Wounded King Variant

[Stimson, Aaron]

A few clarifications: I use a footnoting system in order to give rational
and extra information for those who are curious.  If you don't care to know,
do look things up.  *1 references item 1 of the footnotes, *2 item 2, etc.

	Secondly, I will not be using some of the concepts that are common
in medieval and Roman-influenced Europe that crop up often in references to
Grail Cycle and Contemporary literature.  For example, the whole connection
to the land issue.  Please note that the King is not connected to the land.
Neither is the land connected to the King.  In Roman-influenced and medieval
Europe, it was commonly known the nature reflected what went on in the realm
of man.  If there was civil war, strife, and people stepping out of place in
the Hierarchy of the land, there would also be two-headed calves, stars
falling from the sky, wild animals roaming city streets, earthquakes,
plagues, and so on.  The oft sighted connection of the fertility of the land
to the fertility of the King spawns from this concept entirely.  If the King
is sterile, nature will reflect this sterility.  This is the natural order
of things to someone of the medieval mindset.  It is too easy, my friends,
to fall into this mindset in the opposite direction these days.  In our
modern mythical view, nature is a wondrous, independent entity, full of
wisdom and whimsy, and a force to be reckoned with or worshiped.  This is a
pre-Christian concept that has been readopted today just as much because of
our environmental and scientifically lead societal consciousness as because
of any neo-Pagan influence.  Because of our renewed belief in the power of
nature, it is easy to believe a Wounded King Archetype would need to have
some sort of mystic bond or direct power over the fertility of the land.
This idea is as much a modern superstition as the reflectivity of nature was
to the medieval mind.  Should you so desire a fertility connection between
these two, please consider this as a specific way to work Unnatural
Phenomena into an Avatar story.  The powerful, mystical activities of a
Wounded King might well promote such an effect.  Or one might save this for
a godwalker effect.  As always, this is up to how you want to play things.

Without further ado, My Wounded King.

Wounded King

Attributes:  For good or evil, the Wounded King is both powerful and weak
among Avatars.  The Wounded King's weakness is that he cannot help himself.
His power spawns from his ability to aid his followers.  While power
gravitates towards the Wounded King, he may not aid himself with it.  He is
a caretaker and protector to his people, and a counselor and leader of his
companions.  As a servant of Order, the Wounded King could guide his people
into a utopian state, supported by the unity of vision only he can bring.
As a servant of Entropy, the Wounded King could topple nations, aided by
followers blindly loyal and richly rewarded for their efforts.

This said, very few people would wish to embark upon the path to being an
avatar of the Wounded King.  Inadvertently taking up this calling is far
more common.  Destiny calls those who are dedicated to a cause, and such are
lead to the path of the Wounded King.  Because of this a Wounded King must
have first been an Avatar of another stripe.  The Fisher King, for example,
had been a Knight before his wounding.  Hasan-i-Sabah *1, the Old Man of the
Mountain (Founder of the Hashishim), had been an Executioner (read
Assassin).  The transition to Avatar:Wounded King can only occur before the
person reaches the second ability of the Avatar they currently emulate.
Then, an impressive wounding must occur.  One way (but not exclusively the
only way) is to received a major wound (50+ points) from a Magickally
enhanced attack, and yet defeat one's opponent.  This attack might be from
an Avatar power aided attack, a Magickally aided strike, or an artifact.
The GM may then attempt a roll under their Avatar:(Archetype) Skill and if
it succeeds over 20% but under their skill level, they may make the
transition.  Their new Avatar skill (Avatar:Wounded King) starts at half of
the original Avatar skill.
The Wounded King may heal normally, but may never heal their last 5 wound
points.  These points consist of their transforming Wound.  Should their
Avatar:Wounded King skill ever fall to 0% their wound will heal, but they
may not embark upon the Wounded King path again.  The Wounded King's wound
not only never heals, but it also never stops hurting.  This pain is
intense, and the Wounded King suffers a -10% penalty to all skill rolls
except their Avatar:Wounded King skill and their lowest non-combat,
non-occult, non-interaction skill.  This special skill becomes their
Symbolic Alleviator (SA), and when the Wounded King attempts this skill,
they do not experience the pain.  The Fisher King's SA was his fishing
skill.  He would spend his days fishing on the lake, and during that time
the pain would be lessened.  Hasan-i-Sabah found his succor in gardening.
Note that the skill need not be successful, just attempted.  Should this
skill ever rise above another non-combat, non-occult, non-interaction skill,
the SA will not change.  The SA is chosen only once, and never changes.
There is more on this below.
Taboo:  The Wounded King may never move against his followers.  If his
followers must die in service of his cause, they may do so, but the Wounded
King may never have a follower injured or killed without cause.  Nor may he
send that follower on a suicide mission that has no purpose.  Any such move
betrays the protector roll of the Wounded King.
	The Wounded King cannot deny a follower his aid if they request it.
To do so is to violate the caretaking roll of the Wounded King.

Symbols:  The Wounded King is symbolized by a sword, lance, or spear.  The
Wounded King is also represented by a symbol of his SA.  For the Fisher King
this might be a fish.  For Hasan-i-Sabah, this wound be a tree or flower.
If the Wounded King finds an item of historical significance that is also an
appropriate symbol, it may be used to reduce their skill shift check to -5%
(reducing his pain).  For example, Lance is an Avatar of the Wounded King,
whose SA is Driving.  If he finds the original Edsel that Henry Ford drove,
he could make off with the hood ornament, and place it on a necklace.  While
Lance wears this item, his skill shift check is only -5%.

