Themes

You are most comfortable at the controls of a vehicle, whether it’s a starship racing through the inky void of space or a ground vehicle zooming between trees, around boulders, and across dusty badlands. You might be a member of an elite military force, the recipient of intense courses of training. Alternatively, you might be a total amateur with innate skills that make you a much-admired hotshot.

You currently are or formerly were a professional-level athlete with highly specialized physical skills. You might be a member of your region’s sports team, chosen for your exceptional strength or finesse, or maybe you competed in individual events requiring exemplary endurance. Your prowess may have already led you to travel extensively for competitions, or you might still be an up-and-coming star. Either way, your impressive physical capabilities enable you to make a living as a professional competitor.

You have been trained to treat combat wounds on and off the battlefield. Having operated in high-intensity situations in remote rural locales, on city streets, and amid the din of combat, you have honed your ability to remain calm and collected under duress and heal those around you. Your peers see you as an incredibly valuable member of the team, and because of this, they defend you with their lives.

You have a powerful affinity with the beasts of the wild. Perhaps you descend from—or were infected by—a lycanthrope or similar creature, were subjected to the rituals of a beastly fiend, or performed ancestral trials to pledge yourself to a beast spirit. Whatever the source, you fight and hunt like a wild thing, and you know the natural side of worlds like you were born to them.

You are a biotech researcher or avid user of such tech, constantly seeking out or developing new biotechnologies and combining existing augmentations with advancements in other fields. You might be a member of the Augmented, a researcher in one of Bretheda’s cutting-edge biotech corporations, a spellcasting genetomancer blending biotechnology with magic, or even a voluntary test subject for new augmentations. Either way, you have taken a strong hand in your own evolution.

From the vibrant nightlife of Absalom Station to the glitzy casinos of the Burning Archipelago, there are places throughout the galaxy where people gather to party and relax. But you know how much work goes into securing these venues. From fights on the dance floor to grifters trying to hustle, your job has been to protect patrons and hosts by any means necessary. You have sharp situational awareness and know how to defuse an escalating situation efficiently and quietly, even if it means leaving a few bruises.

You track people down for money. It is a dangerous profession, as most of your targets understandably don’t wish to be caught. You wouldn’t have it any other way. You might have a code of ethics, never taking jobs that, say, target children or members of your own race. You might hunt down only escaped criminals. Or you might be completely amoral, taking any job that comes along — for the right price.

You’re a civil servant, facilitating the day-to-day operations of a governmental agency and leaping systemic hurdles to accomplish your goals. Whether you’re a minor dignitary in the Pact Worlds, the Veskarium, or beyond, you operate within institutional boundaries to effect change, navigating the proper channels to find solutions and dealing with opposing bureaucrats who block your way. You’re now an adventurer, and the skills you’ve developed as a bureaucrat continue to serve you well in encounters with organizations across the galaxy.

You are a career member of a military and have been embroiled in conflicts and military bureaucracy for many years. During your enlisted time, you have trained with top ground troops, participated in war games that have turned deadly, and been privy to military intelligence given only to commanders. You are prepared for almost anything on the battlefield that your own commanders or your enemies able to throw at you.

You have an unquenchable trailblazer’s spirit, matched with the training and fortitude you’ll need to carve out a new life for yourself and others in the wilderness. Although you might be the sort to go it alone on the frontier, you’re more likely part of a small group of settlers. You might be preparing for your first voyage, or you might be a grizzled veteran who has already helped found several successful colonies.

Corporations control much of the modern world, from the food each person eats to the weapons a soldier deploys on the field of battle. You are an agent of one such corporation, which relies on your negotiation, deal-making, and your natural cunning to advance its agendas. Whether you are making proposals to agents of other corporations to split the mining rights for a valuable asteroid or establishing your corporation’s presence on a newly discovered world, you are the company’s eyes, ears, and hands.

