Generic Starting Notes

Every character starts with 75 CP, of which at least 25 must be used for non-attribute, non-specialty traits such as Boons, Fiefdom, Followers, and so on.

Basically, that means 50 CP maximum for attributes and specialties, and 25 CP minimum for other traits.

As a reference:

Level 1 - 1 CP - Hobbyist
Level 2 - 3 CP - Amateur
Level 3 - 6 CP - Professional
Level 4 - 10 CP - Skilled Professional
Level 5 - 15 CP - Experienced Professional
Level 6 - 21 CP - Expert
Level 7 - 28 CP - Master
Level 8 - 36 CP - Ancient Master
Level 9 - 45 CP - Superlative
Level 10 - 55 CP - Unmatched

In short, to improve a stat costs (current level + 1)

Quick Chargen Reference Sheet

1. Choose Race

2. Choose Calling

3. Choose Two different Blessings to represent the god favoring you (or Apostasy)

4. Spend CP on things

5. Choose magic paths (if one possesses any): Total magic paths are (2 * magery) + any bonuses.

6. Double-check math

7. Done! Write a background story, some personal details, a motivation or two, and then post it.

Stats

Stats go from 1 to 10. I was going to make a "goes to 11" joke but probably not.

Magery: Although heroes generally cannot access world-shattering magics like the gods, many can access these gifts. From enhancement of physical attributes, to controlling flora and fauna, to summoning fireballs or deadly laser beams, magery is a powerful support ability which enhances your character's abilities. Magery is the best stat because it can heavily enhance your ability to perform just about any sort of mundane action.

Finesse: All the physical potential in the world doesn't mean much if you can't effectively apply it to situations. Whereas someone with high physical is a good brawler, the finesse attribute controls the hero's ability to effectively use their physical gifts, or lack thereof. A frail ancient wuxia master with a powersword is still a force to be reckoned with due to his very high Finesse attribute, even if his physical is low. Finesse also covers certain actions which require physical speed but precision and training as well, such as piloting. Finesse is the best stat and you should max it out because it heavily governs how well you can hit targets and how much pain you inflict in ranged combat.

Physical: Physical determines the character's physical and athletic prowess. A high physical character can fell a tree in a single blow, bull through stone walls, outrun cheetahs, and other powerful feats of aspect. Physical is the best stat because having it at a high level prevents you from dying and it lets you move fast and hit hard.

Education: A highly educated hero knows things. Considering that you're going to be adventuring in exotic locales with man-eating squirrels and carnivorous vines and the occasional ancient laser death automaton, being a student of history and the sciences may be useful in varying situations. Education is the best stat because it is critical for maintaining your bendybeam-shooting laser spear, remembering what the antidote was to world-serpent venom, or figuring out a proper prayer to the gods to rescue you from your inevitable fate.

Wits: The ability to think on your feet is also critical for a hero. Wits is useful for improvisational plans and also reaction. Wits is the best stat because it makes your hero less vulnerable to things such as illusion-weaving, allows your hero to react and act far faster mentally, and also is necessary to ensure quickly improvised plans go off without a hitch, which is important as no battleplan survives contact with the enemy.

Charisma: Heroes are heroic because people look up to them. The higher your Charisma, the more people will be willing to hear your epic tale without going "man, that guy/girl was a jerk" at the end. Charisma also affects your effectiveness in leadership, your ability to persuade others to do what you want, and the favor of the gods. Charisma is the best stat because it heavily enhances your leadership and increases your ability to find fame, and a hero must be able to lead by example as well as inspire via his tales.

Specialties

You may also buy Specialties, which are substats giving you additional strengths in one field. Each specialty is bought as per regular stats cost and adds during the appropriate situation. In especially appropriate situations, Specialties may add even more points to the stat. There are also a number of particularly important or common stats that are (almost) always bought as specialties. They are detailed below.

Respect

The respect of those who have heard your tales and your reputation is a critical element of a hero's story. Respect is roughly equivalent to MRW's conspiracy stat, although it's significantly more obvious in nature than Conspiracy is. You're loudly proclaiming how awesome you are, and people are agreeing, rather than using military rank or unofficial connections.

