Latest revision as of 10:51, 8 March 2020

hark YE to THE daughTERS
of THE nine: THEY who HOLD
seCRETS of THE triUNE
hidDEN from HUNgry EYES

siLENT they SHED their LIGHT
proMISE of A world THAT
is BOTH echO of TRUTH
and PRIson FOR our LIES

a FInal CHOICE to MAKE:
folLOW the STEPS of THEY
who ARE reBORN, or BASK
in LIGHT now UNshackLED?

Mechanics

The primary concern of the Time of Echoes is that the power of the Forces are dwindling: supposedly disconnected from the beams, the Forces now seem to be operating on what is essentially residual energy: they are effectively running on battery power, and are slowly losing their effectiveness. It is believed by many that if even so much as one of the Forces fails completely, the worlds triune will be unraveled, as Trinity being the confluence of all the nine known Forces is part of its core identity.

Not all believe there will be such a catastrophic end, but then this has never happened before, and those few who might have witnessed such a thing - such as Lilith - have been remarkably tight-lipped about what they may or may not know. That all such individuals are incredibly dangerous in their own right means that there are few capable of pushing the issue.

Elementals

Ever aware of the state of their parent Force, the various elemental races are impacted by this change in the Forces in a much more fundamental way than other races: while it may be harder for an elf to learn to master magic in this time, just merely existing as an esper is noticeably more difficult.

Meta: Basically what I'm thinking here is that there will be a list of flaws or whatever, and if you're of a race from a Force that hasn't... we'll say "recovered," (as of this writing, that's just Magic), then you have to pick some number of flaws, based on what season we're in. Much like with classes, below, there will be feats and stuff that let you, as a PC, get around this stuff: I want to include this stuff so the mechanics reflect the setting, but at the same time don't want to be overly punishing.

Sparks and Adepts

In terms of mechanics, this dwindling impacts characters - specifically, sparks and adepts - in a specific way; note that warriors are unaffected by the changes in the nature of the Forces. The table below lists the various grades of Force abilities for each Force: if a given grade is enclosed in angle brackets, < and >, that indicates that it is waning. Regardless of what your class table might say about your access to power grades, if you would gain access to a waning grade, you must first purchase the following feat:

Waning grades indicate that these abilities are more difficult to draw out of their Force, but - with enough force of will - they can continue to be used.

However, some Forces have fallen into even worse repair than to simply be waning: those power grades enclosed in + signs are diminished, such that it requires much more strength of soul to wrest these secrets from the dying Force. When dealing with diminished grades, you do not spend a feat to gain access to an entire grade, but instead to a single ability within that grade, much like as if that grade were epic.

Diminished means that the power of the Force is fading rapidly, but there is still enough "juice" to allow more advanced practitioners the ability to wield its more powerful expressions - though they are somewhat more limited.

Some abilities of some Forces, however, have become much more difficult to wield: the Force in question may simply be unable to provide the necessary power for the ability to function properly. However, it has been found that, much as with some powerful mages who are able to burn their lifeforce to temporarily increase their yield of mana, that a powerful enough spark can permanently sacrifice part of themselves to assist in providing fuel for these abilities. Many deem these abilities simply beyond the reach of mortals, now, in this time of Echoes: and thus these abilities are denoted as echoes, and are indicated by curly braces, { and }.

Echo grades are exactly that: mere echoes of what they once were, their power scattered and failing quickly. Because of the stringent and extreme requirements of echo abilities, Force Items that allow for use of echo abilities do not function. This also means that, generally, societies that rely on or are run by a Force with abilities that have become echoes will rapidly disintegrate, as the infrastructural underpinnings of their societies tend to rely on powerful abilities set into place by individuals of great personal power.

Example: Kiara is a voidchild, who is reaching the apex of her power; during Season 2, abysmal kata are waning, tenebrous are diminished, and ominous are echoes. She must spend a feat on Grasp the Waning in order to learn any abysmal kata; any time she wishes to learn a tenebrous kata, she must take the Wrest the Diminished feat, which allows her to spend class resources on learning one tenebrous kata each time she takes the feat; and when she wishes to learn an ominous kata, she must first take the Salvage the Echoes feat, then the Unlock Ominous feat, for each ominous kata she wishes to learn.

What follows is the table for each Force, and indicates the current status of all power grades for each: this table is updated to reflect Season 2, below. Also note that while martial classes are unaffected, adepts are: specifically, their class-specific martial schools, which count as both martial maneuvers and the relevant type of Force ability, are subject to the same restrictions as normal spark abilities. At this time, because of events in-setting, Magic adepts are specifically exempt from this.