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Matias never awoke as a practitioner, but became a Collector nonetheless.  He’s not innocent, and he’s Aware, but he’s not bound to keep from lying.  As a kid, he glimpsed a group of creepy, eerily tall men and women, some with wide toothy smiles and all with long fingers, gathering for a wordless meeting in an abandoned building.  One woman found him, stooped down to eye level, held a long finger with an even longer painted nail on the end to her mouth to indicate silence, and gave Matias three random, uncursed items, wrapping his hands around them.  He’s kept the silence and they’ve kept their end of the deal as pseudo-patrons.  Once a season, so long as he’s hunting down items, they’ll either save him from a dire fate, or they’ll give him an item if he ended up not needing the rescue.  He’s in the mix now, with a knack for finding items and stealing from Collectors. - [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Od3iu2TXe5r677wHEMCudG5hDUrlM6-E0kgiuvlkuuw/edit# Pact Dice: Collectors]
Matias never awoke as a practitioner, but became a Collector nonetheless.  He’s not innocent, and he’s Aware, but he’s not bound to keep from lying.  As a kid, he glimpsed a group of creepy, eerily tall men and women, some with wide toothy smiles and all with long fingers, gathering for a wordless meeting in an abandoned building.  One woman found him, stooped down to eye level, held a long finger with an even longer painted nail on the end to her mouth to indicate silence, and gave Matias three random, uncursed items, wrapping his hands around them.  He’s kept the silence and they’ve kept their end of the deal as pseudo-patrons.  Once a season, so long as he’s hunting down items, they’ll either save him from a dire fate, or they’ll give him an item if he ended up not needing the rescue.  He’s in the mix now, with a knack for finding items and stealing from Collectors. - [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Od3iu2TXe5r677wHEMCudG5hDUrlM6-E0kgiuvlkuuw/edit# Pact Dice: Collectors]
</ref>
== Couch Potato ==
Someone who has fallen so deep into a pattern of consuming media (TV, video games) that they have partly lost touch with their humanity.<ref>“He collects ’em.  The Aware.  People who get caught up in urban
legends, who get caught up in routines like channel surfing and playing
video games until they lose their humanity, people who get mixed up in
Other stuff more than usual.  Owns some apartment buildings and just has
like, one building with fifty apartments, each with one weird person. 
Or whatever.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/09/08/leaving-a-mark-4-7/ excerpt] from [[Leaving a Mark 4.7]]</ref> One example was a TV-watching old man who no longer sleeps or eats, and is glimpsed in the reflection of nearby televisions.<ref>“Many are passive,” Nicolette said.  “Some are problems, but there
are residents like the old man who has fallen so deep into the pattern
of watching television all day every day that he’s stopped sleeping,
stopped eating, stopped using the washroom.  The most hassle he causes
is that another resident might see his reflection in their televisions
when they’re turned off.”
“He can’t be helped?” Avery asked.  “They all can’t be helped?”
Alexander shook his head.  “In the case of the couch potato… no.  Too
long gone.  Others, maybe.  But their landlord, my colleague, he has a
claim to them.  You’d have to get past him to figure out how much help
they need or don’t need.  Then you would have to figure out the
solution.  Most don’t get past him to even begin to address the other
points.”
- [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/09/15/leaving-a-mark-4-8/ excerpt] from [[Leaving a Mark 4.8]]
</ref>
== Designated Victim ==
Someone who is fated to frequently encounter dangerous [[Others]] and [[Practitioner]]s, much like a Gilded Lily encounters magic items.<ref name=":0">Long and Mayes are a Witch Hunter pair who rove around in motorcycles. 
Mayes is a Designated Victim.  Whatever fate the universe weaves, it
keeps putting her in the way of hostile Others and monstrous
practitioners.  Kind of like a Gilded Lily (someone who, by dint of
circumstance or shenanigans on the universe's part chronically stumbles
onto magic items).  Between the two of them, they've survived enough
crap that the pattern's been established, and practices don't really
affect them anymore.  What's more, their return to sender vibe is
really, really strong.  They're scrappers, with a few cursed items that
don't really affect them, and a strong survivor vibe.  Most of the time
they crash into a scene, with a whole lot of chaos, start crashing into
wards and summons, rebound them, and follow them back to the head of the
snake.  This does mean L&M sometimes let things loose or screw up
balances, but they can often kill their way through those things, or
they'll just kill the people who swoop in to deal with them; They're not
the strongest, but have a way of turning up in delicate situations and
have enough momentum they'll probably get 5-10 years of 'work' done
before they get turned into paste or worse. - [https://old.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/iq6g7c/whats_the_deal_with_witch_hunters_why_are_they_a/g4pyrzr/ Wildbow comment on Witch Hunters]</ref>
== Elusive ==
The Elusive are Aware people who have partially "fallen through the cracks". The exact details vary. One example is only ever glimpes out of the corner of one's eye, harder to see or think about the more you tried, driving people to paranoid investigation only to ambush them when they tracked him down.<ref>“The elusive are Aware and dangerous people who fell partway through
the cracks.  The one here is only ever glimpsed in passing.  Always
uncomfortable to come across, with a twisted grin and an intense look in
his eyes.  The harder you look for him, the harder he is to find.  When
you stop thinking about him, he can remind you he’s there.  As the
brownies of the Blue Heron do, he invites people to misstep or breach
the rules, unnerving them until they go looking for answers, break into
his apartment or try to challenge him, and then he drags them into his
apartment or locks the door to the apartment if they’re already inside,
and they’re never seen again.”
- [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/09/15/leaving-a-mark-4-8/ excerpt] from [[Leaving a Mark 4.8]]
</ref>
</ref>