Respect is always bought for a field. There is no such thing as generic respect, because half these groups aren't associated with each other at all or hate each others' guts. For example, you may purchase Respect (Artisans of Hellas) or Respect (Alfar Warriors) or Respect (Your Planet's Citizens) or so on. You may not purchase Respect (Everyone).

Legend

The legend of a hero spreads far and wide. Legend is bought as any other stat but costs double to purchase every point. Legend is what your character is famous for. It is what they have become known for, it is what fate recognizes them for. As such, Legend gives points to purchase legendary abilities, at 1 point per Legend. There are also defining abilities, which cost 3 Legend per and are so powerful, and so defining of a hero's character, that no hero may ever possess more than one. Therefore, a character with 3 Legend could possess 1 defining ability or 3 legendary abilities. These abilities should be traits that are difficult to be quantified by other traits.

Some examples of such abilities and what they imply are below. Remember that these traits should never be "I win" buttons, but should be fun for everyone, not just you.

Example Legendary Abilities

Feet First Into Hell: You lead your men by example and the stories of past victories, such that their morale is almost perfect. No order is too suicidal, no task too daunting. If you told them to assault an Axis Mundi without support, they would follow you without complaint if you asked it. This ability implies some level of strategic mastery (represented by high Education)-you do not gain this ability without winning your share of victories.

One Hundred Ten Percent: Your dedication and love for your subordinates has forged them into tools that smith-gods would weep to behold. Those who you command, whether bureaucrat or soldier or sailor, put far more into their work than they normally would. Under you, every one of their tasks, no matter how small, has the effort and drive put into a magnum opus. Having this trait tends to require high Charisma to inspire.

Rabble Rouser: Some people have faces which launch a thousand ships. You have a voice which can start a thousand wars. Planetary governments topple at your words, no matter if they are fiery and passionate or calm and collected. You could take loyal soldiers of the enemy and in a week of conversation, have them all swear fealty to your cause. You are an instigator of rebellion with no equal outside of the trickster-gods.

Tricksy Bastard: Like Odysseus, you are deceitful and tricky. You are possibly also a complete and utter bastard, also like Odysseus. You can pull off incredible feats of deception at short notice.

Crazy Prepared: You're Batman. No. Seriously. No matter the situation you have the right tool for the job. One might wonder why you carry flesh-eating-piranha repellent on a trip to a desert, but they're not going to complain when they need it.

Pure Stealth: Whereas most people need a distraction or camouflage to disappear, you can disappear just about anywhere. An example would be sneaking around invisibly in an ornate ballgown, in the middle of a stark white room, with bright lights everywhere. How did you do that? (I guess you must have been moving to exactly where nobody was looking, continuously, or something!). Basically, even if stealth would be absolutely implausible, you can hide... somehow.

Father of Monsters: You create new wonders and horrors the like of which have never been seen, whether to create or to punish. Any creatures you 'create', which can include augmenting or growing them from existing people and things as well as creation out of nothing, are creatures of import, challenges for heroes and worthy armies for you. Having this trait tends to require magic that allows the creation or augmentation of autonomous animated entities, such as Maiden, Sun, or Forged.

Example Defining Abilities

Tactical Legend: Beyond tactical genius, there is tactical legend. You are capable of doing feats which are almost magical. You can hide an army in a mountain's shadow in preparation for ambushing an army. Absolutely absurd stunts, like infiltrating an enemy base with an Avatar contingent, are what you're known for. Where a legendary ability covers incredible levels of strategy, this covers supernatural levels of such. This trait tends to require high levels of Education (for strategizing), Wits (for improvising these absurd gambits when something inevitably doesn't go quite as planned), and Charisma (for making people believe you can actually do something as insane as that.)

Epic [Attribute]: The beauty of Aphrodite or Baldur. The strength of Heracles or Thor. Although raw physical strength or attractiveness can be represented via attributes, an epic attribute goes beyond what the attribute can normally do. Epic Beauty could give someone beauty so devastating it stops hearts, while epic strength could allow a hero to wrestle an Avatar... and win. In general, an epic attribute allows one to occasionally (when it's dramatic, or with sufficient lead up) do something incredibly cool and over-the-top with the chosen attribute, something that would normally be absolutely absurd. This, like all other legendary abilities, isn't an "I win" button and should not be treated as such.

