A production draft of the complete work. Enjoy this fully playable version of the CYOA!
A Winter Dynasty
Sometimes, there is no transaction, no exchange of burdens or services rendered, no terrible calumnies or duties worth the remittance. Sometimes, there is only a gift freely given - Heroism's hand extended, that the nature of one's present realm might resemble, even if infinitesimally, that dream which unites her kindred in unyielding strife:
A kinder world than this.
For it is the nature of grace to be unbidden and unearned; unasked-for, and undeserved.
You have arrived here, in the Winter Dynasty of the Forebear eternal, a land of wondrous abundance. It is a place of plentiful amusements and invincible stability, currently threaded through with endless holiday cheer. Here is the magnificence of its overlord's illimitable might refracted most perfectly through the lens of his realm; frost-crowned apex of his unyielding regime, before the Solstice Dynasty of his departure begins its slow and glorious dissipation.
Perhaps you perished in a previous life, spirited away by falling piano or runaway tractor; perhaps you were suddenly ignited by resplendent flame, to emerge unscathed in this vista of heroes; or perhaps you were simply plucked from the limitless cosmos, one experiment of many, seeking just recompense.
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In any case you may not stay here - not for free, so far from whence you belong - but the mandarins of this realm are happy to provision you with training and trinkets of relatively spectacular power before sending you on your merry way. They offer Gifts numbering 3, with the opportunity below to earn more.
Passage - Where then will you be sent? Regardless of your choice here, all powers and artifacts will remain fully-functional and intact.
[ ] Return [0 Gifts] - Return to the mundane world of your conception. There are certain individuals you will not be permitted to act against, but they are not so enormously influential that a reasonable individual would find their actions significantly constrained. Some are waived of even this limitation; you will know if you number among them.
[ ] Your Choice [+1, 0 or 2 Gifts] - A world of your choice, so long as it strongly resembles a well-established setting from (semi-)popular fiction. More appealing worlds are more costly. Consider all factors relevant to a world's general appeal: pleasantness, danger level, ease of power acquisition, exclusive or aberrant metaphysics, proximity to hypercosmic influences, etc. If not taking A Quest, you may specify the general parameters of your arrival, though if this substantially changes a world's effective appeal level then you must adjust cost accordingly. Examples below:
+1 - Settings with extreme levels of danger which would be exceptionally difficult to thrive within. Dies Irae, Exalted (Usurpation, Odyssial present), Lovecraft Mythos (HI*), Umineko (HI), Meme Settings (HI; Looney Toons, suggsverse, Dragon Ball Super parodies etc)
+0 - Highly dangerous settings with a great number of cosmic-level difficulties. Warhammer 40,000, Exalted (Age of Glory), Marvel/DC (Mainline, Reboots / Crisis events will occur), oWoD (HI, End Times inevitable, though can be delayed), Forgotten Realms (HI, Outer / Evil Planes), Fate/Grand Order (HI), Dragon Ball Z
2 - Any setting significantly more appealing than the examples above. These range from the anarchy and deprivation of Warhammer Fantasy; to the relative mundanity of Your Hero Academia; to the sybaritic overabundance of the Culture. It all depends on you!
Worm, Naruto, Bleach, Fate; Sailor Moon or Madoka Magica; Final Fantasy or Attack on Titan; the realms of Pathfinder or others now forgotten - nearly anywhere you'd care to visit, can all be made available to you here.
Settings more outlandishly appealing than the Culture at its peak, such as Nameless' hypothetical post-Awakening realm, are not accessible herein.
*HI - Use the higher-end interpretations of the setting's general power level. For some settings this is implicit, such as the +1 Gift version of Creation under the Exalted.
[ ] A Quest [+1 Gift] - Your proper place: a world of myths and monsters populated by individuals of superhuman capability. You may have to overthrow some epochal monster or god-king tyrant, but with fate's support it should be little more than the dalliance of a season*; to say nothing of the lifelong companions you might gain!
