Tuesday, December 20, 2022

Δ Template: Almador

“Revere the blood of life.

Revere the blood of death.”

-from the Wisdom of Inor, goddess of midwives



What is a Δ Template? 

Directory of delta 

The Almador is also MOSAIC-strict!


With the exception of level (0), you must have a feature of level (X-1) before gaining a feature of level (X).


(0) Soul Worker

Witness the birth and death of the same person

You can tell the age of any person you see to the year, or the age of a corpse to the day


(1) Hands of Life

Hold a mortal foe’s life in your hands and spare them

A minute of treatment from you is equal to a week’s bed rest and ‘round-the-clock care


(1) Phantom of the Mind

Lay an unquiet spirit to rest without using violence

Your touch can cause or numb pain, up to the worst agony you have ever felt. Your own pain is reduced or increased by the same amount


(2) Generation Sense

Find a pregnant prey animal in the wild. Protect it until its young can walk

Sense life within a distance equal to how far the mother animal could leap in a single bound


(2) Mortal Clay

Perform a short mourning rite for every dead creature you encounter. If you ever fail to do so, you lose this ability until the creature you did not mourn has rotted to clean bones

You know the cause of death of any corpse you see, in detail


(2) Keep the Score

Save more lives than you have taken. If the balance shifts, you lose this feature until you right it

Gaze into someone’s eyes to know the number of lives they have taken and saved


(3) Memory of Pain

Survive a mortal injury

Open old wounds fresh at a touch


(3) Last Moments

Comfort someone close to you in their last moments

Nobody dies while you comfort them with your hands and voice, no matter how grievous the wound


(3) Not One More

Plant a grove of trees, one for each person who has died despite your best efforts

The harmful effects of disease are suppressed around you, in a radius equal to the size of the grove


(4) The Damage Travels

Create new life from your own

Move wounds through flesh at will, from part to part and body to body


(4) Draw the Venom

Survive the bite of a deadly venomous animal

Extract poison from a wound with a touch, storing it harmlessly within your own body. This process takes one heartbeat per year of the victim’s age. You can discharge the poison by inflicting it on someone else with a touch, which takes as long as a snakebite. You can store as many poisons as the number of deadly venomous animal bites you have survived


(5) Soul Traitor

Murder someone you brought into the world

Siphon youth at a touch, one week per heartbeat. Animals and children revile you


(5) Soul Mourner

Try and fail to save someone you brought into the world

Harm is suspended within reach of your voice. Swords break where they touch flesh, flames are cool to the touch, and poisons turn to water. Animals and children are drawn to you


Commentary

I’ve liked Delta Templates ever since I first encountered squigboss’ Pyromancer. The trigger for each power is just calling out for a quest, and the diegetic nature of the abilities forces you to be creative. A full template is supposed to be closer to nine levels than five, but there’s no reason for that to be an ironclad law. This is my first foray into the space, after all.

The Almador is my attempt at a Δ healer, unconnected to the usual trappings of religion. The powers are connected to birth, life, and death, with at least a few that will be very hard for half the population to attain. Still, there’s more than one way to “create new life from your own,” especially in a world of magic and alchemy.

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