Unaligned Reprobates

Criminals and others outside the law who wield unaligned magic.

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Complicator

Type: Conspirator

A complicator wields complex magic in order to create and enact schemes and plots. They create strange plans for criminal purposes.

Unlike numerologers, they do not wield the numerological insight of alphanumerics, but instead, use the magic of imaginary numbers to create the impossible. They do this via magical invocations done on special papers. These calculations must be invoked and directed via what they refer to as the Infinite Arts.

Complicators learn their craft after being brought in on a conspiracy and mentored by another complicator. They are required to study for extended periods, often without sleep, and once their minds are deprived from lack of sleep, they begin to understand the most bizarre facets of the Infinite Arts. This is repeated until the complicator is able to complete complex equations in their sleep, or until they're dead or mentally injured to the point of being incapable of function. Or usually, until they quit in rage and go take up a normal job.

Those few who make it through are then able to see connections no one else can see, understand complex situations more easily, and to plan for the improbable.

Some abilities they have include the following:

• Improbable guessing: the complicator invokes the imaginary in order to make guesses that seemingly make no sense but turn out to be correct.
• Expected the unexpected: the complicator invokes the imaginary in order to plan for things no one could reasonably predict, either resulting in having something they need for an unexpected situation or by predicting twist no one else could see coming.
• Layers deep: the complicator invokes the imaginary to see hidden connections between any two people, places, or things, often going deep into the layers of connection (think six degrees of Kevin Bacon, but with literally connecting anything).
• Piercing gaze: the complicator understands something complicated with by gazing at a situation, drawing information others might not pick up on.
• Imaginary reality: the complicator invokes the imaginary and creates an elaborate plan that includes the improbable, the impossible, the unexplained, and the purely imaginary, and the results are unclear as to what was what when the plan unfolds.

To invoke these abilities, the complicator must find something in the vicinity that they can reasonably argue is representative of an imaginary number, a square root of a negative number. This is always represented in reality (to the complicators) as the unexplained. If there is a phenomenon within eyesight that cannot be explained, the complicator can speculate and imagine an answer while simultaneously performing a complex equation. Once they have a result, written on paper called opinabiblus, they can then burn, eat, tear, or cut the paper to invoke the power. If their speculation and their equation was correct, their magic will be released. This translates into the player doing either the equation, the speculation, or both. If they perform the equation correctly, there is no AWA roll. The speculation's effecitveness is determined by PRS roll; if the player does the speculation, they take high die; if not, they just roll PRS. If they fail the equation or choose not to do it, they can roll AWA - with low die if they failed, regularly if they succeeded. If the GM doesn't know math well enough (if the GM is the writer of this occupation, for example), the equation may be accepted as correct regardless of accuracy because the GM is an ignorant jackass who wrote this while not knowing math.

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

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Sanguinairy

Type: Cooker

A sanguinary is a wielder of blood magic who uses their abilities to create potent drugs. They make drugs that immediately hit the bloodstream and alter the body of the user. Some are legal substances, others are highly illegal. Most sanguinaries pose as legitimate apothecaries while making and selling illicit drugs under the table.

In order to wield blood magic, a sanguinary must learn for decades under a master. They must practice a series of exercises, eat a special diet, and perform a ritual of sacrifice. The exercises are to get the blood flowing properly, and while they vary by culture they always involve intensive cardiovascular work. The diet is a mixture of red meat (sometimes raw), organ meats (especially heart and liver), red wine, beans and lentils, and cinnamon. The sacrifice is always a blood sacrifice, either the sanguinary's own or blood acquired from a willing donor. The ritual requires a circle of blood, a series of chants and gestures, and set of special symbols. If these are all done well, and if they are combined with extensive study of chemistry, biology, and magic, the sanguinary will eventually gain the ability to create their drugs.

The drugs they can make include the following:

• Enrichment: the blood becomes enriched such that it is more healthy and encouraging of healing.
• Thickener: the blood thickens, the person gets sluggish but feels warm and comfortable.
• Thinner: the blood thins, the person feels energetic and frantic.
• Sweetener: the blood is suffused with chemicals that cause euphoria and mild hallucinations.
• Quickening: the blood quickens, the person feels less pain.
• Flushing: the skin is flush with blood, the person feels more confident.

Many other drugs are possible. Consult the GM.

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

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Scoundrel

Type: Criminal

A master-of-all-crimes. These master-of-all-crimes are multitalented criminals who have spent decades or more practicing the arts of the Cant and the Hooded Shadow. These are the most elite of criminals.

There is an ancient cant, a variation on language, a secret code and a dialect and a pidgin, a set of rhymes and ciphers, that only those who have been pushed outside the law may wield. The Cant derived from the first people who had to steal from other mortals to survive, and it grew into a complex, panlingual cryptological esoteric puzzle. The Cant cannot be understood by anyone who serves the laws of the state that make people criminals, and it gives those who speak it special powers. To access it, one must have committed a crime in a place one has been, knowingly, and one must have done so without other esoteric power. One must have committed this crime for purposes neither related to upholding the oppressive structures nor overthrowing them. The crime must violate a law existing on the books in the place it was broken, and it must be knowingly committed. If the crime is later decriminalized, it will still empower the scoundrel. If the crime is unknowingly committed, but the criminal later discovers it was/is illegal, they have a brief window to take advantage before they lose access to the cant (until they commit a crime again). In that brief window, they will see a shadow, and if they follow that shadow, they will begin to see things they never noticed before. This will lead them to the closest wielder of Cant, who, if they are recognized as someone exposed to the shadow, will recruit them.