Randomly select one world among the examples given for the 0- and 2-Gift sections under Your Choice. Your adventure takes place in this setting. For example, roll a d20 and consult the chart below:
1 - Warhammer 40,000
2 - Exalted (Age of Glory)
3 - Marvel
4 - DC
5 - Old World of Darkness
6 - D&D Forgotten Realms (Randomly select a major Outer or Evil Plane)
7 - Fate/Grand Order
8 - Dragon Ball Z
9 - Warhammer Fantasy
10 - My Hero Academia
11 - The Culture
12 - Worm
13 - Naruto
14 - Bleach
15 - Fate
16 - Sailor Moon
17 - Puella Magi Madoka Magica
18 - Final Fantasy (Randomly select one, or spend one Gift to choose)
19 - Attack on Titan
20 - D&D Pathfinder
You may spend a Gift to instead roll three times, selecting your preferred result of the three.
*...No quest is guaranteed to merely be the 'dalliance' of a season. However, the difficulty of your quest scales only imperfectly to your capabilities, so it is possible to start with a considerable leg up relative to the world of your passage.
[ ] November Sky [4 Gifts] - If you wish to stay, such can be accommodated. The Winter Dynasty is a cosmic jewel in its overlord's infinite crown, and its dominion utopian beyond the conceivable reaches of mortal kind. The particular kingdom of your arrival offers incredible adventure and paradisiacal bounty in equal measure; furthermore, at least ten quintillion years will pass before the Forebear departs in full, leaving its peoples to their languorous decline.
As a naturalized citizen of the Winter Dynasty, you will receive axiomatic invincibility against oblivion or torturous mental states; a near unlimited mass-energy and complexity budget for projects smaller than a city-state (or galaxy, with sufficient authorization); and access to the full bounty of available magical systems which can, if properly utilized, eventually achieve outcomes of nearly arbitrary versatility from the perspective of an unaugmented human.
You are nearly guaranteed to attain hedonic experiences wholly beyond the reach of any physical substrate, biological or otherwise; joys which for all their overwhelming valence do not obliterate meaning or volition in your judgement and decision-making.
Who knows? Perhaps you'll even be of service to the greater cause in the battles to come.
Patronage - Who will favor you, tiny speck of mortal insouciance transported to lands beyond comprehension? Whose gifts will bedeck your form, and gird you to fulfill the resolutions of a new era?
[ ] The Duchess [+1 Gift] - The Duchess is mercurial and slightly petty; to receive her favor she asks only that you refrain from selecting any other's. You may still receive Passage and Provision effects without restraint.
[ ] The Overlord [+5 Gifts] - The burdens of the Overlord are vast, but his powers unimaginable. The Overlord charges that you yourself accrue power, which he will expend towards the minuscule reduction of the immeasurable duties laid upon his form. His appetite for power is virtually without limit; you will be driven unyieldingly towards this purpose at least sixteen hours a day, though the bountiful Gifts of his patronage should, if properly applied, easily overcome your need for rest or sleep, and outsized performance can earn a measure of respite.
You are free to apply your own judgement in determining the most effective long-term means of power acquisition, though such judgement must be unfettered and sincere if you wish to retain your complete volition. Nor are you required to surrender the power thus gained in its entirety, or at unreasonably brief intervals, so long as you contribute an appropriate quantity for your capabilities and reach. All forms of power ought theoretically qualify, but those most relevant to the world of your Passage will grant superior returns.
[ ] The Seraph [+1 Heroic Favor] - The Seraph charges you to be nothing less than a Hero. Your powers great: your burdens greater. This enormously amplifies the intensity of your adventures; tremendous danger and opportunity both will accumulate in your life unrelentingly. You must retain your Heroic nature through the tribulations to follow.
The nature of your heroic path is for you to decide, though at its core it must be true to yourself, and there is no more fooling your own heart than the gaze of the Seraph.
[ ] The Forester [1 Gift] - The gift of the Forester is focused purpose; honing of the self towards a particular methodology. Select one of the following:
Power - A form broad and powerful, with angular visage and fearsome thews; or a mind equally so, with raw computational horsepower unparalleled amongst men. All actions in which one takes the direct path, the path of violence, or the path of brute force are at least 50% more effective than they would otherwise be.
-[ ] Physical Power: Specialized for strength and endurance, capable of out-fighting an ox in single combat, with the durability of a fully-grown oak. Ignore nonlethal wounds inflicted upon the recipient's person.
-[ ] Mental Power: Powerful intelligence with a faultless memory and peak-human information processing abilities. Grants a minimum of +10% Progression speed in any skill with a significant mental component. For most skills the user advances orders of magnitude beyond average speed.
