Know Your Nature

Or are a Dealer-In-Names, clad in the tattered rags of a mendicant oracle or in the name-inscribed brocade of a city’s priest. When you speak the Language of Names to the ancient tree whose roots reach the Waters of the Underworld; to the beautiful tiger, mistress of its forest; to the great ocean, its depths teeming with the dead, they will treat with you.


You will do the following things:

--Pursue with vigor the Will of the Names of the World, from a simple cooking fire to the Great Queen and her twelve greatest hero-warriors.

--Describe with all the senses the world and the things in it: the expression on a face, the sweet herbs of honey wine; the touch of rain on desert-chapped lips, the sound of a ktesh-skinned viol singing to the wind that gives heart to your bright-eyed sea vessel.

--When you encounter a new people, describe their ways as you experience them.


But right now, answer these questions:

1: How are you called?

Draw from the Well of Names (see below) until you have find found your true name.


But give this name only when treating in good faith with another. If another knows your true name, you must deal with them in good faith when so called.

2: So now, draw from the well of names also for the false name which you tell your companions.

But beware of using that name for too long! It may take root, and if you answer to it for too long to those who believe it true, you will be bound as if it were your true name.


Below, is The Well of Names. Draw herefrom until you find that which you seek.

a du il lu ne ti
ad e ir lug nu tu
ak en ka lum pa u
al fa kal ma ra uk
ar gal kin mard ri un
as gil ku mat rim ya
ash gish kur mni ru yog
bar gu la mu sar za
bi gue lab mum sha zi
bur hf lil na shu zu
dim hu lim nam siz zug



3: From whom do you flee?

--You can coax lightning from the clear sky; speak to the stony earth that it might swallow your enemies; seduce king and queen both. But you trade in promises, and one of these you have not well discharged-- or perhaps in discharging it, you may have found yourself the enemy of a king stoking with their rage the fire burning in their broken heart, or of a rival jealous of your success, or of the very sky itself, affronted at a lie.


4: Describe how you appear: your age or youth, your robes tattered or adorned.

5: The Will of the Names of the World wishes something of you. What is it?

6: What name do you know, that it now aids you?

A bronzesmith knows the name of a fine sword. A priest, the name of the broad sky of their city. A gambler knows the name of a proud-plumed ktesh, raised from its leathery egg to fight its kin with needle teeth and killing claw.

What name do you know?

Is the name: Old? Big? Beautiful? Mighty? Known to All? Inscribed?

Count how many of these are true.

These attributes may change as circumstance flows like a river; as names grow in renown, as they are written or forgotten.

7: Namedealer, what does the the Name that aids you demand of you in exchange for its aid?


Heed this warning:
Beware the company of heroes, for those who are born with destiny often wash their blades in the blood of those found closest. And yet, they may be far mightier than those who pursue you, and the great name they follow may be persuaded to send them to your aid.

8: Describe your expressions (what's a thing or two you often say?), and your actions (what's a thing or two you often do?).


You have three stats: BODY, MIND, and WORDS.

BODY: all things purely physical.
MIND: insight, logic, noticing things, realizing things.
WORDS: persuasion, communication


NAMEDEALERS have -1 in Body. Then they either have +1 in Mind and 0 in Words, or vice-versa.

(9: Which will you be? Good at Thinking but just okay at Speaking? Or vice-versa?)


NAMEDEALERS: When you roll and call upon a Name you know, you may add +1 to a roll.

--HOWEVER: The NEXT time you call upon that Name, it will give you +2 to a roll.
----The next time after THAT that you call upon that Name, it will give you +3 to a roll, and so on.
----BUT IF THE ROLL RESULT IS EVER 13 OR HIGHER, THE NAME WILL BREAK FREE OF YOUR CONTROL.
----If a Name breaks free of your control, it will not be happy with you. At the very least, it will want something from you. At the very worst, it may harm you or take something from you against your will-- your name, your sense of smell, your good looks, your left hand, your memories...


When you roll to resolve a conflict with another as powerful as yourself (or more):

--on a result of 6 or lower: do as your opponent demands, or they may harm you at their whim! If iron here met bronze in battle, it has bitten deep, destroying the bronze.

--On a 7 to 9: pick one consequence of the action you have taken. Your opponent may choose to defy any consequences (see below) you have left unchosen.

--On a 10 to 12: you have succeeded well! Choose two consequences (see below) of the action. Your opponent may choose to defy any consequences you have left unchosen.

--On a 13 or better:
----Choose three consequences (see below).



NAMEDEALER CONSEQUENCES:

Offer What They Desire
• They give you what you ask.
• They demand no more than you offered, refusing otherwise.
• The agreement they have made with you will endure.

Coerce
• They agree, or you may harm them.
• You remain unharmed in the exchange.
• No other is harmed.

Thieve
• You gain what was theirs for your own.
• You remain unharmed
• They do not know you took it, for now.

Escape
• You get away.
• You remain unseen.
• You may take a free +1 to save for a future roll!




To Treat With a Name
Speak or write the name of the thing in the Language of Names — a tongue spoken by all names, forgotten only by mortals-- save those who have dedicated themselves to its study (Namedealers). Speak to the name in a tone that befits its nature. Surely, to give a false name now would bring you doom-- though the name with which you treat may not yet know of the falsehood.

Discuss with the name what it desires in the Language of Names, spoken in the space between breaths, as silently as a whisper, or in a voice as great as the sea, or written as boldly as blood on a banner of whitest linen.

If you wish, you may make an offer to the name and so take action; or it may make to you an offer, to which you may agree if you like.

When you fulfill a promise (to anyone or anything), mark a tally of it.
When you fail to fulfill a promise (to anyone or anything), mark a tally of it.


When You are Harmed or Shamed: describe the result: a long or deep cut or scar, a ruined possession, shame at your failure to save the life of a friend.

They who have you at their mercy may opt to take something else from you, rather than harm your body or name-- a possession, the credit for something great that you did, your confidence in your abilities or your judgment or your creed.

When you have two terrible wounds (presuming the first one has not been healed), you will die.


Healing and Recovering Honor
Take appropriate action to heal the wound! You will forever bear the scar of the wound.

Shame may be healed only be proving one’s honor. If you have so regained it, those who persist in believing in your dishonor must remain silent or face the anger of those know of you.




A Dealer-In-Names finds peace by discharging the duties they have agreed to, or by escaping the consequences of their failure, as judged by their death.


Departing for the Waters of the Underworld:
When you depart for the Waters of the Underworld, roll the dice.

Add +1 for each promise you have fulfilled or had forgiven.
Subtract 1 for each promise currently unfulfilled.

If your result is 7 or worse, your name will be restless forever, tormented by the names you defied.

If your result is 8 or better, you reach the Waters of the Underworld, and you will rest there in the cool and dark for all time.

If your result is 11 or better, you may return from the Waters of the Underworld as a Great Name to speak with those raised on the tales of your deeds, and those who present themselves to your eidolon to guide them against the Great Names who opposed you in life.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:37, Mon 10 Aug 2020.