AFFINITY DIRECTORY THE GENERIC AFFINITY SCALE The scale runs from 1 (little to no affinity) to 16 (no longer human, no longer playable). 1 to 5: At this level Affinities are little more than personality quirks. 1 is the lowest score any player character can have in any Affinity, and represents the very slight influence the Forces have over everyone. Everyone lives under the Sky, on the Land or on the Ocean, with the Stars shining down and the Fire burning below and the Gods drifting overhead on their flying barges, and you can never quite escape their influence entirely; however, you can get pretty damn close. If you have a score of 1 in an Affinity the relevant Forces will be by and large unaware of your existance, and will pay no attention to your actions unless you end up doing something which significantly helps or hinders them. At 5, the traits associated with the relevant Affinity will be dominant factors within the personality of the character. If you have 5 or more in two highly contradictory Affinities (the most obvious example being the Fire and the Stars), this can lead to startling mood swings. At this point, the relevant Force will become interested and will suggest to its worshippers that the character could be a worthwhile recruit if they are not already a cultist or shaman. Nobody will have an Affinity greater than 5 towards any Force at character generation. Affinities at game start will be as follows: 3 in the Affinity which the player chooses at character generation. 2 in any Affinity which the character also seems especially compatible with. 1 in all other Affinities. +1 to the Affinity of the Power an alchemist specialises in, due to their frequent exposure to the relevant essences, and to the Affinity of the Power a shaman worships. +1 to the Divine affinity of cultists and sorcerers. Generic ways to increase your Affinity within this range: - Gulp down a Coarse Essence. - Be initiated into a cult. - Become a shaman. - Behave in a manner particularly approppriate for the relevant Affinity. - Steal with sorcery, or be granted, a CCantrip and use it to gain a point of Affinity to the Force you got the spell from. Generic ways to decrease your Affinity: - Behave in a manner especially opposed to the relevant Affinity. - Have an apprentice alchemist draw up aa diet designed to rebalance your essential humours. - Strike a minor blow against the intereests of the relevant Force. 6 to 10: At this point the personality tendencies inherent in the Affinities are beginning to rule your life, and are primary motivations. This is also when you begin to gain certain abilities from your Affinities, and when advancement becomes significantly difficult. At 6 points the powers gained are very subtle, aren't likely to be noticed by other people, and are more-or-less on the level of the advantages I listed in the first draft of the character gen system. At 10 points the powers gained are minor but are likely to be noticed by other people, and could even be linked to the Force in question if people make a lucky guess. At this level the relevant Force (and quite probably the other Forces unless you've been very discreet) is definitely aware of you. If you've been serving it, it will groom you for greater things. If you haven't, it will become concerned - at this point their cults or shamen are liable to start threatening you to swear loyalty or else. Occasionally, at this stage, you will get vague dreams about meeting your god on his/her barge, or being with the Power in the wild places it rules. This is a much more pleasant if you're a cultist or shamen. Generic ways to increase your Affinity at this point: - Quaff a Fine Essence. - Lead a coup and take over your cult. - Steal with sorcery, or be granted, an Enchantment and use it to gain a point of Affinity to the Force you got the spell from. - Strike a minor blow supporting the intterests of the relevant Force. Generic ways to decrease your Affinity: - Complete a difficult and life-threatenning mission to strike a major blow againt the interests of the relevant Force. - Have a journeyman alchemist remove froom you the gland associated with the Power in question. (This needn't be fatal if the alchemist knows what he's doing. But it's a pain.) 11 to 15: Here is where the physical changes begin. At this stage people are liable to be accused of being avatars and daimons if they aren't careful, and it's kind of hard to tell where the dividing line between "human" and "not human" is here. At 11 points the physical changes should be low-key and not immediately obvious. By 15 points, they should be very hard to disguise (someone with the Master of Disguise quirk could just about pull it off). At this level, the character has gained the attention of *all* the Forces. If they are loyal to the Force they have the Affinity with, they will be one of the Force's primary agents in the world; cultists will directly hear the thoughts of their gods, shamen will be in communion