Paths and Graces
Paths
The mystical schools of Seln Alora vary in their methodology. The most popular and refined Paths, such as the Tranquil Serpent, operate like universities. These Paths host competitive entrance exams; a student that succeeds on the entry exam is praised by parents for entry; and they depart to the monastery to study with others.
Other Paths are back-alley affairs, taught by drunkard masters to thieves and scoundrels.
Infinite Paths
Limited by time and effort, this system only includes about a dozen Paths. Please excuse the frailness of the designer for this oversight.
In Seln, there are thousands of Paths. Some are all but extinct, practiced by one mad monk in a far off monastery. Others are popular and common. Some have been lost; will you be the one to recover these secrets?
Path defined
Consider a Path a single note within the complex song of Harmony.
Choosing your Path, you forfeit the neutrality that resides at the center of Harmony. As a consequence, you must take a Bane, an elemental weakness that persists for the rest of your life.
If we step back, we can say that all Paths share the following traits:
- Reshape the body and spirit in (mostly) predictable fashion
- Claim an elemental affinity
- Channel and enhance the power of the breath (ki)
- Manifest your strength of will (Aura)
- Gird the spirit against interference
Joining a Path
Paths vary, of course! Students might spark the ember of cultivation through:
- Intensive meditation
- Great tragedy or danger
- A moment of insight like a bolt of lightning
- Brutal physical training
- An outside influence affecting the spirit
Joining a Path is a permanent event; the spirit irrevocably touched. However, the student must then choose to follow the Path further. To light the spark is only the first step in a hike up a mountain!
Few manage to reach the peak of this mountain; the end is shrouded in mist and mystery. Path Masters are superhuman in mind and deed, resilient to tricks and influence, and even capable of fighting into the Far Reaches!
Of course, for many cultivators, there is a greater prize that drives their devotion:
- The whisper of godhood and immortality
Identifying a Path
The spirit cannot be measured. There is no guaranteed mechanism to determine if another person is on a Path or what that Path might be. While the truth may be obvious on a character sheet, you must guess based on word and deed.
You can certainly make educated guesses, of course! Many Paths alter the practitioner’s body; if you see a Floran woman with thorns growing down the vines on her arms, she is likely a Rose Thorn!
However, understand that this is not a guarantee. A clever scoundrel can use prosthetics to fake Path signs; learn deceiving Arts to mimic Path abilities; and invest in equipment that approximates Arts.
A thousand rival schools
A Path by its nature makes a dramatic claim about mind and body. Many of these claims are wildly contradictory! Rivalry between Paths are both common and intense. Every tavern owner knows that nothing spells trouble like a gaggle of competing Paths all sitting down for a drink!
In particular, young Path students want to show off their new powers and prove their devotion to their cultivation. Path students are a headache for sheriffs across the entire Kingdom.
One feature of this rivalry: the obsession with secret Arts. Cultivators are notorious for paranoia that someone might try to steal their secret Art, and incredible grudges spring forth when one cultivator sees another use the “stolen” Art.
Graces
The Graces are a new innovation of cultivation and Harmony, spreading through the Kingdom through the Teacher program. While the Paths cultivate through the spirit outwards, the Graces instead focus on resonating with a single chosen element.
Paths are loud, direct, and obvious. The Graces are quiet, contemplative, and subtle. Expressed through one’s profession, this form of cultivation is not immediately obvious to onlookers.
Each Grace brings the superhuman cultivation to its matching element.
- Air – The domain of mind, thought, memory and perception
- Water – The domain of the folk, oration, diplomacy, and performance
- Earth – The domain of the land, hunting, gathering, travel, and endurance
- Fire – The domain of the creative spirit, crafting, smithing, refining
- Light – The domain of the spirits and heavens, revering and manipulating the ethereal
- Dark – The domain of the departed, oaths, honor and defiance
With these Graces, the Kingdom begins to regain many of its lost Arts. Grace craftsmen uncover the secrets of arms and equipment that resonate with one’s cultivated spirit; they craft arts that stir the heart and mind; and they reach outward to barter and bargain with Kingdom neighbors.
Spontaneous Grace
Curiously, in the last few years, some cultivators have independently designed homemade courses of cultivation with a strong resemblance to Graces. These grant the same powers and follow the same patterns with no Teacher in sight!
These spontaneous Graces are especially common among the Wehrans despite their suspicion to the Teacher program.
For their part, the Teachers seem to find this amusing. Their goal is to spread cultivation and wisdom across the Kingdom; who are they to complain if the Wehrans arrive at the same place by their own motive?
Grace without Path
In the character section, you will note that Paths and Graces are interconnected. This is because your primary character is assumed to cultivate both.
However, this system is also set up to allow you to maintain a stable of characters. Your secondary characters may choose to instead be exclusively Grace cultivators. These craftsmen and gatherers will still prove crucial to your success; remember that you must stock and craft most things you need!