Name

A Name is a historically highlighted human; someone important who now belongs to History.<ref name="sq@"/>

Abilities

When a person falls at a confluence of history or bloodline, thrust into a role by history (somewhat similar to an Animus' role), they are are a designated Named<ref name=":4">Where an Animus represents a role, often narrative or conceptual, such as the swordbearer who exists to empower heroes on their quests, or the pugilist that goes looking to fight the strongest and remind them there’s always stronger (or loses and reaffirms said individual’s position), the Named individual finds their way to a role, or history, family lore, and patterns help cement the role around them in retrospect. The echo of the individual may persist through written word and history, and they can be called out as versions of their former self, some combination of animus, echo, and vestige. - Pact Dice: Heroics</ref> or a Name.<ref name=":6">The basic terminology of a Heroic practitioner is to call the Others that they summon ‘Names’. A figure that is not quite heroic is just a Name, more than a ghost, because they have something to them that is wrapped up in history and events, that fleshes them out and leaves them as a more permanent thing. The more notable they are, the more substantial they are, with more capabilities. - Pact Dice: Heroics</ref> When they are particularly strong, occupying a special position and/or bolstered by a power source, they are known as Heroes or Heroic Figures.<ref name=":3" /><ref>Heroes are essentially the most notable individuals. Past a certain point, once a certain measure of fame or recognition is met, the individual receives accolades, attention, and a degree of worship, which elevates them. Beyond the point when they are dead, this power carries forward, and they are left behind as heroic figures. Given how they tie into things, it is common for Heroes to interact with Others or to become Others to some small degree.

Heroes themselves are far, far stronger as entities. They are human and not human, incarnations without a set theme, gods but more material. A true Hero is an incredible weapon or tool and often the culmination of generations of a family’s work. - Pact Dice: Heroics</ref>

Made up of a mix 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" />

They follow "scripts" like echoes, while their personalities are built around a given blood lined archetype.<ref name=rep>The Heroic spirits that could manifest here weren’t strong. And outside of this corner of reality, they couldn’t really exist. So they remained. And the scattered few Fae- Avery could only guess why some remained. Apparently a lot of Faerie nobles liked to exile lesser Fae to remote wilderness, and some were established around here, sneaking out or sneaking over to do business and amass wealth or power that would potentially help them in the future.

Some of the more major spirits of this lineage had the archetype of ‘builder’, and as they moved through the reconstruction efforts, the lesser echoes and names of the family found strength, and became more physical, with the ability to do more labor. It really felt like the work only happened while they were overseeing it.
[...]
The man in charge who Avery was waiting to meet was ironically the man who had led this settlement to ruin.
[...]
A complex echo told her, “He’s taking tea. He’ll see you when he’s done.”
[...]
“He’ll see you when he’s done.”
[...]
“He’ll see you when he’s done.”

Echoes. Inflexible, and they liked scripts. - excerpt from Playing a Part 15.z</ref> This same arch type defines their abilites, much like anima they have abilites linked to their archtype such as assassin, betrayer, conqueror, genius, hunter, soilder, hunter and so much more.<ref name=mix/>

Many old Practitioner families, even those that are not primarily Historians, will make use of their own notable ancestors in this fashion.<ref name=":5" /> asdgasd <ref name=mix>“Anyway!” Verona interrupted. “Heroic entities are kind of a mix of all three. They make a mark on history, leave a whole big beautiful picture of emotions around them, that’s the echo part. They get recorded by history and in the public memory as this big role they played. The conqueror, the betrayer, the genius. That’s the Animus part. But obviously the picture is incomplete, which gives us the…”

“Vestige part,” Lucy finished.

“And because power has to go somewhere, it bleeds out into family lines, which gets into patterns, seventh son of a seventh son being like mini-heroes…”

“Which is pretty icky when it becomes a justification for superior bloodlines or whatever,” Lucy said. “Lots of debate on that. Feels like something the Musser family would be into.”

“Yep, but, here’s the thing, if you think of people calling on some old Cardinal who tried to kill the pope or something, sure, it’s basically a whole lot of history and old emotion filling in this role. Like pouring molten metal into a sword-shaped hole. [And then we’ve] got these guys…” - Excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.7</ref>

They are by definition complex creations as they at minimum have three sources worked into them, but there exist practices to put different sources in as well.<ref name=bind>Heroic spirits would be a mess. Hard to bind on their own- they were a bit vestige, a bit echo, a bit spirit, and other stuff besides, and you needed the right recipe to counter them. - Excerpt from In Absentia 21.10

Much like how heroic figures are a combination of spirit, Self, vestige, echo, and other things - Pact Dice</ref>

Binding

Can be bound though it is difficult given how they can be called.<ref name=bind/>

Formation

They can form naturally of course usually in estates that are comfortable for them.

Behavior

Names are somewhat trapped in the patterns they made in life and can find it impossible to step out of it. While they can interact and deal with new developments they are always using their own experiences as a reference, somewhat like a fae of the Winter Court<ref name=rep/>

Can be summoned in a way that makes then able to fit into the modern day but that may create other weaknesses.<ref>Finally, the calling of Arabella’s name must be framed. The practitioner has a few options in how she is called. She could be called for a single task, or called forth in a way that leans heavily on her continued relationship with her summoner, giving her strength, clarity, and even a full resemblance to her old self, but also giving her the ability to decide when she expires. These framings of the ritual can include additional details, like giving Arabella some knowledge of the present day, of fashion, social media, speaking styles, and getting her to ease up on the racism that comes from her being from 1780. This effectively ‘updates’ her, but at an added cost or an exaggeration of any drawbacks of the summoning style. - Pact Dice: Heroics</ref>

Variations

Heroic figures

In some cases the funding members of a lineage in other cases the strongest exponent of a blood line.<ref>Heroes are essentially the most notable individuals. Past a certain point, once a certain measure of fame or recognition is met, the individual receives accolades, attention, and a degree of worship, which elevates them. Beyond the point when they are dead, this power carries forward, and they are left behind as heroic figures. Given how they tie into things, it is common for Heroes to interact with Others or to become Others to some small degree.

