Prophets
Path Effect: Prophets can automatically recognize creatures of Myth and those touched by Fate, including but not limited to Scions, manifest Gods, Titanspawn, and Fatebound mortals. They can likewise recognize portals to Terra Incognita, Underworlds and Overworlds. This Effect requires no roll (and indeed, Prophets are incapable of turning it off ), but it is defeated by Knacks or similar powers that conceal the subject’s mystical nature.
ARCHITECTS
Path Effect: Architects gain a fourth Deed, a Design Deed focused on the ultimate goal of their designs (Prevent Zeus’ overthrow, avert a war between pantheons, ensure the Mariners finally win a World Series, etc.) and a Legend Trait, which begins at 1. When they make progress toward fulfilling their goal, they gain Legend, which can only be used with Birthrights or for Prophet Knacks. Upon reaching Demigod Tier, the Architect’s design enters its endgame; upon achieving Legend 9, the Architect seals both their newly-forged destiny and their own doom, and perishes, having changed the World forever.
CASSANDRA
Path Effect: Once per session, the Storyguide tells the Cassandra the absolute truth of a situation. This includes, but isn’t limited to, the agendas of those present, anything concealed or hidden nearby, and the immediate outcome of whatever is happening around her. This gift doesn’t extend to anything outside the Cassandra’s immediate vicinity.
No matter the information a Cassandra gleans from this effect, no one she tells will believe her until it’s too late to change the outcome of events. No amount of persuasion or social skill short of God-level Knacks can make someone believe a Cassandra’s prophecies, but it is possible to force people to act in accordance with the Cassandra’s warnings. It’s only the prophecies gleaned from the Cassandra Path effect that evoke this effect; general statements and inferences aren’t automatically disbelieved.
HERALDS
Path Effect: Heralds are obsessed with the destiny of a given person or small group of people, such as a Band of Scions. Heralds do not have a Legend score, but can gain Legend. Once per session, when the focus of a Herald’s obsession rolls more than five successes on a single roll (Enhancement counts!) gain Legend. Once per session, if the Herald’s focus accomplishes a Deed, gain Legend.
Heralds cannot use Legend to fuel Knacks, Boons, or Birthrights (unless they received those through a Prophetic Purpose). Instead, Heralds can spend Legend to immediately create Twists of Fate without invoking a Path, counting one Legend as one success. These changes cannot be overtly supernatural, but can rely on the Herald’s foresight.
Add the Herald’s current Legend to the default Tension Pool (the amount of Tension the Storyguide begins a session with). Whenever the herald expends Legend, add that amount of Tension to the Tension Pool immediately.
MIRACLEWORKERS
Path Effect: Miracleworkers have a Legend Trait, which begins at 1. They have no native access to Purviews, but can gain such access through Relics, Guides, or Prophetic Destinies. Miracleworkers may imbue Legend without risk, but spending Legend incurs the Sword of Damocles Condition.
ORACLES
Path Effect: Oracles have a Legend Trait, which starts at 1, but cannot gain or spend Legend. Once per session, the Oracle may ask any question of the Storyguide; the Storyguide will answer in the form of keywords, one per dot of the Oracle’s Legend, that accurately answer the question — it’s up to the Oracle to interpret the sign he’s been given. If the Storyguide actively uses the Oracle’s foresight as a plot hook (which she is encouraged to do!) this does not constitute a use of this power.
PROPHETIC PURPOSES
PROPHET OF THE PATRON/PANTHEON/PURVIEW
Blessings: Prophets of Patrons or Pantheons gain five dots to spend on Birthrights related to the Patron or Pantheon. A Purview’s Prophet gains access to its Boons innately — if her Prophetic Destiny doesn’t allow her to accrue Legend, she gains the ability to do so through appropriate ritual sacrifice.
PROPHET OF THE PEOPLE/LAND/CULTURE
Blessings: Prophets of a People never suffer Complication on rolls for communicating or influencing those people or those closely associated with them. She may purchase the Covenant Birthright (Mysteries of the World, p. 69) with them as the Birthright’s focus.
Prophets of a Land may always perfectly orient themselves with respect to their land and cannot become lost while within it. They have an innate sense for the health and stability of the land and are always aware of anything that disturbs the status quo. Gain +2 Enhancement for actions taken to navigate, find someone or something, or establish stealth within the Prophet’s land.
Prophets of a Culture may purchase the Covenant Birthright with respect to that culture. In addition, she may create a Legendary Title for herself describing her relationship to that culture. Once per session, she may invoke that Title to gain +1 Scale for a single action.
