Chapter One, part 1 - Full Text (Patreon)

Chapter One: Broken, Remade, and Renegade

Remember me as you pass by. As you are now, so once was I. As I am now, soon you will be. Prepare yourself to follow me.

— Traditional Headstone Epitaph

Deviants were once unquestionably human. They had normal, mundane lives that involved participating in activities common to millions of people and had experiences shared by many Baselines, if not universal to them. Their needs were similarly commonplace, with desires within the normal range of human drives for things like pleasure, safety, validation, beauty, and leaving behind a legacy.

In an instant, the Divergence took that from them.

Being Broken means being forever altered, cast adrift from humanity in a thousand ways — some larger and some smaller, but none of them insignificant. They annihilate the Baseline who once was, transforming them into one of the Remade.

Origins

Origins reflect a character’s state of consent at the moment of Divergence. While some Remade retain the same attitude towards their transformation now that they had then, many have evolving views of the net cost/benefit of their Divergence. If they had it to do again, some Exomorphs would have welcomed the power they gained when they were Broken, and no few Autourgics discover they regret their transformations. Origin should therefore be considered a starting point, not a reflection of a character’s current attitudes towards their Remade condition. Any Origin can lead a Deviant to life as a Renegade (or a Devoted).

A character’s Origin often says more about the conspiracy that made them than it does about the Deviant themself. Moreover, a conspiracy’s preference of Origin can evolve over time.

Below are 50 Deviant backstories that lead Remade to become Renegades. They’re organized by Origin, but most could just as easily apply to a character of another Origin. For example, the Exomorph might well have grown sympathetic towards the conspiracy that made her, only to run afoul of a bad boss or workplace rival who drove her to go rogue. Remember also that while all paths in these character concepts lead to Renegades, the roads to becoming Devoted are just as numerous and varied.

Autourgic Renegades

Conspiracies with a large population of Elect are often among the most ethical in the Web of Pain. This is certainly relative. These conspiracies must still violate their subjects’ bodies and minds in unthinkably awful ways to trigger the Divergence. But at least those they recruit go into the process with the risks clearly disclosed, even if they can’t truly understand what the experience will be like. Autourgic-heavy conspiracies rely on their recruits’ loyalty and dedication to a cause or ideal. Many are government-sanctioned groups that can wave the flag of nationalism to win over patriots, while others are religious orders that can rely upon their adherents’ zeal to ensure a steady supply of willing subjects. Elect-heavy conspiracies are also the most likely to know about and fight against hostile supernatural forces in the world, sharing this knowledge with potential Divergence candidates to inspire them to offer themselves as soldiers in that hidden war. A large minority of conspiracies begin with a Self-Made Autourgic as a founder.

In times when the body count rises, or cultural factors make patriotism, zeal, and sacrifices for the greater good a less common refrain in the population, Autourgic-dominated conspiracies must often adapt. Many turn to recruiting existing Remade, either poaching them from rival conspiracies or seeking out Renegades or Pathologicals who might be stirred by the conspiracy’s higher purpose. Sufficiently desperate conspiracies, finding it impossible to meet their recruitment goals in any other way, might resort to deception or outright abduction to meet their quotas (producing Epimorphs and Exomorphs).

On the other hand, a successful conspiracy with a large pool of Autourgic Devoted may unlock the secrets of producing Genotypals, laying the foundation for an important shift in its focus. This is by no means assured, however, since it depends on whether the conspiracy is able to isolate the root cause of one type of Divergence and reliably reproduce it.

Bad Apple: Divergence offered you power, which you have long craved. You didn’t much care what the conspiracy’s true goals were as long as you benefited. For a long time, you did. You did your job, but you also enjoyed the power your Variations granted you outside of working hours. Technically, you signed a code of ethics or behavior or some shit, but adhering to it never crossed your mind. You were one of the conspiracy’s few success stories. You were irreplaceable, far too precious to discard over some venial violation, whether it was exacting petty revenge on old enemies or earning a few grand extra selling your unique services to outside parties. Then those bastards told you they weren’t going to let you work for them anymore. You were giving their whole organization a bad name, and finance ran some numbers with the PR department and decided you were costing them more money than you were earning. They…fired you. Like some incompetent custodian or a telemarketer who missed her quota one month too many. But you’ll show them they’ve made a grave mistake.

Corruption: The conspiracy used to be something you could believe in — not perfect, but basically well-intentioned and filled with people who wanted to make the world a better place. You’re not sure exactly when that changed. Maybe it was the new CEO. Maybe it was the IPO. Maybe it was after the head of R&D was killed in that laboratory accident. Regardless, it isn’t the same place anymore. It isn’t a good place to work, and any good it might still be accomplishing is far outstripped by the harm it inflicts. So, you left. It wasn’t easy. You still have friends there, after all. But you know it was the right decision.

Discarded: You chose Divergence, chose it knowing something of what it would cost you, knowing there could be no turning back. You woke with remarkable gifts. You woke with a confidence you had never felt in your life. Then you saw the frowns on the faces of the scientists as they tested you. You had gained impossible powers, but maybe they weren’t as potent or as useful as the conspiracy had hoped. Or perhaps the burdens you gained during the process were too disruptive or more severe than was acceptable. It’s even possible that your new abilities were too powerful, and the conspiracy feared it wouldn’t be able to control you. Whatever the case, they decided they didn’t want you. They might have flown you to an unfamiliar, faraway city and abandoned you, or perhaps you woke up one day and found that they had taken all their equipment and staff and left for places unknown. Either way, you don’t know how to find them, and doubt they would take you back even if you did.

Extinct Conspiracy: The conspiracy was home to you when you had nowhere else to go and no one else to care for you. You liked working there. You liked your coworkers. You believed in its mission. Yours was the first name on the list when they asked for volunteers for a special new treatment. But then something happened. At the time, you thought it a catastrophic accident, one that in an instant took away everyone and everything you loved. You only survived because of your remarkable abilities. As you picked through the rubble, looking for survivors, you discovered evidence of foul play. Now you seek the ones responsible.

Mission Accomplished: You volunteered for the Divergence out of a sense of duty or to achieve an objective that would have been impossible without the power it granted. It was an act of self-sacrifice you embraced at the time and didn’t regret afterwards. Whatever it is that drove you to choose Divergence, you accomplished it. That was supposed to be the end. You turned in your resignation — or your Progenitor released you from his service as agreed when you volunteered — and you walked away. But then you started to notice the black sedans waiting wherever you went. One day, a gentleman in a well-tailored suit got out of one and made you an offer: use your powers in the service of his employer. You refused him, but he and his associates have proven unwilling to take no for an answer.

New Boss: You were satisfied with your life at the conspiracy until he arrived. Maybe he was part of a routine management shake-up, or maybe he forced out (or murdered) your previous boss. Maybe he still claims to be the same boss as ever, but he acts like a different person. The point is that he was trying to make your life miserable (or planned to get rid of you in a permanent fashion), so you took action. You may or may not have gone berserk at your office and left his body in a shallow grave before you left, but you’re out now, and there’s no going back.

Self-Loathing: You volunteered for the process or ritual that led to your Divergence, but you realized almost immediately that it was a mistake. You hate what you’ve become, and you hate the ones who convinced you to go through with it even more.

Truth Revealed: The conspiracy seemed benevolent, at first. You served it loyally, gave more of yourself to it than was probably wise. But gradually you became aware of some questionable practices. You brought them to your superior’s attention, and she assured you that these violations would be investigated, the perpetrators disciplined. Except that didn’t happen, so you started looking into matters on your own, which led you to a terrible truth. These awful practices weren’t anomalies; they were standard procedure. The more you looked, the more you realized your beloved organization was a cancer in the world. Most of those it Remade didn’t have the choice you had. You met some of them, heard their stories firsthand. You helped them escape, and together you work to bring down the conspiracy you once served.

