Beggar

Impoverished, jobless, and/or homeless individuals who beg for money, food, or other resources.

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Exagitant

Beggars who join the Green Grith do so because they reject society in favor of nature or simply for the protections being part of the Grith provides. But some of them use their closeness to the streets and the animals living there to commune with the most hunted vermin and gain powers from them to help them survive. They mostly operate as lookouts, informants, and observers for the Grith.

Exagitants do not use the elemental power of animals, but rather, the elemental power of the hunt - or specifically, of prey. Unlike those who bond with animals or act as hunters, they act as prey, tapping into the life and mind of prey by living as they do. This isn't always a choice - many beggars are targeted by police and other predators in the streets, and members of the Green Grith teach beggars to tap into the mindset this gives them to find magic to survive it. They turn the world's cruelty around and learn to wield it.

Whether they have preyhood thrust upon them or they seek it out, exagitants train for months to capture and maintain the mindset, then spend even more months living it and attuning to it. Once they can enter it at will, they then train again for months to connect with the elemental energy it generates. At this time, they also seek out the street vermin (mice, bugs, pigeons, stray animals, foxes, rats, etc.) and befriend them. They must befriend at least four different animals considered vermin. The most common are pigeons, rats, mice, and various insects. Once they have done this (usually by feeding them), they start to be able to draw from the magic that they are connecting to.

• Pigeon messenger: they can coo and call pigeons to deliver messages for them.
• Mouse climb: they can climb vertical surfaces like a mouse.
• Rat's resistance: they can protect themselves from disease by befriending rats.
• Vulpine speed: they can as fast as a fox.
• Myrmecocommunication: they can leave a message like an ant for others in the form of a small piece of stone.
• Flea leap: they jump like a flea.

Which powers they get depend on the four vermin they connect to. Consult the GM with other ideas. They use these powers to survive and protect other homeless people.

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

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Guilgachin

Beggars do nothing to harm or threaten the status quo as a general rule, but they have been criminalized by the powers-that-be. Thus, many of them join one of the Griths for protection or support, often becoming information gatherers, lookouts, or supporters of the Grith. As members of the Blue Grith, some beggars engage in magical rituals to survive or help the others living on the streets or relying on the kindness of strangers.

Guilgachin are beggars who gain power by building unity among the beggars, creating a system of defense and sharing of magical resources. They magically unionize beggars to gain power for everyone in the group.

A guilgachin must be a beggar that has not falsely joined the ranks of the homeless, jobless, or impoverished. They must then organize the beggars around them into unified action. Though beggars do not produce anything, they exist as part of the oppressed and exploited. They can still engage in activities to defend themselves. If they have a boss of some kind, the guilgachin organizes them against the boss who is taking from them. If they do not have a boss, the guilgachin organizes them against the threats of the police, the predators who harm them, and the rich and powerful who seek to sweep them under the rug (or into prisons). Though they cannot effectively go on strike against the police, they can engage in unarrests, mutual support, warning systems, and other defensive actions. This results in less magical energy than those who organize workers in, say, a factory that produces something, but it still creates energy via solidarity and support.

The more organized and active the beggars become in their defenses, the more magical energy is shared between them. The guilgachin becomes part of this system, gaining certain powers as long as the group remains organized.

• Allied eyesight: they can see through the eyes of someone else in their union (if the other consents) at will so long as they are awake and within three miles of each other. If the other does not consent, the attempt will fail automatically. It cannot be forced.
• Shared strength: they can share strength amongst them, giving points of STR to each other or requesting it when needed so long as they are within three miles of each other. This happens at will, but no more than +3 can be added per turn, nor more than +6 may be had at a time, and it never lasts more than a minute.
• Group empathy: they can sense the emotions of others in their union, with consent, if they are within visual range of each other, at a power of PRS+1. This helps them be there for one another.
• Trade places: the guilgachin can trade places with any member of their union if and only if that member is in danger, and only if they are within three miles of one another.
• Warning signal: all members of the union can let the others if they are in danger if they are within three miles of one another.
• Hold the line: if they link arms against a foe, they can achieve temporary invulnerability against physical and infernal attacks directed to them by oppressors or their agents (so they couldn't resist a natural tornado, but a cannon fired by the police is fair game) if they all hold their actions until the slowest among them has a turn, then chant together. This lasts up to three turns, so long as they all spend their turns to chant together. No rolls need occur. No attack will succeed in harming them during these three rounds, but it must be the entire union.
• Rallying chant: if three or more members of the union chant together (holding action to chant together on the turn of the slowest), every other member of the union will be able to appear next to them if they are within three miles, no roll necessary.

Guilgachin are leaders of the beggars among the Blue Grith. They are members of either the Commitee for Information or the Committee for Support. Those on the Committee for Information engage in information gathering, while those on the Committee for Support make sure all beggars, in the union or not, are supported.

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

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Mendicant

Beggars do nothing to harm or threaten the status quo as a general rule, but they have been criminalized by the powers-that-be. Thus, many of them join one of the Griths for protection or support, often becoming information gatherers, lookouts, or supporters of the Grith. As members of the Blue Grith, some beggars engage in magical rituals to survive or help the others living on the streets or relying on the kindness of strangers.

