Human

AX.GIL.06.05 - Lineage: Human

(High-Velocity Disruptors)

Setting Overview

"The Beta Testers of the world. They will try anything once. They will productize it twice. By the third iteration, they've moved on and left the other lineages holding the licensing agreement."

Humans are the only lineage operating on an 80-year clock, and they have built an entire civilization around the advantages that constraint produces. Every other lineage can afford to wait. Humans cannot. The result is a lineage that makes decisions faster, takes risks other lineages would consider irresponsible, and generates more genuine innovation per capita than any other, alongside more catastrophic failures, more abandoned projects, and more paved-over history than anyone else is comfortable with.

The Crossroads, the messy, high-energy trade hubs where Gnomish tech, Dwarven materials, and Elven capital collide, exist because Humans are comfortable in the chaos that other lineages find unnavigable. They are not the biggest force in any given domain. They are the indispensable connective tissue between every domain.

Biology: Standard Human. High metabolic recovery rate, bruises heal faster, fatigue clears faster, adaptation to new environments is quicker than any other lineage. The "Adrenaline Surge" phenomenon is partially understood by Gnomish Technomancers as a brief short-circuit of the body's own harmonic regulation, the Human nervous system can, under stress, briefly override its own safety governors and operate at outputs that would be unsustainable over longer durations. The cost is real: the surge burns through biological resources that take hours to replenish. The benefit is that for approximately eight seconds, a Human can do things that should not be mechanically possible.

Economic Role: The Crossroads economy. Humans occupy the messy middle, the trade hubs, secondary markets, and grey-zone commerce corridors where the four specialist lineages cannot or will not operate efficiently. They are not the best at any of the constituent parts; they are the best at assembling the parts into something that works right now. The New-Venture Syndicate is the institutional expression of this: a hyper-decentralized confederation of Human entrepreneurs, fixers, and rapid-deployment organizations operating on the "Fail Fast, Pivot Faster" doctrine.

Culture: - Philosophy of Now: Humans are the only lineage that genuinely internalizes opportunity cost, the understanding that every moment spent on one thing is a moment not spent on another. Not impatience in the pejorative sense, a biologically rational response to an 80-year constraint. An Elf who takes six months to deliberate before signing a contract is being prudent. A Human doing the same is wasting approximately 0.6% of their working life. - The Graft: Take Elven aesthetics, Gnomish logic, Dwarven durability, and combine them into something that works well enough, right now, at a price point other lineages' craftwork cannot match. Not laziness. Applied Opportunity Cost theory. - Disposable and Iterative: Humans invented planned obsolescence and fast fashion. They also invented the iterative development cycle, A/B testing, and the minimum viable product. These are the same cultural impulse expressed in different markets. - Cultural Chameleons: Control approximately 90% of global entertainment and news production. Can credibly adopt the aesthetic, vocabulary, and surface manners of any other lineage within a week. This is experienced by other lineages as either charming or deeply unsettling depending on context. - The Linchpin Role: A Human's most valuable professional asset is usually their network, knowing a Gnome who can fix the device, a Dwarf for the infrastructure permit, an Elf who will fund the venture. They do not have the deepest expertise; they have the widest rolodex and the social fluency to use it. - Emotional Pivot: Furious to laughing in minutes. Grief that resolves into productive activity within days. Other lineages find this terrifying. Humans find extended emotional states inefficient.

Weakness: Impatience. The same quality that produces velocity produces volatility, markets that other lineages depend on for boring stability are constantly disrupted by Human economic activity. History is paved over so fast that institutional memory is nearly absent. A Human organization that is three generations old is considered ancient. An Elf considers three generations a reasonable planning horizon for a single project.

AxiomRPG Stat Block

Feature	Detail
Health Modifier	+1 at character creation; no per-advancement modifier
Cultural Talent	The Hustle (floating, see below)
Cultural Focus	None, varies with assignment
Lineage Perk	Adrenaline Surge
Harmonic Modifier	Kinetic Modifier (applies to any Harmonic Tradition used, see AX.GIL.08.01)
### Health Modifier: +1 at creation (IL setting rule)

At character creation, Humans add +1 Health to the base formula (20 + Body + 1), reflecting high metabolic recovery and biological resilience. This modifier applies once, at creation only, Fortitude advancement rolls use the standard 1D6 with no lineage modifier.

IL Setting Note: The Iron Lattice Genre Catalog applies lineage Health modifiers only at character creation, not on each Fortitude advancement roll. Human durability is not their mechanical identity, velocity and Adrenaline Surge are. The creation bonus reflects that Humans bounce back; the standard advancement roll reflects that they do not outlast other lineages through sheer biological mass.

Cultural Talent: The Hustle

"I spent six years in freight logistics. Spent two years after that learning to pick locks. I am now extremely good at moving things into places they're not supposed to be."

