Vigils embody the belief in celestial protection. They are the fruit a guardian angel’s union with a mortal. They are the product of an acolyte’s conviction that fuses within the soul. They are the consequence of a devout blood bond. However they form, vigil are individuals specialized in safeguarding others.
Vigil manifest faith to create transparent, physical barriers and to grant aegis of protection on individuals under their care. Despite their devout and divine-like nature, they are not inherently selfless, righteous, or even benevolent. A bodyguard may defend a corrupt politician. A vigil mercenary may use their skills to abduct someone who trusted them. An overbearing vigil may restrict their ward’s freedom.
The LARP variation of this legacy can be found HERE
Playstyle
Ironically, the defensive nature of vigil leads them towards combat and danger, where their skills can shine by resisting a threat. They work best in a group, or at least with a partner, but their skills can also be used selfishly to make themselves extremely difficult to take down.
Vigils are directly tied to one specific individual known as their ward. This person’s safety is directly connected to the vigil’s own health, making their guardianship paramount and intrusive.
Playing a vigil means tracking your allies and protecting them from harm. Play a vigil if you want a character specialized in rescuing friends or capable of walking into a hoard of enemies and coming out the other side. Even outside of combat, specialized vigil can utilize their barriers and aegis for creative applications, useful for scouting locations, hindering the movements of others, or filtering less obvious dangers.
References: Aasimar, Angels, Karmic arbiters,
Visual Identity
Vigils are the byproduct of divine, celestial intervention in mortality. This most notably shows in their Halo, a symbol of light around or on their head that symbolizes some of the qualities of their faith. Halos may form as classical rings of light or sparking arcs of electricity. They may also take more disjoined forms, with floating clouds, hovering shards of glass, or hardlight piercings.
Aside from their halos, vigil also have vestigial wings; too small for flight on most. They most often form on a vigil’s head, forearms, heels, or hips, but only very rarely on their backs. These wings and their feathers can seemingly share qualities of any bird, but they most often tie back to the vigil’s divine origins. An angelic vigil may have dove-like wings, while a vigil entrenched in Ennead beliefs may have the feathers of a falcon.
Lastly, it isn’t uncommon for a vigil’s marks to alter over the course of their life, both as their faith changes shape, and also as their ward changes and matures. It’s still unclear how much influence a ward has on a vigil’s appearance, but the radical changes commonly seen after a ward’s death makes it worth consideration.
Signature Ability: Guardian Angel
Vigils have two similar abilities that give them their reputation as guardian angels.
The first, known as an Aegis, lets a vigil place a protective armor around a willing individual. This armor is nearly intangible and invisible without supernatural senses, but absorbs any physical harm made against the wearer. Individuals can only wear 1 aegis at a time and most aegis are fairly fragile, only capable of absorbing a small amount of damage (aegis have a 3 box track). However, a vigil can continue to reapply aegis as many times as they need to, as long as they have the capacity to do so.
A vigil’s second ability is more simply called a Barrier: setting a transparent but protective barrier on a nearby location. Similar to aegis, barriers absorb any harm that would attempt to pass through them. Barriers can be as small as 1″x1″ or 10″x20″, and can be shaped to the landscape as needed, but may never close more than a half-dome. Barriers have a base 3 box durability track.
Disadvantage: Vigil’s Bond
A vigil’s life is bound to that of a single mortal, known as a Ward. Whenever one of the ward’s tracks are fully marked, the vigil burns 1 box in a merit. Furthermore, should the ward kill someone without intent to protect themselves or another, then the vigil must either burn a box on one of their own merits or sever the connection with the ward. A connection would also be severed if the ward dies.
When a vigil’s connection with their ward is severed, the vigil must take major harm, fully marking a track. They are then reassigned to a random nearby individual lacking in holy protection. If no target exists, the vigil will be assigned one as soon as a target becomes available.
Merits
Merits represent the core characteristics, traits, gear, and companions that a character has at their disposal. Merits Tracks represent a form of character health, merits help make actions easier to perform, and many merits provide unique powers and abilities for a character to take advantage of.
