CYOA: Prototype
Rihaku
The Internet
Prototype
Hello mortal, Gisena Allria here! Yes, your resident Genius, Maker, and the most useful member of Team Hunger is busily at work as Princess-Regent of his cosmos-spanning Empire… but she always has time to spare for Science! Especially in the name of a good cause, and the cause of your benighted world definitely, probably qualifies~
In the interests of uplifting humanity while recruiting mercenaries for my lord's endless campaign of hyperversal subjugation, I've been prototyping a new method of power germination that should be resilient through even the most intolerant climes of meta-ontology.
It comes in the form of a Fundament Nexus emplaced in your spirit, modifying your metaphysical essence to enable the creation of spectacular Powers! Our current prototype is both safe and effective, though the harsh reality of your present continuum constrains our influence somewhat.
First… do you aspire to be a student, like my cute junior here, brimming with unrealized potential; or a fully-realized master, like your charming interlocutor?
[ ] Student - Receive 3 Ranks worth of Powers and 2 Sparks of Possibility.
[ ] Master - Receive 9 Ranks worth of Powers.
Great! Oh, I should mention - this injection of raw potentiality is likely to invite some blowback, but that should be nothing you can't handle, as long as you're reasonably competent.
[ ] Try Me - Your Longevity and Output Core Functions begin at Rank 2 instead of 1. Your world will undergo the travails, below.
[ ] Go Easy - You're no fun! Fine, I'll exert some of my charming and lovely Nullity to neutralize any upcoming threats. Your only real opposition will come from your peers. Be careful what you wish for!
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First Travail - A subtle but steady undercurrent of distrust and dissent winds its way through all Prototype recipients, especially in their interactions with one another. [Rivalry] teams are immune, of course. It's nothing that can't be overcome, but it's certainly improbable for any naively peaceful accords to persist for long. In the worst case, Earth could experience the savagery of open war between superpowered entities within days.
[ ] -1 Rank: Skip the First Travail.
Second Travail - Five years from now, an alien armada of tremendous power, with technology tens of thousands of years more advanced than your world's, will descend upon the Earth. Their mission: the subjugation of your species as sacrifice-thralls, and the extraction of what meagre resources are present in this system. Inhuman, unrelenting, tremendously arrogant and possessed of comprehensive memetic-hazard filters, diplomacy with this species is nigh-impossible. Only a small fleet approaches at first, headed by a single strike cruiser, but its defeat will provoke progressively vaster resources to be committed, for the pride of the Ithilmora demands nothing less than victory.
Their heavy dreadnoughts can shatter planets and suns, and their light cruisers can sink islands. They possess total supremacy in electronic warfare and are wholly willing to recruit nearby celestial objects as kinetic kill vehicles. They'll lay waste to the entire system in a fit of pique if defeat seems inevitable. They possess technological countermeasures that allow them to resist most exotic attack vectors enabled by Powers, but have very limited access to artificial intelligence.
The Ithilmora may be stalled by challenging their generals to honor duels. Defeating a general will delay their invasion by 1-3 months and provoke the empire to send another, far more individually powerful general in his or her place. This'll continue until they send the High Warmain of the entire Empire, who is capable of challenging entire fleets of dreadnoughts on his own. Defeat him and they'll retreat to marshal their forces for a decade or two before throwing the full weight of their million-planet empire at Earth.
[ ] -1 Rank: The Ithilmora are only as divergent from humans as certain of the more exotic species of elves. Functional diplomacy may be possible with Exalted-level Awe, though negotiating an acceptable outcome would still be far from easy. If you defeat their High Warmain, they'll leave you alone, or perhaps adopt humanity as a vassal species to be (harshly) fostered. In the latter case, they're willing to help resist the incursion of the Endless City, and may provide technological alternatives to the lures of the Oppressor.
Final Travail - Twenty years from now, human civilization will begin to converge with startling speed upon a path that mirrors the worst cliches of cyberpunk dystopia: panopticon surveillance, faculties of body and mind owned and patented by hypercorp oligarchies, and a great closing-off of philosophy and genuine aspiration in the face of unending materialist hedonism purchased at the altar of hapless and tormented cyborg labor. This is the Endless City, whose intrusion is the will and writ of the Blood Halo's obverse shadow, a nihil-being known as the Oppressor. Their progress can be slowed, and even stopped, by vigilantly slaying the shadow-beasts they send to ravage and infiltrate human society; for those among you with multiple Exalted-level combat Powers, such may even be nearly risk-free!
While the intrusion progresses, all Masters on Earth will receive an additional Spark of Possibility; but should it be permitted to malinger for long, humanity will reach a point at which even the Powers granted you will not suffice to evade their all-pervading copyright and consequent hypertechnological vise. The Oppressor's influence builds in momentum as the world more closely mirrors his Endless City; if nothing is done, then fifty years from the beginning of the travail, the subjugation will be complete: an Imprint nerve-stamping a human face, forever. The Oppressor himself may also be assassinated, but even if he can be reached, embodies a level of power far and away beyond the entire Ithilmora species.
[ ] -2 Ranks, requires A Season For War: Hunger himself will slay the Final Travail as part of the collateral damage in one of his ceaseless wars. He'll stop to chat for a minute or two, but don't forget that he bears the Tyrant's Doom!
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Drawbacks:
You'll probably want more Ranks than those assigned by default. You can get some here! Students may trade 5 Ranks for an additional Spark of Possibility.
[ ] Blossoming Spring - The veil of Maya descends upon you. Gluttony, lust, distraction and hedonism envelop your mind. You will find all the desires and pleasures of the flesh amplified to a notable degree - twofold for an ordinary human, or many times over for a being of superhuman stoicism. Expect to be frequently unproductive compared to your peers. [+1 Rank]
[ ] A Season For War - The battlefield unfurls like a flower of blood. Engaging a supernal letter of marque, you are now a mercenary in service to the bearer of the Blood Halo, committed to carrying out his wars of endless conquest for seven seasons out of ten. The servants of the Blood Halo will arrange logistics. Your duties will be no lighter or heavier than of a sincerely-serving officer, but without the right Powers your life could certainly be at risk. In addition to your normal leave, you also receive an extra year off every decade, with the potential for additional leave granted for exceptional performance! [+2 Ranks]
[ ] Tempestuous Tides - Your life will be set a-roil, doomed to suffer one of the great curses of man - possessed of an unshakeable and overweening hubris; beset by the vigilant attentions of those in power; or condemned to live in interesting times. Roll d3 and be afflicted with the corresponding curse. Their severity will wax and wane as the seasons turn; some months the travail of interesting times might only cause light vexation, while at others it may seem as if the entire cosmos is plotting your demise. The only mitigation is self-destruction; frequently throw your life into turmoil of the kind that the curse prefers, and it will stay its hand in matters of lethality. [+3 Ranks]
[ ] Embrace of Winters - You are blessed with a rare, heartbreakingly deep connection; platonic or romantic (your choice) it is a relationship that will shape and enliven your life utterly, and in ways wholly unique and irreplaceable. How unfortunate that said relationship will also be plagued with long periods of separation, drama, or soul-grinding tragedy; enough to hollow out a man and make him swear off love forevermore, if only out of sheer hapless exhaustion for the pining! You may end this state of affairs at any time, causing the negative elements of the relationship to mostly taper off over the course of years, and the positives mostly retained… at the cost of half your Powers, rounded up, and all of your Sparks of Possibility. [+2 Ranks]
[ ] The Gift of Men - You may not select the 'Immortal' option of Longevity. [+1 Rank]
[ ] A Dalliance - You are set on a great quest. If you've an ambition to be realized you may select it as your quest, but it must be epically difficult even with your acquired Powers. If you choose to have one assigned to you (incompatible with Rivalry), it'll be merely difficult given your other choices, but it is not guaranteed whatsoever to align to your moral and aesthetic preferences, and may transport you to elsewhere in the multiverse. Henceforth you will feel powerfully motivated to complete your quest, willing to brave life-threatening dangers if needed, and failure to make progress over substantial time periods will cause you deep anguish. [+1 Rank]
[ ] Rivalry - You are placed in a multiverse-spanning contest with other participants: transported across a variety of fantasy realms to compete against other teams for various unusual objectives and to ultimately destroy your opponents. Said opponents will have access to abilities from sources roughly equivalent in value to this choice game - including, potentially, teams from other Prototype universes! There is no guarantee that opponents will be a truly equal match in either direction, but they will be of the demographic that participates in these choice-selection games. The duration of the contest will be less than five years; each team will have an equal number of participants in total. Victors receive the adulation of worlds, alongside an additional Spark of Possibility. [+2 Ranks]
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Powers
Distribute your Ranks among the Powers below. Initiate and Adept levels cost 1 Rank each. Masters, but not Students, may start with Powers at the Exalted level, which costs 3 additional Ranks for a total of 5.