Type: Floating Cultural Talent, setting-specific exception to the standard Cultural Talent format, unique to the IL Human Lineage.

Standard Cultural Talent format: +1D to one named Talent with a fixed governing Attribute.

The Hustle instead: A single free Talent die that can be assigned and, once per career, reassigned. The Hustle die represents the accumulated competency from a Human's prior life before the campaign begins, the expertise they brought with them, the thing they used to be good at, the credential that still opens certain doors.

Mechanics

At Character Creation: The player assigns The Hustle die to any one Talent from the AX.C.04 library. This die is received at no Talent budget cost. The Talent's governing Attribute is always the standard parent Attribute of whichever Talent it is currently assigned to, the governing Attribute follows the die, not the player's preference.

The Hustle die adds to the character's rating in that Talent. A character with Strike 2D who assigns The Hustle to Strike has effective Strike 3D. A character with Lore 0D who assigns The Hustle to Lore has effective Lore 1D.

There are no restrictions on which Talent The Hustle can be assigned to, including combat Talents. The prior-life fiction should inform the choice, a character who was a combat veteran before becoming a fixer has that history in their Hustle die; a character who ran accounting for a Clancorp has Craft or Technical instead.

The Career Reset: Once per character's career, the player may declare a Career Reset during a downtime period (minimum one week of in-world time, see AX.C.13 Downtime). The Hustle die is unassigned from its current Talent and reassigned to a different Talent of the player's choice.

Conditions for Career Reset: 1. The target Talent must currently be at 0D before the reassignment, The Hustle cannot be used to double an existing investment. It represents a pivot, not a supplement. 2. The character must be able to articulate what changed, the career shift, the significant experience, the relationship that reoriented them. This does not require a formal skill check, but it should be a narrative moment acknowledged at the table. 3. The one-week minimum reflects real-world recalibration; this is not something that happens between sessions without acknowledgement.

What Career Reset is not: - It is not retraining (AX.C.13 Deliberate Training). The Career Reset is free; it costs no XP and requires no mentor. Retraining changes a character's existing Talent investment through study. The Career Reset is an identity pivot, not a study period. - It is not reversible. After a Career Reset, the Hustle die is in its new Talent. A second Career Reset cannot move it back without spending the career's one use. - It does not interact with the Adaptive perk (Generic Human Lineage's −1 XP on new Talents). The Hustle operates separately from XP economics.

The Hustle and Odd Talents

The Hustle die may be assigned to an Odd Talent if the character has access to that Tradition through their Lineage, Profession, or Progression Track grant. It cannot grant access, the character must already have the access before the die can be assigned there.

Example: A Human NVS Fixer with Technomancy access (via their Profession Power Access) could assign The Hustle die to Technomancy, representing a deeper-than-typical prior engagement with Gnomish systems before the campaign began.

The Hustle and the Kinetic Modifier

The Kinetic Modifier (AX.GIL.08.01) applies whenever a Human uses a Harmonic Tradition. If The Hustle die is assigned to an Odd Talent governed by a Harmonic Tradition, the Kinetic Modifier applies to those rolls normally, The Hustle die is part of the pool and subject to the same volatility. This is consistent with the Human identity: even their magical depth carries extra risk.

Design Note: Why One Career Reset, Not Unlimited

The single Career Reset constraint is intentional. The Hustle as a floating die with unlimited reassignment would become a session-to-session optimization tool, move it wherever the current challenge needs it. That undermines the mechanic's identity as a statement about who the character was, not a free extra die that lives wherever it's convenient.

The Career Reset should feel like a significant character event, the moment the former corporate investigator stopped being that and became something else. It should happen once. It should be remembered. A character who hits their Career Reset in session 4 has permanently spent the pivot; the Hustle die lives in its new home for the rest of the campaign.

GMs who prefer more flexibility may allow a second Career Reset at a significant milestone (Stage 3 Progression Track unlock, or equivalent major story beat), but this should be deliberate and exceptional, not assumed.

Lineage Perk: Adrenaline Surge

"Don't ask me how I did that. I am also not entirely sure."

Type: Earned (Lineage) Activation: Free Action (declared at start of own Turn) Scope: Self Recovery: Once per Long Rest

Effect: Once per Long Rest, at the start of the character's Turn, declare Adrenaline Surge. The character gains an additional Primary Action this Turn. This second Primary Action may be used for any normally legal Primary Action, a second attack, a Talent roll, an Odd Talent use, initiating a grapple, or any other Primary Action option available to the character.

The additional action does not generate a second Reaction or additional Minor Actions.

Kinetic Modifier interaction: If the character uses the additional Primary Action to make an Odd Talent roll, the Kinetic Modifier applies normally to that roll. Adrenaline Surge is itself a Kinetic phenomenon, the additional action is the biological expression of the Human harmonic short-circuit. Using it to fuel a Harmonic roll is consistent and intentional.

