Numenera 2.5 - Focuses

Every movement is an expression of energy. You can harness this kinetic energy and transform it into other kinds of energy. At first, once you absorb energy, you must use it before you can absorb any more. You can use the absorbed energy as a weapon, or you can infuse an object with dangerous energy that is released upon touch. Eventually, you will be able to use the energy for nonviolent purposes, such as healing or invigorating creatures. Glaives often gain the biggest benefit from being energy absorbers, as they are the ones most often being struck in combat, and many of the initial uses of absorbed energy are for combat. However, Wrights can potentially use some of that energy to improve their crafting abilities.

You’re a rebel. You resist the dictates of authority, you try to break away from the control that society holds over you, and you like to flout traditions that you view as backward. That’s not to say that you automatically disagree with anything or anyone you deal with. It’s more that you believe certain institutions and conventions are foolish and even hurtful. This is why you often press your luck and defy the status quo. Often enough, you get away with it.

In fact, your success is more than a mere twist of statistics. You enjoy some kind of psychic enhancement, implanted device, or attention of a datasphere spirit. You’ve also practiced certain skills, behaviors, and attitudes that allow blame to slip off you like water off a murden. A character who acts without consequence often dresses in flamboyant garments designed to draw the eye, as if they’re tempting the universe to notice them after all. Those who can successfully act without consequence could walk into the center of a city square, steal a fruit from a vendor, pass it to a beggar in full view of everyone, and suffer no repercussions whatsoever. Glaives, Jacks, Delves, and Arkai are drawn to acting without consequence.

Machines can be upgraded and improved, and the human body is just an organic machine. Your goal is to keep improving your physical form, replacing obsolete parts of your body with new grafts and trying to become supremely efficient at your normal and augmented biological processes. Whether you do this with technology or pieces from other creatures depends on what you find in your explorations and your estimation of your flaws and shortcomings. You don’t believe it’s possible to achieve perfection—perfection is an ongoing process, not a final state. If following this path makes you something more than human, so be it. You left behind childish toys and forms to become an adult, so you are willing to leave your humanity behind in order to become something greater.

Glaives see grafting as a way to increase their physical power and survive attacks from dangerous opponents. Delves often have many opportunities to find and use grafts, and Wrights can use their own knowledge of the numenera to craft custom limbs and other body grafts for themselves. Grafting flesh for cosmetic purposes doesn’t count as a grafted cypher. Many characters with this focus graft parts from their enemies and show them off like trophies. Grafters can experiment with adding grafts to other creatures, but the process is painful and prone to failure. Amoral grafters usually keep multiple “volunteers" on hand for experimentation.

You can create a sheath of flames around your body. You leave scorch marks wherever you go, and you can’t handle combustible objects without first dousing your inherent flames. Your special abilities (such as Nano esoteries) are tainted with flame. Fiery visuals accompany your powers, and in some cases, your predilection for flame actually reshapes your abilities to take on a fiery nature where none existed before. You probably wear red and yellow, or perhaps black.

Although most of those who take up this mantle are Nanos, flame-wielding Glaives and Jacks are fearsome indeed.

Anyone can use a shield. But few can project a protective force field that crackles with otherworldly energy. Maybe your ability comes from a childhood encounter with a strange machine or a metallic nodule that protrudes above your flesh along your spine, or perhaps it is something that people in your family are capable of once every few generations. You use your force field to not only protect yourself, but to aggressively bash those who would do you harm. At first, you can create only a small protective plane. But as your skills improve, you can learn to throw it at foes and have it rebound, heal allies, and release an explosion of destructive energy each time it strikes home.

Glaives and Delves are most likely to choose this focus.

Through some modification of your body— mutation, mechanical enhancement, nanoreinforcement, or something else—you have the ability to smash through walls, destroy weapons, shatter shackles, break devices, and otherwise annihilate objects that would be difficult or even impossible for others to demolish. You’re a breaker. You do not flinch; you punch right through that wall, smash that machine, and fold the enemy’s metallic sword in half in an impressive and intimidating display. Depending on the method that gives you this ability, your act might be accompanied by flashes of energy, sound, or acidic odors. Once you display your impressive skills as a destroyer, your enemies sometimes surrender rather than face an apparent force of nature like yourself.

