#khefak

(art by BonsartBokel on DeviantArt)

Many people have asked, “What is truth?” And it’s a surprisingly difficult thing to answer. Is truth just an objective list of events and the motivations behind them? Is it the opposite of lies? Do we include things that we firmly believe are true even if we can’t prove them? What about personal convictions? And is a statement that is technically correct but leaves no room for nuance truth? What about a lie that everyone simply believes is true?

Even if your definition of truth is super narrow, that in kind is a conviction that you are expressing.

So why do I bring up all these questions of truth? Because today’s archetype can vary between being someone that brings ugly truths to life, or they can be someone that embellishes or even outright fabricates the truth in order to achieve an agenda.

Like the name suggests, field propagandists are skilled at using belief and truth as a weapon, but out in the world rather than in some cozy office. Those in the military might spend their time bolstering the confidence of (and in) their own army while undermining the public opinion of their enemies, so too is the case with less warlike but still motivated organizations that seek to undermine their rivals.

Others might instead by true journalists or “journalists”, the former investigating the truth of their enemies and maybe sometimes playing up the negative qualities to inspire the desired feelings in the populous. Meanwhile, the latter might slander their enemies relentlessly.

No matter their motivations and methods, however, this archetype is clearly an attempt to grant players a character option where the pen is quite literally mightier than the sword, even if the wielder is not always virtuous.

The base dedication for this archetype provides some buffs to the ability to lie as well as to notice the lies of enemy propaganda. It also gives them the ability to spread their own propaganda to color the public opinion of a person or group.

Using rhetorical tricks and outright fallacy traps, less scrupulous individuals can muddle the minds of those they debate, bogging them down.

If given a week’s time, some can seed a whole community to think more or less about a group or individual with rumors, anecdotes, and the like.

Some of the best investigators are able to point out weaknesses in their foes. Propagandists, however, are merely good at pretending they can, proclaiming they’ve discovered a gap in an enemy’s defenses so convincing that the foe might begin to second-guess themselves and cause that weakness to manifest.

Conversely, they can instead proclaim that their allies have similar protection against a particular damage type so convincingly that their foes begin to doubt the efficacy of their own spells and weaponry, making that resistance real in it’s own way.

An inspirational story can go a long way to helping someone find the will to keep going, and some learn to do just that even against magical mental effects, counteracting their effects on the listener.

Speaking with passion and well-chosen words, many can unleash a speech so compelling that even foes that actively disagree with them struggle to focus on anything but their words and their delivery.

Master of rhetoric can spin lies such that each statement can be technically true, even if the entire premise is hogwash, all to confuse mundane and magical lie detection alike.

Finally, true masters are able to befuddle entire crowds, not just the one they are engaged with in conversation.

This archetype has a lot of useful abilities for games that have an element of intrigue and politics to them where attacking someone’s reputation or bolstering one’s own can be just as important and effective to the progress of the game as an actual attack or buff, sometimes even more so. Additionally, depending on the methods your character is willing to use, you might not even take most of the feats of this archetype, only dabbling here and there. That being said, a lot of the feats of this archetype end up being pretty useless in games where public opinion is not really a factor to consider, so that can affect the choice to take it. Meanwhile, bards and investigators are good choices for what class to pair with this, but other high-charisma characters and even knowledgeable ones can also make good use of it.

This archetype has a lot going for it in terms of believability for existing in a game world, even a quasi-medieval one just because manipulating hearts and minds has historically always been a skill that people have used. That being said, the propagandist angle, while technically true of even the goodly individuals, does put me off given modern events. If you also feel the same way I do not blame you at all.

In the pursuit of dirt to use against the League of Wonders, a collective of inventors and wizards, Locacia Brundvist has discovered the true source of the new fuel source the League is using, but the truth is too shocking to believe: the fuel is refined in the gut of crustaceans called khefaks, which originate on an entirely different world!

When they accepted the task of being nature’s envoy in the city of Unghor, Bilprix the leshy could have never imagined the underhandedness of her political opposition, and the slander that they’ve leveled against her druid order is almost too much to bear, and she is on the verge of giving into her anger.

(photography by drop-the-dagger on DeviantArt)

It is gristly work, but there is much that a body can tell us about the events that lead to their death if we know what to look for. Such is the basis of forensic medicine, and therefore, the subject we are looking at today.

The exact shape and results of a wound can tell the investigator what sort of weapon was used to make it, as well as anything unusual about it, while the presence of carrion insects can tell a lot about the time of death, and small marks and wounds might tell more about the exact circumstances that led to the deceased entering their current state. Imagine how this is extrapolated in a fantasy universe where a victim might show signs of unusual necrosis from a necromantic wound, or how they might show signs of extreme fright from a phantasmal killer spell, and so on.

While other investigators may be called in to examine the evidence of any sort of crime, today’s subject is almost exclusively expected to be investigating scenes of murder and death. However, their keen eye for detail can be used elsewhere, and their medical knowledge can also benefit the living. Such is the nature of their chosen profession.

In any case, this methodology might not have any fancy tricks like their counterparts, but with a little creativity and love of investigation fiction, it can be a perfect way to add some fun flavor to investigating, giving clues to upcoming foes.

With their training, these investigators have a knack for gaining additional details from examining cadavers. What’s more, they’re trained in medical practices, and able to heal themselves and others much more regularly through completely mundane methods.

That may be fairly basic, but there is one feats out there specifically tied to this methodology: Scalpel’s Point, which lets them use their knowledge of anatomy to strike for their foe’s arteries to cause bleeding.

Of course, other feats might prove useful for them as well, such as Flexible Studies, Known Weaknesses, That’s Odd, Ongoing Investigation, Connect the Dots, Predictive Purchase, Thorough Research, Whodunnit?, Reason Rapidly, Strategic Bypass, Reconstruct the Scene, and Just the Facts, though obviously some may be more useful to you depending on your build.

While not as flashy as other methodologies, being able to gain information specifically from the dead can be quite useful. What’s more, it’s unobtrusive, letting you dictate most of the rest of the build based on your own preference as well!

It’s a long-running trope that coroners and others that examine the dead tend to be… eccentric, to say the least. Often talking to the deceased or behaving in strange but otherwise harmless ways. If that fits what you’re going for with your character, then go for it, but don’t feel forced into it. Also remember that often in real life, forensic science is not always the foolproof method they portray it as in certain shows.

Exceptionally old for even a ghoran, Tender has watched friends grow up and die, while their own cycle of rebirth only briefly has interruptions. This has given them a fascination with the state of a body after death, which they’ve channeled into their investigative pursuits to bring murderers to justice.

A common method of disposing of bodies in the Red City is to feed them to the khefaks, a species of mineral-eating arthropods. However, the half-eaten body discovered in the pits shows signs of radiation poisoning, suggesting they were still alive when the radioactive specimen consumed them. Now the investigation turns to identifying the body and the sadist that doomed them to such a fate.