), health (81-85), animal (86-90), plant (91-95), and fungus (96-100), represented by themselves. Roll a d100 2d6 times to see which standard symbols are present, and 3d8 to see how many points of each.

Once a story is used up, it is gone forever. A garta does not want this - they want a "perfect" version of a story, as they see it. The player determines what that means in terms of symbols and points. Once the story is perfect, they will have to find another to wield. This means finding stories with magic living in them, captured in rare fey books, and dissecting them.

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

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Hyperlinguist

Type: Scientist

Hyperlinguists study the First Language, but they do not speak it. They can read and understand it, and therefore they can write it, but they cannot speak its words. As the First Language is exactly what it says it is, it is related to all other languages on Shem, its moons, and other planets in the system. It is not related to languages of aliens from outside the solar system. This allows hyperlinguists to understand any language and to study them as well.

It takes decades to study the First Language enough to wield its deeper meanings and linguistic importance in a magical way. A hyperlinguist uses their knowledge of its relationship to other languages to alter meaning, find commonalities, and create new words that have special power. This is entirely written, however, and must be invoked by someone else reading them or by infusing some object with the power of the language.

What can be done with the First Language varies by user. Some common effects include the following:

• Increased understanding: the reader will gain points in a skill or lore based on what they are told.
• Disrupted understanding: the reader will cease understanding something, or everything, temporarily, losing points in a skill or lore.
• Delayed understanding: the reader will come to understand what they were told in a deeper way later.
• Lateral connection: the reader will learn something from what is unsaid by making a lateral logical leap.
• Hyperinscription: the object with the language written on it gains a certain effect depending on the words used on it, always related to language, communication, or understanding.

Lies can be written, but lies in the First Language have their own power (disrupted understanding). These effects cannot be undone, even by other uses of the First Language. Furthermore, the reader may interpret differently than the speaker intends, altering the power of the Language upon them - but only the most nimble minds can do this (AWA vs. the power of the words). A lack of ability to comprehend the First Language can also be an impediment. Though the language can break past barriers, some are impenetrable (notably, an inability to understand language at all). An unliving rock will never be affected by the language simply via the act of writing - it must be infused through a magical process known as hyperinscription. Some beings are beyond the reach of the First Language, but most are not if they are alive. It just takes finding the right words, and the right words are sometimes very hard to find.

Finding source of the First Language is very difficult, so hyperscientists often spend a lot of time seeking them out.

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

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Legendarian

Type: Scholar

Legendarians study characters and perspectives from ancient legends in order to understand them and wield their power. They are imbued with the power of legends when they do this, using their legend lore to draw from them and mimic the abilities of legends, myths, and famous characters.

To do this, they either must learn fey magicks rare and powerful from another fey being or make a deal with a fey being, giving up much of their own personality in exchange for that of some figure of legend. If they do this, this legend will be their primary source of power. If they do learn it the hard way, they will still need to make sacrifices of their own self in favor the identities of the legends they draw from. This takes years to learn and requires access to potent fey lore. They usually have teachers or masters who are slowly merging with some legend and going mad, which is the fate of most legendarians.

Every legendarian will have three legends to draw from to begin with, but each use they must roll their PRS against the power they draw from it. Failures mean they lose part of themselves and become more like the legend. They may gain more legends by rigorous study or making further deals with their fey benefactor.

There are far too many legends to list. Players may choose to make up legends in consultation with the GM, base legends on beings from Earth and adapted to Shem by the GM, or to use existing legends of Shem (again, in consultation with the GM). They will develop a character page for the legends and be able to draw any ability or power of the legend (anything magical) to use.

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