Heroes themselves are far, far stronger as entities. They are human and not human, incarnations without a set theme, gods but more material. A true Hero is an incredible weapon or tool and often the culmination of generations of a family’s work. - Pact Dice: Heroics</ref> To be a recognized hero of heroic practices one can stand up to gods and similar.

As a general rule if one can name a historical figure then that person is too important to practice and history itself to be used. Unlike other Names a hero will have a singular equally hard to obtain relic <ref>Heroes have one notable object, which is of some immense power, but often as hard to obtain as calling the Hero themselves. - Pact Dice: Heroics</ref>

Stormed Specimens

A Storm is one of the few things that can irreparably damage a heroic bloodline, having one in the path of a storm usually means the destruction of an important part of the bloodline but sometimes the bloodline and hero can be captured together best of both worlds.<ref name="sq@">Elemental storms are said to serve a vital role in the mundane, much as wildfires are said to help manage overgrowth and keep the natural world in balance. When some entities can persist for thousands of years, the world can be crowded with long-lasting echoes, material spirits, and other 'detritus.', as the texts say.

One of these things that may get scoured away by the passing storm is the key piece of a heroic bloodline. Heroes and Names are echo, vestige, and animus in some mixed proportion, possibly mixed with other things, and are stubborn residue on the fabric of reality. So when a storm approaches an area of note or importance to a heroic line, the family takes note... and must decide what they're willing to spend or do. The heroic spirit or name of note will often be a stopping point for the Storm, a brief pause as everything the name or hero is alights with power. Scenes play out in dramatic fashion, images distort, and the Name or Hero is powerful- and short lived. If they can capture it in such a state, in the middle of the most hazardous environment, it will retain that power. If they cannot, which is frequent, then the pattern of the bloodline itself may cease when one segment of its architecture is scoured away by fire, earth, lightning, or light. - Wildbow on Discord</ref>

Dark Reflections

Made to fill the reflected vacuums<ref name=blah>

Dark Reflections are dark inverses of either people on Earth or representative of communities on Earth. Their general patterns, mentality and nature resemble the Fraward or Hydes, being anti-civilization, anti-society, anti-nicety, or something in that realm, but are typically less pronounced in just how stark this may be. Dark Reflections may appear in groups when they appear, and generally crop up when an entire community is reflected. Often violent and transgressive. Are less about being an idealization of everything their other half isn’t, even when directly reflecting someone. - Bestiary: Fraward</ref> of a given City in a roughly similar manner though in a inverted and visceral way.<ref>Verona explained, “I was thinking maybe the average undercity manifestations are a different mix of vestige, echo, hero. Maybe not emotion from the past so much as… unresolved stuff in the present. And there’s a whole lot of sword shaped holes to pour this molten metal into. [...] Talking about where you came from. That’s a bit of a swords and holes, birds and bees thing, I guess? I gotta tell you, those old magic textbooks and stuff? They love comparing swords and dicks. [...] Anyway, there’s less animus in there. Less defined, super clear roles, you know? Like, maybe with the V.P., Family Man, Foreman, Bitter Street Witch, some of the gray sheep, you get more of a predetermined role that gets exaggerated?”

“I could see it,” Lucy replied. “With the roles distorted a bit because the mold is warped?”

Verona nodded.

“I’m wondering who you could talk to to sound out your ideas.”

“Bristow studied this junk.”

“Yeah, but Bristow isn’t really around, is he? Tymon?”

“Zed?” Verona asked. “It’s just a thought.”

“People pay for good thoughts in this world,” Lucy replied. - Excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.7</ref>

Oddfolk

Benjamin Trover opined that the rules governing heroic practices can apply to knoted humans as well such as Oddfolk.<ref> excerpt from Poke 2</ref><ref>Oddfolk Practices emphasize the Oddfolk and can exist as an overlap with Heroic practices, but with the ‘Heroes’ in this case being the stronger Oddfolk who are alive now rather than those who died decades and centuries ago. They lean harder into Conflict, because of the typically violent stylings of Oddfolk, often drawing on the knotted flows to empower themselves and others, and into Deals, for the specific relationships with certain Oddfolk. Divine is also in the cards, which would tie into the relationship between these physically twisted people and the powers that shaped them - fish-related deformities in a fishing village controlled by a greater power from the depths, for example. - Pact Dice: Knots</ref>

Examples

• Cranaus (familiar)
• Hylas (familiar)
• Residents of the Estates

History

Speculation ghosts

Abraham Senior made a point of stealing Names (past and future) from practitioners he beat.<ref> “He’s got strong Names. For a while, back in the day, if he beat someone badly enough, he’d take someone key from their family line- past, present, or future. That stopped when big families started getting more protective with their bloodline records and stuff. There’s the gas mask, releases spirits that take over vapor and smoke, guard him.” - Excerpt from In Absentia 21.12</ref>

References

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