Creation

Your City of Mist character is built around an inner conflict between the legendary and ordinary, their **Mythos** and their **Logos**.  At the same time, your character can combine their Mythos and Logos to achieve their goals.

Answer these questions to help you get started:

* Which legend has taken root in me?
* Who am I in my everyday life in this city?
* What matters or defines *me*?

## MYTHOS

Your character's Mythos is the legend growing inside their.  It is most often an element of an existing real world story, such as:

* A human character whether they possess supernatural powers or not.
* A supernatural being, such as a god or a fairy.
* A legendary creature or monster.
* An anthropomorphic animal (like the puss in Puss in Boots).
* A magical item or an object of great significance.
* A magical location.

**The story from which you can draw your Mythos can be:**

* A mythology, such as the Egyptian, Celtic, Aztec, or any other
* A legend or folklore, such as Arthurian legend or West African Ashanti folklore
* A fairy tale, such as the Grimm brother's fairy tales or The Little Mermaid
* A folk story, such as the tales of the lumberjack Paul Bunyan
* A ghost story, such as Bloody Mary
* A famous literary work, such as Peter Pan, Frankenstein, or The Wind in the Willows
* An urban legend, like the Sewer Gators or the Hook
* A religious tale, such as the stories about saints in Christianity, Sufi masters in Islam, or bodhisattvas in Buddhism
* A real world occurrence that has received legend status, such as Jack the Ripper

Your character's supernatural powers, abilities, and items are derived from their Mythos.  If in the legend your Mythos was resistant to fire or could climb a wall like a spider, your character may have received these powers from their Mythos.  However, your Mythos does not necessarily have to have obvious supernatural powers.  Even subtle qualities such as remarkable beauty and grace or the ability to understand the workings of any device can become legendary attributes that are amplified in your modern-day character.

Your character is not identical to their Mythos.  Instead, you decide how to interpret the Mythos and how it is expressed in your character.  Some features may not manifest, or some might manifest in unexpected ways (you may not be good with a bow even if your Mythos is Robin Hood, or if your Mythos is Snow White, you might be vulnerable or even resistant to poison).

## CHOOSING THEMES

A theme is a major aspect of your character.  It describes a central, important, or dominant part of the character's life that you want her story to revolve around.

Normally you pick 4 themes from the following list; each represents either a Mythos or a Logos. However, you are only playing **TOUCHED** at this time.

The balance of Mythos and Logos themes in a Rift determines how awake they are:

* **✔️1 Mythos/3 Logos** = Touched.  Ordinary life plays a bigger role than their Mythos, which they only tap when absolutely necessary.  Touched always run the risk of losing contact with their Mythos and becoming **Sleepers** again.

* **❌2 Mythos/2 Logos** = Borderline.  Borderliners are walking the line between becoming a glorious exemplar of their legend and maintaining their ordinary identity.
* **❌3 Mythos/1 Logos** = Legendary.  Legendaries have almost completely opened up to the Mythos in them, becoming more powerful and to some extent taking less interest in mundane life.  Nevertheless, they are still dependent on the one last thing that makes them human.  Losing it would end their humanity and make them a willing vessel of their Mythos: an **Avatar**.

### MYTHOS THEME TYPES:

Mythos theme types represent aspects of your Mythos powers and the different ways you can use them to affect the world:

The **ADAPTATION** theme type representations powers that can change according to the situation or a power with many different uses such as sorcery, shapeshifting, or gadgeteering.

The **BASTION** theme type represents powers that allow you to survive harsh conditions and protect yourself and others from harm, such as a body made of stone, invulnerability, or magical protection.

The **Conjuration** theme type represents the ability to influence the world through their mythos. Creating beings, projecting otherwise known as Conjurations.

The **DESTINY** theme type represents the strongest power of all, fate. They are not some great feats or supernatural ability, they are shimmering laws etched in the web of fate.

The **DIVINATION** theme type represents powers that allow you to know or learn things beyond normal perception, such as special senses, the power to read minds, or the power to communicate with the dead.

