Mortal Paths

Origin Paths constitute how your character grew up, and where she came from. These Paths inform who the character is now based on prior experiences. She can change and grow based on those experiences, or hold on to her history as a form of identity. Increased ranks in an Origin Path represents the character owning her experiences and becoming more invested in her own past.

 

The following are example Origin Paths with suggested Skills (some more, some less — remember that your character may only choose three per Path). Feel free to delve deeper into these backstories and the groups they may be a part of to make the Path your own.

 

ADVENTURER

Your character grew up constantly seeking the next thrill, always chasing an adrenaline rush, and never considering the consequences. As a kid, she broke more bones than she knew she had, but it never stopped her from making the next leap. Into adulthood, she keeps connected to the various thrill-seeking communities that fed her addictions growing up. She still seeks out fellow adventurers, but now her tastes are more refined.

Connections: High-risk Hobbyists (Divers, Mountain Climbers, Stunt Drivers, etc.), Bomb Disposal Experts, Travel Enthusiasts
Skills: Firearms, Athletics, Pilot, or Survival

CHOSEN

Something miraculous portended your birth, as simple as a twist of Fate or as complex as the direct interference of a God or Gods, as subtle as unusual weather or as blatant as the laws of physics upending themselves. Perhaps your mortal parents knowingly offered you up to the Gods. A divine presence has accompanied you throughout your life, instilling hidden wisdom and training you up for their own purposes. Your own desires were, at best, secondary. Perhaps you’ve learned to live with that, or perhaps you resent the celestial being that has controlled your life from the moment you were born, that you have been wrapped up in Fate long before you understood what that truly meant. What’s done is done — what’s to come will be the real test, the first real breath of freedom you’ve ever tasted.

Connections: Divine Handlers, Followers of Your Adoptive Parent, New Friends That Don’t Quite Understand
Path Skills: Culture, Integrity, Occult, or Subterfuge

CREATED

Awareness came to you like a thunderbolt, blinding and deafening. One moment, you were not, and the next you were, painfully, shockingly, sucking down your first human breath. Something divine came to you as you were — a stone, a tree, a wolf, a leaf on the wind — and unmade you. That they also made you in the process is sometimes cold comfort. Created by your divine parent to be a purpose-built champion, you were born fully-grown, already possessed of skills you never learned, and coursing with divine power — for much was needed to create a half-mortal life from something other than human. Yet, for all that you were designed, made as a singular conscious act of will, you have a will of your own, and even if this being standing before you created you from nothing, you are in no way beholden to them. Whether you bow to what your parent has ordained or whether you take this life you never asked for and make it your own — that is the first question many of the Created answer for themselves.

Connections: Custom-made Companion, Overawed Worshippers of Your Parent, Mild-Mannered Mortal Family
Path Skills: Athletics, Empathy, Survival

LIFE OF PRIVILEGE

Your character grew up with far more than those around her. Maybe her parents were rich, or she had a trust fund from a wealthy distant relative. Either way, she had every opportunity handed to her and was rarely told no. She went to the best schools available and completed college at the top of her class. She may have worked to earn her keep, but she never really needed to. With this privilege comes confidence, and she makes her way easily through The World.

Connections: School Alumni, College Club Membership, Local Political Affiliates
Skills: Leadership, Culture, Persuasion

MILITARY BRAT

Your character grew up with strong military influences. Maybe his parents were in a branch of the military, or maybe he was a troubled youth and had to attend a military academy. Either way, he had a strict upbringing with a lot of guidance and structure. He learned about respect, loyalty, and how to defend himself. He may have decided to join the military himself, or go to college in an attempt to leave that life behind. Either way, he is still connected to that life.