If you do not have a Power at a given level, you may not benefit from supernatural effects within its domain, with certain exceptions (Companions, Rune King, Rivalry allies, effects inherent to a purchased Power, Pen edits).**
Powers in the form of an Artifact cannot be lost or stolen. They can theoretically be destroyed under truly extreme conditions.
[ ] Timepiece (Domain: Time)
Pocketwatch, sundial, hourglass or cell-phone - each individual's manifestation is different. Manipulate the timepiece to manifest its effects.
Initiate - Slow or accelerate time for yourself and your personal effects, or for a ten-foot radius bubble, by a factor of three. Hop forward in time a minute. Have perfect comedic timing.
Adept - Slow or accelerate time for yourself and your personal effects, or for a hundred-foot radius bubble, by a factor of ten. Glimpse the probable future an hour from now. Age an unresisting entity by a thousand years. If uncontested, create a time loop of duration up to one week, or revise moderately significant events within the last hour.
Exalted - Slow or accelerate time for yourself and your personal effects, or for a hundred-kilometer radius bubble, by a factor of a million. Glimpse many probable futures up to a century from now, and intuit relative likelihoods. Retroactively alter your personal history to have acquired different skills and abilities - though not your choices here. Banish an opponent to the far future where your rule is (presumably) law. If uncontested, create time loops, and loops within loops, of duration up to ten millennia; or travel to the past and alter events up to one century before your 'true' present.
[ ] Rune of Restoration (Domain: Healing)
A healing glyph, unique to you - but unmistakable in nature and intent, for any with an understanding of the Powers. Trace or scribe the rune to invoke its effects.
Initiate - Induce natural healing at a hundred times the speed, and without nutritional requirements. Soothe a troubled or distressed mind for a few hours. Reduce pain by an order of magnitude. Heal small spiritual traumas.
Adept - Cure any injury no more grievous than an amputated limb, and any malady no more dangerous than the black death, swiftly and without complication. Mitigate the damages of greater insults, including age, sufficient to extend effective lifespan ten times from the date of treatment. Reduce excruciating pain to an annoyance. Restore a badly traumatized or demented mind to full functionality. Heal notable spiritual damage. Repair damaged objects.
Exalted - Instantly restore soundness of mind, body and spirit to anyone touched. Regenerate any organ or organ system perfectly from a single cell. Revive the dead (if they died within a year) with no consequences to them, or (if within ten years) with moderate permanent consequences to their health and vigor. Stack contingent revivals upon the self. Restore a severed or depleted soul. Reverse aging and repair the flaws in genetic lineages. Repair damaged or destroyed Artifacts.
[ ] The Truck (Domain: Space)
A powerful, murderous implement of transportation. Can be shrunk to pocket size. Held on the person, it provides the majority of its effects; some require driving the truck and are so noted.
Initiate - Driving the truck, arrive anywhere on the planet in an hour. Holding the truck, attacks against the person are weakened as if they were sitting in the truck itself. 360 degree vision that's immune to over-stimulus. Rapidly load and unload improbably large containers and their contents onto and off the truck.
Adept - Driving the truck, arrive anywhere on the planet in a minute, or anywhere in the solar system in an hour, or take a years-long road trip to travel to another universe which at least vaguely suits most of one's preferences. Holding the truck, attacks on the person are weakened as if they had traveled an additional mile and then struck the truck itself. Driving the truck at over 80 miles per hour, create a portal between two areas within a thousand miles of each other. Portal persists for an hour. Driving the truck with an air freshener, create a convivial air of warmth, camaraderie and joyful feeling among its occupants. Truck is ten times as resilient as an ordinary vehicle of its type.
Exalted - Holding the truck, arrive anywhere in the solar system in a second, or within the universe in a minute. Truck's interior serves as a pocket dimension the size of Neptune which the wielder may access at will, and manipulate space within. Truck portals may now last indefinitely and be of infinite range, including between universes you've traveled to before. Truck may transform into a customized autonomous mechanized battle-unit with potent offensive and defensive options, sufficient to triumph over a Kardashev Type I Civilization without much trouble. If uncontested, travel to universes of your choice with an hours-long road trip; or, driving the truck at over 55 mph, strike an individual to send them to the dimension or universe of your choice. This action slightly damages the truck.
[ ] Awe (Domain: Enhancement)
Tremendous personal magnetism, simple and unsparing. Does not count as active magic.
Initiate - Highly charismatic on the level of a world-renowned statesman or executive, and unrealistically beautiful, like an airbrushed and photoshopped supermodel made real.
Adept - World-searing charisma sufficient to become a dictator through force of personality alone. Supernatural beauty that arrests and strikes dumb; those of ordinary fortitude find that they cannot bear to harm you, while the easily susceptible will pledge their fortunes and risk their lives for your favor. Even the mighty may find that they hesitate to cut you down.
Exalted - Transcendental, heartstopping, soul-transfixing beauty; arrows divert from their path when launched against you, bombs deflect mid-explosion to angle away from you and nature itself rises to your defense. To witness you and be denied would drive a strong-willed populace to self-destruction; the mere tenor of your voice is a music which can drive the mighty mad with longing. A single glimpse can rewrite the value formulations of high-tier magical entities. Outrageous charisma capable of conquering interstellar polities with ease. May control and diminish these attributes down to Initiate level as preferred.
[ ] Transmuter's Tincture (Domain: Transmutation)
A potent serum which can be extruded from the fingertips. Apply to the target, including oneself, to generate desired effects. May be stored in potion form with a set effect applied.
Initiate - Moderate cosmetic and functional transformations, sufficient for disguise or to enhance performance within the bounds of ordinary human ability: change hair length, melanin content, fat and muscle mass, cup size, height and their equivalents by up to 50% in either direction. Lasts a few hours but can be topped-up for continuous maintenance. Equivalent attributes can be modified in animals and plants as well.
Adept - Can transform any member of Kingdom Animalia into any other biologically feasible member of Kingdom Animalia. Understanding details is necessary to specify them; the Tincture itself can otherwise fill in the blanks. In conjunction with Restoration, can transform and heal in the same action. In conjunction with Awe, can grant supernatural aesthetic appeal. Take care you do not assume a form without the equivalent of fingertips, or requisite mobility.
Exalted - Can transform any object, biological or inert, smaller than a skyscraper into any other physically feasible object or entity of roughly equivalent mass-volume and not composed of exotic compounds. Can personally assume a powerful Protean form capable of rapid size/shape alteration, nigh-impervious to damage in the manner of an Artifact, with no biological needs, and which can generate Tincture over its entire surface area. This form can meld into other individuals to grant them comprehensive shapeshifting and damage resistance; you retain separate consciousnesses.
Understanding details is necessary to create advanced technology, but fabrication at sub-molecular precision is no hurdle. Living entities created from inert matter won't have souls. Artifacts can be slowly eroded by applications of this level of Transmutation.
[ ] Storm Sapphire (Domain: Evocation)
Held against the forehead or wrist, grants the wielder the power to instantiate the effects below.
Initiate - Choose one of Four Classical Elements (Wind, Water, Fire, Earth) and manipulate it at a moderate level. Levitate several bricks or large jugs of water, bank a bonfire, cause a 35 mph gust of wind, etc.
In combat, assuming regular use, you are roughly as dangerous as a well-trained and fully equipped modern soldier with unique mobility options (wind - limited flight; water - amphibious, etc). Also grants minor electrokinesis sufficient to tase normal humans or power / short out one's personal electronics.
