Envoy

Envoys also known as Incarnate Merchants or Messengers or erroneously as Faustians,<ref name=":0">= ENVOYS =
Also The Faustian (incorrectly suggests diabolism), Incarnate Messengers, Incarnate Merchants

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Relevant Schools: Incarnate practices, Deals. - ENVOYS</ref> are asshole genies tied to the Pillars of Human Existence, doling out wishes knowing their targets aren't able to do anything.<ref>

• Envoys - These Others persist by making deals and furthering the ends of the incarnation they represent/are. They may be urban legends or itinerant Others. The deals are usually tricky or really loaded. "Did you hear? They say that there's a way to summon a little old man who will ask you for a name. He'll destroy a person you name, but he'll take what you cherish most from you in exchange. Everyone always regrets it." A girl with strangely colored hair finds people in enough torment that they've lost their senses- the sleep deprived, the maddened, the drunken, and she offers them a deal. She'll take the memory of whatever it is that is maddening them out of their head and the heads of everyone around them, but they're given the task of re-enacting or forcing that same agony on three other 'deserving' people, or she'll give them the memory she took from the last person she visited, and somehow it's always worse than (and somehow related to) what they were dealing with before. These Envoys visit our world and seek out targets who fit their schema and generally push deals that net an overall positive contribution to [incarnation], but when they aren't here, they're somewhere, and that's often the Paths. If found or visited, they may offer similar deals, or barter with whatever it is they've collected or done. - Wildbow on Reddit</ref>

Abilities

They can grant wishes related to their fields/specialties but they are highly selective to whom they give their offers. Usually those desperate enough to take it without quite being able to accomplish the goals outlined.<ref name=":1">Appearance: Envoys typically appear as people, oftentimes dressed in eccentric ways, such that there is likely no other person in the world that appears as they do. Sometimes this is heavily decorated or mismatched clothing, but it can be a uniform or specific outfit in an odd color (such as a bright red policeman’s uniform) or a uniform not fitting the individual (such as a sword-patterned kimono on an albino woman with Caucasian features, or a very serious child in a mailman’s outfit that doesn’t fit the country they’re in). Eyes or other facial features may be exceptional or unusual, such as a blue-tinted scar across the side of their face, or eyes that look like the galaxy if looked into for too long. - ENVOYS</ref>

Have a very good idea of those who would accept their deals and not be able to complete their end of the bargain, thus giving the envoy more resources when they come to collect. This is in part what make them deals based Others.

Weaknesses

Envoys are generally built on human identities, living people who have become incarnates, finding this identity is a way to gain coup against them.<ref name=":2">Background: Envoys are extensions of an Incarnate, or lesser incarnates who have turned to a specific methodology. To further their interests, often helped by them using a specific spiritual, societal, or power-based foothold, they establish a pattern with a series of innocents. The pattern is typically to approach the innocent (or practitioner, sometimes), offer a deal, but set a challenge or a price, with the expectation that the Envoy gains more than they expend. Like Incarnations, Envoys tend to absorb like-minded individuals or be rooted in individuals saturated in the Incarnation’s nature.

The deals are framed around the Envoy’s ties to a greater Incarnate, and by making the deal they can access the innocent. These deals may be simple in execution, the Envoy granting a kind of specific, Envoy-themed wish in exchange for someone’s life or some other terrible price. It can be a challenge posed with the expectation that most will fail. It can also be a wish granted that is in itself a test of character. Which it is may depend on strength, complexity, and the nature of the Incarnation. More aggressive or predatory incarnations may have a more vicious edge, while the merciful and nurturing may act in a way that suggests they are serving a greater good.
[...]
As one might surmise, some of the things granted may alter reality in a substantial way, and this breaks some of the setting rules in terms of innocence and taking power using Practice or an Other’s power; one can become president, potentially… they can become millionaires. Typically, however, most fail and those seeking big things end up walking such a fine tightrope that the effect on the setting is immaterial. - ENVOYS</ref><ref name=":2.1"> - ENVOYS</ref>

They are not omnipresent and have various methods of finding their preferred prey, be it rituals songs or even seeking out people.

They can be challenged if their conditions are too much, as anyone or thing that offers such deals and contests.

Formation

While they can be anthropomorphic forms of Incarnations they can be mortals that are empowered by Incarnations.<ref name=":3">Behavior: Envoys go from target to target, rarely entertaining more than one at a time. They pick a target, often people at an important decision point, empowering them to make a critical decision, they offer the deal, they let the target make the call (or refuse it; it’s possible and the choice being a choice is important), observe, counsel, and wrap up, as the case may require, then move on. They may seek out targets or targets may have the means of seeking the envoy out laid out for them, by way of messages online, rumor, or hidden tracts and riddles in hard-to-find books.

