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Archetypal Builds

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Archetypal Builds

This document catalogues known magical archetypes, from specialists who have mastered a single Arcanum to roles defined by their function within a major faction.

1. Arcanum Masters

Specialists who have Mastered a specific Arcanum, defining their entire magical style. Numbering follows the canonical order of the 22 Paths.

1. The Sacred Fool

  • Arcanum: Aleph (Keter ↔ Chokmah)
  • Primary Cycle: The Fool's Gambit
  • Profile: Generates an "Aura of Improbability" by cycling pure potential (Keter) into chaotic possibility (Chokmah). This uncontrollable field of luck can only be aimed, not directed. The constant potential erodes their sense of self, risking Hollowing. A collapse triggers a "Possibility Bomb," a localized reality-scrambling event. Post-Fracturing, this manifests as improbable life for Gardeners or causality glitches for Concordian heretics.
  • Faction: The Legion of the Fool

2. The Reality-Scribe

  • Arcanum: Beth (Keter ↔ Binah)
  • Primary Cycle: The First Word
  • Profile: Gives form (Binah) to the formless (Keter), creating an "Aura of Definition" that gives their words tangible effect on reality. By logically "un-naming" a target's core principles, they can make it unravel. The Dissonance risks a blend of Petrification and Hollowing. Collapse triggers "The Un-naming," erasing the Scribe's own concept of self. Post-Fracturing, this cycle is hyper-resonant for Concordians drawing on the Keter of Law.
  • Faction: The Legion of the Magician

3. The Prophet of the Veil

4. The Genesis Architect

  • Arcanum: The Empress
  • Primary Cycle: The Loom of Conception
  • Profile: Creates powerful but unstable "Prototypes" by giving rigid form (Binah) to a single thread from Chokmah's infinite possibilities. The result is inherently flawed as other possibilities press against it. A collapse triggers a "Stillbirth," a catastrophic failure of the prototype. The extreme Dissonance risks a blend of Petrification and Dissolution.
  • Faction: The Legion of the Empress

5. The Lawgiver King

6. The Hierophant Preceptor

7. The Vow-Sworn Templar

8. The Chariot Engine

9. The Alchemical Justicar

10. The Anchorite of the Wastes

11. The Fortune-Spun Weaver

12. The Karmic Arbiter

13. The Grand Tactician

14. The Phoenix-Born

15. The Alchemical Soul-Binder

16. The Evangelist

17. The Tower-Struck

18. The Starlight Herald

19. The Primal Shepherd

20. The Luminary Inquisitor

21. The Master Artificer

22. The Genius Loci

2. Factional & Role-Based Archetypes

Defined by their function within a faction. Their identity is shaped by ideology, not mastery of a single Arcanum.

23. The Concord Sentinel

  • Faction: The Adamant Concord
  • Primary Sefirot: S3 Binah, S5 Gevurah.
  • Primary Arcana: The Chariot.
  • Profile: A disciplined soldier of the Adamant Phalanx and a master of defensive wards and battlefield control, at high risk of Petrification.

24. The Garden Life-Warden

  • Faction: The Flowing Garden
  • Primary Sefirot: S4 Chesed, S2 Chokmah.
  • Primary Arcana: The Hierophant.
  • Profile: A healer and logistician for the Living Tide who can terraform environments and sustain armies, at high risk of Dissolution.

25. The Middle-Way Alchemist

  • Faction: The Way of the Middle Pillar
  • Primary Sefirot: S6 Tiferet, with balanced study of both other Pillars.
  • Primary Arcana: Balanced study of Arcana connecting to Tiferet (e.g., Justice, Temperance, The Lovers).
  • Profile: A master of spiritual alchemy who seeks to purge Corruption and restore harmony in individuals and situations, at high risk of Hollowing.

26. The Dissonant Scalpel

  • Faction: The Way of the Middle Pillar (Operative)
  • Primary Sefirot: Led by an S6 Tiferet Adept, with an S9 Yesod infiltrator and a contracted specialist.
  • Primary Arcana: Temperance.
  • Profile: A three-person Hidden Dagger cell for surgical strikes on key strategic or conceptual targets. Risk varies by mission specialist.