Unacceptable Order: You were a loyal agent of the conspiracy, obeying its commands unquestioningly until the day you received an order you found you could not obey. Maybe it was a suicide mission or a doomed last stand. Maybe you were ordered to report for a dangerous new treatment or for vivisection. Maybe you were instructed to hurt someone you cared about or perpetrate an abominable crime that was a bridge too far even for you. Whatever the specifics, you either fled rather than obey the order, or you carried out the instruction but were so shaken by doing so that you left the conspiracy soon after.

Weary Soldier: You’ve served the conspiracy for as long as anyone can remember — before and after your Divergence. You have done unspeakable things in its interests. Maybe you could reasonably convince yourself that it was all for the greater good, or maybe you know full well you’ve spent your life furthering the goals of criminals and villains. In any case, you tired of that life and walked away. Perhaps you went with your conspiracy’s blessing and a nice severance package — or at least a retirement plan better than “one bullet in the chest and one in the back of the head.” Or maybe you faked your own death or carved a bloody path out of the conspiracy. Regardless, you’re out. Deprived of the protection they granted you, though, other conspiracies have come calling.

Workplace Drama: It could have started with a small conflict — a disagreement at the weekly staff meeting, a tendency to chew with her mouth open, bad taste in music. Or maybe you had an instant dislike for one another. Regardless, it soon worsened until it started to interfere with both your jobs, and eventually the sniping, backbiting, and personal sabotage attracted the attention of HR. Despite their efforts at mediation, as it turned out, the conspiracy wasn’t big enough for both of you. Maybe you walked away while she stayed, or maybe you arranged a little accident that people weren’t convinced was an accident after all. In any case, you didn’t stick around to find out what happened next. The conspiracy is probably still looking for you, and it will be big trouble if they find you.

Epimorph Renegades

Conspiracies with a large population of Volunteer Devoted are usually clever and subtle, preferring to rely on deception rather than brute force. They often insinuate themselves into political and corporate machinery, making themselves difficult to root out and eliminate through violent means. They prefer to work indirectly, relying on intermediaries and taking no unnecessary risks. This can make them seem quite reasonable and willing to negotiate. In truth, this is usually a ruse. These conspiracies are ruthless and will not adhere to any deal they can break with impunity.

Epimorph-heavy conspiracies have a hard time adopting other recruitment methods. Their agents are seldom true believers and are unlikely to offer themselves as Elect test subjects. They shun violence for fear that it will be inflicted upon them, and so they are unlikely to resort to Exomorphs. In rare cases, they might master a Divergence method sufficient to transition to Genotypals, but this isn’t a natural progression for them. Conspiracies with a large number of Volunteers are more likely to recruit existing Broken, luring in the Devoted of other conspiracies with promises of more money, better benefits, and other rewards.

Catch and Release: The conspiracy that transformed you was never really interested in maintaining or disposing of the Deviants they produced. They were only interested in the process by which humans could be Remade. So, after they lured you in with false promises, conducted terrible experiments on you, and gathered as much data about the results as they wanted, they simply dumped you in an unfamiliar place far from where they had picked you up. The whole experience was at once baffling and infuriating, and you’re not about to let it slide.

Cured: They promised you a cure for the aggressive cancer or debilitating chronic condition to lure you into agreeing to experimental treatments that you now know were never really intended to work. All the surgeries, all the hospital stays, all the tests, and all the medical debt that insurance refused to defray would have been for naught. They fully expected you to die soon after that final, awful treatment that left you hoarse from screaming. You were in hospice, for God’s sake — not the kind where special medical personnel observed your every moment from behind one-way mirrors, either. Ordinary, boring, you’ll be dead in a few days hospice care. They must have expected you to be a problem that disposed of itself. But then a funny thing happened: the treatment worked. Your illness vanished. Your crippling chronic illness left you like a miracle straight out of the Bible. You woke up one morning, walked out of hospice, and never looked back.

Delayed Divergence: They lied to you, experimented on you, ran all kinds of tests on you, but the results clearly disappointed them. After months of bizarre treatments and foul-smelling drugs, they sent you home. They didn’t tell you not to come back, but the message was clear. Two weeks later, whatever they were trying to do to you finally took, turning your perceptions inside out and saddling you with worrying side-effects. At first, you considered going back to them, demanding that they fix whatever it is that they broke inside you, but after some consideration, you decided against it. So far, they have no idea that their failed experiment was a success, and you mean to keep it that way.

Disappointed Acolyte: They promised you enlightenment. They promised you answers to the big questions. They promised you inner peace. They promised you expanded awareness of the universe. What they delivered was the Divergence, and although that has certainly been a perspective-changing experience, it’s not what you signed up for. They pleaded with you to stay. They warned you that people in the outside world would not understand you, and those who did would try to force you to use your gifts as they directed. What they didn’t do was forbid you to leave, and so you walked away. You’ve learned they weren’t wrong. Many people want to control access to your gifts, to place you in their masters’ service. Few are as understanding when you refuse them. You seldom have much leisure to seek inner peace anymore.

Freelancer: You went along with their experiments because they offered you something you wanted — a nice, fat payout. And you stuck around for the follow-up therapies and did their dirty work because they continued to pay you well for your services. They really should have known that you’d be gone as soon as someone made you a better offer. When that day came, you didn’t hesitate or deliberate. You went. Only it turns out that not every company out there feels obligated to honor their contractual obligations. You barely got out of that situation in one piece, much less several hundred grand richer. Understandably, your original employer wouldn’t take you back under the same terms. They wanted assurances you wouldn’t give in exchange for laughably less compensation. Other organizations have tried recruiting you, but you keep them at arm’s length, because you know you can’t tell the trustworthy ones from the ones that will fit you with a shock collar and lock you in a basement if you let them. You do jobs for some of them now and again — especially when bad people need eliminating — but you consider yourself a freelancer.

Liberated: You never thought you’d get out until management brought in that gaggle of journalists to show off the effects of their latest miracle pill. Somehow you caught a reporter’s attention and convinced her you could give her a scoop about your employer’s business practices. When you managed to meet her, you told her the whole awful story of how you had been recruited under false pretenses, subjected to humiliating and painful treatments, and pressed into servitude against your will. Your story hit the news, and you became the face of everyone the conspiracy had wronged. Lawyers did pro bono work, and ultimately your persecutors set you at liberty just to stop the bad PR you were generating — PR that would surely have led to their other business interests, the ones that make your little tale of woe seem a children’s story by comparison.

Patient Captive: Every Deviant you met during your long captivity eventually reached the same conclusion. The conspiracy would never let them leave the facility, and no one was coming to set them free. Reactions to this realization varied. Some railed against this, attempting to force the conspiracy to submit — or to at least kill them by mistake so that they could have the freedom of the grave. Others despaired, cloaking themselves in fatalism or descending into such hedonistic pursuits as their circumstances would allow. You did neither. You waited. Your captors were taken in by your good humor and cooperative nature. They thought you had decided to serve them enthusiastically. They thought you liked it there, that you would never dream of going anywhere else. They trusted you. One day, though, when their attention was elsewhere and the opportunity finally came, you seized it and ran. You’ve been running ever since.

Presumed Dead: Your squad of inmate-soldiers got the worst of it. Nearly all of you died. Importantly, you did not. You limped off to lick your wounds and never bothered to come back to base. You’re surely on some M.I.A. list somewhere, presumed dead in a battle so fierce and hot that most of the bodies will never be recovered. Presumed dead, you are free.

Regulator Intervention: It shouldn’t be too surprising that the health and safety practices of a clinic whose treatments were often fatal to their test subjects should be appalling. And it was likewise obvious that a clinic that lured test subjects into their experimental programs under false pretenses was guilty of many ethics violations. You just never expected anyone to do anything about it. Imagine your surprise when a government regulator or internal corporate watchdog took a sudden interest in the division of the company responsible for them. Even more surprising was when those authorities shut the program down permanently, indicting the ringleaders for multiple fraud-related crimes. Bad luck for you that you’re still reliant on a drug cocktail only they could provide, though. Sourcing it from elsewhere has led you into some ethically questionable territory, too.

