Heroics

Heroics (as in Heroic saga; weaponized history) or Heroic Practitioners or Historic Practitioners can evoke specific, notable historical individuals for various effects.<ref name=":0">Heroic
Heroic practices tap into history, legend, and the strengths of individuals to bring out the best in that person or point in time. While most historical figures of extraordinary strength are already earmarked and reserved by families and powers the world over, lesser figures can be tapped as summons, familiars, and shared memories. In general practice, approach combat with the assistance of some very skilled help, and approach problems with the assistance of great minds. - Pact Dice: The Practices - Wbow Version</ref> They overlap with Historians, studying the emergent patterns in the history of bloodlines.<ref name=":1">The families of heroic or historic practitioners tend to be as hard to assail as the castles of old, because the study of heroic and historic practices is the study of family, of blood and the patterns by which families rise and fall. - Pact Dice: Heroics</ref><ref>“[...] I’m a historical practitioner. I study ​families, bloodlines.”

“Ones that tie themselves in incesty knots, right?”

“I study ​one that… yeah. It tied itself in knots, so to speak. The practice is in finding patterns, working out which family members are exceptional because they meet criteria that recur over and over. Third son of a third son or whatever, like a ritual carried out and recurring over generations. Incest is admittedly one of the patterns.” - Excerpt from Poke 1</ref><ref>Heroic or historic practitioners are engaged in a long-running competition, tracing their way through the annals of history to search out the patterns and the ‘emergent rituals’ that have formed through the years. In the patterns, it is not just the bloodlines they study, but the patterns through which heroes or great people may occur or step forward from one bloodline. For a given bloodline, children born on specific generations, or in specific places, or in specific circumstances may stand head and shoulders above their peers, with more ability, canniness, special qualities, or a deeper relationship with fundamental forces of the universe, such as Death or Dreams. While living, these people are notable but not necessarily Other. When dead, they remain affixed to the greater tapestry, and can be called forth by practitioners.

There are multiple patterns for a given bloodline, and when multiple qualities or special circumstances coincide, the notability increases, as does the power of the resulting summon. When a sufficient number of qualities come into alignment, the individual becomes a Hero, a great figure of history or historical significance.

Some (perhaps most) families will work their way through a family tree, taking notes on the qualities and strengths of each family member, while extrapolating and reasoning the remainder of that family. Others will search out patterns in events to find people who were at turning points of history, rather than focusing on specific families. Finally, there are some who, by necessity or by a lack of information, barter or trade for names, asking less mortal Others for information and then using the information gained to get a foothold, or using these called names as a means of gaining favor to essentially ‘trade up’. - Pact Dice: Heroics</ref>

Methodology

Heroic practitioners are categorized as focusing on the Conflict and Lore axis. Conflict, because they are fearsome warriors who solve problems head-on with the preternatural skill of heroes at their back; and lore, because this form of practice requires constant and intensive historical research.<ref>Heroic practitioners are a suggested practice for Conflict x Lore. For Conflict, they tend to do their best work hands-on, in the field, and on the battlefield, with very skilled warriors and problem solvers at their back. For Lore, they lean heavily on research and the same skills that help them uncover the summons they call to the battlefield in the first place are ones that lend themselves to investigation, awareness, and information gathering. - Pact Dice: Heroics</ref> However, they can fall under any category; Conjuration (for Heroics who focus on temporary summoning), Tools (for Heroics that focus on heroic relics - see below), Protection (for defensive summons), Deals (for those focused on bargaining with Names, Echoes and Anima), Visceral or Immaterial (for those who manifest their Heroes in an especially physical or non-physical way), Divine (for those channeling and seeking communion with a specific notable family), or Realms (for those with a "family estate" - see below - or who physically travel into visions of the past for research.)<ref>The core idea could be taken other places on the conflict line by way of emphasizing offhand summoning (conjure), the relics of the heroes (tools), or specialized heroes for protecting territories (protection).

