Gifted (trait)

Cost: 5 pts

Short Description

The Gifted trait is a rare trait which only a few hundred people in the world have. The Guild of Mages has been scouring the world for the Gifted for centuries, attempting to find the rare ones able to both learn the Language of Dragons and also master three spells.

The Gift often leads people in the roles of cultist, sage, or advisor to kings, and their small magical powers tend to lend them positions of great import.

Long Description

The Gifted are often sorted into The Thirteen Gifts:

1. The Wizard's Gift - one of the rare gifts that manifests in early childhood, often causing strange and unknown phenomena appearing around the child. This gift is shown to correspond with an elongation in the vocal cords and additional flexibility in the throat muscles. This gift is naturally occurring and has no drawbacks, even allowing access to all kinds of magic. Less than one in a million people have this gift. While called The Wizard's Gift, most people born with this gift are not Wizards, but all Wizards are born with this.
2. The Cannibal's Gift - if one can consume the flesh of the willing, at least once a year, in a ritual under the New Moon closest to the Winter Solstice, they can claim the cannibal's gift. This is a rare gift and anyone found to have it is generally considered monstrous and sentenced to death where possible. This gift only allows access to Death Art.
3. The Monstrous Gift - some tortures and dabblers in flesh have found that certain monstrous parts can be placed on the body, allowing them to access the power of the monsters. An Ob4 Taxidermy test can extract an organ from a creature, and an Ob5 Surgery (Mandatory FoRK: Torture) can implant the organ in a host. The organ must be extracted from a body, and then the host now displays that organ. Common examples are: A stalk eye of an Eye Tyrant used as a Third Eye, the hand of a Lich replacing your own, the tongue of a Daemon. Depending on the creature the organ was taken from, the new owner now is gifted for a single skill. Tales tell of beings with multiple Monstrous Gifts for multiple magics.
4. The Divine Gift - This is often used used by the Roden Visionaries and the cults of Dead Gods to allow more power in their midst. However, it is not unheard of for the major churches to anoint someone this way. This Gift allows the recipient of a blessing to gain access to Summoning. They must be taken to a Consecrated location and then a Minor Miracle must be performed, rendering them an arm of the church. They may only summon and bargain with beings that the deity they worship would have dominion over (always the Restless and Sanctified dead, and then often Daemons, Elemental spirits, Fae, or Demigods, depending on the consecration). They do not need to remain in the service of the church or deity to continue to use this Gift, therefore it can be dangerous to bestow, and only on the most trusted devotees.
5. The Forge Gift - Some creators reach a peak of their career. Some go so far beyond their peak that the result is, simply put, magic. Any Human or Roden that shade shifts an Artisan Skill immediately gains the Forged Gift, allowing them to use the Enchanting skill (it still needs to be taught, opened, and raised as usual).
6. The Artifact Gift - There are a small number of Enchanted items (often created by those with the Forge Gift) which can allow their holder to use magic. These are typically wands, staves, or amulets, but several more are well known. Their use and value depends on the item, for example the Wizard's Guild has the three Staff of the Magi which grant the Wizard's Gift to anyone holding them, whereas there's rumours of the censer of Undeath which grants the ability to use Death Art to anyone breathing the fumes.
7. The Ancestral Gift - Often associated with trysts between daemons and mortals, the Ancestral Gift grants power to children touched by the immaterial world. Partially daemonic Gifted receive the Corruption Emotional Attribute alongside this Gift, part Fae only gain access to sorcery, part dragons gain Greed, part angels get away with an uncorrupted Gift. For the most part this Gift allows access to any kind of magic, but that depends on the creature type, depending on the ancestor, the Gift functions slightly differently.
8. The Albino's Gift - Rare amongst the Roden are the Albino. The Albino's fur is pure white, their eyes are red, and they feel the need to stay away from the sun. But, as they lurk in the depths, they have access to a pure and uncorrupted Gift.
9. The Corrupted Gift - This is, by far, the most common Gift amongst Humans (the Albino above is amongst Roden). This appears in less than one person in 10,000. However, this means that in a city there may be one or two people with this Gift. This appears much like the Wizard's Gift, except that it comes with the Corruption emotional attribute.
10. The Bargained Gift - The Fae and the daemons both will allow mortals to barter for power. Very rarely, they will grant this gift to a mortal. This often comes with a geas or price. Typically the Gifted must avoid a certain action if they bargain with a Fae, or they must pay a price to a daemon (often failure to do so before a time limit means the daemon devours them as well), if they fail in this, they lose this gift. Only a truly powerful Daemon or Fae could offer a complete gift, so often they grant only a single skill, and potentially also Corruption.

(( Leaving 3 for later, i.e. for coming up in play ))