with the highest order of daimons. Other Forces will almost certainly be on their case, but on the flip side the character will be able to rely on their Force's full support. If they are not serving the Force they have this Affinity with, they'll start getting avatars/daimons threatening them to swear loyalty or else, whilst the other Forces will be encouraging them to continue on their independent path. The character will dream daily now of the Force they have the Affinity with, and the dreams will be much more intense. This can be ecstatically pleasurable or deeply terrifying. Generic ways to increase your Affinity at this point: - Drink a Pure Essence. - Kill and eat a daimon. - Drink the blood of an avatar. - Have sex with a daimon or avatar. - Steal with sorcery, or be granted, a GGrand Ritual and use it to gain a point of Affinity to the Force you got the spell from. - Complete a difficult and life-threatenning mission to strike a major blow supporting the interests of the relevant Force. Generic ways to decrease your Affinity at this point: - Have a master alchemist set up a compllicated set of equipment to extract your blood, filter out the relevant Essence, and put the blood back inside you. (This is life-threatening.) - Undertake a long and complex quest to strike a crippling blow against the interests of the relevant Force. 16: Once you reach 15 points, you are at the point of ultimate ascendance. You are not long for the world: very soon you will reach a moment of decision: whether to undertake the cosmic ordeal required to reach 16 points, or to spurn the opportunity and be destroyed. Followers of the Divine (self) path will either become minor gods or fall into senility, cultists and shamen will join with their masters to become fully-fledged avatars or daimons or be destroyed in the attempt. Those who have reached 15 points in their Affinity with a Power but have resisted the service of that Power will still have an opportunity to merge to become a full daimon, but in doing so they will end up changing the Power rather than being changed by it; only subtly, but enough that they will have made a permanent impression upon its psyche. Once you reach 16 points you are no longer human at all, and nobody will fail to notice this. PCs who reach this stage are no longer playable, though we may let them turn up to one session if we're feeling charitable before they are driven into the night, only to return occasionally as avatar/daimon NPCs. Generic ways to increase your Affinity to 16: - Visit a Power in its home and drink Puure Essence directly from its body. - Drink the blood of a God. - Cosmically marry the relevant Power orr God and consummate the marriage directly. - Undertake a long and complex quest to strike a staggering blow in support of the interests of the relevant Force. Generic ways to decrease your Affinity from 16: You can't. The 15 point/16 point barrier is the steep cliff at the end of the slippery slope, and there's no climbing back up. ADVANCEMENT People should advance no more than 3 advancement points per turn, and then only if their current Affinity is between 1 and 5 and they do something which would advance your Affinity within the 11-15 range. Affinities should not be reduced by more than 2 points per turn. In general, no two people should receive entirely the same powers, personality alterations, or physical metamorphoses as they progress along a particular Affinity; we must always tailor these things to the player character. Similarly, we shouldn't be overly strict about the criteria for advancement or reduction: if someone does something of an appropriate nature and of sufficient magnitude, we shouldn't begrudge them the points. THE SKY 1-5: The personality elements mentioned in the character generation system hold here. Once you get to 5 points of Affinity, the character has either an overriding wanderlust or an instinctive inclination towards rebellion. Increasing Affinity at this stage: - Free yourself or someone else from an irritating constraint. - Travel to one of the Four Nations you haven't ever visited. Decreasing Affinity at this stage: - Bind someone with a troubling constraiint (something which has a fairly major impact on their plans). 6-10: At 6 points you receive a mild bonus to either travelling to distant lands or to freeing yourself or others (depending on which you've emphasised so far). At 10 points you are either a great explorer or a great liberator, depending on which you have emphasised. A light breeze follows you everywhere, blowing out candles as you enter the room. You'd also be diagnosed with ADHD if you lived in the real world - it's very hard for you to concentrate on lengthly, repetitive tasks. Increasing Affinity at this stage: - Free yourself or someone else from a ttroubling constraint. - Travel to a region of the Treacherous Lands you've not visited yet. Decreasing Affinity at this stage: - Bind someone with a maddening constraiint (something which dominates their life). 