SeventhSun:Paths

Paths

A Path is a recipe for the fundamental manner in which a hero meets danger and changes the world. Every hero chooses one Path at creation, gaining its Gift and access to its Talents.

A Path guides a concept without functioning as a class. Its suggested competencies illustrate the concept but impose no requirements: use them, alter them, or replace them completely.

One Path

A hero has one Path, but the Path does not fence off ordinary competence. A Blade may master Stealth, learn Phasmic Formulae through a vinculum, or ignore Combat entirely. A Shadow may become the group’s finest combatant. The Path identifies a dramatic method through its Gift and Talents rather than policing the build.

Changing Path is possible only as a major event in the story. A Blade chosen by a Monitor might become an Emissary, but the character changes Path rather than collecting pieces of both. Retain the character’s earned Advances and rebuild only the abilities supplied by the former Path.

Path Recipes

Every hero begins with one automatic Path Gift and one chosen Talent. The Gift does not use the hero’s Talent choice.

Path	Suggested use of seven choices	Automatic Gift	Chosen starting Talent
Blade	Combat Expert; five other Trained Skills	First into Danger	1 General or Blade Talent
Emissary	Two Trained Formulae; five Trained Skills	Monitor’s Mandate	1 General, Emissary, or Phasmic Talent
Magister	Three Trained Formulae; four Trained Skills	Living Font	1 General, Magister, or Phasmic Talent
Shadow	Seven Trained Skills chosen for mobility, subtlety, and preparation	Always Prepared	1 General or Shadow Talent

Gifts and Path Talents

A Path Gift is an automatic, Path-exclusive Talent. It is short, memorable, and unavailable to heroes of other Paths. It expresses the Path’s defining advantage.

Path Talents are standalone choices. They never require another Talent as a prerequisite. A powerful Talent may require a Path, Skill rating, or particular Phasmic Formula, but no hero purchases an uninteresting ability merely to unlock an interesting one. Related Talents may share a theme without forming a chain.

Blade

The Blade meets danger directly. Blades include duelists, soldiers, guardians, hunters, champions, and others whose defining excellence is disciplined action under threat. A Blade need not be brutal, heavily armored, or devoted solely to combat; the Path represents command of violence rather than a particular profession or temperament.

Recipe. Expert Combat and five other Trained Skills. Awareness, Athletics, Command, Medicine, and Wayfaring suit a protective road-warden; replace any of them freely.

Identity. The Blade Gift and Talents reward meeting danger directly. The recipe suggests combat excellence but does not require it.

Blade Gift and Talents

A Blade receives First into Danger automatically and may choose General or Blade Talents.

Talent	Type	Effect
First into Danger	Gift	Spend 1 Nerve when a conflict begins to take one short action before the first turn.
Cleave	Blade Talent	Once per round, when you incapacitate an opponent in melee, immediately attack another opponent within reach.
Counterstrike	Blade Talent	Once per round, when an opponent misses you in melee, make a melee attack against that opponent as a reaction.
Guard	Blade Talent	When an adjacent ally is targeted but before the attack roll, interpose as a reaction and become the target.
Hold the Line	Blade Talent	When an opponent moves within your reach, attack them in melee as a reaction; a hit ends their movement.
Rally	Blade Talent	As a short action, attempts to frighten or coerce allies who can hear you suffer a penalty die until your next turn.
Relentless	Blade Talent	When you incapacitate an opponent, move up to your normal Speed without spending an action.

Emissary

The Emissary receives phasmic power from a Monitor. An Emissary is neither a conventional priest nor a Magister by another name: the power originates in an external intelligence and expresses an ongoing relationship with it. The Monitor determines what it offers, what it withholds, and why it chose the Emissary at all.

Recipe. Two Trained Phasmic Formulae and five Trained Skills. Awareness, Combat, Command, Influence, and Lore suit a Monitor’s field representative; replace any of them freely.

Identity. The Emissary Gift rewards phasm used in service of a Monitor’s mandate. Competency choices determine how the Emissary carries it out.

Emissary Gift and Talents

An Emissary receives Monitor’s Mandate automatically and may choose General, Emissary, or Phasmic Talents.

Talent	Type	Effect
Monitor’s Mandate	Gift	Once per scene, Overreach without taking Fatigue when the working directly serves your Monitor’s declared purpose.

Magister

A Magister controls internally generated phasm through an organ called the vinculum. Small and lens-like, it focuses the phasm before the Magister releases it into the world. Optimates already possess vincula as part of the anatomy for which their people were designed, and their natural integration with the organ helps explain their excellence with phasm.

Members of other peoples acquire a vinculum through the mysterious process called reintegration. Its formal technical name is architectonic surgery, but nothing so primitive as a knife is involved. The apparatus simply adds a vinculum to the subject’s quantum wave function. The body thereafter resolves as a body that includes one, fully integrated rather than implanted.

Reintegration works upon biological and synthetic bodies alike; the principle is easy to state, although no living practitioner could reproduce the means. Training teaches every Magister to shape and survive the resulting power. A Magister is a living source, not a petitioner receiving power from elsewhere.

Recipe. Three Trained Phasmic Formulae and four Trained Skills. Awareness, Lore, Medicine, and Technics suit a phasmic investigator; replace any of them freely.

Identity. The Magister Gift rewards an internal source of phasm and risky improvisation. Competency choices determine the hero’s actual training.

Magister Gift and Talents

A Magister receives Living Font automatically and may choose General, Magister, or Phasmic Talents.

Talent	Type	Effect
Living Font	Gift	Once per scene, compute a Formula you do not possess as Trained; mark 1 Fatigue after the working resolves.

Shadow

The Shadow succeeds through subtlety, movement, preparation, and misdirection. Shadows may be scouts, spies, investigators, negotiators, wanderers, or audacious opportunists. The Path is broader than theft or assassination: it belongs to heroes who understand that position, knowledge, and timing can decide a conflict before force is applied.

Recipe. Seven Trained Skills. Awareness, Combat, Finesse, Guile, Insight, Stealth, and Technics suit a ruin-courier; replace any of them freely.

Identity. The Shadow Gift and Talents reward preparation, movement, and misdirection rather than a prescribed profession.

Shadow Gift and Talents

A Shadow receives Always Prepared automatically and may choose General or Shadow Talents.

Talent	Type	Effect
Always Prepared	Gift	Spend 1 Nerve to produce a plausible item, useful fact, or minor precaution that you arranged earlier.
Ghost	Shadow Talent	You may move at full Speed while using Stealth.
Quick Hands	Shadow Talent	Once per turn, draw, stow, plant, or palm a small object without spending an action.
Slip Away	Shadow Talent	When an opponent misses you in melee, move up to 3 squares as a reaction.
Surprise Attack	Shadow Talent	Gain a bonus damage die against an opponent who has not perceived you.
Vanish	Shadow Talent	Spend 1 Nerve while unobserved or concealed to become Hidden without making a roll.
Weak Point	Shadow Talent	After observing a target for one round, your next attack against it ignores its Protection.

Expanding the Paths

A new Path is a new character recipe, not a new rules engine. Give it a clear identity, one exclusive Gift, a small group of thematic Talents, and an example use of the ordinary seven competency choices. Its recipe grants no extra Skills or Formulae. Do not create a Path merely to describe a profession that Skills and Motive already cover.

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