It has been forty million years since there was an Earth.
In the year 2826 A.D., the ground fell into the sky.
Earth, every Earth, collapsed into a higher dimension as the true universe convulsed in its death-throes. Most of the human interstellar civilization did not survive the transition.
The result was beyond apocalyptic. It was practically an extinction event. From one hundred thousand timelines, there was left only one. From uncounted trillions of lives, to perhaps a million. From star systems to a handful of broken countries - only those places that still retained sufficient shamanic resonance to survive ascension.
As part of this tragedy, a motley selection of humans who happened to die at the right time or be in the right state of mind were shunted from the World Tree entirely, reborn or summoned to a strange little house hanging in the formless void.
Unbeknownst to the 'owner' of this house, she was the last surviving child of mother Yggdrasil. Dormant within the shell of the giant Erial, after four hundred years she has at last drifted close enough, on the strange currents of the unworld, to her mother's corpse to call to her echo - the echo of the world that was - and learn of her heritage.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR CHARACTER
The influence of the Grand Array, an alliance between the machine-spiders and the oath-spheres that maintains the interstellar byways that connects the corpses of the many fragment-worlds and continues to seek some way of resurrecting Yggdrasil, has rendered reality into a unified virtual experience.
The Power of a Name
Your character is referred to as their starting species in the game logs. If you have been granted a name by Irminsûl, this name is also noted in your character sheet. The bestowal of a name will cause your character to immediately evolve from their starting species if you are still at the lowest rung.
Advancement
There are two means by which your character advances: Evolution to a higher form, or development of proficiencies and attributes via XP expenditure. XP is gained from killing monsters or by fulfilling your ambitions.
Attributes can be advanced at the cost of 25 XP per 1pt advance. Proficiencies can be advanced at the cost of 10xp per 1pt advance. XP cost increases after each 5 advances.
| Advances | Attributes | Proficiencies |
| 0 to 5 | 25xp | 10xp |
| 6 to 10 | 30xp | 15xp |
| 11 to 15 | 40xp | 20xp |
| 16 to 20 | 50xp | 30xp |
| 21 to 25 | 70xp | 40xp |
| 26 to 30 | 90xp | 60xp |
| 31 to 35 | 120xp | 80xp |
| 36 to 40 | 150xp | 110xp |
| 41 to 45 | 190xp | 140xp |
| 46 to 50 | 230xp | 180xp |
Skills usually have a maximum level of 10. Once this level is maxed out, the skill can sometimes be evolved into a higher form, expanding the scope of the skill.
Attributes & Proficiencies
An attribute is rated between 1 and 100. The tens place is the 'attribute bonus' value; 40 in an attribute means you have a +4 attributes bonus, for example. To pass a simple test, you must roll d100 and get a result equal to or under this value, after modifications for your proficiency in the task and circumstantial difficulty modifiers. For complex tasks, for every 10 points you pass by, you succeed with an additional degree of success (called a Success Level.) This matters when performing a long or competitive task.
Skill: Your effectiveness with melee weapons, including hands at fists.
Related Proficiencies: Basic Melee, Hand-To-Hand, Calvary, Fencing, Flail, Parry, Pole-Arm, Two-Handed
Bloodtinge: Your effectiveness with ranged weapons, including all throwing.
Related Proficiencies: Blackpowder, Bow, Crossbow, Engineering, Entangling, Explosives, Hardlight, Throwing
Strength: Used for climbing, swimming, lifting, and base damage in combat.
Related Proficiencies: Climb, Intimidate, Row, Swim
Vigor: Your hardiness and lifeforce. Helps you resist damage and status conditions.
Related Proficiencies: Consume Drugs
Insight: How fast you react as well as your powers of perception.
Related Proficiencies: Intuition, Navigation, Perception, Track,
Adaptability: Your athleticism and coordination.
Related Proficiencies: Athletics, Dodge, Drive, Perform, Ride, Sail, Stealth
Dexterity: How good you are with your hands, whether for music, crafting, or picking locks.
Related Proficiencies: Art, Pick Lock, Play Instrument, Rune Inscription, Set Trap, Sleight of Hand, Tradecraft
Intelligence: Your power of analysis and understanding. Used for expert tasks like medical treatment and research.
Related Proficiencies: Animal Training, Appraisal, Gamble, Incant, Lore, Survival, Research, Rune Decryption
Mind: The strength of your will. Determines magical resistance and resources, as well as mundane resolve.
Related Proficiencies: Channeling, Charm Animal, Cool
Faith: For humans, faith is their relationship with the Divine. For the Divine, faith is the relationship with everything. Used for social interactions and sacred arts.
Related Proficiencies: Bribery, Charm, Entertain, Gossip, Haggle, Leadership, Pray
ACTIONS IN COMBAT
In Combat, you have two steps - your Action, and your Move.
Your Action is the main part of what you are doing, that would be underlined for resolution. This can be attacking, casting a spell, binding a teammate's wounds, distracting your opponent, etc.
Your Move has three uses - moving between rows, disengaging from the battle completely, or taking the Dash action.
The are four Rows you occupy while in combat, the Far, Back, Front and Close rows.
In the Close row, you are fighting with your natural weapons, daggers, pistols, and the like - REAL up close and personal. If you are using a pistol, you are considered to be firing at Point Blank - an effective +30 to your Bloodtinge (BLD) used to determine the effectiveness of ranged weapons. Getting in Close with someone with a long weapon (such as a longsword) requires you win an opposed Melee test to slip inside their guard, making their longer weapon ineffective (treated an any other improvised weapon) and taking away their reach advantage.
In the Front row, you are fighting with melee weapons as usual. You are considered to be Engaged, meaning stepping away invites a free hit from your opponent.