Envoys tend to be either dispassionate or very enthusiastic (gleefully sadistic) about what they’re doing. Because the targets tend to be at crossroads, the points of decision tend to be morally grey. Further, the Envoy is often rooted in an individual who was offered a deal but ended up becoming an envoy as a third road, or other events tying heavily into the incarnation at the heart of the role put them in a position for them to take the role. The Envoy is thus repeatedly confronted with tricky grey-area situations that mirror their own faint memories/old selves, and thus either revel in the torturous circumstances they bring about, or they must harden their hearts, though they don’t have hearts, exactly.

Envoys are working Others and while they may get involved in ongoing events, they tend to pursue clients/targets in a singleminded manner, only interacting with outside parties where relevant to keep the job going and deal with possible interference. - ENVOYS</ref>

This can be to defeat them if needed.

Behavior

They seek out those who will fail and thus feed them power.<ref name=":4">Strengths: Envoys are on the strong side, with backing from forces as strong as (just as one relevant example) Death itself. While not directly major players in the abstract, they are powerful when it comes to keeping the job going. A weak envoy going about the course of her duties is still not to be underestimated. Their motif or style may act as an expression of this raw power, whether it’s unleashing a storm of spinning umbrellas that overwhelm even strong barriers or a gun made of red metal that proves very effective. What the forms of attack and defense actually look like are typically insignificant, and the reality is that they simply express a lot of power when called for.

However, this isn’t always especially necessary. Most Envoys have enough of a prenatural sense of scenarios and situations that they can pick targets where interference won’t be an issue, or navigate interference when it does come up, staying out of the way of those that would trouble them.

As inevitables, Envoys are generally impossible to utterly destroy, instead translating any harm they take into a sort of coup system: brute force can thus weaken their claim over things enough that they are driven back or must cede ground, but they won’t die, and a contract with a target is typically between the target and the Envoy. At best, one can hope to drive the Envoy away for long enough to talk to the target and convince them of a better path. When the deal comes to a head, the Envoy has the prerogative to go to the target or to bring the target to them.

To assist in their duties, Envoys have very keen awareness of people and the moving forces of the universe. They can typically understand an individual’s circumstances and how they’re approaching a crossroads with only casual, from-a-distance observation, ranging from a few hours to a few days of appearing in the distance. They may be seen in the lead-up, whether that lead-up is someone who pulled the information from online and is considering it, or the Envoy approaching a target they selected themselves.

- ENVOYS</ref><ref name=":5">Weaknesses:  While powerful, Envoys draw their power from a personal reserve.  They have a place in the grand scheme of things, and spending more than they gain threatens their place.  Almost always, they’ll be allowed to see a deal through to recoup the invested costs, but an Envoy that is cornered and forced into confrontation too often will expend enough power that their creator may see fit to replace them.  An employer does not want to keep a salesman that costs more than they earn.

On the other end of things, an Envoy is frequently an individual that can be tracked down.  Whoever they were before they became an Envoy, details may be apparent to those who do their research.  In this manner, it’s theoretically possible for virtually anyone on the wrong end of a deal with an Envoy to find a way out - trace the rumors of the Envoy back, recognize a face or detail in a photograph, etc.  Some Envoys even have this on purpose; should someone challenge whether the proposed challenge or deal with the Envoy was unfairly presented, the opportunity is left in for the Envoy or those representing them to say it was reasonably fair in presentation, and there was always this side route, with subtle details provided to you. 

The deal itself may also have its roots in something, be it a source of non-Incarnate power, an item, or an event.  These things may also be uncovered.

Discovering an envoy’s roots means it can be attacked on that level, strengthening practice and often shaking the Envoy out of their routine a touch.  They may lose composure, suffer flashbacks, be weakened, or be more easily affected with practice, once the attack vector is known or the vulnerability uncovered and known to those present.

Finally, there is the chance that those faced with the deal defeat it enough times that the Envoy loses power.  There are multiple possible ways a deal can be constructed: to destroy (in various senses) the client in exchange for the wish, to test the client’s character with too much of a good thing (or such), or to put a challenge toward them that most would fail.  Should the target counter the construction by finding a way to survive or refuse the deal despite their desires, should they prove themselves true in character despite the Envoy’s temptations, or should they succeed in the challenge enough times, the envoy loses power, and may be replaced or removed. - ENVOYS</ref>

<ref name=":6">Binding: Envoys can almost never be bound when a deal is active, unless with the help of greater forces. They may be cornered or bound by someone calling them and taking the appropriate measures, often stonework and specific tokens, strong Envoys may only be bindable if the practitioner is backed by power with some ties to circumstance and authority, be it a Lordship role, permission of greater powers, deific intervention, or something similar.