Equipment

As a hero, you are assumed to be capable of equipping yourself with the finest weapons and armor your patron can provide, or you can source yourself. Even with no artifacts, a hero can easily acquire any personal equipment they seek, as well as unarmed or lightly armed vehicles such as a courier shuttle, a civilian ground car, or a wheeled reconnaissance vehicle. For heavier systems, such as Avatars, armored vehicles, and siege engines, look at Fiefdom and the Heirloom merit, below.

Transcendence Equipment Examples-this is a (by no means exhaustive) list of what is possible for a hero to acquire in Transcendence.

Gifts and Curses

Heroes are assisted via magical gifts as well, such as artifacts, blessings, followers, augmentation, and so on. Gifts can be bought with CP. Gifts give varying bonuses and cool fluff effects. Curses are basically character or other disadvantages, or liabilities such as a looming dark fate or something.

Boons

Heroes are generally granted boons, such as magical artifacts or something or other. This is generally then used for various random goodies like artifacts or tiger-men familiars or cybernetics which provide meaningful enhancement to someone semi-divine or the like.

Enhancement

Many heroes invest heavily in augmentation, but there are some who take it further. Whether done by fleshcrafting, master-forged augmentation, or divine blessing, enhancement adds "free" specialties and occasionally attribute bonuses to a person. Enhancement is cumulative-each level of increasing enhancement has the advantages given for the previous level. To buy an Enhancement level, you need to also have bought the previous levels of enhancement as well.

Trivial Enhancement (1 CP): Minor enhancement involves a cybernetic eye or two. A minor enhancement gives an artificial specialty. These specialties must make sense. Alternatively, a specialty can be traded in for having some article of equipment always available, such as an energy pistol or a multitool.

Minor Enhancement (4 CP): Minor enhancement adds +1 to any attribute except Magery and an additional artificial specialty or implant system. Minor Enhancement might be a cyberarm, a hardened skeleton, connective tissue reinforcement, artificial muscle grafts, an implanted computer network, or so on.

Moderate Enhancement (5 CP): Significant enhancement adds an additional +1 to any attribute but Magery and an additional specialty or implanted gadget. Someone with moderate enhancement may have multiple cyberlimbs with a reinforced skeleton to anchor them, a complete skeletal replacement, extensively interwoven their cerebral cortex with nano-bred auxiliary neural nets, replaced their muscles with powerful smart polymer, or other gross alterations of their form.

Extensive Enhancement (10 CP): Some wish to become more a product of mind and knowledge than of nature. Extensive enhancement is the alteration or augmentation of the vast majority of the body, and adds another +1 to any two attributes (it cannot add +2 to one attribute), and an additional two specialties or implanted gadgets.

Implanted Gadgets

Below is a non-exclusive list of implanted gadgetry that you can get in exchange for specialties. Multiple ones may be traded in for a larger system, i.e. 2 specialties could probably get you an arm that turns into a medium machine gun or a giant death blade or something.

Personal Computer
Minimissile Launcher
Concealed Melee Weapons
Hidden Pistol/SMG
Multitool (hacking/lockpicking)
Grenade Launcher
Reactionless Vector System (telekinetic ability).
Dermal Armor
Medical Systems

Artifact

Artifact weapons and gear are generally equivalent to the finest a mortal smith can make, and then given additional bonus powers. All artifacts share one power-they are generally indestructible outside of concerted effort and cannot be taken away easily. Artifacts should be as a rule of thumb, personal equipment. Artifact vehicles and whatnot do exist but have a significantly higher cost to purchase. Artifact costs are not cumulative-a moderate artifact does not require one to pay the cost to purchase a minor artifact as well. Any hero may have multiple artifacts, but I expect some degree of background justification for them.

A character may have only as many powerful or legendary artifacts as half their legend score rounded up. Alternatively, they may trade 1 powerful/legendary artifact for 2 moderate ones. Minor artifacts are not limited here, but a character may not start with more artifacts as their Legend, and the bonus specialties from artifacts do not stack.

Minor Artifact (1 CP): A minor artifact is a regular item with one power, such as increased accuracy, improved damage, enhanced beauty, or such. Some possess cantrips instead, equivalent to an Initiate-level use of a magical path.

Moderate Artifact (3 CP): A moderate artifact has greater powers. A moderate artifact gives either 2 free specialties, or increases an attribute by 1 while used. Alternatively, it may have a single relatively minor magical power instead. These powers should be Adept-level magical effects.

