Perks

• 00cp - Dauntless Mariner
  • In the wars that ended the First Age, the men who would be granted the land of Numenor stood with the elves, even against the dread of Morgoth. This courage lives in you; for better or worse, you have great will and determination, and courage enough to face any fate less than the torments of Sauron without flinching.
  • After the War of Wrath, however, the men of the West became for a time men of peace, and the highest of their arts were not warcraft, but ship-building and voyaging across the seas of Arda. You are a skilled sailor by the standards of the Numenoreans, able to handle any of their vessels given appropriate crew. You can train others quickly in sailing as well. Finally, by the grace of the Valar, when sailing on any mundane sea, you need never fear death in the waters. Even should your ship be wrecked, you will survive and find land again.
• 100cp - Sanwe Latya
  • Meaning ‘thought-opening’, this is a capacity that all thinking beings in Arda possess, from the greatest of the Ainur to the least hobbit. In short, every thinking mind is at least potentially capable of sensing others, and both inserting its thoughts into other minds, and reading the thoughts of others. However, there are many limitations on this process, which prevent every Tom, Dick and Barliman from making use of - or knowing about - this ability (see Notes).
  • With this you, like every person in this world, gain the latent ability to develop this skill to at least some extent, to contact and read the minds of others and project your thoughts into theirs, whether to communicate or compel. This can be very useful for interpreting thoughts others wish to reveal, and thus in interpreting unfamiliar languages.
  • Perhaps more importantly, though, you gain the likewise-universal ability to close your own mind, whether to particular individuals or to all. This barrier of ‘unwill’ makes it impossible for even the greatest and most powerful mind in Arda to perceive or alter your thoughts - but you can still be persuaded, intimidated, tortured or tricked into lowering it. By default, the unwill still provides a strong barrier against other means of intrusion from outside this jump (e.g. psychic powers), but is not entirely invulnerable. In future jumps, characters will be able to close their minds against your thought-reading and thought-sending in a similar way, regardless of the local metaphysics, and with time you may be able to teach them to close their minds against similar intrusions by other means.
  • You have the skill to perceive the thoughts of others or insert your own with some effort, so long as you have some advantages in doing so - familiarity, authority and urgency all help with this (see Notes). This is roughly the level that Faramir, Denethor and similar operated at, and could be learned by an otherwise-ordinary human with years of careful study and self-honing.
• 100cp - Stature of Body and Mind
  • The Men of the West are a blessed people, and you share in that blessing more than most. At a baseline, without significant training, you would be the equal of a notably athletic person in strength, speed and stamina. With a reasonably dedicated training regimen you could equal and maintain Olympic-level strength, stamina and speed, and with true dedication you could go beyond that, achieving feats more on par with Captain America or similar comic-book humans. You may optionally choose to be noticeably taller than most Númenóreans.
  • Beyond simply your physical abilities, however, your skill can reach beyond the normal limits of mortal craft. This does not increase the speed at which you gain new skills or abilities, but time will only ever serve to increase your skill. If you neglect your skills they will remain without atrophy until you take them up again.
  • So long as you practise a skill, you will slowly find more ways to advance it, even into the realms of what other men might call magic. This advancement is slow, such that it would require a century or more of regular use to achieve this ‘magical’ degree of skill, but it is without limit. Should you somehow overcome mortality, there is not telling the heights to which you could rise.
• 200cp - Songs of Power
  • In the beginning, Arda’s history was foreshown in the Music of the Ainur, and although it was physically created afterwards, music still holds power within the halls of Ea. Befitting this world shaped by music, you have a talent for song and poetry; you can carry a tune or recite a poem easily, injecting appropriate emotion. Furthermore, you can easily memorise such artworks.
  • The power of your music and chanting goes beyond ‘mere’ poetry and song. Through such music, you can perform goetia, the magics of the mind. With a calming song you could quiet wild beasts and befriend furious horses, with an upbeat and merry melody imbue a party with an air of enchantment, wonder and joy, with a quiet rhyme help conceal yourself and others in foliage and shadows, or with a bellicose chant ignite courage in the hearts of your allies and intimidate your foes. Alternatively, you may sing such songs to counter similar enchantments of others; for instance a song of courage and resilience to help another resist the terror-spells of a Nazgul. On your own, the effects you can invoke with this are relatively subtle and will be tiring, but many such chanters together can magnify the effects and reduce the burden upon you, as can magical tools such as Rings of Power.
• 300cp - Lord of the Star
  • In the First Age, through Lúthien and then Elwing, the blood of Maiar, elf and human mingled, and of that line came the line of the kings of Númenor—and your line. While all Númenóreans have great longevity, your lifespan is extended by a quarter again, and your will and spiritual power is similarly increased. Furthermore, when you make use of magical items to which you are entitled by right, your ability with them is magnified; they will obey you as they would not others, and curses and negative effects they carry are weakened against you—though not entirely removed.
  • Beyond these more mystical benefits, however, you also gain more practical ones. You may or may not have lands and titles within Númenor, but if you were granted such you would have the wisdom, skill and judgement to administer them ably, to keep your subordinates loyal, your peers respectful, your lands bountiful and your people happy—or subservient, if you are more inclined to wring value from them by force. You can easily administer a domain of this type, easily learn and memorise laws and rules, and have the judgement to apply them fairly; if you so choose, you can make your court a haven of justice, without sacrificing stability.
  • Finally, you are a skilled tactician and general, able to command armies from the front or the rear, and to achieve grand victories even from disadvantageous positions.
• 400cp - Strength of Arms
  • You are amongst the greatest warriors who have ever lived. You are proficient with nearly every weapon, skilled in the use of armour, horsemanship, and fighting in formation, with the combat instincts and leadership to command armies as one of the greatest captains of war. Your prowess will only continue to grow with time.
  • You could defeat a dozen ordinary warriors without difficulty, battle heroes and terrible beasts on even footing, and with the right arms and armour duel a Balrog as Glorfindel did in the flight from Gondolin, or slay a hundred lesser warriors without taking a wound. Nothing in this world beyond the slowest and most terrible torments of the Dark Lord can truly daunt you, though you remain vulnerable to corruption and recklessness.
  • Should you fight at their head, those under your command will share your unshakable resolve, standing firm until they are destroyed or you are slain, and even then their oaths to you may sustain their courage beyond your passing. You can command armies as the greatest of musicians commands a harp.