You likely wear armor, but probably not the heaviest armor you can because you don’t want anything to slow you down too much.

A character who Breaks Down Walls who successfully destroys an object or portion of a structure in a community that provides protection or some other important surface may also inflict 1 point of damage to the ranked community’s infrastructure.

Breakers are often Glaives or Delves.

One of your favorite pastimes involves imagining what the skylines of the previous worlds might have looked like. Their inspiring heights, strange shapes, colors that human eyes can’t see, connections between structures that allowed the unknowable peoples of those bygone eras to step from one to the next... Well, you don’t know for certain what it must have been like, but you gain just as much pleasure imagining the future you will build, using the seeds of ancient knowledge as your guide for tomorrow.

Are you a Wright, or are you some other type that has a keen interest in crafting? Although anyone can try their hand at crafting, someone who Builds Tomorrow has an advantage.

Whatever else you wear, you likely have a belt strung with various spare parts, tools, and iotum, if you have any on hand.

You have always had special abilities that others didn’t seem to share. Through practice and devotion, you have honed this unique talent so that you can harness the power of your mind to perform deeds.

No one can tell that you have this ability just by looking at you, although you wear a crystal or jewel somewhere on your head to help focus your power. Either this focusing object was given to you by someone who recognized your ability, or you came upon it by accident and it triggered your abilities. Some people with mental powers— often called psychics or psionics by ordinary folks—are secretive and a little paranoid.

Although Nanos frequently command mental powers, psionic characters of every other type are not uncommon.

To say that you have a way with animals and nonhuman creatures doesn’t begin to cover it. Your mastery and communication with beasts is positively uncanny. They come to you fearlessly, and it’s not uncommon for birds to alight on your shoulder or for small animals to climb up your arms or legs.

You probably wear tough clothing and have a disheveled or grizzled appearance that suggests a rugged, outdoor life. Perhaps you even smell like an animal.

Any type of character is likely to have this focus.

Gravity must have been quite a concern for the people of prior epochs because there are many paths within the numenera to control it. Through a quirk of fate, some unique device(s), or supreme devotion (or a combination of all three), you have learned to tap into the power of gravity. With one foot planted in the distant past, you are a mysterious individual. Most likely, you are also older, having spent much of your life honing your odd, ancient talents.

You might prefer billowy garments that display your mastery of gravity’s pull and conceal your identity and intentions.

No one type of character is more likely to control gravity than another, but the power is rare.

You use the numenera to create holographic images that appear real. You are, in effect, an artist—a crafter of light and sound. Holographic images can never inflict direct harm or exert real force, but they can fool creatures, changing opinions and even behaviors if you craft them cleverly.

You likely dress with flair and color. The appearance of things is important to you, both their beauty and their ugliness. You are a visual performer who can entertain, terrify, or fool everyone you encounter.

A Nano is the most likely character to be an illusionist, but Jacks find illusions to be helpful as well. The rare Glaive illusionist can find ways to use tricks in battle.

You’ve felt the edges of something more real than the substanceless shadows that dance behind the light—something you dubbed dark matter. It responded to you, almost like a living thing. When you made shadow puppets, they were dark matter condensed and became briefly real. As you grew older, you learned to harness your gift for more than play. You can condense dark matter from thin air, pulling it from the void spaces or a transdimensional pocket that few others can access. You don’t fear dark matter, but others should when you’re around.

Nanos, Jacks, and Delves probably get the most out of this focus. That said, an Arkus could parlay the sense of dread that accompanies anyone able to command darkness, bolstering their authority among many.

You are a defender. Places are special to you, and seeing them overrun hurts your soul to its core. Perhaps you had a bad experience once, where a place that you loved was lost in war. After that, you vowed - never again. You sought out special training, and more than that, a connection to the nanites that some possess but most people think of as magic. This connection is conferred via mutation, a special device, psychic concentration, or some other method that links you to the numenera. Your connection grows over time, granting you the ability to defend a city, a wall, or even just a single but all-important gate.