Adept - Choose a second Element from among the Classical types; you may also choose Wood, Metal, or Magic. You may manipulate both elements at a formidable level. Levitate several boulders the size of a car, create semi-autonomous whirlwinds of wind and water, stoke or quell a substantial thermite explosion, reinforce a suit of plate to withstand machine-gun fire. The Magic element is mostly useful for countering the effects of enemy Powers. Also grants moderate dynakinesis sufficient to neutralize an X-ray or fry a transformer box.
Sapphire may now merge into the forehead, granting powers innately instead of being treated as an Artifact, and bestowing one further Element. This causes you to be adorned in a personally suitable but gaudy, colorful, and handsome / beautiful magical outfit, that may be impractical to move around in. It grants the combat instincts and skills of a decades-old magical warrior. You may remove the outfit, but it slowly regenerates back onto your body. This may be quelled with Transmutation or the Magic Element.
Exalted - Choose two of the following.
*Endless Hope: Your raw elemental power is massively amplified by your emotion intensity at the time. A fit of pique could increase your command over flame by two orders of magnitude, while true passion could allow you to raise continent-leveling tsunamis or defend against the same. This never causes loss of control beyond comedic inconvenience.
*Storm Queen [-4 Ranks]: Requires the Magic Element. Removes your other Elements and reverts you to electrokinesis, but your power over Magic and Lightning is nigh-deific in scope. Dispel active Exalted-level effects completely, precisely control an entire nation's electrical grid. With Endless Hope, hurl thunderbolts that can shatter planets and lay pantheons low, control the magnetic envelope surmounting the Sun, and manipulate the asteroid belt with ease.
*Rune King [-2 Ranks]: For each Element you possess, instead replace it with a magic Rune that replicates an Adept-level Power, removing all Artifact dependencies. Multiply those Runes' useful numerical parameters by three compared to the base Power.
*Incarnation: Choose one additional Element at Adept-level power. May be taken multiple times.
*Your Powers Combined: Replace your Elements with generalized telekinesis and dynakinesis, both powerful enough to repel a tank battalion or uproot a small forest, and with superb finesse capable of sub-micrometer precision and thousandfold multitasking. Requires both choices.
Additionally, the Sapphire may be treated as a soul anchor, preventing wound penalties and death so long as it is not destroyed. This causes it to be permanently assimilated into your body. Should your physical form be annihilated, the sapphire will re-emerge, theoretically vulnerable to destruction, but preserving your mind and the usage of your Elements in a moderate radius around it. As an artifact it is highly resilient, capable of withstanding a supernova without harm.
If you employ the Sapphire as a soul anchor, it grants an upgraded magical warrior outfit, which provides the Awe Power at Adept Rank and bestows the skills and instincts of a grandmaster war-prince intimately versed in every chosen Element. The outfit may now be retracted (up to 90% of its volume) for convenience and aesthetic variation.
You may take Rune King / Storm Queen regardless of gender. They are not compatible with each other.
[ ] The Bread (Domains: Enhancement, Misc)
You're late, you're late!! Benefits of bread consumption do not count as active magic unless taken through Rune King.
Initiate - Eating the bread (which consumes it), you gain the speed, strength and resilience of ten men, and appropriate attributes to support and control those capabilities. This does not alter your form. Holding the bread in your mouth, you become a master at the single artistic skill of your choice (decide now). The bread is exceptionally delicious.
Adept - Eating the bread (which consumes it), you gain a moderate but noticeable boost (about one std. deviation) to your intellect, insight, resourcefulness, poise and willpower. This does not alter your personality. Holding the bread in your mouth, you become a master of artistic expression on par with Leonardo da Vinci. The bread is supernaturally delicious, it would be difficult to find a food that could compare.
Exalted - Eating the bread (which consumes it), you enjoy the glory of bread, an aesthetic experience that inspires and strengthens the mind, and which can throw off even Exalted-level Awe. The bread trumps any conceivable food otherwise achievable with any combination of Powers, its variations of taste and texture ever-changing yet supreme. Combined with Rune of Restoration, you may also eat the bread twice again to gain the Initiate and Adept benefits of consumption, and then after to hold it in your mouth or enjoy it.
Holding the Bread in your mouth, you become a grandmaster of the mundane skill of your choice (decide now). It will be difficult to concentrate if you can taste the Bread, however.
[ ] Companion
A fateful ally. Not recommended with A Season for War, unless one of you possesses the Tincture or Truck at Exalted level, the latter uncontested.
Initiate - You receive a Companion with appearance and personality of your choice. They may be based on a fictional character if you like. They don't have any superhuman capabilities, but possess skills and human-level attributes appropriate to their personality or history.
Adept - Your Companion is as above, but possesses two Powers at Adept-level and one Power at Initiate-level. You may benefit from their Powers regardless of your own Domain access. You will need to spend at least 20% of your time tending to your Companion (hanging out with, performing favors for, performing maintenance on, depending their nature).
Exalted - Your Companion is as above, but instead possesses two Exalted and three Adept-level Powers. You may benefit from their Powers regardless of your own Domain access. You will need to spend at least 35% of your time tending to your Companion.
Companions share your Output and Longevity level and may not take the Companion Power.
[ ] The Sword (Domain: Destruction)
The hero's sign.
Initiate - The sword disdains dishonorable combat. It reduces speed differences in either direction, such that no amount of quickness will grant more than a moderate advantage in battle.
Its wielder gains half the physical benefits of consuming the Bread at Initiate Rank: this stacks with the Bread itself. Indeed, all the wielder's direct combat arts are notably more effective when used in conjunction with the Sword - the Elements of their Storm Sapphire strike with half again as much force, their Rune of Restoration can heal half again as much gross trauma, their Tinctured war form is substantially more formidable and armored, etc.
Adept - The sword has myriad variations. Choose two benefits from those below. You may choose additional benefits for 1 Rank each:
Greatsword: Double the benefits of Initiate Rank. The wielder's Attributes and direct combat arts are effectively twice as potent.
Piercing Blade: The wielder gains unerring dexterity, capable of perfectly translating intent into motion within the limits of their perception.
Bastard Sword: The sword loses its disdain for treachery. The wielder becomes an expert dissembler on par with the most notorious in human history, and may now fully benefit from superior speed against foes, while remaining protected against those still quicker.
Honorblade: An accord sealed in the blood of both parties, if drawn by the sword, must be honored in spirit.
Saber: The sword is capable of slicing through all conventional and magical forms of protection, and even of slightly damaging Artifacts.
Exalted - The hero's journey is without end. Become an Adept of the Fatal Threnody, or a martial art of equivalent power. You may invest a Spark of Possibility to advance in that art by the standard means, subject to normal Spark limitations. For your convenience, the Fatal Threnody is replicated below:
- 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. But you may not advance further without investing a Spark of Possibility, or utilizing the Pen.
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.
[ ] The Pen (Domain: Creation)
The pen - is mightier. It yields unparalleled breadth in action, but demands your uttermost.
Initiate - The pen has no patience for plebs.
Adept - Wielding the Pen in an act of creation - writing, visual art, musical composition, etc - you may create a ward against supernatural harms appropriate to the nature of your creation, with strength varying based on its artistic value. These wards provide a degree of resistance against their target effects even if the artistic effort is abysmal; even a mediocre limerick could produce a ward against hostile transmutation that prevents one from being turned to stone, instead becoming extremely slow and durable. A masterful piece can grant immunity. Wards are tied to the paper they're written on, which gains some degree of durability but would not withstand a conventional military assault. A sufficiently large piece of art can cover multiple people, or an area. You may only ward against five Domains at a time.
Wielding the Pen in an act of onerous repetition, you may create seals that contain a single activated effect of another Power you possesses, which may be triggered when the seal is touched, or when the sister-seal (which you must also create) is destroyed by you. For example, one could use Storm Sapphire to create an impromptu land mine; or drive the Truck from point X to point Y at normal speed, thereby storing the ability to rapidly travel from point X to point Y at rapid speed in the future.
Exalted - Wielding the Pen in an act of creation: as per Adept, except that you may ward against any conceivable discrete form of harm, hostile effect, or inconvenience. You may ward against ten total effects at a time. Masterworks may even mitigate Drawbacks or forestall the decay of your Power; a transcendently sublime magnum opus might mitigate a Drawback, or extend your Longevity, by as much as 30%. This may even be used to unseal progress in the Exalted Art of the Sword as if with a Spark, though only at 30% speed.
