If you haven’t already, check out the Weatherwatch, Gossmere, Flinterforge,  Ebenguard, and Thornmouth reveals to share your thoughts and read about how and why we structured guild skills and archetypes the way we have.

Next up, the Empaths of Balimora!

Balimora was fun because there’s a lot of kinetic and action-oriented possibilities for a guild connected to change, the wild, and the chaos of the natural world. There are also several classic roleplaying classes that could fit in Balimora, and I liked getting to take bits of rangers, druids, rogues, etc., and rework them for the Briarverse!

Balimora: The Empaths

Skills: Empathy, Evoke, Influence, Stealth, Survival, Will
Guild Skill Focus: Empathy

Verdurant – The Sun-Drenched Ranger:

Bearing Skills: Empathy/Fight

No one loves the light as profoundly as the Verdurant, Balimora’s Melee class. Life reaches for the sun and basks in its warmth, and this sun-bearing communes with all that share their love of its radiance, both flora, and fauna. The Verdurant can see the minute growth of plant life, hear the silent scurry of paws, taste microscopic pollen, smell migratory patterns, and both plant and animal alike flourish at the Verdurant’s touch. Though they have a mastery of ranged weapons like bows, slings, spears, and darts, piercing enemy defenses from afar like the rays of the sun itself, Verdurant are just as inclined to request plants and creatures to aid them in both combat and exploration. They can ask vines to help them climb higher, flowers to adapt their pollen into sleep-inducing mists, and animals to scout ahead, retrieve much-needed objects, or even aid them in battle. With augmented skills Empathy and Fight, the Verdurant is as committed to the protection of all things that strive for the light as they are in their vicious fight against those who would cast the world into darkness.

Maelisorn – The Druid of Seasons:

Bearing Skills: Survival/Will

For Balimora’s moon-bearing Magic class, it begins with the season that bore the Maelisorn into the world. Maybe they first discovered a sensitivity to cold or heat. Perhaps they found it easy to tempt a sprig of green to grow in inhospitable conditions. Maybe they found themselves inexplicably drawn to the smell of decay. However it began, using augmented skills Survival and Will, all Maelisorns soon learn they have the unique and enviable power to commune with and control the seasons themselves. They might be drawn to frost, or fire, growth or rot, healing storms of spring, chilling winter fog, howling autumn winds, or the stinging rays of summer. The wheel of life and death spins in a never-ending whirl, and the Maelisorn holds that wheel in the palm of their hand, using it to both explore the world of the magimystic and turn the tide of every battle. But abilities of this magnitude are not without cost. Though the Maelisorn has the power to make the seasons work their will, the seasons too have wills of their own.

Anivaeus: The Chaos-Wielder:

Bearing Skills: Stealth/Influence

The Anivaeus is Balimora’s eclipse-bearing Mystic class, and they have the power to parley with the wild’s elemental chaos. With augmented skills Stealth and Influence, they can vaguely sense the ever-shifting currents of change, nudging a circumstance here, redirecting an outcome there. Still, they cannot see where the currents of consequence will branch once they’ve asked them to be altered.  Their request could be as simple as shifting the possibility of where someone might look so the Anivaeus remains undetected, as helpful as a twist to someone else’s luck in a critical moment, or as chaotic as temporarily shuffling the spells of everyone around them in the hopes of depriving an enemy of a devastating power. They know one small shift can create massively unpredictable outcomes that may benefit some, all, or none (but the Narrator) because chaos is not merely unbridled, unexpected change. Like the Anivaeus, it is a single cause, rippling ever-outward, creating infinite, unpredictable outcomes.

SO, there you go. All 18 bearing “classes” for the Neithernor roleplaying game! Have thought on Balimora bearings or any other bearings now that you’ve read them all? Let me know!

Next up, we’re going to work together to build the common bank of “utility” Spells that you and your Coven can unlock and learn on your adventure!