11-15: At 11 points, bony nubs begin to grow out of one's back. At 15 points, you've grown big beautiful wings and can fly. Increasing Affinity at this stage: - Free someone from a maddening constraiint (something which dominates their life). - Circumnavigate either the True or Treaacherous Lands. - Invent an entirely new method of traveel. Decreasing Affinity at this stage: - Bring a tyrant to power. 16: At this point it's past time you turned into an eagle and flew away. Increasing Affinity at this stage: - Climb to the top of the wall and surviive. - Overthrow a powerful tyrant. - Map the True and Treacherous lands commpletely. THE FIRE 1-5: The personality elements mentioned in the character generation system hold here. Once you get to 5 points of Affinity, the character has either an to take chances you would otherwise think a tad risky or the desire to rebel against the staus quo for no apparent reason. Increasing Affinity at this stage: - Perform a small act of anarchy (eitherr public or private but it must have an impact). - Allow your emotions to have an unusuallly large impact on your decision making. Decreasing Affinity at this stage: - Deliberatly constraining a system withh order and logic where there previously was none or at least not much. 6-10: At 6 points you receive a mild bonus when trying to do something either involving emotive issues or through the increase of chaos in the world. At 10 points you are very good at empathy – you can judge a person's emotive state and manipulate it therein, or you can see a system and know how the best way to foil it is – you can see the imperfections and the flaws in the logic that can be exploited, depending on which you have emphasised. At this stage you tend to make snap decisions based on first impressions and gut instinct. You also have a habbit of losing your temper and moving from one emotional extreme to another at a moments notice. Increasing Affinity at this stage: - Bring down or severely hamper somethinng (a system, a building, a group etc) for little or no reason (specifically not because it is the logical thing to do). - Travel to a place in the world where tthe world is changing and watch it. (this could involve watching a lava flow move, watch two armies colliding, being in the middle of an earthquake or something like that) Decreasing Affinity at this stage: - Warn someone of a fate about to befalll them that they would otherwise be unable to predict or help rebuild a large fallen organisation/structure 11-15: At 11 points, Your eyes become as flame and flicker if you look closely. At 15 points, you can't be burnt and crave the heat. Increasing Affinity at this stage: - Completely destroy someone's mind and sanity or ruin someone's life utterly. (usually for no descernable reason) - Play a trick on the untrickable (a higghly star orientated person (who the fire will take great pleasure in tricking) OR a very fire orientated person (who should know better than to be tricked by the fire) - Create your finest work (something thaat it is agreed upon is truly wondrous and desirable) and then throw it off the tallest building/cliff you can find. You may never see it again, then again who knows where it will end up. Decreasing Affinity at this stage: - Lead a movement to restore order upon a city, put a fair ruler on a throne, restore order to a completely disordered system (like organising a fraction of the citadels library or something similarly impressive) 16: At this stage the fire decides you're too good an opportunity to give up and takes you as one of its own. Increasing Affinity at this stage: - Touch the fire beneath the earth. - Trick a Silver Knight or similar into doing something against the will of the stars (stealing a kiss from them for example or persuading them to show any form of mercy). - Persuade a God to side with the fire oover the stars. THE LAND 1-5: The personality elements mentioned in the character generation system take effect here. Once you've reached 5, you're finding having your home in any sort of city deeply stifling and unattractive. Moving to a house in the country is much, much more attractive. Increasing Affinity at this stage: - Spend a protracted length of time liviing rough (sleeping in a tent or under the stars, eating only what you catch, that kind of thing) - Bring nature back to a civilised area (keep on leaving food out for the rats in the basement of your house; walk the streets scattering grass seeds between the cracks in the pavement Decreasing Affinity at this stage: - Move out of a wilderness area and intoo a city; work to bring civilisation to an area of countryside (by, say, building a farm there) 6-10: At 6, you are always full of energy, hale and hearty. Your hair grows much thicker and faster (and if male, shaving starts to require much more of your time.) You receive a mild bonus to actions involving working alongside nature. At 10, animals instinctively come up to you when you see them. When you plant things, they grow quickly and verdantly. You find that you have rather a taste for raw meat. Any paved area or crowd of people is extremely claustrophobic and unsettling. Increasing affinity at this stage: - Have lots of children-- and look afterr them. - Spend a protracted length of time liviing in the wild without any part of the civilised world intruding: no tent, no fire, no knives, no clothes. - Cause a farm (or something of similar size) to become deserted and devoured by the wilds. Decreasing affinity at this stage: - Be responsible for an extensive prograam of lumberjacking/hunting/road-building. 