Powerful Artifact (5 CP): A powerful artifact can increase up to 2 attributes by 1 (specialties can exchange with attribute dots at a 2:1 ratio). A powerful artifact may also trade attribute dots for magical powers as minor and moderate artifacts.

Legendary Artifact (10 CP): Artifacts at the pinnacle of power are truly incredible to behold, as they are almost always personally built by a forge-god. Masterwork power armor, weapons so beautiful they cause any man or woman who beholds it to weep at their glory, and other exemplars of craftsmanship fall under this category. A legendary artifact increases up to 3 attributes by 1 and also possesses 1 Adept-level magical effect. Like lesser artifacts, it may trade attribute increases for specialties or more powers, but it must have at least one magical effect. Artifacts of this power are rarely mundane in effect.

Relic

Relics are similar to artifacts except they work on a much larger scale. Rather than simply improving the user, a relic is much larger in scale. Whereas the magical tricks on artifacts may enhance the wearer, a relic has the scale necessary to allow a user to accomplish actions far in excess of any artifact. Relics may raise the dead, summon armies of ghosts, dispel the magic hanging over an entire city, shatter armies, transport the wielder interstellar distances, and other incredible feats. They work on the scale of Masters and Archmasters, empires, and the gods themselves.

Relics should be central to a character concept and have been comparably priced. No character may have more than one Relic at character creation. A relic does count towards your artifact limit but it does provide a legend boost which makes up for some of it. Finally, as Relics are not things unknown heroes have, but objects that gain their power at least in part from their story, a hero must have a minimum legend of 3 for a Relic and 4 for a Legendary Relic (this is after the Legend bonus from the relic itself though).

Relic (20 CP): A legendary artifact is no longer defined by mere attribute boosts, but instead defined by raw power. Relics are defined by a single overarching power, generally extremely powerful in their purview. An example of a relic such as this would be the Mohiniastra, which dispels all magical effects near the point of impact, or the Gungnir spear, which always strikes telling blows. Furthermore, with stories of their own, a Relic adds +1 to its wielder's Legend.

Legendary Relic (35 CP): These incredibly rare objects of the gods possess a power similar to that of normal Relics, but can back that up with multiple (2) minor powers. An example of this relic would be the hammer Mjolnir, which not only strikes with any level of force desired, but can also never be lost when thrown and can be transformed into something easily concealable if desired. A Legendary Relic is one that almost all men and women recognize and guarantees that its bearer's fate will not be mundane, adding +2 to its wielder's Legend.

Fiefdom

Your fiefdom is the amount of stuff you actually rule over. This is also used for your rating to see what kinds of cool things you have.

Fiefdom Size

Nothing (0 CP): You own a patch of dirt in the ground if at that. At most, you have a mansion or plantation, with a handful (two or three dozen at most) of servants and an armed guard or two.

Small Town (1 CP): You rule over a small town on a planet somewhere as a local governor with at most a thousand souls. You have some degree of tax revenues and in times of need can raise a local militia of poorly-trained mooks with limited equipment perhaps a hundred strong. An alternative would be a platoon of trained soldiers loyal to you.

Large Town (3 CP): You rule over a large town on a planet somewhere. It has a population around ten thousand, with its own police force in the hundreds and a local militia of poorly-trained reservists, and makes a sizable amount of tax revenue. Alternatively, a more martial character may invest in a company (~150-200 men) of trained soldiers with heavy weapons and a handful of vehicles, or a patrol craft with a crew of a dozen and cramped quarters.

Small City (5 CP): You rule over either a small city or a region consisting of several towns. The population which swears allegiance to you or a puppet of yours consists of almost a hundred thousand people, and can support a professional military force of a few hundred men as well as the militias you could previously levy. As an alternative, a character may have a battalion of soldiers, with organic armor and some avatar support, or a single light ship such as a frigate.

Large City (10 CP): You either control a large and prosperous city approaching the 1 million mark population-wise, or a large region with dozens of towns which add up to a similar level of prosperity. Such a fiefdom can support a professional military force of a thousand men with a handful of heavier weapons such as avatars, a temporary militia tens of thousands strong, and has sufficient tax revenue for any purpose you desire. An alternative would be to have a light combatant and a few patrol craft, or a single medium combatant such as a cruiser.