The Drift Crisis cut you off from the place you called home. Whether you were visiting another planet or onboard a vessel that the Crash hurled light years across the cold vacuum of space, you find yourself among the many who desperately seek safety in a strange new land. You’ve seen and endured much, perhaps while searching for a new home in the turmoil of uncertainty.

Your life’s work is to ferret out cults and free those who have fallen into their clutches. You’ve studied their methods, and you know that they hide in plain sight more often than not, and that confronting them requires a combination of keen intellect, scrupulous attention to detail, and a fair share of defensive - and sometimes offensive - training. You may work for a legitimate agency like the Veskarium’s Division of Disloyal Organizations or the church of Abadar, you might pursue the cults for your own purposes, or you could even work directly for a cult yourself to eliminate the competition.

You served as a hooded, faceless adherent to a religion or organization that remains hidden from public view—usually because its aims are illegal or immoral. Although your time in a cult is most likely behind you—or, at least, that’s what you insist whenever the subject arises—you remain keenly aware of signs of cult activity and inured to physical hardship by exposure to mind-expanding substances combined with sleepless nights of unending ritual.

You’ve had some form of cybernetic augmentation since you were very young, and you see further augmentation as a path to self-improvement. You might be a verthani from the Augmented caste, a steelskin orc seeking to distinguish yourself from mainstream society, or anyone else inspired by the possibilities technology offers. Either way, you strive to master your current cybernetics and seek to further upgrade yourself whenever the opportunity presents itself.

You have been affected by the energies of death and negative energy. You are not undead, but you have an affinity for the dead and undead that is inexplicable to most living creatures. You may have suffered an attack from an undead creature when very young, or you may have been exposed to strange radiation, dimensional rifts, or magic that caused a weak but permanent link between you and the Negative Energy Plane. You survived this formative experience, but not without some change.

You have been trained to make peace and strive for amicable solutions in the most tension-filled situations. You could be a benevolent consul, seeking the best for all parties, or a political bully, forcing others into line. It’s possible you serve as an agent of a nation, religion, or species. No matter how you use your influence, you spend much of your time negotiating with potentially unfriendly people when only your words stand between you and violence. That doesn’t mean you don’t carry a gun, but it does mean you generally try talking first.

You can feel draconic magic pulsing through your veins, and the guttural roar of dragons invigorates you. Whether you’re from an area with deep ties to dragons or have simply spent your life studying the magnificent beasts, you understand how dragons’ categorization (metallic or chromatic and specific colors) affects their moods, outlooks, and even ultimate goals. You can harness the power of dragons, and you sing the creatures’ praises wherever you go

You were drawn to Liavara by the Dreamers’ songs, which awoke in you a resonance with these enlightened beings. Now you see the world around you in a new light, and you have a transcendent, innate understanding of the mystical power suffusing the universe. You don’t command this energy; the most you can do is accept it and absorb it—and when you become utterly in sync with those psychic reverberations encapsulated in the Dreamers’ songs, you gain oracular glimpses of things yet to come.

You were aboard a starship when the Drift Crash occurred. You were either stranded in the plane until rescued, or your vessel was unceremoniously ejected onto the Material Plane and directly into danger. The experience drove you to action. Since then, you might have joined other teams seeking those who were lost or became caught in one of many ensuing military conflicts across the galaxy. Whatever the case, you emerged with a very personal connection to this life-changing event.

Monsters are out there. They seek to invade your mind and destroy all that lies within. Some might quail at that thought, but not you. You hunt these monsters down wherever they may hide. You have trained with an elite psionic squad or a specialist unit dealing with psychic threats, or served as the psionics officer for a military task force or law enforcement group. Even if you were born without psychic gifts of your own, the exposure you’ve had working with these units has helped you unlock some of your latent potential.