Mendicants are beggars who gain power by their pure will and faith in the people, giving them the power to protect, heal, and support others.

Mendicants are beggars who believe in the power of the oppressed, of the people, to liberate themselves. They have faith, and from that faith comes power. In order to invoke the power of their faith, their faith must be unwavering and sincere. Any doubt, any deceit will cause their power to weaken or fail. They must also be loyal to those in whom they have faith - they cannot ally with, support, compromise with, or otherwise help the oppressors of the world, even accidentally, even to save themselves.

If they achieve this, their faith becomes a source of supernatural power. They may invoke their faith via declarations of faith, solidarity, and/or defiance. They make these in place of prayers, but the content of them are effecitvely requests to be answered by their faith in others. In other words, if they declare "I believe the people will defeat the police," they are asking for the power to do so, and may get bonuses to their attempts to do so. If they say "the people will not be crushed by these slavers," they may gain points to relevant stats in resisting it. They can make any kind of declaration, but the only ones that will be answered are ones that support, protect, or heal others who are oppressed, exploited, impoverished, or enslaved.

Part of the source of their power is spreading their beliefs. While they do not have to do this, if they do, they gain more power, and if they ever drive someone away from their beliefs, they will lose power.

Part of the Committee for Support.

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

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Pebble

Beggars do nothing to harm or threaten the status quo as a general rule, but they have been criminalized by the powers-that-be. Thus, many of them join one of the Griths for protection or support, often becoming information gatherers, lookouts, or supporters of the Grith. As members of the Blue Grith, some beggars engage in magical rituals to survive or help the others living on the streets or relying on the kindness of strangers.

Pebbles are beggars who gain power by living humbly, which allows them to protect others and gain insights into the people around them. Called "pebbles" originally in a derogatory way, they accepted it and made it their own.

To tap into the power of their own humility, they must become completely selfless. They must not seek power, nor deprivation. They must be beggars made by consequence of the oppressions of the world, not because they chose to become one. They must find humility not through trauma or fear or self-hatred, but through understanding, compassion, and genuine altruism. They must see the betterment of others as greater even than their own survival, but they must not intentionally sacrifice of themselves. Instead, they must reach the state where doing for others is so instinctual it does not occur to them that their giving and serving and helping and supporting might be to the detriment of themselves. They must truly see it as beneficial. They must truly give up the idea of themselves as better, greater, or even equal to others, but also not lesser. Instead, their self is unkown to them after a certain point. All that is left is how much good others deserve. It takes years for most people to actually achieve this.

If they can achieve this - and that is a major if - they gain the power of humility. If they live this way for a year, they gain deep powers from this virtue.

• Undeserving presence: their humility protects them against infernal attacks, giving them a +3 to any stat used to defy infernal magic.
• Giving of self: if they are hale and healthy, nourished, or otherwise better off than someone else physically, mentally, or emotionally, they may touch them and transfer some of that to the other to heal, nourish, or otherwise support them. They may also use this power to pre-emptively take damage for others in combat.
• Seeing beyond: as they see beyond the performances of self in themselves and others, they have insights into what others truly are, giving them a +3 read people if this power is invoked. It lasts 30 seconds. If used in combat, it gives them a +3 to dodge or to hit, but uses up the power instantly if they do so.
• Humble appearance: as they do not see themselves as noteworthy, nor do those who would harm them, giving them a +3 STH. They may turn this off temporarily.
• Repeling touch: as the power of humility within them is celestial, the powers of the infernal cannot bear their touch, giving them a power of 11+ when touching (but not striking) a being of infernal power to repel them.

They are a crucial part of the Blue Grith's support networks for the indigent, enslaved, homeless, jobless, and deprived, but there are few who can achieve this state.

Part of the Committee for Support.

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

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Remainer

Some beggars of the Red Grith find faith helps them in their work, worshipping not one of the above deities, but the concept of Survival. These are called remainers.

Remainers are beggars who are part of the religion of the Red Grith. They are effectively street preachers, but not the loud, soapbox kind. They are quiet ministers who spread the faith of Survival. They believe Survival is a force, an energy, that can be drawn from by those who have faith in it. This faith is not in a Divine power or some other figure, but in the concept, and thus, there is no favor or disfavor. Instead, it is the power of belief itself that grants remainers their abilities.

Those who truly believe in Survival as a concept put themselves in its hands. They believe they will survive even the greatest hardships if they have faith, and thus, they prove this faith by facing hardships with nothing but. And they spread this belief quietly but effectively among the poor and desperate. The downside of this is that any lack of faith can lead to a terrible death; the upside is that those who truly believe really do survive serious dangers and difficult times.

In order to gain power from Survival, one must engage in an intiating proof of faith. This can take many forms, but it must be a non-contrived hardship that they face with faith alone. This is why the faith is only truly accessible to those without many resources. This can be living without food for a significant amount of time, surviving something violet, living through a disaster, making it through prison time, or some other very difficult trial. This does not mean intentionally not eating or getting arrested, nor does it mean not fighting back or getting out of the way of a moving train. It means praying intensely while facing these difficulties and accepting limitations. It means putting faith in Survival to get you through when you have absolutely nothing else to get you through. Anything else is fake.