You probably wear obvious armor, perhaps even distinctive in its defensive nature. A few spikes and scowling faces worked into the pattern might discourage those seeking to get past you.

Glaives are the obvious character to prefer this focus, though a Wright defending an installation might enjoy the additional protection this focus provides.

You descend from privilege, wealth, and power. Your family once owned land (perhaps they still do), wielded political control, and accumulated vast wealth. You’ve stepped away from that somewhat, though you still carry a noble title, whether you want it or not. People sometimes recognize your name, and sometimes they recognize you as being descended from nobility. But with many areas being so isolated from each other, people in an area far from where you came from may never even have heard of the place where your family is known.

Since you were raised a certain way, you probably dress smartly and carry yourself in such a way that inspires, endears, or intimidates. You have a voice suited to drawing attention (unless you choose to disguise it).

Descends From Nobility pairs well with a type such as Glaive or Nano because it provides an additional dimension of history to a character who can otherwise become single-minded in their focus to increase their knowledge of fighting or the numenera, respectively.

There is a gap in your memory lasting well over a year. One moment, you were marveling at the appearance of a floating obelisk. The next, you were waking up in a shallow crater, being helped up by a traveler. They witnessed you emerging from the side of that same obelisk, then falling and smiting the ground. Instead of dying, you made a crater, because your body was somehow changed and had become crystalline.

You’ve tried to return to the obelisk in an attempt to determine what happened to you, but failed. Eventually, you hope to return. Until then, you explore, hoping to learn more about the numenera in general and master more of your own crystalline nature in particular.

Any character type can have emerged from an obelisk, though the crystalline body they enjoy is most likely to be appreciated by Glaives and Delves. Weird creatures are something that explorers might expect to see on a regular basis, and someone who has emerged from an obelisk qualifies. However, residents in small communities and others who do not travel often will likely be highly suspicious and perhaps even afraid of such a character, at least initially.

NONHUMANOID CRYSTALLINE FORM If your character who Emerges From the Obelisk is significantly different from a regular human shape—such as if you choose to be a levitating crystal shard—you’ll have to work with your GM to come up with an alternative method for manipulating objects like a regular human could, whether that’s short-range telekinesis or crystalline tendrils.

You are an entertainer - a singer, dancer, poet, storyteller, or something similar. You perform for the benefit of others. Naturally charismatic and talented, you have also studied to master your art. You know all the old poems, songs, jokes, and stories, and you’re skilled at creating new ones, too.

You probably wear flamboyant or at least fashionable clothes and use cosmetics, tattoos, or hair stylings for dramatic effect.

The role of the entertainer fits the Jack best, though Glaives and Nanos sometimes entertain as well.

You have the ability to change your phase state. In fact, you’re always slightly out of phase, giving you a ghostly translucence.

With concentration, you can pass your hand through a solid object, allow a solid object to pass harmlessly through you, or literally walk through walls. However, moving in and out of different phase states requires extreme force of will and can be mentally taxing. The explanation for your strange power lies within some aspect of the numenera. Perhaps the ability emerged through the use of (or exposure to) lingering transdimensional technology or as the result of an encounter with a creature not native to this world or dimension. Perhaps one of your ancestors first developed the power and passed it down through generations.

You might do whatever you can to play up your translucent appearance by wearing diaphanous, billowy clothing, or, depending on your personality, you might do just the opposite.

Jacks enjoy the infiltration possibilities of changing their phase state, and Nanos appreciate the defensive capabilities. Glaives can use the offensive and defensive aspects but might find them a bit hindering as well.

What things were like long ago fires your imagination. You are equally thrilled to learn about how a dead civilization lived as you are to regain a still-functioning oddity, cypher, or iotum that the dead civilization used. For you, knowledge is an end in itself, but that doesn’t make you naive to the dangers exploration poses. The opposite is true, which is why you’re no slouch when it comes to defending yourself. You’re a born excavator and explorer, adept at moving and maneuvering, making discoveries, and resisting the dangers that forgotten places often hold.