Many of Desna’s followers honor their goddess in her aspect as Lady Luck and purveyor of fortunes, auspicious and otherwise. Throughout the Pact Worlds and elsewhere, gamblers frequent casinos, bars, and other gathering spaces where they can test the whims of fate. Some gamblers are true believers; others are superstitious only until their luck runs out. Thrill-seeking gamblers might eventually abandon their casino games to wager with life and death, enjoying the excitement of leaving dangerous, high-stakes situations to chance. For her part, Desna smiles on those who honor her—most of the time.

Giants’ blood flows through your veins, and you feel a fascination and kinship with these towering beings. You may stand a little taller than most of your kind, and you are capable of great feats of endurance. Like many giantbloods, you likely bear some physical attributes of the specific giants you are descended from. You’ve learned to tap into giants’ great strength and fortitude to perform feats most people of your kind would find difficult, if not impossible.

You are a veteran of the public blood sport industry—a survivor of countless battles to earn a shiny credstick of winnings, the adulation of your fans, or both. You might be a veteran of Akiton’s fighting pits, a student of the ritualized styles of Triaxus’s battleflowers, or the sort of masochist who can’t help but return to Eox’s Halls of the Living. You’re likely to die before your habits do, though, as you find few things more exciting than the rush of battle and the pounding cheers of a thousand fans.

Though you feel comfortable among all sorts of lowlifes, you rely on your intellect to defraud others. Whether you work the streets alone, in a small group, or as the brains behind a larger organization, you analyze opportunities and unapologetically exploit the system to achieve your ends. As a grifter, you’re an expert in one or two trades, but you also have the knowledge and confidence to convincingly pass as an authority in just about any profession.

You are a guard, lookout, or forward scout, and it’s your job to keep a constant eye out. You might be an independent contractor whose clients change regularly, a lookout for a criminal organization, an elite military agent assigned to visiting political leaders or rich celebrities, or a permanent employee protecting a secure facility, a VIP, or even a friend. Regardless, you’re trained to identify threats and keep your client and their property safe.

Thanks to interstellar transmissions and Drift travel, the galaxy is smaller than ever, and this connectivity has facilitated your ascension to celebrity status. You might be a famous performer or a celebrated scientist, but either way, you get recognized on the Pact Worlds and in associated systems. Your reason for traveling to unknown worlds might be to further spread your acclaim or to escape the limelight.

You are an enforcer of law in a galaxy rife with chaos and corruption. Your mandate is to keep the peace, and you understand the weight of the role you play in society. Your senses are always tuned to your surroundings while you’re on the job, but you’re also skilled at navigating paperwork and bureaucratic records. As a figure of authority, you prevent crime and provide assistance to your community, so the public looks to you as a source of help and protection.

Whether you take jobs that match your ethical beliefs or you fight for anyone who can afford your services, you are a hired gun. You might take pride in your past accomplishments, proudly displaying trophies of your kills, or you might be laden with guilt over being the sole survivor of a mission gone terribly wrong. You most likely work with other mercenaries and are familiar with the methodologies of military actions all across the galaxy.

You were born into a position of power and privilege. You might be an actual aristocrat or another member of the upper class, such as the relative of a politician, business magnate, or famous celebrity. Whatever your background, you were raised to be a member of high society, and you are as comfortable with alien diplomats as you are at a fashionable party. You can draw on your family’s resources to ease your way through life, so the galaxy is yours to enjoy!

For many, a crisis is nothing less than an opportunity. Perhaps you aim to turn a profit from the distress of those affected by the Drift Crisis, or maybe you see it as the perfect time to build new alliances or play enemies against one another. A massive disruption could even be your chance to cover up past crimes and seek a fresh start, for good or for ill. Whatever your motive, you seek the opportunities that come in the wake of a period of great change.

Due to the sins of your past or your current unlawful behavior, you are a wanted individual somewhere in the Pact Worlds. You might not even be guilty and are striving to clear your good name. Or you might fully admit to being a criminal but believe the laws you break are unjust. Whatever the case, boarding a starship headed to the Vast might be just the thing you need until the heat dies down — or until you’re dragged off to prison.

