Backgrounds

Backgrounds are traits that catalog your character's connections, her possessions and her position in the world. Backgrounds are closely tied to your character concept—each is more than just a dot rating. If a character has the Allies, Contacts or Mentor Background, the dots represent individuals with their own lives, personalities and motives. Having Resources means that your character has a ready source of wealth, and your character acquired any artifact or manse in some interesting and unusual manner.

The player and the Storyteller should work together to make sure that your choices make sense and work well with the overall theme of the game. For example, if all of the characters start of as recently escaped slaves, then both Resources and Influence are inappropriate. Backgrounds should complement both the series and the character concept, rather than providing a way to make a powerful character.

If the player or Storyteller is uncertain whether a character's Background rating is sufficient for a given task, the player rolls the character's Background against difficulty 1 to see if it can do what she wants. Such rolls can be used to see if allies can come to the character's aid or if she can afford a new piece of equipment, for example.

However, while this method is simple, it can easily undermine roleplaying. It is often better if the Storyteller ask the player to describe her character's use of the Background clearly and then call for the appropriate (Attribute + Ability) roll when the time comes. The player might roll the character's (Manipulation + Socialize) to talk her allies into helping her or (Charisma + Presence) to see if they come to the character's aid when they know she is in trouble. A character trying to buy something expensive might roll (Intelligence + Bureaucracy) to find a bargain on the open market.

Storytellers should not use such techniques to make the character's Backgrounds less useful. Instead, she should help make Backgrounds into real and concrete things and not just abstract numbers the player rolls whenever she needs someone to rescue her character.

Abyssal Command

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Allies

Allies are your character's close friends and trusted companions. Unlike followers, allies are never extras. Most are either Exalted (of any type), small gods, Fair Folk or other magical beings that are typically at least as powerful as one of the Terrestrial Exalted. Alternatively, they might be exotic beings such as intelligent animals, or exceptionally skilled and powerful mortals such as masterful thaumaturges, wealthy nobles, crime lords or Guild factors. Characters don't have to buy the Allies Background to represent the rest of their circle—allies are always Storyteller characters. Also, allies are independent people with their own lives and goals. If your character asks for aid but does not provide any in return, her allies will soon desert her. Allies do what they can to help your character, but they won't risk their lives for any but the most important causes—possibly, not even then. Allies asking for help can make for fun roleplaying.

Trait Effects: Each dot in this Background typically represents one ally approximately equal in power to a starting character. More powerful allies require higher ratings. Depending upon both her score in this Background and the power of the allies, your character can have between one and five allies.

Artifact

In both the First Age and the modern day, Exalts created all manner of items of power, ranging from magical weapons and armor to flying vehicles or enchanted disguises. A character with the Artifact Background possesses one or more such items. Most First Age artifacts were lost or destroyed centuries ago, and much of the knowledge of how to make such items has also been lost. Today, all artifacts are rare and precious. Consider carefully how your character acquired her artifacts. She might have been powerful or rich enough before her Exaltation to have some trappings of First Age glory. Or perhaps she followed prophetic dreams after her Exaltation and looted the hidden fortress-tomb where the body and weapons of her previous incarnation were buried. Maybe she stole the artifact or took it from the body of one of her foes. Solar Exalted can have artifacts made from any of the five magical materials, but most use artifacts made from golden orichalcum.

Trait Effects: Your character can purchase this Background multiple times, once for each artifact she owns. Each artifact has a rating between 1 and 5, and this is the Background cost of that particular artifact. Artifacts with ratings of 4 and 5 are now exceptionally rare and will be greatly coveted by other Exalts and gods. For information on the various artifacts, see Wonders.

Backing

Your character is an important member of an organization, such as a government, an army, the Guild or a powerful organized crime syndicate such as the Lintha Family. The higher your character's Backing, the higher her rank is in this organization. At your Storyteller's discretion, you may take Backing multiple times for rank in different organizations. However, if your character has high Backing, she is likely to be responsible for decisions involving great numbers of people and resources. And if she neglects her duties, she can expect demotion—or worse.

Trait Effects:

•	Your character is a lower officer or a minor functionary.
••	Your character is a midlevel officer, the head of a small department or some similarly intermediate position.
•••	Your character is moderately powerful and has many people working under her.
••••	Your character is extremely powerful and typically is only one or two rungs down from the people in charge of her organization.
•••••	Your character is one of the leaders of her organization, a general or admiral, a Guild factor, one of the Lintha Family's fathers or mothers, et cetera.

Contacts

In addition to having friends and allies, many characters also know people in various sectors of society. Contacts use their talents, information or resources to help your character, but they always expect some sort of favor in return. This favor could be a service, trade or even payment—generally matching the value of the contact's assistance. These associates don’t risk themselves as far as a follower or even an ally. They aid your character because of mutual self-interest, not because of love or loyalty.

