Those who preserve the ways of the World Before are often very scornful of the Tribals and Fallen. On Vimary, the Keepers are spread across the ruins of the Rust Wastes, and despite having once been united, they no compete fiercely for ancient artefacts. The main force of Keepers reside within Olympus and are called Ancients. They are the guardians of yesterday’s marvels and the historians for tomorrow’s children. On the other side of a great schism are the Machine Monks, who are not scholarly-minded but rather try to perfect the union of human and machine by removing parts of their own bodies and replacing them with metal. Each Machine Monk refers to herself as a numbered Cog within their hidden fortress deep within the Steel Maze. The Monks will even deal with Z’Bri if it will help advance their agenda.
Keeper Skills
Only Keepers may take these skills at character creation. They can, in principle, teach these skills (except Technosmithing!) to Fallen or Tribals, but they do so rarely.
Weapon Use
Keepers' Weapon Use skill is expanded to include three new categories of weapon, each of which can hold up to 15 rounds of ammo at a time:
- Single-Shot Firearm: Single-shot weapons can call RANGED 1 (costing one round of ammo). You can only fire once every five seconds.
- Semi-Automatic Firearm: Semi-auto weapons can call RANGED 1 (costing one round) or RANGED 2 (costing two rounds!). You can fire every three seconds.
- Automatic Firearm: Automatic weapons can call RANGED [x, up to 5] (costing [x] ammo). You can fire once a second.
Prowess
The relevant Prowess Manoeuvres for these new weapon types are:
- Single-Shot Firearm: RANGED IMPALE (costs 1 ammo), max. once per 5 seconds.
- Semi-Automatic Firearm: RANGED STRIKEDOWN (costing two rounds). You can fire every three seconds.
- Automatic Firearm: ARC 1 (costs one ammo per target in area). You can fire once a second.
Craft
- Gunsmith: allows the production of any sort of firearm (costing one sack of metals per weapon produced). Note that there are no uncrafted firearms.
- Armourer: specialisation allows the production of fifteen bullets/rounds/slugs at a cost of one sack each of metal and wood.
Technosmithing
Instead of being Dreamers, Keepers utilise Technosmithing to connect to the Collective Memories of the past and make a person or item “remember” its purpose, empowering it to fulfil that role once more. Technosmithing has no persistent effects, only Formulae which are purchased like Aspects with no pre-requisite.
Homeopathy: For each point of Spiritual Health you spend, you may touch a target and either:
- Restore all lost Physical Health
- Restore all lost Spiritual Health
- Cure one Critical Wound
Each use of Homeopathy can only be applied to one person at a time, but you can do all of the things above if you choose. You cannot use Homeopathy on yourself.
Ignite: Allows the Keeper to power an object for one minute per Spiritual Health spent, whether it requires fuel, electricity or any other energy source. The object does not have to be operational, as Ignite can bring the most damaged item to life.
Interface: For one minute per Spiritual Health spent, the Technosmith gains the ability to use the touched target electronic item. If the Keeper has access to computer storage media (such as CDs or hard drives) she can extract the information from them without powering up a computer, at a cost of one Spiritual Health per file.
Jury Rig: Transforms a nonworking machine, a bunch of spare parts, or a Shattered item into a working device for one minute per Spiritual Health spent.
Psychoanalyse: By spending one Spiritual Health, the Keeper can remove up to fifteen minutes of memories from a touched target. By spending two Spiritual Health, the Keeper can instead add or modify up to fifteen minutes of memories from the target.
Remembrance: For one minute per Spiritual Health spent, the Technosmith gains the necessary skill to use the touched target item. This is usually Weapon Use or Medicine, but other applications are possible.