Some, upon waking, want to forget their nightmares, find comfort among their companions, and dream of new adventures. That’s not you. No, you know waking life can be a dream and the nightmares can be real. You are a truth-seeker, chasing the shadows in search of a world hidden behind the veneer of normalcy. Each fresh horror you uncover proves your work is right and important, and makes you want to delve deeper into the galaxy’s haunting secrets.

The allure of interplanetary adventure can lead just about anybody to leave a sedentary life behind and travel into the stars. While some of these people have prior training, many others do not, including academics, vidgamers, and corporate suits. That’s where you come in! As a personal trainer, you know the value in maintaining good diet and exercise, especially in zero gravity environments where prolonged habitation can lead to muscular atrophy. Whether you travel within one solar system to visit clients on different worlds, or want to establish your own gym, your enthusiastic willingness to share your knowledge to better improve the fitness of those around you is palpable. While there may be other personal trainers in the galaxy, you hope that your physical fitness will give you a leg up on the competition.

Whether you are a rich kid doing it for kicks or a student of the streets doing it to survive, you’ve found that you have quite a bit of skill at nicking things from other people without them noticing. You are most comfortable when wandering through large crowds, as they have the most marks and rubes milling about—plus the tumult of moving people to give you the perfect cover. Even without the benefit of milling masses, you know how to hide in plain sight, and you are always on the lookout for the perfect diversion, whether a relatively harmless smoke grenade or a precariously balanced fruit cart. Your work is usually a solitary affair, but you certainly could use a team from time to time, whether as diversions from your true purpose or as backup when the pickings are slim. When you do agree to travel or work with others, you may be motivated by what treasures you can find to add to your collection.

Whether you are or aren’t a native of the Material Plane, it certainly holds little sway over you. Why go to the vidgame arcade when you could sample the endless delights of Elysium? Why settle your disputes at the local courthouse when you could get the opinion of the perfect arbiters of Axis? Why simply kill your enemies when you could annihilate their souls with the help of Abaddon? Regardless of your tendencies, focus (or lack of focus) on particular planes, or motivation for traveling, your knowledge of realities beyond your own is unmatched.

You are a member of an organized religion or similar association. Your belief, whether it has been a part of you since childhood or it came to you later in life, is an integral part of your character. You might travel the stars proselytizing your deity, or your church might have sent you out on a specific holy (or unholy) mission. No matter what obstacles life puts in your way, you always have the conviction of your beliefs to fall back on.

You have been incarcerated and have either escaped or been released, perhaps conditionally. You might have run afoul of the law or been unjustly locked up for a crime you didn’t commit. Either way, you have learned quite a bit during your time as an inmate. You figured out how to navigate gangs, guards, and sometimes dangerous and deceitful individuals. Now that you’re free of incarceration, you rely on the tools you learned and the conditioning you acquired to survive in the outside world.

You’re an anonymous cog in the corporate machine. Along with countless others just like you, you form the foundation of the galactic financial system by selling your labor for regular pay. Automation and virtual intelligences, such as robots and advanced computers, provide the truly unskilled labor in the economy, so at least you fit in somewhere above that bottommost level. You’re no artist, nor are your practical skills specialized enough to win you high pay or a management position. However, you’re good enough at what you do to make it in the everyday working world.

While many think of front-line soldiers and officers as the core of a fighting force, you know that no military can function without access to supplies. You are the backbone of your army, providing your allies with resources crucial to their survival and amenities to provide material comforts in times of conflict. Perhaps you are a member of the Veskarium military who contributes to war efforts, but regardless of your specific affiliation, your allies know they can rely on you to get them exactly what they need.

In a galaxy filled with faster-than-light travel, virtual reality, and space stations housing millions, many people forget where their food comes from. Even those who exclusively dine on MREs and whatever comes out of their culinary synthesizers don’t stop and consider the inspiration behind their food-like cuisine. Even for cultures who travel the stars, livestock are a critical part of the economy and remain a key component of many products. As a rancher, you have first-hand experience raising, protecting, and perhaps even rendering domestic animals. You are aware of the symbiotic nature of life throughout the universe and want to experience that sublime relationship for yourself, rather than waiting for the proverbial space cows to come home.