In an act of onerous repetition: as per Adept, but you create seals ten times faster, and the scope of potentiality is vastly increased: you may now seal 'general usages' allowing for, e.g. arbitrary triggered teleportation anywhere you've been with the Truck, or transmutation with the Tincture, and may specify complex activation conditions by writing them on the seal. The seal must still be touching the target at time of activation.
Your wards and seals are almost as physically durable as proper Artifacts, nigh-impervious to conventional force.
Wielding the Pen to edit, you may augment any one other Power if uncontested, by a single conceptual tier: translated grossly to numerical values, this improves its parameters or overall value by 3.5 times, or reduces its drawbacks by ~72%, in the form and manner specified by you, within reason. Companions may not wield the Pen.
**For example, if you have the uncontested Truck at Exalted Rank but don't have the Rune or Tincture at appropriate levels, traveling to D*ngeons and Dr*gons will not allow you to benefit from supernatural healing or being beneficially P*lymorphed. However, you could still travel to the C*lture and benefit from those parts of its medical technology that do not rely on hyperspace.
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Core
The core functions of your Fundament Nexus. Each begins at Rank 1 and caps at variable Rank. They draw from the same Ranks used to purchase Powers.
Longevity - The lifespan of your Fundament Nexus. How long will your Powers last, before you are consigned to mortality once more? Your biological aging, if relevant, is slowed to match.
Rank 1: A mere 500 years
Rank 2: 10,000 years, somewhat respectable
Rank 3: A very decent 10 billion years; that's 10^10!
Rank 4: 143 vigintillion years (1.43 * 10^65). Long enough that you could go on a separate Geas of Indenture, for every year in a standard Geas of Indenture, and fail to exhaust even one-tenth of one percent of your lifespan.
Rank 5: Immortal. Your Fundamental Nexus is inexhaustible, a true mote of imperishable might.
Output - How quickly and easily your Powers are made manifest. Certain Powers, like the Pen and Truck, have their own timing rules. Others, like the benefits of Bread consumption, may be wholly passive. You may manifest one-tier weaker effects (Exalted performing Adept effects, or an Adept performing Initiate ones) as if your Output were one Rank higher.
Rank 1: Manifesting an effect is the work of several minutes, and requires substantial exertion. Greater effects may take hours of serious work.
Rank 2: Manifesting an effect is the work of several seconds, and requires modest exertion. Greater effects may take minutes of reasonable focus.
Rank 3: Manifesting an effect requires fractions of a second, and only minor exertion. Greater effects may take a few seconds. Recommended for serious combat.
Placement - The location and circumstances of your meta-ontology.
Rank 0 [+1 Rank]: Challenge Mode. At least 100-1000 Students and 5-25 Masters will be inducted on your world, and your greater ontology contains potent entities with interests in the status quo. They're unlikely to intervene directly, but you should not expect the uncontested sub-effects of Powers to ever succeed. Required for the [Rivalry] Drawback.
Rank 1: Normal Mode. You may choose to exclude the induction of Students or Masters on your world, save for yourself; either way, only the minimum number will be created, and with very small overlap of your build. Your greater ontology contains potent entities that are mostly apathetic or slightly aligned with human interests; the uncontested effects of Powers might occasionally succeed if you make adequate preparations and don't abuse Power mechanics.
Rank 2: Pathetic Mode. You may choose to exclude both Students and Masters other than yourself; no entities exist in your meta-ontology that can directly contest Powers. Your uncontested effects will always succeed, probably rendering the Travails trivial, but you may possess no more than nine Powers total under any circumstances. The Duchess of the Blood Halo scoffs at your lack of fortitude.
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Sparks of Possibility
You may invest your Sparks of Possibility into a variety of different forms, each of which offers unique advantages and drawbacks. The power of the Timepiece does not accelerate progression here; they call upon existential fulcrums beyond the sway of time alone. If interested in the arts of the Sword, it may be wise to leave a Spark unspent.
You may swap between any means of advancement that you purchase; for example, you could develop a Power with the Towering Arcane and then improve it with the Broken Limiter, getting the best of both worlds! You may also overcharge a given form by investing one additional Spark in it, thus increasing its advancement speed by 50%.
[ ] Broken Limiter: The reward of discipline.
Advance existing Powers through strenuous physical exercise. The actual weight moved doesn't matter as long as it's strenuous for you. If you push your body every day, you'll continue to improve without limit. There are minimal benefits for exercise more strenuous than the following regimen would be for the average man: 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10 kilometer run every single day.
Assuming one follows the regimen, one may improve an Initiate-grade Power to Adept-level within a month. One may then select a new Initiate-grade Power to improve, or push for Exalted mastery. It may take three to five years to attain that height.
Those possessing the Broken Limiter may try for levels of power beyond the Exalted, safely reaching as much as a 50% improvement with a century of steady progress. Breakthroughs past that invite the risk of catastrophic self-destruction.
[ ] Towering Arcane: True understanding.
Acquire new Powers through diligent study. The hours studied are less important than the concepts integrated and absorbed; along the way you will develop at first a halting, then increasingly comprehensive understanding of the actual dynamics involved in the construction and bestowal of Powers.
Assuming one progresses at a near-optimal rate for humans, one may develop an Initiate-grade Power within a month, improve it to Adept-level within a year, and to Exalted level within twenty years. After developing three Exalted-level powers through this process, one may design their own Powers, which may be substantially more permissive, though not mightier, than the existing ones. An example -
Sanctum
Exalted - Within a hundred-meter radius designated and prepared via a two-hour process, of which only one radius may persist at a time, the wielder may manifest any effect that would appropriately be Adept-level or lower. With substantial effort they may manifest effects somewhat between Adept and Exalted level.
[ ] Heroism: To boldly go.
Acquire new Powers or advance existing ones through heroic action. Meaningful conflict with high stakes, especially involving mortal peril, is ideal, but less kinetic forms of heroism such as truly altruistic political service or prosocial entrepreneurship also provide some degree of progression. Following your own ideals is important, but tasks without difficulty provide no progress. The conflicts induced by Rivalry almost always qualify as well. The greater the degree to which you are endangered (by necessity, not by reckless idiocy), and the more profound your accomplishments (relative to your actual powers), the more quickly you'll progress.
Heroism is by far the swiftest path to mastery. Even a few death-defying encounters can raise an Initiate-level power to Adept, or engender a new Power altogether. A culminating battle may yield Exalted might as the reward - but beware that your reach does not exceed your grasp. Someone who experiences Hunger-levels of necessary meaningful danger in the pursuit of genuine heroism could acquire an Exalted-level power each season they survive. But such a path is not sustainable for any but the most formidable.
[ ] Celestial Chorus: Harmonize.
You may learn Powers from Masters. Any Master may teach you their Powers one at a time, requiring one week to impart Initiate-level capability, three weeks to raise you to Adept level, and two years to achieve Exalted-level prowess. However, they may omit any specific effects they are uninterested in imparting - they may teach you everything you know, but not everything they know. Students are required to obey the spirit of their Master's reasonable commands (which may be life-threatening, so long as they are not overwhelmingly likely to result in death) for the duration of their tuition, and may not swap Masters for a given power once instruction has commenced.
If you betray a Master who has imparted Exalted-level Power, and who has not severely wronged you first, a great doom will hang over you, sure to cause grave misfortune - or true death, your choice - at the most crucial of moments.
[ ] Life Worth Living [2 Sparks]
Acquire new Powers, or advance existing ones, by doing the things you enjoy. As long as you're enjoying life or relaxing, accrue progress towards your next Power Rank. Yields one effective Rank per 800 hours of joyful experience; merely positive experiences also count, but for correspondingly less. A surprisingly rapid and potent means of power acquisition, but one whose progress slows over time. Every five effective Ranks gained, increase the required hours per Rank by an order of magnitude.
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And there you have it! I'll grant substantial omake power and Arete if any one, or a team of people, wish to make this into a proper image-based CYOA, bonus if it's interactive. Thanks to all my patrons, who received this content early!
