Andrus Setting Perks

AX.GAN.08.01 - Andrus Setting Perks

Overview

This section defines the Layer 2 Setting Perks for the Andrus Genre Catalog, per the two-layer framework established in AxiomRPG Core 07.2. These perks extend the Core Perk library with Andrus-specific capabilities that reference the setting's power tradition cost mechanics, inter-lineage institutional authority systems, the Blasted Reach environment, and the three-era knowledge archives.

Format follows Core 07.2. Setting Perks may be assigned to Profession Progression Track Stages alongside or instead of Core Perks. Stage guidance is identical to Core 07.2:

Stage	Action Economy	Target Scope	Recovery	Power Level
1	Free Action	Self or single target	Short Rest	Small, reliable
2	Primary Action	Nearby scope	Long Rest	Moderate, tactically significant
3	Extended preparation	Area or unusual effect	Full Rest	Major, encounter-shaping

Mixing with Core Perks is expected. A given Profession Stage may draw from Core 07.2, from this list, or from a custom-authored perk. Setting Perks are not exclusive to specific professions, any character who meets the access requirement may take one.

POWER TRADITION SUPPORT

Perks that interact with the cost mechanics shared across Andrus's power traditions: Elemental Strain (Fire, Water, Air), Form Fatigue (Earth, Draconic Essence), Arcane Load (Consortium Arcanism), and Perceptual Saturation (Scar Reading). Assignable to any profession with Power Access. No tradition affiliation is required; these perks apply to whichever tradition the character uses.

Every power tradition in Andrus includes a mechanism for mid-scene recovery from its degraded state, Strained, Loaded, Saturated, or equivalent, that costs a Primary Action and a Governing Attribute + Resolve roll at standard Threshold. Practiced Channel reduces that action cost without reducing the difficulty.

When the character is in any power tradition's degraded state, they may attempt mid-scene recovery as a Free Action rather than a Primary Action. The roll is unchanged: Governing Attribute + Resolve, at the tradition's standard recovery Threshold (Threshold 3 for most traditions, see AX.GAN.09.03–09.10 for the specific Threshold per tradition). On failure, the character remains degraded and may not attempt again until after their next rest, identical to the standard rule. Only the action cost changes.

Limit: The Free Action option is always available when in a degraded tradition state. A failed attempt does not prevent later Primary Action recovery if the tradition's rules otherwise permit.

Design note: Practiced Channel does not make recovery easier; it reduces the opportunity cost of attempting it. The gap between a character who succeeds on Threshold 3 and one who fails is unchanged; only the round-economy cost of the attempt is reduced. Professions with high Resolve investment benefit most.

Profession assignments: Any profession with Power Access. Most relevant to high-frequency casters: Hearthspeaker (Mystic), Consortium Arcanist (Mystic), Deep Voice (Mystic), Vane (Mystic), Channel (Mystic), Reach Reader (Rogue), Chronicler-Legate (Mystic).

Power tradition use leaves a residue, a faint echo of whichever primordial power was channeled. A trained perceiver can read that echo the way an experienced tracker reads disturbed ground: not what happened, but that something happened, and approximately what kind.

As a Free Action, roll Wit + Attunement vs Threshold 2. On success: confirm that at least one power tradition was used within Near range in the past 24 hours. On 3+ successes: identify which tradition was used (Elemental Fire, Elemental Earth, Elemental Water, Elemental Air, Consortium Arcanism, Scar Reading, or Draconic Essence). On 5+ successes: estimate whether the use was solo or Formation, and approximately how recently.

Murin's corruption registers differently from tradition use, as a consuming absence rather than a presence. A character who knows what to look for can identify this signature at 3+ successes. One who does not know it exists may simply note that the echo is wrong without being able to name it.

Within the Blasted Reach, ambient World Gate residue makes all tradition echo louder. Reduce the Threshold for basic detection to 1. A Consuming fissure (see Scar Awareness, below) within Close range is detectable without a roll, the Kyne Daas describe it as a silence that is louder than sound.

Limit: Once per Short Rest.

Profession assignments: Reach Reader (Rogue), Chronicler-Legate (Mystic), Scholar (Mystic), Vane (Mystic), Warm One (Mystic).

CULTURAL AUTHORITY

Perks representing formal institutional standing within Andrus's inter-lineage power structures. These require the character to have established recognized standing with the relevant institution through play, the GM confirms whether the character qualifies. Cultural Authority perks are analogous to the Core Organizational perk category but calibrated to Andrus's specific political architecture.

Cultural Authority perks may replace or extend the equivalent-Stage Core Organizational perk for characters with established institutional affiliation.

