Covenant Practitioner

"The Order will tell you the compact is a corruption. The Market will tell you it's an asset. Neither of them is living with it. I am, and I have found it to be a tool. Difficult, dangerous, and pointed toward me as often as away — but a tool."

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

Power Access: Hollow Pact at 1D, no Talent cost. The Circle does not accept Covenant Practitioner applications from practitioners who lack Shadow-Bound lineage — the compact relationship is a prerequisite for the tradition at the level the role demands. Practitioners who affiliate with the Circle without lineage access serve in support roles or pursue the Pact Intermediary track.

Starting Resources: Circle credentials (recognized by organizations with established Circle relationships as practitioner-standing identification), full kit for binding operations (binding materials, compact documentation supplies, the Circle's standard reference on Hollow entity behavior patterns for common types), and a Mentor relationship with a Senior Member who has assessed and sponsored the Practitioner's application.

Lineage Affinity: Marked (Shadow-Bound), required for this track.

Progression Track: Covenant Practitioner

Stage 1 (10 XP), Operational Standing
  The Practitioner has demonstrated sufficient competence to conduct
  independent operations within the Circle's standards and sufficient
  judgment to know when an operation exceeds their current capacity.
  - Formal Binding: The Practitioner has been trained to the Circle's
    binding methodology. When conducting a formal binding to summon
    and constrain a Hollow entity for interrogation or service
    (Threshold 3 Hollow Pact application), the Practitioner may
    reroll one failed die per roll. The Circle's accumulated
    technique provides a margin that practitioners working alone
    do not have.
  - Entity Intelligence: The Practitioner has access to the Circle's
    operational intelligence on Hollow entity behavior — a reference
    that documents known entities' patterns, leverage points, and
    historical behavior. Once per session, they may consult this
    reference to ask the GM one direct question about a Hollow
    entity's known behavior, preferences, or vulnerabilities.
    The GM answers accurately from the Circle's documented knowledge.

Stage 2 (25 XP), Senior Practitioner
  The Practitioner has conducted enough operations to have developed
  their own compact management practice and enough standing in Hollow
  entity networks to be recognized as a practitioner rather than
  simply a contracted party.
  - Network Standing: The Practitioner is known in Hollow entity
    networks as a Circle practitioner — someone who operates by
    standards and who has the organization behind them. Hollow
    entities that recognize Circle standing are more likely to
    negotiate than to simply resist or attack. In direct
    confrontations with Hollow entities, the Practitioner may
    attempt a Wit + Persuade roll vs Threshold 3 to open a
    negotiation rather than a combat. This does not guarantee
    cooperation; it guarantees the entity will hear terms.
  - Compact Leverage: The Practitioner has developed enough
    understanding of their own compact to identify specific terms
    the Hollow entity is obligated by. Once per session, the
    Practitioner may invoke a compact term to constrain their
    entity's immediate action — not stop the entity entirely,
    but hold them to a specific obligation for the scene. The
    entity will look for ways around this. The Practitioner's
    job is to have anticipated them.

Stage 3 (50 XP), Circle Authority
  The Practitioner has become someone the Circle relies on for its
  hardest operational decisions. They have enough standing in Hollow
  entity networks that their word carries weight, and enough
  relationship with their own compact to press it in ways that cost
  the entity something.
  - Inner Circle Eligibility: The Practitioner may be elected to
    the Inner Circle. They have the standing, the track record,
    and the operational depth the role requires. Whether they seek
    it is their decision.
  - Sovereign Claim: Once per campaign, the Practitioner may assert
    full sovereign authority over their compact — a direct challenge
    to the Hollow entity's claim on them that forces the entity to
    treat the compact as a negotiation rather than an ownership
    document. This is not an escape; it is a renegotiation. The
    outcome is determined through extended play — a Hollow entity
    confrontation, a Threshold 5 Hollow Pact application, and a
    contest the Practitioner may or may not win. The entity's
    Involvement level drops by one stage regardless of outcome.
    Claiming it drops by two. This can only be attempted once.