Researcher

The tradition existed before you documented it. The lineage community maintained it without your analysis. Your contribution is making it legible to people who aren't part of either. Whether that's always a contribution is a question you think about.

Favored Save: Wit Save (+1D to Wit + Resolve rolls)

Power Access: Mediumship or Glamourist (optional). Researchers with tradition access find their practice directly relevant to their work, Mediumship supports interaction with historical residue and non-living witnesses; Glamourist's perceptive expressions support tradition studies and lineage assessment work. Access at 1D, no Talent cost, requires appropriate lineage.

Starting Resources: Compact research credentials (respected by most hidden-world parties with academic orientation), full access to the Compact's published archive and selective access to the restricted collection based on research specialty, working relationships with two or three external contacts in their research area, and the personal archive accumulated through their own research history.

Lineage Affinity: Faeborn, Haunt, Human. The Researcher role draws toward lineages with strong Wit profiles and, for Faeborn and Haunt, lineage-native perceptive capacities that support research work.

Progression Track: Researcher

Stage 1 (10 XP), Research Foundation
  The researcher has established their specialty and their place within
  the Compact's research community.
  - Specialist Knowledge: The researcher has developed deep expertise in
    one area (lineage category, tradition type, threat category, or
    historical period). For questions within this specialty, the researcher
    rolls at +1D on Wit + Lore, and the Threshold for standard information
    is 1 rather than 2. For information at the edge of their specialty,
    standard Thresholds apply.
  - Archive Access: The researcher has working relationships with the
    Compact's archive staff and knows how to navigate the collection
    efficiently. Research tasks that would take a scene of work for an
    outside party take a Minor Action for the researcher; they know where
    to look.

Stage 2 (25 XP), Senior Researcher
  The researcher has a publication record and a reputation.
  - External Network: The researcher has built research relationships
    outside the Compact, lineage community contacts, Order archivists,
    Network lore keepers, selected academic specialists in adjacent fields.
    These contacts can be consulted once per session; each has expertise
    in a specific area and will share what they know within the bounds of
    their own institutional constraints.
  - Restricted Access: The researcher has earned access to the Compact's
    restricted archive. This collection contains primary sources and
    research materials not available in the general archive, including
    materials whose implications the Compact has not yet published.

Stage 3 (50 XP), Division Lead / Principal Researcher
  The researcher has become one of the people the hidden world calls when
  it needs to understand something.
  - Comprehensive Knowledge: The researcher's expertise has expanded beyond
    their original specialty. They roll at +1D on Wit + Lore for any
    question within the Compact's collection areas, and at standard dice for
    questions outside those areas. They are, effectively, a living index
    to the most comprehensive hidden-world knowledge base outside government
    classification.
  - Publication Authority: The researcher can publish findings through the
    Compact's journal or monograph series. Once per campaign, a significant
    publication, findings relevant to the current situation that the
    researcher chooses to make available, changes how the hidden world
    responds to that situation. The GM determines the specific effect, but
    it is real and lasting: the information is now in the field.