The Voren Stewardship Compact's authority rests on a recognized principle: that disputes between peoples who must share territory are better resolved through formal mediation than attrition. When a character with recognized Compact standing formally invokes that principle, they are placing its accumulated credibility, and the inter-lineage consequences of disregarding it, against the immediate situation.

Once per Long Rest, the character formally invokes Compact Standing in any situation involving two or more lineages in conflict or negotiation. All creatures within Near range who recognize Compact authority (which includes all Anima and Kin lineages and most cultures with established Voren commercial relationships) must make a Wit Save (Threshold 3). On failure: they will not take hostile action against any party in the area for the current scene, and must acknowledge the invocation's procedural legitimacy, entering mandatory non-aggression, not mandatory agreement. Creatures that subsequently violate the invoked Compact are marked as Compact-breakers, with lasting inter-lineage relationship consequences tracked by the GM.

This is institutional authority, not magical compulsion. Creatures that do not recognize Compact standing are unaffected. Creatures with strong reason to disregard the institution, Murin-turned agents, for instance, make the Save at Advantage.

Requires: Recognized Compact standing confirmed by the GM. Voren lineage does not automatically grant this, standing must be demonstrated through play.

Limit: Once per Long Rest.

Design note: Compact Invocation is distinct from the Compact Warden's Stage 3 Compact's Weight, which applies the Accorded compulsion condition. The Warden forces compliance through a mechanical compulsion; Compact Invocation invokes institutional weight and creates political consequences for violation. They address different situations and do not duplicate each other.

Profession assignments: Compact Warden (Warrior), Commander (Warrior, Voren-lineage), any character with an established Compact mandate.

The Ekhari Merchant Council's authority is institutional. A House in good standing can do what an individual, however persuasive, cannot: create a record, file a writ, and invoke the enforcement machinery of twelve organized commercial Houses operating across the territories of Andrus.

Once per Long Rest, a character with active Merchant Council House affiliation may invoke House authority in one of three ways: (a) Suspend a specific commercial transaction or contractual obligation for 48 hours pending Council review, the suspension is binding in all jurisdictions where Council authority is recognized; (b) File a formal debt-collection writ that seizes accessible commercial assets of a named party until the stated obligation is satisfied or disputed through proper channels; or (c) Issue a commercial vouching that establishes a specific agreement as House-recognized, other parties may contest it formally, but cannot ignore it without registered opposition.

The House will not issue writs indefinitely without cost. The GM tracks the character's House relationship and introduces appropriate reciprocal obligations when institutional authority is invoked. Overuse without demonstrated value to the House risks having the affiliation withdrawn.

Requires: Active Merchant Council House affiliation. Invoking this perk without current standing is a legal exposure.

Limit: Once per Long Rest.

Design note: House Writ is the institutional commercial tool that sits between a House Advocate's personal leverage (profession Stage 1–2 abilities) and their full organizational action (profession Stage 3 Council Architecture). House Writ is accessible to any affiliated Ekhari character; it does not require the House Advocate profession.

Profession assignments: House Advocate (Rogue), Consortium Arcanist (Mystic, many Ekhari casters maintain House affiliation independently of their Advocate role), any Ekhari character with established House standing.

BLASTED REACH

Perks for operating in and with the Blasted Reach, the region of metaphysical damage left by the World Gate's opening. These perks address capabilities unique to the Andrus setting's signature dangerous environment and to the information security discipline the Kyne Daas developed for operating within it.

The Blasted Reach fissures are not uniform. Some are geologically dormant, old scars stabilized into landscape features. Some carry active World Gate residue, still radiating the echo of the Gate's opening. And some, the Kyne Daas have noted, carry something different: a quality they describe as consuming absence rather than active presence.

As a Free Action, the character assesses all fissure activity within Near range. Basic read (no roll): classify each fissure as Active (World Gate energy still present), Dormant (stable, minimal residue), or Consuming (Murin's entropy signature, recognizable to a trained observer as the absence of echo rather than its presence; anyone taught specifically what to look for can make this classification). Extended read (Wit + Attunement, Threshold 2): identify the approximate age and origin of a specific fissure's energy signature and whether it has been modified or disturbed by non-geological means within the past week.

In the deep Reach interior, Consuming fissures are detectable within Close range without any roll. The Kyne Daas describe the experience as breathing without receiving breath.

Limit: Once per Short Rest.

Design note: Scar Awareness extends the Reach Reader's Scar Sense profession ability in a specific direction, where Scar Sense detects disturbances (any changes within 24 hours), Scar Awareness classifies the underlying fissure character. A Reach Reader with both can detect recent disturbance (Scar Sense) and assess the fissure's fundamental nature (Scar Awareness). Non-Reach Readers who spend significant time in the Blasted Reach may acquire Scar Awareness through training.

Profession assignments: Reach Reader (Rogue), any character who has spent a significant period operating in the Blasted Reach interior.

