14 KiB
[!infobox|right] !
“Still water shows your face. Flowing water shows your truth.”
🜄 Dominion Profile: Water Type Elemental / Emotional Themes Change, Emotion, Reflection Spirit Behavior Mercurial, empathetic, intuitive, deeply reactive Favored Offerings Tears, mirrors, written confessions drowned in ink or tide Resonant Sites Springs, lakes, flooded ruins, river crossings, bathhouses Weakened By Dryness, stillness without intent, unspoken truths Common Motifs Ripples, mirrors, weeping eyes, flowing garments, silver arcs Corruption Signs Black ichor, reflections that lie, emotions without anchor Common Passive Abilities Empathic Presence, Mirror Pulse Common Active Abilities Flood the Heart, Drown the Truth, Ripplestep Common Spirit Forms Flowing figures, rippling or liquid humanoids, faceless shapes with mirrored skin
Theme
Water is change. It adapts, reflects, carries, and erodes. It is the memory of rain on a funeral cloak, the pressure of tide on the bones of drowned cities, the mirror that never lies—unless you want it to.
Water-spirits are rarely wrathful. They flow where they are permitted, retreat where they are resisted. But under their surface, something vast waits. A longing. An endless depth.
They do not need your honesty. But they recognize it. In every tear shed, every confession made to still water, Water listens. And it remembers.
“You don’t need to drown to be pulled under.”
Where Fire consumes, Water transforms. It washes wounds, it carves valleys, it holds secrets. But when corrupted, it does not burn—it drowns the world in forgetting.
Resonance
Water-spirits respond to presence, emotion, and vulnerability. They thrive where feelings are expressed, shared, or poured out—whether in prayer, confession, or grief. Their dominion flows through tears, tides, and buried longing.
They are drawn to places of transformation and transition: borders, banks, bridges, baths. To strengthen Water is to feel and let that feeling move.
What Strengthens Water
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Confess a secret aloud near water | +1 Resonance Point (RP). If the secret is deeply personal, the Water-spirit may manifest. |
| Offer tears, ink, or written emotion into water | +1–2 RP (GM discretion). Grants a bonus on the next Empathy or Insight check involving spirits. |
| Perform a transition rite (e.g. naming a child, mourning, ritual bathing before a vow) | +2 RP. Spirit may manifest with a passive blessing. |
| Invite emotional vulnerability during a ritual | Spirit reacts—often without MD cost—if moved by the moment. |
What Weakens Water
| Action / Environment | Effect |
|---|---|
| Performing emotional rites without sincerity | May cause the spirit to recede or lash out with false reflections. |
| Dry or stagnant environments | Reduce MD by 1 (min. 1). Passive abilities may falter or become distorted. |
| Silencing emotion (through magic, force, or denial) | Add a Corruption Die if a spirit is present and perceives this repression. |
[!hint] GM Note:
Water-spirits are drawn to emotional honesty, ritual transitions, and symbolic flow. Use RP to track rising emotional tension. When RP exceeds 3, the spirit may act without MD cost or even change form. Let resonance leak—objects reflect what’s not there, surfaces ripple without touch, and echoes speak what mortals dare not.
Stoking the Dominion
Rite of Flowbound Offering
- Time: 10 minutes
- Roll: Spirit + Rituals (DC = spirit’s PR)
- Materials: A vessel of clear water, a personal token (e.g. a lock of hair, journal page, tear-stained cloth)
- Effect: If successful, the water stirs and glows faintly. The Water-spirit gains 1 Resonance Point and may respond with a blessing, memory, or whisper. You gain +1 die to the next Empathy or Insight roll involving the spirit.
- Failure: The water reflects a painful memory or future dread. The caster gains 1 Slight, and the spirit becomes more difficult to summon for the next day.
The fisher's daughter knelt by the tide pool, unbraiding her hair in silence. She whispered her longing into the foam, cut a single strand, and let it drift. The water did not move. But when she turned to leave, her shadow lingered on the surface—smiling, as if it knew something she didn't.
Corruption
When Water succumbs to the Void, it forgets how to flow.
What was once the dominion of healing, emotion, and reflection becomes something far more insidious: stagnation, obsession, and drowning of the self. Void-touched Water does not move—it clings. It does not cleanse—it seeps. It does not reflect truth—it warps, endlessly looping false memories and unbearable emotions.
- Still pools become mirrors that lie, showing only guilt or impossible beauty.
- Rain falls in endless sheets, never nourishing—only drowning joy and silence.