11-15: At 11, your teeth and nails are becoming noticably more pointed. Your hair has now got to the stage where trying to keep it trimmed is an exercise in futility. Your skin is becoming hard and leathery. At 15, it's gotten so bad that people are liable to mistake you for Sasquatch. Increasing affinity at this stage: - Kill a man and eat his corpse. - Tear down a town or other obvious signn of civilisation and plant a forest there. Decreasing affinity at this stage: - Serious acts of eco-terrorism: burningg down a forest, quarrying a mountain, causing a species to go extinct. 16: It's four legs and howling time. Increasing affinity to 16: - Cause an entire civilisation to collappse. THE STARS 1-5: once someone has a Star affinity of five, they begin to be noted for personality traits like calmness, seriousness, dedication, and loyalty, but also for coldness, indifference, and close - mindedness, though probably not all at once. They may gain an affinity for mathematics or logic. Increasing affinity: + prevent or legally punish a crime (or other injustice) for no other reason than that it *is* an injustice, when doing so is within your capabilities. + restore or impose order in some small scale situation; encourage a mob to proceed by course of law, build a small farm in an unsettled wilderness, organise people to put out a housefire, create a new governmental post. Decreasing affinity: + committ a serious crime or injustice, or switch to a career involving more crime and injustice than your current one (one off affinity shift). + Do something, anything, for no reason whatsoever (harder than it sounds). + Committ an act of wanton destruction upon some symbol of civilization or order; kill an (honest) watchdog, for example. 6-10: at six points, you receive a small bonus to any actions involving the imposition of order, or can see better at night, or gain mild resistance to the cold. At ten points, Star - related character traits are dominating your personality; you are completely dedicated to some aspect of the celestial order. This could be Law (you are a great and wise judge), Justice (writing wrongs because it must be done), Organisation (you are a mechanical administrator who leaves his desk to sleep, or a compulsive - obsessive who cannot rest until his environment is under his complete control), or others - an obsessed logician might emerge in this way. If you have any kind of authority, the chances are that you Star - driven obsessions have caused you to make quite a name for yourself, though you may be respected, reviled, or both. Increasing affinity: + prevent or legally punish a crime or injustice for its own sake, when doing so entails a serious effort or danger, or continually deal with crimes within your capabilities over a long period (one - off). + restore or impose order in a larger scale situation: end a riot encompassing a whole district of Horizon (not necessarily single - handed, but you must have the most responsibility), bring the rule of law to part of Vegadabarra, create a new government department or massively expand an existing one. Decreasing affinity: + Incite a large group of people (eg a mob) to participate in some act of injustice, rebellion, or wanton destruction. + Make a change in career from some job involved in imposing order to something involved in destroying it (eg change from being an honest Watchdog to being an operative of the Emperor's Front, and stick with it). + Destroy or undo some significant symbol of order; murder a prominent judge, destroy a colony in a wilderness, burn a law library. 11-15: at eleven points, the physical changes noted above begin to occur. You age more slowly, or your eyes acquire a soft gleam, or anyone approaching you feels unaccountably cold, or your skin developes a silver tint. By fifteen points, they are complete; your skin and clothes have turned silver and become hard and metallic; or your body temperature has gone AWOL and there are patches of frost forming on your skin; your eyes have melted away into pools of light; you may have permanent Perfection of the Body or Spirit. At some point in this range the last of your filthy emotions are driven out, leaving you calm, collected, and quite inhuman. People are going to start noticing your supernatural 'issues' and will likely react with hostility. Most