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Unaffiliated Profession Templates

AX.GIL.07.06 - Unaffiliated Templates

Professions

Overview

Every profession in the Iron Lattice emerged from one of the five Power Pillar organizations, BVHI trained the Seismic Engineers, the NTC produced the Logic-Binders, the HIA built the Marginal Operatives. Affiliation is the default assumption.

Not every character honors that assumption.

Unaffiliated Profession Templates are overlays applied to any standard IL profession. They do not replace the profession; they replace its relationship to the org that originated it. A character using a template retains their base profession's Favored Save, Power Access, Key Talents, Core Perks, and Harmonic Support perks in full. What changes is the Faction Authority perk at each Stage: the institutional credential is gone, and something else takes its place.

What templates do not change: - Favored Save (stays from base profession) - Power Access / Harmonic Tradition access (stays from base profession) - Key Talents identity (stays from base profession) - Core Perks (Tactical, Defensive, Expertise, Recovery, Team categories, unaffected) - Harmonic Support perks (Harmonic Attunement, Resonance Read, Backlash Buffer, unaffected) - Setting Expertise perks (Entropy Signature, Collapse Containment, unaffected) - Environment Access perks (Plane-Walking Awareness, Spirit Severance, unaffected)

What templates replace: - Any Faction Authority perk assigned to a Stage in the base profession (Contract Memory, Axiomatic Injunction, Covenant of the Accord, Infrastructure Override, Certification Flag, Shadow-Census Pull, Syndicate Vouching) is replaced with the template's equivalent-Stage perk.

Stage 3 and templates: Most base professions do not assign a Faction Authority perk at Stage 3, only LGT Arbiters and Resonance Notaries do (Covenant of the Accord). All templates include a Stage 3 option for those cases. For base professions without a Stage 3 Faction Authority perk, the template Stage 3 is optional, it may replace the Core Stage 3 perk if the player and GM prefer the template identity, or be skipped entirely.

How to Apply a Template

  1. Select a base IL profession from the 25 org-affiliated options.
  2. Select one of the four templates below.
  3. At each Stage where the base profession assigns a Faction Authority perk, replace it with the equivalent-Stage template perk.
  4. All other Stage assignments remain unchanged.
  5. Note the template's Social Position; it defines how each org views the character and replaces the org affiliation context of the base profession.

Example: A Freelance Seismic Engineer uses the Freelance template on the BVHI Seismic Engineer base. - Stage 1: Harmonic Attunement → unchanged (Harmonic Support, not Faction Authority) - Stage 2: Infrastructure Override → replaced with Provisional Engagement (Freelance Stage 2) - Stage 3: Core Perk (Signature Move or equivalent) → unchanged

A Freelance Linden-Green Arbiter uses the Freelance template on the LGT Arbiter base. - Stage 1: Contract Memory → replaced with Open Market Standing (Freelance Stage 1) - Stage 2: Axiomatic Injunction → replaced with Provisional Engagement (Freelance Stage 2) - Stage 3: Covenant of the Accord → replaced with Jurisdictional Ambiguity (Freelance Stage 3)

DESIGN NOTES

Template stacking: Templates do not stack. A character applies one template to one base profession. An Outcast Mercenary is a narrative concept, not a dual-template application, if a character has been both an org member and a contractor, choose the template that best represents their current status and let the other inform backstory.

The Crossover: A character trained by one org who now works for another (a Gnome Logic-Binder working for the HIA) is not a template case; they are an org-affiliated character with an unusual history. Their base profession remains Logic-Binder (NTC). Their social position is handled narratively. If their NTC credentials have been revoked due to the relationship, apply the Outcast template. If they hold dual standing, no template is needed.

Off-Grid and Harmonic Traditions: The Off-Grid template has no interaction with Harmonic Tradition mechanics, the power system operates on physics, not org authorization. An Off-Grid Marginal Operative still has full access to Marginal Harmonics. What they lose is the org's institutional infrastructure, not the Tradition itself.

The Void and narrative scope: The Void's absolute surveillance defeat within a single scene is the most powerful capability in this file. It is balanced by the full-rest recovery, the post-use Data Shadow stress, and the fact that it defeats systems, not people. A GM running a scene where physical observation is the primary detection method should remind players that The Void does not make them invisible to eyes, only to org monitoring infrastructure.

Outcast and The Burned File: The once-per-campaign limit on The Burned File is intentional and inviolable. The information the Outcast carries is genuinely powerful, powerful enough to change the setting. Campaigns that reach Stage 3 for an Outcast character should treat The Burned File as a significant narrative decision point, not a tactical resource to deploy when convenient.

Freelance as baseline unaffiliated: For players who simply want to play an unaffiliated character without a specific dramatic reason for it, the Freelance template is the mechanical default. It provides clean independent standing without requiring a history of conflict with a specific org, and its Stage 3 (Jurisdictional Ambiguity) is useful without being setting-altering.