Character Creation Step 2
Step 2: Select your Ancestry
After you’ve selected your culture, now choose one ancestry—also called a bloodline— from those listed under your selected culture. There are only four major bloodlines in the world, but each one shapes your body, senses, and sometimes how others treat you. Once you’ve selected your ancestry, add a dot to the indicated Action, or Action most associated with that ancestry. Also, write down any special ability granted by that ancestry.
What you gain:Ancestries of the World
Human – The Jack-of-All-TidesHumans are the native sons and daughters of Earth. Adaptable, ambitious, and endlessly inventive, they are survivors of every upheaval life has thrown at them. Once the remains of Otherworld crashed to Earth during Crossing’s Fall, humanity met both the improbable and impossible head on. They stood against it, and even with it, with their usual mix of chaos, courage, and curiosity.
Some built bridges, even as others raised walls, and a few saw opportunity in the ruins. Despite lacking the innate gifts of the Otherworld ancestries, humans still thrive through sheer will and versatility. Humans mold their fate through grit, luck, and an uncanny knack for turning disaster into discovery, or opportunity.
The thayans (pronounced 'thay-an') were the first of the Otherworld ancestries to reveal themselves after Crossing’s Fall. Graceful and resilient, their dragonfly wings, slightly pointed ears, and radiant eyes mark them as beings of magic and air—reminiscent of the fae-folk myths.
Similar in stature, size, and appearance to humans save for the few fae-folk features, their interests often burn with a human-like drive. They relish in discovery, beauty, but carry a healthy dose of determination on their own. Thayan ancestry has the gift of flight, true flight, allowing them to fly using their dragonfly-like wings.
There is the famous human versatility, thayan resilience, and morasu strategists in the world. But only the grimling bloodline is as calm as mountain stone and stronger than hammered steel. Resembling short and broad humans, their skin bears the faint metal veins that glow in tune with their feelings, or when they work their craft.
Like the thayan bloodline, the grimling bloodlines bear their own mythic features, from gemstone colored eyes to brightly colored hair and beards. They’re believed to be the true source of many ‘forge spirit’ legends. Durable in the extreme heat and cold, this bloodline is the physically strongest of them all. They’re said to be able to match, or even surpass, most humans in raw lifting power.
The last of the bloodlines is the most unusual of all. Morasu (pronounced ‘Mora-soo’) are the mysterious raven-featured ancestry from the shattered Tir Yovat Empire on Otherworld. This ancestry is humanoid, but still are the least human-looking of all the Otherworld bloodlines. Standing as tall, but thinner, they have a unique blend of human and raven-like features.
Glossy black feathers cover their body, save for pearl-gray, scaly skin on their legs and face. Even their hair has a thin, feathery texture, being long black or silver. Anyone of the morasu bloodline also has a raven-like tail. While they can’t fly like a thayan bloodline, they can glide short distances. Like the thayans, they too have pointed fae-folk pointed ears, only much more pronounced. Last are their eyes, which are a deep, solid black.
Along with those sharp ears, are sharp eyes and mind. They have a natural affinity for patterns and strategy. This can, at times, allow them to find ways to recover from even the most dire physical threats.
The breach between Earth and the Otherworld is still young—barely a decade old. For most folk, cross-ancestry unions are only just beginning to happen, and the first generation of mixed-ancestry children is still growing up.
If you want to play a mixed-ancestry character, called a ‘breach-born’, this is what you need to know...
Age: Your character will likely be a child or teenager unless there’s a supernatural or narrative reason for them to be older (accelerated growth, or unusual Etherwave exposure). This is for no other reason that it’s only been about ten years since the Crossing’s Fall breach.
Mechanics: Pick two ancestries as your bloodlines. Pick the Action bonus from one, then take the Trait from the other.
Narrative: You may describe traits from both ancestries (for example, a wingless Thayan-Human with faint magical attunement and Human adaptability).
Mixed-ancestry characters are rare in 1722. Their presence may draw curiosity, suspicion, or awe depending on where they go.
Next? That would be your character’s profession!
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