Arbiter

Starting ability: ✪ Soulgaze
Key attribute: Spirit, Awareness

While most people conceive of souls as invisible abstractions, Arbiters use magic to see souls as clear as day. Against the background laminar flow of the Rephaim, souls appear as collections of distinct whorls and eddies superimposed over the bodies of conscious beings, loosely connected together like the individual polyps of some colonial creature from the depths. Some polyps distend as long tendrils or antennae—the soul’s intentions—probing the space in front of their bodies before causing those bodies to act. Others form more complex structures within the colony—the soul’s memories and ideals. The souls of Shinarians look different from other conscious beings—like angular, mazelike patterns of flowing energy, not unlike the flow of water through a system of urban canals.

Arbiter-Aligned Lore

When you choose your lore as a starting Arbiter, at least one must be from this list, and it must be from your origin.

Ask the Guide

What do they want or need?
What’s the general vibe of the room?
What does this character’s soul look like? Is it damaged or malformed?

Abilities to Learn

Starting Ability

You know the ✪Soulgaze ability, which is the foundation of your magic. When you start the game as an Arbiter, you also start with five spells—two of which are based on an ideal you hold. The spell options are detailed below.

✪ Soulgaze

Starting ability

Take -1 awareness or spirit and Compel yourself to gaze into a character’s soul, which you can see as plain as their face. Gain gaze-focus equal to your result. You also learn the character’s ideals, and their current and core Awareness and Spirit. You can then cast a 𐎺spell as a ➟following action.Gaze-focus represents your discernment and grasp of the character’s soul. You can only have gaze-focus over one character at a time. You lose all gaze-focus if you no longer can see the character or if you fall unconscious. If you redirect your Soulgaze from one character to another, you lose all gaze-focus from the first character. A character under your Soulgaze knows you’re magically inspecting them. They can avoid your gaze by Hiding or else fleeing from you.Spells. You know the following 3 spells: 𐎺Abjure, 𐎺Bare, and 𐎺Wither. You also know 2 additional spells aligned with your ideal(s). Choose these 2 spells from the table below.

𐎺 Abjure • 1+ gazeAs a ↻ reaction when a character under your gaze Attacks or Braces against you, spend gaze-focus equal to their current spirit (minimum of 1). You cause the character to suffer Compel disadvantage on their incoming action. You can’t cast this spell if a character Attacks you while hidden from you, or after successfully Outflanking you.
𐎺 Bare • 1 gaze-focusAs part of casting this spell, take any Move, Brace, or Maneuver basic action against the character under your Soulgaze. Your gaze reveals their intentions and weaknesses, granting you Compel advantage on your action.
𐎺 Wither • 1 gaze-focusCompel a character to kneel, flinch, or otherwise become off-balance and vulnerable, inflicting –2 grace damage if you beat their spirit.If the character has no grace, excess damage from this spell becomes spirit damage, not life damage.
𐎺 Charm • Fellowship • 2 gaze-focusCompel the character under your Soulgaze. If you beat their spirit, you shift their regard for you from hostile to wary, or from wary to friendly. The charm lasts until you leave the character’s sight or have no gaze-focus remaining. It also ends instantly if you do something that would change the characters’ regard, such as attacking them, trying and failing to Deceive them, or placing them in harm’s way.
𐎺 Command • Order, Power • 4 gaze-focusCompel the character under your Soulgaze and speak a single sentence in the form of “You shall . . .” or “You shall not . . .” You can’t command the character to inflict self-harm. If you beat the character’s spirit, they follow your command on their next turn.The Guide can inflict a -2 penalty if your command flagrantly conflicts with their ideals—for example, commanding someone with Fellowship to harm their friend.Succeed or fail, the character likely becomes hostile to you if they have no prior inclination to obey you, at the Guide’s discretion.
𐎺 Commune • Fellowship, Truth • 2 gaze-focusCompel the character under your gaze to unambiguously comprehend a statement, question, belief, or short memory you transmit directly into their soul. If you beat their spirit, they understand and can then respond in kind, even if you don’t speak the same language. A nonhostile character may allow you to succeed—though few would wish to have thoughts and experiences inserted into their own mind without a good reason. If you don’t have the Truth ideal, you can use this spell to send a character a false belief or memory. Deceive the character as a ➟following action to determine if and how they accept your deception.
𐎺 Contract • Honor, Justice • 10 gaze-focusCompel the character under your gaze to follow a set of terms that both of you agree to. If the character doesn’t wish to agree to the contract, you can’t cast this spell, or you might need to first Persuade them if they’re hesitant. If this spell takes effect, the character is magically bound to follow the agreement to the best of their ability as long as they live, or until you choose to release them from the terms of the agreement.
𐎺 Daring • Glory • 2 gaze-focusAs part of casting this spell, Attack (not ranged) or Outflank the character under your Soulgaze. You invoke the Glory ideal without taking -1 spirit. But you must declare this spell and invoke Glory before taking the action, potentially wasting the gaze-focus spent.
𐎺 Dazzling Mien • Glory • 1 gaze-focusCompel the character under your Soulgaze to dazzle and distract them. If you beat their spirit, inflict -2 awareness.
𐎺 Duel • Glory, Honor • 2 gaze-focusCompel a character under your Soulgaze to face you in single combat. The character must be a person, not a monster, and their Danger rating must be at least half of your ✪ability level. (The Guide will tell you if the character meets these conditions before you cast this spell.) As part of casting this spell, specify the condition of the duel’s ending: to submission, or to the death. If you beat the character’s spirit, the duel begins. Maneuver to Act First against your opponent, and treat your battle as separate from the rest of the Fray. Guide-controlled characters won’t interfere or help the character you’re dueling. Your opponent can attack with melee or ranged weapons, and they can make use of high ground. But they can’t Evade or move away from you. The duel ends and you lose all gaze-focus if:

You Evade or move away from your opponent,
You take a hostile action against any other character, or
Your allies interfere or take hostile actions against your opponent

𐎺 Echoes of Eternity • Glory • 2 gaze-focusCompel the character under your Soulgaze to defy danger in the name of glory. The character becomes dismissive of all risk and acts in a manner they think will bring them the most renown. For example, a frightened townsperson might find the courage to take up makeshift arms to guard a threshold against invaders. In battle, a foe might exclusively take risky actions like Outflank and Jump-Attack.Duration. This spell’s effect lasts at least until you leave the character’s sight. If you convince a character to follow their path to glory elsewhere, beyond your sight, the effect lasts until something external jogs the character’s memory and reminds them of their mortality or vulnerability. Behavior. The character’s ideals, which you know from Soulgaze, should signal to some extent what they think will bring them “renown.” Characters with Fellowship may wish to bring glory to their group of friends and loved ones. Characters with Power may want to dominate those who oppose them. This spell isn’t mind-control, and the Guide has final say on how an affected character seeks glory.

𐎺 Eye for an Eye • Justice • 1+ gaze-focusTake -1 awareness and Compel a character under your Soulgaze as a ➥counter after they inflict life damage on you. Your gaze inflicts -2 grace and the same life damage on them, up to the focus you spend on this spell.
𐎺 Forbid Falsehood • Truth • 1 gaze-focusCompel the character under your gaze to refrain from speaking with deliberate deception. As long as you maintain gaze-focus over the character, they cannot lie (or use the Deceive action). If the character spouts baseless speculation or empty puffery—not quite lies, but not truth either—you know what they say is baseless, and the character knows you know. This spell doesn’t compel the target to speak. It only prevents them from lying if they do speak.
𐎺 Impulse • Freedom • 4 gaze-focusCompel a character to live freely and follow their immediate desires, ignoring their duties, obligations, and coercions. For example, a mercenary working for the Empire may abandon their post and head to a tavern. Monsters browbeaten into serving Zordin raiders may go scavenge for food instead.Duration. This spell’s effect lasts at least until you leave the character’s sight. If you convince a character to follow their desires elsewhere, beyond your sight, the effect lasts until something external jogs the character’s memory and reminds them of their duties. Behavior. The character’s ideals should signal to some extent what they wish to do in the moment. Most characters don’t truly want to risk their lives in a battle, so casting this spell on a foe during combat has a good chance of causing them to hang back or even flee. However, some characters— particularly those with the Honor ideal or who you or your allies have aggrieved—may well and truly wish to defeat you.
𐎺 Overpower • Power • 1 gaze-focusCast this spell as a ↻ reaction when you fail to Grab-Attack, Restrain, or Shove the character under your Soulgaze, or when you fail to cast an Arbiter spell aligned with the Power ideal. You can freely invoke the Power ideal without taking -1 spirit.
𐎺 Protect • Fellowship, Honor, Justice, Order • 1 gaze or bond-focusWhen an ally in the Fray with you is Attacked by a foe under your gaze, spend 1 gaze-focus and take -1 awareness to intercept the foe, causing them to target you instead. The foe can’t miss you, and this reaction brings you close to your ally.Soulbond. If you have a soulbond with the ally (see the ✪Soulbond ability), the foe doesn’t need to be under your Soulgaze; spend 1 bond-focus instead of gaze-focus. If you take life damage from the attack, regain the point of bond-focus you spent.