societies aspire to the rule of law and the propogation of civilization, but they don't want the earthly manifestations of the Stars watching to make sure they get it right. Increasing Affinity: + go to immense lengths or expose yourself to huge danger in order to prevent or right an injustice, and do so simply because it is the right thing to do. + impose order on a vast scale; unite Vegdabarra as a viable single nation, create a civilized human government over a large part of the Treacherous Lands, have an entirely new codex of laws devised by yourself adopted, create a vast, overreaching bureaucracy. + Successfully cast 'Celestial Justice' on the avatar of a god. The trick here is 'successfully'. This will almost certainly end with the death of the Avatar, but that will only be the start of the consequences. Decreasing Affinity: + Overthrow the rule of law in an entire kingdom. + Give someone significant help in achieving deification. + Cause a large number of people to entirely abandon sanity. + carry out an extended campaign of destruction and murder of bastions of order. 16: some sort of transformation overcomes you at this point. If you have unswervingly followed the path of justice and retribution, you may become a Silver Knight. Others burst into light and become Flaming Ministers. Most simply seem to dissolve into starlight and vanish up beyond the Sky. For a few, though, the process is much more dramatic; they ascend into the heavens in pillars of light, scourging the surrounding ground with frost. That night, the astronomers of the True Lands will discover a new star. Increasing Affinity: + Dedicate your entire life to the pursuit and enforcement of justice, no matter the personal cost, and succeed multiple times. + Unify the True Lands under a single law system and government, or do the same for the Trecherous. + Cast 'Celestial Justice' directly on a god; if the Stars win the ensuing struggle, your affinity is increased. THE SOLDIER 1-5: You're a fairly normal person. Maybe you're subservient, willing to take instructions and be a doormat to those more powerful than you. Maybe you're deeply stoic, accepting the constant stings of fate with a square jaw. Maybe you're just in a non-cushy military position. [I'm assuming that the 'improving Affinity' outlines here only apply to people whose Divine affinity has already shifted to Soldier.] Improving Affinity at this stage: - Join the army or another quasi-militarry force. - Take (significant) orders from someboddy without questioning them or asking anything in return. Orders that involve a loss on your part or put you in danger of arrest. Decreasing Affinity at this stage: - Shirk a duty; refuse to do something yyou agreed to do. 6-10: At 6, you are beginning to find yourself a better fighter. If you weren't already a Tough fighter, you are now. Several minor cuts and bruises will have appeared on your body from nowhere. You're also deeply inclined to take any orders issued to you in a clear and commanding voice. By 10, those cuts and bruises are now wounds that you have to keep constantly bandaged up. You've also become an Impressive fighter. Improving Affinity at this stage: - Be on the front lines in a war, skirmiish, or other major military manouver. - Allow yourself to come under the contrrol of a complete stranger. Decreasing Affinity at this stage: - Betray somebody who was relying on youu. - Take an utterly selfish action that haarms a great deal of people. 11-15: By 11, you feel naked and uncomfortable if you're not in uniform: preferably armour. At the same time, you've become almost impervious to pain. That is to say, being punched in the face still hurts, but you can fight through it. By 15, you're never out of a bronze, archaic-looking uniform, and killing you requires several men holding you down while their buddies dismember you. Improving Affinity at this stage: - Be the only survivor of a major battlee. - Take unending abuse from somebody withhout retaliating. Decreasing Affinity at this stage: - Make some sort of epic betrayal (stabbbing an entire mob in the back, for example). 16: Damn near time you became an avatar of the Soldier and joined him on his barge. You have Ridiculously Leet combat skills, you automatically obey any command given to you in a clear and commanding voice, and you are all but unkillable. Improving Affinity to 16: - Die, becoming a legendary figure withiin military folklore (this is the kind of thing Sergeant Bluster is setting himself up for) - Be slain while being the only man holdding off an entire army. VERSINYA 1-5: People generally view you as being slightly odd. You have a sort of morbid curiousity about you and a tendency to linger longer at the site of an accident than you should. Your hygiene has a tendency to be a little lacking and you leave your dirty dishes out long enough to grow mould. You are not yet close enough to your goddess to be considered by others to be anything more than an ordinary slob, but the hints sometimes come through. Improving Affinity at this stage: - Witness a murder or similar horrific ccrime and do not look away or intervene. - Do something that defies the natural oorder of things, talk back to a superior or reject a loved one at their time of need. - Visit a brothel in the dirtiest part oof town and take part in an act of depravity. - Activitely try to resist Versinya (shee’s odd like that). Decreasing Affinity at this stage: - Make right a past wrong, ie. confess tto a crime you have commited, reconcile with your estranged parents. - Remove something decaying, assist a dooctor cleaning out a wound. 