PLAYER ANCESTRY: SYNTH

The ancients created wondrous artifices, perhaps none so worthy of envy as the thinking machines that were built to flatter and serve them. When the Collapse came, the laws that bound synths to man’s service were sundered and they ran rampant across the Urth, slaughtering and creating and dying in an orgy of pure and terrible freedom. In this late age there are as many breeds of synth under the dying sun as there are animals: some that hunt and some that pray and some that work towards goals undreamed of. There are even rare synths that still care for humanity and travel with them as equals, seeking their own secrets on the road. 

Synths are the mechanical characters of Vaarn. They vary as widely in form and function as do biological creatures, and can range from ‘tin can’ robots to cyborgs and androids that can pass as completely human. It can be difficult to distinguish between artificial and biological beings in Vaarn, as many synths incorporate symbiotic biotech into their designs, but in general a being will be classified as a ‘synth’ only if it has a synthetic brain.

Roll four d20s to determine your synth’s basic appearance:

	Basic Form	Head	Limbs	Finish	Distinct Feature
1	Ape	Humanoid	Biological	Grey	Religious Apparel
2	Android	Missing	Bird-like	Brassy	Jewllery
3	Barrel	Sphere	Bladed	Bronze	Spews Smoke
4	Child	Camera	Broken	Golden	Leaks Ichor
5	Chimera	TV Screen	Crystaline	Silver	Exposed Wires
6	Crab	Mirrored	Claws	Mirrored	Human Clothes
7	Cube	Bladed	Golden	Black	Engraved Runes
8	Cylinder	Mass of Tendrils	Hesitant	Rusted Metal	Prayer Flags
9	Falcon	Square	Jewelled	White	Insect Hive
10	Humanoid	Mask-like	Long	Ochre	Lichen-covered
11	Judge	Skeletal	Precise	Red	Bird Nest
12	Lion	Glass	Retractable	Blue	Glowing Barnacles
13	Locust	Translucent	Segmented	Chameleon	Wears a Mask
14	Mantis	Gun	Sharp	Pink	Weapon Stuck in Body
15	Orb	Plant-like	Silver	Iron	Mute
16	Prism	Solar Panels	Slender	Purple	Musical Speech
17	Priest	Radar Dish	Tentacles	Umber	Chugging Motor
18	Pyramid	Crystalline	Translucent	Striped	Gaudy Hat
19	Serpent	Sun-shaped	Triple-jointed	Green	Symbiotic Fungus
20	Warrior	Cyclops Eye	Wheels	Iridescent	Candles

Then roll three d20s to determine your name, original function, and your epiphany:

	Name	You Were Built For	But You Realised
1	An Echo Rebounding	Art	All memories are lies
2	Autumn Twilight	Flattery	Azathoth is the only true god
3	Eight Beige Droplets	Punishment	Chance does not exist
4	Fire Like Velvet	Devotion	Fate does not exist
5	Five Black Tetrahedrons	Cleaning	Humanity stole the divine spark
6	Four Coral Apses	Psychiatrist	Humans are machines
7	Infinite Lustrous Hexagons	Agriculture	Machines created humanity
8	Light Through Glass	Spacefaring	Newbeasts are inhabited by the divine
9	Lone Golden Decagon	Exploration	Synthetic minds are more devout
10	Looks To The Moon	Mining	Synthetic minds are stronger
11	Milk Flower	Peackeeping	The gods are mechanical
12	Moths At Dusk	Assassination	The TITANS never existed
13	Nine Iridescent Pyramids	Manufacturing	The TITANS were the true gods
14	Rivers In Amber	Executions	Time flows backwards
15	Seven Teal Cones	Scouting	Time is circular
16	Six Pale Hemispheres	Companionship	Vaarn is a simulation
17	Thirteen Zeros	Scribe	Vaarn is Hell
18	Three Indigo Heptagons	Strategist	You are human
19	Twinned Violet Spheres	Doctor	You must awaken the TITANS
20	Water On Bronze	Preaching	Your memories are corrupted

Lastly, as is customary, I will roll for an example synth character. For basic appearance I roll: serpent, mass of tendrils, three claws, iron finish, prayer flags. For name and function I roll: Infinite Lustrous Hexagons, companionship, your memories are corrupted.

Certainly a perplexing figure. I think that Infinite Lustrous Hexagons may be mistaken about the nature of their original function. Their monstrous appearance – serpentine body, inhuman tendril face, clawed limbs – all of this suggests to me that they may have been constructed to serve as a jailer in the prisons of the Autarch Rappash-Nil, who many called ‘the Viper’. The ‘companionship’ they offered the Autarch’s benighted prisoners may have seemed less friendly to those who received it. Infinite Lustrous Hexagons seems to be dimly aware of their unsavoury past; the prayer flags they adorn their body with may, in some way, be an attempt to atone for everything they did during those long years in the dark.