-[ ] Spiritual Power: Nigh-unbreakable will and fearsome totality of self; an unquenchable vigor of personal presence that cows and subordinates others. Grants enduring patience, magnetic charisma and immense reserves in any magical system that relies on personal spiritual power.
Agility - A form lithe and slender, with quicksilver reflexes and faultless coordination; or a mind cunning and circuitous, capable of sniffing out any plot. All actions in which one takes a notably indirect path, the path of preparation, or the path of finesse are at least 20% less risky than they would otherwise be.
-[ ] Physical Agility: Specialized for speed and precision, capable of snatching an arrow mid-flight, with reflexes to match the swiftest in the animal kingdom. If the recipient wishes, may also grant a delicate physical beauty to match the fairest of natural-born humans.
-[ ] Mental Agility: Perceptiveness, speed of thought, and practical wisdom to match any human ever to live. The recipient's judgement, decision-making, and cool under fire are legendary, their discernment cogent and incisive. In almost any scenario they at least have a rough idea of what ought to be done - a capability often sorely underestimated by those who haven't opposed such a character.
[ ] The Mandarin [1 Gift] - The gift of the Mandarin is exploitation, optimized mastery of systems for good or ill. Double the effects of any one Patronage or Provision benefit. Benefits are only those noted within the description text of an option. For example, one could select both Spiritual Power and Mental Agility for the Forester's Gift, or two domains for the Heir's, but selecting the Overlord would have no effect as the description text of his option offers only burdens.
[ ] The Genius [2 Gifts] - The gift of the Genius is nothing less than perfection in life. The recipient is blessed with a powerful guardian which will work to prevent, mitigate or undo the worst misfortunes of their personal journey. In the prevention of minor inconveniences it will not bestir to action, but its power to circumvent death borders on the absurd. The recipient is easily capable of surviving a seemingly endless string of deadly circumstances that would surely lead to annihilation in any reasonable scenario.
Additionally, such mitigation will occasionally result in astounding reversals of fortune, by which the recipient will receive an opportunity to profit enormously in resources, power, or circumstances favorable to their objectives and disposition. +++++Luck
[ ] The Heir [3 Gifts] - The gift of the Heir is as simple as it is mighty. Select one of the following domains and gain powerful influence over its purview, growing steadily with effort:
War, Bureaucracy, Medicine, Thievery, Logistics, Politics, Energy
Dominion
++Willpower, +Might, +Charisma, +Appearance
Progression: Aggressive. Should one work diligently at it, master-level capabilities can be achieved within twenty years. Adept-level effects take roughly a week to a month to develop, depending on power.
Beginner: Develop expert-level skills in one's domain. Modestly alter outcomes and circumstances relevant to one's domain. Ward powerfully against negative outcomes arising from one's domain. Consistently win battles that would normally have a one percent chance of victory (War); steal a man's fortune out from under his nose (Thievery); Amplify the force of one's blows five-fold (Energy).
Adept: Develop grandmaster-level skills in one's domain, allowing for feats of improbable skill. Majorly adjust outcomes and circumstances relevant to one's domain, and ward overwhelmingly against negative outcomes from such. Cure Stage IV metastatic cancer flawlessly with a five-minute operation (Medicine); reach any destination in time for your needs so long as a road to there exists (Logistics); go from a local official to President of your country for life (Politics); achieve supernaturally-positive outcomes over virtually any domain already administered by an existing bureaucracy (Bureaucracy); as an ordinary mortal, fight off a thousand soldiers single-handed (War); steal a con-man's charm, or a professor's genius (Thievery); emit destructive energies capable of leveling a skyscraper (Energy)
Master: Near-total influence over any concept even tangentially connected to one's domain. Create a Celestial Parliament of supernaturally-powerful spirits to administrate metaphysics (Bureaucracy); wage meaningful war against the concept of entropy (War); create a new form of energy which allows for supernatural manipulation of reality (Energy); cure the ills of the Earth, removing all harmful pathogens and restoring an unpolluted ecosystem (Medicine); make political engagement fun, interesting, and great overall even for ordinary participants (Politics)
[ ] The Barrister [5 Gifts] - Unmentioned and unseen is the Overlord's shadow, whose absence from the corridors of power is in every regard unthinkable. Nonetheless her presence is felt in every fell corner and dark abscess of the Overlord's domain: the swift sure blade which brings surcease to his enemies before any threat arises manifest. For this indispensable service she is well-compensated, and so too the subject of her bequest: for she offers the prowess to skirt one's duties to a degree, and the power to enjoy the freedoms so acquired.