Delving into other practices than Lore they might lean into scientists or rogues rather than soldiers, and they might shift their emphasis away from something more mission-focused and into the contracts made with these Others (Deals), stronger manifestations of the Named and the Heroes and the material things important to them (Visceral), or even the inverse, emphasizing echo over spirit, or incarnate principles and what these individuals or bloodlines represented. A Divine approach could intend to gather the family again, elevating them to a position or manifesting a pocket realm where their bloodline is at its strongest, or it could mean finding one’s own roots, uncovering the pattern of the bloodline and trying to channel the power of the family and heroic potential to yourself. A practice could also be rooted in a Family Estate, an oddly coherent pocket of the real world or spirit world, visiting the endpoint and uncovering what happened. - Pact Dice: Heroics</ref> These sub-practices all have their individual names, arguably a heroic or historic practitioner is simply the specialist practice of this field.<ref>Specialist practitioners who focus on spirits and the spirit world are called Shamans, and they can fall comfortably on any intersection in the Immaterial or Divine tracks.
[...]
The Incarnate Practitioner is the Specialist among these practices, comfortably sitting at Immaterial x Protection (though it can occupy other spaces), and turn their focus toward understanding and mastering these forces, where others tend to seize on one thing to wrangle- understandable when the forces are as momentous as these. - Pact Dice</ref>

In addition to Heroes and Named (see below), they frequently deal with Animuses and Echoes.<ref>Relevant & Related: Heroes, Names, Animus, Echoes [...] If you like the notion of befriending a Librarian animus or bringing a viking berserker into the modern day, perhaps the Heroic Practitioner enables that, or even builds on the idea. - Pact Dice: Heroics</ref>

By studying the natural patterns of history, the rise and fall of families, and the natural rituals human society has fallen into, these Practitioners can bring out the best in an individual or family, as well as summoning them physically (see below).<ref>Heroic practices tracked patterns within bloodline, assigned archetypes to key people at key points in the pattern. One distilled into his successes as a soldier and leader, another as a scholar, carrying traces of memory and personality, as far as history and record could define those things. The Mussers had long kept track of such things. - Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.z</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>Musser had pulled a lot of bullshit over time. This had been part of it. The patterns laid by bloodline- some found, some forced. It wasn’t genetics or genealogy, but something laid out in other ways.

Heroic practices. - Excerpt from Finish Off 24.14</ref> It should be noted that there is some debate of how much this actually happens and how much it is a backwards justification for the power found here.<ref>When the patterns came together for human bloodlines, they made for important names, and particular confluences helped feed into people who could alter history. Oftentimes, it was invented and forced by practitioners, who believed the seventh son of a seventh son of a seventh son could have great power- but naysayers said if anyone looked at any family tree for long enough, they could find enough patterns to point to people, highlight them, and draw out heroes. That it was rationalization after the fact, with power pumped into it.

Either someone had done the rationalization and power thing –Charles- or the goat somehow fit into some pattern of goats boning, getting sacrificed, of certain numbers in certain generations… whatever.- Excerpt from Wild Abandon 18.9</ref>

The most notable figures in history have generally been claimed, and are the subject of fierce conflict. As such, most research in this field focuses on more obscure individuals who may still fall at the confluence of bloodlines and/or have notable achievements.<ref name=":2">Through the research and investigation of families, heroic mages discover names, and draw on those names. While the true heroes of the history books may be out of reach for most, co-opted by other historic practitioner families in an ongoing, endless game of chess, the discovery of the right predecessors and descendants of the heroes can lead to the poaching of such a hero of old.

In practice, with a name at the ready, the historic practitioner can call forth knights, assassins, geniuses and thieves, or they can hold that name as a card, sometimes literal, a font of knowledge or talent to be tapped or a burst of strength at the right moment. - Pact Dice: Heroics</ref> There is also the need for constant research into a notable Name once claimed, lest they be taken from you by another Heroic Practitioner with a deeper understanding.<ref>Stealing and Stolen Names

One cannot simply name Alexander the Great and call them - he has been co-opted by powerful Historic families and very likely set to a task, this task essentially serving to keep him from being used against the family, while creating windows of opportunity- every fifty years, for example, they might release him and promptly set him to his task of guarding a site again… or if the family truly needs it, they deploy him.

