Aside from their OC role as refs for the game, Guides have an important IC role. They are the spiritual successors to the Nomads' human disciples, fluent in the ways of the Goddess, the Spiritual Orbs, the Seed and the Great Architecture. The Nomads taught the Guides the most powerful applications of the Old Arts, and in one final gift/curse they exposed their students to the ultimate truths of creation. It was the Guides who sowed the seeds of the Liberation, and who stayed with Mary the Forgiver as she died and was reborn as Agnes the Child.
Each Guide is the recipient of three double-edged “Gifts” that set them apart from Dreamers and Squat shamans. The first is knowledge of the Old Arts, which allow them to create and use Heartstones, and to directly work the Architecture and the spirits within it. Of course, using the Old Arts in their pure form can have unforeseen consequences on reality - like the creation of the Fold itself.
The second Gift is History. The Guides know the secrets of the Z'Bri, the history of humanity, and of what is happening beyond the boundaries of human understanding. This gift is of little practical use, as Guides are unable to apply it to any advantage . Accessing such knowledge can be dangerous, as it makes them susceptible to the influence of the Sea of the Lost and the ghosts that lie within it.
The third, and most problematic, Gift is their knowledge of the Future. They don't just know bits and pieces, like the Prophecy of Joshua, but the entire future in full detail. This third Gift allows a Guide, in meditation, to look along the “path” of time and to see the world as it will be as a consequence of a given action. They can foresee the deaths of individuals, and whether their deaths will have any real bearing on the future. The vision of the future given to the Guides is not perfect or objective, but rather filtered by the Guide's individual personality - no Guide can see all the consequences of an action. Note that it's not immutable, therefore, and not too important to be tampered with.
All Guides suffer greatly, whether from Curses, paranoia, dimmed senses, ill health or similar. Such is the price the three Gifts extract. All Guides are blessed or cursed with visions and visitations by spirits.
Guides may learn any Sundering or Synthesis Aspect. They can also learn any Eminence or Atmosphere they so desire. Old Arts Rituals typically involve making the Spiritual physical (embodying spirits, creating Heartstones) or the Physical spiritual (crossing the Fold when it was open, bodily entering the River of Dream). They are considered to be powered by the Great Architecture itself, which means no effect is outside its area of influence. It gives power over both Physical and Spiritual, albeit that all tasks are very difficult.
Mistakes with the Old Arts are usually final and grisly. Messing up while using this skill results in the Great Architecture crushing the fool who tried to manipulate it - either resulting in a Physical Critical Wound per Spiritual Health spent, or become even more cursed/ whatever.
The Old Arts
The Old Arts were taught to humanity by the Nomads, making their disciples fluent in the ways of the Goddess, the Spiritual Orbs, the Seed and the Great Architecture. The Old Arts allow them to create and use Heartstones, and to directly work the Architecture and the spirits within it.