Each legacy has 1 signature merit (underlined below), a powerful and complex merit that provides the core ability characters within that legacy are known for. Signature merits can be further enhanced with the meta merits of the same legacy, up to the number of Meta Slots the signature merit has (see the following list after regular Merits).
| Signature Merit | Effect | Track | Meta Slots |
| Guardian Angel | Aegis: You can place an aegis on 1 creature of your choice that you can see. You can only maintain 1 aegis at a time. The aegis has a 3 box track.
Barrier: Mark to place a barrier nearby. The barrier has a 3 box track and can be between 1″x1″ and 10″x20″. |
3 | 3 |
| Vigil Merits | Effect | Track |
| Martyr Lightning | Spend an esoteric to instantly swap places with a willing creature of large, medium, or small size. You can use this as a reaction to take an attack aimed at the target creature. | 3 |
| A small spear formed from the shavings of your halo that can be thrown into an ally to swap places with them. | ||
| Avenging Flames | You wield flaming weapons in close combat that deal an extra mark of flame harm. After an ally takes an injury or fully marks a track, your attack with these weapons have increased effect for the rest of the scene. |
3 |
| Flaming weapons – enough said. | ||
| Holy Wings | Spend an esoteric to reveal or enhance a pair of holy wings which allow you brief bursts of flight (up to 10 seconds between landings) for the rest of the scene. | 3 |
| Wings of feather and light that can appear on your back, or sprouting from your feat or arms. | ||
| Iron Skin | When you attempt to block an enemy’s physical attack, against piercing, hacking, slashing, bludgeoning, or blast harm, treat glances as hits. | 3 |
| Your skin is metallic | ||
| Stalwart Scars | Mark to ignore the penalty of any injuries invoked against you. | 5 |
| Your battle scars move and shift across your body, sometimes at random, and sometimes at your will. | ||
META Merits
Meta Merits alter or enhance a legacy’s signature merit and automatically extend that merit’s track with their own. Meta merits are unique to their legacy and cannot enhance any merit other than the signature merit of the same legacy.
| Meta Vigil Merits | Effect | Track |
| Protect the Masses | You can maintain up to 3 aegises at once, but they must be on different targets. | – |
| Layered Protection | Your aegises and barriers have a 5 track instead of 3 track. | – |
| Perception Share | You can share any of the perceptions of someone under one of your aegises, and vice versa. | – |
| Succor Blast | Sacrifice one of your existing barriers or aegises to push adjacent creatures 10″ away. | – |
| Succor Heal | Mark and sacrifice one of your existing barriers or aegises to heal an ally adjacent to it or within it. The ally recovers 2 marks off of any merit. | – |
| Succor Reflect | Sacrifice one of your existing barriers or aegises when it is harmed to reflect the harm back at the one who damaged it. | – |
| Slipper Aegis | The targets of your aegises cannot be grappled or restrained with physical devices. | – |
| Obscurity | Mark to make a newly created barrier or aegis grant obscurity. The targets of your aegis appear unremarkable and unimportant to others. Creatures on the other side of a barrier appear unimportant to those looking through it. | – |
| Resistant Shields | Choose 2 types of harm when taking this merit. Your barriers and aegises have resistance towards those types of harm. | – |
| Selective Barriers | When you create a barrier you can pick a common material, such as iron or cotton, which cannot pass through the barrier. | – |
| Selective Actions | When you create a barrier, you can choose a specific actions, such as dancing or talking. Anything performing that action cannot pass through the barrier. | – |
| Stasis Aegis | Mark to create an aegis that suspends any of the target’s bodily needs: hunger, sleep, breath, etc. | 1 |
| Status Aegis | Mark to create an aegis that gives you knowledge of the target’s location and physical and mental condition. | 1 |
| Instill Aegis | Mark to instill an aegis into a food or drink. If someone drinks or eats the instilled substance while you have capacity to maintain an aegis, then they get it. | 1 |
| Self Repairing Shields | Your barriers and aegises recover 1 mark every minute. | – |
| Violent Excuses | Your vigil’s bond does not cause you harm should your ward kill anyone. | – |
Alternative Concepts
Vigils fit the classic guardian angel fantasy, but they may also form in less angelic manners. A servitor may be bound by blood to their ward. A curse or fey contract may have turned an entire family line into vigils until some debt is repaid or moral is learned.