Affliction Designer

## Introduction

You can design your own Affliction or Lineage using the following steps:

## Characteristics

### Bane

Each known Affliction has an associated Bane; causing them great harm when exposed to it. Exposure to their Bane or an associated condition will cause roughly 2 points of *Lethal Damage*.

There exist three common banes across the known Afflictions:

* **Seeing your Reflection**
* **Exposure to Sunlight**
* **Contact with Seawater**

The player is incentivised to choose one of these three. Alternativly they can choose one of their own design or one of the alternate Banes below:

* **Fire**
* **Specific Metal**
* **Specific Substance**

### Weakness

Every Afflicted has a specific weakness that will block their connection to the Underworld and their supernatural abilites. Physical (or other forms of) contact with it will make them unable to use their Essence or make Evocation Rolls.

There exist three common weaknesses across the known Afflictions:

* **Specifc Wood**
* **Silver**
* **Hematite**

The player is incentivised to choose one of these three. Alternativly they can choose one of their own design or one of the alternate Weaknesses below:

* **Sunlight**
* **Mercury**
* **Glass**
* **Salt**
* **Coal**

### Sustenance

Any Afflicted requires Sustenance to prolong their Undeath. Feeding will provide them with Essence.

There exist three common ways to feed across the known Afflictions:

* **Souls**
* **Rotting Flesh**
* **Blood**

Feeding of Flesh will provide an Afflicteds body with temporary warmth, mimicing human body temperature. Feeding of Blood will cause the blood to circulate through their body, making them look more life-like. Feeding of Souls grants no such benefit.

It is possible to choose an alternate Sustenance; although they are exeptionally rare and need the Storytellers direct approval. Another somewhat common way is a form of prolonged meditation.

### **Weak Spots**

While Afflicted are exceptionally resistant to mundane sources of damage; and are immune against pain. Each of them possesses a Weak Spot in their body that transforms their Sustenance into Essence. Destroying it is the only way to stop an Afflicteds body from regenerating and granting them a permanent death. Harming it will cause them excrutiating pain. Attacks hitting an Afflicteds Weak Spot deal *lethal* instead of *physical damage.*

The three most common Weak Spots across Afflictions are:

* **Head**
* **Gut**
* **Heart**

The player may also choose an alternate body part at the Storytellers discretion. Usually they are connected to ones feeding method.

### Bound Animal

Every Affliction is categorised through an animal bound to it. Any Afflicted will experience a strong and innate connection to these animals; and their cultural and morphological characteristics will shift accordingly as time passes. When interacting with a member of the chosen animal species the Afflicted gains an additional three dice onto any Animal Handling Rolls.

The three common animal types bound to Afflicted are:

* **Owls**
* **Canines**
* **Bats**

The also exists a vast selection of alternative animals that can be chosen. Examples include:

* **Moths**
* **Snakes**
* **Spiders**
* **Cats**
* **Crows**
* **Rats**
* **Vultures**
* **Flies**

## Special Abilities

### Gifts of Flesh

* **Nightsight [5 points]-** *The Afflicted is able to switch their sensory imput; connecting themselves to the surrounding darkness and percieve it as bright as day.* The Afflicted ignores any penalties to Perception Rolls through surrounding darkness and can perfectly see without any lightsource.
* **Inhuman Sprint [8 points]-** *The Afflicted is able to move through their material surroundings with extreme speed and grace.* When sprinting the Afflicted may tripple their speed.
* **Blink [10 points]-** *The Afflicted is move with a rapid burst of speed in any direction. This can be flavoured in any way desires; such as an inhuman leap, a short teleportation, dissolving and reappearing in an instant or a short levitation.* The Afflicted can move up to 10 meters in any direction through a sudden movement; without passing through any solid obstacles. In combat this requires 5 points of Initiative; but attacks made afterwards can not be blocked without Uncanny Reflexes.