6-10: You are beginning to embrace the idea of decay and depravity. At 6 these are still subtle changes, however by 10 you are activitely seeking these things out. You regular visit the less pleasant brothels, you engage in disorganised crime and your personal hygiene is all but non existent. People tend to keep their distance from you if they can help it. Improving Affinity at this stage: - Suffer from a potentially life threateening disease and survive. - Become permantly scarred. - Harm someone who loves you permanentlyy. Decreasing Affinity at this stage: - Develop a loving and unselfish relatioonship with someone. - Commit an act of kindness to a strangeer, expecting no reward. 11-15: You are quite simply an awful human being. You are riddled with diseases and are by this stage quite mad. You despise the world and all its inhabitants and are constantly suffering the effects of your chosen path. Improving Affinity at this stage: - Kill the person who loves you the mostt. - Destroy something pure and good, murdeer a priest of the intercessor in cold blood or take an innocent child away from its parents and induct it into the cult of Versinya. Decreasing Affinity at this stage: - Fall in love. - Save someone from death, putting yoursself at risk in the progress. 16: You become an avatar. You are immortal but are physical and mentally decayed. You are a mass of constant, unrelenting pain and can do nothing but make others suffer as you do. There is no joy or pleasure in your life, only hatred. ILLARIA 1-5: You tend to be quiet and graceful. Skills that involve stealth would fit well with your character but are not mandatory. You have a certain fondness for black and night but as yet these manifest as no more than mannerisms. You most probably like cats. Improving Affinity at this stage:
- Very simple: show an act of kindness tto a cat, expecting nothing in return. - Do something sneakily, pick someone’s pocket whilst they are not looking, spread a rumour about one of the noble families. Decreasing Affinity at this stage:
- Cause harm to a cat, or stand by whilsst someone else harms a cat. - Get caught trying to pick someones poccket. 6-10: You are dark and sultry. You probably speak in soft tones and are extremly good at being subtle when you want to be. You’re reflexes are probably above average and your stealth increases to quiet, if it is not already. Improving Affinity at this stage: - Protect a cat from being killed, puttiing yourself a risk in the process. - Break into something moderately well gguarded and steal something valuable. - Seduce someone. Decreasing Affinity at this stage: - Get caught breaking into somewhere - Kill a cat. 11-15: By 11 your stealth has increased one more level. Your body starts to become more slender and toned. Your reflexes are unusually high. By 15 your reflexes and agility have become inhuman. By this stage your eyes have also begun to change… they are turning yellow and you pupils are turning into thin slits. Your nightvision has improved immensely. Improving Affinity at this stage: - Break into somewhere obsenely well guaarded, we’re talking Colonel Zero’s residence here, and stealing something of paramount importance. - Assassinate someone powerful or importtant. Decreasing Affinity at this stage: - Get caught. - Do something that harms the cat communnity as a whole, kill hundreds of cats. 16: Most likely you just become a cat at this stage. If you have pleased Illaria enough you may be allowed to go and serve her on her barge. ARIKEL Increasing affinity with Arikel can occur by demonstrating one's own genius, or alternatively by displaying overwhelming pride orarrogance in one's own works, or through bitter and vindictive jealousy. Ultimate union with the God, though, can only come through a combination of these. 