Glamourist
AX.GHW.08.02 - Glamourist
The Faeborn's in-between nature creates a perceptual problem that becomes a perceptual gift: they see what things are rather than what they appear to be. A glamour designed to deceive human eyes simply doesn't work on them, because the Faeborn's awareness includes the fae layer of the world, where things wear what they are rather than what they choose to show. This is not something they learn. It is the residue of where they came from.
Glamourist is the discipline of that residue. It doesn't teach Faeborn how to see through illusion, their origin already does that. It teaches them how to use what they see deliberately: how to read probability rather than just present truth, how to understand the history of what they perceive, and how to create misdirections of their own, turning the inherited capacity to see through glamours into the capacity to build them.
The name is practical, not complete. The tradition's most commonly noted expression in the hidden world is the capacity to create and pierce glamours. The older practitioners call the deeper work The Seer's Art, not because they predict the future in any reliable sense, but because they learn to read the present more completely than ordinary perception allows: what a thing is, what it has been, and what the available futures look like from here.
Non-Faeborn practitioners of this tradition are rare and tend to have developed their access through extended proximity to fae-inflected spaces or significant fae contact, bargains made and not fully paid, liminal exposure, or the kind of debt to a fae entity that leaves marks on perception. They can learn the mechanics. The natural ease that a Faeborn has with True Sight, the sensation of simply adjusting focus rather than exerting effort, takes a non-Faeborn practitioner years to approximate.
System Integration
Glamourist as an Odd Talent
Glamourist functions as an Odd Talent per AX.C.04. Standard rules apply:
- The roll is: Governing Attribute + Glamourist (+ Focus if applicable)
- Glamourist dice are purchased from the Talent budget at character creation, or improved through Advancement at standard cost (Governing Attribute × 2 XP for a new Tradition at 1D; current value × 2 XP to improve)
- Maximum Tradition rating: 5D. Maximum Focus rating: 3D
- All three Expressions draw on the same Odd Talent pool
Governing Attribute
The governing Attribute is chosen at character creation and is permanent.
| Expression | Common Choice | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| True Sight | Wit (default) | Perceiving and interpreting the hidden nature of things |
| Reading | Wit or Speed | Wit for deliberate divination; Speed for fast intuitive reads in tense situations |
| Glamour | Wit or Speed | Wit for complex, sustained illusions; Speed for quick misdirections in the moment |
Most Faeborn practitioners choose Wit. Speed-governed Glamourist reflects a more instinctive, reactive practice, the misdirection comes before the conscious decision to misdirect.
Access
Faeborn Lineage Affinity: Faeborn who receive Profession access to Glamourist begin with 2D rather than 1D at no additional Talent cost.
Faeborn Lineage-direct access (deep origin): Faeborn with deep formative fae exposure (birth in liminal space, extended taking, direct fae parentage, see AX.GM.06) receive Glamourist at 1D as Lineage-direct access with no Talent cost, regardless of Profession. A Profession that also grants Glamourist upgrades this to 2D; it does not add independently. Lineage-direct access carries fae obligation, see the lineage file.
Profession Access: Any Profession listed as granting Glamourist access provides the Tradition at 1D (2D for Faeborn) at no Talent cost.
Independent Study: A character without Lineage or Profession access may pursue Glamourist through extended contact with a Faeborn mentor of at least 3D and one week of Deliberate Training in a fae-inflected space or with significant fae exposure. Cost: Governing Attribute × 2 XP. This path is available but requires genuine fae-adjacent biography; it is not available to practitioners with no fae contact whatsoever.
Mechanics Summary
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Tradition Category | Resonance, perception of hidden truth, probability, concealed nature |
| Default Attribute | Wit |
| Action Type | Primary Action (most effects); Free Action (passive perception enhancements) |
| Signature Feel | The surface of things is one version of them. This tradition works with the other versions. |
| Lineage Affinity | Faeborn (2D at access rather than 1D) |
| Signature Focus | The True Glass |
| Expressions | True Sight, Reading, Glamour |
Threshold Scale:
| Threshold | Scale of Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Minor; immediate; perceiving a simple concealment or reading surface truth |
| 2 | Standard; reading through a deliberate glamour or seeing the nature of a supernatural being |
| 3 | Significant; multiple subjects or a deeply layered concealment; extended duration perception |
| 4 | Major; reading the hidden nature of a prepared, defended, or intentionally obscured subject |
| 5+ | Profound; perceiving something that actively resists being seen; permanent glamours; probability far from the present moment |
Expression: True Sight
There is what it looks like. Then there is what it is.