War’s End: You thought you were being recruited into a special forces unit, and that turned out not to be entirely false, although the sensory deprivation tanks and cybernetic implants certainly weren’t disclosed in advance. As it turned out, you were to fight in a war against a foe that was beyond the ken of any merely mortal soldier. Because of brave warriors like you, that war ended in total victory for humanity. In the absence of that threat, though, all those little…problems you and the other members of your unit suffer stopped being treated as the unfortunate side-effect of producing an army equipped to fight a new kind of war, and started being seen as insurmountable impediments to reintegration into the rest of the army. They gave you your discharge papers a few months after the war ended. It’s not that you haven’t gotten job offers since, but they all promise bloody, violent, and legally dubious (at best) work that turns your stomach.

Exomorph Renegades

Conspiracies that rely heavily on creating Unwilling are usually as violent as they are cruel. Their test subjects never even had the illusion of choice, being abduction victims at best. For some conspiracies who routinely use force to recruit candidates, it is a mark of their desperation, showing that they lack the resources or finesse to attract willing — or at least unwitting — subjects. They might be a conspiracy that has fallen on hard times. For others, it shows how despicable they are. They are a criminal enterprise, engaged in nothing less than human trafficking. Many participate in other forms of criminality, as well. Even among the many dark personalities that make up the Web of Pain, few indeed mourn the loss of a conspiracy that routinely creates Exomorphs. Despite this near-pariah status, such conspiracies are among the most common. The production of Remade requires a steady supply of test subjects, and kidnapping is an expedient means of meeting a conspiracy’s needs.

Once it resorts to recruiting unwilling victims as test subjects, a conspiracy rarely stops. Exceptions do exist. One might be spooked by legal scrutiny. Another might come under new leadership that forces it to reform — or at least be more subtle about — its recruitment strategies.

Deserter: You were a prisoner of war. According to international law, you were to be treated with dignity and humanity. Instead, your captors used you and your fellow prisoners as unwilling test subjects in horrific scientific experiments. They were pleased with the results of your transformation. Confident that they had broken you, they put a gun in your hand and sent you to fight on the front lines of another war. Only you weren’t so tame as you appeared. As soon as you were behind enemy lines, you deserted and went to ground. You hope to one day make your way home, but you’re not sure there will be a place for what you have become when you get there.

Extremely Dangerous: The conspiracy didn’t know what they were doing when they Remade you. When they said they hoped you would be the ultimate warrior, a human weapon in their hands, they meant no other soldier could best you in single combat. What they got was a living juggernaut of rage that could carve a bloody path through a dozen armed guards and kill everyone in a small office building before anyone even had time to call the cops. That was you.

Indenture: You owed the conspiracy an enormous debt that you couldn’t repay. At last, they lost patience and transformed you against your will. However, they offered you a deal: Serve them faithfully and use your new gifts exclusively in their service, and they would count your service against your debt and free you when it was fully paid. You didn’t expect them to honor that deal, but you saw how they treated Broken who resisted their commands, and decided to give it a shot. Perhaps you served them as an assassin, burglar, or smuggler. Possibly you offered muscle or prophetic powers or influence over occult entities. Or maybe you found and subdued likely test subjects for their experiments. Whatever it was, you threw yourself into the work, even as you hated what you were forced to do. To your surprise, the conspiracy was true to its word and set you free when they judged your debts repaid. To be sure, they still have a lot of leverage they can use against you, but you’ve learned you have more to fear from other conspiracies in the Web of Pain.

Jailbreak: It took years of careful observation, planning, and preparation. You knew the schedule of every shift change. You learned the habits and relative attentiveness of every guard and lab tech. You memorized the location of every security camera, the number of steps between every door and intersection, until you could navigate the facility blindfolded. You gathered contraband and supplies in a hidden cache, filed prison bars and plumbing, or maybe dug a tunnel under your bed. When you were ready, you chose your moment and escaped. By the time they raised the alarm, you were hours away, safely hidden under a tarp in the back of a passing pickup truck.

Law Enforcement Activity: The FBI, ATF, DEA, or another well-funded and well-armed law enforcement organization kicked in the doors at the facility where you were kept prisoner and arrested everyone not in a cage. They had no idea about the Divergence or the Web of Pain. Rather, they had irrefutable evidence of drug trafficking, racketeering, tax evasion, and other boring, organized crime mainstays, and your liberation was an unintended side-effect. The conspiracy that made you isn’t the only one out there, though, and unless you want to end up in another cage, you’ll need to work to avoid them.

Opportunistic Escapee: Maybe it happened during a prisoner transfer. Maybe it was while working on a chain gang. Maybe it was during a raid on a rival conspiracy’s facility. Whatever the specifics, a commotion arose that drew everyone’s attention away from you, and you took advantage of it to make your escape. More through good fortune (or clever application of your Variations) than through any careful planning on your part, you evaded recapture.

Organizer: The conspiracy imprisoned you with many other Broken, and that was their first mistake. You made friends among the Remade, even among some of those who were loyal to the conspiracy and its ideals. You ascertained their mundane aptitudes, identified their gifts and vulnerabilities, and sorted them by their attitudes towards the conspiracy and risk tolerance. Then you convinced many of them to risk it all in an escape attempt. The plan may not have been yours, and your Variations might not have been decisive in its execution, but you were the instigator, and you shared in its success as much as anyone.

Sympathetic Agent: You were a fixture at the facility where the conspiracy kept you. Being the office mascot was somewhat humiliating, but it was better than being cannon fodder or worse like some of your fellow Broken. You befriended many of your officemates, and eventually one or a few of them took such pity on you that they agreed to help you escape. Maybe they were a whistleblower, and you were the best evidence of their employer’s criminality that they could supply. Maybe they were disgruntled with their employer or their boss, and your liberation was an added act of spite. It hardly matters to you why they did it. You’re free now, and you mean to stay that way.

Turf War: The conspiracy that forced you into servitude has a lot of enemies. Among these are rival conspiracies that covet the same resources, or that the conspiracy has aggravated in other ways. Most of the time, the rule is that these conflicts should play out in back alleys or drug dens as fights between goons. But this time the grudge was deep or personal enough that your conspiracy’s enemy targeted the facility where you were kept. You escaped in the confusion of the firefight. You doubt that the conspiracy that made you is naïve enough to assume you died in the conflict, but you figure that keeping your head down will at least make it harder for them to locate you.

Violent Liberators: The conspiracy kept you and many others like you locked in cages. They only let you out long enough to serve an immediate purpose, whether it was using your abilities in their service or submitting to invasive medical procedures. You never witnessed a successful escape attempt, although the conspiracy’s response to unsuccessful attempts was enough to discourage you from mimicking them. You learned that not all escape attempts were unsuccessful when a group of Remade stormed the laboratory where you were being kept and killed every conspiracy agent there. They were particularly harsh — and slow — in meting out death to the chief scientist and her closest assistants. After they finished painting the walls and floors in human blood, these Renegades threw open all the cages. They offered to let you join them in seeking out and destroying other laboratories and conspiracy facilities.

Genotypal Renegades

Conspiracies that produce a large number of Born tend to be old — in some cases dating their pedigree back centuries. Many are also small, low-Standing organizations like cults, ancestral clans, or the residents of small, remote mountain towns. A minority are large and well-funded cloning and genetic modification operations, but even these don’t emerge in just a year or two, much less in a matter of weeks or months. Genotypals are often the culmination of many years of experimentation, whether it involves formal scientific study, informal trial and error, or unfettered natural selection. An organization that learns to generate a steady supply of Born may not have a grand understanding of the Divergence, but that they can consistently reproduce the factors that result in a specific type of Remade places them miles ahead of many larger, higher-Standing conspiracies in some important ways.

