The Psi-Kin live in a variety of timelines. Some think this is because the gods loved them, and made many varieties of them. And this is true--they are beloved of the gods of the Light. Others point to misty legends which tell of travelling from other worlds, and other times. Sometimes the means is a starship, and other times a cave or a crack in a wall figures into the story. And some remember or have learned how to find natural gates and other-dimensional beings by the vibrations in the superstrings underlying reality.
They live from fifty percent more to several hundred percent in certain special cases longer than the local population of humans although interbreeding is fully possible. Not all the races they commingle their cultures with are Human. And in some they are simply known as the Pale Ones or the Outsiders or Those Who Came From the Cave.
A measure of concern for right and a sweet contentment with their lot along with a love of boldness for its own sake touch them all. It is said by some that they Fell, but not very far. That their Adam did not blame their Eve, but apologized immediately.
Their great weakness is a passion for wandering. Many a great family or a nation has sprung from a Psi-Kin hunter not being willing to stop at the mouth of a natural crevice in the universe, and following it through to the other side for curiousity's sake. And once there, not being able to return.
Such beings often breed with the locals, but their genes are so strong that soon a new race of Psi-kin is found but little brought down from the original genome. And even in places where their excellence is submerged in a sea of ordinariness, one tends to find the great rulers of the new land to have more than a normal share of Psi-kin in the background.
For to rule the willing is their lot which they take up as a burden gladly borne, but many would rather be a hunter in a forest with a cabin and a family than a king of a vast domain.
A Typical Psi-Kin
Persuasion 1@8
Charisma 2@2
Animal Magnetism 1@7
Strength 1@9
Stamina 2@1
Resistance 1@10
Density 1@1
Flexibility 1@8
Agility 1@9
Hand/Eye 2@1
Intellect 1@9
Intuition 2@1
Education Level (This varies widely from world to world, but they are typically +@3 above the average local, if not more because in some societies the average local is kept deliberately dumb.)
Willpower 2@2
TV 1@7
DV 1@9
RSV 2@1
MSV 1@10
All Psi-Kin have Three of the Seven of the Telepathics Package at 2@1, 1@7, and 1@3. If they do not have this, they have nothing, and are generally considered handicapped.
Frequently Psi-Kin have other abilities as well (although limited by the world bias they find themselves in.) Some Psi-Kin have higher abilities than could be learned in the local universe because they come from other universes where more is possilble.
Illusion, astral travelling, minor healing, and precognitions are common gifts in their race. They regard psi as a gift which reveals itself, and they do not seek to develop new abilities. But once they have an ability, they are frequently aggressive in learning how to use it. Start a gift at 1@2, and then for every decade of their age add @1 unless they have developed it very recently.
Typically they have a Survival skill at 2@1, a Religion at 1@10, several Martial Arts skills at 1@8, and Leadership at 2@1.
Unfortunately, some few choose a darker path. Its been discovered that one way to boost the energy available for psionic endeavours is to take the life force of another sentient. This draining takes years from the life of the target and eventually makes them old, and then makes them dust.
While such skills are seductive, the truly addictive nature kicks in very hard once you kill a person. Its a bigger high than smack, and a tougher hook than crack.
And thus are the Lifedrainers made. Frequently they come from the lesser of the Psi-Kin, but sometimes the great succumb to pride and frustration at not being the greatest.
They typically worship Anarch deities like the Lady Icefire who burns, but never heats, and entities like the Imp of the Countercyclical. These are perverse entities who delight in maddening their followers, in disintegration of personality, and in proof that the Universe is fundamentally evil (even if they have to create that proof).
Lord Starion the Outcast: Lifedrinker: Psionic Vampire: Lord Starion of House Mirabelle
Persuasion 2@1
Charisma 2@2
Animal Magnetism 1@7
Strength 1@9
Stamina 1@8
Resistance 2@5
Density 1@1
Flexibility 1@8
Agility 1@9
Hand/Eye 2@1
Intellect 1@9
Intuition 1@8
Education Level 2@3
Willpower 2@4
TV 1@6
DV 1@9
RSV 1@10
MSV 1@9
Starion used to be of House Mirabelle in the Fallen Towers of soft purple of Fleurzi-Divaeli above the gold flecked sea filled with shining plankton, enormous whales sieving the deep and serving as water horses to his kindred, in a place where arm-wide phosphorescent dragonflies dueled with the trained raptors of his kin for dominance of the swirling updrafts his kindred rode with their windriding borne of their mind. Here they sought lessons of the ancient past, and mourned the days when their powers were greater. In the great harbor, they spread nets of mutual benefit and trade across the world, and across worlds.
And always they sought knowledge. They were more aggressive than others of their kind in seeking ancient powers once wielded by their grandsires.
And so when the book was opened, it was not immediately destroyed. And Lord Starion learned how to taste the life of another, and how to do the forbidden, and take the life of another by the power of his will alone.
Joy! Power! Freedom!
In his excitement he told his friends, but they were horrified. He scorned their provincial minds, and they begged him to turn back. He laughed, and took to the wind, and dared them to fight him knife on knife in the air where one falter of will could send the fighter to a fatal fall.
One took his challenge. And before their eyes, Starion took his life, and flew away.
He found a forgotten gate, and activated it. And he slipped through....
(To whatever world the Referee wants him in.)
Of the Telepathics Package...
Read Minds P1@1 at 1@6
Suggestion P1@4 at 1@7
Summonings P1@8 at 1@4
Operate Psionic Teleportive Device P1@9 at 1@4 (Open Natural Pscyoactive Dimension Gate).
Synaptic Static P2@5 at 1@8
Barred Mind P2@4 at 1@9
Detect Extra-dimensionality P3@10 at 1@7
This so far is a normal array of skills for a mature, but youngish Psi-Kin to have. He is merely more advanced in these skills than most his age, but that is in part due to his sub-culture, and his own drive.
Windriding at 1@6 is a (typical among his branch of the Kin, but not so elsewhere) P4@6 Neutral Buoyancy skill with the use of side panels which run loosely from the arm to the calf. When not in flight, and in good weather, these side panels are tied back with a belt.
Lifedrinkers tend to use a dark cape instead of the side panels.
Use Knife T3@3 at 1@8.
Detect Life P3@1 at 1@4
Life Drain P14@10 at 1@7. It is immensely seductive, and he has to make a Difficult Willpower roll to stop before killing the person. This usage has blackened his aura, and imparts a counterspin to his aura which both signal darkest evil, and perversity to the knowing. It is a simple Perception check to the unknowing who observe his aura to be aware that it represents very bad things, indeed.
If he Life Drains, he may Steal Physical Attributes (A variant of Lend Physical Attributes P5@7) at 1@7.
Contributions by William T. Wodium. Created by Eric R. Ashley.