Stim-Pack Focus interaction (AX.GIL.08.01): The Stim-Pack Focus modifies Adrenaline Surge: while the Stim-Pack's effect is active (the scene of use), Adrenaline Surge may be declared as a Minor Action rather than a Free Action. This distinction matters when the character needs to preserve their Free Action for another use in the same Turn.

Recovery note: Long Rest recovery means this is available approximately once per significant encounter or once per session in most campaign pacing. It should feel significant when used, the moment where a Human does something that should not have been possible in one Turn.

Harmonic Access: The Kinetic Modifier

Humans do not have a native Harmonic Tradition. They have a modifier that applies to any Tradition they access.

When a Human character uses any Harmonic Tradition (accessed via Profession Power Access, Progression Track, or The Hustle die assigned to an Odd Talent), the Kinetic Modifier applies:

• Add +1D to the dice pool. This die is the Kinetic Die, rolled separately, following Wild Die rules (6 = Explosion: reroll and add; 1 = Implosion: remove one success AND trigger a Kinetic Effect).
• The standard Wild Die remains active alongside the Kinetic Die, two dice with implosion/explosion potential per roll.
• On Kinetic Explosion: the effect is enhanced beyond intended parameters (double damage, extended duration, wider area, GM's choice based on Tradition and situation).
• On Kinetic Implosion: remove one success AND apply a Tradition-specific Kinetic Effect immediately.
• On Double Implosion (both Wild Die and Kinetic Die show 1): Backlash triggers at Moderate severity regardless of Friction state.

Full Kinetic Modifier rules and the Kinetic Effect table by Tradition: see AX.GIL.08.01, The Kinetic Modifier.

Combat Philosophy

High-Risk/High-Reward Alpha Strike. Humans do not do attrition; they do not have the biological endurance of a Dwarf or the patience of an Elf. The Human combat philosophy is to end the fight before the math becomes unfavorable.

In practice: Adrenaline Surge used aggressively in the opening Turn, bold positioning that trades protection for pressure, willingness to commit resources (grenades, special ammunition, one-use equipment) early rather than hoarding them. Describe the noise of Human combat sectors, rapid-fire decisions called out loud, improvised plans that change mid-sentence, the sensory contrast with the methodical silence of Elven or Dwarven engagements.

Human Harmonic practitioners in combat are the most volatile element on any battlefield. A Human Tectonic Harmonics practitioner (learned, not native) who triggers Kinetic Explosion can produce effects that a Dwarf practitioner would never risk. The failure mode is proportional.

Suggested Profession pairings: NVS Syndicate Fixer (network access and rapid-response capability), Venture Scout (opportunity identification and crossroads navigation), Rapid-Response Merc (alpha strike and high-risk operations), Market Disruptor (economic and social disruption), Kinetic Auditor (Entropy monitoring and Kinetic Modifier management in high-use scenarios).

Role-play Notes

Philosophy of Now is best expressed through decision speed, not impatience. The Human character is not irritable about other lineages' deliberation; they simply do not share the wait. While the Elf is still assessing the fourth contingency, the Human has already acted on the first. Whether that action turned out correctly is a separate question.

The Graft as aesthetic identity: what does this Human's gear look like? It is assembled from several sources, optimized for function over form, and probably has an NVS component purchased last month alongside a piece of Dwarven hardware that is fifteen years old. This is not poverty; it is the deliberate expression of a culture that values outcome over pedigree.

Career Reset as a session moment: When a Human character's Career Reset arrives, when the fiction has reached the point where who they were no longer serves who they are becoming, treat it as a table event worth pausing for. What did they let go? What did they decide to become? The Hustle die's reassignment is a mechanical fact; the conversation around it is the scene.

The Linchpin Role in party dynamics: the Human character often knows someone, or knows someone who knows someone. This is worth establishing mechanically through Network Contact (07.2) if taken via Progression Track, but it also operates at the fiction level without mechanical support. Who does this Human owe? Who owes them? The Crossroads economy runs on these relationships.

Quick Reference

Health Modifier	+1 at character creation; no per-advancement modifier
Cultural Talent	The Hustle: one free Talent die, assigned to any Talent at creation; reassignable once per career via Career Reset (target Talent must be at 0D; minimum one-week downtime; narrative pivot required)
Lineage Perk	Adrenaline Surge: once per Long Rest, gain an additional Primary Action on your Turn
Harmonic Access	Kinetic Modifier, applies to any Harmonic Tradition used; +1D Kinetic Die with Explosion/Implosion at both Wild Die and Kinetic Die
Combat Identity	Alpha strike; decisive commitment; end the fight early; Adrenaline Surge as opening gambit
Org Affiliation	New-Venture Syndicate (NVS)
Cultural Tell	Philosophy of Now; The Graft aesthetic; Emotional Pivot; The Linchpin network