Items

• 100cp - Ship
  • You are in possession of a fine sailing vessel, fit to cross the many seas of the world. The ship is something more; either it is magical, enchanted to fly across the waves like a bird, to endure or run before any storm, and otherwise master the sea like no other, or it is nothing less than a floating fortress in its own right; not swift, but an implacable force from which a host could disembark to conquer a city, and its hull impervious to all but great engines of war, or being cast upon the shore by a terrible storm.
• 200cp - Arms and Armour
  • Your battle-harness is nothing short of legend. Forged by the greatest smiths, its craftsmanship and provenance are unmistakable, and it is all but indestructible, breaking only beneath the most terrible onslaughts. You are equipped with a complete suit of armour, a shield if desired, and your choice of weapons, each wrought to protect and serve you against even the mightiest foes.
  • Protective runes gleam upon your armour and shield to ward away harm, while your weapons possess magical properties of their own. You are free to design the exact qualities your arms and armour possess. They might rival Anglachel, the star-iron blade that could cleave all earthly metal; the Dragon-Helm of Dor-lómin, which struck terror into those who beheld it; or the glittering blade Ringil, with which Fingolfin wounded Morgoth seven times.

Companions

• 200cp - Companion Import [600+700cp]
  • The Horse, and The Hound
  • 00cp Prince of Beasts
    • You are an exemplar among your kind; larger, faster, stronger, more impressive and overall better than the majority of your species. And, of course, with intelligence on the level of a human. Overall, in terms of your physicality you’re generally around half again as ‘good’ as the conventional peak of your species; this may or may not include size, as you see fit. This potency is particularly expressed in areas your species is known for; a bear would be particularly strong and tough, a horse particularly swift, a hound particularly good at tracking and so on.
    • In addition, there’s more to your title than idle fancy. Other animals of your kind instinctively regard you well, and you can communicate with them clearly as if sharing a language of gesture, grunt and so on. They don’t automatically submit to you, but if you put your mind to it you could lead groups of them without too much difficulty. Furthermore, your gestures and other animal actions are unnaturally expressive, such that you can make yourself understood by those who pay attention, even if communicating very complex topics may be beyond you.
    • If you take this perk as a member of a different Kindred, you are not any larger or stronger than normal, but instead gain a similar rapport with animals in general. Animals like you, you find it easy to tame and understand them, and only corrupted or maddenned beasts will attack you unless you give them good reason. If a beast, you may purchase this perk again at full cost to broaden your animal authority in a similar fashion.
  • 100cp Faithful Companion
    • None could ask for a better companion than you. You are a boundless source of comfort, support and trust for those you choose to devote yourself to, easily uplifting their spirits even in dark times, and urging them on. You’re an excellent listener, and even if you have limited ways to communicate with someone, so long as they’ll listen to you you can work to tamp down on their darker tendencies and bring them out of rage, recklessness or despair - and doing such work will likewise help lift your own spirit, as you and your friends support one another. Finally, when working to help, defend or travel to those you have a close connection to, you have a near-endless well of determination and courage. In their defence you could endure a hundred blows from orc-sabres, endure the terrors of Sauron or run for days on end - though this is no guarantee of survival.
  • 200cp Tireless
    • In you is something of the immortal lands, a spark of light untarnished by decay or weariness. You have no need for sleep or rest, and simply do not experience exhaustion or wavering attention. You could keep watch until the Final Battle or run to the ends of the Earth, and never become tired or distracted. You can still be weakened by hunger or thirst, but you cannot die of deprivation - though you must still breathe. Furthermore, the world-weariness that will come to plague the elves will never claim you; perhaps something to do with your close connection to ever-changing nature allows you to simply live within the world rather than mourning what once was. Despite all this, you can still enjoy all the charms of sleep, rest, food and drink as much as you ever did.
    • If you also have the Hand of Power or High Doom perks, you are ageless and immortal, remaining in the prime of your life forever, or at least until slain.
  • 300cp Hand of Power
    • Huan was the Hound of Valinor, and the great Eagles are messengers of Manwë. They were mighty beasts, and in the service of higher powers, they changed the course of fate on many occasions.
