Legacy
Legacy is a power source which models a character's hereditary abilities. Legacy can mean many things: it might mean a character has certain racial traits endemic to the part of the world in which they were born, or it might mean they have a special power predestined for them by mysterious forces.
Abilities
Like all Power Sources, Legacy must be advanced by spending Build Points. The cost is variable: see Power Sources for more information.
Note: Humans have the ability to purchase up to 3 Legacy Feats using first-level Build Points, even without any ranks in the Legacy power source.
Abilities granted by the power source depend on a legacy type.
Magical Heritage
Some cultures share a special magical tradition unique to them. In such cultures, many people who would not otherwise possess the gift of magic can harness a few minor talents, which in their culture may not even be seen as "magic" due to its common occurrence.
With this power source, choose one of the following magical heritages. Not all of them can be advanced in rank; this will be noted in the description. If not, subsequent ranks of the Legacy Power Source can be used to gain new legacies.
Frostborn
(flavor text borrowed from Oathkeep)
In the harsh, cold lands of the Wend, elves once carved out a spare living. In ancient times, they lost the land to the dwarves of the Auld Highlands, seeking new horizons. Their painstakingly-carved fortresses warmed generations, before they too were conquered--this time, by enterprising human wizards from the Kingdom of the Sword, seeking freedom from the draconian restrictions of the White Tower.
Over nine centuries, the people of the Mageholds have adapted to the harsh and unforgiving climate of the Wend, learning to harness its highly magical nature, being in turn shaped by it. Today, this has bred a new race of men: harder, colder, possessing a savage cunning becoming both wizard and predator. This heritage leads to a far higher occurrence of the magically-gifted in their race, but even those without the gift possess a stoutness and resilience that escapes their southern brethren.
Automatic abilities:
- Resist 50% (frost)
- Treat environments as two categories warmer than they are. (For example, someone with this power source might treat a Cold environment as if it were Warm, or Very Cold as if it were merely Cool)
- Powers: you may take ranks in the Frost skill. Powers of that skill are considered innate.
Feats:
- Northern Might: The northern will was forged to overcome great obstacles. Gain +2 Str and +2 to Willpower checks.
- Northern Resilience: Gain +2 Con. Treat cold environments as one category warmer (on top of normal benefits). Increase Frost resistance to 90%.
Ahrimin
Natives of the Arianas--the largest desert in the world--the Ahrimin are humans who have long since adapted to the desert's many and varied climes, most of which outlanders would find intolerable at best, and utterly hostile at worst. The term "Ahrimin" is an appellation applied by foreigners; they call themselves Al-Beydiin", which, loosely translated, means "the Wanderers" or "the Lost". (Similarly, the "Arianas" is a corruption of the Il-Karse word ara-yanasht, or "the Magnificent World")
With almost eight millennia of continuous inhabitation, the Ahrimin are among the oldest extant cultures of the Arianas, boasting a cultural memory older than the living memory of dragonkind. Though some elves are thought to be older yet, none known to be are familiar with the harsh and beautiful landscape of the desert, its peculiar energies, myths, and vibrance. The Ahrimin are the authoritative denizens of the Arianas.
Magic, in its more obvious forms, is strictly shunned outside of special castes. However, the desert boasts many subtle and natural magicks to which the Ahrimin are attuned, and all but the most magically-dead among them have some sense of it. In particular, there are three supernatural abilities thought to be right and proper for use by "non-magical" folk, all of which are arts peculiar to the Ahrimin and taught to none outside their circles:
- Ud-drii, or "Windsong": the desert wind carries much knowledge and wisdom. It speaks of the movement of herds, the falling of rain, the coming of the Great Hunters...to some, it even hints of prophecy. Ahrimin attribute to the Windsong their noted ability to avoid sandstorms, follow scant trails of moisture during dry seasons, and locate their cavernous Sanctuaries among the unheeding rock.
- Al-leug'hu, or "The Tongue": all denizens of the desert, from the Great Hunters to the tiniest scorpions, are brothers in spirit. All beasts--and even some plants--in the Magnificent World speak the same language, though it is a subvocal language that easily escapes the most gifted linguists and scholars. It is not a thing of words, nor even particular sounds, and many have studied the ability for years without gaining a pittance of insight into it, despite its clear existence as easily demonstrated by any Ahrimin child.
- Al-Jivre'', or "The Script": curiously, Ahrimin have a written language, but it is nigh impossible to comprehend by non-Ahrimin. This is because it is completely irregular--no symbols have any concrete meaning, and indeed, it is unlikely any given symbol will ever be repeated. All concepts are represented by a single symbol, worked out to whatever level of intricate detail is necessary to represent it. As such, there are no "letters", nor "words" or "sentences". Indeed, the meaning of any symbol is difficult even for the Ahrimin to determine if the context in which it was written is not known. It is from this flowing, ever-curving script that all forms of Karse gained their written form, though all such forms benefitted from some level of regularity, increasing over time. Those forms, however, lack the inherent magic of Al-Jivre; it resonates with "sacred geometry", invoking deep and powerful magicks merely by hinting at the essential, etheric nature of the foundations of magic itself. Some say the Script is the Name of God, which in its infinite complexity would take eternity to write. In any case, the figures created by the Script possess an innate magic, simply in their geometric shape, and that magic can be downright practical in certain circumstances, when drawn by a skilled scribe.
Automatic abilities:
- Desert adaptation: you need half as much water as a normal human, and are immune to toxins and impurities in all but the foulest water sources. In a dry environment, you treat extremes of heat and cold as one step better than they would otherwise be.