Each dot in this Background represents both major and minor contacts. Major contacts are individuals with whom your character interacts frequently. They have names, personalities and positions that make them useful to know. A major contact could be a Guild factor, a high-ranking military officer, a powerful courtier, a small god or a Dynast of the Realm. Such a character is always your contact, but he has his own life and problems. He might not be there when you need him. Minor contacts simply represent your character's overall "connectedness." They aren't as knowledgeable or influential as major contacts, but all you need to do to find one is roll a success on your Contacts. Most of these minor contacts do not know your character personally. Minor contacts represent your character's innate ability to sniff out information and people willing to work with her. Just use common sense: Your character isn't going find minor contacts in the middle of a desert.

Trait Effects: Each dot of this Background provides one major contact and one additional die for finding minor ones.

Cult

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Demonic Inheritance

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Familiar

Creation is filled with exotic beasts, from the intelligent animals of the deep forest, to semi-intelligent Haltan pets and various small gods that take on animal form. In addition, some animals are sensitive to Essence who are drawn to various magical beings like the Exalted. Some are little more than unusually loyal pets, but others share a deep and profound link with the character. In either case, the familiar draws the character's Essence to supplement its own life, and the animal will not age or die until the character does.

Trait Effects:

•	The familiar is a small animal, such as a cat or stray dog, which only provides companionship and perhaps some warning of danger.
••	The character either has an impressive pet, such as a wolf or eagle or a smaller pet that is preternaturally intelligent. The animal communicates with your character (and him alone) through posture and facial expression. It can understand him and perform simple tasks such as fetching or knocking something over.
•••	The familiar is a powerful or dangerous pet such as a tiger or a dire wolf or an impressive small animal that is as intelligent as a child of eight or nine years. It can fetch items and do chores, but it has no book learning and is easily distracted. The familiar can communicate with you as well as if it were speaking by its noises, postures and expressions. When it is touching your character, it makes an additional five motes of Essence available. This Essence is "stored" in the familiar but is otherwise treated as Personal Essence. It regenerates only after your character has regained all his own Essence. The character can share one of the familiar's senses (at a time) when the familiar is within 100 yards.
••••	The familiar is a larger pet such as an eagle or wolf that also has the increased intelligence, near-perfect communication, sharing of senses and Essence store of a small Familiar 3 animal.
•••••	The familiar is a powerful or dangerous pet that has the properties of a small Familiar 3 animal.

Followers

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Influence

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Liege

Slavery to a Deathlord has its rewards. After all, the Deathlords view the Abyssal Exalted as their greatest weapons. Such prized champions receive the best equipment and training that the Deathlords can provide, limited only by the proven loyalty of each slave. It would not do to suffer a second Usurpation at the hands of a deathknight more concerned with his own ambitions than the greater glory of Oblivion.

Dots in this Background provide benefits as if an Abyssal had Backing, Mentor and Resources ratings each equal to her Liege rating. The character can also request the temporary use of Abyssal Command, Allies, Artifact, Manse, Mentor or Spies. She just asks her Deathlord and hopes that he finds her request reasonable for the mission. The higher a character's Liege rating is, however, the closer her master watches her actions and the more time she must spend on the Deathlord's missions.

Example: The Maiden of the Mirthless Smile has Liege 3, meaning she must spend roughly half her time carrying out her master's orders. In return, she can requisition money from her master's coffers as if she had Resources 3. She receives the miscellaneous rank benefits of Backing 3 in her master’s court. She can access his liege's vast knowledge and libraries to advance her education as per Mentor 3. Finally, the Maiden can gain temporary use of a three-dot artifact, a regional spy network, a particular hearthstone, a talon of war ghosts or the like. On the other hand, she spends half her time on missions, giving her little opportunity to pursue projects of her own.

Although the Liege Background is very powerful, Storytellers should remember that these advantages come with thick strings attached. Storytellers who charge experience points for Backgrounds should waive this cost for improving Liege in play. Instead, the Storyteller should assign or strip away dots as befits a deathknight's proven devotion to her master, possibly even from session to session. Without this capriciousness, Liege is blatantly overpowered and likely to encourage players to maximize their Abyssal's Liege rating instead of gaining other Backgrounds.

