Nod, around the gilded city
City-born
Heirs of the first city, the forge and the harp.
“And he builded a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son.”
Their story
The first city on earth was raised by a wanderer with blood on his hands, and his children made it magnificent. One brother walked out to keep cattle in tents and never came back; the rest stayed. One of them first strung the harp and shaped the pipe. One of them first forged bronze and iron, and every blade, plow and nail in the world descends from his anvil. The City-born are their heirs, and they have never let anyone forget it.
They are the cleverest people in the world, and the most restless. City-born invent, and trade, and argue, and sing, and build. Their markets never close and their forges never cool. They can talk a merchant down to half his price and a guard into looking the other way, and they hear a footstep in a dark alley long before it reaches them. Every great work of craft in the age has a City-born hand somewhere in it.
Most City-born live in the gilded city and the gilded lowlands of Nod around it, and most of them have made their peace with what rules there. Some have not. A City-born who leaves the gilded city for the hills is called a turncoat by their family and a stranger by the faithful, and has to earn a place among the Sethites one honest day at a time. Those who do bring the forge and the harp with them, and the city of cedar is richer for it.
Their look and ways
Dyed cloth in rich colors, ornaments of bronze and iron, oiled hair and city manners. The men curl their beards and thread them with bronze beads, the women coil their hair high on long bronze pins, kohl darkens every eye, and their Forge-gilt gear runs to deep indigo, saffron, black iron and gold, with a bronze signet seal hung on a cord at the throat. They talk fast, laugh easily and notice everything. A City-born's word is worth exactly what was paid for it, and they will tell you so themselves.
Starting attributes
| Attribute | Start | What it does for you |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence | 24 | Makes signs, spells and songs strike harder, and deepens the well of power for wielders of signs and voices of the company. The City-born's sharpest edge. |
| Agility | 22 | Together with your Defense skill, your chance to dodge a blow. For hunters, it also makes every hunter's art strike harder. |
| Strength | 18 | Adds force to every weapon blow and physical art, and lets you carry more. For defenders, it is also the well of their power. |
| Stamina | 18 | Raises your maximum health. Every calling needs it. |
| Wisdom | 18 | Strengthens every healing and ward, deepens a healer's well of power, and adds a little resistance against all eight kinds of harm. |
Innate resistances
- Fire, from generations at the forge.
- Sorcery, from a city steeped in forbidden arts, where even the children learn to shrug off a curse.
Both grow stronger with every level you gain.
Innate gifts
- Trade Tongue
- merchants buy from you and sell to you at better prices.
- Keen Ear
- you hear hidden enemies close by, and a faint sign marks where they lurk.
Traditions
At every tenth level, choose one:
- For the body and mind: Quick Wit, Deft Hands or Hammer Arm, raising your Intelligence, Agility or Strength.
- For protection: Forge-tempered against fire, Worldly against sorcery, or Taster's Tongue against poison.
- For skill: Keen Edge with blades, Silver Tongue to make your blessings and curses land, or Sure Throw with ranged weapons.
- Gifts found nowhere else:
- Tubal's Temper: your gear wears half as fast when you fall, and your weapons strike a little harder.
- Jubal's Ear: songs and instruments you play, or hear, last longer.
- Streetwise: once in a while, reveal every hidden enemy around you.
Natural callings
Choose the City-born if
You want to be clever, quick and a little dangerous. You love the forge, the market and the music hall, and you want a character with a past to wrestle with. The City-born built the most beautiful city in the world on a murderer's foundation. What they build next is up to you.
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