Beliefs

The **Beliefs** tree, also known simply as Beliefs, are the basis of an individuals faith and learned skills in Begotten. This is where epiphanies gained from sacrament levels are used to invest into giving your character certain abilities, skills and traits, as well as dictating what sub-faith your character follows.

## Sub-trees

Each of the respective sub-trees in the Beliefs tree are based on a specific skill, with various skills being crafted around it. All characters have access to the standard sub-trees, regardless of religious alignment.

**Prowess - Combat & Timing**

*"But then he visited the Dark Kingdom, and this was the point of no return. He felt in his wrist a tremble that manifested into a quake. His fibers were now thorns, his liquids boiled. He felt he would lose sight of the truth, and that he did..."*

**Tree Completion Bonus: +50% Inventory Capacity & 25% Melee Damage** (*stacks with backpacks* *& other melee bonuses*).

The **Prowess** belief tree focuses on improving ones skill and finesse in combat.

Passive abilities include the following:

* **Halfsword and Sway:** Unlocks the ability to change weapon stance on any weapon which has additional weapon stances.
	+ The Halfsword and Sway tree contains **Blademaster** and **Billman**, which boost the physical and armor penetration damage of certain one-handed and two-handed grounded weapons.

* **Parry:** Unlocks the ability to parry, which allows you to counter enemy blows and deal additional damage in return.
	+ The Parry tree contains **Repulsive Riposte**, which increases the bonus counter damage of your Riposte attack from 200% to 300%

* **Wrestle and Subdue:** Unlocks the ability to pick up those who have fallen in combat. This will interrupt them from standing up if they are attempting to do so.
	+ The Wrestle and Subdue tree contains **Warrior** and **Master-at-Arms**, which both increase your total poise.

* **Deflection**: Perfect blocks now increase an additional +15 points of poise and stability and stops enemy attacks for 1 second.
	+ The Deflection tree contains **Sidestep**, which restores +10 more points and stops attacks for an additional second.

* **Strength:** Unlocks the ability to wield Great Weapons into combat.
	+ The Strength tree contains **Might** and **Unrelenting**, which focus on increasing the damage of fists, great weapons and two-handed weapons. They additionally grant some inventory space and poise damage as a nice bonus.

### **Brutality - Cannibalism & Harvesting**

*"There will be no exile for the laggards. They will feel my wrath. I will impale a pitchfork through their foul, satanic flesh and harvest it for the cow."*

**Tree Completion Bonus: Killing a player instantly restores you to full Health, Stability, Stamina, and Poise.**

**Brutality** is the measure of ones depravity and growing strength in insanity. The Brutality tree contains skills focused specifically on the ability to cannibalize dead players, being able to harvest human meat for consumption, bones for armor, and being able to rip out and eat their heart to quench their thirst. They can also invest in beliefs that allow them to deal more limb damage, more damage while insane, and the ability to eat or drink dirty or uncooked food without negative consequence.

### **Fortune - Luck & Looting**

*"Practice the coin in your only hand. Your other fell off in the rot..."*

**Tree Completion Bonus: Your chances of finding exceedingly rare items is increased.**

**Fortune** is the measure of ones luckiness. The Fortune tree contains skills that focus on better items while scavenging, higher faith gain, small chances of dodging attacks, and gaining epiphanies in exchange for losing Tier 4 perks. Within this tree is also the Favored perk, which acts as the antithesis of the Marked trait.

### **Litheness - Movement & Lockpicking**

*"Flay the fool who falters in their step. Let them run naked, flesh unsheathed, while shadowy eyes cast judgement to their sluggish speed."*

**Tree Completion Bonus: +5% sprint speed and +25 maximum stability points** (*stacks with beliefs*).

**Litheness** is the measure of ones speed and ability to pick locks. The Litheness tree contains skills focused on your characters movement, allowing for silent and speedy crouching, faster sprint speed, and the ability to combat roll, which allows you to put out fires and negate all damage when timed correctly. It also allows for players to pick locks in the wasteland, with the final lockpicking perk making it easier. With lockpicking combined with Fortune, it may be easier for players to find higher tier loot in the Wasteland easier. With movement combined with Prowess, it may be easier for players to control the pacing of combat against other players.

### **Ingenuity - Crafting & Firearms**

*"Bobby all proud 'an cool with that 'ol apparatus back in the truck that laid him out with sweet social status, far from junior status. It be the saddest machine but nice with molasses in the power gauge, as well as the mathematics and administrative tactics."*

**Tree Completion Bonus: Armor and weapon condition will no longer decay.**

**Ingenuity** is the measure of ones ability to craft, harvest resources, and finding higher effectiveness with firearms. The Ingenuity tree contains skills focused on your characters skill with crafting, allowing for your character to cook more fulfilling food and to create more impressive and higher tiered crafts. It also allows you to make use of mined ores to assist you in crafting, and grants your crafted armor less decay and higher protective values. Finally, it also allows for use of firearms and increases your effectiveness while using them, ensuring efficient output and lowering the chances of backfiring.