Genotypal-heavy conspiracies require a great deal of time to expand their Devoted population, and one that suffers heavy casualties may be forced to resort to other methods, resulting in Autourgics, Epimorphs, and even Exomorphs — depending on how desperate the conspiracy becomes.

Abuse Victim: You were the victim of abusive parents or other caretakers. This might have been physical or sexual abuse, but it could also have been emotional abuse, or possibly a combination of abuse patterns. You attempted to escape this situation before, only to be caught, brought back, and subjected to disproportionate punishments. This time, however, your escape attempt succeeded. You’re sure they’re still looking for you, though. You look over your shoulder constantly, seeing them and their agents lurking everywhere. You can’t let them find you again. You know how cruel they can be with their punishments when you inconvenience them.

Adventurous: It’s not that the conspiracy that raised you from infancy treated you badly. It’s just that you always felt there was more out there beyond the boundaries of the hospital, laboratory, military base, or whatever place you called home. You were curious about the outside world. You craved the adventures those unknown places promised you. That’s why you left, and that’s why you can’t imagine going back. Sure, you were maybe a little naïve to think you could survive without the conspiracy’s protection, but that’s because you led such a sheltered childhood. Now, though, you’ve seen the best and the worst of humanity. You’ve rebuffed powerful conspiracies’ entreaties for you to join them. You didn’t leave one cage just to lock yourself in another, after all.

Banished: You committed a crime against the conspiracy. Maybe it was a real and terrible sin like murder or assault. Or maybe it was only a crime within the context of the conspiracy’s principles — failure to speak its creed or to swiftly obey one of its elders. Or maybe the transgression was objectively minor, but the punishment it carried was unreasonably heavy. It could have been a wholly mundane crime, or it might be one only possible for someone who can read minds or seize control over another person’s body. Whatever the crime, you were charged, tried, and found guilty. They banished you — perhaps forever, but possibly just until you complete some lengthy act or period of atonement. Now you survive by your wits in a cold and dangerous world where you have no friends and many enemies.

Budget Cuts: The resources that supported the conspiracy’s mission dried up. Maybe budget cuts by a parent corporation left the entire conspiracy laid off. Perhaps bad PR or negative news caused a catastrophic drop in donations to the nonprofits the conspiracy relied upon for financing. For you, it meant the facility you considered home closed its doors, the end of the structure and order that had defined your days for your whole life. Maybe you found refuge with some former conspiracy members, but they don’t have the resources to devote to you that they used to. More importantly, they can’t protect you from other conspiracies in the Web of Pain that would love to add you to their stable of Devoted.

Cultists’ Child: You grew up in a cult, soaking in a veritable bath of bizarre doctrines and rituals. You never knew anything else. To you, it was just the way the world worked. You expected to grow into a pillar of the community like your parents, cousins, and older siblings. Then came the raid by the heavily armed officers of a government agency. They took you away from your family and your community leaders and placed you in a special foster home meant to deprogram children. The couple you lived with probably meant well, looking back on it now. But your abilities frightened them and made you a pariah among your peers. Or maybe they knew you were special and tried to use your gifts to make money — selling access to your powers to anyone willing to pay. Or maybe they were a good and loving family, and you were happy living with them until you were ready to leave the nest. Where are your birth parents now? Are they in jail for conspiring to blow up a government building, or are they looking for you — eager to get back their beloved child (or their golden meal ticket)?

Forbidden Love: You fell in love with someone unacceptable to the conspiracy. Maybe the pairing would dilute the genetics that enabled the easy Divergence your heritage allows. Maybe your beloved was someone other than the one the prophecy had chosen for you. Maybe you fell in love with a Renegade outside of the conspiracy. Or perhaps you were never meant to be permitted (or capable of) love at all. Whoever it was, you ran away with them. And whether your twined destinies have since kept you together or driven you apart, or whether fate took your beloved from you, you’re not going back.

Fugitive: You committed fratricide or some other unforgivable crime against members of the conspiracy you were raised in, or perhaps you were framed, or it was an accident that looked like a crime. Whatever the specifics, you fled the conspiracy’s justice and remain a fugitive from them.

Power Vacuum: Someone important to the conspiracy died, was jailed, disappeared, or was otherwise taken out of the picture. Maybe it was the clan patriarch or matriarch. Maybe it was the founder of the cult or its most influential and charismatic leader. In their absence, the conspiracy you grew up in suffered a great crisis. Maybe competing interests or philosophies caused it to schism, splintering into independent, if not actively warring, factions. Or maybe it collapsed completely, unable to maintain its cohesion. Other conspiracies in the Web of Pain swept in to cannibalize its assets, you among them. You refused to be assimilated.

Rebel: You’ve always had a rebellious streak. From an early age, family friends described you as independent, proactive, or clever — and that was when they knew you were listening. Whenever they thought you weren’t around, they also called you stubborn, willful, or just plain naughty. It didn’t matter whether you were treated well or punished harshly. You knew what you wanted, and nothing was going to stop you from getting it. It came as no surprise to anyone who knew you that you grew into a rebellious teenager and a reckless young adult. When you came into your powers, they expected you to settle down and take your place as a servant of the conspiracy. You’re sure they were disappointed when you ran away instead, but you somehow doubt they were really surprised.

Refugee: You were too young to understand why it happened. Your parents, an uncle, a teacher, or a family friend woke you in the dead of night, took your hand, and sneaked you out of the conspiracy compound. Perhaps they wanted a better life for you, knowing how the conspiracy would exploit you for your gifts or vivisect you to better understand how they worked. Maybe they wanted to have your powers for themselves, free of the conspiracy’s constraints. Possibly they had a falling out with conspiracy leadership and decided to take you with them when they left. They raised you, always wary lest the conspiracy catch up with you. Maybe they treated you as dearly as any parent could treat a child. Or maybe they tried their best, but they weren’t cut out to be a caretaker. They may even have been abusive or exploitative far beyond anything the conspiracy would have done to you. Whoever they were, whyever they took you, and however they treated you, they are a large part of who you have become and how you use the occult gifts you have developed.

Pathological Renegades

Conspiracies based on the discovery, study, and exploitation of an Accidental form every day. Very few ever attempt to create new Remade, and fewer still develop a reliable means of triggering the Divergence. They start small and remain that way. Many begin with pure motives — the best interests of the Deviant, the advancement of science, or the protection of Baselines from occult forces (the Broken among them). Some even retain those good intentions, codifying them into Principles, Virtues, and Vices. Unfortunately, these well-meaning souls know nothing of the aggressive acquisitiveness of the conspiracies that make up the Web of Pain, and most don’t last long.

Conspiracies prize Pathologicals because they often present an opportunity to discover principles of the Divergence wholly outside their current understanding of the phenomenon. While conspiracies that have not yet advanced far enough in their techniques to create Deviants of their own are especially reliant on recruiting Accidentals — frequently no less aggressively than another conspiracy might seek out candidates to recruit as Unwilling — even large, powerful conspiracies will snap up a Pathological when the opportunity presents itself.

Acquisition: A tiny conspiracy made up of friends and family formed around you soon after your accident. They kept your secret and supported you through your mood swings, and you used your powers to help them in large and small ways. But then a squad of cyborgs broke into your safehouse, murdered your friends, and carried you off to a faraway facility where they first examined and then exploited your abilities. Eventually, you escaped, and now you’re on the run — whenever you’re not planning your revenge on the ones who took everything away from you.

Class Member: Soon after your accident, you were contacted by a law firm that seemed uncannily familiar with the circumstances of your Divergence. They said you may be entitled to compensation for the pain and suffering you had endured. Curious, you responded, and soon you found yourself in a room with dozens of other accident victims who, like you, had suffered strange injuries and developed stranger powers. The class action lawsuit never went anywhere, but your bond with others of your kind deepened. When you find out the truth behind the negligence and reckless endangerment that ruined all your lives, the ones responsible will be getting much worse than a subpoena.