Metropolis (15 CP): you rule over a metropolis of millions which can support military or paramilitary forces in the thousands, or a sizable chunk of a continent with multiple cities. As an alternative, you can have a small fleet of mixed light and medium ships or a single heavy ship such as a battleship or avatar carrier.

Province (25 CP): As a provincial ruler, you rule an entire continent of a planet-around ten million souls, and can levy a professional military force of tens of thousands of men. In times of dire emergency, at the cost of economic destabilization, you can levy a militia of a million men or more, but only for brief periods of time. Your province likely has a handful of orbital defense ships it can use, although most will be "coastal" craft, small and lightly armed to deter raiders and space monsters. An alternative martial equivalence would be an entire carrier or battleship strike group, a single heavy combatant escorted by several medium and light warships.

Planet (35 CP): You have a fiefdom consisting of an entire planet which you govern. Even though the planet may be unimportant, a planet is truly enormous. In terms of men and materiel you can access, you have the tax revenues of a hundred million, a PDF consisting of a hundred thousands men with moderate quality equipment or a smaller force with better equipment, and have access to a sizable trading fleet plus a small system defense fleet of patrol craft and a few frigates. As an alternative, more martial form of fiefdom, you can have an entire naval group with multiple heavy combatants, plus integrated marines consisting of tens of thousands of soldiers.

Followers

Followers are the non-heroic hangers on a character has to access for worship, favors, and whatnot. Followers are guys you use for less adventurery tasks like helping you to conquer a planet or digging for ruins or stuff. You can, in fact, buy multiple follower groups. Unlike the guys gained from Fiefdom, Followers are less vulnerable to ignominious deaths and have their own Legend to some extent, even if it is an extension of yours.

Where your fiefdom is how you access the extras you need to occupy a planet full of barbarians and conquer their cities, your followers are the fanatically dedicated which you use for operations you cannot personally attend but need trusted hands, or bodyguard you, or so forth. A fiefdom does turn out elite soldiers to some extent but they have more duties than running around at your beck and call or charging into the middle of almost certain death to retrieve a crystal skull you want.

Number

None (0 CP): You do your heroing alone save for the PCs. It's nice not having attachments, isn't it?

Companion (1 CP): You have one named NPC buddy who you can play yourself.

Attendants (3 CP): You have your own NPC adventuring band of 2 to 5 extra followers.

Bodyguard (5 CP): You have roughly a dozen to two dozen followers at your beck and call.

Escort (10 CP): You have an escort trailing you of approximately a hundred men.

Household Knights (15 CP): You have hundreds of fanatically dedicated followers ready to answer your beck and call.

Praetorian Guard (20 CP): You have a small army of followers, a thousand strong. With enough invested in their skill and ability, these men and women can take on entire cities-and will, if you ask them to.

Quality

Quality of followers makes them more or less capable overall. This is a cost multiplier to your number of followers that determines how good/bad your dudes are. Note that these stats are given as final, i.e. after-points-are-spent, attributes and generally doesn't apply to magery.

Extras (half cost): Extras are green soldiers, green scholars, and so on. Extras average 2 in all primary attributes save their area of expertise, where they possess a 3. Extras have perhaps one specialty in a relevant area (like Education (Medicine) or Finesse (Rifles)).

Veterans (normal cost): Veterans are high-quality examples of their trade. Veteran soldiers, scholars, and physicians all know the tricks the newbies don't, and are generally of much higher quality. Veterans average 3 in all their primary attributes, with a single 4 in one area and a handful of specialties related to their field.

Elites (two times cost): Your dudes are pretty hardcore. They can give mortal adventurers pause and cut through their lessers like a scythe through wheat. Their primary attributes generally average around 4, with one or two 3s and several relevant specialties.

Lesser heroes (five times cost): Lesser heroes are often supernaturally blessed, more machine than man, or otherwise enhanced to the point where they can hold their own. Their primary attributes generally average around 5, and they have a broad spread of specialties.

Greater heroes (ten times cost): Greater heroes are essentially equivalent to the PCs in every way, with only slight inferiority. A greater hero is generally built via CP rather than being arbitrarily assigned rough attributes. It is not expected for anyone to have more than handful of them. Greater Heroes are normally built with 55 CP total, with 45 for attributes and 10 for enhancements and merits, and obviously cannot possess fiefdoms or followers of their own.