27. The Beast-Caller

28. The Nexus Lamplighter

  • Faction: Unawakened (Nexus City Watch)
  • Primary Sefirot: N/A, but trained to resist Yesod's influence.
  • Profile: An elite mundane peacekeeper using anti-magic artifice to hunt astral pests and illusions in Nexus, at risk of "Glass Sickness" (Hollowing).

29. The Sophist Hunter

3. Esoteric & Dissonant Archetypes

Defined by their mastery of rare or theoretical Dissonant Cycles that bridge fundamental concepts.

30. The Civic Planner

  • Primary Cycle: The Civic Heart (S4 Chesed ↔ S8 Hod)
  • Primary Sefirot: S4 Chesed, S8 Hod.
  • Profile: A master logistician who designs efficient, compassionate social systems. This archetype is exemplified by the neutral, Nexus-based Planner Titus, known for his blend of compassionate logistics and chilling efficiency. Risks a blend of Petrification and Dissolution.
  • Faction: Role-Based (often neutral or Middle Pillar).

31. The Artisan of Chance

32. The Choreographer of Conflict

33. The Oneirocritic Inquisitor

  • Primary Cycle: The Nightmare Censor (S5 Gevurah ↔ S9 Yesod)
  • Primary Sefirot: S5 Gevurah, S9 Yesod.
  • Profile: A psychic surgeon who enters the subconscious to apply merciless judgment, excising trauma and fear like tumors. The methods are brutal but effective, risking a blend of Petrification and Hollowing. This controversial art is practiced by figures like the feared Adept Corvus.
  • Faction: Role-Based (often Middle Pillar inquisitors or heretical healers).

34. The Axiomatic Inquisitor

  • Primary Cycle: The Inexorable Inquiry (S2 Chokmah ↔ S5 Gevurah)
  • Primary Sefirot: S2 Chokmah, S5 Gevurah.
  • Profile: A mental combatant who uses systematic logic to find and deconstruct the flawed foundational axioms of any system, from a fortress to a belief structure. Risks a blend of Dissolution and Petrification that can unravel their own identity.
  • Faction: Role-Based (almost exclusively found in heretical Concordian sects or as dangerous independent philosophers).

35. The God-Forger

  • Primary Cycle: The God-Forge (S1 Keter ↔ S10 Malkuth)
  • Primary Sefirot: S1 Keter, S10 Malkuth.
  • Profile: An unstable build that creates "hollowgrams"—physically present but conceptually empty objects—by pulling raw potential directly into physical form, bypassing the stages of creation. Carries the highest possible risk of Annihilation.
  • Faction: Heretical (Independent).

36. The Ouroboran Sage

37. The Glitch Prophet

  • Primary Cycle: The Glitching Oracle (S2 Chokmah ↔ S8 Hod)
  • Primary Sefirot: S2 Chokmah, S8 Hod.
  • Profile: A dangerous build that perceives reality as a complex, flawed system. It combines Chokmah's raw insight with Hod's understanding of systems to see "bugs" or "exploits" in the fabric of reality. These can be used to create minor, localized paradoxes (e.g., a locked door that is simultaneously open). Risks a unique form of mental fragmentation, becoming obsessed with a single "bug" while unable to process anything else.
  • Faction: Heretical (often ex-Concordian "debuggers").

38. The Oneiric Architect

  • Primary Cycle: The Mnemonic Vault (S3 Binah ↔ S9 Yesod)
  • Primary Sefirot: S3 Binah, S9 Yesod.
  • Profile: A psychic architect who builds intricate, memory-based structures in the astral plane—"mind palaces" given tangible form. They can create unbreachable vaults for secrets or inescapable prisons for consciousness. Risks a unique blend of Petrification and Hollowing, as their own mind becomes an overly-structured and lonely labyrinth.
  • Faction: Role-Based (often Middle Pillar specialists or heretical librarians).