PROPHET OF THE CHOSEN/CURSED/EXILED
Blessings: This Purpose grants the BOON COMPANION Fatebinding from Scion: Hero (p. 198) permanently. Prophets with this Purpose, thanks to their obsession over a single individual’s destiny, gain the ability to work Fatebindings on behalf of their companion. They may engineer up to their highest Finesse Trait in Fatebindings, even if their companion could not ordinarily form a Fatebinding to begin with. The Prophet may also compel or invoke these Fatebinding after they’re formed.
PROPHETIC KNACKS
• This is Not the Way
Sometimes, a person loses their way, but you’re particularly adept at finding their path again. When you advise another character, you may grant Enhancement and Complication equal to that character’s Attitude toward you (positive or negative!). The Enhancement applies to any action in keeping with your advice, while the Complication applies to actions that would work against it. If not bought off, despite the character’s success, Fate arranges for reminders in the form of strange happenstance, odd encounters, and others repeating your advice to the character unprompted. This effect lasts until the end of the session, and may only be used on a given character once per arc.
• You’re Going to Regret This
Without realizing it, one wrong choice can lead to catastrophic consequences. When you declare that an action taken by a character will have terrible and unforeseeable results, you may spend Momentum. At any time later in the session or even in future sessions, you may impose Complications on the character equal to Momentum points spent to power the cursed prophecy.
• Let Me Get That for You
Prophets can be shields against catastrophes and beacons of love and care, warning against Fate’s obstacles and hazards. Once per session, you can remove all Complications from a roll for yourself or another character. In addition, you gain the following Defensive Stunt:
• Come Prepared (varies): You may expend successes on your Full Defense Roll to negate
Complications suffered by yourself or other characters on a one-for-one basis, representing your foreknowledge of such dangers.
• Glimpses Forward
A Prophet can learn to read the symbolism Fate spins into the world, assembling cues and signifiers to glean an understanding of the future Fate holds. Once per session, the Prophet may ask one of the following questions about a particular topic (an individual, group, or course of action, for example):
• What is the greatest peril the subject faces?
• What must be done to ensure the subject does not come to disaster?
• What must never come to pass, if the subject is to prosper?
• How will the subject change the World, in ways great or small?
• Obnoxiously Prepared
Once per session, the Prophet can remove all complications from a single action by retroactively having the foresight to prepare just the right tool, circumstances, etc.
• Failure of Virtue
Once per session, the Prophet can foretell a Scion or God’s fall to a Virtuous rage. The next time that Scion spends Momentum (or at Storyguide’s discretion for NPCs), they enter the Virtuous Condition and move their Virtue track to one end or another, weighted by whichever end they happen to be near. If they’re in the middle of the track, the prophecy hangs over their head for the rest of the session.
• As the Prophecy Foretold
Once per session, the Prophet can declare that events happening in-game match a previously-made prediction and completely refill the Momentum pool.
• Inauspicious Signs
Once per session, the Prophet may remove up to 5 dice from the Tension pool, and remove half that amount (rounded up) from the Momentum pool.
ARCHITECT KNACKS
• Ever Dream This Man?
It is more advantageous at times to be a friendly mystery than a loathed known. Once per session, the Architect can imbue a point of Legend to cause people to see the Architect in their dreams, on posters they’ve walked past, in the background of TV shows, and more. This affects an area with Scale equal to the Architect’s Presence. Anyone within this area gains +2 Enhancement to recognize the Architect, and cannot have their Attitude toward the Architect lowered save by magical effects. The Architect gains a +2 Enhancement to any Intrigue rolls against targets in this area.
• This Must Be the Place
During their travels, Architects come across places they know play an important role in their design. Once per session, the Architect can spend 1 Momentum to declare an area (no larger than a single mid-size building) to be sacred ground. For the duration of the session, the Architect and those with a positive Attitude toward them suffer no Complications while in the sanctified area, and anyone opposing the Architect’s design suffers a +3 Complication. If not bought off, their efforts are stymied as little things go wrong, all artfully arranged by the Architect ahead of time. By spending a point of Legend, the site becomes a shrine and has the effect permanently.
• Machines of Loving Grace
When it comes to their grand design, no detail is too small for an Architect’s notice, no action too far removed from them to be altered. By imbuing Legend when you interact with an individual, you can ensure that a single action or event takes place at a specified time and location, such as a certain switch being flipped at a particular time. You may operate a number of individuals away from your desired effect equal to your Legend Trait; at Legend 1, you could ensure action by another person by talking to them, while at Legend 3, you could have that person interact with someone who interacts with your actual target. This is not mind control, but mere engineering of happenstance and happy (or unhappy) accidents on the part of mortals. The Storyguide is the ultimate arbiter of what is possible with this Knack, and how long the “setup” will take, but generally speaking each step removed from the Architect should require a minimum of 1 hour.