The Kyne Daas developed this discipline for the Blasted Reach, where the only path you can trust is one no single observer can follow from end to end. A message distributed across multiple carriers, locations, or coded references becomes something more than difficult to intercept; it becomes a puzzle requiring multiple successful recoveries before the whole can be assembled.

Once per Full Rest, after at least one uninterrupted scene of preparation, the character distributes a message, plan, or piece of critical evidence using Kyne Daas segmentation discipline. Any party attempting to intercept, divine, or reconstruct the complete picture must succeed on three separate Notice or Investigation rolls (Threshold 3 each) and succeed on ALL THREE before the full message is exposed. Succeeding on fewer reveals only the corresponding fragment, accurate, but incomplete. The character who created the segmented message is aware when any segment is accessed: a change in a contact's behavior, a disturbed cache, a read notation.

This is tradecraft, not magic. Active magical surveillance does not automatically bypass the three-check requirement but may modify Thresholds at GM discretion. Destroying one segment destroys only that portion, the rest remains protected but incomplete for any future recipient.

Limit: Once per Full Rest. Requires one uninterrupted scene of preparation. Cannot be improvised mid-encounter.

Note: The Reach Reader (AX.GAN.08.02, Stage 3, Reader's Protocol) receives this as a profession ability with one additional capability: they know exactly which segment was accessed, not merely that a segment was disturbed. The Setting Perk provides the structural protection; the profession ability adds precision awareness. Both use the same three-check interception mechanic (formalizing Flag 5 from AX.GAN.00).

Profession assignments: Reach Reader (Rogue, Setting Perk formalizes the mechanic; Profession ability is the enhanced version), Architect (Rogue), Infiltrator (Rogue), Commander (Warrior, tactical plan compartmentalization), Memory Keeper (Rogue, archival security).

SETTING KNOWLEDGE

Perks representing access to Andrus's accumulated three-era record, knowledge systems that extend beyond individual lifetimes through the archives of cultures whose institutional memory runs deep. These perks require cultivated archival access established through play.

Some questions require a record that extends beyond what any individual has seen. Three cultures on Andrus maintain archives with this kind of reach, each distinct in what they have kept and how.

Once per Full Rest, after a Long Rest of reflection and consultation, the character accesses the deepest archival source available through relationships established in play. They may ask one specific, clearly stated historical question, an event, a pattern, a precedent, a decision and its consequences. The answer arrives accurately, filtered through the nature of the source. The GM confirms which sources are accessible based on play history.

Three available sources, each with distinct depth and limitations:

Daza Memory Coil: The oral record extending from the Third Era back through the First. Richest in documented events within Anima territory; fragmented where coil lines broke or where historical trauma produced deliberate forgetting. Events are described with the emotional precision of direct witness, what the recorder experienced, not academic analysis. Strongest for deep Anima history and pre-Gate events.

Ustara Covenant archives and True Dragon memory: Three-generation Ustara chronicle plus True Dragon living memory, which extends to before the Third Era's opening. Strongest on the World Gate, celestial alignments, and recent history. True Dragon memory may extend further at GM discretion, but what a True Dragon remembers it has chosen to remember, and what it says is what it has chosen to say. The astronomical dimension of the archive is unmatched on Andrus.

Yusk ancestral account: The oldest available record, Yusk elder memory extends through the First Era and possibly earlier. The least precise by current political categories: events are described in geological, ecological, and generational terms, not by the names and dates modern cultures use. The Yusk's pre-Kin records may include the only surviving account of whatever approached Andrus before the elemental breaches. The depth has a cost in interpretive difficulty.

Limit: Once per Full Rest. Requires a Long Rest to access properly; this is sustained consultation, not mid-encounter recall. The character must have cultivated the relevant archival relationship in play.

Profession assignments: Memory Keeper (Rogue, Daza access; Era's Record is the deep archival version of Coil Archive, requiring Long Rest access versus Coil Archive's once-per-Full-Rest scene-level use), Chronicler-Legate (Mystic, Ustara/Dragon access; Dragon Witness covers immediate testimony, Era's Record covers extended historical research), Warm One (Mystic, Yusk access; their deepest available pull beyond Pattern Already Resolved), Scholar (Mystic, any archive, with GM-confirmed access established in play).

