Faith Skills

Faith is an intangible form of power linking Humanity to the Spirit Sphere. It is generated by and from human belief and willpower and can create a variety of effects that are linked to, but distinct, from magic. All Humans generate Faith and this is a powerful resource when pooled. Individuals can use it to perform ceremonies and the Gods can use it to perform Miracles. Many darker entities desire Faith as well, wanting to harvest and use its power.

Faith is represented in the field as a resource card. This is to track how much faith a person has currently gathered when needed and so that people can send it to a variety of sources. Despite this, in-character Faith is an intangible resource that cannot be physically traded.

As a priest you can hold a maximum of 12 faith. The amount of faith you are currently holding is your 'Threshold', which can unlock ceremonies that you have bought separately. You may also contribute faith to Entreaties or transfer it with Bestowal. You do not need a ref to transfer faith between players using the Dedication or Bestowal ceremonies.

Faith is generated each event and then expires by the end of the event.

Prayer Shrines

Shrines to each of the Twelve are in the Faith tent at Haven for people to give Faith to the Gods. These prayers may be roleplayed in a variety of ways and people can use this space for religious roleplay or for quieter moments depending on their character.

The Gods expend power to perform Miracles with the most powerful known Miracle being Haven itself. It is unlikely they will be able to replicate something quite on this level but their power and existence depends on the flow of Faith from prayers.

Characters may place loose offerings of Faith in the Shrines (by OC putting in the card(s) and IC performing a few moments of devotional thought or action at the shrine). Characters may also write prayers at the Shrines too but these will be burned by the Shrine tenders at the end of the event.

Any player may deposit Faith in the boxes at the Shrines. We encourage people to talk to priest players and the Shrine tenders to explore the roleplay around Faith.

This mechanic is a subtle one and intended to look at trends over time and influence the Gods' power. This may result in things such as more or stronger Miracle options appearing from Gods as well as other wider reaching effects on the Setting and Plot as that God has a bigger well of power to draw on.

Ceremonies / Skills

Conviction

3XP

This gives you access to Dedication to gather faith and Bestowal to transfer faith between priests. This must be purchased to unlock all Faith skills. You may also perform Entreaties.

You can only select one deity per event – this doesn't mean it's the only deity your character follows, it's just the focus of your Conviction this event and the one that will provide effects to those you Dedicate during this event.

Dedication

This takes at least one minute per person being dedicated – and may take longer if the priest wants to do a longer ceremony. You can only be dedicated once per event. You must transfer at least one faith to the priest dedicating you.

If you have Conviction you can be dedicated as normal, to any god; it doesn't change your alignment to a God for the purposes of skills / entreaties etc but it does give you the relevant dedication effect from the other God.

This will give you a minor RP effect and a minor mechanical bonus for the rest of the event, depending on the god – the list of bonuses may change from event to event.

Characters with Conviction should make sure their Deity selection is correct before the character closing deadline, so that we can provide them with a reminder of the effect for the event to avoid confusion.

Dedication Effects

These are the current set of Dedication effects – these may change before the event, so always consult an up to date copy, which should be available for characters with Conviction from the Bank.

• The Jester – 1/event restore 1 hit point to someone else (including someone in critical state) via an artistic performance of at least one minute
• The Hearth – 1/event call Refuge, which lasts while you continue to comfort and reassure the person you are protecting
• The Muse – 1/event you may restore one use of a Vigour ability that is rechargeable or 1/encounter with a short inspirational performance of at least 10 seconds
• The Smith – 1/event you may call Mend with 10 seconds roleplaying fixing the object
• The Reaper – 1/event you may call Execute on a willing target regardless of their current state, and gain one hit point in return (this can be done while you are in critical state)
• The Warrior – 1/event call Resist to Stagger or Stun
• The Guardian – 1/event grant one call of Rebound to one other person to be used when they choose
• The Scholar – 1/event ask a ref or Guardian for a random vision from the vision pool – you can roleplay this being a flash of inspiration or something you have discovered through research that you suddenly know is relevant
• The Shadow – 1/event go invisible for 10s (hold up a closed fist), you become visible if you attack, pick up or move something, touch anyone, are hit or make any call
• The Traveller – 1/event call Resist to Ensnare or Stun
• The Justicar – 1/event call Ensnare on melee hit
• The Celebrant – 1/event you (or someone you are in touch range of if you are not a Weaver) may extend a rite as if spending one flicker

Bestowal

Bestowal is how characters with Conviction transfer faith. This takes one minute for any amount of faith between priests of the same deity (not exceeding the cap on the recipient), and one minute for one point of faith between different deities.

This represents the meaningful transfer of an amount of the belief generated by characters. We encourage people to roleplay in a variety of ways and explore their connection to their God and the other person's connections during this time. Both priests count as performing the ceremony and cannot do this under an effect that prevents them from doing so.

Following

2xp – and plus 1xp after each buy. (E.g. 2xp for first additional faith, 3xp for the second additional, etc)

This skill allows a character to start the event with +1 faith each time they take it. This represents you Dedicating and receiving extra Faith from characters who do not attend Haven.