1-5: at this level you are still mostly a normal person. By affinity 5, personality traits like arrogance, spite, and confidence in own's own intelligence will be coming to the surface. You will also become increasingly dedicated to any technical work in your life. INCREASING AFFINITY: + allow some minor actions to be dictated by your jealousy of another's skills. + take up a job or hobby that involves more technical work than you previously carried out, or work to improve the quality of your workmanship. + assure others that your skills and/or creations will solve a problem, and be vindicated. DECREASING AFFINITY: + Smash up a tool or device for reasons unconnected to professional competition or jealousy + change job or hobby so that you no longer do technical work + fail to have faith in technology or your own skills 6-10: at this level you begin to seriously grate on other people. You become less and less concerned with them as individuals, and more as distractions, servants or cattle. Your faith in your own skills, and the worthlessness of anything anybody knows that you don't, increases to rock solidity. Should it be breached, though, your jealousy leads you to take increasingly dramatic action. By affinity ten you are equivalent to a typical real world systems administrator. Your skills begin to increase with your affinity; you develope an intuitive understanding of tools and machines. INCREASING AFFINITY: + produce a particularly fine example of your craft, a true masterwork. + invent a new device, and do not allow it to move out of your control. + destroy a device or the plans for it when you have good reason to be jealous of it. DECREASING AFFINITY: + invent a new device, and take positive steps to have it publicly distributed, or otherwise wilfully abdicate control over it. + persuade a number of people to stop working in technical areas, or otherwise prevent them from doing so. + start teaching or otherwise widely disseminating skills in a way that does not give you control over the final outcome (so taking apprentices would not count). 11 - 15: you still look human but you really don't act much like it. Your life is your craft and your inventions, with possibly a spare thought for what your idiot competitors (anyone, anywhere working in the same area) are producing. Other subjects are uninteresting. You probably live something like a hermit, or you may be surrounded all day, every day by flunkies whom you barely register as independent beings. If your position requires you to interact with people, you will probably be extremely unpopular and impossible to get along with. Your shell of arrogant imperviousness may occasionally be breached to allow for fits of towering rage or seething spite at petty interruptions or difficulties. In science and engineering departments you are thought of as 'a real character'. Your understanding of tools continues to increase to the point where others find it almost supernatural, and are probably highly suspiscious of you. INCREASING AFFINITY: + create a revolutionary invention, be publicly credited for it and ensure that it stays under your control + bring a large number of craftsmen or engineers under your control. + devote your enitre life, except for eating and sleeping, to craft and technology. DECREASING AFFINITY: + create a revolutionary invention, and actively work to abdicate control over it. + prevent or end the practice of some craft in an entire city or district, for reasons unconnected with jealousy or competition. + set up a large institution for the teaching of technical skills in such a way that the learning and practice of the skills will not be subject to strict controls 16: you have achieved unity with Arikel. INCREASING AFFINITY: + create a revolutionary invention, lose control of it then regain control of it in such a way as to seriously harm the thieves, making a public example of them. + create a revolutionary invention, keep control of it, and use it to gain wide - ranging power over other. THE MUTILATED ONE Increasing affinity to the Mutilated One is a matter of inflicting mutilation, in whatever form, on one's self; or of bearing that inflicted by the world with courage and helping others to do so. Decreasing affinity will result from finding ways to throw off the 'gift' of the Mutilated One, or mistreating its children. No precise affinity scales are given here as it really is just a matter of the degree and circumstances of the acts involved. Theoretically increasing one's affinity to 16 would mean committing suicide, which is another reason the Mutilated One tends not to have avatars. DIVINE (SELF) 1-5: The personality traits involved are much like those described under Divine in the character generation system. Once you get to 5 points, the character is either deeply paranoid, wildly narcissistic, unassailably egotistical or unnaturally charismatic. Ways to increase your Affinity: - Steal a Cantrip with sorcery. This is *in addition* to the relevant Affinity boost if you actually use the thing. - Behave in a deeply selfish manner. - Make speeches or write pamphlets exhorrting people to follow your lead on a particular issue, and be noticed. - Do something which is clearly and obviiously your responsibility, and have it mentioned in the turnsheets of at least 4 other players the next turn (they must clearly know it's you wot done it). Ways to decrease it: - Join a cult. (This will technically convert it to Divine (God name). - Become a shaman. (This *will* decreasee