Most names from history have been claimed in this way. The greatest names have become almost godlike in power, and there are reasons they aren’t in active use.

This said, by performing more research than a family that has a true hero, a family can co-opt that hero. This may require timing (see Alexander the Great, above), but a family with the ability to gather that information likely has the ability to gather information on a rival family.

This does mean the inverse, however. The biggest drawback of a Heroic mage is the research required, and the fact that they are in a continuous battle of information warfare with their peers, picking out names. Figures that a character has can be poached out from under them if they aren’t careful. - Pact Dice: Heroics</ref> Holding claim on a single famous and powerful Hero can define a family.<ref name=":3">Heroic figures are more or less the same thing, but the Heroic figure sits in a position important to the family and often has absorbed power of some variety. They’re almost always stronger, multi-dimensional, and carry some weight. A strong hero can define a family, but other families may attempt to summon it, so having a firm grip, relics, and strong claim can help keep the hero firmly aligned with the practitioner. Coup, the act of defeating or otherwise weakening a practitioner’s metaphysical grip, can help the attacking party, but necessitates acting against the family that has the hero. - Pact Dice: Heroics</ref> Heroic Practitioners tend to focus on individuals local to them, as certain rituals rely on location, and it makes the finding of Relics easier.<ref>Because the relics attached to a name and the Days Past rite tend to lean on being in places where the Name was active, most Heroic practitioners will pick local families and Names. - Pact Dice: Heroics</ref>

Name

Main article: Name

A key part of this Practice is the physical summoning of deceased Names.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> These summons are a mixture of Echo, Vestige, and Animus, reinforced by the pattern of history and lineage.<ref name=":5">John wasn’t unfamiliar with this sort of thing. They were the province of some old families.

He could identify them by the way they stood, the shapes of faces, and the colors they wore. That there was a theme, a commonality. One that tied them to Reid and Abraham Musser.

Mussers. Mussers of past generations, crystallized echoes, or a bit of Animus, a bit of history forming its own patterns. Some held whips, others held muskets. They’d fought for a long time. And of course, some were practitioners. As they rose up out of the ground, some had to move away from the swelling fire at one side of the building.
[...]
The summoned highlights of the Musser bloodline turned to face John. Some readied weapons.
[...]
“Give the order,” one Musser said. He was more echo than Animus. Vague, blurry at the edges, but what wasn’t blurry was sharp and adorned in gold. “Child, descendant, you have to command us, by the terms of the summoning.” - excerpt from Break 5</ref><ref>Heroes and Names of note, the practice called them. Part echo, part vestige, part animus. The patterns mapped by their lineage was supposed to make them great. - excerpt from Playing a Part 15.z</ref><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":6" />

Relics

Relics, also known as Keepsakes, are items which a Named has some power invested in; more powerful individuals will have more such items. Rituals exist which can summon these items, but this requires a lot of power; more common is to track them down through research. When wielded by a summoned Name, a relic will empower them and give them more personality, but also give the owner of the item claim over them.<ref>Relics and keepsakes are objects that the hero or named have some power invested in. Rituals may summon a keepsake for a high cost, while lore magic might be a lower-cost way of finding them, wherever they may be buried, held, or on sale at antique stores. Giving a named individual or hero a relic, of which any figure might have two to ten possible (usually scaling with power) will bring out added dimensions and facets of that individual, giving them added powers, capabilities, personality, while also giving the practitioner more claim. - excerpt from Break 5</ref> These are items from their life with special significance to them.<ref>Relics are essentially items of significance to the Name. [...] Each relic possessed enhances their capabilities, with a quirk or ability granted.