You are fascinated by the internal workings of machines, whether they’re intelligent constructs or technological equipment. You might be someone who enjoys tinkering in a garage, or you might be a worker at a factory that specializes in building robots or weaponry. You’re likely interested in exploring and figuring out the innovations of other organizations and species on distant worlds. Regardless of your specific motivation, there’s always a gadget that needs tinkering with.

You are an erudite intellectual, pitting your brain against problems and puzzles that others would find daunting. You might be an instructor of a specific topic at a large university or a dabbler in a number of fields of study. You could be exploring the galaxy in search of ancient artifacts or new scientific phenomena. Whatever your motivation, you are sure that the answers you seek are out there.

You revel in new sensations and experiences. Armed with ineffable resilience and keenly developed senses, you greet each new adventure with zeal and reverence, drinking in the world around you with boundless enthusiasm. Though not immune to fear, your openness strengthens your resolve when facing the unknown. You might approach new encounters with reckless abandon or take a more thoughtful path, but whatever route you choose, finding new sensations fulfills you.

The sun is the source of all life in the system, and though you may not worship it directly, you seek to honor this precious gift. From a distance, the sun is a serenely glowing light, but in actuality, it is a churning mass of plasma that reaches temperatures of millions of degrees. By meditating on this contradiction, you attempt to achieve inner peace and greater selfcontrol. Whether you're a devotee of Sarenrae or simply a resident of the Burning Archipelago, the sun looms large in your life, figuratively and literally.

You are a free-ranging corsair within the wild and unpredictable fringes of galactic civilization and live by your own code, or a code shared with other like-minded individuals. You tend to view personal property as a laughable concept, unless it is your gear. You might be a freebooter on your own ship, a member of a space-bound gang of raiders, or even a member of the Free Captains of the Diaspora. Alternatively, you might be a new recruit to the piratical lifestyle, just learning the ropes under a more seasoned crew.

Your longing to journey among the stars can’t be sated. You yearn for the adventure of stepping onto a distant world and exploring its secrets. You tend to greet every new opportunity with bravery and fortitude, confident that your multitude of skills will pull you through. Perhaps you simply find joy in the act of traveling with your companions, or perhaps you are just out to line your pockets with all sorts of alien loot!

Whether you’re a worshipper of Triune, a longtime resident of the Drift, or simply a spacefarer who has relied on the plane for years, you’ve formed a magical connection to spectra, the plane’s unique inhabitants. Like these planar beings, you take on the tasks of bringing the word of the Drift to those who might have only recently discovered space travel, safeguarding the more vulnerable areas of the realm, and protecting travelers through Drift.

You have spent countless hours traveling where few creatures dare to go: the emptiness of space. You move with controlled elegance through the weightless vacuum, having long ago defeated the fear that grips others when they leave the safety of a starship. Perhaps you trained in the asteroid fields surrounding the House Unhindered, grew up on a station or ship without artificial gravity, or have logged so many hours on extravehicular activities that space suits are like a second skin to you. Others might see your maneuvers as daring or reckless, but you know the stars will always guide you to your destiny.

The tumultuous atmosphere of Vesk-5 or another storm-ridden world has trained you to navigate difficult or even forbidden airspaces with grace. You’ve learned recognize the order in the apparent randomness of a storm. Your knowledge of weather patterns, ability to make split second decisions, and near-instantaneous reaction time give you the ability to move just a bit faster than the lightning on your tail. Wherever you picked up this skill, you know how to read a situation and never take your surroundings for granted.

