Liminal

Liminal Knacks at the mortal level grant you the power to send messages, to ease your travels, and to draw upon the silence at the edges of mortal perception. Liminal Knacks are driven by the concepts of boundary and distance.

In any large gathering of divinities, at least one will stand apart. Most pantheons have a member or two defined by being on the outside of the social order, either metaphorically (a Hero in a legalist pantheon who represents lawbreakers, for example) or literally (the God of a particular Underworld or Overworld separate from the pantheon’s usual meeting grounds). Liminals are Legendary for crossing boundaries and thresholds, venturing out of the pack, rejecting society (rather than subverting it as a Trickster) and going on journeys.

Knacks

• Beyond Memory: You bend the boundaries of cognition, fading from memory after an interaction. Anyone trying to describe you or recall the details of your interaction must make an Occult + Composure roll at Difficulty 2 to remember anything at all, with a 1-point Complication. If they fail to meet this Complication, your identity is safe, though the details of their interaction are not. If this is magically contested, make a Clash of Wills. You may spend Momentum and double successes on any Liminal Skill rolls to avoid passive detection, notice, or stealth otherwise; this does not work against active searching.



• Complete Privacy: By reinforcing the importance of your personal boundaries, any interactions you take cannot be listened in on, your lips cannot be read, your phone can’t be tapped, etc. by use of mundane means. Add +2 difficulty to attempts to tail you. This protects only against covert attempts to invade your privacy and offers no protection against airport security going through your luggage or rivals breaking into your apartment.



• Experienced Traveler: When you travel to a new place, no matter how remote, you quickly pick up the social mores and behaviors, along with enough of the language to get by. Add +1 Enhancement to any applicable rolls to blend into the culture, if the Storyguide feels a need to call for a roll at all. This bonus applies before you roll. Additionally, when you attend a social ritual (such as a wedding or a funeral or a birthday party) you always know exactly the right social mores to follow, and how to appropriately dress. Even if you were not invited, you will not read as out of place.



• Flatlander: When you make a close combat, thrown, or ranged attack, you gain access and 1 Enhancement to apply any of the following Stunts to your action, in addition to the default set:
  • Glimpse the Other Side (any successes above Defense): Make a Clash of Wills. If the target fails, they are stunned or disabled (leaving play entirely) until the start of their next turn. They roll initiative as normal and remain where they were standing on their action. An opponent stunned in this way cannot be targeted by any actions until they reappear.
  • Stutter Time (any successes above Defense): You force the target of your attack to suffer a penalty to their Initiative equal to the successes you spend on this Stunt. This pushes a fast opponent further down the initiative roster. If you are targeting an opponent who has already gone, they take this penalty at the start of the next turn.
  • Bend Space (any successes above Defense): Reduce the target’s range by 1 for each success spent on this Stunt, to a minimum of close, which lasts until the end of the target’s next action.



• Neither the Minute nor the Hour: You make an intimidating prediction about the details of your target’s inevitable death (which does not have to be true) and make an opposed Knack Skill roll. If successful, the target suffers a +1 Difficulty to all actions for the rest of the scene.



• Unerring Delivery: Send a message via another person — a stranger you choose on the street, a spirit or ghost of your pantheon, etc. — to someone in an instant, which can be done even if you are not present in The World, or somewhere else where a simple text or email might not reach.



• Unobtrusive Visitor: When you would observe or infiltrate a location where you do not belong, spend a Momentum and blur the line between what is expected and unexpected. You take on the aspect of someone unassuming and invisible: a janitor, gardener, housekeeper, etc. So long as you collect information or remain an observer and do not take hostile action, anyone in the same Field as you overlooks your presence. This lasts until you take violent action, or until you leave the Field, whichever comes first.

Immortal Knacks

• Enforcing the Boundary: Make a Knack Skill roll — on a success, create a barrier of force that protects you and all allies within short range of you. It moves with you, but you may not take the Rush or Disengage actions. The force field lasts until the end of a fight scene, until you are Taken Out, or until you choose to end the effect — whichever comes first. While enforcing this boundary, characters under its protection may not be targeted by attacks by weapons or abilities with the Firearms or Arcing tags. It adds your Legend in Enhancement to any rolls you make to resist the Rush action. This applies before you roll.



• The Long Road to Anywhere: You make an extended journey without stopping but must rest upon arrival. When you arrive, you can ask hospitality of anyone of a lower Tier than you, and if they refuse you have the option to make the target suffer +2 Difficulty to all actions until you choose to remove the penalty.



• Pierce the Veil: When you cross boundaries on an epic Scale (descending into the afterlife on foot, driving your way across the globe), imbue a point of Legend, rather than spending, to invoke your Legendary Title as a Feat of Scale.



• Step Sideways: When you take a Move action, cross the distance instantly. This movement ignores hazardous and difficult terrain and crosses distance where there may not be a safe place to walk — such as across a chasm. So long as you can see your destination and it is within a distance you can Move, you appear there unharmed. This may only be used to augment the reflexive Move action, and does not apply to Rush or Disengage.

Skills: Athletics, Pilot, Subterfuge
Example Keywords: Traveler, Underworld, Overworld, boundary, threshold, portal, sailor, driver, guide, messenger, alone, transition, change, difference, separation, outsider

Example Gods: Anpu, Ptah, Djehuty, Agni, Ganesha, Yamaraja, Èshù Elègbará, Oshóssí, Oya Iyansan, Sònpònná, Sun Wukong, Tsukiyomo, Inari, Ama-no-Uzume, Sarutahiko, Ebisu, Okuninushi, Hotei, Donn, Manannán, The Morrígan, Dionysus, Hades, Hermes, Persephone, Cheeby-aub-oozoo, Hel, Baldr, Loki

Fatebinding Roles: Canary, Jinx, Unrequited Paramour

Failure Deeds: Arrive too late to save them, refuse the call of adventure, cling to the safety of home

Adoption Deeds: Survive a harrowing journey, go into exile, claim another world.