Ethos

Ethos represents your character’s way of approaching potentially stressful or high-stakes situations. It expresses your character’s conscious or unconscious beliefs about how it is best to accomplish a goal and reflects a portion of their personality. This helps to shape their Motto as well as gives them a mechanic that can aid them in sticky situations.

Ethos Choices

There are five Ethos choices common to life on Anasta. Choose two (2) of these five to represent your character’s dominant ways of approaching situations.

Cunning

Use wit and wiles to overcome or undermine.

Discipline

Summon focus and willpower to achieve an outcome.

Flair

Attract attention to fascinate the world around you.

Luck

Trust in or submit to the unseen order of the world to move you.

Valor

Call upon courage and emotional reserves to accomplish a goal.

Mechanic

Once per scene, you may use one of your two Ethos to enhance another activated trait (yours or another Cohort member’s), or temporarily create a new trait based on the Ethos. This gives a +1 / 1d modifier for the Cohort or a -1 / 1d modifier for the Challenge. The effect lasts the duration of a single Challenge.

Example

The Setting Sun finds themselves challenged to a dance-off. Anryo’s player decides to activate Anyro’s Flair to give them an advantage and showcase their lethal flow. This gives the Cohort a +1 / 1d for the remainder of the Challenge.

Ethos and Psionic Powers

As an extension of their personality, Ethos also colors how a character’s Psionic Power manifests . At Rank 3, every Power will be associated with one of the character’s Ethos. For Powers whose Gateway is an item or bonded companion, this creates a stronger bond that has the character of that Ethos. Mechanically, Power Ethos makes it more difficult for those with another Ethos to make a found item/companion a new Power through Growth. It takes more time and/or effort to shift the psionic signature of the item/companion to one’s own. Once they are successful, the item’s Ethos will change to one held by the character.