Master essence skills require that your character has a full grasp and understanding of their own essence. They are know exactly how the Aura of their essence works and can use it effectively as they manipulate their essence.

This page lists all of the skills available to the Master skill level and each Aura type.

Any Aura

Engulf

Wrap your essence around an object (not yourself) to hold it in place and move it around. You may lift or move an object whose weight is up to twice your essence’s range in pounds. You can lift the object into the air, manipulate the object being held, and even restrict airflow to the object. If the object you are trying to cause to move is unwilling, you need to make a Contest roll against it: your Essence quality against its Gumption or equivalent strength-related quality. If you succeed, you can move the unwilling target’s body or limbs.

Trying to lift an object heavier than your limit requires an additional Check roll. On failure, you gain the “strained” status condition and are not able to lift the object.

Insist

Excite the substance of your essence into a barbed mass and extend it so it comes in contact with another essence to make the target believe it is experiencing anything you wish it to for the duration. Make a Contest roll against the target: your Essence quality against its Thought quality. If you succeed, your target believes it is currently experiencing whatever situation you are putting its mind in. On failure, the target knows that something has tried to alter its mind and gains an additional die to roll for each successive attempt, i.e. if you’ve failed 2 times and try again, the target gets 2 additional dice on top of their Thought roll, even if it surpasses 10 dice.

Push

Extend your essence outward in any direction to push an object (or yourself) with up to your character’s weight in pounds of force. It only pushes in the specified direction and does not cause blunt damage, but you can keep a sustained push for as long as you wish. You can use this skill to either propel yourself away from any surface or any object away from you.

Stab

Bring your essence together into a point and thrust it as far as your range allows to stab into a target. You can move your essence fast enough to pierce flesh. This can cause up to 2 Injuries at the GM’s discretion, depending on the circumstances, though it typically will only cause 1.

Whirlwind

Swirl your essence fast enough to create a powerful spiral of air in any direction. The wind is strong enough to blow over non-grounded items up to twice your essence’s range in pounds.

Cold Aura

Frost

Flow the substance of your essence to a absorb all warmth in the air up to twice your essence’s range. All air is frozen, dropping the temperature of the area, and your essence holds onto the heat it absorbed for the duration. The heat absorbed can be given to targets to help ease the new chill of the air, dispersed over time, or it can be expelled to boil the water in the air in a 1 foot-wide spout that travels in a straight line.

Sap

Flow the substance of your essence around a target to pull any amount of moisture out of it and the surrounding air. You can then manipulate the water to do whatever you would like. If only the air is targeted, the air becomes extremely dry, but if a living thing is targeted, it can be dried to a husk on a successful Contest roll: your Essence quality against the target’s Gumption quality. The extraction of water is not reversible.

Slash

Form your essence into a sharp edge and swing it to cut through a target in a straight line. The blade can cut through any physical substance and can be controlled to cut through only the target and nothing else. At the GM’s discretion, this can sever limbs and cause permanent Injuries, but it cannot cut through another essence.

Fast Aura

Energize

Surge the substance of your essence around a target (or yourself) to increase its speed. This can be taken in several ways including increasing the speed of cell production to decrease healing time and leaving a lingering effect of speed to make the target move much faster than normal.

If used on yourself, you can swing a limb fast enough to create small vaccuums in the air and run up to four times faster than normal. If used on someone else, they can move about twice to three times as fast as normal. If targeting cells, you can incite them to increase production by a noticeable amount, i.e. a cut will clot, close, and heal in a matter of seconds. The effectiveness and how it specifically affects your target is determined by the GM.

Lightning

Excite the substance of your essence to build up enough static electricity to create powerful bolts of lighting that arc off of your essence onto a spherical space with up to a 10 foot radius like a Tesla coil. The affect is instantaneous and devastating—the power of the electricity cannot be controlled. The bolts will connect with any metal objects first and any living things if there is no metal present, and the bolts will pass through anything that could act as a conduit on the way to its targets.