If one goes through something like this and survives, they are a remainer, and they will have the power of faith in Survival. At this point, they will have a faith score they can draw from to pray and see palpable effects, often helping others survive hardships. And if they convert others to the faith, they gain even more faith.

If a remainer denies Survival to another who is earnest in the faith, they will lose all faith-based powers.

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

Beggars in the Violet Grith are usually the indigent or homeless who live by the lore and thus fall automatically under the protection of the Abdit. But some are those whose stories bring them to begging because that is their fate - but these are soothsayers who see the paths of the future.

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Soothsayer

Fate is woven in the form of invisible threads that flow throughout reality. They are often disrupted by other energies, but those with special skill and tools can feel them, touch them, and view them.

The consequences of this, however, when not done carefully, can lead a person to a life they might not wish to have. Some who seek to be seers and prophets end up fated to live a life of deprivation because they tried to alter fate and failed, and these end up living life as soothsayers, often unheeded predictors of the future who end up among the homeless and indigent. This is not an inescapable fate, but they often do not know how to escape or believe it to be. The Violet Grith aids those who end up like this, working with them.

What the threads of fate combine to form is the Tapestry of What Is to Come. It is a complex tapestry where colors, forms, and measurements have meanings only a few understand. The interpretation of the tapestry tells what fate there may be. When viewed, it appears to be a vast conglomeration of threads that, when taken as a whole or from a distant view, appear to be a woven tapestry the size of the sky, depicting scenes of cosmic birth, death, and rebirth. If viewed closely, the trillions of individual lives that thread together to form the story of reality are visible.

To view the tapestry, a soothsayer must learn how to see without their eyes. They do this first by training with a blindfold or other device that blocks their eyes. If they cannot see already, they must train themselves to sense the threads in a similar fashion. Sight beyond sight is required, but also the ability to touch the invisible threads of the tapestry. This is done by first working with actual threads to know the feeling, then working up to more esoteric threads. Training to see without one's eyes requires years of meditation, working with actual thread, and the use of hallucinatory drugs. Those who succeed at this become powerful seers or profits; those who fail become soothsayers. Often this happens because they followed a Forbidden Thread, such as looking at the fate of a Divine, or at their own death, or a thread that is too erratic and affected by chaos, luck, or other powers. Or worst of all, if they tried to view the entire tapestry at once.

Soothsayers thus cannot control their portents. They have visions that come to them, or they experience flashes, insights, and incomplete viewings. They cannot be guided via questions as some are able to be, and they cannot channel their power via tarot, crystal, or weaving. This visions and insights come, and they know what they know.

They are often disbelieved, as even the most powerful seers and prophets are. They always take a PRS penalty when telling someone who isn’t familiar with them their fate.

Most soothsayers believe deeply in fate, though they are often aware that there are other powers out there. If a prediction does not come true, they usually assume they interpreted things wrong, but some know that this is the consequence of the fight between fate, luck, chaos, and other powers.

Predictions come to soothsayers in many forms:

• Precognition: they simply know what will happen before it happens. A priori knowledge of an event with a deep certainty.

• Insight: something happens that gives them an insight into the future wherein they know something they could not have even from advanced pattern recognition.

• Omen: they see something happen and know it is a good or bad omen, though not what it relates to nor why.

• Portent: an omen that has a clear meaning to them.

• Vision: they see something, either symbolically or literally, that will happen in the future.

• Prophecy: unbidden by anything, they begin speaking cryptic prophecy, saying what will be, with no control over what comes out of their mouths. Often accompanied by an uncontrolled vision.

Because of their previous failure in the threads, soothsayers are experiencing these constantly, leading to an unstable life and difficulties with everyone around them. Even when their predictions are correct, it often causes trouble.

At the start of the session, anyone playing a soothsayer will make 20-40 single-die rolls. These are their precognitions. They will note these numbers down and share with the GM. Throughout the session, these will be their rolls. They will pick which one they will use for a roll before the opposed roll is made. The opposed roll will still be a three-die roll.

If they want, they can give a roll to someone else before or after an opposed roll is made, even another player (if the player consents).

If they run out of rolls, they may spend tokens, and if they have none, they simply fail all rolls for the rest of the session (note: we’ve never run with this before, so adjustments may be made if there aren’t enough rolls). If they have rolls left, they can still choose to forgo a roll and accept a failure.

Insights will occur twice per session. The player may invoke one either by willingly forgoing a roll or by spending a token, or the GM can provide one at their discretion. Omens and portents occur on AWA or read people rolls if the player forgoes the roll and chooses to experience an omen or portent instead, or they can occur at the GM’s discretion or if the player spends a token.

Visions are invoked after six failures in a row, if the player spends a token, if the player willingly forgoes six rolls in a row, or at the GM’s discretion.

Prophecies only occur at the GM’s discretion.

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