Void - Reduce by 50% the requirements or negative effects of any responsibilities or persistent conditions upon the recipient. This power has limits, but suffices to lighten even the Overlord's imposition. Taken with the Mandarin's gift, reduce the impact of said burdens multiplicatively, to 25%.
In addition, selectively ignore the undesirable effects of any capability beyond direct, close-range observation which would seek to divine or acquire information about the recipient, or impose a predestined outcome upon them.
Ninja Songstress Lawyer Maid - Become adept in the killing arts of the Fatal Threnody, by which a mortal practitioner can strike with the grace of lightning; outpace the sun at dawn's landing; excise all obstacles to harmony; and enact movements so exquisite that even to glimpse them can kill.
Fatal Threnody
+50 Agility, +20 Wits, +10 Might, +5 Luck, +2 Intelligence
Progression: Linear. For each given level of talent and diligence, an equal amount of capability is advanced per unit time. The average practitioner would require trillions of millennia to attain Grandmastery.
Adept: Move and react flawlessly at a thousand times the speed of sound. Slay a man by singing to his shadow. Become faultlessly aware of the laws of the land, how best to evade them, and their most prominent violators. With a set of pressure-point strikes, infect a person or organization with an inclination towards lawlessness or rectitude. Withstand fatal travails in service to one's client or aesthetic ideals. Holding one's breath, become a living shadow, immune to forces that cannot act upon shadows. Synergizes multiplicatively with relevant Domains from the gift of the Heir.
Master: Escape death as a living melody, to reappear wheresoever you are hummed or played again, in condition appropriate to the quality of the rendition. Selectively erase components of yourself or beneficiaries from informational space. With a clap of the hands, emit a booming thunder fit to shatter worlds. Move as a pulse-wave of harmonic motion that eclipses the speed of light. Hum a note so flawless that time itself hesitates to advance, and space expands to fill one's needs. In any mercenary venture, operate with perfect omni-disciplinary competence at the confluence of your and your client's interests - so long as you avoid the use of contractions, which may consign you to oblivion.
Grandmaster: Selectively ignore or re-interpret the laws of metaphysics at one's preference. Do anything so long as it is sufficiently shady, beautiful, or well-compensated. From time to time, use contractions in relative safety.
But not even the Barrister herself is a grandmaster of her Art.
[ ] The Princess [8 Gifts] - The Princess understands that every story spoken has been spoken before. As turn the cycles of the world, so too do the auspices of empire. Much as she adores the winter, its snow-dusted wonderland will one day yield to the processions of spring. Yet the hope of belaying that morning rises irrepressibly. If you would be of service to that impossible hope, she will anoint you as champion of the Winter Dynasty, with power enough to spread its majesty wheresoever you may tread.
Distribute 250 +s among your Attributes (Might, AGI, CHA, APP, INT, WITS, WIS, LCK, WILL, PROT). Charisma and Appearance are double cost, while Wits and Wisdom are triple cost. Intelligence, Luck and Willpower are quintuple cost. No more than 100 +s may be spent on any single Attribute. Scaling for Physical Attributes is much faster per +, but spending 100 +s in any Attribute will elevate it to vastly superhuman heights. Repeat this process for each ally summoned by the Auger of Companionship.
If you have taken Auger of Companionship, its benefits are now entirely natural, no longer reliant on the gem's presence: the character having been transported to, rather than imposed upon, the reality of your Passage; or if already present, having been favorably inclined to you from the start.
You may share burdens undertaken, such as the compulsion of the Overlord or the duties of Heroism, with your closest companions, proportionally but imperfectly diminishing their demands upon you, and with diminishing returns per companion. For example, the first companion that undertakes half your responsibilities of Heroism will reduce yours by one-third, while numberless legions doing so would not mitigate more than three-fourths. To qualify, a companion must be in your general tier of power or higher, and your bonds such that you would genuinely trust them with your life.
Manifest a Title, Aura and Heraldry unique to your individual position as Knight of the Dynasty. The first and last are cosmetic and cause you to appear noble, formidable, beauteous, unrelenting or sincere (whichever is most appropriate) when displayed, with supernatural sensory effects if appropriate. Your may design your Aura, which grants an ability of value roughly equal to the examples below:
Prussian Blue: +50 Might, 100% to Might, may use Might instead of the appropriate Attribute to resist hostile effects. You are inclined to martial solutions.