Hello mortal, Gisena Allria here! Yes, your resident Genius, Maker, and the most useful member of Team Hunger is busily at work as Princess-Regent of his cosmos-spanning Empire… but she always has time to spare for Science! Especially in the name of a good cause, and the cause of your benighted world definitely, probably qualifies~
In the interests of uplifting humanity while recruiting mercenaries for my lord's endless campaign of hyperversal subjugation, I've been prototyping a new method of power germination that should be resilient through even the most intolerant climes of meta-ontology.
It comes in the form of a Fundament Nexus emplaced in your spirit, modifying your metaphysical essence to enable the creation of spectacular Powers! Our current prototype is both safe and effective, though the harsh reality of your present continuum constrains our influence somewhat.
First… do you aspire to be a student, like my cute junior here, brimming with unrealized potential; or a fully-realized master, like your charming interlocutor?
[ ] Student - Receive 3 Ranks worth of Powers and 2 Sparks of Possibility.
[ ] Master - Receive 9 Ranks worth of Powers.
Great! Oh, I should mention - this injection of raw potentiality is likely to invite some blowback, but that should be nothing you can't handle, as long as you're reasonably competent.
[ ] Try Me - Your Longevity and Output Core Functions begin at Rank 2 instead of 1. Your world will undergo the travails, below.
[ ] Go Easy - You're no fun! Fine, I'll exert some of my charming and lovely Nullity to neutralize any upcoming threats. Your only real opposition will come from your peers. Be careful what you wish for!
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First Travail - A subtle but steady undercurrent of distrust and dissent winds its way through all Prototype recipients, especially in their interactions with one another. [Rivalry] teams are immune, of course. It's nothing that can't be overcome, but it's certainly improbable for any naively peaceful accords to persist for long. In the worst case, Earth could experience the savagery of open war between superpowered entities within days.
[ ] -1 Rank: Skip the First Travail.
Second Travail - Five years from now, an alien armada of tremendous power, with technology tens of thousands of years more advanced than your world's, will descend upon the Earth. Their mission: the subjugation of your species as sacrifice-thralls, and the extraction of what meagre resources are present in this system. Inhuman, unrelenting, tremendously arrogant and possessed of comprehensive memetic-hazard filters, diplomacy with this species is nigh-impossible. Only a small fleet approaches at first, headed by a single strike cruiser, but its defeat will provoke progressively vaster resources to be committed, for the pride of the Ithilmora demands nothing less than victory.
Their heavy dreadnoughts can shatter planets and suns, and their light cruisers can sink islands. They possess total supremacy in electronic warfare and are wholly willing to recruit nearby celestial objects as kinetic kill vehicles. They'll lay waste to the entire system in a fit of pique if defeat seems inevitable. They possess technological countermeasures that allow them to resist most exotic attack vectors enabled by Powers, but have very limited access to artificial intelligence.
The Ithilmora may be stalled by challenging their generals to honor duels. Defeating a general will delay their invasion by 1-3 months and provoke the empire to send another, far more individually powerful general in his or her place. This'll continue until they send the High Warmain of the entire Empire, who is capable of challenging entire fleets of dreadnoughts on his own. Defeat him and they'll retreat to marshal their forces for a decade or two before throwing the full weight of their million-planet empire at Earth.
[ ] -1 Rank: The Ithilmora are only as divergent from humans as certain of the more exotic species of elves. Functional diplomacy may be possible with Exalted-level Awe, though negotiating an acceptable outcome would still be far from easy. If you defeat their High Warmain, they'll leave you alone, or perhaps adopt humanity as a vassal species to be (harshly) fostered. In the latter case, they're willing to help resist the incursion of the Endless City, and may provide technological alternatives to the lures of the Oppressor.
Final Travail - Twenty years from now, human civilization will begin to converge with startling speed upon a path that mirrors the worst cliches of cyberpunk dystopia: panopticon surveillance, faculties of body and mind owned and patented by hypercorp oligarchies, and a great closing-off of philosophy and genuine aspiration in the face of unending materialist hedonism purchased at the altar of hapless and tormented cyborg labor. This is the Endless City, whose intrusion is the will and writ of the Blood Halo's obverse shadow, a nihil-being known as the Oppressor. Their progress can be slowed, and even stopped, by vigilantly slaying the shadow-beasts they send to ravage and infiltrate human society; for those among you with multiple Exalted-level combat Powers, such may even be nearly risk-free!
While the intrusion progresses, all Masters on Earth will receive an additional Spark of Possibility; but should it be permitted to malinger for long, humanity will reach a point at which even the Powers granted you will not suffice to evade their all-pervading copyright and consequent hypertechnological vise. The Oppressor's influence builds in momentum as the world more closely mirrors his Endless City; if nothing is done, then fifty years from the beginning of the travail, the subjugation will be complete: an Imprint nerve-stamping a human face, forever. The Oppressor himself may also be assassinated, but even if he can be reached, embodies a level of power far and away beyond the entire Ithilmora species.
[ ] -2 Ranks, requires A Season For War: Hunger himself will slay the Final Travail as part of the collateral damage in one of his ceaseless wars. He'll stop to chat for a minute or two, but don't forget that he bears the Tyrant's Doom!
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Drawbacks:
You'll probably want more Ranks than those assigned by default. You can get some here! Students may trade 5 Ranks for an additional Spark of Possibility.
[ ] Blossoming Spring - The veil of Maya descends upon you. Gluttony, lust, distraction and hedonism envelop your mind. You will find all the desires and pleasures of the flesh amplified to a notable degree - twofold for an ordinary human, or many times over for a being of superhuman stoicism. Expect to be frequently unproductive compared to your peers. [+1 Rank]
[ ] A Season For War - The battlefield unfurls like a flower of blood. Engaging a supernal letter of marque, you are now a mercenary in service to the bearer of the Blood Halo, committed to carrying out his wars of endless conquest for seven seasons out of ten. The servants of the Blood Halo will arrange logistics. Your duties will be no lighter or heavier than of a sincerely-serving officer, but without the right Powers your life could certainly be at risk. In addition to your normal leave, you also receive an extra year off every decade, with the potential for additional leave granted for exceptional performance! [+2 Ranks]
[ ] Tempestuous Tides - Your life will be set a-roil, doomed to suffer one of the great curses of man - possessed of an unshakeable and overweening hubris; beset by the vigilant attentions of those in power; or condemned to live in interesting times. Roll d3 and be afflicted with the corresponding curse. Their severity will wax and wane as the seasons turn; some months the travail of interesting times might only cause light vexation, while at others it may seem as if the entire cosmos is plotting your demise. The only mitigation is self-destruction; frequently throw your life into turmoil of the kind that the curse prefers, and it will stay its hand in matters of lethality. [+3 Ranks]
[ ] Embrace of Winters - You are blessed with a rare, heartbreakingly deep connection; platonic or romantic (your choice) it is a relationship that will shape and enliven your life utterly, and in ways wholly unique and irreplaceable. How unfortunate that said relationship will also be plagued with long periods of separation, drama, or soul-grinding tragedy; enough to hollow out a man and make him swear off love forevermore, if only out of sheer hapless exhaustion for the pining! You may end this state of affairs at any time, causing the negative elements of the relationship to mostly taper off over the course of years, and the positives mostly retained… at the cost of half your Powers, rounded up, and all of your Sparks of Possibility. [+2 Ranks]
[ ] The Gift of Men - You may not select the 'Immortal' option of Longevity. [+1 Rank]
[ ] A Dalliance - You are set on a great quest. If you've an ambition to be realized you may select it as your quest, but it must be epically difficult even with your acquired Powers. If you choose to have one assigned to you (incompatible with Rivalry), it'll be merely difficult given your other choices, but it is not guaranteed whatsoever to align to your moral and aesthetic preferences, and may transport you to elsewhere in the multiverse. Henceforth you will feel powerfully motivated to complete your quest, willing to brave life-threatening dangers if needed, and failure to make progress over substantial time periods will cause you deep anguish. [+1 Rank]
[ ] Rivalry - You are placed in a multiverse-spanning contest with other participants: transported across a variety of fantasy realms to compete against other teams for various unusual objectives and to ultimately destroy your opponents. Said opponents will have access to abilities from sources roughly equivalent in value to this choice game - including, potentially, teams from other Prototype universes! There is no guarantee that opponents will be a truly equal match in either direction, but they will be of the demographic that participates in these choice-selection games. The duration of the contest will be less than five years; each team will have an equal number of participants in total. Victors receive the adulation of worlds, alongside an additional Spark of Possibility. [+2 Ranks]
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Powers
Distribute your Ranks among the Powers below. Initiate and Adept levels cost 1 Rank each. Masters, but not Students, may start with Powers at the Exalted level, which costs 3 additional Ranks for a total of 5.