From there, they will be trained in the Cant, and eventually tested via a series of criminal activities. If they pass, they will be initiated into the Hooded Shadow, the power of concealment from the law.

The Hooded Shadow empowers them in any criminal activity, and scoundrels train in so many criminal activities, they learn to apply it to any or all of them. They can empower flames to be unseen to better engage in arson, ensuring a structure burns. They can hide their manipulations of people to better their skills as a conspirator. They can use the shadow to make themselves more intimdiating as an extortionist, or they can use it to become practically invisible as a spy, thief, or assassin. Any criminal activity, they can empower with it.

The most powerful can steal intangible things like a person's feelings, their abilities, or even parts of their lives. They can wield the Hooded Shadow consume people's souls, turn flame into shadow, or alter their own forms. They are true masters of the Hooded Shadow, able to do anything they need to with it to commit the crimes they choose to commit.

In order to wield it, the scoundrel must use the correct canting rhymes. They must maintain the Hooded Shadow by remaining outside the law, never cooperating with the authorities, and never going straight. This does not mean never following any law, but rather, never betraying other criminals they are working with and never surviving off anything but criminal gains. Any violation will destroy the Cant immediately. The more crimes they knowingly commit, the higher the score they have in the shadow, but any use depletes it, meaning they have a limited amount of shadow to use. Furthermore, some crimes only count as one instance even if prolonged - i.e., selling drugs to a dozen people is just "selling drugs", not twelve instances of it. They must be broken up with other crimes in-between. Rape and sexual assault do not generate the Hooded Shadow, as these are infernal acts.

It takes them decades to master all forms of crime. Only a handful have ever existed.

PRO +3 ATH +3 STR +3 AWA +3 WIL +3 PRS +3 STH +6

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Sharana

Type: Harborer

A sharana has the ability to turn any substance into an impenetrable barrier, but to do this, they must either weaken their own bodies, the form of some other object, or by sheer force of will. Sharanas gain the power to do this by turning their own bodies into a barrier through repeated stressing, usually in ritual combat sparring or by self-inflicted strikes. They do this for hours every day, using blunt clubs made of neutral materials, and train in combat and medicine as well. During their exercises, they meditate on the nature of boundaries and barriers, until they are able to infuse whatever they are touching with the strength to resist that they are building up in themselves.

The three methods of strengthening materials available to them all have their risks:

• Drawing from their own body means reducing their own toughness (substat of STR), with a conversion of -1 toughness for every +2 to the barrier.
• Drawing from another object destroys that object, reducing it to dust. The relative toughness of the object determines how much is transferred, with materials like paper giving very little strength and materials like diamond giving enormous bonuses.
• Using only their will power means that the attacks against the strengthened barrier go against their mind instead of the barrier. So any damage done will cause them to lose points of WIL temporarily, with any exceptional or critical damage being in part permanent.

Sharanas keep safe-houses for other criminals, fugitives, serving as their defenders and their caretakers. As such, they also have skills in housekeeping, repair, medicine, and concealment.

PRO +2 ATH -1 STR +4 Toughness +6 AWA +1 WIL +2 PRS -1 STH /

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Splitter

Type: Terrorist

One who uses the power of division to split, cut, divide, and break anything in acts of terrorism. They use these powers in the name of unexpected causes, often ones that seem unnecessary outside of their weird terrorist cells, such as fighting for the dissolution of causality, the inclusion of magenta in the color spectrum, or the teaching of paradox to toddlers.

Life is a continuous cutting motion. To tap into the power of division, one must contemplate the cutting motion, the power of fission, and see life as nothing but a series of cuts through moments, through possibilities, through probabilities. Life is a continuous cutting motion, and splitters see it and know it and experience it.

Splitters tap into the power of paradoxical magic, the energy of breaking contradictions and thus reality, directing it to solid matter and splitting passages through it. A splitter does this through decades of meditation and reordering their thoughts, hyperfocus, and self-control, culminating in them splitting themselves and becoming a living blade.

Splitters use no tools but their own bodies. For every use of their splitting power, they risk dividing themselves further. Their power can split through any solid matter at a power equal to the difficulty they roll against to survive the use of their power. If they wield a power of 22, they roll one of their base stats against it:

Roll	Effect
Critical failure	Their entire being (True Name) splits in half and they die, with their half-souls being destroyed as well; the attempt to split something fails
Critical success	The base stat is unaffected; the target is split in two; they must rest for a number of hours equal to half the difficulty they rolled against without using their power
Exceptional failure	The base stat they rolled is permanently halved and their soul is cut in half; they barely survive and must find a way to restore their soul or lose their entire being; the attempt to split something fails
Exceptional success	The base stat is unaffected; the target is split in two; they must rest for a number of hours equal to the difficulty they rolled against without using their power
Normal failure	The base stat they rolled is temporarily halved; they must rest for a number of days equal to the difficulty they rolled against without using their power; the attempt to split something fails
Normal success	The base stat is temporarily halved; the target is split in two; they must rest for a number of days equal to half the difficulty they rolled against without using their power
Special failure	The base stat they rolled is permanently halved; the attempt to split something fails
Special success	The base stat is unaffected; the target is split in two; they must rest for a number of days equal to half the difficulty they rolled against without using their power
Tie	The base stat is temporarily halved; they must rest for a number of days equal to half the difficulty they rolled against without using their power; the attempt to split something fails

Difficulties are based on the size and abstractness of the target.

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