Aware

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 formulae 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>

Awestruck

Main article: Awestruck

The Awestruck are still Innocent humans who have seen something that has burned into their minds while not affecting their bodies. Neigh unpredictable they seek out things similar to what they've seen, their opened eyes letting them blunder into places one should not go.

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.

Bright Eyed

People who have been raised in the Faerie Courts or otherwise heavily exposed to Faerie. Often Faerie in outlook or behaviour (i.e. erratic and risk-seeking), may have exceptional charisma and/or other Faerie-derived skills.<ref name=":1">The Bright Eyed have been exposed to the Faerie, and may even call it their place of origin.  They may be taken as babies, lured in as children, or seduced and lost for a time as in the old tale of Rip Van Winkle.  Sometimes used as ambassadors, sent back and forth, other times their stays are brief or they are encouraged to remember their old selves.  They remain rooted in reality as mortals, but are often Faerie in disposition and outlook.  Creative, hungry for excitement and stimulation, they often have a magnetism that draws people in, and a tendency toward wild behavior that mimics the courts they have spent at least a decade in.  They do not tend to live long due to their risk-seeking behavior.  Despite what one might initially assume, they tend to live a much shorter existence in the mundane than the Glamour Drowned, despite their firmer grip on reality. - 4.8 Bonus Material: Dossiers</ref><ref>Shellie works, sits in a workshop sketching and building tools and weapons, and matches her behavior to whatever Daniel is doing, consoling him, entertaining him, or quietly watching him while looking after her basic human needs.  Her work at the gas station keeps a roof over their heads, but her time in her workshop (the second bedroom in their two bedroom apartment) is where her dark passions come out.  The tools she makes are largely for body modification, as she is keenly restless in her own skin after years of trading it back and forth as part of her currency in the Bright Fall.  Skin is flensed, tattooed, burned, pierced, and grafted with surgical care in an ongoing process, with the most dramatic modifications happening where her clothes can cover her.  The other passion is the weapons she makes.  She knows how Faerie work and she knows how to make them stop working.  Given an opportunity, she tracks them down and hunts them. - 4.8 Bonus Material: Dossiers</ref> Likely to be exceptional with Glamour, and perhaps more dangerously direct in it's use than a Faerie.<ref name=":2">Both are dangerous, in different ways.  Daniel is Innocent in ways that can be argued to be more dramatic than normal, not less.  Hurting him would incur a cost and there’s a chance he wouldn’t even think to get out of the way of imminent harm.  Shellie, by contrast, is aggressive, adept at disguise, well equipped, and fearless.  It’s been argued that trying to use glamour or subtle practices on them might be more immediately dangerous than it is when trying to do so with a Faerie; the Faerie has an instinct to play the long game, to better inveigle you or inveigle humanity as a whole.  This pair won’t hold back in showing you just how familiar they are with glamour and turning it back on anyone with less than eighteen years experience. - 4.8 Bonus Material: Dossiers</ref>

Distinct from Glamour-drowned in that they retain more of their humanity, identity, and grip on reality and are generally more functional (although ironically often shorter-lived due to their risky behaviour.)<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3">The Glamour Drowned are humans who have been exposed to extreme amounts of glamour or the depths of the environment of the Faerie courts and lost their attachments to their old selves, or even their current selves.  Many of the Glamour Drowned were used for a specific function.  In the High Spring court, for example, they may be endless dancers, trained by Faerie to dance as a competitive act, where one Faerie competes against another to see who can elevate a human more.  The Fall courts may turn them into animals to sell to the other courts as pets and accessories, with the ability to turn them human on a whim because it is easier to set aside a place for a human than, for example, a twenty-foot serpent.  The winter court may turn a person into an object, such as a goblet that is asked to tell riddles, or a tapestry that changes to keep track of the days in reailty[sic].  Whether they escape or are released for the amusement of their prior keepers, they cannot easily let go of their prior roles and have nothing to return to if they do.  Expect them to ramble, dance, and stumble, rarely with any quality, until stars align or a moment comes to pass where they find themselves again for a critical moment of dance or whatever else.  Such scenes can leave onlookers breathless. - 4.8 Bonus Material: Dossiers</ref>

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>

Evil Eyed

Main article: Evil Eye

Also known as Maji, people with an "evil eye" have a natural ability to curse targets by looking at them. Not all people with this ability are Aware, some have no idea they have this power.<ref>Maji, Evil Eyed

Those with the evil eye (sometimes called Maji) are capable of bestowing harm with a look.  There are many variants, ranging from the tame to the terminal, with many different forms they can take.  The most conventional will direct spirits of harm or strife to those under the Eye, but others usher in omens of Death, Exile, Heartbreak, Toil, Fear, or Madness.  The eye may be opened by a specific event, it may be open at birth, or it may open and close as circumstances or mood change, or as certain criteria are met.  The evil eye can be trained, but it fits into a difficult niche, where practitioners can easily refute it but careless or wanton use on the Innocent can hurt karma and bring consequences down on the owner of the evil eye.  There are countless superstitions around the world to ward off the evil eye, some so ubiquitous that we think nothing of them, and the Sickness, Doom, Disaster, or Discord that is brought forth will oft turn on the evil eye’s owner if they aren’t careful.  Often accompanied by strange, mismatched, or otherwise deficient eyes.  We say a Maji is Aware if they are conscious of what their eye does. - 4.8 Bonus Material: Dossiers</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>

Glamour Drowned

People who have been broken by the Faerie and/or intense exposure to Glamour. They can remember impossibly intense Faerie brilliance and it has taken over a portion of their brain.<ref name=":3" /><ref>“That,” Ray said, after a short while, “was the Faerie.  Seven courts.  Rituals and practices you do with that power may be fragile.  In the moment, they are strong, captivating, but over the long term?  Can you truly remember what you saw?  What you felt?”