Trait Effects:

X	Your character has no master and wander as a homeless renegade. Alternatively, he has not found an opportunity to prove himself, or he has failed his master in some spectacularly dismal fashion.
•	Your character has a distant relationship with his master. For good or ill, she either takes minimal interest in his doings or waits for him to prove himself before investing more resources in him.
••	Your character bears some favor from his master, but is left largely autonomous unless he is truly needed for an assignment appropriate to his training and powers.
•••	Your character is appreciated by his master. Whether she likes him in some twisted fashion or just knows he fears to consider rebellion, she considers him a worthwhile investment. He spends about half his time carrying out assignments. Most Abyssals settle at this Liege rating after a few successful missions.
••••	Your character is a favored servant, likely deemed too powerful and too dangerous to leave to his own schemes. He has roughly a quarter of his time to himself, with the rest spent on missions for his master.
•••••	Your character is the right hand of his Deathlord master's unholy will. The Deathlord regularly requests his advice when making plans, but he must always stay on call for assignments and cannot count on uninterrupted free time.

Manse

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Mentor

Although most Chosen meet their new life without a guide, your character found one. This mentor is a patron, a teacher, a defender and a friend. Yet although she always acts in what she sees as your character's best interests, your mentor expects your character to obey her (or at least to listen to her). Your character is your mentor's student, ward or apprentice, not her equal. However, this relationship need not be without conflict, and it can be the subject of much in-depth roleplaying. A mentor can be one of the Exalted, an important prince or Guild Factor or even a god or one of the Fair Folk. In addition to providing advice and assistance, your mentor may also teach Abilities, Charms and possibly even sorcery. Occasionally, she might also save your character from some dire fate. Characters who require such aid too often annoy their mentors and will be disciplined for overly reckless behavior.

Trait Effects:

•	Your character's mentor is just a bit more worldly and wise than your character.
••	Your character's mentor is a figure of some note or an exceedingly important individual who has little time for your character.
•••	Your character's mentor is wise, influential and considerably more powerful than your character.
••••	Your character's mentor is an exceedingly important individual whose words and deeds can shape the course of nations.
•••••	Your character's mentor is exceedingly powerful, and he takes a great interest in your character's welfare. However, he expects both obeisance and greatness from your character, and he likely has powerful enemies who might attack you to get to him.

Resources

Resources represents your character's wealth. She may own large tracts of fertile land, a pottery factory, a ruby mine, shares in a shipping firm or simply a large horde of gold and jewels. This Background includes such things as property, clothing and basic equipment, and it shows how easily your character can acquire more. While Resources are not entirely liquid assets, all possessions can be sold to gain money (though doing so could take some time depending on what is for sale).

Each dot of Resources conveys an income beyond any gear or wealth your character gains during play. The source of this wealth must be detailed (rents on property, sharecropping, government stipend, interest in a mercantile concern, tax farming), since it may be increased, reduced or cut off entirely depending on events in the series. As with Influence, few Exalted have problems acquiring Resources—through one means or another.

Trait Effects:

•	Your character has an apartment or hut and may own a shoddy suit of armor and a notched long knife or spear. He has no riding animal but might own a pet and some smaller domestic animals. If your character supports a family, it often goes hungry. If he lives alone, your character can eat meat once a week.
••	Your character has a comfortable cottage or apartment and might own a poor quality riding animal. He might own a suit of light armor and a weapon. If your character supports a family, it eats filling, if boring, meals. If he lives alone, your character can eat meat every other day and afford hard liquor as well as beer.
•••	Your character owns a townhouse or a prosperous farm. He probably has one fine riding animal and another one of lower quality in case the first falls ill. Your character has a suit of any armor and any two weapons. If he lives alone, your character eats well every night and can regularly afford all manner of entertainments. If he is supporting a family, it never goes hungry, and there are roasts and sweetmeats on feast days. Your character almost certainly has a domestic servant or two.
••••	Your character is exceedingly wealthy. At minimum, he owns both a townhouse and a country estate. Your character bears the finest arms, rides a fine gelding or stallion, and alone or as master of a family, your character and his kin will never know hunger or want for medical attention. He might also own a private yacht and have a dozen or more servants tend to his needs.
•••••	Your character is a fabulously wealthy merchant prince, a bandit king, a mercenary lord or a potentate. He has vast riches and either commands an army or could rent one at need. Your character owns at least one excellent ship, and an army of attentive servants eagerly await his every whim.

Note: Almost everyone in Creation has at least one dot in this Background. Those who do not are both homeless and destitute.

See Equipment for costs of various things, and Panoply for more information about wealth.

Spies

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Underworld Manse

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Whispers

Every Abyssal bears the stain of the Neverborn upon her soul and Essence. For some, this connection stays as distant and impersonal as the relationship between the Solar Exalted and the Unconquered Sun. Others are less fortunate. The Neverborn are not kind gods, but unknowable horrors who hate their Exalted only marginally less than they hate their enemies. Abyssals particularly blessed—or cursed—with the direct attention of their chthonic masters experience an endless torrent of blasphemies that gnaw away their sanity.