The **EXPRESSION** theme type represents powers that you can project or unleash to affect or influence the world, such as a warrior’s rage, blasts of ice, a healing touch, or mind control.

The **FAMILIAR** theme type represents beings that serve beside the Rift and take take on many different forms based on the Mythoi. A familiar chooses its companion and follows their wishes... For the most part.

The **MOBILITY** theme type represents powers that allow you to move easily, fast, and unobstructed, such as the power to fly, to turn your body into water, or to miraculously escape confinement.

The **RELIC** theme type represents an object in your possession that channels the powers of your Mythos such as a magic ring, a flying broom, or a diabolic mask.

The **SUBVERSION** theme type represents powers that allow you to act discreetly and hide your intentions and deeds such as trickery and illusions, invisibility, and the power to beguile others.

### LOGOS THEME TYPES

Logos theme types represent aspects of your ordinary life:

The **BURDEN** theme type represents life situations which may or may not be experienced as a burden.

The **DEFINING EVENT** theme type represents a pivotal moment or period in your life that has changed you irrevocably, such as a near-fatal accident, an earth-shaking revelation, or time spent at an orphanage.

The **DEFINING RELATIONSHIP** theme type represents a relationship with a person, a group, or an organization that is at the center of your life, such as your mother, your mentor, your gang, or the cult you belong to.

The **MISSION** theme type represents a goal you have set for yourself and that you strive to achieve, such as finding a cure to a disease, avenging your brother, or bringing a killer to justice.

The **PERSONALITY** theme type represents your character, temperament, or personal style, such as being charming, hard-boiled, flamboyant, or paranoid.

The **POSSESSIONS** theme type represents anything important you have in your possession, such as your fortune and assets, your old car, or an arsenal of firearms.

The **ROUTINE** theme type represents your main everyday activities such as a job, caretaking duties, going to school, doing research, or just bumming around.

The **TRAINING** theme type represents the expertise you have acquired in a given field, such as medical training, martial arts, or cooking.

The **TURF** theme type represents a domain that you control and the benefits that come with that control. Your domain may be physical, social, technological, professional, etc.

## **BANNED THINGS:**

* ❌**Power Tag:** Jack of All Trades
* ❌**Power Tag:** Cunning
* ❌**Trope:** Aamnesia
	+ Further details here. I'm talking about the type of person who does "I don't wanna come up with a backstory so amnesia." thing. Setting up a backstory with me, having people they could be connected to, having an actual foot place in the world and all of that while having Amnesia is fine. The important thing to note is it's not how it works in the movies of shows. There are so many things they get wrong about it and if you're not going to put in the effort to research how this thing works? I don't want it here either.
* ❌**Origin:** Undertrash -
	+ Your character cannot start in the Undertrash or have lived there or be involved in it. When I say it's an active warzone, I mean it's an active warzone. If you go there, people WILL attack you if they don't know you. Being in the area of it on the surface is fine so long as you do not go near entrances. I cannot express this enough, it's the worst place in the city to be.
* ❌

## HOW OUR SHEETS WORK.

Because we're not playing a full on game how it was meant to be played, we have some changes when it comes to the sheets but nothing that's going to prevent you from doing anything. Let's go over them together so that you can better understand what's going on.

**CREW THEME:**

* Do not fill it out.  This is going to be something I will handle later once the city becomes more established. Your character is going to end up belonging to a certain type of group and it will be on you guys to handle how you will hand it. The Crew themes are power tags you can only use with other members of your crew. They will not apply if you are not using it with them.

**SPECIAL LOGOS CARD**

* 4 Powers 2 Weakness.  This is a minor perk for one of your logos cards. You choose one card to have 4 power tag options instead of 3, but you also must choose another weakness.

**MARKING YOUR TAGS:**

* Make it easier for everyone.  When you're filling out your power and weakness tags, you MUST put the question you're answering in a simple bracket like (a) (b) (c) - it will be nicer to reference and also mandatory for review later.