You probably wear sensible garments that can stand up to both rain and sun, as well as a hat or head wrapping to keep off the sun and extra water for when the trail peters out in the middle of nowhere.

You know that style is at least as important as substance. Defeating foes is secondary to looking good while doing it. Some might call you a swashbuckler or daredevil. You leap through the air, make a flourish with your weapon, and attack, usually with a clever, biting show of wit. Your enemies hate you, but your allies adore you. Just watching you fight is entertaining.

You very likely wear no armor, instead preferring stylish clothing—perhaps even a hat with a feather.

Jacks and Glaives make the best swashbucklers, and they are the most common types of characters to fight with panache.

Telekinesis. Psychokinesis. Mind over matter. The power has many names, but in the end, it all boils down to one thing—the molecules that make up all matter are yours to command. You likely call yourself a telekinetic or just a TK.

Many telekinetics prefer to wear tight clothing without much accoutrement, so there is little that another TK could grab hold of psychically. On the other hand, you have the power to create very minor telekinetic effects at will, so your hair might always be in motion, you could have a few tiny objects floating around you, or you might wear a long cape that’s always billowing.

Jacks are the most likely characters to be telekinetics, but Glaives find that the abilities add to their combat prowess, and Nanos, of course, appreciate the additional power.

At some point in your past, some of your organic parts were replaced with artificial components. (Alternatively, you belong to a secret species of biomechanical hybrids.) These artificial components might be subdermal, or they might resemble more overt metal or synth plating on your skin. They can also take the form of threadlike tendrils of circuitry winding across your flesh. Whatever their appearance, these components give you special abilities. As you advance, you can add to, modify, or discover new functions for them. Unfortunately, your artificial body also has special requirements when it takes damage.

You might wear a cloak with a hood or something similar to hide your artificial parts from those who would persecute you. Because your components are tricky to repair, as time goes on, it might become more difficult to conceal your true nature, with exposed circuitry, metal plates, and more in a state of partial disassembly.

Anyone might be a cybernetic organism.

You believe that the finest machine ever created is the human brain, and experience and training have taught you that any machine can be improved. Through the use of implants and mechanical enhancements, your brain processes input faster, stores more information, and eventually can tap right into the datasphere. Mentally, you function on an entirely different level than your fellows.

Did you make these improvements yourself? Did someone else? Was it with your blessing or against your will? Regardless, you are now more than just a person. You are both living creature and machine. But unlike someone who Augments Flesh With Grafts, all of your refinements and upgrades are on the inside. You don’t need mech eyes or metal arms to be enhanced. It’s all about what’s inside your skull.

Nanos are most often those who fuse their mind with machines, but Arkai and Wrights are almost as likely to do so.

Using charisma, natural leadership, and perhaps some training, you command the actions of others, who follow you willingly. You are a commander, a captain, a leader, or a general. Your skills allow you to make people do what you want, but you also have the wisdom to know what actions would be best for your followers and allies.

Since you need the respect of others, you probably dress and carry yourself in such a way that inspires, endears, or intimidates. You have a voice suited to barking orders that can be heard even on a noisy battlefield.

Arkai are already leaders, so only a few will choose to further enhance their expertise. Glaives make excellent military leaders, but a Jack could easily lead a group of explorers or a den of thieves. A Nano might be the head of a group of “mages” or scholars, or they might have a gang of bodyguards as followers.

You’ve been around, which means that you’ve experienced the pendulum swings that living delivers to every creature. No matter the heights that someone might attain, situations change, disasters happen, friends die, and mistakes are made. No matter how brilliant you might be, or believe yourself to be, those mistakes are often made by you. What distinguishes you from others is that you learn from those mistakes. You learn from the past and use experience as your guide. You’re older than many, but you’ve seen some amazing things in that time, and you can draw on that experience to do amazing things.