it.) - Surrender an Enchantment that you have stolen, *or* surrender a Cantrip *and* accept a punishment from the Power or God you stole it from. - Swear loyalty to someone else. 6-10: 6: The character gains slight bonuses when he is attempting to lead or inspire others, and slight penalties when is attempting to loyally follow somebody else. 10: The character is now a "cult" figure. They now have Lots of Mooks - or if they already have Lots of Mooks,, it's now a Private Army. Meanwhile, the character is now revolted - or afraid - by the idea of collaborating with others as equals, or giving their loyalty to another person. If they gave speech in public about how tiny blueberries hidden inside the heads of kittens were trying to KILL US ALL, the weak-willed will listen in awe and agree. By now, the authorities - cosmic, governmental, and criminal - are almost certainly deeply worried about this. At some point within this region the character will occasionally have vague dreams of an empty, featureless barge drifting aimlessly through the black depths of space. Ways to increase: - Steal an Enchantment with sorcery. Thiis is *in addition* to the relevant Affinity boost if you actually use the thing. - Take over a mob or similar city-wide oorganisation. - Do something which is clearly and obviiously your responsibility, and have it mentioned in the turnsheets of at least 10 other players the next turn (they must know it's you wot done it). Ways to decrease: - Surrender a Grand Ritual that you havee stolen, *or* surrender an Enchantment and accept a punishment from the Power or God you stole it from. - As above, join a cult or become a shamman or swear loyalty to someone. 11-15: 11: The character will not die, so long as he or she still has any followers, but will age. There are few outward physical changes associated with the path of Divine (self), but there are some: at this point the character will appear noticably healthier than usual, and will recover from wounds much more quickly. 15: The character will not die or age so long as anybody remembers their name (FAME!). The character also is without blemish or scar, and lost limbs will regrow swiftly - swift enough to be really disconcerting to someone watching. Within this region the character will frequently dream of the empty barge, which slowly will become populated with objects and items that reflect the character's personality. Ways to advance your Affinity: - Have an alchemist purify your blood, rremoving all traces of Essences of Powers, make a Pure sample of what is left, and then drink it. - Steal a Grand Ritual with sorcery. Thiis is *in addition* to the relevant Affinity boost if you actually use the thing. - Take over a major country, or carve ouut a kingdom for yourself in the Treacherous Lands. - Do something which is clearly and obviiously your responsibility, and have at least 10 other players devote a turnsheet action to it the next turn (or at least 4 other players devote *most of their turnsheets* to it). Ways to decrease your Affinity: - Sacrifice yourself for someone else. TThis should be a situation where you do not expect to survive the sacrifice. - Join a cult/become a shaman/swear loyaalty, as before. (This is a more and more major thing as your Divine (self) Affinity grows, since you are less and less comfortable with the idea of doing these things.) 16: The fate of the Gods is the fate of the one who takes the path of the self to its end: to slowly drift into senility, alone, and ultimately dying when everyone has forgotten your name. When you reach 15 points, you are presented with a simple choice: go forth and claim your place amongst the gods, or renounce it and remain in the world. Characters who choose to remain in the world stay at 15 points and begin to go senile. They become forgetful. Sorcerers slowly lose their spells. It's possible to prolong the end by spending a lot of time asleep (this is what the Emperor did - during the Third Age, he would often sleep for decades), but only to an extent: eventually, you'll lose it all. Ways to get here from 15 points: - Use sorcery to steal a major piece of the power of a God or Power. This will severely hamper the entity in question, and characters who do this are liable to become fairly important Gods as opposed to bottom-level minor godlings. - Kill a God and remake his barge. - Build a barge on earth and fly it up tto where the Gods are. - Fly through the Sky unprotected and buuild a barge in the place between Stars and Sky. - Declare yourself a god before an adoriing crowd of minions, be shot dead by the authorities, and then return to life and ASCEND. - Reconquer the Empire and install yoursself as Emperor. Ascend, leaving the leader of your personality-cult as Regent or Steward or Grand Vizier. - Do something which is very obviously yyour fault, and have the *entire player base* devote a turnsheet action to it (or have 10 or more players devote *most of their turnsheets* to it).