Light
Light
Light is that which reveals and purifies, merciless and true. Light exposes and tears away at all deception until only the bare and naked reality is left shivering at the universe’s attention. Truth is the highest calling, a purifying radiance that burns away lies and leaves only what is real.
Ice
Ice
The ice is quiet, a still and solemn thing content to merely be. Ice is uncaring, stubborn, and somber. Those with a destiny of ice are harsh and calculating, slow and purposeful. They tend towards the distant and the calm, unnerved by the bustle of activity and reassured by isolation and stillness.
Foundation
Foundation
Characters with the Foundation destiny wish to create something new, something big, something important; and to do it from scratch. This can mean founding a city, starting a large organization, or even their very own culture. What’s important is that it didn’t exist before they arrived, and it will continue to do so long after they are gone. The world will be changed, at least in some way, and it will have been thanks to them.
Fire
Fire
Fire can be put to work, but it has no goal in mind, no plans for the future beyond spreading and burning bright. Fire is impulsive, destructive, and beautiful. Those with a destiny of fire tend to be rabble rousers and instigators, brash and bold. They take up causes as burning beacons, only to abandon them once passions have cooled.
Death
Death
All things end. This is right, this is nature. Death is a part of life, defending others often requires death, and unnaturally extended lives often require ending. Those with a destiny of death are deliverers of finality.
Darkness
Darkness
Darkness is not good or evil, it is that which obscures. Darkness is the unknown and the fear of discovery. Darkness is a veil, a barrier that can mask the predator or guard the innocent from what they can’t understand. Those with a destiny of darkness tend to be mysterious, shifty, and are only comfortable behind multiple layers of lies and manipulations.
Haunted
Haunted
Spirits exist. It’s a simple fact of reality that most people forget until the specter of some long forgotten soul appears before them. But for you, it’s a constant reality. For some, the spirit that follows them has been there since childhood, as an imaginary friend or a monster in the dark. For others, the dead come at a later date, often in the wake of a terrible tragedy.
Cursed
Cursed
Perhaps you broke an oath or angered a god, or your parents promised their child’s soul to a fiend. Whatever caused it, you are cursed. The power that laid this upon you has not necessarily made itself known, but its effects are felt regardless. It has shaped your life and interactions with others, made you wary and careful. A tiny slip, a failed moment of etiquette, a dirty glance—any may trigger the curse.
How did you become cursed? Are there those who sympathize with your plight? What transgressions might trigger the curse’s worst effects? What does the curse do?
Artificial Avalanche
Artificial Avalanche
Fallsday and Kassag
Fallsday and Kassag
In the mountains far to the east snow is everpresent. The extra snow accumulated over winter brings the risk of dangerous unpredictable avalanches to highland settlements and the trails that connect them.
Fallsday sees pairs of the bravest members of those settlements, known as honreas, deliberately triggering avalanches. Their aim is to alleviate the danger by funneling the snow down established channels and from sun up to sun down waves cascade down the mountainsides. Honreas must have enormous trust between them, as there is much danger and little chance of rescue if they find themselves in trouble. Often siblings and relatives work together, but for romantic couples it is seen as the ultimate test of their bond and compatibility.
As well as serving their community, such duty is seen as a religious observance, and local temples to Honie and Oreas, the deities of winter, organize the volunteers and provide blessings before they set off. Fallsday itself occurs on the day before Kassag, the day when the temple celebrates the deities’ wedding, though particularly snow-heavy years may mean the artificial avalanches must also be triggered before or after the actual day. Only those who serve as honreas may be married on Kassag, and such weddings are considered especially blessed.
While the honreas work on the slopes above, everyone else remains tucked away in their homes during Fallsday. Family and friends of the Honreas spend the day in a somber mood, prepared for either celebration or grief. Regardless of the result, tradition dictates last year’s cirani, a spiced raspberry wine, is consumed that evening.
At dusk, a fire is lit in the steeple of each temple, and throughout the night honreas find their way back to them to be cared for, fed, and allowed to rest. At midday, each temple swings wide its doors and each honreas is presented with a Kassag coin. These large golden coins are uniquely stamped each year and only given to the honreas who returned to a temple on Fallsday night. Any remaining are melted into rings and presented to those who marry at the great feast that evening.
The feast of Kassag begins In the hours before dusk, ceremonies are held for those permitted to wed, then, and as the night closes in, the temples provide many barrels of freshly made cirani. Incredibly sharp and potent, the Cirani lowers inhibitions and suppresses animosity and the saying goes that “a Kassag truth is free of anger.”
Game Mechanics
Adventurers who serve as honreas receive the blessing of the winter deities. They can use the Help action to aid their Fallsday partner as a bonus action for the next week.