Outermost Lathe: +10 INT, +10 WITS. Grow noticeably stronger, faster and more able with each significant enemy slain, reaching grossly supernatural heights of capability with no discernible upper limit. You are somewhat arrogant.
Emperor Red: +30% to All Attributes. At devastating cost you may briefly amplify your essence to achieve outcomes that would otherwise be transcendentally difficult (+1 step along the Infinite Singularity Husk). Once per year, the cost of this ability is reduced by four-fifths. You are extremely ambitious - some would say, impractically so.
If you have taken the Mandarin, double the Attribute +s received and the power of your Aura, but not other aspects of the Princess' gift. If you have taken November Sky, +1 ISH to your Aura.
Provision
Be warned, provisions can be lost, stolen, or used against you. But they offer considerable specialized power at a discounted rate.
[ ] Fisherman's Association Membership [+1 Gift] - This coveted certification comes with a legendary bait & tackle, and imprints directly onto the chest-analogue of your soul so that your affiliation is plain for all to (astrally) see. However, members of the Association must adhere strictly to the tenets of lacto-ovo-pescatarianism. Beware the danger of conflicting geases. No power can alleviate this, as it is a burden willingly undertaken.
[ ] Finitude Lacing [+1 Gift, incompatible with November Sky] - In exchange for operating wholly within the paradigm of your Passage world, additional power can be squeezed out of your existing resource budget. Any and all items and capabilities you acquire will conform to the laws of your new reality. Care will be taken to minimize the adjustments required, but effects that are outright impossible may be excluded.
For example, if you took the Genius' Gift and chose to return to your mundane reality, your guardian might take the form of a hypercompetent but heavily constrained friendly intelligence rather than an arbiter of fate; if you took the Barrister's gift, your augmented parameters might be the result of sophisticated nanotechnology to the limits of physical action, and the higher realms of her killing Art denied you. Obviously, this is far less restrictive within innately potent realities, but those are precisely the ones in which an outside-context capability might be most decisive...
[ ] A Debt [+2 Gifts] - In exchange for a debt owed to the mandarins of this Realm, you may expropriate certain privileges beyond your nominal remit. Your debt comes due in no less than twenty years, but what the mandarins ask of you will be far from trivial, even if it is guaranteed to be within your scope to accomplish. Fulfillment of the debt will almost certainly be no more onerous than surrendering the irrevocable use of a limb, or half the lifespan of your firstborn child.
[ ] Overcharge [+2 Gifts] - If credit alone does not suffice... Behold the scars of he who reaches beyond his grasp. In abusing the Dynasty's generosity, you delved too greedily and overloaded your own essence. Half your visage is horrifically marred, and the limbs on one side cripplingly weakened if not wholly dysfunctional. Reduce by 60% the speed of all future progression. Neutral and hostile parties who perceive you tend to think of you as an ungrateful lout. The Barrister will deign not to assist you in mitigating these conditions, and nothing short of the Overlord's full might can reverse them.
[ ] Flicker of Soliton [1 Gift] - The briefest lonely instant of a being unimaginable, distilled into a jewel like tears. Choose one of the following:
*Each time you slay an enemy, acquire physical goods at least slightly relevant to your current desires or situation. Storage is your problem.
*One day per year, you are free from any and all burdens imposed by your decisions here, save for those required of Fisherman's Association members.
*You may fire magical missiles of notable power given your overall capabilities. Equivalent to arming a normal soldier with a sidearm; even the mighty will receive a noticeable offensive boost.
*Discount the Auger of Companionship to 1 Gift, but it can only draw forth companions of the 1-Obol level or lower for the world of your Passage.