Connections: Past Teacher, Military Commander, Steadfast Friend Skills: Culture, Leadership, Technology

POTEMKIN WORLD

Your life was normal, or at least, you thought it was. Your world was designed to make you feel that way, after all. Eventually, though, you began to notice discrepancies in what you were taught versus what you saw. You had some things in common with mortals — school, your cell phone, television — but mortals did not dine on ambrosia each night, took no courses in titanspawn recognition in high school, could not hold their own in a sword duel by the age of nine. Whatever it was that made you question your reality, it came to pieces in one way or another, and you realized the truth. All of it, from your birth to that very moment, was a production by your divine parentage to prepare you for the mortal World, for it was there that you were destined to travel in their service. And you were ready, in a certain way, but one thing still bothers you — the television was so much better back at home.

Connections: Divine Friends & Study Buddies, Overly Demanding Mentors, Fellow Émigrés to The World
Path Skills: Occult, Culture, Integrity, or Survival

CHILD OF THE STREETS

Whatever the circumstances, your character grew up on the streets. Maybe she was orphaned at an early age, or maybe her home life was just bad enough to drive her to the streets. She made friends with other street kids, maybe even joined a gang. She knew the homeless people just as well as she did her own neighborhood kids, and school was always a second thought to the immediate drama of the streets.

Connections: Street Gangs, Street Mentor, Helpful Family Member, Store Clerks
Skills: Athletics, Subterfuge, or Survival

SUBURBIA

Your character’s parents were well-off enough to afford a comfortable living. He wasn’t part of the upper class, but firmly middle class. He went to public school, and they vacationed to Disney every summer. He never saw his parents struggle with money, if only because they were good at hiding it from the kids. He had the chance to go to college, and maybe even went on a scholarship, or went to trade school instead. He might not have gotten everything he always asked for, but he never knew what it was like to need anything.

Connections: Favorite Professor, Neighbor Friend, Influential Teacher
Skills: Culture, Empathy, or Technology

SURVIVALIST

You character always had an escape plan, even when very young. Maybe her parents were conspiracy theorists, and did weekly drills to ensure she knew how to get to the shelter if the bombs ever fell. Maybe her parents simply preferred to live off the land, teaching her how to hunt, fish, farm, and strike a clean camp site. She has trained her whole life in the outdoors, and she is more comfortable there than anywhere else.

Connections: Park Ranger, Conspiracy Groups, RV Neighborhood
Skills: Firearms, Close Combat, Medicine, or Survival

TERRA INCOGNITA

You grew up in a place outside The World — Terra Incognita, the lost lands. In places like these, creatures relegated to mythological status by the modern World walk in broad daylight, and the mortal population has a much more direct apprehension of what it means to be in the presence of the divine. Accustomed thus to the numinous, you are well prepared to endure its presence. You may have some skill with magic, and even if you don’t you can certainly recognize it when you see it — that’s a basic survival strategy where you come from. Now that you’re in The World, however, your expectations often run afoul of reality. You may speak a language lost to antiquity, wear clothes that haven’t been in fashion outside of storybooks for centuries, or be more obviously marked by your upbringing. The World seems just as strange to you — you may live here now, but it is still alien to you in so many ways.

Connections: Spirits, Intelligent Animals, Mythical Beings
Path Skills: Culture, Survival, Occult, or Athletics

WAR-TORN

Your upbringing was uncertain, rocked by conflict on a scale beyond your ken. Your society may have been crumbling, or it may have been regimented beneath the boot of a dictator’s secret police, but ultimately the outcome is the same: You learned to be adaptable, to keep your head down, and most of all to survive. When everything collapsed around you, you were ready, and you got yourself out. Unfortunately, our problems have a way of following us — no matter where you go, you can’t shake the feeling that things are about to go terribly wrong, that someone is watching you or out to get you, that the brief respite you’ve carved out will be stolen once again. Most days, you can cram that feeling back down your throat, go about your business, but every now and again that voice screaming “duck!” knows what it’s talking about, and let’s be honest: It pays to listen.

Connections: Support Groups, Familiar Faces from Home, Sympathetic Case Worker
Path Skills: Athletics, Empathy, Subterfuge, or Survival