True Sight is the bedrock of Glamourist, the capacity to perceive the hidden layer of things with deliberate precision rather than passive reception. Faeborn have this as a background quality of their perception; True Sight makes it a tool: sustained, focused, and able to be directed at specific subjects rather than accepting whatever the fae layer offers.
This expression is entirely perceptive. True Sight reads; it does not create, compel, or conceal. Its results feed investigation, social awareness, and threat identification. A practitioner who has True Sight at high rating and has spent time in the hidden world is very difficult to deceive or misdirect, not because they can counter every illusion, but because they have trouble not noticing when something isn't what it appears to be.
True Sight- Applications
Piercing Gaze (Free Action, Threshold 1–3 depending on concealment depth)
The practitioner focuses their perception on a subject, cutting through glamour, illusion, mundane disguise, and supernatural concealment to see what is actually present. Results depend on concealment complexity:
- Casual or superficial concealment (mundane disguise, simple illusion, minor supernatural "don't notice me" effect): Threshold 1.
- Deliberate glamour, active supernatural disguise, shapeshifted form: Threshold 2.
- Layered or prepared concealment, a being actively maintaining a complex false form: Threshold 3.
- Concealment created by a practitioner of equal or greater Glamourist rating: contested roll rather than fixed Threshold.
The practitioner sees the subject's actual form, supernatural nature (if any), and any concealed markings, injuries, or significant attributes the glamour was hiding. They do not learn the subject's thoughts or history, only what the concealment was covering.
Scaling: Excess successes provide additional detail: the approximate strength of any Tradition the subject uses (1 excess), whether the subject is aware they're being seen through (1 excess), or how long the current concealment has been maintained (1 excess).
Nature Reading (Primary Action, Threshold 2)
The practitioner examines the hidden nature of a subject, not just what they look like, but what they are. Applied to a person, this surfaces their supernatural lineage (if any), active contract obligations (if any), and whether they are currently operating under a compulsion, binding, or significant supernatural influence. Applied to an object, this surfaces whether it carries supernatural significance, has been enchanted or cursed, or is tied to a specific tradition.
This is not mind-reading. The practitioner perceives the nature of what the subject is, not the subject's intentions or thoughts.
Scaling: Excess successes allow the practitioner to identify the specific tradition associated with any supernatural elements (2 excess), or to determine whether a supernatural influence is active or merely residual (1 excess).
Backlash: - Minor: The reading doesn't stop. The practitioner cannot stop perceiving the subject's hidden nature for the remainder of the scene, a constant overlay of fae-layer information on everything the subject does. Disadvantage on Social rolls targeting the subject, as the practitioner is absorbing too much signal to track the conversation naturally. - Moderate: The nature reading extends involuntarily to everyone in the scene. The practitioner perceives the hidden nature of every sapient creature in Near range simultaneously. The information is accurate but unmanageable. Until Strain clears, the practitioner has Disadvantage on all rolls requiring attention to the external world, as they are processing more fae-layer information than they can filter. - Severe: Something the practitioner saw looks back. One entity in or connected to the subject, a bound spirit, a creditor, a fae patron, becomes immediately aware of the practitioner and knows they were seen. The GM determines the entity's response, but they are now aware of the practitioner's capacity and identity.
Expression: Reading
The present moment is already a memory. What happened is still here if you know how to look.
Reading is the Glamourist's divination expression, not prophecy in the traditional sense, but the capacity to perceive the past and the probable future with unusual clarity. A practitioner doing a Reading is working with information that is technically available to anyone who perceives the fae layer carefully enough. Most people don't perceive the fae layer at all. The practitioner's advantage is attention and training.
Reading is investigation work, not oracle work. It surfaces facts, history, and probable trajectories, not certainties about the future, not access to information that doesn't exist anywhere in the world's accumulated present state. The practitioner cannot Read something that has never been recorded in any form anywhere. They can Read something that has been carefully hidden, because hiding still leaves traces in the fae layer.