4. Exploitative & Parasitic Archetypes

Defined by their clever, often heretical, exploitation of loopholes in magical law. They treat the Great System not as a philosophy to be revered, but as a machine to be hacked.

39. The Potential-Thief

  • Primary Cycle: The Tyrant's Tithe (S1 Keter ↔ S5 Gevurah)
  • Primary Sefirot: S1 Keter, S5 Gevurah.
  • Profile: A parasitic mage who doesn't build power, but steals it. They use Gevurah's judgment to deem a target "unworthy" of their own latent magical potential, then use Keter as a conduit to siphon that raw, unmanifested power into themselves. They grow strong by ensuring others never reach their full potential.
  • Faction: Heretical (Independent).

40. The Bureaucratic Blight

  • Primary Cycle: The Proliferating Clause (S3 Binah ↔ S4 Chesed)
  • Primary Sefirot: S3 Binah, S4 Chesed.
  • Profile: A saboteur who weaponizes Concordian philosophy. They infect a target system (a guild, a fortress's magical defenses, a legal code) with a single, perfectly crafted magical law (Binah) infused with Chesed's principle of boundless growth. The law then self-replicates, spawning endless, contradictory sub-clauses and exceptions until the host system chokes on its own complexity and grinds to a halt.
  • Faction: Heretical (often ex-Concordian).

41. The Method Actor

  • Primary Cycle: The Impostor's Heartbeat (S7 Netzach ↔ S9 Yesod)
  • Primary Sefirot: S7 Netzach, S9 Yesod.
  • Profile: An infiltrator who exploits the nature of the soul. They use Yesod's mastery of the subconscious to construct a flawless, detailed false identity—a "mask." They then use Netzach's passion to fully, truly believe in the mask, giving the false identity a real, tangible, and magically potent aura. They can walk into an enemy camp as a "true believer" because, for as long as the cycle runs, they are.
  • Faction: Role-Based (often found in The Hidden Dagger or intelligence agencies).

42. The Demolition Mage

  • Primary Cycle: Tactical application of The Tower's Fall
  • Primary Sefirot: S7 Netzach, S8 Hod.
  • Profile: Most mages fear a cycle collapse. The Demolition Mage weaponizes it. They are masters of building the most volatile, Dissonant cycles possible—often "The Tower's Fall"—and then deliberately breaking their focus at a precise moment. The resulting psychic backlash is directed outward, not contained, as a devastating area-of-effect attack that shatters magical and psychological structures alike.
  • Faction: Heretical (Independent) or Black Ops (All Factions).

5. Doctrines of Necessity

Archetypes born from specific, desperate historical circumstances, often by "hacking" the laws of magic for survival when conventional methods fail.

43. The Sunderer

  • Primary Cycle: The Sunderer's Cadence (S5 Gevurah ↔ S10 Malkuth)
  • Profile: A siege specialist born from the desperation of the Great Silence. Unable to draw on higher Sefirot, the Sunderer uses a crude cycle to apply Gevurah's destructive judgment directly to Malkuth's physical matter. They are living siege engines, able to shatter fortifications with focused force. The art is brutish, lacks subtlety, and risks a rapid blend of Petrification and Hollowing.
  • Faction: Role-Based (a desperate art developed by the Concord's Pragmatist schism during the Great Silence).
  • Exemplar: Centurion Gaius, the Stonebreaker.

44. The Empathic Anchor

  • Primary Cycle: The Empath's Burden (S6 Tiferet ↔ S9 Yesod)
  • Profile: An archetype born from the "Last-Light Keepers" schism of the Middle Pillar during the Great Silence. These mages acted as spiritual hospices for a dying magical world. Their cycle allows them to absorb the ambient despair and fear of a community, creating a tangible zone of peace and psychological resilience. They do not heal trauma, but bear its weight for others. The art is a slow, noble form of self-sacrifice, as the practitioner risks an insidious form of Hollowing, their own identity slowly eroded by the pain they absorb.
  • Faction: Role-Based (Way of the Middle Pillar, Last-Light Keepers schism).
  • Exemplar: Adept Thalia, the Gentle Dusk.

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