Welcome to Loom County,
Who are you?
Within Loom and Liar, players have boundless creative opportunities to create the character of their dreams. Our system features a number of supernatural options— but of course… you walk the world as a human. Right?
Human...
OPTION 1:
We are the inheritors of gods, words spoken into the void, manifest as flesh and blood, shaped to walk upon the earth. We learned to stand upright, to speak in symbols, and to contemplate the very nature of existence.
We are creators and destroyers, wielders of blade and bone. We are the writer, the painter, the sculptor. We break, yet we heal, and each time we emerge stronger.
We have tamed fire and tools, forged empires and machines. We have turned to music to give voice to our hopes and dreams. Whatever destiny casts our way, we adapt, and we overcome.
We have endured catastrophes unimaginable: world-ending events, plagues, wars. Still, we persist. Even the silent judgment of time itself brushes against us, like dust against flame.
Humanity is unfinished. We are a story still unfolding. We are both the question and the answer—restless, unyielding, reaching ever into the dark of eternity.
THE PATH OF THE HUNTER
In an age where myths walk beside men, there are those whose names are not spoken. They are known only to outsiders as the Hunters, mortals who stand against nightmares older than memory itself. They walk amongst us unseen and unknown like shadows and are tempered by tragedies no soul should bare. These brave souls walk the hidden frontier between humanity and the darkness.
The hunter's quarry is not with beast nor man, but the strange and unholy creatures who wear stolen faces, thirst for the warm blood of men, and skitter around in the darkness stalking their prey. They are the ones who hunt where villages vanish without a trace, where the moon burns crimson and where silence falls too suddenly.
Each abomination they slay takes another piece of their humanity away, losing more of themselves until they teeter between the world they protect and the abyss they battle. Still, they endure.
They do it because they must. Because there is no other alternative. There must always be one who stands against the dark when all else fails and as long as there are creatures that stalk the night so too shall there be the hunter. Their legend ever burning, etched in whispers and stained in blood.
But…
if you weren’t human.
Welcome to Liar’s County
WHO ARE YOU REALLY?
OPTION 2:
Occultists
Mortal practitioners of magical arts, obtained by either rigorous study or influence by extraplanar forces/beings. Occultists weave magic to bolster their physical prowess, change the world around them, and influence others.
But remember this. Knowledge requires sacrifice. The craft requires sacrifice.
HOW ARE OCCULTISTS CREATED:
Occultists have a few methods for which they come into being. This also varies by sub-alignment.
ALCHEMISTS
Also known as mages, wizards, thaumaturgists, mad scientists
A studious researcher who unravels the potential of this realm via science and experimentation–. pushing the boundaries of what mortals were meant to do. Alchemists favor the library, the school, the laboratory– they are beings of method and study. Through study they believe any problem, man-made or divine, can be solved.
While changelings revel in the wild magic of the outdoors, to alchemists, nature is to be studied as a tool. It is to be compounded into potions that bolster their physical prowess and allow them to wield the power of the elements.
How they are born: Alchemists may have generational lineage that has infused magic into their very blood, or have become such via exposure to some magical discovery or research.
CHANGELINGS
Also known as witches, sorcerers, warlocks, and the weird goth kid in school.
A conduit that possesses the innate– or acquired ability to draw from extraplanar realms and forces, gaining power by pulling the energy of the otherrealms into this plane. Changelings were born from many things, by a fae switching out a mortal infant for a homunculus, an infernal being striking a contract with a human, or something from the great beyond corrupting the mind of the unsuspecting.
Where alchemists favor libraries and schools and dark academia– Changelings run wild in nature with their covens, wielding the powers of the mind and soul. Humanity is a tool, and gifts from a changeling always come at a cost.
How they are born: Changelings are either born into this via a generational change or pact, are switched at birth from an extraplanar entity, enter into a contract with an extraplanar entity, or are corrupted by an extraplanar entity.
OPTION 3:
We are beings of transformation, the embodiment of change. Our kind is a mosaic of fates – some were born as shifters, others turned onto the path willingly or by force. To be one of our kind may be a curse or a blessing.
To be a shifter is a path on knife’s edge: to embrace the primal nature coursing through your veins or to succumb to animalistic urges and lose yourself to pure instinct.
HOW ARE SHIFTERS CREATED
Born: Typically both parents must be capable shifters, but in some cases, only one parent was a shifter and the other a human. In the case one parent is human, the chances of having a child that is a shifter is about one in four. If both parents are shifters, or one is human and the other a shifter and a child is born without the ability to shift, they are called dud-pups.
Bitten: Some shifters are given their abilities through a bite. This bite must occur under a blood moon, and typically is completely accidental as it’s often the result of an enraged or feral werecreature.
Blessed/Cursed: This way of acquiring an animal form is not very common at all, after the 1700’s. It is a very old world way to awaken the natural animalistic abilities in a human. This typically only happens when the victim has offended an occultist. Ill-will or hatred must be present to manifest the curse.
SHIFTERS
WEREWOLVES
Wolves need to hunt - It is hard wired into their existence. If you don’t hunt for a while, you’ll find it harder to control yourself, and your emotions. Letting yourself loose is the best way to curb that need to kill something. Just do it where you won’t be seen. Werewolves value family above all— No matter the conflict or disagreement, family is family and no wolf should forsake that. Barring complete betrayal you should always protect those who are kin. Wolves hold a lot of power in the world but they’re far from being god-like. They have their weaknesses and their needs just like all creatures do. From being forced to hunt to control themselves to needing to shift at certain times, there will be a lot of caveats.
WERECATS
For the werecats, we went with what you would expect for a cat of all natures - They’re a little bit of the solitary types, and while they do join packs and socialize, they’re typically in it for themselves and have their own way to do things. We built them as a shadowy, rogue archetype with a skill for blending in or disappearing and we’d love to see them work as mercenaries, bounty hunters or even thieves of many scales - be it bank robbers or highwaymen.
OPTION 4:
Vampires are among the most fearsome figures of myth, stalking the line between legend and nightmare. Ancient whispers trace their origins to nearly every culture with mention of the restless dead, blood-drinking demons who stalk the countryside by night and feeding upon the living to prolong its unholy existence.
They are creatures of hunger and shadow, beautiful yet monstrous, immortal yet bound by fatal weaknesses. The bite of the vampire is both death and seduction, a mingling of terror and desire. Legends speak of powers given to those who taste of the vampire's blood granting them unnatural strength, speed and eternal youth but at a cost; a cost of curses, doomed to a half life, and vulnerable to sunlight.
There are those who speak of different types of vampires- most notably two kinds come to mind- but no matter which type of vampire you may come across; beware, for they are not to be underestimated.
Vampires
DAYWALKERS
Originally brought forth by a pregnant mother who was cursed with vampirism, they are now most often created by being sired by an existing Daywalker. This unique method of creation has given them the ability to walk in the daylight with little to no hindrance. Because of this, they also find a natural resistence to fire. Daywalkers can be anywhere, bucking the traditional expectation of a vampire— this makes them masters of infiltration, charm, and long-term manipulation.
GRAVEBORN
Brought forth by being turned by a vampire while on death’s doorstep, or being sired by an existing Graveborn. As with the the common expectation of vampires from lore— sunlight is fatal; they thrive in crypts and shadow. But this curse has brought forth great power— things that Daywalkers do not have access to. Like the ability to turn yourself into a bat or rising from the dead.