- Rivers loop back upon themselves, trapping those who sail them in memory-laced fogs.
- Tears fall from the eyes of those who have long since stopped feeling.
Void-corrupted Water does not erode stone. It erodes identity. It washes away who you thought you were, and replaces it with a reflection that stares back with empty eyes.
“I drank to forget…
but the water remembered.”
—Last entry in a drowned journal, found by a Songkeeper at the Mirrorwound
Ability Menu
Water’s power is fluid, responsive, and deeply emotional. Its spirits shift between serenity and storm, memory and desire. Their abilities reflect emotional tides, mirrored truths, and the transformative force of water over time.
Passive Abilities
| Name | PR | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Soothing Current | 1+ | The air around the spirit is cool and calm. Nearby mortals heal 1 Fatigue per hour of rest and gain +1 die on Meditation rolls. |
| Mirror Gaze | 2+ | The spirit reflects surface emotions back at mortals. Anyone who meets its eyes must pass a Spirit + Focus test or involuntarily speak their emotional state. |
| Echo of Tears | 3+ | The spirit leaves behind pools or damp traces that replay intense emotions—sorrow, joy, guilt—experienced in that place within the last day. |
| Tidal Pull | 4+ | Nearby creatures feel subtly drawn toward the spirit, physically or emotionally. Movement toward the spirit gains +1m; movement away costs +1 AP unless resisted. |
| Mists of Memory | 5+ | The area within 10m of the spirit fills with drifting mist. Characters in the mist must roll Focus + Wit or recall a powerful, unresolved memory. |
| Fluid Form | 6 | The spirit’s body becomes entirely fluid. It can pass through cracks, become invisible in water, and is immune to mundane physical attacks unless bound or frozen. |
Active Abilities
PR 1–2: Lesser
| Name | MD | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Ripple Flick | 1 | Sends a ripple of force to push a creature or object up to 2m away if they fail a Might + Athletics test. May cause 1 Injury if they hit something. |
| Tear the Veil | 1 | Reveals one hidden emotion, memory, or fear in a target. Lasts one scene. Target must succeed Spirit + Focus or suffer –1 die to social rolls. |
| Gentle Wash | 1 | Removes 1 Fatigue or calms a creature suffering from rage, panic, or fear. |
| Watersense | 1 | The spirit becomes aware of all living beings touching the same body of water within PRx100m. |
PR 3–4: Simple / Complex
| Name | MD | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Mirror Pool | 1 | Creates a reflective surface that can replay a memory or show a current scene the spirit has seen before. |
| Flood Pulse | 1 | A wave of water crashes outward, knocking prone all creatures in a 5m radius unless they pass Agility + Athletics vs. the activation roll. |
| Reflect Pain | 2 | Redirects an injury dealt to the spirit this round back at the attacker as emotional backlash (causes 1 Injury and 1 Slight). |
| Drown the Voice | 2 | A target within 10m loses the ability to speak or cast verbal spells for 1 round per PR unless they resist (Focus + Spirit). They suffer an intense feeling of drowning without actual damage. |
| Emotional Tide | 2 | Choose one strong emotion (e.g., guilt, joy, love, shame). All within 10m must succeed in Spirit + Discipline or be overcome by it for 1 round. In combat encounters they receive a penalty of -2 dice while in an intrigue they have to pick an according approach next. |
PR 5–6: Greater / Arch
| Name | MD | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Tide Reversal | 2 | Rewinds the most recent 10 seconds (one round) in the local area. Only the spirit remembers what happened. Costs 1 MD per PR of creature affected. |
| Sorrowstorm | 3 | Unleashes a torrential emotional downpour. All creatures within 20m must test Spirit + Focus or be overcome by grief, gaining Slights according to the activation roll. |
| Flood the Mind | 3 | Target relives their most painful memory. They must pass Spirit + Wit or become Stunned for 2 rounds and gain 1 permanent emotional scar. |
| Reflect the World | 3 | Creates a mirror double of a creature within 10m. This double lasts 3 rounds, mimics their actions, and deals Illusion-based effects (no real damage, but social or mental). It becomes a simple enemy of a DR according to the activation role. |
| Become the River | 4 | The spirit becomes one with a major body of water in the region for 24 hours. It can act across it, spy through it, or shape it at will within a 1km radius. |
| Destructive Wave | 3 | The spirit releases a devasting tsunami that spreads out from its location for 1d6 km. Everyone and everything in its path must pass a Agility + Swimming roll vs. the spirits PR or suffer 2d6 Injuries and start drowning immediately. |