Lucy tried to recall some of the intricate designs, the things she thought Verona would like, or the music.

She struggled to.  All she remembered was how upset she felt as her emotions had gotten away from her.  Like Ray had hit a button and made her feel something.

“If you can, you may be lost.  Glamour-drowned, they say.  Once you can recall it, you may be able to think of nothing else.  It will always have a part of your brain, of your self.  At best, you can carve out a part of yourself.  At worst, you belong to the Faerie.” - excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.6 </ref>

Likely to be somewhat detached from reality and non-functional, with occasional bursts of superhuman brilliance.<ref name=":3" /><ref>Daniel ultimately lost himself to the dirge.  Through a confluence of events that included two of his peers being subjected to Faerie-worked deaths and tortures for indignities such as redundant verses and their voices maturing, the training of new people, and that particular sub-area of the court growing tired of the seventeen-year dirge, Daniel was able to walk away without returning.
[...]
The two of them were homeless for some time before Daniel surfaced for a moment and sang well enough to get practitioner attention. - 4.8 Bonus Material: Dossiers</ref> Like Bright Eyed, they may struggle without the intense stimulation of the Courts, although they are less actively thrill-seeking.<ref name=":4">Daniel either keeps Shellie company, tunelessly sings to himself, or both.  He listens to music and experiments with instruments he rarely keeps up with.  When other residents of Sargent Ave Hall are out in the yard or on their balconies, he will sometimes keep them company.  Shellie quietly ensures there are eyes on him at all times, as he can daydream enough to wander into traffic or walk onto a stairwell as if it

were flat ground.  He also has violent crying jags and fits of dark 

depression, sometimes without rhyme or reason, periods of not eating or doing anything because nothing on earth has the quality of life in the Faerie courts, and he can sometimes be struck with the urge to return and throw himself at the mercy of the nearest Fae who might take him back, whatever they might ask, especially when it’s quiet or he can’t find new things to watch or listen to. - 4.8 Bonus Material: Dossiers</ref><ref name=":1" /> Their vulnerability and Innocence makes fighting them karmically dangerous.<ref name=":4" />

Likely to be exceptional with Glamour, and perhaps more dangerously direct in it's use than a Faerie.<ref name=":2" />

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>

Tested

Also known as Wonderings, these are individuals who are caught in a strange event that has twisted the world around them. (Whatever the ultimate origin of this event - Practitioner, Magic Item, powerful Other, something more abstract etc.) Time loops, ironic body-swap curses, falling into alternate timelines, chosen ones, etc. The presence of such a person may indicate you are inside a pocket bubble of reality. <ref name=":5">There are those who go through a transformational test or event, through practice, pattern, Other, Practitioner, or item.  While these events alter the entire world or the fundamental paradigms of the world around the target subject or victim, they may be the Tested or Wonderings, Aware individuals who are caught in a conflux or strange set of events, that may be occuring in a pocket world or snarl in reality.  These events can be time loops, visits to earths of alternate histories (typically projected within a pocket world and kept there), living life in another person’s body (or many people’s bodies), returning to childhood to relive events, or jumping from childhood to adulthood to experience it.  These events tend to impart a karmic wholeness, as well as (frequently) unusual knowledge or skill, and a deep-seated, soul-shattering existential disquietude over an existence where reality and experience is so fungible.  Or, put in simpler words, the test or the experience makes them (or requires the individual to be) very okay with themselves and where they stand, and also frequently makes them very distant from okay when it comes to a world where such wacky and distressing things can happen. Sometimes these events see the individual’s history or relationships rewritten in the aftermath.

Once an individual is through the test or situation and settles into the world anew, if they retain their old memories and memory of the testing event we call them the Worold, world-weary, or world-wise, with the latter two being dependent on just how they’ve settled in the aftermath.  They often sit apart from everything.  As an example, a reformed misogynist that has the experience of having lived the lives of ten thousand random women across history may have picked up a massive degree of competence and knowledge in countless areas, but while they remain human, they may find it hard to use that knowledge.  The world will resist them getting into politics or doing more than making generous (and ideally anonymous) donations.  The world and circumstance will fight them if they try to uncover ancient treasures or archeological sites or become CEOs with their accumulated skill and ability when it comes to reading people.  The knowledge gained and the transformation in Self are for them and themselves.  This in itself often proves to be something of a test of character. -4.8 Bonus Material: Dossiers</ref>

If they pass their "test" they become known as World-Weary (see below.)<ref name=":5" />

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>

World-Weary

Also known as Worold or Worldly-Wise. People who have been Tested (see above) and come out whole, bringing insight and skill, a dramatic shift in karma, generally a distrust of a world where such things can spring on you out of nowhere, but a difficulty applying their new gifts to an Innocent world.<ref name=":5" />

References

<references/>