Instinct Skills

EMPATHY

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A handful of Drafts for your counterpart’s thoughts: what does he want? What does he think about me? Is he afraid? How do I make him like me?
Emotions communicated through body language are easy to read for those with the Empathy Skill. An empathic person harvests basic emotions like a farmer harvests grain, whether dealing with individuals or with groups. He can attune to his counterpart, reflect his emotions, or react empathically. He realizes the true motives behind lies and deception.

ACTION: Attuning to others; feigning friendship; assessing and manipulating group dynamics; psychology
REACTION: Seeing the truth behind emotions; guessing the attitude and disposition of a counterpart
COMBINATION: >INT+Medicine: imparting salvation; >CHA+Conduct: ingratiation

ORIENTEERING

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Rugged wastelands struggle against forests, spore fields, and ruins. The landscape is changing. Towns are many days’ marches apart, and only those who know how to read the milestones and to interpret the position of the sun find the most direct route, circumventing dangers and saving food and water.
With the Orienteering Skill, a traveler is at home everywhere. Without it, he wanders aimlessly for days and nights, even when the town he is looking for is right behind the next chain of hills.

ACTION: Finding someone or something in the country; drawing and reading maps; identifying milestones
REACTION: Avoiding getting lost in dust storms or blizzards; blindly remembering the way when being abducted
COMBINATION: >AGI+Navigation: safely maneuvering; >BOD+Athletics: exploring a target area

PERCEPTION

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An artifact in a sea of dust, the glittering of a telescope lens in the distance, or the shadow between the ruins: to notice all this in time is invaluable.
With a high Perception Skill, the details of your surroundings are clear, leading the Scrapper to his goal or warning the Judge of an ambush.

ACTION: Finding objects or spotting hidden things (traps eavesdropping at doors
REACTION: Noticing sudden events in time; spotting ambushes; hearing or smelling stalking enemies
COMBINATION: >INS+Survival: looking for a haven; >PSY+Reaction: sensing danger; >CHA+Arts: recognizing forgeries

PRIMAL

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Those who dedicate themselves to the Primal Skill feel the beast snarl inside them and throw itself against the bars of reason. Primal ferocity breaks free from its prison. Once Primal is set free, the good and the bad aspects of self rage in a firestorm, burning away any thought of caution and planning. Instead, passion, the willingness to make sacrifices, violence, and rage take over—the beast is free to race across the plains. The mind does not control the hand anymore; that is the heart’s job now.

ACTION: Raging and intimidating enemies
REACTION: Suppressing rational fears; following feral survival instincts in crisis situations
COMBINATION: >INS+Taming: pack pecking orders
SPECIALTY: Characters have to decide between INT+Focus and INS+Primal, as the Skill not chosen here cannot be raised. Focus and Primal are the base traits for the Ego Points.

SURVIVAL

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Where do I dig for water? Will the weather remain unchanged? Nature knows no mercy, and nothing in the cities prepares a traveler for it. Waiting out there, its weapons are thirst, hunger, and sickness.
The Survival Skill sharpens instincts that have eroded in the safety of civilization. The traveler recognizes the water veins meandering through the underground. Tracks in the dust warn him or lead him to a nest full of eggs. Rabbits are caught in his traps. The wilderness is his home.

ACTION: Hunting; gathering; tracking; eviscerating; building fires; setting trap
REACTION: Sensing danger in wilderness (poisons, traps)
COMBINATION: >AGI+Crafting: setting traps; >INT+Science: knowledge of flora and fauna

TAMING

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Those who confront wild Gendos staring and snarling, who train birds or break in a stallion, must know about animal instincts and behavior and counter them with confidence, strength, and empathy. He must be skilled at Taming. With this Skill, the Garganti integrate mammoths into their herds, the Preservists prepare their charges for battle, and the Scourgers train their hyenas for the hunt. The higher the Skill, the closer the bond between human and animal.

ACTION: Calming creatures; mentally strengthening, influencing, and training them
REACTION: Showing strength to an attacking animal and thus unsettling it
COMBINATION: >BOD+Force: wrestling down an enemy; >AGI+Navigation: mounted combat, commanding beasts