Character Creation

This guide will help you create a character with deep roots in this world. Instead of focusing on classes and abilities, we'll focus on your character's history, relationships, and secrets. Your starting stats are all the same (5 in each); your power will come from the pearls you find and equip.

Please think about the following questions. You don't need to write a novel, but a sentence or two for each will be incredibly helpful!

Where Are You From? (Your Home)

Choose one of the islands of the Shattered Reach as your home. This will shape your background and how you see the world. (You don't have to be there now, but this is where you grew up).

• Silverport: Were you a noble's ward, a farmer, or a city merchant? Are you a noble yourself?
• Cracktooth: Are you from a hardy mining clan, or perhaps you're an escaped convict?
• Main Anchorage: Did you grow up in a proud military family, supporting the Mandateum's fleet? Were you a former military officer, or a marine?
• Mistwood Cays: Were you a logger on the frontier, a shipwright, or perhaps one of the rare children born to an independent family hidden deep within the mangroves?
• Opal Island: Did you work in the luxury service industry, catering to the rich while surrounded by beauty and secrets?
• The Far Shards: Are you an exile, an outlaw, or the child of a subsistence farmer from the lawless frontier?
• Marrowcrown: Did you navigate the treacherous politics of the capital, working as a bureaucrat, an artisan, or a servant to (or member of) a noble house?

Your Inner Self: The Four Essences

Your identity as a luminist is defined by the spiritual essences that flow through you. Think about what drives your character through the lens of these four affinities.

Your Tide (Bonds and Connections)

Tide is the spiritual essence of relationships, bonds, and connection. It connects, but it can stifle.

The Good: Who are your people? Name at least one NPC you have a strong, positive bond with.

Examples: Your family member(s) for whom you care, your mentor who taught you about luminism, a childhood friend who helped you hide, a lover you can't let go of.

The Bad: Who are you connected to that has caused you trouble? Who has leverage on you?

Example: Your debts to an unscrupulous creditor, your involvement in a famous scandal, your vulnerability to an abusive manipulator.

Your Storm (Conflicts and Motive)

Storm is the spiritual essence of movement, escalation, and sudden force. It is motion and energy, but also destruction.

The Good: What is your passion? How do you find the drive to press forward even when the way isn’t clear? Name at least one thing that energizes you.

Examples: The thrill of seeing new places, a passionate dedication to an ethical cause, the unyielding desire to protect a specific person, mastering a difficult skill, achieving fame or fortune, seeing how people unknowingly benefit from your interventions.

The Bad: What have you accidentally broken along the way? What unresolved conflicts are in your past? Name at least one NPC or faction with whom you have a turbulent, unfinished history.

Examples: A rival from your past who constantly challenges you, a guard captain you crossed who now hunts you, a noble house you have offended, a mining clan you betrayed, a former patron you disappointed.

Your Darkness (Secrets and Defenses)

Darkness is the spiritual essence of stillness, quiet, and the things that are hidden.

The Good: What is your sanctuary? Name at least one place, memory, or practice that brings you true peace and allows you to separate from the troubles of the world.

Examples: The meditative focus of a craft, a forgotten city rooftop that you retreat to, the memory of a person who brought you peace.

The Bad: What is your shame? What secrets do you keep even from your closest friends?

Examples: Your responsibility for a past tragedy, your former involvement in an unethical enterprise, a belief that would alienate you from your fellow luminists, a possession or status that you acquired through betrayal whose presence is a shameful reminder.

Your Moon (Vision and Goal)

Moon is the spiritual essence of light and truth. It is your vision and goal.

The Good: What is your unique perspective? What do you often perceive that others don’t? Name at least one way your experiences give you an uncommon insight or shape your vision of what the future should be.

Examples: Your noble upbringing has given you an unerring eye for the subtle tells of a lie or the double-meaning of a courtier's words. Your past as a convict on Cracktooth gives you a unique insight into logistics and security, allowing you to see the flaws in any fortress or patrol route. You envision a future where luminists are not hunted outcasts, but respected guardians of a new, more just society.

The Bad: What are you willing to sacrifice along the way, even if you don’t admit or understand it? Name at least one way your experiences or vision blind you to considering or valuing all the variables.

Examples: Your focus on the "greater good" makes you willing to sacrifice individuals to achieve your long-term goal. Your belief in logic and evidence makes you blind to emotional “irrationality”. Your own history of being betrayed makes you so paranoid that you are blind to genuine offers of help. You are so focused on achieving your vision that you are blind to the mounting personal cost to your own health, happiness, and relationships.

Your Luminism

Briefly, how did these aspects of your life lead you to the desperate and illegal act of consuming your first pearl and becoming a luminist?