Maximos - Level 1 peasant
Vitals
| VIT | d8 | HEA | 18 / 18 | |
| FIN | d10 | GRT | 12 / 12 | |
| INS | d6 | DR | 0 | |
| FRV | d6 | |||
Background
The vast majority of Constantinople’s population are peasants—poor workers with few rights, no land holdings, and limited social mobility. Members of this class make their living through hard manual labor as farmers, in construction, or producing raw goods such as beeswax or textiles. On both sides of the city, peasants live, crammed into tenement housing and are levied with high rents and taxes—payable either in cash or in kind (with livestock, foodstuff, raw goods, etc.)—in exchange for their housing and for their safety within the city. Peasants are further mandated to serve as soldiers whenever the city comes under attack—either from hordes of demoniacs or invading armies—with many receiving cursory training in polearms and archery.
Due to a lifetime of poverty and hard labor, peasants are robust, physically tough, and resourceful. Pilgrims from the peasant class have access to a wide array of powers centered around combat, survival, and mutual aid.
Humour - Melancholic (black bile) 🜃
Associated with autumn and the element of earth, melancholics are governed by both Mercury and Saturn. Melancholics tend to be morose and depressive, preferring to spend time alone in study or contemplation. While prone to self-pity and pessimism, melancholics nevertheless tend to be thoughtful, erudite, and detail-oriented.
Devil in the details (free)
Whenever you use the basic power search, you can burn 2 GRT to roll with advantage.
Crime - Apostasy
Religious authority is fragile and jealously guarded in post-Abandonment Constantinople. The old texts and prophets did not predict—and cannot explain—the onset of the Abandonment. This confusion has caused a crisis of faith, leading some—especially within the middle classes, influenced by humanist philosophy from Italy by way of Venetian and Genoese traders, or from the courts of Baghdad and points further east—to renounce their religion, becoming apostates (renouncers, those who leave their faith).
Both the Ulema and the Patriarchate of Constantinople consider apostasy to be a major crime. Both institutions are quick to arrest alleged defectors in sweeping inquisitions, to be handed over to the Canticum. Most apostates only share their ideas within tight social circles and salons, knowing that exposure and public accusation are tantamount to exile.
Apostate (passive)
Having been found guilty of apostasy, you make all FRV/charm checks targeting NPCs marked as clergy or nobility with disadvantage.
Powers
Scrapper (passive)
When making an unarmed attack check, add +1. Your unarmed damage is now d6 + dVIT.
Archery training (passive)
When making an INS/attack check using a bow, add +1.
Polearm training (passive)
You were once conscripted to the city watch, for which you’ve received cursory training with polearms. When making a FIN/attack check with a polearm, add +1.
Maleficia (2/6)
Multiple mouths [1/3]
You grow several small mouths along your neck, legs, and arms. They are incapable of real speech but constantly utter hushed gibberish.
Drawback: Unless your extra mouths are somehow gagged, suffer a –1 penalty to FIN/sneak checks.
LVL 1 (passive)
If your mouths are ungagged, they bite and tear at the flesh of an opponent you successfully grapple with, inflicting dVIT automatic damage per round, ignoring DR.
Unicornis [1/3]
A single spiral horn juts straight out from the center of your forehead. Your horn is nascent and short yet still sharp.
Drawback: You cannot wear normal helms.
LVL 1 (standard)
You can use your horn to make a VIT/attack roll, inflicting d4 + dVIT damage.
Equipment
Silver: 0
Inventory (7/11)
| Name | Type | Description | Slots |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quillon dagger | Short blade | A common short dagger with a simple crossguard. Especially effective at finding gaps in armour. Inflicts d2 + dFIN damage, ignoring DR. | 1 |
| Rations | Food | Preserved foods: typically manchette bread, dried fruit, pickled vegetables, and nuts. | 1 |
| Waterskin | Drink | A tanned bladder containing potable water. Consume to gain d2 GRT (not exceeding max). | 1 |
| Theriac salve | Medicine | A small pot of ointment made of 70 fermented herbs, viper flesh, and opium. Consume to regain 2d4 pool. | 1 |
| Torch | Light source | A length of wood with a bundle of oil-soaked rags fastened to its end. Creates a 30-foot radius of light for 2 hours. | 1 |
| Iron and flint firestarter | Tool | Produces sparks to ignite a flame when struck together. Required to ignite fires and light sources. | 1 |
| Rope | Tool | A length of woven hempeb rope 50 feet long. | 1 |