Reading- Applications
Psychometry (Primary Action, Threshold 2)
The practitioner handles an object and reads its accumulated history, the significant events it was present for, the people who owned or used it, the emotional weight that gathered around it over time. Objects associated with supernatural events, strong emotions, or significant deaths carry denser histories and surface more clearly.
- Recent history (within weeks): Threshold 2. Clear impressions of events, people present, and emotional context.
- Older history (within years): Threshold 3. Major events register; minor ones require more successes.
- Deep history (decades+): Threshold 4. Only what left the strongest mark, violence, ritual use, contract binding.
Scaling: Excess successes narrow the reading to specific periods or events the practitioner directs attention toward, rather than receiving what the object decides to surface.
Probability Reading (Primary Action, Threshold 3)
The practitioner reads the immediate future of a specific situation, not prophecy, but a perceptive assessment of where the present state of things is likely to lead. This works because the fae layer contains the full weight of what is, not just what appears, and what is generates what becomes with more consistency than ordinary perception suggests.
The GM provides a probability reading as honest narrative, not guaranteed outcome, but the most likely trajectory from the current moment given the practitioner's knowledge of the situation. The more information the practitioner has about the situation, the more accurate the reading.
- Immediate future (next few minutes of the current scene): Threshold 2. Fairly reliable; reflects current trajectories.
- Near future (within the current day or next scene): Threshold 3. Less reliable; more variables.
- Longer-term trajectory (days to weeks): Threshold 4. The reading identifies forces in motion and the shape of likely outcomes, not specific events.
Backlash: - Minor: The reading folds inward. The practitioner receives impressions of their own probable near future rather than the requested subject, not useful, and uncomfortable in its specificity. The GM provides a brief honest reading of the practitioner's own immediate situation. - Moderate: The probability space collapses. The practitioner perceives multiple conflicting probable futures simultaneously and cannot determine which is most likely. Until Strain clears, all Wit rolls to plan, recall, or reason about future events are at Disadvantage. - Severe: The Reading goes far. The practitioner glimpses something, a pattern, an event, an entity, that is not nearby in time or space. The GM provides a vivid and disturbing true impression of something significant in the larger situation that the party isn't yet aware of. The practitioner takes 1D3 Wit damage from the shock of the expanded perception, and gains the Shaken condition until their next Long Rest.
Expression: Glamour
If you can see through illusion, you understand exactly how to build one.
Glamour is the Glamourist's active expression, not perception, but creation. A practitioner who has developed True Sight understands how glamours work at the fae-layer level: the difference between a convincing illusion and a detectable one, the way attention slides off a well-constructed misdirection, the specific frequency that the fae layer uses to mark something as "look away." Building glamours is applying that understanding in reverse.
The irony is not lost on Faeborn practitioners: the tradition that makes them difficult to deceive also teaches them to deceive extraordinarily well. Most treat this as a professional tool rather than a philosophical problem. The ones who do treat it as a philosophical problem tend to develop the strongest Glamour expression.
Glamour- Applications
Misdirection (Primary Action, Threshold 2)
The practitioner creates a perceptual overlay on themselves or another willing subject within Touch range, a glamour that causes observers to see something slightly different from what is actually present. Not a full disguise replacement, but a softening: height seems a few inches different, hair color is off, the supernatural quality of a Haunt or Skinchanger reads as unremarkable. The effect lasts for the scene or until the subject acts in a way that breaks the misdirection's consistency.
Observers who actively examine the subject may attempt to pierce the glamour with a Wit + Notice vs the practitioner's original roll (contested; the practitioner's successes set the Threshold).
Scaling: Excess successes allow the glamour to cover more substantial differences (full appearance change at 3 excess) or extend duration beyond the scene (to a Long Rest's worth of time, at 2 excess).
Full Glamour (Extended Work, Threshold 3–4)
The practitioner creates a complete perceptual replacement for a subject, a full illusion that presents the subject as a specific other person, object, or environment. This is not a disguise kit; it is a fae-layer construction that operates on the level where perception begins.
- Single-person, simple appearance change: Threshold 3. The subject looks, sounds, and smells like the glamoured identity.
- Small group or complex environment: Threshold 4. A room appears to be a different room; a group of people appears to be a different group.