If you do not have a Power at a given level, you may not benefit from supernatural effects within its domain, with certain exceptions (Companions, Rune King, Rivalry allies, effects inherent to a purchased Power, Pen edits).**
Powers in the form of an Artifact cannot be lost or stolen. They can theoretically be destroyed under truly extreme conditions.
[ ] Timepiece (Domain: Time)
Pocketwatch, sundial, hourglass or cell-phone - each individual's manifestation is different. Manipulate the timepiece to manifest its effects.
Initiate - Slow or accelerate time for yourself and your personal effects, or for a ten-foot radius bubble, by a factor of three. Hop forward in time a minute. Have perfect comedic timing.
Adept - Slow or accelerate time for yourself and your personal effects, or for a hundred-foot radius bubble, by a factor of ten. Glimpse the probable future an hour from now. Age an unresisting entity by a thousand years. If uncontested, create a time loop of duration up to one week, or revise moderately significant events within the last hour.
Exalted - Slow or accelerate time for yourself and your personal effects, or for a hundred-kilometer radius bubble, by a factor of a million. Glimpse many probable futures up to a century from now, and intuit relative likelihoods. Retroactively alter your personal history to have acquired different skills and abilities - though not your choices here. Banish an opponent to the far future where your rule is (presumably) law. If uncontested, create time loops, and loops within loops, of duration up to ten millennia; or travel to the past and alter events up to one century before your 'true' present.
[ ] Rune of Restoration (Domain: Healing)
A healing glyph, unique to you - but unmistakable in nature and intent, for any with an understanding of the Powers. Trace or scribe the rune to invoke its effects.
Initiate - Induce natural healing at a hundred times the speed, and without nutritional requirements. Soothe a troubled or distressed mind for a few hours. Reduce pain by an order of magnitude. Heal small spiritual traumas.
Adept - Cure any injury no more grievous than an amputated limb, and any malady no more dangerous than the black death, swiftly and without complication. Mitigate the damages of greater insults, including age, sufficient to extend effective lifespan ten times from the date of treatment. Reduce excruciating pain to an annoyance. Restore a badly traumatized or demented mind to full functionality. Heal notable spiritual damage. Repair damaged objects.
Exalted - Instantly restore soundness of mind, body and spirit to anyone touched. Regenerate any organ or organ system perfectly from a single cell. Revive the dead (if they died within a year) with no consequences to them, or (if within ten years) with moderate permanent consequences to their health and vigor. Stack contingent revivals upon the self. Restore a severed or depleted soul. Reverse aging and repair the flaws in genetic lineages. Repair damaged or destroyed Artifacts.
[ ] The Truck (Domain: Space)
A powerful, murderous implement of transportation. Can be shrunk to pocket size. Held on the person, it provides the majority of its effects; some require driving the truck and are so noted.
Initiate - Driving the truck, arrive anywhere on the planet in an hour. Holding the truck, attacks against the person are weakened as if they were sitting in the truck itself. 360 degree vision that's immune to over-stimulus. Rapidly load and unload improbably large containers and their contents onto and off the truck.
Adept - Driving the truck, arrive anywhere on the planet in a minute, or anywhere in the solar system in an hour, or take a years-long road trip to travel to another universe which at least vaguely suits most of one's preferences. Holding the truck, attacks on the person are weakened as if they had traveled an additional mile and then struck the truck itself. Driving the truck at over 80 miles per hour, create a portal between two areas within a thousand miles of each other. Portal persists for an hour. Driving the truck with an air freshener, create a convivial air of warmth, camaraderie and joyful feeling among its occupants. Truck is ten times as resilient as an ordinary vehicle of its type.
Exalted - Holding the truck, arrive anywhere in the solar system in a second, or within the universe in a minute. Truck's interior serves as a pocket dimension the size of Neptune which the wielder may access at will, and manipulate space within. Truck portals may now last indefinitely and be of infinite range, including between universes you've traveled to before. Truck may transform into a customized autonomous mechanized battle-unit with potent offensive and defensive options, sufficient to triumph over a Kardashev Type I Civilization without much trouble. If uncontested, travel to universes of your choice with an hours-long road trip; or, driving the truck at over 55 mph, strike an individual to send them to the dimension or universe of your choice. This action slightly damages the truck.
[ ] Awe (Domain: Enhancement)
Tremendous personal magnetism, simple and unsparing. Does not count as active magic.
Initiate - Highly charismatic on the level of a world-renowned statesman or executive, and unrealistically beautiful, like an airbrushed and photoshopped supermodel made real.
Adept - World-searing charisma sufficient to become a dictator through force of personality alone. Supernatural beauty that arrests and strikes dumb; those of ordinary fortitude find that they cannot bear to harm you, while the easily susceptible will pledge their fortunes and risk their lives for your favor. Even the mighty may find that they hesitate to cut you down.
Exalted - Transcendental, heartstopping, soul-transfixing beauty; arrows divert from their path when launched against you, bombs deflect mid-explosion to angle away from you and nature itself rises to your defense. To witness you and be denied would drive a strong-willed populace to self-destruction; the mere tenor of your voice is a music which can drive the mighty mad with longing. A single glimpse can rewrite the value formulations of high-tier magical entities. Outrageous charisma capable of conquering interstellar polities with ease. May control and diminish these attributes down to Initiate level as preferred.
[ ] Transmuter's Tincture (Domain: Transmutation)
A potent serum which can be extruded from the fingertips. Apply to the target, including oneself, to generate desired effects. May be stored in potion form with a set effect applied.
Initiate - Moderate cosmetic and functional transformations, sufficient for disguise or to enhance performance within the bounds of ordinary human ability: change hair length, melanin content, fat and muscle mass, cup size, height and their equivalents by up to 50% in either direction. Lasts a few hours but can be topped-up for continuous maintenance. Equivalent attributes can be modified in animals and plants as well.
Adept - Can transform any member of Kingdom Animalia into any other biologically feasible member of Kingdom Animalia. Understanding details is necessary to specify them; the Tincture itself can otherwise fill in the blanks. In conjunction with Restoration, can transform and heal in the same action. In conjunction with Awe, can grant supernatural aesthetic appeal. Take care you do not assume a form without the equivalent of fingertips, or requisite mobility.
Exalted - Can transform any object, biological or inert, smaller than a skyscraper into any other physically feasible object or entity of roughly equivalent mass-volume and not composed of exotic compounds. Can personally assume a powerful Protean form capable of rapid size/shape alteration, nigh-impervious to damage in the manner of an Artifact, with no biological needs, and which can generate Tincture over its entire surface area. This form can meld into other individuals to grant them comprehensive shapeshifting and damage resistance; you retain separate consciousnesses.
Understanding details is necessary to create advanced technology, but fabrication at sub-molecular precision is no hurdle. Living entities created from inert matter won't have souls. Artifacts can be slowly eroded by applications of this level of Transmutation.
[ ] Storm Sapphire (Domain: Evocation)
Held against the forehead or wrist, grants the wielder the power to instantiate the effects below.
Initiate - Choose one of Four Classical Elements (Wind, Water, Fire, Earth) and manipulate it at a moderate level. Levitate several bricks or large jugs of water, bank a bonfire, cause a 35 mph gust of wind, etc.
In combat, assuming regular use, you are roughly as dangerous as a well-trained and fully equipped modern soldier with unique mobility options (wind - limited flight; water - amphibious, etc). Also grants minor electrokinesis sufficient to tase normal humans or power / short out one's personal electronics.
