You are a person of Vaelaria — which means you are a sentence in the making. Your character has four layers: six stats that are your skeleton, a background that explains where your skills come from, the blood and birth you never chose, and the traits you grow into. Making a hand is six picks in the Make a Hand wizard — a name, who you are, a trade, a blood, a rough spread of stats, and one line for the road — and everything else comes from the table. This chapter builds the skeleton; the next chapters put the skills and the blood on it. In a hurry? Skip ahead to Quick Origins and roll your origins with your GM instead.
The six stats
Every character has six stats, scored 1–6. Your stat modifier is the stat minus 3 (so 3 is average: +0).
| Stat | What it is | What it does |
|---|
| Breath | the body's reserve | stamina and strength — it sets your health and feeds your Breath Pool |
| Voice | presence and command | persuasion, oratory, and all Vael spellcraft — speaking magic runs on Voice, and your Voice modifier scales your Breath Pool (the magic reserve) |
| Hand | craft and precision | smithing, lockwork, sleight, fine work |
| Eye | perception and aim | noticing, tracking, aim with bow and sling |
| Heart | courage and empathy | standing firm, reading people, resisting fear |
| Name | renown and standing | reputation, favor, and the words the scribes will teach you |
A 1 is a wound you carry; a 5 is the best of a generation; a 6 is the stuff of songs, and usually costs a trait.
Two numbers come off your stats, and they are deliberately separate: your health — your body — is 6 + (your Breath, to a cap of +3) + Health Gains; your Breath Pool — the magic reserve — is (4 + (your Breath, to a cap of +3) + Breath Gains) × (1 + 0.1 × your Voice modifier). Casting spends Breath and never touches health; damage comes off health and never shrinks your Breath Pool (see Combat). Both grow by choice as you level — each level past the first you take +1 to Health or +1 to Breath, and mark it in the matching counter (see Character Levels). A full rest brings health back to full and your Breath Pool back to half, rounded up — all the way full only when the rest is truly safe.
Creating your character — Make a Hand
The wizard writes your six picks straight onto your Player Character file — that file is your sheet.
1. Name yourself. The only thing you type. Take the family too if you know it — the trade is the family and the name: the ferrymen, the smiths, the conjurors. A trade background already has a foot in that door.
2. Say who you are. A woman, a man, neither, or both — however the world should name you. It matters to the table and never the dice; the GM uses it for how folk address you.
3. Choose a background. The work that got its hands on you before you could choose (see Backgrounds of Vaelaria). It grants 2 XP in two skills — the half-remembered lessons of the work you did (rank 1 costs 3 XP; see Skills and the Dice).
4. Whose blood runs in you. Take one bloodline from the houses of the blood (see Blood and Birth) — the gift your family carries. A child of two houses carries both, with your GM. The bloodline's favored-stat +1 rides on top of the stats you buy, and its sign is the only +1 you begin with. The effect and the sign live on the file — given, never bought.
5. Spend 6 points — you start rough. Each stat starts at 1 and may be raised to 3 (each step costs 1 point). No starting character is good at anything yet: with stats of 1–3 your modifiers run −2 to +0, and the only bonus you carry at the start is your bloodline's. That is the point. You are a nobody with a family and a trade, and everything else is earned by use.
6. One line for the road (optional). A look, a want, a grudge — anything your home town would say about you.
At the table — the GM writes the rest
None of this is bought at creation. It lands on your sheet when you sit down:
- Two traits — from the list below, or propose your own and the GM will rule on it. Each trait is one sentence of rules. Advantage means roll twice and take the better result.
- Your birth-gift — the personal trait that marks you as you: irritable, broad-shouldered, insightful, brash. The folk of Vaelaria recognize forty of them (see Blood and Birth). Both blood and birth are given, not bought; neither costs points.
- The self-taught skill — one more skill, the thing you taught yourself, starting at 0. You are not good at your trade yet; you are one honest use from it. The Trade-Born trait buys a third head start.
- Standing — you begin common; a trade name is possible if your Name is 3 or higher and a master will take you.
- Your first spells — chosen with the GM from the catalog, the words your character has found or been taught. You cannot invent words; the Vael is found, not built (see The Speaker's Grammar). A starting speaker typically holds 4–7 Breath — one or two real words for the day, and the rest is kitchen words and decisions.
- Your gear and possessions — the game start gives you what you carry. You do not shop for a kit; you arrive with one.
- Your reserves — Health = 6 + (your Breath, to a cap of +3) + Health Gains; Breath Pool = (4 + (your Breath, to a cap of +3) + Breath Gains) × (1 + 0.1 × your Voice modifier). They compute themselves on the sheet.
Traits
| Trait | What it gives you |
|---|
| Trade-Born | one trade skill starts with 2 XP, and you know a craft |
| Deep Breath | your Breath Pool cap rises by 2 |
| Clear Voice | once per rest, reroll a failed Vael check |
| Second Breath | once per rest, when your Breath Pool empties, draw one more Breath |
| Wild Speaker | +2 on Vael checks for never-spoken workings — but your wild words always draw notice |
| Silver Tongue | +1 on Charisma |
| Eagle Eye | +1 on Perceive and Bows |
| Iron Stomach | advantage on Toughness against poison, drink, and rot |
| Hearth-Kept | +1 Heart, and healing magic (myr) costs you one Breath less |
| Unwritten Name | the watch and rumors slide off you; you are hard to track |
| Old Debt | someone important owes you a favor — define it with your GM |
| Ward-Written | begin with one written scroll: any spell you know, one casting |
| Scribe's Seal | advantage on one Charisma roll per rest within the scribes' halls |
| Fleet-Footed | +1 on Athletics; long marches do not tire you |
| Nimble Fingers | +1 on Sleight |
| Healer's Touch | myr (mend) spells cost you 1 less Breath (floor 1), for anyone you heal |
| Quick Study | when a companion with rank 4+ in a skill uses it and you watch, gain 1 XP in that skill yourself — once per rest |
| Iron Resolve | +1 on Nerve; you may act normally at 0 health (magic still needs Breath to spend) |
| Keen Ear | advantage on Perceive when listening; you hear a whisper across a room |
| Kiss of the Wild | once per rest, a failed Vael check counts as mild instead of the rolled result |
A finished example
Saelin Corvo, ferrywoman's daughter of the ferrymen: Breath 2, Voice 3, Hand 2, Eye 1, Heart 1, Name 3 — Breath Pool 6, health 8. Background: Ferry-hand Apprentice (2 XP in Spellcraft, 2 XP in Perceive). Self-taught: Charisma 0. Blood: Vessen (favored Voice). Birth: gravel-voiced. Traits: Trade-Born (2 XP in Fishing), Clear Voice. Standing: with the ferrymen. Spells: Karvesse, Saelune, Karwyn, Fethloer — all found or taught, all hers; her school is Utility, the everyday words. She is nobody yet: her spells are the kitchen words and one phrase, her skills are half-remembered lessons, and her only edge is the river in her blood. One honest use of her school — Utility, the kitchen words — and she will be rank 1 — and the Vael will start answering like it means it.