Exploited: After your accident, someone you trusted helped you piece your life back together. It might have been a spouse, lover, parent, child, friend, or mentor. Gradually, though, they discovered just how easily they could manipulate you and saw how valuable access to your powers could be. Maybe they were openly abusive, or maybe they were more subtle in their methods of exploitation, but eventually you realized that they were only using you for your gifts. Perhaps you expressed your anger with violence, or maybe you simply ran away, but the experience has left you shaken, even as you know that it has not erased your vulnerability to such unearned influence in the future.

Failed Organizer: After your accident — possibly after you escaped from the first conspiracy that found you — you tried to organize a group of fellow Remade into a mutual protection organization. For a time, you maintained your freedom, rebuffing several attempts to subdue and forcibly recruit some or all of you. But then your little group caught the attention of a bigger fish, and you were one of the few Deviants in your little conspiracy who didn’t end up dead or enslaved. One day, you hope to liberate the survivors, but you’re not even sure where they’re being held.

Friends’ Enemies: You didn’t immediately come to the attention of any of the conspiracies. However, you did encounter some fellow Deviants who had had several run-ins with one conspiracy’s agents. As you became friends with those Broken, you found yourself joining in their designs against their persecutors. Over time, your friends’ enemies just as surely became your enemies, and you hate them as sincerely as if they had been responsible for your Divergence.

Lucky: Somehow, your Remade condition hasn’t come to the attention of anyone connected to the Web of Pain. Maybe your Variations and Scars are particularly subtle, or perhaps you manage to avoid calling upon your powers except very rarely. You know it can’t last. You’ve seen a few others who you know must be like you subdued and abducted by weird government agents and particularly well-equipped animal control crews. Until then, you’re gathering resources and making alliances with other Broken. When the conspiracies find you, you won’t be easy prey.

Planned Accident: You started a job at the weird new factory, or moved into the creepy apartment building. A few months later, you suffered a freak accident that left you maimed but also in the possession of phenomenal new powers. Your employer or landlord offered to compensate you by sending you to a special hospital or better apartment, only occasionally asking you to lend them your supernatural abilities. It would be quite some time before you learned the accident hadn’t been an accident after all; rather, they had discovered a place that triggered the Divergence in anyone who spent enough time there and used your job or residence as a pretext to keep you in place long enough for it to do its work, all while keeping the conspiracy seemingly innocent of being behind it.

Scientific Curiosity: Your accident put you in the hospital, where your mysterious abilities aroused the curiosity of several doctors and scientists. They kept finding reasons to keep you there longer. There were always more tests, more experimental drug cocktails, and more unexplained relapses. Eventually, it became clear to you that you had ceased to be a patient and were little more than a medical and scientific curiosity. If you hadn’t forced your way out of the hospital, holding your surgeon hostage at gunpoint to clear your way, you’re pretty sure you would be there still.

Turnabout: You were a Baseline conspiracy agent who had regular contact with the Epimorphs and Exomorphs your employer produced. You rarely considered the ethics of what you did to them. Then one day you suffered an accident that triggered your own Divergence, and suddenly you had a new understanding of their plight. Alone, you knew you could never stay free of the conspiracy’s grasp, but aided by those you once helped imprison perhaps there was some glimmer of hope. You freed several Remade when you escaped, and some of them have even come to trust you.

Vigilante: Your Divergence was an accident, and there was no one to tell you what it meant or how you were to use your newfound powers. So, you did what felt natural to you at the time — you became a vigilante. Maybe you stalked smalltime drug dealers and petty criminals, at first — pouring your hate on them until you felt angry enough at their crimes to execute them. Or maybe you set your sights on the big game of the underworld, slowly working your bloody way up the chain of command. Perhaps you seldom resort to killing the targets of your wrath, instead frightening them or beating them into submission before dropping them off on the front steps of the local police precinct. Whatever you may think of yourself, you are not the hero anyone in your community needs or deserves. You are brutality masquerading as justice, a step above a serial killer — and it isn’t even a full step.

Clades

Most conspiracies, including many progenitor conspiracies, only know of one method of triggering Divergence. Clade is not a concept they have yet grasped. It is generally only when a conspiracy encounters others like itself in the Web of Pain that its conspirators begin to realize that other types of Remade are possible. For those who must discuss Broken with colleagues, “Clade” makes for useful shorthand.

The five Clades described in Deviant: The Renegades are only the most common scheme by which Deviants in the Web of Pain are divided. Some models divide the Remade into dozens or even hundreds of Clades based on a variety of factors. A Coactive produced through a chemical cocktail might belong to a different Clade from one exposed to the energies of an otherworld, for example, and two Broken exposed to the same otherworldly energy belong to different Clades if they don’t share all Adaptations and Forms in common.

Clades are descriptions that conspiracies of the Web of Pain give to certain patterns of Divergence. While they accurately describe trends in the way Remade are transformed and the abilities they tend to manifest, they cannot encompass every Deviant nor include every documented exception. Many myths and misconceptions surround the definition of Clade. As well, there are disagreements among experts in the Web of Pain as to exactly what Clade represents.

Clade as Methodology

Some Progenitors regard the method by which Divergence is achieved as the sole determiner of Clade. Deviants are sufficiently varied (and rare) that this approach doesn’t have appreciably more exceptions to it than do other definitions. In these models, Cephalist methodologies involve forcing the subject into an altered state of consciousness, while Mutants involve some form of gene therapy, and so on.

Clade as Power Source

The connection between a Deviant’s powers and the crack in their soul is not widely recognized by conspiracies. Individual conspirators have conflicting ideas about how Remade gain and use their Variations, but those who are aware of differences in the “flavor” of these powers often use this to identify a Broken’s Clade.

A Cephalist’s Variations manifest as more potent versions of “ordinary” psychic powers — from telepathy to telekinesis to an ability to sense beings invisible to ordinary sight. A Chimeric’s Variations manifest as animal traits and capabilities bestowed upon human subjects; they are creatures of honed instincts, keen senses, and animalistic strength, speed, and cunning. A Coactive’s Variations fit one of two broad categories: those derived from tangible, real-world energies like heat and electricity, and those that flow from occult or otherworldly sources. Many conspiracies treat these two sides of the same coin as entirely different Clades, although lumping them together under a single Clade is a common practice due to their other similarities. An Invasive’s Variations are specialized hardware or software that enhances or expands upon the Deviant’s natural abilities. A Mutant’s Variations manifest as impossible feats of biology.

These generalizations are barely more accurate than any other stereotypes. Some Deviants possess Variations that are more commonly associated with one Clade but have the trappings of another Clade.

Clade as Adaptations

Some conspiracies have observed that while the panoply of known Variations is vast, the number of Adaptations Remade possess is much smaller. A handful of Divergence scientists have taken to using Adaptations to divide Deviants into Clades. This is often more precise than other methods of cataloguing the transformed (although still not without exceptions), but in practice it can be harder to observe. Whereas Remade tend to use their Variations intuitively and nearly immediately, Adaptations often do not come into play until the Remade is under pressure approaching desperation. Successfully forcing a Deviant to fall back on her Adaptations can be a challenge nearly on par with triggering the Divergence in the first place.

Also, as the science of Divergence has advanced, its scholars have discovered new Adaptations and have found a handful of Remade who appear to possess Adaptations of multiple Clades. It isn’t yet clear whether these are the normal unpredictable oddities that arise when working with the Divergence, or an indicator that the entire model of Clades is flawed.

Clade as Experience

Some conspiracies have Devoted among their highest-ranking Divergence scientists, and a few of them have put forth an alternate Clade model that focuses on the perspectives of the Remade. It is inarguable that Broken experience their internal and external worlds differently than do Baselines, but these loyalists claim that those perceptions are Clade-specific. The generalities they describe give the Devoted of more liberal conspiracies a way of making sense of their experiences and provide a topic of discussion suitable for small talk. Many larger conspiracies engage guest lecturers to teach these concepts to Devoted and Baseline agents alike to aid in recruiting new Deviants or in creating environments where retaining Devoted need not involve ankle monitors, much less shock collars and cages.