Coup helps in this regard: defeating or first baiting and then refusing the offer counts, as does defeat in combat. Most effective, as noted in weaknesses above, is finding the roots of the Envoy themselves and working them into the binding. This makes them more individual than agent, and the individual can be more readily bound and communicated with. - ENVOYS</ref><ref>“Envoy of Doubt. Lurked the paths, offered a deal to people. Like a localized little Hungry Choir thing, but it was about suspicion and doubt. Let people choose something, and they’d get the benefit of a doubt, or people would ignore key evidence, or they could choose a statement or truth, and people would give it a hard, doubting second look. Let criminals get away with crimes, let certain lies travel around the world before the Truth had his shoes on, let people ensure someone didn’t get away with something. But it was a double-edged sword. Whatever you asked for, it’d come back at you, for something you’d said or done. Could be in the past, retroactive, could be now, could be in the future.”

“Seems like a pretty raw deal,” Avery said.

“An Envoy’s deals tend to be. Like your Choir, not wanting too many people to succeed. It becomes a question of finding the right people. An academic who built their career on a false study, for example. Or a crime boss about to see it all crumbling down. Or a schoolchild who saw someone they hated get away with something. Get desperate or hold enough hate in your heart, maybe the deal seems worth it.”

- Excerpt from Crossed with Silver 19.13</ref>

<ref name=":7">Summoning: Envoys are typically very easy to summon; the means of calling them is typically part of their nature. This can be tricky with the stronger ones, where calling the Envoy is tantamount to making a deal with them, especially for practitioners.

For an Envoy to be taken as a familiar, they should first be defeated, and they should be between clients/targets. Working out their roots is often essential, as well. Typically very strong and willful, they forfeit the practice of making deals or granting relevant wishes in favor of a general manner of being that suits the Incarnation. In effect, they are on vacation but they hold onto their ties to the idea that put them into motion. One sent forth by Nature will often be Nature aware or Nature obsessed. They have power but conserve it.

Envoys who become familiars tend to be eccentric in color or look. They may favor human forms and never wear an animal one, and may relax their ‘uniform’ from when they were working. They tend to be high puissance and high awareness, with an eye for deals and vulnerabilities. - ENVOYS</ref>

Variants

Incarnate Ritual

Diffuse and interactive version largely similar to Envoys, tend to effect whole areas rather then spending their time waiting in the Paths<ref name=":8">Incarnate Rituals resemble Envoys but are events in abstract, contests or challenges without a clear individual at their core. Many of the principles are the same, but they tend to affect more individuals at once, they may catch the unwary, and they affect whole areas, sometimes creating pocket worlds. Like Envoys they tend to be called off or put to rest when the power they expend/give up in rewards exceeds what they were taking and consuming. - ENVOYS</ref>

Items

Magic items tied to incarnate that emulate what Envoys do<ref>Incarnate items have similar hallmarks to the Ruins item, but are more patient, and can tend to be indestructible, bold, and simple. A black phone, a red knife, an old blue hardshell camera with a giant flash mounted on the top, etc. This isn’t a hard rule, and they can vary, much as the lesser things Items may themselves be implicit Envoys or Agents, inscrutable and typically silent but still acting in the same general patterns. Envoy items offer powers with implicit heavy consequence obvious from the degree of power of the item: a camera that erases anyone whose face it captures, or a phone that predicts the future: screw up in using it or fall into the inherent trap and you’re a goner. Agent items will want to be used or act on their own and woe betide the individual who inadvertently finds itself in the item’s way. Divining which one is thus important. - PACT DICE</ref>

Peddlers

<ref name=":9">Peddlers also offer deals and maintain a transactional mindset, but do so by giving people cursed items or items with inherent traps. They may be practitioners or Others. - ENVOYS</ref>

Practitioners

Practitioners sometimes emulate what Others like this do.

Trivia

• The idea of people making deals with supernatural entities for power, ability or similar is arguably one of the oldest tales around, see The Devil and the Blacksmith.<ref>Some Fairy Tales May Be 6000 Years Old. https://www.science.org/content/article/some-fairy-tales-may-be-6000-years-old. Accessed 13 June 2021.</ref>
  • This tale is a template for legends such as those based of off the Renaissance-era Faust.

References

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