Suspected Avatars in History:  King Pellam (if he existed) was the original
Fisher King. Hasan-i-Sabah, the Old Man of the Mountain, founder of the
Hashishim, was a religious fanatic and assassin before he was bereft of his
right hand and exiled.  Wounded Kings are a rare lot, and many are not as
well known.  Both the above, however, show the variance of focus and effects
these Avatars can have.
Channels:
1-50%:  Draw Followers.  All persons of similar viewpoints to the Wounded
King who meet him must make a roll.  If they roll under the Wounded King's
Avatar skill they will be disposed to aid him once that day.  This aid may
be any request that is not repugnant to that person. (example: T.N. Cookies,
a Gangsta Rappa Wounded King asks a newly met (and now predisposed)
teeny-bopper to smash her arm in a car door.  Barring severe mental
problems, this would most likely be repugnant and therefore not obeyed.  If,
on the other hand, he asked her to get her friends to come and meet him, she
would do this as soon as she could).  Each day that this person is with the
Wounded King they roll again.  After 5 successful rolls, this person will
always be predisposed to aiding the Wounded King, within reason.  They are
not mindless zombies, and they will still attend to prior commitments, but
will always be followers of the Wounded King.  The Wounded King does not
need to command a potential follower just because he can.  The Wounded King
is also not privy to when a non-follower is predisposed to aiding him.
51%-70%:  Healing.  The Wounded King may attempt to heal any wounded
follower of his if they are injured.  On a successful roll of his
Avatar:Wounded King skill he may heal the sum of the dice roll in wound
points.  If the roll is matched, he may heal the entire roll in wound
points.  (T.N. Cookies's badass enforcer Mofo Jones got cut up good at T.N.
Cookies's last concert.  Since Mofo Jones is a follower of T.N. Cookies, he
attempts to heal him.  Rolling a 24, T.N. heals Mofo for 6 (2+4) wound
points.  If he rolled a 22, however, Mofo would have healed 22 wound points,
if possible.)
71-90%: Counsel.  Any follower of The Wounded King may be allowed to 'share'
a skill of the Wounded King's for a named task, by The Wounded King's
blessing.  That follower gains the use of that skill until the task is
completed.  The Wounded King does not loose this skill while it is shared,
and cannot share his Avatar skill.  (T.N. Cookies allows Mofo Jones to use
his Jimmy Locks:35% skill while Mofo Jones is on the task to break into The
Naked Goddess's studio and search the place for a copy of the original tape.
As soon as Mofo Jones is finished searching the place, whether or not he
finds the tape, he looses the use of the shared Jimmy Locks skill.)
91%:  Artifact Attraction. *2  Any artifact within a mile radius of The
Wounded King has an chance of being attracted to him. This chance is the
Avatar:Wounded King skill% but not below 40%.  If it is being carried by a
person, that person will most likely be brought to The Wounded King in some
'coincidental' fashion, but if the artifact is unattended 'coincidence' will
find a way to bring it to his hands.  The Wounded King cannot use any
artifact that is attracted this way (though his followers may).  (Lance, the
Driver King, has an Avatar:Wounded King skill of 93%.  A duke, who has been
out of town for a while, stumbles upon a powerful natural artifact of
Entropy, a shard of the first A-bomb.  When the duke returns he comes within
the 1 mile radius of Lance.  The GM makes a roll for Lance's Artifact
Attraction, and rolls a 37%.  Although this is below his 93% Avatar skill,
it is also below 40% and so the duke gets to keep his artifact.  If the roll
had been 73%, however, the duke would have found himself drawn to the nearby
car show where Lance has been hanging out.)  No artifact may be tested more
than once, and the Wounded King is not privy to these rolls. *3
Please feel free to make any comments or suggestions.

Aaron Stimson

------ Footnotes
1)  Hasan-i-Sabah is the founder of the Cult of Assassins, and perhaps not
the type of person that one would think of as a Wounded King.  Still
consider that fact that he lost a hand as a punishment for the fearful and
viscious cruelty in pursuing his calling as an Assassin, and he has able to
promote a horrific fanaticism around his ideals among his followers.  His
use of the Garden of Earthly Delights, drugs, and mental indoctrination were
all reinforced by his titanic will and personality.  No follower of his was
drawn purely by rewards, but by also Hasan's immense reputation.  This all
suggests him as a wonderful and overlooked dark image of the Wounded King.
2)  The Artifact Attraction ability is primarily to help explain the Fisher
King's mythical stash of historical artifacts.  He was reputed to also own
variously the Holy Grail, the Spear of Longinous, Nails or slivers from The
True Cross, numerous crowns of renown, etc.  See Jim Dyer's e-mail for more
examples.  The Fisher King, however, was never able to use them to his own
ends, thus the limitation.
3)  Why?  Because the GM said so.  This would accompany any encounter of an
artifact that the Wounded King did not draw to himself if he was privy to
the die rolls.  Sometimes an artifact is important to a plot line, and
having it fall into the character's hands too soon (or at all) would wreck
the story.  Secret rolls allow the GM to mediate this effect.  Note, though
that too much fudging of rolls will make the player resent this power rather
than appreciate it for the wonders that it will bring them.
4)  There is no number 4!  Still I would like to mention that although
godwalker rules are not stated yet, I have some excellent ideas as to
abilities for a godwalker Wounded King, and Ascension requirements.  If
people want these also, I will post them.