Adept - Choose a second Element from among the Classical types; you may also choose Wood, Metal, or Magic. You may manipulate both elements at a formidable level. Levitate several boulders the size of a car, create semi-autonomous whirlwinds of wind and water, stoke or quell a substantial thermite explosion, reinforce a suit of plate to withstand machine-gun fire. The Magic element is mostly useful for countering the effects of enemy Powers. Also grants moderate dynakinesis sufficient to neutralize an X-ray or fry a transformer box.
Sapphire may now merge into the forehead, granting powers innately instead of being treated as an Artifact, and bestowing one further Element. This causes you to be adorned in a personally suitable but gaudy, colorful, and handsome / beautiful magical outfit, that may be impractical to move around in. It grants the combat instincts and skills of a decades-old magical warrior. You may remove the outfit, but it slowly regenerates back onto your body. This may be quelled with Transmutation or the Magic Element.
Exalted - Choose two of the following.
*Endless Hope: Your raw elemental power is massively amplified by your emotion intensity at the time. A fit of pique could increase your command over flame by two orders of magnitude, while true passion could allow you to raise continent-leveling tsunamis or defend against the same. This never causes loss of control beyond comedic inconvenience.
*Storm Queen [-4 Ranks]: Requires the Magic Element. Removes your other Elements and reverts you to electrokinesis, but your power over Magic and Lightning is nigh-deific in scope. Dispel active Exalted-level effects completely, precisely control an entire nation's electrical grid. With Endless Hope, hurl thunderbolts that can shatter planets and lay pantheons low, control the magnetic envelope surmounting the Sun, and manipulate the asteroid belt with ease.
*Rune King [-2 Ranks]: For each Element you possess, instead replace it with a magic Rune that replicates an Adept-level Power, removing all Artifact dependencies. Multiply those Runes' useful numerical parameters by three compared to the base Power.
*Incarnation: Choose one additional Element at Adept-level power. May be taken multiple times.
*Your Powers Combined: Replace your Elements with generalized telekinesis and dynakinesis, both powerful enough to repel a tank battalion or uproot a small forest, and with superb finesse capable of sub-micrometer precision and thousandfold multitasking. Requires both choices.
Additionally, the Sapphire may be treated as a soul anchor, preventing wound penalties and death so long as it is not destroyed. This causes it to be permanently assimilated into your body. Should your physical form be annihilated, the sapphire will re-emerge, theoretically vulnerable to destruction, but preserving your mind and the usage of your Elements in a moderate radius around it. As an artifact it is highly resilient, capable of withstanding a supernova without harm.
If you employ the Sapphire as a soul anchor, it grants an upgraded magical warrior outfit, which provides the Awe Power at Adept Rank and bestows the skills and instincts of a grandmaster war-prince intimately versed in every chosen Element. The outfit may now be retracted (up to 90% of its volume) for convenience and aesthetic variation.
You may take Rune King / Storm Queen regardless of gender. They are not compatible with each other.
[ ] The Bread (Domains: Enhancement, Misc)
You're late, you're late!! Benefits of bread consumption do not count as active magic unless taken through Rune King.
Initiate - Eating the bread (which consumes it), you gain the speed, strength and resilience of ten men, and appropriate attributes to support and control those capabilities. This does not alter your form. Holding the bread in your mouth, you become a master at the single artistic skill of your choice (decide now). The bread is exceptionally delicious.
Adept - Eating the bread (which consumes it), you gain a moderate but noticeable boost (about one std. deviation) to your intellect, insight, resourcefulness, poise and willpower. This does not alter your personality. Holding the bread in your mouth, you become a master of artistic expression on par with Leonardo da Vinci. The bread is supernaturally delicious, it would be difficult to find a food that could compare.
Exalted - Eating the bread (which consumes it), you enjoy the glory of bread, an aesthetic experience that inspires and strengthens the mind, and which can throw off even Exalted-level Awe. The bread trumps any conceivable food otherwise achievable with any combination of Powers, its variations of taste and texture ever-changing yet supreme. Combined with Rune of Restoration, you may also eat the bread twice again to gain the Initiate and Adept benefits of consumption, and then after to hold it in your mouth or enjoy it.
Holding the Bread in your mouth, you become a grandmaster of the mundane skill of your choice (decide now). It will be difficult to concentrate if you can taste the Bread, however.
[ ] Companion
A fateful ally. Not recommended with A Season for War, unless one of you possesses the Tincture or Truck at Exalted level, the latter uncontested.
Initiate - You receive a Companion with appearance and personality of your choice. They may be based on a fictional character if you like. They don't have any superhuman capabilities, but possess skills and human-level attributes appropriate to their personality or history.
Adept - Your Companion is as above, but possesses two Powers at Adept-level and one Power at Initiate-level. You may benefit from their Powers regardless of your own Domain access. You will need to spend at least 20% of your time tending to your Companion (hanging out with, performing favors for, performing maintenance on, depending their nature).
Exalted - Your Companion is as above, but instead possesses two Exalted and three Adept-level Powers. You may benefit from their Powers regardless of your own Domain access. You will need to spend at least 35% of your time tending to your Companion.
Companions share your Output and Longevity level and may not take the Companion Power.
[ ] The Sword (Domain: Destruction)
The hero's sign.
Initiate - The sword disdains dishonorable combat. It reduces speed differences in either direction, such that no amount of quickness will grant more than a moderate advantage in battle.
Its wielder gains half the physical benefits of consuming the Bread at Initiate Rank: this stacks with the Bread itself. Indeed, all the wielder's direct combat arts are notably more effective when used in conjunction with the Sword - the Elements of their Storm Sapphire strike with half again as much force, their Rune of Restoration can heal half again as much gross trauma, their Tinctured war form is substantially more formidable and armored, etc.
Adept - The sword has myriad variations. Choose two benefits from those below. You may choose additional benefits for 1 Rank each:
Greatsword: Double the benefits of Initiate Rank. The wielder's Attributes and direct combat arts are effectively twice as potent.
Piercing Blade: The wielder gains unerring dexterity, capable of perfectly translating intent into motion within the limits of their perception.
Bastard Sword: The sword loses its disdain for treachery. The wielder becomes an expert dissembler on par with the most notorious in human history, and may now fully benefit from superior speed against foes, while remaining protected against those still quicker.
Honorblade: An accord sealed in the blood of both parties, if drawn by the sword, must be honored in spirit.
Saber: The sword is capable of slicing through all conventional and magical forms of protection, and even of slightly damaging Artifacts.
Exalted - The hero's journey is without end. Become an Adept of the Fatal Threnody, or a martial art of equivalent power. You may invest a Spark of Possibility to advance in that art by the standard means, subject to normal Spark limitations. For your convenience, the Fatal Threnody is replicated below:
- 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. But you may not advance further without investing a Spark of Possibility, or utilizing the Pen.
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.
[ ] The Pen (Domain: Creation)
The pen - is mightier. It yields unparalleled breadth in action, but demands your uttermost.
Initiate - The pen has no patience for plebs.
Adept - Wielding the Pen in an act of creation - writing, visual art, musical composition, etc - you may create a ward against supernatural harms appropriate to the nature of your creation, with strength varying based on its artistic value. These wards provide a degree of resistance against their target effects even if the artistic effort is abysmal; even a mediocre limerick could produce a ward against hostile transmutation that prevents one from being turned to stone, instead becoming extremely slow and durable. A masterful piece can grant immunity. Wards are tied to the paper they're written on, which gains some degree of durability but would not withstand a conventional military assault. A sufficiently large piece of art can cover multiple people, or an area. You may only ward against five Domains at a time.
Wielding the Pen in an act of onerous repetition, you may create seals that contain a single activated effect of another Power you possesses, which may be triggered when the seal is touched, or when the sister-seal (which you must also create) is destroyed by you. For example, one could use Storm Sapphire to create an impromptu land mine; or drive the Truck from point X to point Y at normal speed, thereby storing the ability to rapidly travel from point X to point Y at rapid speed in the future.
Exalted - Wielding the Pen in an act of creation: as per Adept, except that you may ward against any conceivable discrete form of harm, hostile effect, or inconvenience. You may ward against ten total effects at a time. Masterworks may even mitigate Drawbacks or forestall the decay of your Power; a transcendently sublime magnum opus might mitigate a Drawback, or extend your Longevity, by as much as 30%. This may even be used to unseal progress in the Exalted Art of the Sword as if with a Spark, though only at 30% speed.
