[FOCI]

Embraces Qephilim Ancestry

The Strange

You are a qephilim, which means your ancestors were servitors of the Incarnations. During the Age of Myth, qephilim were semidivine in their own right, and builders of the first civilizations in Ardeyn. The ancient qephilim thrived for thousands of years before Lotan shrugged, toppling most of those ancient empires and birthing humans that some saw as a curse. Later, when War betrayed the Maker and the Incarnations went away, so too did the semi-divine nature of the qephilim, who became mortal creatures. Because a trace of the old blood remains strong in you, because you've uncovered ancient scrolls regarding qephilim power, or due to a reason you don't yet fully comprehend, that power from days of yore wakes in you once more.

Your ebony skin, elongated jaw, and expressive ears mark you as a qephilim, but your mythlight is brighter and more pure than that of other qephilim, granting you grace obvious to anyone who sees you. Some might attempt to worship you, but others see you as a heretic for impersonating the ancient qephilim. Therefore, you often dim your glorious mythlight and enhanced abilities when possible.

Paradoxes, spinners, and vectors are equally likely to embrace qephilim ancestry.

Connection

If this is your starting focus, choose one of the following connections.

1. Pick one other PC. She thought you were an avatar of a secretly returned Incarnation for a while, but she has since grown to treat you as a peer.
2. Pick one other PC who is a human. You were very suspicious of that character at first, believing that he, as a human, might secretly be a Lotanist. You've since damped your accusations.
3. Pick one other PC. She seems potentially interested in learning the lore of qephilim, and you like to regale her with your tales. It's up to her whether your sense is accurate.
4. Pick one other PC. He knows your true nature, even if no one else does.

Equipment

Ardeyn clothing, armor of your choice, two weapons of your choice (or a weapon and a shield), a relic in the shape of a badge worn by one of the ancient kindred, an explorer's pack, and 400 crowns.

Mythlight Abilities

When you perform moves, revisions, or twists that would normally use force or other energy, they instead use the semi-divine energy of your mythlight. For example, an Exception attack is a confluence of fundamental forces, but when you use it, the effect appears as if manifest from a pulse of your mythlight. This alteration changes nothing other than the type of damage.

Minor Effect Suggestion

Your mythlight absorbs a tiny charge from your successful action and feeds it back to you. You gain a +1 bonus to similar actions involving the same task (such as attacking the same foe).

Major Effect Suggestion

Your mythlight pulses with divine glory. Make an immediate attack against that foe (using the same stat as the action that caused the major effect). If the attack succeeds, it inflicts 4 points of damage from divine radiance.

Tier 1

Kindred Action, Enabler

Choose a kindred from those indicated below. Your kindred indicates the Incarnation your ancestors served and that now manifests in you as a related semi-divine ability.

• War: You inflict 1 additional point of damage with weapons. Enabler.
• Death (1 Intellect point): You invoke the visage of death. Flesh-decaying energies attempt to wrest the spirit from the flesh of a living creature you can see, inflicting 2 points of damage that ignore Armor. Action.
• Commerce: You are trained in interacting (deceiving, intimidating, and persuading), and in tasks related to trade, barter, and bookkeeping. Enabler.
• Lore: After spending a day with you, once per day each of your friends can decrease the difficulty of a single task by one step. Enabler.
• Silence: In silence, you watch. You are trained in perception tasks, initiative, and stealth. Enabler.
• Law (3 Intellect points): By quoting a law that bears on the situation, you prevent a foe that can hear and understand you from attacking anyone or anything for one round. Action.
• Desire: During rests, your friends and comrades are so content to be in your company that they add 1 to their recovery rolls. Enabler.

Qephilim Lore Enabler

You are trained in all topics related to qephilim. Enabler

Tier 2

Mythlight Lance (2 Intellect points) Action

You can fashion a lance of divine radiance from your mythlight and hurl it at a target. This is a ranged attack with short range that deals 4 points of damage from divine radiance.

Tier 3

Sentinel (3 Intellect points) Action

A target you select within immediate range is marked with a rune of angelic protection for one minute. You can mark only one such target at a time. If the target would be attacked, make an Intellect- based roll. If successful, the attacker must choose a different target for its attack.

Arbiter (3 Intellect points) Action

A target you select within short range is marked with a rune of angelic abandonment for one minute. You can mark only one such target at a time. During that time, all attacks upon it are modified by one step in the attacker's favor.

Tier 4

Glory of the Divine (3+ Intellect points) Action

Your mythlight pulses with divine radiance, which ignores flesh and directly assails the immortal spirits of up to three targets within short range (make an Intellect roll against each target). This burst inflicts 3 points of Intellect damage that ignore Armor. For each 2 additional Intellect points you spend, you can make an Intellect attack roll against an additional target. If you spend 1 additional Intellect point, all targets who are successfully hit are also blinded for 1 round.

Tier 5

Apportation (4 Intellect points) Action

You call a physical object in Ardeyn to you. You can choose any piece of normal equipment on the Ardeyn equipment list, or (no more than once per day) you can allow the GM to determine the object randomly. If you call a random object, it has a 15% chance of being a cypher or an artifact, a 45% chance of being a piece of Ardeyn equipment, and a 40% chance of being a bit of worthless junk. You can't use this ability to take an item held by another creature.

Tier 6

Flight (4+ Intellect points) Action

You can fly through the air for one hour, during which time your mythlight blazes. For each level of Effort applied, you can affect one additional creature of your size or smaller. You must touch the creature to bestow the power of flight (during which time it is outlined in the gleam of your mythlight). You direct the other creature's movement, and while flying, it must remain within sight of you or fall. In terms of overland movement, a flying creature moves about 20 miles (32 km) per hour and is not affected by terrain.

Action to initiate.