Merits

Heirloom (1 or 3 CP): You've been gifted a single object of great value by parental inheritance or other means. Although not an artifact per se, it has some stories associated with it and has seen its share of use. For 1 CP, this merit gives you either a master-wrought piece of personal equipment which works better than it should, or an expensive military vehicle such as a tank, siege engine, or light avatar. 3 CP gets you a storied and master-forged war machine or some sort of militarized shuttle or heavy corvette, capable of being piloted by one man but with a maximum capacity of a half-dozen or a dozen. Although certainly less powerful than a fiefdom, a heirloom has character shields of its own and is much harder to lose.

Divine Fire (5 CP): The spark of godhood burns slowly in you. Eventually, you may be elevated to demigodhood... or perhaps even godhood. A heroic mortal with this ability has no Magery limit.

Vengeance Oath (5 CP): You have sworn vengeance against a group of people, and this oath has become a driving cause. Against your hated foe, you are far deadlier. You also hate them a lot and wish to associate yourself with them as little as possible, except when this association involves you swording them in the face, or setting them up for swordings to the face.

Golden Child (5 CP): Someone with influence is looking out for you. Whether it's a famous writer, a god or goddess, or just your cult of personality run amok in a good way, you can essentially do no wrong. You get more than your share of the credit for anything good you participate in, and you get photoshopped out of anything potentially embarrassing.

Immortal (5 or 15 CP): Those who are immortal are incapable of dying, save for one special weakness. Not even the raw fury of an angry god can faze you. The weakness should be defined at character creation. At 5 CP, the weakness is something relatively common (incendiary weapons, disease, bullets, your head not being invulnerable), while at 15 CP the weakness is fairly obscure and nearly impossible to arrange without being aware of it. At this rating, the GM is allowed to veto any weakness that is insufficiently interesting.

Divine Shield (10 CP): Some patron of yours is powerful enough to deflect even the anger of the gods. You can go breaking their toys and stymieing their plans and they can't act against you... directly. Indirectly though? That's more than fair game. Furthermore, this does not make you invulnerable to divine intervention-acts of sufficient horror value (Deicide, genocide of a favored peoples, so on) can void this protection.

Underworld's Chosen (10 CP): Although not capable of avoiding death, an administrator of the underworld looks upon you with some level of fondness for you. This makes safe travel through Underworld Gates much easier, and allows you to do the same for allies, though not without some negotiation and possibly some favors exchanged.

Flaws

The GM reserves the right to strip you of both flaws and any traits he feels like that add up to the CP cost of the flaw if he does not feel that you've been actually representing your flaws.

Flashy (+3 CP): You are about as subtle as a brick to the face. You dress in an over-the-top fashion, preen yourself, and generally want to be seen. This generally creates significant penalties to stealth and deception, as you will flat out refuse to disguise yourself or not announce your name when you appear on a battlefield.

Hubris (+3 CP): You are completely self assured and greatly underestimate all potential opposition. Not only is your chance of karmic death increased, but you are never likely to treat any opposition as dangerous and will often charge off half-cocked and try to accomplish a plan in the showiest fashion possible rather than a practical fashion.

Intolerant (+3 CP): You are intolerant towards a fairly large group. An entire gender, the entire citizenry of an empire, so on or so forth. As Vengeance Oath includes a (weaker) form of intolerance, one cannot have both traits at the same time.

Hated by Fate (+5 CP): Your lot in life is to suffer. Danger and suffering seem to seek you out like a guided missile. Basically, if something bad happens, it happens to you.

Impoverished (+Variable CP): Your property is impoverished, whether due to mismanagement, rampant corruption, lack of resources, or just the vagaries of fate. This affects everything you own. Warships and soldiers you possess will be generations out of date and of dubious maintenance, fiefdoms you own will produce much less and be far less valuable and worse-defended, and so on. This greatly reduces the potential resources a fiefdom can give access to, in quality and number, and returns half the CP spent on fiefdom, rounded down.