== Gilded Lily ==
== Gilded Lily ==
A person who, for whatever reason ([[Heroics|Heroic bloodline]], [[curse]] etc) very frequently finds themself with [[magic item]]s.<ref><em>Gilded Lilies, or Gilded, are those who frequently intersect with  
Also known simply as Gilded. A person who, for whatever reason ([[Heroics|Heroic bloodline]], [[curse]] etc) very frequently finds themself with [[magic item]]s.<ref><em>Gilded Lilies, or Gilded, are those who frequently intersect with  
magic items, free of any clear design or any intent on their part or the
magic items, free of any clear design or any intent on their part or the
  part of others.  We categorize them as such by these symptoms, not the  
  part of others.  We categorize them as such by these symptoms, not the  
source, when the source can be fate, bloodline, divine interference,  
source, when the source can be fate, bloodline, divine interference,  
patterns, or curses, among other things. </em> - 4.8 Bonus Material: [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/09/17/4-8-spoilers-dossiers/ Dossiers]</ref>
patterns, or curses, among other things. </em> - 4.8 Bonus Material: [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/09/17/4-8-spoilers-dossiers/ Dossiers]</ref> Some Gilded actually create the items through regular contact or craftsmanship, while others just have a pattern of finding them.<ref>Gilded Lilies (or Gilded) - A loose term for people, non-Other, who are often unawakened, who have a knack for coming into possession of things of value or leading a train wreck of a life where they keep stumbling onto cursed items and trinkets.  There are a variety of names and labels for such people and variants.  Important or useful ones can include artists or craftsmen who make things of value that fit to patterns or become natural hallows for certain kinds of Other, ‘Gilded’ Heroes or notable people who have a tendency to turn things they regularly handle into an item that could fit a collection (see Legacy items, below), people who’ve become the target of a trickster spirit (or spirit of misfortune, or god, or whatever) who come across magical or cursed items on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis. - [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Od3iu2TXe5r677wHEMCudG5hDUrlM6-E0kgiuvlkuuw/edit# Pact Dice: Collectors]</ref>
 