Conspiracies with less interest in the inner lives of their test subjects often regard Experiential Clades as worthless pop psychology, astrology, or pseudoscience, as useful in creating a coherent taxonomy as asking animals what phylum, class, and species they belong to. When they wish to justify this attitude, they observe that Baseline agents often use the model to justify their prejudices against and mistreatment of Remade. Many Devoted (and some Renegades) also use it to excuse their own bad behavior.

Nevertheless, this doesn’t prevent even Renegades from using the model’s language to describe themselves and discuss their experiences with one another.

Cephalists

Psychics blur the distinction between their minds and the world around them. Experiential Clades recognize Biokinetics, Clairsentients, Psychokinetics, and Telepaths.

Biokinetics exert control over their own bodies and minds. They have a deep awareness of who and what they are, but they also recognize that they can overcome their personal limits through will alone. Seemingly impossible to rattle, Biokinetics shine in high-pressure situations where their strength of will and self-control allow them to function when Baselines would panic or get stuck. Their competitive streak can create problems if it manifests in situations that demand cooperation.

Clairsentients are keen observers, their ordinary senses and third eyes open to information beyond the perceptions of Baselines. Their sensitivity is more than just an expansion of their ordinary senses. They feel their environment as though their nerve endings were connected to the things around them. They don’t see, hear, smell, or touch phenomena so much as they are those phenomena and are observing themselves. Clairsentients’ curiosity can distract them from routine or familiar tasks.

Psychokinetics exert control over the matter and energy in their environment. It isn’t just that they command those objects and forces. These aspects of the world are as much an extension of themselves as their arms and legs, waiting for the silent mental command to lift, bend, or straighten. Psychokinetics are competent and confident, able to call up reserves of inner strength that make the impossible look effortless. However, their self-assuredness can stray into overconfidence, or even outright hubris.

Telepaths experience the thoughts and emotions of others as though they were their own, and most also possess the ability to make others’ minds mirrors of their own — at least temporarily. Telepaths are frighteningly empathetic and charismatic. Those around them yield to these Psychics’ desires as though they shared them. A Telepath’s empathy can be her weakness, however, as she suffers a portion of others’ physical and emotional pain when they are nearby, especially when she is the cause.

Chimerics

Hybrids take a portion of the primordial into themselves, exhibiting adaptations that help ensure their survival. Experiential Clades include Companions, Killers, Skulkers, and Survivors.

Companions are adapted to be loyal and friendly. They prefer to work in groups and serve best in supporting roles. They are not leaders, but their presence serves as a social lubricant. They add life, energy, and occasional comic relief to any social group whose membership they share. Companions can be passive and lazy, failing to take the initiative when it doesn’t involve cheering on the rest of the team.

Hunters are adapted for hunting and killing. They are aggressive and have a reputation as fierce and capable warriors. They are instinctively decisive, acting without needing to deliberate at length. They are generous in sharing the fruits of the hunt — whether literal or figurative — with those they regard as kin. Their tendency to default to violence and the path of least resistance can create serious problems when diplomacy or finesse is required.

Lurkers are adapted to avoid or escape attention. Their unobtrusiveness makes them excellent scouts and spies. They are cautious and observant. If forced to defend themselves, they fight dirty until their opponent loses the power to fight or until they can safely flee. Lurkers have a reputation as hoarders of treasure and junk alike, as well as information they can leverage to get out of a tight spot. They are often cowards and cannot be trusted to keep others’ secrets if put in a position where bartering with them will save their skins.

Survivors are adapted to resist or endure harm. They make excellent enforcers and bodyguards, fearlessly putting their bodies between their charges and danger. They are relentless, patient, and almost impossible to intimidate. Survivors are not very imaginative. It’s not that they necessarily lack intelligence (although genius is rare among them), but they prefer straightforward solutions and familiar plans of action to those that require a novel problem-solving approach.

Coactives

Infused are living rifts through which pure energy pours forth, although the exact nature of that energy varies considerably from one Coactive to another. Experiential Clades recognize Dimensionalists, Elementalists, Esotericists, and Occultists.

Dimensionalists draw power from parallel otherworlds that overlap the material world, whether these are the homes of animistic spirits, the lands of the dead, or the kingdoms of the Fae. These Remade come to reflect the world to which they are connected, and grow even more alien among Baseline humanity than do other Deviants. Most develop odd quirks, and some replace human morality with the alien and frightening customs of the otherworld. At the same time, their intuitive understanding of unseen worlds and their inhabitants makes these Infused valuable when negotiating with (or fighting against) entities from beyond the material realm.

Elementalists draw power from forms of energy familiar to humanity — heat, light, electricity, magnetism, and so forth. This can include forms of energy that resonate with inanimate matter. The personalities of these Broken often come to reflect the forces they wield. Fire Elementalists are angry and destructive, for example, while light Elementalists are charismatic and crave attention. These Deviants have a reputation for emotional instability and a lack of self-control that so often reflects their inability to contain the energy they harness.

Esotericists draw power from poorly understood forces that are often considered fictitious or superstitious, such as luck, death, dreams, and astrology. These Remade have moods and habits that move in cycles, following the course of sun, moon, seasons, and stranger patterns. Unless partners and superiors learn to compensate for these swings, this changeability can make Esotericist Devoted unreliable. Those who use these cycles to their advantage will find Esotericists potent allies, however.

Occultists draw power from sources of arcane energy native to the material world, including the supernatural creatures that routinely wield them. When in the presence of occult energy whose resonance matches their own, these Broken vibrate more violently. This often makes them ideal for hunting supernatural beings that rely on these energies. Unfortunately, many of these Deviants have a weakness for a particular arcane counter-frequency and so regard a different kind of supernatural being as naturally sympathetic or superior, which can inspire them to forge friendships with entities that are beyond the control of the conspiracy.

Invasives

Although still flesh-and-blood, Cyborgs are also machines, whether they operate on easily understood principles like electricity and hydraulics or on laws of arcane physics that seem like magic. Their implants impose a designed purpose upon them that they cannot entirely escape. Experiential Clades recognize Androids, Artifacts, Heavies, and Robots.

Androids are innately curious Deviants with a particular interest in humans and the human experience. Some exhibit a deep familiarity with the humanities, quoting great works of literature or betraying the capacity to appreciate — or even produce — works of art. While many are book smart, some develop a knack for navigating social situations. Androids sometimes allow existential questions and intellectual pursuits to distract them from more practical matters, and so require supervision.

Artifacts are Remade engaged in grand quests to further the principles or goals for which they were created. They are relentless in the face of adversity, enduring hardship with stoic calm and taking away useful lessons when they invariably overcome obstacles. They are independent and resourceful. Their wanderlust can lead them to look for trouble unnecessarily, and they can become rebellious if assigned tasks that do not further their agenda.

Heavies think almost exclusively in terms of targets and objectives. In pursuit of these, they are fearless and nearly unstoppable. They trust their toughness to carry them through any obstacle, and for the most part it does. Their pragmatic willingness to cast aside niceties like fair play and mercy in the pursuit of their goals can offend the sensibilities of their companions, so clear rules of engagement are often a must. Heavies don’t resent such limitations in their directives, they simply assume the restrictions don’t apply if they endanger their objectives.

Robots are practical Broken with an aptitude for machines, whether they are cars and clockwork or computers and electronics. Some focus on operation over engineering and others on the reverse, but all are capable of mastering both. Robots are largely uninterested in humans except insofar as they provide opportunities to work, but they are endlessly reliable when in their natural element. Robots often hyperfocus on the immediate goal to the exclusion of the big picture, and while they can be tactically brilliant, this is often at the expense of strategic thinking.

Mutants

While Grotesques’ Variations reflect impossible biology, they are driven by ordinary biological needs — even ones individual Remade might no longer have in any physical sense. Experiential Clades recognize Devourers, Evolvers, Sires, and Unchanging.