As someone who’s survived the long years and trials of life, you probably dress simply and practically. Though older than most others who risk exploration, you remain fit, lean, and probably have either no hair or hair as white as the frozen water that’s said to cover the land in the far south. Those who've endured defeat, struggled against the odds, known loss, and suffered deeply are primed to learn from adversity. Not everyone is able to appreciate such bitter lessons, but the few who do so can go far. Glaives, Jacks, and Arkai are most likely to prefer the focus Learns From Adversity.

Protecting yourself is obviously important in dangerous situations, and you are particularly good at it. Cautious and prudent, you learn techniques to defend against all kinds of attacks, both physical and mental. The winner is often the last person standing, and you’ve done all you can to ensure that person will be you. You carry a shield and probably wear the best armor you can find.

Glaives make excellent defensive masters, but Jacks and Nanos also find at least some of these skills of great value.

You have worked long and hard with one particular type of weapon - bows, swords, axes, daggers, whips, or whatever you choose. Thus, you are an archer, a swordsman, an axe master, a mistress of knives, or whatever is appropriate to your chosen weapon. A master of the rapier is different than a master of the warhammer, and an archer is different than a whip wielder.

You might wear a symbol—a badge, a pin, a tattoo, an amulet, certain colors, or the like— that indicates the school in which you trained, the style of fighting you have mastered, or the name of your mentor. Your weapon is almost certainly your finest possession. Not only is it well cared for and of high quality, but you probably keep it in a beautiful scabbard, harness, belt, case, or something similar.

Many Glaives are weapon masters, but sometimes a Jack might choose this path, particularly with lighter weapons.

There is so much injustice in the world. It takes a special person to take it upon himself to right wrongs, protect the innocent, and punish the guilty. You are such a person.

Justicars, as they are sometimes called, are knights errant who wear armor, bear swords and shields, and travel the land looking for tyranny, corruption, and oppression. But some operate a little less ostentatiously, and sometimes justice comes from more subtle tactics. A justicar might also be a masked vigilante or just a badass who rights wrongs.

The importance of justice in your life might come from religion, your upbringing, or your highly developed sense of principles. Regardless, you not only adhere to your values, but you also believe it is your calling to act on them and help make the world more just, more fair, and more ethical. You want to see wrongdoing punished.

Although any character can be a justicar, Arkai and Glaives most often take on the role.

You are extremely dexterous. Your speed and agility make you almost a thing of wonder. Your body is lithe, flexible, and graceful. Your training—or perhaps a bit of magic or technology—allows you to move quickly and smoothly, land safely when you fall, and avoid danger.

You likely wear tight clothing that doesn’t hinder you as you move. Likewise, you probably don’t allow yourself to be overburdened by a lot of equipment. You’ll wear armor only if it doesn’t slow you down.

Glaives are very often catlike, but Jacks can be, too.

The murderous assassin is a master of dealing death. No one is better at sneaking into a location, eliminating a target, and slipping out again. Obviously, a professional killer is not likely to have a lot of friends.

You probably wear dark colors—black, charcoal grey, or midnight blue—to help blend into the shadows. But since you’re also a master of disguise, in truth you could look like anyone.

Any character could be an assassin. Jacks are the most likely choice, but Nanos with their esoteries or Glaives with their combat abilities would make efficient killers as well.

You don’t use weapons—you are a weapon. With powerful punches, kicks, and full-body moves, you inflict incredible damage on your foes. By focusing your energy, the combined power of your body and mind allows you to do incredible amounts of damage without depleting your energy reserves. You might have gained your skills through intense training, various implants and enhancements, genetic mutations, or any combination of these things. Whatever the origin of your feats, you likely take good care of your body, ensuring that it remains the sharpest, most dependable weapon at your disposal.

Martial artists or kasundas (as those with your training are sometimes called) are both feared and revered. They wear loose, comfortable clothing that allows them a full range of movement, and they rarely use weapons other than their body’s own implements (although some carry items designed to enhance their body movements for greater effect, such as knuckle weapons, knee spikes, or boot blades).