As a Background, an Abyssal's Whispers rating represents her attunement to the dreams of the Neverborn. Characters can consciously tap into this connection once per scene by reflexively spending one Willpower point. Invoking this connection has several possible effects:

• For one roll, the player can substitute her character's Whispers rating for an Ability rating.
• The Neverborn sustain the Underworld through their Essence. They perceive everything that happens in the Underworld and know everything known by mortal souls who sojourn there as ghosts or pass to Oblivion. (They do not acquire knowledge from souls that pass immediately to Lethe when they die.) A character can glean clues and other information from the dreams of the Neverborn if her player succeeds at a (Perception + Whispers) roll. More successes yield clearer and more extensive information. The effective number of successes may not exceed the character’s Whispers rating (excess successes are wasted). Failure results in distorted or false information that leads the character astray. Storytellers should strongly consider making the rolls in secret so players can't ever completely trust the results. Queries outside the purview of Whispers results in automatic failure. Open-ended questions such as, "What is my purpose?" are a perfectly reasonable way to trigger a Storyteller-directed vision. Inquiries into the future can reveal only what the Neverborn want or plot to happen, not what will definitely come to pass. Glimpses of these plots can provide valuable insight to anyone attempting to further or thwart these ambitions, though.
• A character's presence at significant events that further the agenda of the Neverborn may trigger a reflexive activation of Whispers to understand the event, but these undirected visions are Storyteller-controlled plot devices and do not cost Willpower. In particular, the first meaningful interaction between two characters with Whispers often causes them to experience visions of each other as their shared connection to the hive-mind nightmares of the Labyrinth experiences momentary psychic feedback.
• A character can use Whispers as a guide to where the Neverborn believe her actions could further their goals. She attunes herself to the whispers, and lets them lead her where they will. Usually, the whispers lead Abyssals to places and times where a single death could devastate a community or thwart important plans for Creation's health and defense. Alternatively, they might lead to a village ripe for recruitment into an ancestor cult or as other possible minions. Long-lost and well-guarded artifacts are another option. (Really, this use of Whispers is an invitation to the Storyteller to provide a short side-adventure.)

Non-Abyssals can develop Whispers only within the Labyrinth itself. If the Storyteller charges experience points for raising Backgrounds, living, non-Abyssal characters pay twice as much. In any case, a character who wants to increase her attunement to the Neverborn must undergo a vision-quest resembling those that Abyssals use to raise their Essence. There are no recorded methods for reducing a character's Whispers rating, but Storytellers should interpret this statement as best fits their series.

Trait Effects:

X	Your character has yet to feel the direct touch of the Neverborn.
•	Your character hears the faint murmur of dead gods from time to time. These murmurs provide fragmentary clues heavily cloaked in metaphor and symbolism, all true but rarely understood except in hindsight.
••	Your character feels the rustle of eldritch horrors skittering through her brain. Her visions can abstractly explore any topic through figurative depictions, but only provide clear images drawn from the character's own memory and experiences. These wandering glimpses of the past provide supernatural insight and hunches, effectively allowing players to get clues from the Storyteller on how to put known information together to address the question at hand without receiving a straight answer.
•••	Your character has attained communion with her terrible masters. The character's visions are incomplete, but often fill in critical details the character might have missed. These visions aren't enough to answer the question outright, but they certainly provide a good foundation to begin an investigation or find a new lead in the absence of other evidence.
••••	Your character drowns in the omnipresent nightmares of the Neverborn. Visions are mostly complete and either use literal depictions or obvious symbols. This level of contact can answer many questions outright, but does not provide supplementary information to expand the inquiry beyond the actual wording of the question, nor do these glimpses explore other points of view or any indirect connections. Storytellers should feel free to present incomplete truths to misdirect players who come to rely on Whispers as a crutch to avoid or bypass plot rather than expand their involvement and awareness of the story.
•••••	Your character has transcended sanity and all vestiges of humanity in obeisance to Oblivion. Visions are agonizingly clear, revealing subtle contextual details and tangentially related facts the character might never have thought to consider, plus unambiguous awareness of the Neverborn’s wishes related to the topic. Because of the thoroughness of this information, it can be tempting to consult the whispers for answers to every challenge. The risk of a false vision and the accrual Resonance for failing to fully abide by the revealed will of the Neverborn, however, can destroy anyone who grows too dependent on the voices within.

Storyteller-triggered insights into the future granted by an Abyssal's Whispers sometimes reveal tragedies and massacres that will result in a large number of deaths, even if the Neverborn should not be privy to that plan (such as a terrorism plot to detonate a Soulbreaker Orb known only to living conspirators). In such cases, the Neverborn have glimpsed some deeper horrid truth in the structure of the universe through their own nihilistic Charms. The dead titans cannot reliably do this, however, and so neither can their Whispers reliably provide such information on demand. Prophetic visions are a plot device, not a power.