[ ] Obols of Paradise [1 or 5 Gifts, requires Your Choice or A Quest] - These obols may be traded to certain universally available brokers who will make themselves available after your decisions here. One Obol may be exchanged for the supernatural powers of your Passage world, equal to a native in the top twenty percent of practitioners; five allows you to stand at very near the apex of (pseudo-)human potential. Examples -
Worm -
One Obol: Tattletale's powers
Five Obols: Combined powers of the Triumvirate without downsides
Exalted (Usurpation) -
One Obol: Dragon-Blooded Exalt
Five Obols: Essence 9 Celestial Exalt with seven hundred Charms
Forgotten Realms -
One Obol: 5th level character
Five Obols: 20th level Gestalt Wizard/Warblade with full wealth-by-level
Fate/Grand Order -
One Obol: An experienced and relatively powerful magus
Five Obols: Grand Servant
[ ] Blood of Pedigree [2 Gifts] - Injected into a person, the Blood may either cure any single major affliction of the body, mind, or spirit, or transform them permanently into an immortal half-beast chimera with ten times their prior physical parameters and notable (1-Obol level for your Passage world) shamanic magics. The restrictions on the Blood's restorative power are few; even conditions such as Vampirism (Old World of Darkness, Cain excepted) or the Great Curse (Exalted) can be resolved, and the immortality granted cannot be breached by all but the mightiest powers of your Passage world.
[ ] Titan's Abacus [3 Gifts] - To bear the Titan's Abacus is to place your realm under the reign of Functionalism, by which all things may be quantized. Whether it rules as tyrant or merely one of a peerage of co-conspirators depends on the power level of your Passage world. As the sole practitioner of Functionalism, you are heir to the complete fruits of its arsenal:
Functionalism
++Intelligence, ++Wits, +Agility
Progression: Reverse S. To grow from beginner to adept is a matter of weeks; and from high adept to master in only an instant if the critical breakthrough is attained - but the intervening span can take many long years even for the mathematically inclined. The art grows weaker the more practitioners there are. Luckily there are, to your knowledge, no further copies of the Titan's Abacus...
Beginner: An intricate, detail-focused science of reality partition and assortment. By computing celestial equations upon the Abacus, even a novice simpleton may swap the positions of their enemies, cleave their attributes in twain, re-arrange the aisles at the grocery story, perfectly complete any multiple-choice test, or impose a turn-based system upon all forms of conflict in their reality. Also useful for sorting one's wardrobe.
Adept: Manipulation of space, time, and quantities along a pattern. Lesser adepts may quantify their own attributes, leading to stable and unbounded personal growth given appropriate stimuli, or conjure offensive vectors of mass-energy by which to fry, boil, melt, freeze or electrocute one's enemies. Greater adepts may siphon quantified value directly from the corpus of their foes, or sever one's home from broader reality to create a subspace with only one entry point. Interfaces adequately with virtually all systems of supernatural power; an Exalt would be able to see their character sheet, or a Hero the exact details of their Quirk.
Master: Masters may traverse, manipulate, or recombine entire realities at their whim; the glory of Function is revealed in full as the kaleidoscope of worlds unfurls before them. With focused attention, systems of quantification, reified abstraction, and mechanical control can be imposed upon subrealities to engineer powers, situations, and outcomes according to one's will.
On balance, Functionalism offers greater direct power and versatility than even the domains of the Heir. But this is a science without guardrails - at Mastery, a single intemperate equation can easily lead to the Abacus passing along to its next recipient. Safe enough if one exercises substantial caution and restricts oneself to Adept-level pursuits - but where's the fun in that?
[ ] Victorious Ticket [3 Gifts] - By tearing in half this ticket, you may initiate a time loop with the following parameters:
Point of Origin - Up to ten years in the past, and not before your final decision here.
Loop Duration - No more than ten years.
Number of Repetitions - No more than ten thousand. The power of the Ticket is such that it operates perfectly within any world selectable by A Quest or Your Choice. You may cease looping early if desired; multiple confirmations will occur to ensure no accidental termination.
Loop Reset - Loops reset upon your death or upon your making a firm decision to reset. You retain your memories and accumulate a charge which, one every hundred resets allows you to adopt one additional individual into the loop. Certain advancements might also be kept, or their speed of progression refined.
Sub-loops - With a moment of effort you may create loops-within-loops up to one layer deep, but they count against your total repetitions.
[ ] Auger of Companionship [4 Gifts] - This jewel of sapphire and teal functions as a lens when looked through; skimming infinite possibility, it can discover variations of characters entirely indulgent to the will of its bearer, and draw them to the realm of one's Passage. Beware the dangers of attachment in this impermanent world.
Select an ally from the world of your Passage, of power not greater than the 5-Obol level; so long as you hold the Auger and do not egregiously act against their interests, they will be favorably inclined towards you.
Or, randomly select a world as per A Quest, then choose five characters from that world and randomly select one of them; they will instantly appear as your boon companion and, so long as you hold the Auger, be loyal unto death and beyond. Their capabilities will cap at the 5-Obol level for the world of your Passage.
