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True Sight

Expression: True Sight

AX.GHW.08.03.01

There is what it looks like. Then there is what it is.

True Sight is the bedrock of Glamourist, the capacity to perceive the hidden layer of things with deliberate precision rather than passive reception. Faeborn have this as a background quality of their perception; True Sight makes it a tool: sustained, focused, and able to be directed at specific subjects rather than accepting whatever the fae layer offers.

This expression is entirely perceptive. True Sight reads; it does not create, compel, or conceal. Its results feed investigation, social awareness, and threat identification. A practitioner who has True Sight at high rating and has spent time in the hidden world is very difficult to deceive or misdirect, not because they can counter every illusion, but because they have trouble not noticing when something isn't what it appears to be.

True Sight- Applications

Piercing Gaze (Free Action, Threshold 1–3 depending on concealment depth)

The practitioner focuses their perception on a subject, cutting through glamour, illusion, mundane disguise, and supernatural concealment to see what is actually present. Results depend on concealment complexity:

  • Casual or superficial concealment (mundane disguise, simple illusion, minor supernatural "don't notice me" effect): Threshold 1.
  • Deliberate glamour, active supernatural disguise, shapeshifted form: Threshold 2.
  • Layered or prepared concealment, a being actively maintaining a complex false form: Threshold 3.
  • Concealment created by a practitioner of equal or greater Glamourist rating: contested roll rather than fixed Threshold.

The practitioner sees the subject's actual form, supernatural nature (if any), and any concealed markings, injuries, or significant attributes the glamour was hiding. They do not learn the subject's thoughts or history, only what the concealment was covering.

Scaling: Excess successes provide additional detail: the approximate strength of any Tradition the subject uses (1 excess), whether the subject is aware they're being seen through (1 excess), or how long the current concealment has been maintained (1 excess).

Nature Reading (Primary Action, Threshold 2)

The practitioner examines the hidden nature of a subject, not just what they look like, but what they are. Applied to a person, this surfaces their supernatural lineage (if any), active contract obligations (if any), and whether they are currently operating under a compulsion, binding, or significant supernatural influence. Applied to an object, this surfaces whether it carries supernatural significance, has been enchanted or cursed, or is tied to a specific tradition.

This is not mind-reading. The practitioner perceives the nature of what the subject is, not the subject's intentions or thoughts.

Scaling: Excess successes allow the practitioner to identify the specific tradition associated with any supernatural elements (2 excess), or to determine whether a supernatural influence is active or merely residual (1 excess).

Backlash:

  • Minor: The reading doesn't stop. The practitioner cannot stop perceiving the subject's hidden nature for the remainder of the scene, a constant overlay of fae-layer information on everything the subject does. Disadvantage on Social rolls targeting the subject, as the practitioner is absorbing too much signal to track the conversation naturally.
  • Moderate: The nature reading extends involuntarily to everyone in the scene. The practitioner perceives the hidden nature of every sapient creature in Near range simultaneously. The information is accurate but unmanageable. Until Strain clears, the practitioner has Disadvantage on all rolls requiring attention to the external world, as they are processing more fae-layer information than they can filter.
  • Severe: Something the practitioner saw looks back. One entity in or connected to the subject, a bound spirit, a creditor, a fae patron, becomes immediately aware of the practitioner and knows they were seen. The GM determines the entity's response, but they are now aware of the practitioner's capacity and identity.