QUICK REFERENCE

By Category

Power Tradition Support (assignable to any profession with Power Access)

Perk	Stage	Key Effect
Practiced Channel	1	Mid-scene tradition recovery as Free Action instead of Primary Action; Threshold unchanged
Tradition Trace	1	Detect tradition use within Near/24h; identify tradition on 3+; intensity on 5+
Cultural Authority (institution-specific; require established standing confirmed by GM)

Perk	Institution	Stage	Key Effect
Compact Invocation	Voren Compact	2	Mandate non-aggression + parlay for scene; Compact-breaker consequences for violation
House Writ	Ekhari Council	2	Suspend transaction OR seize assets OR vouch commercial agreement

Blasted Reach (environment and information security)

Perk	Stage	Key Effect
Scar Awareness	1	Classify fissures Active/Dormant/Consuming without roll; extended read with Attunement
Segmented Message	3	Three-check interception (Threshold 3 each); aware when any segment accessed

Setting Knowledge (deep archive access; cultivated archival relationships required)

Perk	Stage	Key Effect
Era's Record	3	Historical question via Daza, Ustara/Dragon, or Yusk archive; Long Rest access
### By Stage

Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3
Practiced Channel	Compact Invocation	Segmented Message
Tradition Trace	House Writ	Era's Record
Scar Awareness
### Suggested Profession Assignments

Profession	Suggested Setting Perk(s)
Compact Warden (Warrior)	Compact Invocation (Stage 2)
Commander (Warrior)	Compact Invocation (Stage 2) or Segmented Message (Stage 3)
Shinekeeper's Shadow (Rogue)	Tradition Trace (Stage 1)
House Advocate (Rogue)	House Writ (Stage 1 or 2)
Memory Keeper (Rogue)	Era's Record (Stage 3)
Reach Reader (Rogue)	Scar Awareness (Stage 1), Segmented Message (Stage 3)
Infiltrator (Rogue)	Segmented Message (Stage 3)
Architect (Rogue)	Segmented Message (Stage 3)
Hearthspeaker (Mystic)	Practiced Channel (Stage 1)
Vane (Mystic)	Tradition Trace (Stage 1), Practiced Channel (Stage 1)
Warm One (Mystic)	Era's Record (Stage 3)
Deep Voice (Mystic)	Practiced Channel (Stage 1)
Chronicler-Legate (Mystic)	Tradition Trace (Stage 1), Era's Record (Stage 3)
Consortium Arcanist (Mystic)	Practiced Channel (Stage 1), House Writ (Stage 2)
Channel (Mystic)	Practiced Channel (Stage 1)
Windcaster (Mystic)	Practiced Channel (Stage 1)
Scholar (Mystic)	Tradition Trace (Stage 1), Era's Record (Stage 3)

Blank professions should draw Stage perks from the Core 07.2 library. Suggested assignments are starting points, the GM and player determine final perk selection during character creation or advancement.

DESIGN NOTES

Seven perks across four categories: Every perk fills a gap the Core 07.2 library cannot address. Practiced Channel and Tradition Trace interact with Andrus's multi-tradition cost mechanics, no Core Perk does this. Compact Invocation and House Writ reference specific Andrus institutional frameworks. Scar Awareness and Segmented Message are grounded in the Blasted Reach environment and Kyne Daas information discipline. Era's Record uses Andrus's three-era archival depth. Any capability that works identically in any setting belongs in Core 07.2.

Segmented Message resolves Flag 5: The three-check interception mechanic in Reach Reader's Reader's Protocol (AX.GAN.08.02, Stage 3) was flagged in AX.GAN.00 as novel and requiring formalization. Segmented Message is that formalization. The profession ability remains unchanged; it is the mastered version, with the precision awareness enhancement (knowing which segment, not merely that a segment). Both use the same underlying three-check mechanic, now formally defined here.

Cultural Authority perks complement, not duplicate, profession abilities: Compact Invocation produces institutional consequence (political marking, mandatory non-aggression), distinct from Compact Warden's Stage 3, which applies the Accorded compulsion. House Writ is the intermediate institutional tool between a House Advocate's personal leverage (profession Stages 1–2) and their full organizational action (Stage 3 Council Architecture). A character can hold both a profession ability and a Cultural Authority perk that address adjacent needs.

Era's Record and profession ability overlap: Memory Keeper (Coil Archive), Chronicler-Legate (Dragon Witness), and Warm One (Pattern Already Resolved) all have related in-scene abilities. Era's Record is the extended-consultation version, requiring a Long Rest and returning full archival depth rather than the targeted question or pattern recognition of the profession abilities. The profession versions work in-session, immediately. Era's Record handles sustained historical research.

Stage 3 gaps for Warriors: No Setting Perks here are designed as Stage 3 Warrior abilities. The three Warrior Stage 3 abilities in AX.GAN.08.01 are mechanically complete. Compact Invocation (Stage 2) and Segmented Message (Stage 3) are usable by Warriors in appropriate contexts; otherwise, Stage 3 Warriors draw from Core 07.2 (Last Stand, Signature Move, Mastery).

Seven perks: 3 Stage 1, 2 Stage 2, 2 Stage 3 | Four categories: Power Tradition Support, Cultural Authority, Blasted Reach, Setting Knowledge