𐎺 Sanction • Justice • 8 gaze-focusCompel a character to face your condemnation. If you beat their spirit, the Guide assigns you a Sanction Die, the size of which is based on the strength of your condemnation. Write down the size of this die, along with the sanctioned character’s name. As long as this character lives—or until they repent of their injustice—you can roll your Sanction Die for advantage on all your actions against them.
𐎺 Speak True • Truth • 2 gaze-focusCompel the character under your gaze to answer one question truthfully, which you ask them as part of casting this spell. The character answers to the best of their knowledge; if they don’t know, they say so, and you know they’re being honest. Alternatively, they can take -1 awareness to answer discreetly by communicating the answer directly into your mind.
𐎺 Unbind • Freedom, Justice • 1 gaze or bond-focusCompel a foe under your gaze to release you or one of your allies from being Restrained or a similar effect that forcibly prevents movement. Succeed or fail, you can then take a nonmagical ➟following action. Soulbond. If you have a soulbond with an ally being restrained (see the ✪Soulbond ability), the foe restraining them doesn’t need to be under your Soulgaze; spend 1 bond-focus instead of gaze-focus.
𐎺 The Way of Things • Order • 2 gaze-focusCompel the character under your gaze to obey their duty, local laws, commands from a superior, or their general station in life. For example, a mercenary follows their orders to the letter and neither improvises nor shirks their tasks. In battle, a foe might act robotically, taking the same attack action over and over again even if it isn’t very effective. If a foe doesn’t have clear commands or an objective, they maintain the status quo. Duration. This spell’s effect lasts at least until you leave the character’s sight. If you convince a character to follow their orders elsewhere, beyond your sight, the effect lasts until something external jogs the character’s memory and reminds them of their capacity for free will. Behavior. The spell doesn’t convince its target to shift their conceptions of authority. A Kananite rebel under the effects of this spell wouldn’t magically obey the Empire. They would, however, dutifully obey the dictates of their local rebel leader.This spell isn’t mind-control, and the Guide has final say on how an affected character follows their orders.
𐎺 Will to Power • Power • 2+ gaze-focusAs part of casting this spell, take any nonmagical action directed at the character under your gaze. You gain a +1 bonus on your action for every 2 points of gaze-focus you expend. The maximum bonus you can attain equals your core Spirit.

Abilities to Learn

✪ Inner Gaze

Mark of SPIRIT

You can’t learn this ability if your only ideals are Fellowship and Justice.

When you learn this ability, you learn 2 𐎺Arbiter spells aligned with your ideal(s); 1 of them must be from the table below. As an endeavor when you rest, Compel yourself to gaze inward toward your ideals. Generate the result as self-focus. You can use this focus to cast any of the spells from the accompanying table.If you engage in a solitary endeavor when you rest—without teaching, learning from, or participating in another character’s endeavor—you can use Inner Gaze as a second endeavor.

𐎺 Faith • Glory, Order, Power • 1+ selfAs a ↻ reaction, spend self-focus to reduce a Compel result against you by an equal amount.
𐎺 Resolve • Glory, Honor, Order, Power • 1+ selfSpend self-focus to reduce incoming damage of any type, 1-for-1.
𐎺 Reveal Truth • Truth • 1+ selfTake -1 awareness and -1 spirit and Compel yourself to see hidden truths within the subtle patterns of the Rephaim. Add all of your remaining self-focus to your roll, and gain reveal-focus equal to your result. You can accumulate this reveal-focus over a long time and maintain it even when you rest or fall unconscious. Spend it as follows:

3 focus: Ask the Guide a question connected to your current location or something you observed in the past. The Guide provides a brief but truthful answer.
10 focus: Gain a revelation tied to your current location or something you observed in the past. The Guide tells you which revelations are available from the ambient Rephaim.