CASSNDRA KNACKS
• The Ties That Bind
Once per scene, a Cassandra reads someone’s Fate at a glance and discern their strongest Fatebound relationship (if any). If the subject has more than one Fatebond at the same strength, this Knack reveals the oldest one first. Subsequent uses of this Knack on the same subject reveal sequentially younger and weaker Fatebonds. Each time the Cassandra uses this Knack, they suffer a Path Condition on an unrelated Path, related to their reputation as a liar who can’t be believed.
• Truth, Lies, and Alibis
Sometimes there are advan tages to nobody believing you. Once per session, a Cassandra automatically succeeds on a simple Manipulation by telling the simple, unvarnished truth. This is a conscious manipulation of the effects of the Cassandra curse, making whatever the Cassandra says seem utterly ridiculous and inconsequential in the moment (and the Cassandra herself, therefore, not worth bothering with). Once the Cassandra leaves the scene, this Knack’s effects end. For example, a Cassandra caught by a police officer while en route to the Pine Barrens to dispose of a body might use this Knack in response to the cop’s questioning her presence and answer “I’m here to bury Sal Gemino’s body.” The Knack’s effect will make the cop dismiss the story and the Cassandra herself as inconsequential, but later, when Mrs. Gemino files a missing persons report for her hus- band, he’ll remember the story. (“At the time I thought she was joking, but now…”) This Knack doesn’t affect anyone with divine blood.
• Self-Consistency Principle
If you can’t warn people about the future, you can at least take perverse joy in guaranteeing your predictions will come to pass. Once per session, after using her Path effect, the Cassandra adds a Complication equal to her Cunning to all actions that would prevent her prophecy from coming true. Maybe those Trojans would have checked inside the Horse, just to be 100% sure, but once Cassandra starts raving about hidden Greeks, it seems like a terrible idea. Self-Consistency Principle does affect those with divine blood.
HERALD KNACKS
• His Master’s Voice
Once per session, add your Presence score and your focus’ Legend score to a limited Enhancement pool. This pool can be applied to any roll made on behalf of the focus for the remainder of the session.
• Marked with Myrrh
Once per session, you can spend a Momentum point to anoint your focus as is appropriate to your context (oils, ghee, ashes, etc.) through a ritual that should take a scene to accomplish. Once the ritual is complete, the marked character is granted spiritual armor with the Soft 1 and Innocuous tags for the rest of the session.
• Private Caller
Despite all the speeches and sermons, there’s always at least one person that, if convinced, can bring their entire community into line. Spend 1 Momentum to gain perfect knowledge of how to bypass any security or other obstacles between yourself and your target, and gain +2 Enhancement on any rolls to do so. This Knack’s effects end once you’re in your target’s presence.
MIRACLEWORKER KNACKS
• Greatest Show on Earth
You have a particular flair for showy miracles, which tends to get you lots of attention. When attempting to influence anyone who has seen one of your marvels at least once, gain +2 Enhancement. If you’ve used a marvel in their presence within the scene, gain +3 Enhancement instead.
• The Sincerest Form of Flattery
Miracleworkers manipulate the stuff of Fate rather than the inner workings of Purviews themselves, meaning that to them one marvel is much like another. If you witness another character create a marvel, for the remainder of the session you can create the same marvel, even if you don’t possess the Purview used.
• When You Believe
Miracles aren’t always a thing of faith in the World, but faith certainly doesn’t hurt. When you have the Sword of Damocles Condition, all your Integrity and Persuasion rolls not only don’t suffer from the Complication, but gain half the Complication (round up) as a standing Enhancement to those rolls. When the Sword of Damocles causes your marvels to go awry, they never do so in a way that would lower the Attitude of onlookers (which, in the absence of other easy targets, may mean it targets you more directly).
ORACLE KNACKS
• Empathy for the Seer
Once per scene, you can, upon achieving physical contact or locking eyes with another character, wordlessly provide information that the character was previously not privy to. This often takes the form of visions or sudden, numinous intuitions. If you spend a Momentum point when you do so, the character gets access to your skill specialties for the scene.
• Show Me
The vision of an Oracle is incomparable, sometimes resolving actions moment to moment. Once per session, spend Momentum to effectively “rewind” time — what transpired before was merely a perfectly clear vision of the immediate future. The amount of Momentum required varies according to the amount of time rewound: a single turn costs 1 Momentum, a full round 2, and an entire scene might cost anywhere up to 5 Momentum, which should represent about an hour’s time.
• Visions of What Went Before
An Oracle’s vision isn’t always locked to the future, for Fate carries a memory of has come before. You can recall events from the past, slipping into a trance as history plays out before your eyes in real time. You may spend Momentum to “scrub” around in time looking for critical moments; each Momentum spent allows you to identify a moment and search for it. For example, you might say, “show me when the fight starts.” If no moment in the scene matches your query, no Momentum is spent.