Design For Living - Powers - Aspect
To gain any understanding of the Aspect, you must first accept your heritage - a heritage drawn from the Aspect and one that links your inexorably to it. To do this, you must merge your mind and body with the Aspect of your kind thereby sharing your knowledge and understand with it, and gaining a measure of its power over shadow.
Agents are representatives of the Aspect and can be considered as foci for both your abilities and a conduit through which your abilities function.
Ygg, also sometimes known as The World Tree or Yggdrasil, is currently the only known aspect.
Abilities:
- Aspect Blood (0 points)
- The Merge (5 points)
- Inheritance (5+ points)
- Impressions (5 points)
- Memories (5 points)
- Travel (10 points)
- Sight (10 points)
- Creation (10 points)
The Merge (5 points)
Merging with your Aspect brings out the potential of those chosen few with an element of their Aspect within them. Only they can successfully merge and even then it is risky and incredibly tiring. You need a strong will and driving force to successfully emerge from your Aspect intact. When you do emerge from your Aspect, you can do so any part of it, in any shadow that it occupies. It is difficult to remember what actually happens during a merge as it is very hazy, but you get the impression of sharing yourself with the near infinite beings already merged with it. Some say that all your thoughts, secrets, desires and ambitions are shared during these merges.
Once you have Merged for the first time, you are able to recall, almost as if it is a long forgotten memory, where the agents of an Aspect lie within your current location. While this recollection does not require concentration, the memories are only prompted by locality to the Agent.
Cost: Merging drains approximately 25 Endurance although if rushed, it could cost more. Locating an agent takes time and patience or a teacher.
Prerequisites: Blood of the Aspect, Chaos Psyche, Amber Endurance
Inheritance (5+ points)
During the Merge, you both gained and shared much. The potion of your being descendent from your Aspect has now been awoken and has changed you. These changes can be both subtle and intriguing or bold and obvious, but in all cases, change occurs. You are often able to notice the changes almost immediately after the Merge is completed.
The changes relate direct to the Aspect. In the case of Ygg this could take the form of a tendency towards slow growth, a patience, a love of sunlight, or something more drastic such as harder bark-like skin or green hair.
Cost: There is no cost for the change as this is included in the drain of your initial Merge. The advantages are permanent and can be carried across all shape shifted forms should you desire. Discuss with the GM any advantages you have in mind and note that the GM may ask you to spend additional points based on the 'game strength' of the changes.
Prerequisites: The Merge, Chaos Psyche, Amber Endurance
Travel (10 points)
Travelling functions much like Trump travel where the agent of the Aspect is used as the foci. Locate the focus, move to its general vicinity and focus on it and your surroundings while concentrating on another known focus and its surroundings. After a few seconds the border between the two locations will blur creating a bidirectional link between the two locations that allows you to step between them. The destination must be a known location. This ability can be used for communication between the two locations and this occurs between the caller and someone at the destination location once the connection has been established.
Cost: Travel between agents drains approximately 5 Endurance although this may vary dependant on the difficulty of the transfer, the distance between the agents, and any other adverse factors. Your psyche will also limit the distance across which you are able to link.
Prerequisites: The Merge, Chaos Psyche, Amber Endurance
Sight (10 points)
By focusing on a destination agent, you are able to remotely view the location and its immediate surroundings. By extending the limits of your sight around an agent's location, you are also able to focus on and monitor happenings further away from the agent. You can initiate the remote viewing from anywhere but the closer you are to an agent, the simpler and less straining the task will be.
Cost: Approximately 5 Endurance to initiate the remote viewing and to keep active for a limited period of time. The difficulty and cost increase if you are not in the vicinity of your local agent, if the area you are viewing is not in the vicinity of remote agent, and if the location you are wanting to view is warded.
Prerequisites: Travel, Amber Psyche, Ranked Endurance
Impressions (5 points)
The foggy dream-like state of the merging with the Aspect starts to become clearer. You seem to recall the abilities or instincts that you shared with the numerous other beings that had merged with the Aspect. With a bit of concentration you can do many things that you had never learnt to do before. Sometimes without thinking you instinctively do something as if it were second nature to you. This can sometimes be hard to explain to those that don't know who you truly are, if not kept in check. This should be used with caution as it is not foolproof, for example, memories of flying a aeroplane may not be correct for the specific shadow you are in and a movement of the joystick may still result in a catastrophic error!
Cost: The shared experience of all who have merged with your Aspect are at your disposal but require concentration to initiate. The task of concentrating on the Merge can be tiring and the difficulty of the task increases dependant on both your situation and how obtuse the experience is that you seek. Your Psyche will dictate if you are able to and how quickly you are able to retrieve this information.
Prerequisites: Inheritance, Amber Psyche, Amber Endurance
Memories (5 points)
Similar to Impressions of the Merge, the clouds are easier to penetrate, while whole, specific memories can be found hiding away in your mind. The remembered thought usually takes on the form of a visually replayed memory. For example, seeing yourself page through someone's diary will locate an address you are looking for. Be aware that if there is more than one memory of the subject, that these memories could be conflicting!
Cost: The shared memories of all who have merged with your Aspect are at your disposal but require concentration to initiate. The task of concentrating on the Merge can be tiring and the difficulty of the task increases dependant on both your situation and how obtuse the memory is that you seek. Your Psyche will dictate if you are able to and how quickly you are able to retrieve this information.
Prerequisites: Impressions, Ranked Psyche, Amber Endurance
Creation (10 points)
The abilities you have stem from a diverse number of Agents. Where these agents do not exist, your abilities are harder to use. As such, a token carried from an existing agent to a new location will provide a useful new base which can be strengthened into a new agent. While the exact nature of the token is Aspect specific, the token is generally easily transportable and is created by approaching an existing agent and requesting a token of the specific type.
In a similar manner, useful items can also be requested. These items take time to create, but the time is well spent as the creations are useful, beautiful, and often imbued with magical qualities to strengthen them for their purpose.
Cost: The creation of an Agent or a token is a not a short term project and is a significant drain on both the agent and the character. The drain will however occur over time and the character, given sufficient rest, should recover quickly enough.
Prerequisites: The Merge, Amber Psyche, Amber Endurance
Keys: Ygg, Jackal, Fox, Rose, Black Bird
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