## IMPORTANT ROLEPLAY THINGS TO NOTE

#### About Rifts

It doesn’t matter who you are: having a Mythos inside you means having unanswered questions. Perhaps you’re already a hard-boiled detective, a self-inquiring Zen monk, or a curious history buff, but you don’t have to be an investigator by vocation to have questions. Maybe you are a suburban housewife who has never really thought about ancient myths and legends before. Maybe you’re a spoiled kid who has never been more than twenty feet away from a supervising adult. Or you could be a lonely elderly man who has no living relatives or friends. It doesn’t matter. Now that the Mythos is alive inside you, you are constantly harrowed by countless questions: What am I? What is the nature of my powers? What is their source? Who else is like me? What should I do with this ability?

From the moment you become aware of the power the Mist holds over the City residents, you’ll find that you’ve become somewhat resistant to its effects. Whether you like it or not, you realize that what you have inside you, this Mythos, has given you the opportunity to awaken, to shake off some of the obliviousness and forgetfulness that plague the unaware Sleepers. From this point on, you will look at the City in an entirely new and different way. Where once you saw the routine of city life, you may now see the living stories and legends who have been existing beside you all this time, hiding in plain sight.

To become a Rift, you must have a specific yet elusive quality: a “soul”, consciousness, attention, the ability to “listen”. This quality is the birthright of human beings, even if most of them turn a blind eye to it so they can concentrate on their material lives. However, there are unique cases of Rifts opening within animals, objects, and even places. Perhaps a human Rift used Mythos powers to create them or the ‘spirit’ of a Mythos chose them for some reason. In game terms, these Rifts have special names: animal Rifts are called Familiars, object Rifts are Relics, and Rifts attached to a locale are called Enclaves.

You know what Mythoi has connected itself to you, but you might not understand why.

#### Realistic World View

As said, the terms given here for different types of Rifts are not used by your character. In your comic-book- or TV-like world, characters don’t say to each other “Oh, I wish I could be a Legendary like you, but I’m just Touched.” When the characters share their thoughts and feelings, it’s often vague and partial.

Furthermore, one cannot tell just by looking at someone just how awakened they are, or what part their Mythos plays in their lives. These are things you will have to discover by investigating: getting to know the person, doing a background check on them, or tapping into your own Mythos for answers

#### Why are they after you?

Rifts subconsciously see the world through the eyes of their Mythos. When they meet another Rift, their Mythos could either be indifferent or it could cast that Rift in a certain role in their story. When another Rift learns about you, they may subconsciously cast you as one of these symbolic aspects of their story:

* The **savior**, asking you to save them from others, who may be Rifts too, or from themselves;
* The **instrument**, trying to use you as a means to get what they want;
* The **prey**, seeking to consume you one way or another to satisfy the hunger of their Mythos;
* The **chosen one**, helping you fulfill what they think is your destiny;
* The **enemy**, seeking to destroy you before you destroy them;
* The **companion**, offering to join forces and work towards a mutual goal;
* The **obstacle**, trying to overcome you in order to reach their goals;
* The **object** of their love, trying to win your heart and keep you close;
* and so on…

#### Nothing Beyond the City

One of the premises of City of Mist is that the characters never leave the City. Whether other people actually leave the City is another open-ended question; everyone seems to think that coming and going is something normal that happens all the time. Tourists, business people, and strange country folk show up and disappear regularly. The City residents behave as though they are a part of something greater, like a country or a world, but whenever it actually comes down to acknowledging it, the story veers off conveniently.

The game is focused on the City. The farther the lead characters move away from that focus, whether physically or in a conversation with a City resident, Rift or Sleeper, the fuzzier things get, like the faded edge of an old photo. Where exactly did Johnny go? Not sure, he’s out of town. Where did you say this truck came from? Somewhere out of town, I reckon.

For Grimbrook your characters could have been from out of town, but I want to highlight the mist will mess with their mind and prevent them from leaving. No one leaves Grimbrook unless they are a sleeper.