    • This perk has two main effects. Firstly, you are blessed by a higher power, your natural gifts taken above and beyond the mundane. If before you were an eagle, now you are large enough to carry off a full-grown stallion or duel a dragon in the air. If before you were a bear, now you are a living titan of muscle and ferocity, your very tread is capable of shaking the earth when you charge into battle. If you were a horse, your very being embodies the ideas of swiftness and freedom, and you could outrun and escape any pursuit. Regardless of whether or not this spiritual power finds expression in size, you are proof against all but the most potent and prolonged of torments or corruptions, and find any magic in line with your species’ associated qualities uplifted and strengthened further. For humans this would enhance ingenuity, for dwarves stubbornness and endurance, for elves beauty and wonder etc.
    • Secondly, if you choose to take up service under another, you will find yourself well-rewarded, according to the stature of your master and the nature of your service. If you serve the Valar, they will give you advice and guidance in signs or dreams, and you will find yourself enhanced still further by their spiritual power. If you serve a lesser being, they will reward you as best they can, take care of you and give you gifts which others might deem strange for a ‘mere animal’. You may serve multiple masters in this way, but only those you truly give faithful service will ‘count’ for the purposes of this perk.
  • 400cp Sanwe-Latya
    • Meaning ‘thought-opening’, this is a capacity that all thinking beings in Arda possess, from the greatest of the Ainur to the least hobbit. In short, every thinking mind is at least potentially capable of sensing others, and both inserting its thoughts into other minds, and reading the thoughts of others. However, there are many limitations on this process, which prevent every Tom, Dick and Barliman from making use of - or knowing about - this ability (see Notes).
    • With this you, like every person in this world, gain the latent ability to develop this skill to at least some extent, to contact and read the minds of others and project your thoughts into theirs, whether to communicate or compel. This can be very useful for interpreting thoughts others wish to reveal, and thus in interpreting unfamiliar languages.
    • Perhaps more importantly, though, you gain the likewise-universal ability to close your own mind, whether to particular individuals or to all. This barrier of ‘unwill’ makes it impossible for even the greatest and most powerful mind in Arda to perceive or alter your thoughts - but you can still be persuaded, intimidated, tortured or tricked into lowering it. By default, the unwill still provides a strong barrier against other means of intrusion from outside this jump (e.g. psychic powers), but is not entirely invulnerable. In future jumps, characters will be able to close their minds against your thought-reading and thought-sending in a similar way, regardless of the local metaphysics, and with time you may be able to teach them to close their minds against similar intrusions by other means.
    • For 400 CP, free to Maiar and discounted to Elves, you are able to easily and clearly converse in thought with others so long as you have at least one advantage in doing so, and with effort can send thoughts and dreams to those far away, even with only limited advantages. This is roughly the level on which Gandalf, Galadriel, Elrond and the Maiar in general use, and is mostly out of reach for ordinary humans - not because they lack the capability altogether, but because the amount of time and study required for a being with a strong hröa to overcome the limitations of that body are difficult for a mortal to give. That said, if one had the time, it might be possible within a century or two of diligent study for a human to achieve this level of proficiency - though if available, a magical tool like a Palantir would help greatly.
  • 400cp Echoes of the Music
    • More than simply remembering select strains of the Music of the Ainur, you have memories of the music over all - and more than that, can hear its echoes within the living world. You experience this sense almost as literal music, existing on a spiritual rather than physical level, but the sensation as a whole is not entirely unlike listening to the backing track of a movie. In the immediate sense, this gives you a strong sense for the ‘mood’ of your present environment - you can tell by the Music whether you are in danger or not, the degree of emotional tension, whether you are in a place which has felt sorrow, gladness or other emotions strongly, and similar. By listening carefully, you can also discern whether a given person, object or place has magical or spiritual power, and the rough degree of that power, though thinking beings can defend against this by raising the unwill. With time to examine the subtle melodies of such a place, person or thing, you can gain greater insight into the nature of whatever power they may possess, though this insight tends towards understanding the ‘intent’ of the power, rather than precise effects.
    • Finally, with time and peace to consider, you can discern the echoes of the Music from the future or the past, gaining similar levels of insight, though this takes longer and is less precise. In order to do this you must be able to examine an object, place or person relevant to that future; that is by listening to a person’s melody, you can gain an emotional idea of their future and past, or by listening to the Music at a crossroads you might get an idea of roughly what awaits you down a given road.