Glaives are perhaps best suited for using their bodies as weapons, but Jacks are also good candidates. Sometimes, Arkai choose this focus because having a backup when persuasion fails is a useful leadership strategy.

You have the ability to create and sculpt light, to bend it away from you or gather it to use as a weapon. Perhaps a shard of amber crystal, midnight stone, or other iotum became embedded in your flesh and through it you can control light. Or you might have always had the gift, a freak talent handed down to you by the ancients.

Most people able to command light favor bright colors in their clothing since those colors reflect light rather than absorb it. Nanos and Delves tend to be the ones who possess shards of the sun, calling themselves light bearers or sun savants. They find its power useful for exploration and personal protection.

When a character who possesses a shard of the sun becomes invisible, they bend the light that would otherwise fall on them around their bodies.

Jacks appreciate how the abilities help them trick and elude foes, and Arkai like how they awe onlookers.

You radiate a strange energy—a “biomorphic field” according to a nano you once met— that makes you tougher than others, with an ability to heal that outstrips that of normal people. The field seems to strengthen as you gain experience, and you’re certain that as it grows in power, you’ll be able to touch other creatures with it to sense their presence, heal them, detect their feelings, and possibly even hurt those who are revealed to be enemies.

You might consider your biomorphic field a curse, the effect of a strange numenera item embedded in your flesh, a metallic amulet that keeps turning up no matter how many times you try to lose it, a genetic mutation (or genetic tweak from your forebears), or maybe even as the direct intervention of some prior-world deity that you hope to meet one day. However it came to be, it’s a fact that dangerous risks are lessened for you, though not completely without consequence; if you are damaged enough, the flame of vitality that you radiate will be snuffed out.

You wear tough clothing that can withstand a lot, because even though you are mighty, regular clothing and possessions are not. Usually your biomorphic field is little more than a subtle sparkle, but when you use an ability, you radiate a momentary flash of gold light.

Though anyone might find that coming back from death, at least in the short term, is a desirable trait, those who put themselves into harm’s way most directly, like Glaives and Delves, are likely to benefit the most from it.

The berserker is a feared fighter who cannot be stopped. You put yourself into a howling battle frenzy that can make you a terror on the battlefield. You might hail from a less civilized society, perhaps even a tribal one.

You likely wear little or no armor so as not to restrict your speed or maneuverability. Your clothing is probably simple and utilitarian.

Glaives make the best berserkers.

The ancients harnessed electricity in strange and wonderful ways. Through practice and inherent ability (or the subtle use of hidden or implanted devices), you control the same energy. Not only can you create and discharge electrical power, but you can eventually learn to use it to transport yourself.

You probably wear tight-fitting clothing that allows you to move quickly. Your garments might be blue and black, perhaps with a lightning-bolt motif.

Although Nanos seem most suited to wielding lightning, Jacks can make good use of the varied lightning abilities.

Unlike most people, you know there are far more than three dimensions, more colors than can be found in the rainbow, and more things in the world than most can see, sense, or even understand. With practice and help (through drugs, lenses, manipulated energy fields, or a combination of all three), you can perceive things that others cannot. What you see in other dimensions has changed your understanding of even the most basic things like weapon and dress. Where others might see your drab outfit and plain weapons, you see something entirely different—myriad colors and patterns that showcase your unique vision of the world. Your weapons likely bear marks of other dimensions as well.

You have an abiding affection for the community you live in, have adopted, or guard from afar. It’s not just the place, but also the people you want to keep safe and healthy and see have success in their life. Certainly, there are individuals within the community who are more troublesome than others, but unless they become an actual danger to the others, you include them in those you shepherd. To accomplish your goal, you’ve honed not only your ability to fight in order to preserve the community against invaders, but also your ability to understand the concerns of the community and persuade them toward smart decisions about the problems that face them now or could crop up later if not guarded against.

Glaives make ideal shepherds, but Arkai and Wrights can also easily step into this role to supplement their other community-oriented abilities.