== Skeptic ==
Someone whose [[Innocence]] is stronger than normal. For whatever reason (brainwashed or simply fell into that pattern), they are deeply compelled to rationalize anything magical they encounter.<ref><em>The Innocent enjoy protections from Others and practitioners, but
Skeptics often turn these protections to weapons.  There are many ways a
Skeptic can come about, but these ways can include indoctrination or
acclimatization.  The indoctrinated skeptic may be brainwashed or
otherwise augmented with doubt as a fundamental facet of who they are. 
Some are raised with daily lessons or a worldview and given no room for
any other way of thinking, others are given drugs and reshaped, and yet
others are starved, torn down to nothing, then rebuilt from the ground
up.<br>
</em><em>The acclimatized take a gentler road.  When Innocents find
themselves faced with the practice or with Others, they will
instinctively reach for ways to soften the blow.  If there is room for
doubt, they often capitalize on that room, then build on that capital. 
Excuses are clung to, they question their own memories or accounting of
events, and may liberally revise these memories and accountings, until
they return to comfortable reality.  With enough repetition, they can
form a comfortable bubble around themselves, where anything
extraordinary is dismissed.</em>-[https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/09/17/4-8-spoilers-dossiers/  4.8 Bonus Material: Dossiers]
</ref> The normal effects off Innocence on the magical are strengthened; it suffers karmic pushback or even, with the stronger skeptics, unravels entirely.<ref><em>Skeptics are ignorant and ignorance is dangerous.  Practice
struggles to find traction on a Skeptic, and Others suffer a heavy cost
to their karma and Selves simply for stepping into the light when the
Skeptic is present, even though the Skeptic is often so insulated that
the appearance of a god in its full bearing could be dismissed one way
or another.  Conversely, when the bubble is popped (again, if it can
be), the cost is usually dramatically heavier than usual.  The biggest
Skeptics are often dangerous due to their propensity to dampen practice
in an area around them and their simultaneous draw to practice; they
have a habit of unwinding or bypassing protective wards that are keeping
troubling Others locked up, or walking blithely through barriers meant
to keep civilians out of a sensitive or dangerous area, often bulldozing
the way for other Innocents to pass through. </em>-[https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/09/17/4-8-spoilers-dossiers/  4.8 Bonus Material: Dossiers]</ref>


== Witch Hunter ==
== Witch Hunter ==
<blockquote>''Main article: [[Witch Hunter]]''</blockquote>An Aware human who has extensive training in taking down Practitioners and Others, and access to such magic as non-Practitioners can use. They may work for Practitioners in exchange for magic and/or take it by force.
<blockquote>''Main article: [[Witch Hunter]]''</blockquote>An Aware human who has extensive training in taking down Practitioners and Others, and access to such magic as non-Practitioners can use. They may work for Practitioners in exchange for magic and/or take it by force.
May overlap with other types of Awareness.
In some cases a Witch Hunter may have a strong pattern around them established by past successes or family history. This might make magic less effective on them (similar to a Skeptic) or draw them into being a Witch Hunter against their will (similar to a Designated Victim.)<ref name=":0" /><ref>“He keeps strange tenants.  Some are complicated.  A gilded lily, who
stumbles on magic items by accident on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. 
Many are cursed.  Someone who saw something so bent and broken it drove
him around the bend.  A child of a witch hunter who survived the rest of
her family, who knows something is afoot in the shadows of this world. 
The pattern of that family seeks to wrap her up in its flows. [...]  Some of them remain and are power sources.  I imagine that swarm
tenant is both steady income and a trickle of power.  Others balance out
the other tenants.  A skeptic that dulls practices around her to help
take the bite out of the worst cursed items.  An elusive man to keep the
witch hunter scion’s attention without ever bearing fruit.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/09/15/leaving-a-mark-4-8/ excerpt] from [[Leaving a Mark 4.8]]</ref>
{{Reflist}}

Revision as of 23:15, September 17, 2020

An Innocent human who is Aware has interactions with magic, but they are not Awakened as a Practitioner, and may be partially or wholly ignorant of the supernatural. They may have some magical, Other traits (just not enough to render them non-human.)

Alchemist

Main article: Alchemy

Although Alchemists are generally Practitioners, the Aware can also employ some alchemical techniques. For example, they can stumble on Viscera Halflight Alchemical fomulae that allow them to redefine themselves.<ref>“Dreg is a vestige.  Was Aware enough to dip into some Jekyll and

Hyde type alchemy, eroded away a good chunk of his Self.  Only a fragment of the person was left, other stuff took up residence.” “I was almost a doctor,” Dreg said.  “A sip of this, a drab of that, to bring out the sharpness of my mind and my attention to details and diagnosis.  I was an angel to hundreds of people who had nothing.  But the same drug made me frail, and some people broke me to pieces so they could take my stash of herbs and chemicals.  Then I had only the frailty, a shattered body, an old self I’d forgotten, and dashed dreams of what might have been.” - excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.6</ref>

Blackguard

Main article: Blackguard

A completely mundane human who works with Practitioners, exploiting their ability to lie and so on. May deliberately minimize knowledge of the supernatural to remain as Innocent as possible.

Collector

Main article: Collector

Although Collectors of Magic Items are often Practitioners who are able to leverage their collections in magical ways, Innocent humans are capable of using most magical objects and so innate magical ability is not strictly required.<ref>Collectors either don’t practice or practice less than the traditional practitioner.