You can discard your reveal-focus at any time.
𐎺 Spirit Journey • Freedom, Truth • 1+ selfTake -1 spirit and Compel your soul to free itself from the confines of your body. Add all your remaining self-focus to the result. You fall unconscious, retaining your life but losing all your awareness and grace, and you gain 1 deathmark, unless you are Shinarian. On your next turn, you leave your body as a spirit wraith with your current spirit and life equal to the result above. While in this form, you can Soulgaze and cast Arbiter spells. If you’re a Messenger, you can also Call Wind and cast Messenger spells. Otherwise, you have no more ability to interact with the physical realm than a steady breeze does. You are not bound, and lose 1 life per turn. Return. To return to your body, you must be close to it and take the Survive action. Add any remaining life from your wraith form to your Survive result. (Your wraith form’s life does not go back into your body’s life.)Binding. You can bind your spirit form to an object that has meaning to you, such as a keepsake from your origin or a much-loved weapon. Compel yourself. On a 4 or higher, you bind your soul to the object and no longer lose life per turn. While bound, you can’t move or take actions, though you can communicate in whispers with characters who hold the object. You need a 10 or higher to bind to an object with no significant meaning to you, as determined by the Guide. If you leave behind a fleshly body, it atrophies and gains 1 deathmark roughly every hour. It dies when it gains 20 deathmarks.

𐎺 Strive • Freedom, Glory, Honor, Power • 1 selfCast this spell if you fail to Act First, Rush, Stand Fast, or Survive. You invoke an ideal without taking -1 spirit.
𐎺 Vow • Glory, Honor • 1 selfWhen you cast this spell, reduce your maximum Spirit by 1, and swear upon your name to accomplish an objective. Then name your vow, write it on your hero sheet, and tell the Guide.The Vow. Your vow must have a clear and achievable end condition. “I vow to avenge my brother’s death!” is a good vow, but “I vow to bring peace to the Skysea” is probably too vague. Your vow must also be a worthy challenge—there’s no honor or glory in vowing to open a jar of olive oil. When you make your vow, the Guide tells you how much overflow spirit you will gain by fulfilling it: +1 for a modest or straightforward victory, +2 for a challenging accomplishment, or +3 for a legendary feat.Self-focus. You can spend self-focus to invoke Glory or Honor to gain advantage on any action in service to your vow, instead of taking -1 spirit. Fulfilling your vow grants you back the max Spirit you sacrificed to make your vow, along with the overflow spirit promised by the Guide.

Beware of making vows. If you fail to fulfill one, you never regain your max Spirit!

✪ Heart & Soul

Mark of SPIRIT

Gain +3 max Life. When you invoke an ideal and your result still fails or is otherwise not to your liking, you can take -1 life and roll your ideal die one more time.

✪ Soulbond

Mark of SPIRIT

You can’t learn this if your only ideals are among Freedom, Glory, Honor and Power.

When you learn this ability, you learn 2 𐎺Arbiter spells aligned with your ideal(s); 1 of them must be from the table below. When you rest in meaningful companionship with one or more other heroes—endeavoring to learn from them, teaching them, or participating in a Song of Heroes performance, for example—you can Compel yourself to join your soul with the other heroes, if they are willing. Add your core Spirit to your roll, and gain bond-focus equal to the result. Transfer 1 bond-focus to each ally you wish to join in soulbond. An ally can’t spend this focus, but they must hold it to maintain the soulbond.You can spend your bond-focus to cast the following spells. If you expend or lose your last bond-focus, the soulbond breaks for everyone.

𐎺 Helpful Soul • Fellowship 1 bondCast this spell in two ways:

Help a bonded ally as a ↻ reaction when they fail an action.
Invoke Fellowship to gain ideal advantage after you fail to Help a bonded ally, without taking -1 spirit.

𐎺 Lore Pool • Truth 1 bondSpend 1 bond-focus to do one of the following:

You use the starting ability from lore that an soulbound ally knows, or
A soulbound ally uses a starting ability from a lore you know.

𐎺 Share Life • Fellowship 1 bondCast this spell to transfer your life to a bonded ally, or to receive life from them. Spend 1 bond-focus to transfer life this way up to your core spirit. This doesn’t require an action, but you must be close to each other, and the character losing life suffers -1 grace as you cast this spell. Transferring life to a character with deathmarks reduces them before it increases their life.