Devourers embody living things’ hunger for everything that sustains them and fuels their growth. While many are epicurean, for most this hunger is more metaphorical than literal — or at least encompasses the full hierarchy of human needs. Once survival and safety needs are met, they seek out emotional support, intellectual pursuits, and self-actualization just as ferociously. This hunger also applies to people, and Devourers can hurt feelings or generate antipathy with their tendency to treat friends as useful only insofar as they feed the Deviant’s appetites.

Evolvers embody the capacity of living things to grow and change over time, whether it is a physical process or a mental or spiritual one. These Deviants are never satisfied with what they have and who they are. Divergence is only the beginning for Evolvers, for they are constantly remaking themselves. Whenever they face an obstacle they cannot overcome, they change, adapting themselves to solve the problem or render it moot. Their constant shifts in interests, styles, and even personality traits can confuse and frustrate the people around them.

Sires embody the impulse living things share to pass along their traits, whether it’s through the traditional process of procreation or the sharing of contagious ideas or learned wisdom. Many regard themselves as teachers in some capacity, and they often exhibit a talent for instruction. Others make their way into roles as spiritual leaders. These Broken can be too pushy; instead of being satisfied with merely offering instruction, they seek to shape others into mirror images of themselves or perfect copies of their favorite students.

Unchanging embody living things’ need to maintain homeostasis, returning to as close to their original shape as possible. They are islands of stability in an ever-changing world, with a tolerance for repetition and a love of routine that exceed the patience of Baselines. Change (even when small) often makes these Broken uncomfortable, and they can be stubborn beyond the limits of good sense.

Clade as Artificial Construct

A few experts in the Web of Pain reject the concept of Clade entirely. They argue that current models have too many exceptions. They would prefer to take each Remade on his own, recognizing that each is unique. Most Divergence scientists regard this as throwing out the baby with the bathwater. True, there are demonstrable exceptions to every existing Clade model, but each is a useful tool for anyone studying or attempting to produce Remade. A Cladeless model loses those advantages and denies the reality that Divergence techniques can create reproducible results — perhaps not every time, but often enough that large conspiracies build stables of Devoted with similar or intentionally complementary abilities, whom they control through customized Scars.

Metaphysics

When it comes to cataloguing Clades, Variations, and Scars, scientifically inclined conspiracies have a natural advantage. When it comes to understanding the whys of the Divergence, however, conspiracies that view it through the lenses of mysticism and metaphysics have a better grasp of things.

Broken Souls

Most Deviants don’t realize that their souls have been broken. Among the conspiracies of the Web of Pain, the link between Divergence and the human soul is not common knowledge. Even for those few with the means to examine a human soul and who have done so extensively enough to notice that all Remade have suffered damage to theirs, it isn’t clear whether this damage is the cause of the Divergence, the primary side effect, or merely one measurable symptom among many.

The Broken’s loss of her Anchors and some Aspirations could as easily be the result of the trauma required to trigger the Divergence as something directly related to the damage to her soul. The exact source of the Variations and Scars that emerge as part of the Divergence is not entirely clear even to experts on the topic — much less whether these are an effect of the broken soul or its cause. However, some changes wrought by the Divergence are directly related to the Remade’s broken soul: their resistance to soul manipulation, their altered inner worlds, and the changes wrought on their consciences.

Hot Souls

The conspiracies of the Web of Pain aren’t the only ones in the Chronicles of Darkness who exploit the qualities of the human soul — whether they do so knowingly or not. Some strange creatures that lurk in the shadows at the edges of perception command, steal, or even devour souls. A human who loses her soul suffers the Soulless Condition (p. XX), which makes the victim more vulnerable to possession and gradually reduces her to a husk even more wretched than a Feral.

The Divergence damages the Deviant’s soul, but it does not weaken it. On the contrary, the power that flows through the cracks reinforces it against further accident, serving as a kind of kintsugi of the soul. Any supernatural entity that attempts to touch, grasp, or consume the soul of one of the Remade is in for a rude shock. The experience is akin to grasping a live wire, at best. At worst, the creature may as well attempt to carry off a neutron star or swallow a supernova. Most abort the attempt as futile immediately, which limits the damage. Those that are too stupid, too greedy, or too desperate to abandon their prize can suffer worse harm. It can cause mental and bodily injuries, some of them potentially fatal. Less commonly, the soul thief loses part of their supernatural potency. Some conspiracy agents whisper of incidents where this loss was total and permanent, or even where the soul thief suffered Divergence themself.

Inner Worlds

As described in The Clades Companion, all humans have a connection to insubstantial realms of dream and thought. Each one’s personal inner world connects to the inner worlds of those closest to them, and all human inner realms mingle together into a collective consciousness that encompasses all of humanity, which itself is only a fragment of the dream realms of entire species, worlds, and universes. At the deepest level, even mathematics and other abstract concepts have inner worlds reflected in these realms.

Because all these inner worlds rely upon the dreamer’s soul, Remade have greater difficulty reaching them. Many realms of the imagination are closed to the Broken, even those who have a special connection to them granted by their Variations. It is unclear whether this is merely one phenomenon among many that afflict Deviants, but some speculate that the inability to dream deeply is linked to their inability to set and follow through on goals.

This isn’t to say that Remade do not dream. They do. But their nocturnal hallucinations are usually reruns of dreams from before their Divergence, or nightmares of their ordeals during and immediately after their transformations. Replaying trauma severe enough to break the human soul is hardly a recipe for peaceful and refreshing sleep, although it usually doesn’t prevent them from sleeping entirely (unless the Deviant has the Nightmares Standard Deviation).

Questions of Integrity

Most Baselines have no awareness of their souls beyond what they might have learned at Sunday school or the like as children. For most, it only comes into play in three situations:

•            When a supernatural creature manipulates, steals, or devours it (see above).

•            When an occult creature or ephemeral entity such as a ghost attempts to possess its owner.

•            When the Baseline attempts to perform an abjuration or otherwise exorcise a possessing entity from a person, place, or object.

All three of these involve the soul directly.

Deviants excepted, human souls are functionally fungible. Occult beings capable of transferring human souls can restore the victim of soul theft by inserting any other person’s soul into the void the thief left behind. Nor does a Baseline’s behavior or experiences in any way change or diminish the potency of his soul.

However, mystics describe metaphysical containers for human souls that can be damaged and punctured by trauma and encounters with the supernatural — breaking points, in game parlance (Deviant, p. 187). The more holes this container has, the more vectors it offers to invading ghosts, spirits, and other possessing entities.

The process of exorcising a possessing entity involves opening the floodgates of the abjurer’s soul and channeling its power to drive out the invader. The more threadbare the soul’s container, however, the more of the exorcist’s soul power leaks out in the process, and the less pressure she can exert. The most effective Baseline abjurers are therefore ones of high Integrity.

Baselines may not know that they have a soul, much less a soul container that can be damaged by their traumatic experiences, but they unconsciously recognize when it has suffered harm, whether pinprick holes that merely leave them feeling guilty or temporarily rattled, substantial wounds that cause lasting damage, or grievous harm that interferes with their ability to interact with the world (even if only temporarily).

Remade suffer no such twinges, because their souls lack this natural barrier. The Divergence blasts it away, leaving the Broken’s soul naked and exposed like a lightbulb without a lampshade. This doesn’t make them more vulnerable to possession (see above), but it does make them less effective as exorcists unless they have a Variation that re-enables this. In addition, it means they do not feel injuries to their Integrity, because they lack a container to damage.

Some Broken continue to conform to their pre-Divergence social mores out of habit. Pursued by conspiracies that do not honor the Deviant’s refusal, however, it is usually only a matter of time before they are the victim or perpetrator of violence or supernatural influence. The first time that happens, Remade are often taken aback by how little remorse they feel. Many blame the trauma of the Divergence, and in truth they are not far from wrong.