In the Back row, you're behind the frontline. You can relatively safely use magic or other things that aren't actively fighting with a weapon, but unless you have a particularly long weapon like a proper spear or a really big sword, you can't make a melee attack.
In the Far row, you're at the rear. Unless you have a massive weapon like a Pike, you can't attack or be attacked from the Far row without a ranged weapon or magic.
Aside from moving rows, if you're in the Far row you can actually flee from combat.
You can also use your move to Dash, leaping in response to enemy attacks. Make a Dodge roll when you Dash. If you are attacked during the same round that you Dashed, you oppose the attack as normal and then take the better of the two rolls. If you have a shield, you can Guard - use the same procedure, but instead of Dodge you use Weapon Skill and the added armor from your shield applies to your whole body, not just your shield-arm and torso.
You may sacrifice your Move to perform a Heavy attack, choosing the better of two Weapon skill rolls. If BOTH rolls would succeed, you add together the SL bonus from BOTH rolls when determining HP damage and Poise damage. This is called a Charged Heavy Attack.
You may sacrifice your Move to perform a Jump attack. A Jump attack deals double Poise damage if it hits.
Stamina & Poise
Aside from HP (STR + MND + 2*VIG) you also have Stamina (Dexterity or DEX plus 2x Adaptability or ADP). Your Stamina determines your ability to Attack, Dash and Guard.
Stamina points regenerate at a rate of 2 points per round. Attacking consumes a number of Stamina points based on the weight class of your weapon; 1 for light, 2 for medium, 3 for heavy, 4 for ultra.
Your Poise defaults to 4 + the overall Weight Class of your armor - 1 for light armor, 2 for medium, 3 for heavy, 4 for ultra.
When you lose an Opposed test in combat, whether through deflection or through being hit, you lose a number of Poise points equal to the SL difference + the 1/2 the weight class value of the weapon you are struck with.
If you take more than half your total Poise in damage, you gained the Stunned condition (cannot take an Action on your next turn, make all rolls at -10 to the relevant Stat, but can still contest attacks) if you run out of Poise, you gain the Surprised condition, granting all opponents +20 to hit you while you are unable to move, act, or contest attacks.
SORCERY AND SACRED ARTS
To use magic, first decide what effect you want, and then decide the magnitude of the magic you are attempting (how many success levels needed to cast spell). You must pass an Incant (INT) test with enough Success Levels to equal the Magnitude that you set. If you do not succeed in one round, the incantation takes longer and you must keep testing in subsequent rounds to build up enough Success Levels. If you fail the test on any round, then you lose the entire spell and must start again from scratch.
A spell consumes MP equal to its magnitude. Your MP pool is equal to 5 + 2x [Mind] attribute bonus. To recover MP, you may take a challenging [Pray] or [Incant] test as your action in a round to regain MP equal to your number of SLs.
Your level in a magic tradition determines the maximum magnitude of that magic you are able to use.
You must specify a magnitude whenever you make use of magic.
Magnitude 0: A petty use of magic. For example, using Fire to light a cigarette. No roll needed.
Magnitude 1: A spark of fire, wielded offensively (such as to set a dry wood structure aflame).
Magnitude 2: A shower of hot sparks.
Magnitude 3: A tongue of actual flame.
Magnitude 4: Several tongues of flame, enough to frighten away beasts and seriously burn someone.
Magnitude 5: A hurled ball of fire-spirits that explodes on contact into many tongues of flame.
Magnitude 6: a large hurled fireball.
Magnitude 7: a huge fireball, enough to knock a cart over or instantly set a house aflame.
Magnitude 8: a massive fireball, enough to outright destroy a small structure.
Magnitude 9: a minor meteor strike that could moderate damage to a military formation.
Magnitude 10: a meteor strike that could seriously disrupt a military formation, or a column of flame that could immolate a single powerful monster.
Magical Traditions
There are four Roots of the World-Tree, and each Root guides four Strands of sorcery. Two Strands of sorcery from different Roots are woven into a Tradition of greater scope; one stand is always the 'primary' strand. Two Strands of sorcery within the same Root are woven in a Specialization of more limited scope. In total, there are 132 possible different permutations or 'colors' of magic, though occultists believe there are 136; two of them being the Sacred Arts of Mythcrafting and Geotonomancy.
The Material Root: Fire, Water, Air, and Earth.
The Force Root: Life, Death, Order and Chaos.
The Animate Root: Shamanism, Necromancy, Stormseering, and Daemonology.
The Subtle Root: Illusion, Mind, Chance and Time.
Discovered Traditions
Shadow: Necromancy + Illusion. Draws on the shadowy reflections of things, including echoes and memories. Manipulates darkness; weakens and slows real things; grants shadows strange substance and even unlife. Speak through shadows, or even move through them instantly. Clothe yourself in shadowstuff to effectively sneak or to increase your size.
Lunar: Shamanism + Water. Manipulate spiritual energy in an opponent, draining their magic power or polluting their essence. Heal the same. Bind spirits to a particular area, or store up spiritual energy. Speak to rivers and clouds. Call upon the moon to influence tides and other natural cycles influenced by the moon.
Stellar: Order + Fire. Harden light to use as a weapon or wall. Tame emotions. Communicate using lasers or flame; purify tainted things; harness combustion technology. Manipulate light sources and whip the warmth from people (or engines). Blind others with blasts of light. Bend light to disappear from view.
Pyromancy: Fire + Life. Inflames the hearts and passions; grants courage, curing of sickness and taint; destroys the undead; inflicts fire damage that does not risk harming allies; aids in identifying ailments.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:20, Sat 10 Sept 2022.