Full Glamour is not indefinite; it requires the practitioner to have constructed it deliberately (10 minutes of concentrated work) and lasts until a Long Rest or until something breaks its perceptual consistency (significant violence in the area, the subject acting completely contrary to the glamoured identity).
The Veil (Primary Action, Threshold 2)
The practitioner extends a misdirection effect outward rather than onto a subject, creating a zone at a specific location within Near range that causes observers to look elsewhere. The area registers as uninteresting, unoccupied, or not worth approaching. Duration: scene. The effect does not make the area truly invisible, an observer with True Sight, or one who has a specific reason to look for something there, pierces it on a Threshold 2 Notice roll.
Scaling: Excess successes extend the area (Close → Near → Far), extend duration (1 excess = until next Long Rest), or increase the Threshold to pierce it (1 excess per additional Threshold point, maximum 4).
Backlash: - Minor: The glamour turns inward. The practitioner is subject to their own misdirection; they look to others (and possibly to themselves in reflective surfaces) the way the glamour was designed to make its subject appear. The effect is cosmetic and lasts until Strain clears, but it is noticeable and may complicate social interactions. - Moderate: The glamour extends involuntarily to every creature within Near range of the practitioner. Each creature sees the others through a fae-layer distortion, not necessarily harmful, but deeply disorienting. Each creature must pass a Wit Save vs Threshold 2 or treat all other creatures in range as though they might not be who they appear to be, with Disadvantage on coordinated actions for the remainder of the scene. - Severe: The practitioner's own perception is glamoured. Until their next Long Rest, they cannot distinguish the true nature of anything they look at, True Sight no longer functions reliably; everything shows the practitioner what it wants to show rather than what it is. Effectively: all True Sight and Nature Reading applications fail automatically until Long Rest. Probability Reading still works, which is cold comfort.
The True Glass (Glamourist Focus)
A lens, mirror, or pane of glass, something transparent or reflective that the practitioner has prepared through extended contact and deliberate intention. Seeing truth through a frame is the oldest metaphor for what Glamourist does, and the True Glass formalizes that metaphor into a functional tool. Light passes through it differently. Fae-layer perception channeled through a True Glass is sharper, more precise, less likely to catch what the observer didn't ask for.
True Glass | Focus | Glamourist
Mechanical Effect:
+2D to all True Sight Expression rolls (the lens channels
and focuses fae-layer perception, reducing noise and
sharpening resolution).
When using Nature Reading, the result surfaces one
additional layer of hidden information without requiring
excess successes, the practitioner sees not just what
the subject is, but what the subject is concealing about
what they are.
Downside: The True Glass is physically distinctive. An
object that sees truth becomes marked by use, fogged by
age in ways that reveal rather than obscure, warm to the
touch in the presence of illusion, visible to other
Glamourist practitioners as significant. It is not a
subtle tool to carry openly.
Acquisition: Prepared rather than purchased. The practitioner
takes an ordinary lens or mirror and carries it during
active True Sight use for at least one month, the glass
accumulates the perceptual work until it holds it. A True
Glass prepared by another practitioner can be used, but
it resonates with its maker's perceptual frequency,
occasionally surfacing impressions they left in it.
Improvised Foci: Any transparent or reflective object used deliberately during Glamourist work provides +1D to one Expression (chosen at scene start) rather than +2D, without the True Glass's secondary effect.
Access and Cross-Lineage Notes
Faeborn practitioners: This is the native tradition. High-rated Faeborn Glamourists are among the most effective information-gathering assets in the hidden world, and among the most dangerous social operators. Other practitioners are aware of both capabilities.
Haunt practitioners: The liminal and fae-adjacent perceptual frequencies overlap more than most traditions do. A Haunt developing Glamourist through Independent Study occasionally finds True Sight surfaces liminal information they weren't looking for. GM's discretion on whether this creates mechanical cross-benefit or mechanical noise.
Marked (Light-Bound) practitioners: Light-Bound Marked with Resonance access sometimes develop Glamourist rather than a dedicated sacred perception tradition, the discernment the Light accord provides operates in a similar perceptual range. The fae-layer and the Illuminated layer are distinct, but reading hidden truth is reading hidden truth. These practitioners tend to find Probability Reading their strongest expression, oriented toward understanding what the accord requires rather than fae-adjacent futures.