Mechanically, in order to learn the Old Arts, you must have a teacher and either the Dreamer or the Touched By The Seed skill; your teacher must subject you to a ritual of the Old Arts to open you up to the ability to use this power. The costs are as follows:
| Synthesis | Spend 2XP to be able to Dream if you can’t already (requires a teacher who can Dream; this is equivalent in rules terms to them teaching you an Aspect, so it costs them 2 downtime turns but no XP). You do not gain any Eminences in this way. This is a prerequisite for all other Synthesis abilities. You may then purchase the Dreamer skill, and Conjunctional Synthesis, as normal. |
| Spend 2XP to learn an Eminence you don’t already have (requires a teacher who has this Eminence; this is equivalent in rules terms to them teaching you an Aspect, so it costs them 2 downtime turns but no XP). | |
| Spend 2XP to learn any one Synthesis Aspect (this is exactly equivalent in rules terms to normal, except you do not need to be able to use Intuitive Synthesis or even have any Eminences to do so) | |
| Sundering | Spend 2XP to become Touched By The Seed if you weren’t already. This renders you immune to Atmospheres, but you always read as Tainted, and this cannot be fixed or removed by any means (requires a teacher who is Touched By The Seed; this is equivalent in rules terms to them teaching you an Aspect, so it costs them 2 downtime turns but no XP). This is a prerequite for all other Sundering abilities. |
| Spend 2XP to learn any one Z’bri Atmosphere you don’t already have (requires a teacher who has this Atmosphere; this is equivalent in rules terms to them teaching you an Aspect, so it costs them 2 downtime turns but no XP) – note that if you have multiple Atmospheres, there are all in effect at once | |
| Spend 2XP to be able to Amplify any Atmosphere you know (requires a teacher who can Amplify their Atmosphere; ; this is equivalent in rules terms to them teaching you an Aspect, so it costs them 2 downtime turns but no XP) | |
| Spend 2XP to be able to Suppress any Atmosphere you know (requires a teacher who can Suppress their Atmosphere; ; this is equivalent in rules terms to them teaching you an Aspect, so it costs them 2 downtime turns but no XP) | |
| Spend 2XP to learn any one Sundering Aspect (this is exactly equivalent in rules terms to learning a Synthesis Aspect) | |
| Ritual | Old Arts rituals work differently to regular rituals (see below). They are considered to be powered by the Great Architecture itself, which means no effect is outside its area of influence. They power over both Physical and Spiritual, albeit that all tasks are very difficult. Mistakes with the Old Arts are usually final and grisly. Messing up while using this skill results in the Great Architecture crushing the fool who tried to manipulate it. Each purchase costs 2XP: |
| Learn to use the Old Arts to make the Spiritual physical (e.g. embodying spirits, creating Heartstones, etc. etc.) | |
| Learn to use the Old Arts to make the Physical spiritual (e.g. bodily entering the River of Dream, etc. etc.). | |
| Learn to draw on Heartstones to power your other activities using the Eminences, Atmospheres, Aspects and Spiritual Health of the spirit trapped within |
Old Arts Rituals
Old Arts Rituals have just two steps:
1. Make Request or Focus Power: The ritualist must clearly state their intended outcome to a Guide.
2. Perform Ritual: this needs to be roleplayed, needs to take at least four minutes, needs to have a Guide present, and is a structured ceremony or performance appropriate to the ritualist's heritage.
The outcome of such a ritual is determined by a bead draw. The bead bag is composed as follows:
- Add one white bead per Heartstone the ritualist is holding
- Add one white bead per additional contributor who knows the Old Arts
- Add one to five black beads based on the scale of the outcome the ritualist wants: one for tiny/trivial things, two for minor things, three for moderate things, four for major things, and five for fantastic things. Note that some outcomes, e.g. opening the Fold, are currently impossible even for the Old Arts.
- Add one black bead per additional contributor who does not know the Old Arts
- Add one red bead per Spiritual Health spent by the performer
- Add one red bead per Spiritual Health spent by contributors
- Add one red bead per minute the performance takes (max thirty minutes)
Stop drawing beads as soon as a white or black bead is pulled. A white bead indicates success, whereas a black bead indicates failure. The number of red beads indicates the degree of success or failure achieved.
On a black bead, the number of red beads determines the degree of backlash from the Great Architecture. Each red bead represents a Physical Deep Wound, a Spiritual Critical Wound (starting with Separation, then Distortion, then Sympathy, before no more can be accrued), or a Curse, at the Guide’s discretion. These effects will be duplicated on all contributors, plus anyone else involved. People nearby may also face some kind of backlash..
On a white bead, the ritualist determines how the red beads are allocated, as follows:
| Red Beads | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Time | 1 minute | 15 minutes | 1 hour | 12 hours | 1 day |
| Change | Tiny | Minor | Moderate | Major | Complete |
| Information | None | Vague | Basic | Details | Secret |
| General | Tie | Marginal | Moderate | Complete | Fantastic |
| Red Beads | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| Time | 1 week | 1 month | 1 season | 1 year | 1 decade | 1 century | 1 millennium |