You are poetry incarnate. The words flow from your tongue like liquid metal. Your voice is golden and captivating. With enough time and focus, you can convince almost anyone to do almost anything for you, with you, or in spite of you. Words—words are what matter. You believe they have power. There’s a chance you don’t care much about your appearance, as long as you can say what you want to say.

Some might call you the “face” because when your friends or allies need to put forth their best face, they send you. You’re a charmer. The word “charisma” was coined for people like you—there’s just something about you that people seem to like.

Since words are important to you, you may have covered your skin with tattooed words or have written things on your outfit. You might play an instrument, write books, or compose songs in your spare time.

Jacks, with their ability to take a related flex skill each day, make excellent speakers, but Nanos and Glaives might choose this route to inspire their companions.

Since you were young, you had an affinity for machines. It seemed almost like you were speaking to them. You were. You have the ability to use your organic brain like an intelligent machine, interfacing “wirelessly” with any electronic device. You can control and influence them in ways that others can’t. Intelligent machines are your friends and companions. You have also learned to repair machines of all kinds because the better they work, the better off you are as well. You likely wear a tool belt full of various implements, and machine oils stain your clothes and fingertips.

All types of characters can spend their time talking to machines, although this practice is best suited to Nanos.

The storm smells like life to you—like love. Electricity charges the air, dances across your skin, and connects you to the wind, the weather, and the sky. That connection is due to a device fused to your flesh, a mutation, or just your training with the nanomachines that suffuse everything. You issue commands through that connection, and the weather listens. The winds curl to your desire; they lift you, protect you, and give you the power to summon storms or break them apart. An electrical storm, a blizzard, or—when your mastery reaches its zenith—even a tornado is something you can call up and loose upon the world.

You probably wear sleek clothing designed to stay out of your way when high winds roar past you. Flaring coats, cloaks, and capes can look dramatic, though, if you train yourself in managing the excess fabric. No matter a character’s type, the ability to fly is something almost everyone desires.

Through your studies, you have learned to focus your natural talents to command the powers of ice and cold. People might refer to you as an ice mage. Sometimes ice mages are thought to come into conflict with those known as fire mages, but this is a fallacy believed by ordinary folks more than anything based in truth.

You likely wear white or blue garments that are heavier than they need to be—unless you live in a cold region or wintry clime, in which case you probably wear less clothing than other people do because the cold doesn’t bother you.

Most ice mages are Nanos, but a Glaive armored in ice, perhaps wielding an ice sword, would be quite impressive.

Not only are you blessed with a great command of the numenera, but you are also trained to exploit esoteries in ways that elevate you above other Nanos. Some people believe that those who perform esoteries are born with the ability, but you know that skill and intelligence play important roles. The ancients created the numenera through knowledge, discovery, and intellect, and to use it properly, you must follow the same path.

You probably wear spectacles and dapper outfits, carrying extra books, notebooks, and pens so you can continually focus on your studies and experiments.

Nanos usually receive this instruction and focus, but some Jacks do as well. Glaives never do.

You bear steel with both hands, ready to take on any foe. You fight with two weapons in melee, sometimes called dual wielding. A fearsome warrior, quick and strong, you believe that the best defense is a strong offense.

You probably sheathe one weapon on each side or both crossed behind your back. They are likely your most prized possessions, and you might have names for them.

Many Glaives and Jacks train to fight with two weapons at once. Very rarely would other characters spend the time required to learn such a purely physical art, but it’s possible.

The thief, the burglar, the pickpocket - these are the dangerous individuals who haunt the back alleys of every community. You are a thief in a city or town, making your livelihood at the expense of the wealthy. Your talents, however, prepare you for all kinds of pursuits, even when you’re not crouching in an alley or climbing into a window.

Usually, you dress to blend in with the crowd. When you’re on a mission, black, form-fitting clothing allows you to swim in the shadows.

Most thieves are Jacks, but Nanos make interesting burglars as well. A Glaive thief likely adds a little more physicality to their crimes.