Poor Impulse Control (+5 CP): What fools dare to oppose a (demi)god? When you don't get something you want, you get angry. Angry enough to break it rather than let anyone else have it. Angry enough to fly into incoherent sulking rages and kill things just to make yourself feel better. This, as you can guess, isn't a good thing, especially to any allies nearby. Well, if you have any allies left.

Geasa (+10 CP): You have a Geas which must be defined at character generation. 20 CP of character stuff must be assigned to this Geas. Breaking your geas causes the assigned stuff to disappear until you can atone for your breach... which is likely going to be a dangerous and arduous task. The classic geas example is Cuchulainn's geas of "cannot refuse hospitality" and "cannot eat dog meat", so at minimum a geas must either be continuously problematic, be capable of putting the character in severe danger he could otherwise avoid, or be relatively easy to entrap the character with.

Wrath of God (+10 CP): There is a god or goddess who really, really doesn't like you. Not quite bad enough to just nuke you out of existence, but bad enough that they go around attempting to sabotage everything you do and generally have at least half an hour of every day reserved exclusively for mucking up your plans. They're looking for any excuse you give them to blast you out of existence too.

Races and Callings

Transcendence Races and Callings

Blessings

The relation between heroes and gods is a simple one. Most heroes dedicate their victories to a god or goddess, who in turn rewards them with tangible rewards (artifacts, enhancements, followers), or intangible ones, such as these blessings.

A hero creates the blessing lain upon him via choosing any two of the following categories that create the god's purview or something that would likely fall under their purview. Alternatively, a hero may renounce questing for the divine and choose to follow their own path, becoming an apostate.

Apostasy

Apostates acknowledge the existence of the divine but do not follow it. Their path, a more flexible one than the ones followed via those who spend their time in prayer, is one of self-improvement and self-will.

Apostates gain +1 to any two separate attributes.

Love

The gods and goddesses of love and lust generally grant their followers great beauty and charisma.

This blessing grants +1 Charisma and +1 Charisma (Overwhelming Beauty)

Health

Gods and goddesses of health and fertility provide great physical strength and hardiness to their followers, as well as part of their knowledge. Ironically, the blessings of death gods and goddesses are often similar giving corpselike toughness and knowledge of the underworld.

This blessing grants +1 Physical and +1 Education (Medicine). A death god or goddess grants +1 Physical and +1 Education (The Underworld).

Knowledge

Those gods and goddesses who specialize in the discovery and keeping of knowledge give their blessings to the finest scholars, making them far wiser and better-learned. Gods of the forge and of creation give similar bonuses as well.

Those so blessed gain +1 Education and +1 Education (any specialty).

Nature

Those gods of the sun, the storm, and other natural phenomena often grant raw power to those who are worthy of their blessings, the power to manipulate the fundamental building blocks of nature herself, as well as the knowledge to do so effectively. These blessings are also granted by gods who specialize in sorcery or witchcraft.

This blessing grants +1 Magery and +1 Education (chosen science specialty)

Trickster

Trickster-gods are capricious, but even they give their favors to some. Those who are blessed in such a fashion are generally quick-witted and clever.

This blessing grants +1 Wits and +1 Education (Security).

War

The battlefield is an odd place for worship, but one well-suited for gods of this purview. Their blessing makes supreme warriors out of men, giving them uncanny skill with blade and gun, as well as incredible physical toughness. Similar blessings are often granted by the gods of the hunt, or those of vengeance or justice.

The blessing of a war-god grants +1 Finesse and +1 Physical (Toughness).

Magic

Everyone who has Magery can access magic. Magic is bought in a handful of categories. These categories are purchased up to the maximum, which is limited by the character's (Magery + 2) or 10, whichever is lower. A character possesses levels in these fields equal to twice his magery score.

Magical specialties can be bought in a path (i.e. "Prophecy" for The Crone or "Death Rays" for The Sun) at half cost. Gaining magery from external sources (i.e. artifacts) does not give additional points for paths.

If a character wishes to acquire more paths, the "Additional Magic Paths" specialty can be bought, giving 1 additional path per level.

Artifact Powers

Artifacts may possess powers which require any combination of path ratings as one power. However, power is not without its price. The more powerful an artifact's magical effects are, the more effort they require to use-or the heavier toll they force on the wearer.