If a living creature comes in contact with the lightning, it is as if they were struck by lightning and, depending upon the circumstances, can cause up to 2 Injuries to any part(s) of the body that the GM feels is appropriate given the environment for each target within the affected space.

Magnetize

Excite the substance of your essence to build up enough static electricity to create a spherical electrical field up to half your essence’s range in size expanding outward from your head. It can create a sustained electrical field for the duration and can be controlled to specific voltages. Any magnetic objects around you are pulled toward you with the equivalent power of an electromagnet with the same voltage, and electronic devices may be damaged.

Heavy Aura

Build

Swirl the substance of your essence to collect dust and other particles within your range and crush them together into a solid cube with sides the size of your essence’s range in inches.

Compress

Bunch up the substance of your essence around a target and apply enough pressure to crush it into a solid sphere. This pressure can also be applied evenly across a surface to flatten it or used to crush air into a directed blast.

Empower

Surge the substance of your essence around yourself to increase your physical strength. You can lift or move objects up to your essence’s range in pounds on top of what you are physically able to lift. Increase the number of dice you roll for Gumption or other Strength-related quality Check rolls up to the maximum number of dice (10) for the duration.

If you utilize a modified check, your strength is sapped an amount equivalent to how long you used the skill: remove 1 die for each turn/5 seconds you used the skill from your next Gumption or Strength-related quality roll.

Hot Aura

Explode

Excite the substance of your essence until it heats up enough to ignite the air, then enfold more air until enough ignited air is gathered together to cause a large explosion of fire in a sphere up to half your Essence’s range in diameter. All air within the affected area is removed until surrounding air rushes in to fill its place.

Incinerate

Excite the substance of your essence to generate enough heat to completely burn a target within half of your essence’s range to ash. If the target is meltable, it is liquefied before being burned away. Surrounding objects or creatures cannot be protected from the radiant heat and could be burned or catch on fire.

Magma

Swirl the substance of your essence around the air, dirt, or another flammable/meltable object to create a stream of either flames (if using air or flammable objects) or magma (if using meltable objects or dirt) that can be launched at a target. The object(s) used as fuel is completely consumed.

Slow Aura

Focus

Flow the substance of your essence around yourself or a target within half of your range to heighten its focus and enable extreme control over its movements. Increase the number of dice you roll for Utility or other Precision-related quality Check rolls up to the maximum number of dice (10) for the duration.

If you utilize a modified check, your fine muscular control is reduced in relation to how long you used the skill: remove 1 die for every 2 turns/10 seconds you used the skill from your next Utility or Precision-related quality roll.

Pause

Expand your essence outward from your head into a thin bubble to surround everything within a diameter up to your Essence’s range in size. Time is slowed to a stop for everything touched by your essence except for what you choose for the duration.

You cannot use other essence skills while using this skill, and another essence can push yours aside.

Stitch

Expand your essence outward and engulf any object to manipulate it at an extremely fine level. Using this skill, you can stitch a cut back together, remove a blemish from a surface, or fuse a broken object back together.

Soft Aura

Control

Expand your essence outward to convince another essence that it is your closest, most compliant friend. You must make a Contest roll using your Essence quality against the target’s Thought quality. If you succeed, the target believes that it is your friend and will do anything for you that it would normally only do for its closest friends. The effect remains for up to as long as your essence’s range in minutes after your essence has been withdrawn—the time does not count down while your essence stays in contact with the target.

Glow

Excite the substance of your essence until it begins to glow. The shape of your Essence becomes visible as it emits a pale, bluish light from its entire surface, and lights up the area around it without heat.

Implant

Excite the substance of your essence into a barbed mass and extend it so it comes in contact with another essence to completely affect your target’s memory. Make a Contest roll using your Essence quality against the target’s Thought quality. If you succeed, you may either implant a false memory into your target’s mind or alter a specific memory within the target’s mind—altering a memory includes removing it completely. Changes made to the target’s memory is permanent.

If you are trying to alter a memory but the target does not have the specified memory or if the memory specified is too vague, this skill will fail and have no effect on the target.