In an act of onerous repetition: as per Adept, but you create seals ten times faster, and the scope of potentiality is vastly increased: you may now seal 'general usages' allowing for, e.g. arbitrary triggered teleportation anywhere you've been with the Truck, or transmutation with the Tincture, and may specify complex activation conditions by writing them on the seal. The seal must still be touching the target at time of activation.
Your wards and seals are almost as physically durable as proper Artifacts, nigh-impervious to conventional force.
Wielding the Pen to edit, you may augment any one other Power if uncontested, by a single conceptual tier: translated grossly to numerical values, this improves its parameters or overall value by 3.5 times, or reduces its drawbacks by ~72%, in the form and manner specified by you, within reason. Companions may not wield the Pen.
**For example, if you have the uncontested Truck at Exalted Rank but don't have the Rune or Tincture at appropriate levels, traveling to D*ngeons and Dr*gons will not allow you to benefit from supernatural healing or being beneficially P*lymorphed. However, you could still travel to the C*lture and benefit from those parts of its medical technology that do not rely on hyperspace.
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Core
The core functions of your Fundament Nexus. Each begins at Rank 1 and caps at variable Rank. They draw from the same Ranks used to purchase Powers.
Longevity - The lifespan of your Fundament Nexus. How long will your Powers last, before you are consigned to mortality once more? Your biological aging, if relevant, is slowed to match.
Rank 1: A mere 500 years
Rank 2: 10,000 years, somewhat respectable
Rank 3: A very decent 10 billion years; that's 10^10!
Rank 4: 143 vigintillion years (1.43 * 10^65). Long enough that you could go on a separate Geas of Indenture, for every year in a standard Geas of Indenture, and fail to exhaust even one-tenth of one percent of your lifespan.
Rank 5: Immortal. Your Fundamental Nexus is inexhaustible, a true mote of imperishable might.
Output - How quickly and easily your Powers are made manifest. Certain Powers, like the Pen and Truck, have their own timing rules. Others, like the benefits of Bread consumption, may be wholly passive. You may manifest one-tier weaker effects (Exalted performing Adept effects, or an Adept performing Initiate ones) as if your Output were one Rank higher.
Rank 1: Manifesting an effect is the work of several minutes, and requires substantial exertion. Greater effects may take hours of serious work.
Rank 2: Manifesting an effect is the work of several seconds, and requires modest exertion. Greater effects may take minutes of reasonable focus.
Rank 3: Manifesting an effect requires fractions of a second, and only minor exertion. Greater effects may take a few seconds. Recommended for serious combat.
Placement - The location and circumstances of your meta-ontology.
Rank 0 [+1 Rank]: Challenge Mode. At least 100-1000 Students and 5-25 Masters will be inducted on your world, and your greater ontology contains potent entities with interests in the status quo. They're unlikely to intervene directly, but you should not expect the uncontested sub-effects of Powers to ever succeed. Required for the [Rivalry] Drawback.
Rank 1: Normal Mode. You may choose to exclude the induction of Students or Masters on your world, save for yourself; either way, only the minimum number will be created, and with very small overlap of your build. Your greater ontology contains potent entities that are mostly apathetic or slightly aligned with human interests; the uncontested effects of Powers might occasionally succeed if you make adequate preparations and don't abuse Power mechanics.
Rank 2: Pathetic Mode. You may choose to exclude both Students and Masters other than yourself; no entities exist in your meta-ontology that can directly contest Powers. Your uncontested effects will always succeed, probably rendering the Travails trivial, but you may possess no more than nine Powers total under any circumstances. The Duchess of the Blood Halo scoffs at your lack of fortitude.
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Sparks of Possibility
You may invest your Sparks of Possibility into a variety of different forms, each of which offers unique advantages and drawbacks. The power of the Timepiece does not accelerate progression here; they call upon existential fulcrums beyond the sway of time alone. If interested in the arts of the Sword, it may be wise to leave a Spark unspent.
You may swap between any means of advancement that you purchase; for example, you could develop a Power with the Towering Arcane and then improve it with the Broken Limiter, getting the best of both worlds! You may also overcharge a given form by investing one additional Spark in it, thus increasing its advancement speed by 50%.
[ ] Broken Limiter: The reward of discipline.
Advance existing Powers through strenuous physical exercise. The actual weight moved doesn't matter as long as it's strenuous for you. If you push your body every day, you'll continue to improve without limit. There are minimal benefits for exercise more strenuous than the following regimen would be for the average man: 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10 kilometer run every single day.
Assuming one follows the regimen, one may improve an Initiate-grade Power to Adept-level within a month. One may then select a new Initiate-grade Power to improve, or push for Exalted mastery. It may take three to five years to attain that height.
Those possessing the Broken Limiter may try for levels of power beyond the Exalted, safely reaching as much as a 50% improvement with a century of steady progress. Breakthroughs past that invite the risk of catastrophic self-destruction.
[ ] Towering Arcane: True understanding.
Acquire new Powers through diligent study. The hours studied are less important than the concepts integrated and absorbed; along the way you will develop at first a halting, then increasingly comprehensive understanding of the actual dynamics involved in the construction and bestowal of Powers.
Assuming one progresses at a near-optimal rate for humans, one may develop an Initiate-grade Power within a month, improve it to Adept-level within a year, and to Exalted level within twenty years. After developing three Exalted-level powers through this process, one may design their own Powers, which may be substantially more permissive, though not mightier, than the existing ones. An example -
Sanctum
Exalted - Within a hundred-meter radius designated and prepared via a two-hour process, of which only one radius may persist at a time, the wielder may manifest any effect that would appropriately be Adept-level or lower. With substantial effort they may manifest effects somewhat between Adept and Exalted level.
[ ] Heroism: To boldly go.
Acquire new Powers or advance existing ones through heroic action. Meaningful conflict with high stakes, especially involving mortal peril, is ideal, but less kinetic forms of heroism such as truly altruistic political service or prosocial entrepreneurship also provide some degree of progression. Following your own ideals is important, but tasks without difficulty provide no progress. The conflicts induced by Rivalry almost always qualify as well. The greater the degree to which you are endangered (by necessity, not by reckless idiocy), and the more profound your accomplishments (relative to your actual powers), the more quickly you'll progress.
Heroism is by far the swiftest path to mastery. Even a few death-defying encounters can raise an Initiate-level power to Adept, or engender a new Power altogether. A culminating battle may yield Exalted might as the reward - but beware that your reach does not exceed your grasp. Someone who experiences Hunger-levels of necessary meaningful danger in the pursuit of genuine heroism could acquire an Exalted-level power each season they survive. But such a path is not sustainable for any but the most formidable.
[ ] Celestial Chorus: Harmonize.
You may learn Powers from Masters. Any Master may teach you their Powers one at a time, requiring one week to impart Initiate-level capability, three weeks to raise you to Adept level, and two years to achieve Exalted-level prowess. However, they may omit any specific effects they are uninterested in imparting - they may teach you everything you know, but not everything they know. Students are required to obey the spirit of their Master's reasonable commands (which may be life-threatening, so long as they are not overwhelmingly likely to result in death) for the duration of their tuition, and may not swap Masters for a given power once instruction has commenced.
If you betray a Master who has imparted Exalted-level Power, and who has not severely wronged you first, a great doom will hang over you, sure to cause grave misfortune - or true death, your choice - at the most crucial of moments.
[ ] Life Worth Living [2 Sparks]
Acquire new Powers, or advance existing ones, by doing the things you enjoy. As long as you're enjoying life or relaxing, accrue progress towards your next Power Rank. Yields one effective Rank per 800 hours of joyful experience; merely positive experiences also count, but for correspondingly less. A surprisingly rapid and potent means of power acquisition, but one whose progress slows over time. Every five effective Ranks gained, increase the required hours per Rank by an order of magnitude.
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And there you have it! I'll grant substantial omake power and Arete if any one, or a team of people, wish to make this into a proper image-based CYOA, bonus if it's interactive. Thanks to all my patrons, who received this content early!
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