[...]

Matias never awoke as a practitioner, but became a Collector nonetheless.  He’s not innocent, and he’s Aware, but he’s not bound to keep from lying.  As a kid, he glimpsed a group of creepy, eerily tall men and women, some with wide toothy smiles and all with long fingers, gathering for a wordless meeting in an abandoned building.  One woman found him, stooped down to eye level, held a long finger with an even longer painted nail on the end to her mouth to indicate silence, and gave Matias three random, uncursed items, wrapping his hands around them.  He’s kept the silence and they’ve kept their end of the deal as pseudo-patrons.  Once a season, so long as he’s hunting down items, they’ll either save him from a dire fate, or they’ll give him an item if he ended up not needing the rescue.  He’s in the mix now, with a knack for finding items and stealing from Collectors. - Pact Dice: Collectors </ref>

Couch Potato

Someone who has fallen so deep into a pattern of consuming media (TV, video games) that they have partly lost touch with their humanity.<ref>“He collects ’em.  The Aware.  People who get caught up in urban legends, who get caught up in routines like channel surfing and playing video games until they lose their humanity, people who get mixed up in Other stuff more than usual.  Owns some apartment buildings and just has

like, one building with fifty apartments, each with one weird person.  

Or whatever.” - excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.7</ref> One example was a TV-watching old man who no longer sleeps or eats, and is glimpsed in the reflection of nearby televisions.<ref>“Many are passive,” Nicolette said.  “Some are problems, but there are residents like the old man who has fallen so deep into the pattern of watching television all day every day that he’s stopped sleeping, stopped eating, stopped using the washroom.  The most hassle he causes is that another resident might see his reflection in their televisions when they’re turned off.”

“He can’t be helped?” Avery asked.  “They all can’t be helped?”

Alexander shook his head.  “In the case of the couch potato… no.  Too

long gone.  Others, maybe.  But their landlord, my colleague, he has a 

claim to them.  You’d have to get past him to figure out how much help they need or don’t need.  Then you would have to figure out the solution.  Most don’t get past him to even begin to address the other points.”

- excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.8 </ref>

Designated Victim

Someone who is fated to frequently encounter dangerous Others and Practitioners, much like a Gilded Lily encounters magic items.<ref name=":0">Long and Mayes are a Witch Hunter pair who rove around in motorcycles. Mayes is a Designated Victim. Whatever fate the universe weaves, it keeps putting her in the way of hostile Others and monstrous practitioners. Kind of like a Gilded Lily (someone who, by dint of circumstance or shenanigans on the universe's part chronically stumbles onto magic items). Between the two of them, they've survived enough crap that the pattern's been established, and practices don't really affect them anymore. What's more, their return to sender vibe is really, really strong. They're scrappers, with a few cursed items that don't really affect them, and a strong survivor vibe. Most of the time they crash into a scene, with a whole lot of chaos, start crashing into wards and summons, rebound them, and follow them back to the head of the

snake.  This does mean L&M sometimes let things loose or screw up 

balances, but they can often kill their way through those things, or they'll just kill the people who swoop in to deal with them; They're not

the strongest, but have a way of turning up in delicate situations and 

have enough momentum they'll probably get 5-10 years of 'work' done before they get turned into paste or worse. - Wildbow comment on Witch Hunters</ref>

Elusive

The Elusive are Aware people who have partially "fallen through the cracks". The exact details vary. One example is only ever glimpes out of the corner of one's eye, harder to see or think about the more you tried, driving people to paranoid investigation only to ambush them when they tracked him down.<ref>“The elusive are Aware and dangerous people who fell partway through the cracks.  The one here is only ever glimpsed in passing.  Always uncomfortable to come across, with a twisted grin and an intense look in

his eyes.  The harder you look for him, the harder he is to find.  When
you stop thinking about him, he can remind you he’s there.  As the 

brownies of the Blue Heron do, he invites people to misstep or breach the rules, unnerving them until they go looking for answers, break into his apartment or try to challenge him, and then he drags them into his apartment or locks the door to the apartment if they’re already inside, and they’re never seen again.”

- excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.8 </ref>

Gilded Lily

Also known simply as Gilded. A person who, for whatever reason (Heroic bloodline, curse etc) very frequently finds themself with magic items.<ref>Gilded Lilies, or Gilded, are those who frequently intersect with magic items, free of any clear design or any intent on their part or the

part of others.  We categorize them as such by these symptoms, not the 

source, when the source can be fate, bloodline, divine interference, patterns, or curses, among other things. - 4.8 Bonus Material: Dossiers</ref> Some Gilded actually create the items through regular contact or craftsmanship, while others just have a pattern of finding them.<ref>Gilded Lilies (or Gilded) - A loose term for people, non-Other, who are often unawakened, who have a knack for coming into possession of things of value or leading a train wreck of a life where they keep stumbling onto cursed items and trinkets.  There are a variety of names and labels for such people and variants.  Important or useful ones can include artists or craftsmen who make things of value that fit to patterns or become natural hallows for certain kinds of Other, ‘Gilded’ Heroes or notable people who have a tendency to turn things they regularly handle into an item that could fit a collection (see Legacy items, below), people who’ve become the target of a trickster spirit (or spirit of misfortune, or god, or whatever) who come across magical or cursed items on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis. - Pact Dice: Collectors</ref>

Skeptic

Someone whose Innocence is stronger than normal. For whatever reason (brainwashed or simply fell into that pattern), they are deeply compelled to rationalize anything magical they encounter.<ref>The Innocent enjoy protections from Others and practitioners, but

Skeptics often turn these protections to weapons.  There are many ways a
Skeptic can come about, but these ways can include indoctrination or 

acclimatization.  The indoctrinated skeptic may be brainwashed or otherwise augmented with doubt as a fundamental facet of who they are.  Some are raised with daily lessons or a worldview and given no room for any other way of thinking, others are given drugs and reshaped, and yet others are starved, torn down to nothing, then rebuilt from the ground up.
The acclimatized take a gentler road.  When Innocents find themselves faced with the practice or with Others, they will instinctively reach for ways to soften the blow.  If there is room for doubt, they often capitalize on that room, then build on that capital.  Excuses are clung to, they question their own memories or accounting of events, and may liberally revise these memories and accountings, until they return to comfortable reality.  With enough repetition, they can form a comfortable bubble around themselves, where anything extraordinary is dismissed.-4.8 Bonus Material: Dossiers </ref> The normal effects off Innocence on the magical are strengthened; it suffers karmic pushback or even, with the stronger skeptics, unravels entirely.<ref>Skeptics are ignorant and ignorance is dangerous.  Practice struggles to find traction on a Skeptic, and Others suffer a heavy cost to their karma and Selves simply for stepping into the light when the Skeptic is present, even though the Skeptic is often so insulated that the appearance of a god in its full bearing could be dismissed one way or another.  Conversely, when the bubble is popped (again, if it can be), the cost is usually dramatically heavier than usual.  The biggest Skeptics are often dangerous due to their propensity to dampen practice in an area around them and their simultaneous draw to practice; they have a habit of unwinding or bypassing protective wards that are keeping

troubling Others locked up, or walking blithely through barriers meant 

to keep civilians out of a sensitive or dangerous area, often bulldozing

the way for other Innocents to pass through. -4.8 Bonus Material: Dossiers</ref>

Witch Hunter

Main article: Witch Hunter

An Aware human who has extensive training in taking down Practitioners and Others, and access to such magic as non-Practitioners can use. They may work for Practitioners in exchange for magic and/or take it by force.

May overlap with other types of Awareness.

In some cases a Witch Hunter may have a strong pattern around them established by past successes or family history. This might make magic less effective on them (similar to a Skeptic) or draw them into being a Witch Hunter against their will (similar to a Designated Victim.)<ref name=":0" /><ref>“He keeps strange tenants.  Some are complicated.  A gilded lily, who

stumbles on magic items by accident on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.  

Many are cursed.  Someone who saw something so bent and broken it drove him around the bend.  A child of a witch hunter who survived the rest of

her family, who knows something is afoot in the shadows of this world. 
The pattern of that family seeks to wrap her up in its flows. [...]  Some of them remain and are power sources.  I imagine that swarm 

tenant is both steady income and a trickle of power.  Others balance out

the other tenants.  A skeptic that dulls practices around her to help 

take the bite out of the worst cursed items.  An elusive man to keep the

witch hunter scion’s attention without ever bearing fruit.” - excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.8</ref>

References

<references/>