HEROES  ⟩  CALLINGS  ⟩  ARBITER

Code of Freedom

← Code of Fellowship  ✧  Code of Glory →

Requires: Freedom ideal 

If you choose this Code as a starting hero, you know ✪ Code of Freedom and its spells. Otherwise, you can learn ✪ Code of Freedom with XP—so long as you have the Freedom ideal. 

✪ Code of Freedom

✦ Will  This ability grants two spells: 𐎺Impulse and 𐎺Unbind.

𐎺Impulse   |   SOULSIGHT  4

Roll Compel to magically convince a character to live freely and follow their immediate desires, at least for a short time. If the character has the Freedom ideal, you automatically succeed. However, if they have the Order ideal, take a -2 penalty on your compel roll. ✦ Success: The character ignores all their duties, obligations, and coercions. For example, mercenaries working for the empire may abandon their posts and head to a tavern. Monsters browbeaten into serving Zordin raiders may shirk their duty and go scavenge for some food instead.⬖ Struggle: The character(s) can take -1 spirit to rebuff your magic.ⓧ Failure:  No effect.This spell’s effect lasts at least until you leave the character’s sight or have no soulsight remaining. 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.  The character’s ideals, which you know from Soulgaze, should signal to some extent how they’ll behave while affected by this spell. 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 or kill you. The Guide has final say on how an affected character follows their desires. 

𐎺Unbind   |   SOULSIGHT  1

Roll Compel to cause the foe to release you or one of your allies from a grapple or similar effect that forcibly restrains their movement. ✦ Success: The foe releases you or your ally.⬖ Struggle: The character(s) can take -1 spirit to rebuff your magic.ⓧ Failure:  No effect.

Abilities to Learn 

.5xp new ability  |  10xp with attribute increase

You must know ✪ Code of Freedom before learning the abilities in this section.

✪ Disassociate

✦✧ Will  Take -1 spirit and roll Compel to free your soul from the confines of your body. Add your Will to your roll. The result is the number of turns your soul can exist beyond your body before being subsumed by the flow of the Rephaim. While disassociated, your body’s Guard and Awareness drop to zero, as if unconscious; your Stamina remains with your body.Your Life and Spirit are carried on your soul. Your soul can observe and hear, but the only action it can take is floating from place to place as its movement. You can move this way immediately as a free action after using this ability. Your soul is invisible to everyone except other Arbiters, Messengers, and characters with similar abilities. Messengers can dimly sense your soul’s presence in the air. Other Arbiters can sense your soul even more strongly, and can see it plain as day if they use Soulgaze. If a character is aware of your soul, any compel action (such as the 𐎺Withering Gaze spell) or area-of-effect magic (such as the Messenger’s ༄Windwave spell) can target your soul. If such an effect inflicts guard damage on your soul, it takes an equal amount of lethal damage instead. Otherwise, your soul can’t be harmed. If your soul’s Life is reduced to zero, you die instantly. 

✪ Freedom of Movement

✦✦✧ Will  When you Run, Climb, or Evade, or cast 𐎺Unbind, you can invoke the Freedom ideal by taking -1 awareness instead of -1 spirit. 

✪ Soulsail

✦✦✦✧ Will  As a rest activity, reduce your maximum Spirit by 1 and exhale a part of your own soul, which you or other Arbiters see as a sailboat-shaped polyp about the size of your head. This polyp is invisible to others, though Messengers can sense its presence on the wind. This soulsail drifts on the Skysea’s windcurrents and is magically attracted to nearby floating islands, balloons, skyremes, and other points of interest.When you sleep, you can see and hear through the soulsail, and you can animate it and cause it to flutter and flop, moving with the agility of a fish out of water. The soulsail has no defenses and 1 Life. If the soulsail is destroyed—or if you will it to be so—the fraction of your soul inhabiting it instantly disperses into the Rephaim. The next time you rest, you regain the maximum Spirit you sacrificed. Alternatively, if you’re a Vessel, you can animate the soulsail with a soul you’ve absorbed with the 𐎺Drink soul spell (see ✪Soul Flow), instead of reducing your maximum Spirit. You can no longer converse with the soul, unless and until you find the polyp and reabsorb it. If the polyp is destroyed, the soul disperses and is lost forever. 

✪ No Freedom Without Power

✧ Intellect  Your experience has led you to conclude that Freedom is inadequate without Power to vouchsafe one’s rights. When you learn this ability, you also learn the ✪ Code of Power ability and its spells. You can subsequently learn other abilities from the Code of Power. (You don't gain the Power ideal, however.)