Rudderless

Aspirations and Anchors (Virtue and Vice) describe the behaviors of Baselines in the Chronicles of Darkness and shape the story arcs involving them. They are means by which players communicate the goals they have for their characters to the Storyteller, giving her a lever with which to direct play in a direction the players wish to go while also furthering the needs of the chronicle. They are not tangible, in-world things, and so Remade are not aware of their absence, per se. However, Broken soon realize that something is indefinably wrong with them.

Aspirations

Aspirations are the sum of a character’s ambition and drive. Their weakening in Broken is frequently mistaken for a temporary response to the trauma of Divergence. It is often characterized as a significant loss of executive function leading to reduced capacity to set and follow through on goals. It may also reflect depression and anxiety, both of which distract from long-term thinking. As well, even laypeople can generally understand how the sudden emergence of supernatural abilities and disruptive new handicaps in the form of Scars might direct focus away from mundane interests and goal-setting, at least in the short term.

As time passes and the immediate discomfort of Divergence begins to fade into memory, however, the Deviant discovers that these familiar capabilities have not returned. Some Remade take this in stride as just one more Scar. Others regard this loss of function as worse than any other price they pay due to their transformation. Many fall somewhere in between or attempt to deny the reality of their lost Aspirations, clinging to the false hope that one day they will regain their capacity to set and pursue goals to their completion.

Some Deviants even convince themselves that their drives to oppose Conviction Touchstones and forge bonds with Loyalty Touchstones are the goals they would have set and pursued even if they hadn’t been Remade. This particular delusion can persist for a long time, especially among Renegades who have so many people they need to place in shallow graves and who always seem ready to add more to their list. It is only when they realize that they can no longer focus on long-term goals that do not involve those they love and hate that such Deviants are forced to realize the damage that has been done to them.

Optional Rule: Final Long-Term Aspiration

Ordinarily, Broken derive no mechanical benefit from long-term Aspirations. Under this option, however, a newly Remade Deviant retains the last long-term Aspiration they had before their Divergence through sheer momentum. This replaces one of their Conviction Touchstones and fills its slot but does not add to their Conviction. Whenever this Aspiration would generate a Beat for furthering (but not fulfilling) it, the Deviant gains the Emptiness Condition (p. XX). If they already have the Emptiness Condition, they may resolve it by taking an action that would further or fulfill the Aspiration. This reflects the Broken’s disappointment and frustration over how little satisfaction furthering the Aspiration brings them.

Once the Deviant resolves or abandons the Aspiration, the option is gone forever; however, the Broken may immediately name and automatically affirm a new Conviction Touchstone. This is usually someone in some way connected to the Aspiration.

Anchors

Like Aspirations, Virtue and Vice are a mechanical construct, not a tangible, in-world force. They are shorthand for aspects of a character’s self-perception.

Virtue is the personal quality about which a character is most proud. It is a higher principle that drives him to be his best, to risk and sacrifice himself for the sake of a greater good. Behaving in accordance with his Virtue when it would have been easier not to reaffirms the character’s identity as a basically good (or at least principled) person and is tremendously satisfying.

Vice is a source of comfort or an escape for the character. It may not be the trait she’s proudest of, but it is a source of (usually) harmless joy that she acknowledges as an undeniable part of who she is.

A Deviant’s lack of these Anchors doesn’t necessarily mean an immediate change in her behavior. Many Remade continue to act in accordance with their Virtue and Vice after their Divergence out of an ingrained habit. However, they no longer derive satisfaction or pleasure from doing so. Virtually all Broken find this realization deeply distressing. Not all people are equally goal-driven, and so the loss of most Aspirations hits some Deviants harder than others. But Anchors are such a fundamental part of a person’s self-perception and personality that their inexplicable loss is disorienting at best and cause for deep despair at worst.

The sudden incapacity to find fulfillment in Virtue or pleasure in Vice is one of the leading reasons that new Remade die soon after their Divergence — at least as frequent as horror at their Scars or a sudden aggressive and uncontrollable destabilization. Scars can exacerbate this, as well.

For example, an athlete with the Competitive Virtue who falls into terrible health when he is Remade, upon realizing he can no longer compete in a way that he once could, might fall into a despair and find that other forms of competition have lost their appeal, too. He doesn’t know why, but it’s not unlikely that he would blame himself or the trauma of the Divergence.

As with Aspirations, it is not unusual for Deviants to initially assume that the loss of their Anchors is a temporary state. The Divergence is traumatic, and its aftermath is confusing and a lot for a person to take in. It makes sense that any form of satisfaction or joy could prove elusive for some time afterward. As time passes and it becomes clear that the loss of Anchors is permanent, it often brings forth renewed despair — as well as fury at those responsible for taking them away from the Remade.

Aspirations, Anchors, and Game Design

To offer a peek behind the curtain, Aspirations and Anchors are a mechanical means by which players can communicate out-of-character goals to the Storyteller so that she can incorporate them into her game preparations. Because they incentivize the pursuit and fulfillment of those goals, these mechanics give the Storyteller some assurance that the player will follow through with a stated goal rather than walking away from it and rendering her plans regarding it wasted.

Because Aspirations are out-of-character goals, they don’t need to be ones the character would choose for himself. They can certainly reflect immediate or (for Baselines) long-term objectives, but they can instead represent story complications or character development arcs.

Two short-term Aspirations and one long-term Aspiration for Baselines isn’t some statement about a real person’s ability to focus on only that many desires at a time. Rather, it is an acknowledgment that any given player in a roleplaying game can only keep track of so many character goals at a time before they begin to distract from the main plot of the current chapter and crowd out the Aspirations of the other players at the table. Three such objectives (five, if you include Anchors), is reasonably manageable. Not every character’s every Aspiration will see progress or fulfillment in every chapter, but every player is likely to have an opportunity to engage with a few of them each chapter.

From a purely mechanical perspective, because Touchstones serve a similar function to Aspirations and Anchors, limiting Deviants to a single short-term Aspiration and no long-term Aspiration (as well as eliminating their Virtue and Vice) prevents the list of character goals from ballooning from five per player to 10 per player. Given that Scars also reward players for incorporating them into the narrative, that number could get significantly higher.

Within the game’s fiction, a Deviant’s limited ability to form Aspirations is one consequence of their broken soul. They can derive some benefit from their life experiences and personal development efforts, but this is drowned out by the clamor of their Touchstones and Scars — within the narrative, but also at the gaming table. Scars and Touchstones tend to be the focus of the game, leaving the lonely Aspiration as an only occasional source of Beats.

Acclimation

A newly Remade Deviant often feels like a stranger to themself. Their body does not respond the way it once did. Their mind imposes behaviors on them that they don’t understand and can’t control. Many Broken never overcome this sense of horror verging on self-loathing at what they have become. For some who are lucky enough or who survive long enough, this period of disorientation is not a permanent state.

Acclimation reflects the degree to which the Remade has adapted to their condition. Deviants with Acclimation understand something of what the Divergence means for them. They have learned to make good use of their Variations to survive, if not thrive. They have invented workarounds to compensate for their Scars. They recognize on some level that they can’t return to the life they lived before and have moved beyond trying to recapture the past.

Some embrace what the Divergence has made of them, becoming that which their Variations suggest they should be. Peaceful folk with powerful attack Variations become warriors. Brash ones with abilities that adapt them for subtlety and stealth learn to avoid attention.

Others reject the proposition that their Scars and Variations should define them. A deadly Lash doesn’t make a peaceful person a living weapon. Telepathic powers should not be used to bend others to the Deviant’s will. And killing innocent bystanders is a moral wrong, even if Baseline feelings of guilt no longer accompany the deed.

More than anything, high-Acclimation Deviants recognize that they have a choice in how they define themselves through their behavior. They are more than a collection of supernatural powers and vulnerabilities. This doesn’t necessarily bring them inner peace, but it prevents them from pretending to be something and someone they no longer are and can never be again.