For our example Arabella [...] she has three relics - the knitting needle she used to kill her would-be husband, a charred doll that was at the center of the fire she set as a child, and a ring she stole from the girl she would later frame for the murder, back when she was a child and attending a birthday party. - Pact Dice: Heroics</ref>

Estates

Estates are Realms tied to Named and Heroes. Often fragmentary and shadowy, they may be accessible through the Spirit World, Ruins, and/or require travel to specific locations in the real world. Heroic practitioners often work to clarify them by researching their origins.<ref>Estates are the realms of the Named and Heroes. They are accessed through the realms that echoes and spirits dwell in, but travel may be necessary to get to real-world counterparts. They can exist in fragments, and may be populated with shadows of the named, clarifying with discovered lore. - Pact Dice: Heroics</ref>

One such a place exists at a Crossroads near Thunder Bay, a European-style castle foolishly constructed at a ruinous cost in the New World, and has been claimed and developed by the Dark Fall as a market.<ref> Here, some ancient, important lineage had tried to establish a place in the New World. They’d put servants and workers to the task of creating a massive structure that had all the trappings and style of a castle in England. Their belief and hope had been that if they built something truly grand, then settlement would spread out around them

No expense had been spared, except for common sense- that, they’d been miserly in. They hadn’t expected winter to be as brutal as it was. They’d probably been warned, but they’d been proud.

Heroes and Names of note, the practice called them. Part echo, part vestige, part animus. The patterns mapped by their lineage was supposed to make them great. Now they existed in this castle of logs, stone, echo-stuff and glamour that filled in the gaps. They hosted the market, and were paid for the hosting with things that indirectly helped to support the walls and turn fevered dreams and hopes about what this place would be into a phantasmal reality. Some of those segments of wall or balcony glowed with their own faint light in the evening. - Excerpt from Playing a Part 15.z</ref><ref>Crossed with Silver 19.9</ref><ref>Let Slip 20.9</ref> <ref>- Excerpt from In Absentia 21.14</ref>

Rituals

While it shares several rituals of investigation that it shares with Historian practices there are some unique to this practice. A major example of such is the Musser patriarch ritual,<ref>Mussers of years past. Ancestors.
[...]
The first of the figures began walking over.

The man with the chains in his hands overlapped with Abraham Musser as his father watched.

Then a priest. Then a series of practitioners. Then another soldier.

Each came with memories, impressions, and ways of doing things.
[...]
Each came with patterns, strength, power, claim, ideas in their heads.
[...]
They kept coming. The occasional woman, but mostly men. Disciplinarians, ruthless leaders, strategists, businessmen.

There was even an echo of his father in there.

Making him Musser, representative of, distillation of.
[...]
The family was with him. Their power was his power. Their claims were his claims. Their precedents and talents were his precedents and talents. - Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.z</ref> one of similar scale is the summoning of a Estate fortress capable of withstanding a siege.<ref>“The thing,” Verona whispered, her one hand clutching Lucy’s sleeve near the shoulder, her other hand balled up into a fist and resting on Avery’s.  “It was about heroic summons, the components were heroic relics, and it was a practice partially authored by the Mussers.  Went looking, couldn’t find anything elsewhere, including the prerequisite bullshit.  I think it was given to the Songetays as payment. [...] Something to support a heroic spirit, summon a dang solid spirit castle complete with siege weapons out of nowhere. But you had to be right in the middle of it. Basically so close you’re molesting your big hero spirit.”
[...]
“Channeled power,” Verona said. “Read about it while looking to see if I could pull the practice off, out of spite. Channeled power of the bloodline, brief strength, [...] Channeled experiences? Channeled responsibility?” Verona suggested. “Channeled credit?” - Excerpt from Crossed with Silver 19.17</ref>

<ref> - Excerpt from Crossed with Silver 19.17</ref>

Notable practitioners and Others

• Benjamin Trover and possibly family members
• Behaim Circle members
• Fulton family
  • Andrea Fulton
• Musser family
  • Mr. Musser
  • Reid Musser

Related Others

• Named
  • Heroes
• Keepers
• Housekeep<ref>Gone and Done It 17.z</ref>
  • Entriken
• Animal
  • That stupid Goat<ref>Wild Abandon 18.9</ref>

Trivia

• Though many elements in the Otherverse could be said to copy from or draw on other fictional sources it should be reiterated that, paraphrasing Pterry, "we all play in the same pond".

References

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