𐎺 Share Thoughts • Fellowship, Truth 1 bondAt the start of your turn, spend 1 bond-focus and transfer 1 or more awareness between you and another character in your soulbond. This doesn’t require your action. You must be either the source or recipient of the transferred awareness. This spell also enables you to freely communicate telepathically with any character in your soulbond over any distance.
𐎺 Stand Together • Fellowship, Order 2 bondCast this spell when you and an ally are close together. You both Stand Fast, but only one of you (your choice) must take -1 strength.

✪ Soulflow

Mark of AWARENESS

Requires ✪Inner Gaze, and either Code of the Clay King lore or a Shinarian body. You learn 𐎺Circulate, 𐎺Drink Soul, 𐎺Decant, and 𐎺Osmosis.

𐎺 Circulate 1 selfAt the start of your turn, spend 1 self-focus to do one or both of the following:

Transfer 1 or more spirit to your strength, or vica-versa, up to their maximum.
Take -1 spirit and regain max awareness.

This spell doesn’t require your action. 𐎺 Decant 1+ selfCompel your soul to enter an empty Shinarian body you are touching. Add all your remaining self-focus to your result. On an 8 or higher, your soul flows into the new body. You gain the body’s Strength and Grace, but retain your current and maximum Awareness and Spirit, plus all your abilities, lore, and ideals. Recalculate your life and action dice accordingly. You retain your current life up to your new maximum. On a 7 or lower, your soul flows, but your core Awareness drops to 1, and you lose all your memories, your lore, and your abilities. Your ideals are replaced by Power and Justice. This spell was designed by the Clay King for soul-transport between clay forms. If you’re not a Shinarian and you cast this spell, your expelled soul shreds and dissolves into the Rephaim and you die.

𐎺 Drink Soul 3 gazeCompel the character’s soul to exit their body and flow into yours.

You must be Restraining the character.
Inflict life damage equal to your result.

If you reduce the character’s life to zero with this spell, you absorb their soul. You can recollect their memories, and you gain a revelation for each of their known lore (the Guide tells you what lore they know). The number of souls you can drink, and how this spell affects you, depends on your nature. If you’re Shinarian, the character’s soul exists inside you indefinitely in its own canal circuit. You can access and communicate with the soul as described by the ✪Second Soul ability in the Shinarian Origin chapter. You can absorb a number of souls equal to your core Spirit in this way. If you’re flesh-and-blood, you’re wracked by disorienting glimpses of the character’s memories. Your grace and awareness drop to zero as you fall to the ground, barely conscious. Also, your max Awareness is reduced to zero until you rest. Afterward, the soul dissipates into your own consciousness, and your max Awareness is reduced by 1 as long as you hold the soul.You can expel a soul you’ve drank by using ✪Inner Gaze and expending 4 self-focus to purge a soul. If you’re flesh-and-blood, attempting to do this (successfully or not) is at least as unpleasant as vomiting, and you gain no benefits from your rest. 𐎺 Osmosis 2 gazeCompel the character’s spirit to flow into your soul. If you beat the character’s spirit, they suffer -1 spirit and -2 awareness, and you gain +1 spirit. The spell fails if the character has no spirit.

✪ Soulspeaker

Mark of AWARENESS

Requires ✪Inner Gaze and Code of the Clay King lore. You learn 𐎺My Speech Is Fire and 𐎺My Voice Is Deluge.

𐎺 My Speech is Fire 5 gazeCompel a single foe to feel as though they’re being burned alive. If you beat their spirit, inflict grace damage equal to your core Spirit + their Weight. Inflict an additional -1 awareness and -1 spirit to Shinarians or other characters who have suffered deathmarks from being burned.This spell has no effect on creatures who don’t understand spoken language.

𐎺 My Voice is Deluge 1 self Compel all foes who can hear your voice to feel as if a great wave smashes into them. If you beat a foe’s spirit, inflict –1 awareness and –3 grace. This spell has no effect on creatures who don’t understand spoken language.

✪ Unveil Ideal

Mark of SPIRIT

Requires ✪Inner Gaze or ✪Soulbond. You learn 2 Arbiter spells associated with your ideal(s). Alternatively, instead of learning spells, you gain a new ideal.You can take this ability multiple times.

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