Some people make their living working in a business suit, others in service positions helping those around them, all on a set schedule, knowing the pattern of their life will stay the same from day to day. You wanted more than that repetitive, safe schedule. You’ve sought your own fortune, or at least living, using your talents to hustle and amaze as a street performer, creating elaborate illusions and manipulations that appear to outsiders as complex magical abilities. From mind reading to levitation and making things disappear, you’ve learned the art of using distraction to make others think they saw one thing while another was happening before their eyes. Unfortunately for you, either through over-hustling or market saturation, your busking is not as profitable as it once was. But the show must go on and so you’ve decided to head out into space, finding new audiences to amaze and delight.

You were born into poverty among the lower classes of the galaxy. You might be a child of the slums that surround the major metropolises of many worlds, or a survivor huddling in the ruins of a collapsed society with no functional government. Whatever your story is, you started life at a disadvantage and have had to claw yourself forward every step of the way. You know how to move among the dregs of society, and life has taught you to depend only on yourself.

In their adolescence, kasathas undertake a yearlong walkabout known as the Tempering, in which they are encouraged to experience other cultures. You have examined this practice (or perhaps undergone it yourself) and have concluded that a year is not enough time to learn from the countless other civilizations. In any case, you don’t need to be a kasatha to consider yourself a student of the universe. Many tempered pilgrims are also followers of the philosophy of the Cycle.

If you decide that none of the themes above fit your particular character concept, you can choose not to have a theme. You then gain the following benefits at the listed levels. A themeless character is considerably less powerful than a character with a theme, so choose this option with care.

You are a visionary in the field of micro-scale construction, able to elevate the applications of UPBs and other multifunctional materials to new heights. You might be a researcher who has made a breakthrough in design, a garage experimenter who delights in inventing or creating complex gizmos, or an enthusiast about all things homemade.

You aren’t from the Pact Worlds, the Veskarium, or any other major system. Instead, you were born far from any major interstellar society, on a world with few Drift beacons to attract traffic. Maybe your family helped establish a settlement on your home world a few generations ago, or perhaps your planet developed in isolation only to be transformed by Drift travel and the recent arrival of visiting aliens from societies more technologically advanced than yours. Whatever the case, you have an outsider’s perspective on galactic society, and you know how to improvise, learn from your circumstances, and deal with the unexpected.

First-person shooters, dating simulators, platformers, puzzles, real-time strategy, sports, or massive multiplayer online role-playing games—you’ve mastered them all. You know the levels by heart, have memorized every cheat code, and can play some of the classics blindfolded. You’re proud of your achievements, but have chosen to leave the comforts of your local arcade and adventure into places you have never been, seeking out new experiences and new challenges among the stars.

Many consider the dark cold of space to be ominous and uncomfortable, but you’ve always been drawn to it. Isolation and death instill little fear in you, and your desire to see the infinite blackness of the Void spurs you onward. You might have survived a close encounter with a black hole’s event horizon, studied with the bone sages of Eox, or had a near‐death experience that attracted you to the black. Your interest in such bleakness makes you seem strange to others, if not disturbing, as you search for ways to explore the Negative Energy Plane.

You believe that the trappings of civilization have made others soft, so you eschew them to live in the wilds, such as the jungles of Castrovel. You don’t necessarily avoid technology, as it can help you survive in some of the harsher, more extreme environments, but you tend to adorn your equipment with furs and leaves. This might make you seem like a backwards primitive to some people, but you know that nature—in all its forms—will be around long after all societies have collapsed and turned to dust.

You are driven to explore the ruins of bygone civilizations, whether they are millennia old or recently collapsed. You might seek to explore the interior of Apostae or travel the galaxy to discover lost settlements, and your motives might be purely academic or simply profiteering. You often employ modern technology to aid in your explorations, but you are no stranger to unusual and ancient machinery, sometimes using them in the field when in a pinch.

The thought of meeting alien life-forms excites you. The more different their appearances and customs are from yours, the better! You either believe they have much to teach you or you want to prove you are better than them. Of course, the only way to accomplish your goal is to leave the Pact Worlds and travel to the Vast, where a virtually endless number of aliens await.