Definitions

Initiate: An Initiate of a Path is a person with a path rating of 1-3. Initiates can do fairly small, personal acts of magical power such as healing themselves, summoning minor jets of flame or laser beams, creating simple blades and tools from thin air, talking to the dead, and teleporting/levitating small objects, dependent on their paths.

Adept: An Adept has a path rating of 4-6. Adept-range magic is powerful, affecting entire contingents of people and gains significant flexibility over the minor cantrips that an initiate can attempt.

Master: Masters have path ratings in the 7-9 range. Masters can affect entire cities with magic, given enough time, or do exceedingly powerful effects on themselves. Masters of the Crone can blink in and out of time, stopping, slowing, and accelerating it as they wish. Masters of the Maiden can wreak drastic changes on mind and body. Masters of the Forge can summon Avatars out of thin air to gird themselves with, or summon and dismiss their armor as if it was a creation of imagination and whimsy. Masters of the Veil can bring back the dead with effort, leaping lightyears, and twisting space like taffy.

Archmaster: Archmasters have path ratings of 10+. Archmasters can affect entire continents, or even entire planets, their magical ability equivalent to that of the gods-with sufficient time to prepare, at least. The weakness of this level of magic is that it takes time and significant effort, requiring great and easily detectable ritual programs to initialize, without the raw power that comes with being true divinity-and even then, a god finds it far easier with rituals aiding him or her.

Countermagic

Countermagic is the natural defense against magic. Legend provides some protection against magical power, and against enlightened sorcerers or other such mortals with limited magics, antimagic charms provide sufficient defense. Against the magics of a malicious spirit or scion, though, countermagic is necessary.

Any magical field may countermagic against the same field at full rating or against any other field at half its rating (rounded down). The Singularity countermagics against all fields at full rating.

Paths

The Maiden

The Maiden's purviews are fertility and the mind. Adepts of the path of the Maiden can control plant and animal life, cure diseases or spread them, cause living matter to heal or rot, read and influence minds, and alter the genetic code of others for good or ill. Masters of the Maiden can create entirely new life or new consciousness ex nihilo, control hordes of animals, control or shatter minds, or modify scores of living beings at once.

The Crone

The Crone's purviews are time and fate. Those Initiated into the path of the Crone are capable of seeing events which will happen soon, lay minor blessings or curses of good and bad fortune on others, and seeing what actions are significant and what are not. Those who are Adepts of the Crone can age foes or material into dust, alter time to move faster, alter the course of fate to some extent, and see more than one single strand of possibility. The Masters of the Crone may stop time itself, imprison others in stasis fields, and alter the fates of heroes or nations.

The Sun

The purview of The Sun is energy and purity. Those who have taken their first steps on the path of the Sun may burn away imperfections such as disease or cancer, and have an instinctive and powerful understanding of the energies coursing around them, energies which they can redirect, reduce, or enhance. Adepts of The Sun are capable of enhancing themselves or others by burning away imperfection, scorching their foes with rays of devastating light or firestorms or other such acts of devastation, and generating enough energy to recharge military equipment without need of tools. Masters of The Sun may annihilate towns under prolonged bombardment, create incredible force shields capable of resisting the weapons of an Avatar, and turn themselves into divine beings without flaw.

The Forge

The purview of the Forge is technology and earth. Adepts walking the path of the Forge can forge artifice, repair technology with but a touch-or enhance it, understand any technology, and consume platoons of men in pools of quicksand or roast them via suddenly-formed steam vents. Masters of the Forge are masters of fire and machine, capable of transforming themselves into colossi, warping or destroying any artifice with a thought, summoning mighty earthquakes or volcanoes, and forging weapons full-fledged gods would be proud to wield.

The Veil

The Veil's purviews are death and distance. Initiates of the Veil can commune with the dead, teleport small items, maim with little more than pure thought, and measure distances to a fine degree. Adepts of the Veil can compress distances, slay with a tought, teleport short distances, endure unbelievable punishment, and other such tasks. Masters of The Veil are capable of slaying armies with a mere gaze, may take single steps that bound lightyears, can twist distance and space like taffy, and bringing the dead back to life.

The Singularity

The Singularity's purview is countermagic. Those who study the Null Purview and walk this path learn how to disrupt the weavings of others rather than altering reality via the godhead. Although not as impressive as the other schools, the ability to shatter or counteract the magic of others is critical.

Transcendence Character Game Mechanics