If you possess the Heir's Dominion (Logistics), you may instead select a specific boon companion from any of the possible Quest worlds, subject to the same capability cap.
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Panoply
[ ] Shimmer of Possibility [1 Heroic Favor] - That phantasmal light of infinite color, which is potential itself bestowed unto flesh.
Become the unique and irrevocable bearer of the Aurora Halo, refracted expression of limitless forms which span the continuums of abstract, spiritual, ethereal and material. Even a beginner's fumbling could manifest a handful of Chroma enhancements granting temporary augmentations on the level of "invulnerability to a specific element," while the delicate interplays evoked by a master can make of the wielder a god-chimera bestriding infinite realms.
The Aurora Halo represents mastery over form in all its expressions. All types, parameters, and principles of form fall within its purview; in theory virtually any effect imaginable can be achieved by its mastery, so long as it is manifest through the lens of self-transformation. From the shape of one's mortal vessel to the superstructure of one's oversoul, all can be altered as easily as shifting pictures on a carousel.
Transgression of form is the nature of monstrosity; your Heroic path will take you down avenues that cause you to be perceived as a monster, at least to some.
Shimmer of Possibility
++++++++++Protection, and a further +++++All Stats
Progression: Modest. Assuming near-optimal compounding of personal capabilities, mastery can be achieved with one century's strenuous exertion. Further acceleration of one's growth rate is somewhat possible, but difficult even with the abilities below. Each adept-level ability requires about a year to develop, though partial applications can be trained within weeks or even hours, at correspondingly lower total utility.
Beginner: Attune one's physical corpus to various elements, thereby becoming immune to harm from them. Increase or decrease one's height or muscle mass, though with obvious cosmetic imperfections. Emit blinding light from one's soul which repels and terrifies lesser hostile spirits. Grow and coordinate fully functional additional limbs. Overlay a template of wholeness upon one's body, attaining slow but total regeneration.
Adept: Attune to the fundamental nature of mass-energy, selectively phasing through all forms of physical interdiction or harm. Assume arbitrary biological templates within 100x mass-volume of one's original form. Emit memetic pheromones capable of dominating all physically instantiated minds regardless of substrate. Grow and coordinate fully functional additional brains and sleeve them, with near-arbitrary variations on personality, talent, physical capabilities, appearance. Overlay a template of perfection upon a facet of one's mental, physical or spiritual forms, becoming infallible within relevant fields given the bounds of conventional metaphysics.
Master: Assume arbitrary forms of any type; embody all concepts and none, as well as the duality between them. Assume a template of perfection atop the entire continuum of one's forms, becoming infallible and unassailable within conventional metaphysics. Remove the limits of one's growth in any field. Assume paradoxical, fanciful, or impossible forms. Besiege the Realm of Forms by encompassing all that it is not, breaking into achievements beyond conceptual definition. Manifest any Halo advancement or combination thereof, at will.
[ ] Special Dispensation [1 Heroic Favor] - It's not quite administrative privilege, but the Seraph's intercession can grant a semblance of that peerless power, the dream of fairness instantiated. And easier to use, to boot!
The dream of fairness is anathema to entrenched powers; in the pursuit of justice your Heroic path will see you encountering potent enemies over time.
Gain access to the Royal Praxis of the Accursed, with a special version of To Shatter Heaven applied which reduces the difficulty, rather than increasing the rewards, of further steps into the Praxis.
[ ] A Sword [1 Heroic Favor] - A Hero's Blade forged particularly for you. There is no greater symbol of Heroism than the sword: what gift could be truly greater than a Blade of your very own? Benefits are tailored to your disposition and deeper nature, some examples follow:
*Synergist: Receive five Gifts' worth of benefits, chosen now, so long as you hold the Sword.
*Attacker: The Sword finds purchase against any entity it strikes, inflicting substantial harm regardless of power or defenses. +50 Might, +20 Luck, ignore enemy Protection.
*Specialist: +200 Prowess, ++Conceptual Might, and notable qualitative enhancement to both the immediate performance and ultimate potential of one chosen Skill. The Skill chosen may not be broader than the domains of the Heir; sub-skills may be applicable.
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Additionally, [ ] Imperishable Night has been eliminated, please choose now between [X] Inheritance and [X] Blood Halo!
