Corax

## Traits

Don’t get me wrong. We were made to do what we do — and to do it well. Like any fine piece of equipment, form follows function, and all that jazz. So when Gaia wanted a critter that could fly far, look sharp, and get the word out afterwards, She built us, and She built us right.

First of all, we’re made to fly. Our bones are delicate — but dense for their size. Everyone knows birds have hollow bones, but when you go birdman and Crinos out — I’ll explain that in a minute, let’s stay on track now… Anyway, when you’re walking around, your skeleton is still all skinny but strong. That makes it easier to, say… leap from one rooftop to another… but harder to stay upright if some clumsy mutt shoulder-checks you. *[Athletics rolls in all forms are –1 difficulty; soak rolls for bashing damage in all forms are at +2 difficulty]*

Also, since we’re supposed to be spies — sorry, I mean, information gathering specialists — we also have supersharp senses. Now, not all of them are boosted — beaks weren’t really made for smelling — but we can see like we’ve got a sniper scope in each eye.

Oh, and we’re immune to silver. I thought that might get your attention. It’s one of the perks of being handed off from Luna to Helios back in the day. What? You don’t know that one? I’ll tell you later. But the end result is we can wear all the silver toe rings we want. Now, gold, on the other hand, is verboten, at least in feathered forms. Yeah, it kind of sucks, and we are pretty careful not to share that little tidbit with folks who might start melting down their bling into bullets, but at least anyone coming hunting for us is going to end up going broke before they outfit an arsenal, ya know?

Speaking of things we try not to talk about in public. Outsiders tend to get kinda creeped out over the whole eye-drinking thing, so… What do you mean, what am I talking about? The thing? Where you drink the stuff from a corpse’s eye, and you see the last thing it saw before it died? Oh, come on now; don’t make that face. You’ll take to it quick enough. It’s one of the things Raven gave us, to do what we do as well as we do it. There’s no better way to get information on what killed some poor schmuck, or why it was done. Just settle down on the dead guy’s forehead and dig in. But, think before you drink, kid — you can only drink one eye from a corpse, and you see different things from each. The left eye shows you all the crappy repercussions of the guy’s death, while the right eye shows you what’s good about him buying the farm. But, like I said, folks get kinda touchy about it, so… you might want to kind of use your own discretion about that one. I mean, if you can. *[Eye-drinking requires a successful Perception + Empathy roll (difficulty 7)]*

See, that’s another thing about being one of us. That whole discretion thing? Not so much. We can’t shut up. Hey, don’t tell me you noticed: that’s disrespectful. But it’s also true. It’s part of what we do, but sometimes it backfires, so… don’t be surprised if some time you find yourself looking down the blade of some flea-hound’s Grand Klaive because you just let it slip that you saw his Kinfolk doing the nasty with his pack beta. Information wants to be free, and it’s hard as hell for us to hold back when we know a juicy tidbit.

Oh, and while we’re talking about weaknesses… If it sparkles, we’re there. The only thing that draws a Corax more than a secret is a shiny. Just try to keep your wits about you when you come in for a landing, okay? Sparklies are bad-guys’ favorite bait for us, so next time you do a power dive to scoop up a dime, take a peek around, even if it’s hard *[Willpower roll, difficulty 7]* to look away.

## Breeds

You probably have noticed that there’s some differences between, say, me and you. I mean, you’re up on that branch, for one thing, and I’m down here on the ground looking up at you and risking having folks think I’m crazy if they drive by and notice me chatting you up. You’re probably more comfortable that way, cuz it’s how you were born… with the feathers and all. I’ve been around long enough to be okay in both forms… I just happen to think this one looks better, what with my fancy lapel pin and rings. Jewelry doesn’t work so much in bird-form. But I digress…

There are two breeds of Corax: homid and corvid. But honestly, it doesn’t matter much to us whether you were born with arms or wings. We don’t discriminate; we all pretty much start out on the same footing, regardless of what form we were born in.

*[All Corax begin play with “Raven’s Gifts” — an additional dot of Subterfuge, Enigmas and Dodge, representing their bond with Raven. All Corax also begin with the same **Traits:** Rage 1, Gnosis 6, Willpower 3.]*

Okay, so, in the spirit of full disclosure, there’s more than just a sense of fair play in why we don’t tend to pick sides based on whether we had feathers or not at birth. Honestly, it’s kind of a moot point: we’re all “made” Corax more than born one. You’re not one of us because a Mommy Corax loved a Daddy human — or raven — very much, or any of that cabbage patch, summoning the stork nonsense. You’re a Corax because someone — another Corax — saw you and thought you would make a good wereraven yourself. Then they did the rite and awhile later — congratulations, it’s a Corax! Okay, so it’s a little more complicated than that, but… you get the idea.

Oh, one last thing — there’s no such thing as a metis Corax. We can have kids with each other — don’t look at me like that, kid, I don’t mean you and me, specifically, just Corax with other Corax. Anyway, we can inter-breed and all; the kids just can’t become Corax themselves. You can’t tie a fetish egg to the spirit of a Corax-Corax crossbreed, because Raven’s a slippery cuss and he likes us to spread the wealth. Bear that in mind when you’re thinking about nesting. It can be heartbreaking: believe me, I know.

### Corvid

Corvids are born ravens, like you. If someone’s set you up with the Spirit Egg Rite, y’all generally undergo your First Change when you’re about 8 or 10 months old. The bad news is, that means you don’t tend to know much about a lot of human stuff. You can fly like the dickens, though.

*[Corvid Corax cannot buy Computer, Law, Linguistics, Medicine, Politics ore Science at character creation, other than with freebie points. They begin play with two free dots in the Hobby Talent: Flight.]*

And the other good news is, you’re not going to die of old age at fifteen or twenty. If you keep your beak out of trouble — and good luck with that — you can live as long as a normal human does, rather than as short as a bird.

Let’s see, what else. Y’all are usually pretty cliquish, talkative — even by our standards — and a little fuzzy on the notion of property rights where shiny things are concerned.

***Starting Gifts:*** Enemy Ways, Raven’s Gleaning, Scent of the True Form, Spirit Speech, Truth of Gaia, Voice of the Mimic and Word Beyond

### Homid

As for my kind? We tend toward the twitchy loner type. Most of us are tallish, and skinnyish, and we’ve to a tendency to have noses that politer folks call “sharp” or “aquiline”. Honestly, we look kind of like walking can-openers, if you ask me… but folks usually don’t.

We get kind of focused — normal folks call it obsessive-compulsive, but we know it’s just paying attention. And we like to move around a lot. Homids like me get screwed in the flight department but pretty much have the rest of the spectrum to play with.

*[Homid Corax cannot buy the Hobby Talent: Flight at character creation, other than with freebie points.]*

***Starting Gifts:*** Enemy Ways, Morse, Open Seal, Persuasion, Spirit Speech, Voice of the Mimic and Word Beyond