### Seasononal Aspects

* **Season Bound [8 points]-** A common (although not exclusive) manifestation of the Revenant curse is a strong bound to the seasons. While their power and mindset shifts with them, some have unlocked great abilities which they can call upon during the befitting season. While aquiring all effects requires [8 points], the players may also choose to only gain individual ones.
	+ **Azure Serpent of the East [3 points]-** During the spring the character may shed their Essence to grow plantlife on the soil in supernatural speed. When making a Composure + Empathy Roll they may controll the vegetation around them, animating it with their will and causing it to move, grow or thresh out.
	+ **Red Bird of the South [3 points]-** During the summer the character gains controll over fire, allowing them cease or fuel it with a Perception + Confidence Roll.
	+ **White Cat of the West [3 points]-** During the fall the character gains controll over earth and stone, allowing them to very slowly shift, loosen or strengthen it with a Charisma + Willpower Roll.
	+ **Black Toad of the North [3 points]-** During the winter the character gains controll over ice and snow; allowing them to reshape or melt it, freeze bodies of water and give mortals intense feelings of cold or warmth through an Intellect + Inner Eye Roll.
* **Shifting Locus [5 points]-** *The character undergoes a strong transformation during each season; completly altering their powers and sometimes even their appereance.* The character may choose a separate set of Necromantic Powers and Corruptions that replaces their current depending on the season

### Other

* **Defy Bane [5 points]-** The character must choose a condition they must fufill, which will grant them a temporary immunity against their *Bane, Weakness* or *Vunerability.*
* **Minds Blade [5 points]-** *The characters mirages are much more than just simple mind tricks; but burn themselves deep in the victims psyche.* Once per session the character may burn an illusion they cast on a chosen target into their mind; causing them to be haunted by the sensory imput they just recieved as it will appear again and again before their inner eye in the following days.
* **Undying Vow [5 points]-** The character may take on a sacred Vow to complete a challence of choice. When finally fufilling the Vow they may rid themselves of a Corruption feature; and may choose to take on another.
* **Cruel Curiosity [5 points]-** *The Bloodsorcerer is invested in their unnatural research, recieving cold pleasure from causing the most efficient or horrific mutations.* Whenever causing a Mutation (to anyone) the character regains a point of Binding. In addition they may spend two points of Binding when causing damage through Accursed Vitae, which will always cause a Mutation.
* **Skin-Dancers Insight [8 points]-** When assuming an different physical shape with any power the character may replace up to three powers known to them with new ones of equal or lower value. This will revert when taking back their old shape. They may only build a single selection of alternate powers.

## Culture

### Lineage Structures

* **Midnight Communion [5 points]-** *All members of the local* *House will gather every month on a local cementery or chapel during midnight, making connections and exchanging macabre secrets.* [1 AP]- Once per time unit the character may attend the *Midnight Communion*. They may ask a member of their faction a single question or unlock a *single power, ritual* or *knowledge*. In return they must truthfully answer a question or must act as a trainer for another power, ritual or knowledge.
* **Shadow and Secrecy [5 points]**- *The characters Clan practices strict secrecy about their acitivities and agency, working together to ensure none of their secrety spill to the outside.* Once per session they character may gain free cover up for something that would expose their Subfactions acitivites (within reason). Should they however fail to keep secrets from the outsiders, they will be severly punished.
* **Ossuary Access [5 points]-** *The Clan organises itself in a shared refuge across each city, in which all their members live together and from which they coordinate their actions.* The character will be provided with an improved Refuge, however all members of their subfaction will have access to it.
* **Ancestral Communion [8 points]-** *While Afflicted toss aside their mortal life and relatives without hesitation or afterthougt, they have a strong connection to their unliving relatives. Many of them trace back powerful Necromancers and Afflicted that shaped their own Subfaction and Lineage to commune with their spirit.* Through a ritual similar to the Beckoning and the use of their own Essence and the right name, the character can summon a deceased member of their Lineage.
* **Rule of Two [10 points]-** *The characters Bloodline has developed a paticularly strong bond between masters and students of their arts; meaning freshly turned Afflicted will assign a master from which they learn until the Bloodline considers them fully learned.* The character may either choose a knowledgable master that will teach them necromancy and knowledges, but will demand loyalty in return; or have a younger apprentice they must train but in turn recieve their loyalty.
* **Undead Coven [10 points]-** *The character Bloodline organises themselves in small covens that emcompass all local members of the Subfaction. By the Bloodlines laws they owe each other loyalty and hospitality, and must coordinate their efforts in unity to best serve the Bloodline.* The character will be part of a Coven with three other Afflicted of their own faction. They are well connected and must aid each other with certain endevours.