### **Fortitude - Mental & Physical Resilience**

*"I am the creator of all this light and now I fall to pieces without recognition. Dying without glorification is sinful nature, yet God does not reside in the light. The light resides in the dark. Souls begin through flesh. The mind ponders inside of shells that cannot withstand a lie which does nothing but misinterpret all that we have achieved."*

**Tree Completion Bonus: +25% Poise Damage Resistance**

**Fortitude** is the measure of ones mental and physical resilience. The Fortitude tree contains skills focused on your characters efficiency and protection with shields and armor, while granting resistance against injuries, increasing the critical condition status effect duration, and granting a character higher health points. Along with this, it grants your character higher mental resilience, allowing your character to take less of a hit to sanity during insanity draining events, reducing the effects of low sanity, granting your character slower draining health and hunger, more stamina, and making your character immune to the lethal effects of the Blood Moon.

### **Aptitude - Intellect & Doctoring**

*"'Do not taint the legacy of Hard-Glaze if you cannot bear to sustain code.' Her voice was no murmur, but a bold challenge to all who opposed. 'Was that the final testimony? Transcendence has brought me closer, resonating in a ray of almighty God's newfound hope.'"*

**Tree Completion Bonus: +75% Faith gain from all sources.**

**Aptitude** is the measure of ones intellect and doctoring skills. The Aptitude tree contains skills focused on your characters literacy, ability to doctor others, and ability to create concoctions and cures. It allows one to become a Plague Doctor who can cure the Begotten Plague, as well as allowing players to diagnose and perform surgery on other players. Along with this, they may sacrifice their Prowess tree for an increased level cap and higher faith gain on tree completion, which might as well be done if one is to become a Loremaster.

## Sub-faiths

A **Sub-faith** is a specific set of skills based on the faith the character chose before being fully created. Each of the Faiths have different sub-faiths associated with them, so one must be careful with what faith they choose if they are looking to be a part of a certain sub-faith.

### **Faith of the Light**

#### **Hard-Glaze**

*"Chastity and almsgiving are the core principles of the Hard-Glazed ideology. All is forfeit to the Holy Hierarchy, and one must expect only a dull life fraught with toiling to thy Minister. Yet those in the Hierarchy follow the Manifesto, and hidden in its pages lies the key to heavenly ascension."*

The **Hard-Glazed** sub-faith is a sub-faith based on your ability to gain faith from donating large amounts of Coin to the Church. Along with this, it gives your character more general damage with melee, throwable weapons, and firearms, alongside giving them more damage against non-Faith of the Light characters. It also gives Master Blacksmiths the ability to smelt Maximilian Steel, a Faith of the Light exclusive steel.

#### **Sol Orthodoxy**

*"Sol Orthodoxy is a corruption of the traditional Glazic beliefs. It dictates that no mortal being will ever achieve enlightenment as long as they still draw breath. Men are encouraged to repent for the terrible sinful nature they exhibit, through flagellation and even suicide. The Glaze of Sol will shine again, but only when there are no living eyes to see it."*

The **Sol Orthodoxy** sub-faith is a sub-faith based on your ability to gain faith from having less than 40% Hunger or Health. Along with this, it gives your character large buffs through low health values, such as the ability to sprint faster at lower health and the ability to deal massive amounts of damage while at lower health. It also gives Sol Orthodoxists an incredibly powerful ritual that allows them to instantly kill nearby non-Faith of the Light characters.

#### **Voltism**

*"An infestation seeking to consume the Light from within is how ministers of the Holy Hierarchy would describe Voltism. A major cult with no chain of command who seek technology and enlightenment through transhumanism. They gradually replace more of their body with machine and stimulate their minds with electrical shocks. Their true motives, or their leader, remains unknown."*

The **Voltism** sub-faith is a sub-faith based on your ability to gain faith from killing members of the "Hard-Glazed" or "Sol Orthodoxy" sub-faiths. Along with this, it gives your character a heavy synergy with crafting as you unlock many unique Voltist crafting recipes as you level. It also gives Voltists the ability to wear and use special Voltist armor and weapons, as well as allowing them to Relay, which grants them the ability to globally speak to all other Voltists. Aside from that, they can consume Tech to heal themselves, cure fatigue, and refill hunger and thirst, as well as deal more electrical damage and stability damage to those in metal armor, with more damage being done the heavier the armor.