Threshold

Only people with the Conviction skill can enable the movement of Faith and even then only between the same God. This enables them to build up Faith that allows them to utilise abilities empowered by that power.

Any character with Conviction can gather Faith up to a cap of 12 and they require differing amounts to be able to access those abilities. With the exception of Cleanse Corruption these abilities do not spend the Faith when used and the person remains empowered and can use the ability as directed.

While the actual process is simple enough as anyone with Conviction can both use the Dedicate and Bestowal ceremonies these processes are a mechanical process describing your relationship with Faith and the Gods. We encourage people to experiment with religious roleplay and the Gods during these ceremonies and remind people that the durations are minimum requirement not a maximum!

Purchased Ceremonies

Skill	Threshold Requirement	Minimum Ceremony Length	Effect
Spiritual Reading	1	30 seconds	View soul state and number of Corruption points
Refuge	2	Special – begins immediately, lasts until interrupted	Call and sustain Refuge as long as you continually perform the ceremony
Sanctified Strike	3	30 seconds	Call Smite by weapon or focus on next strike within 1 minute of ceremony
Cleanse Corruption	1*	1 minute	Remove Corruption points – 1 per Faith
Martyrs Gift	5	30 seconds	Call Full Heal in exchange for going Critical. Spend the Faith instead for Mass Full Heal in exchange for going Critical
Turn Corruption	6	1 minute	Become ensnared and call Stagger on every hit with a weapon or focus until you move
Divine Light	7	30 seconds	Call Stun on any target, or Stagger on any three targets, as a ranged call from the location you ended the ceremony
Excommunication	10	1 minute	Remove all Boons, dedications and reduce the death count by 30s from a willing or critical state target – costs 2 Faith
Divine Inspiration	12		Ask a deity a question

* Also requires Faith spend

Spiritual Reading – threshold 1

This allows you to view someone's soul to see the state of it (this will be Healthy for anyone not told otherwise) and number of corruption points. You do not need a ref for this ceremony but may consult one if the target isn't sure of their corruption point total.

Refuge – threshold 2

You can perform a ceremony to call Refuge on one person – make the call and the effect continues as long as you're actively chanting over them. You can do this as much as you like but can only keep it up on one person at a time, and you have to be clearly, continually performing a ceremony – going into critical state or breaking off to actively defend yourself will interrupt the effect.

Sanctified Strike – threshold 3

You may charge up a weapon or foci with a single call of Smite to be used on your next hit. This takes 30 seconds and the charge expires at the end of the encounter or when you next go through a rift if not used. Your character must believe the target is irredeemably corrupted – if you hit anyone else first, you may not call Smite and the effect is wasted. You may only use this ceremony once per encounter.

Cleanse Corruption – threshold 1 (requires spending faith)

You may spend faith to cleanse corruption from a willing target – if they are not willing the ceremony fails (and still consumes the Faith). This removes one point per Faith spent, and you must remove all of them at once – if you attempt to remove too small an amount, the ceremony fails (with no expenditure). You can cooperate with other priests to reach levels that are beyond your individual capacity.

Martyrs Gift – threshold 5

You spend a 30 second ceremony charging yourself up, and then you may call FULL HEAL once on a target in touch range and become critical yourself. If you expend the 5 faith, you may call MASS Full Heal instead. You may only use this ceremony once per encounter.

Turn Corruption – threshold 6

1/encounter, perform a 1 minute ceremony and take Ensnare. While you refuse to move more than one pace from the spot, you may call Stagger on hit, until you move or the encounter ends. Your character must believe the targets are corrupted in order to make the call. You may only use this ceremony once per encounter.

Divine Light – threshold 7

Perform a 30 second ceremony, hold up a holy symbol in one hand and call Stagger on three targets or Stun on one target within 5m. You can target anyone with this. You may only use this ceremony once per encounter.

Excommunication – threshold 10

After a one minute ceremony, you spend 2 Faith to bestow a malign 'boon' on a target who is either willing or in critical state at the end of the ceremony. This removes all other boons from the target, they no longer count as Dedicated, they cannot perform any Ceremonies, and their death count goes down by 30s.

You can obtain a 'boon' card for this from OC Customer Service to hand out as a reminder, or they can collect one later if they want to. This 'boon' can be removed by Dedication – but they can only be Dedicated if they have at least one Faith remaining, otherwise the effect will remain and cannot be removed until they generate more faith at the start of the next event and can be Dedicated.

This may knock someone off a narrative track towards corruption or other non-divine ends if they are on one – taking account of whether the player OC wants to be removed from it (to give them an out when they don't have one otherwise IC) – as the target ask a ref if you would like this part of the effect to happen.

Divine Inspiration – threshold 12

You ask a question directly of your deity, of no more than 25 words. This must involve writing it down and handing a copy to the relevant crew at the Menhir or Shrines. You will receive the answer some time later – potentially the next event – while meditating at the shrines or Menhir (by asking the relevant crew if it's in yet).

It's entirely possible your deity will tell you they don't know or don't want you to know. You can only have one question outstanding at a time; if you ask another question, it cancels your pending question.