Jump Budget

• +00cp - Canon Insert - Atanalcar, son of Elros Tarminyatar
  • You incarnate into the world in place of a canonical character, though you gain no abilities or privileges beyond what you purchase here.
• +1000cp - Jump CP
  • For taking this document, you, like everyone else, gets to start with 1000cp.
• +100cp - Shipping Ban
  • Your transportation options (Cars, Ships, Magic, Shoes…) will conform to the local dominant tech / magic level. You might have the Light of Terra, but if you’re in an Age of Sail setting, LoT is just a really (really) big boat. This scales everything. Weapons, propulsion, education level of NPC crews, etc.
• +100cp - The Long Road
  • You must remain in jump until you die of old age or reach extreme old age for your race. If you’re immortal, unaging, or belong to a race that cannot or does not die of old age, the jump ends 100 years from its official start date, assuming a normal 10 year jump. If you can die of old age, you must last at least 10 additional years from the normal end date before dying of old age or the jump ends with failure. If you possess any ability or technology that could keep you from dying of old age, you must last the full 100 to successfully complete the jump. Age related complications count as old age. If another drawback would extend the duration of the jump, or the jump naturally lasts longer than ten years, The Long Road automatically tacks on another 10 (for non immortals) or 100 (for immortals) years for every decade added. This drawback means that you will show signs of aging over time even if you possess an ability to stop aging, though those signs would be minor and slow to show up. Incompatible with The Hub.
• +300cp - No Access
  • You have no access to your Warehouse for the entire length of the jump. If this is a Chain Drawback, you may add the base 150 Warehouse points to your Body Mod, as you have no Warehouse. Everything that respawns is delivered to you by parcel post. You can bring anything you like into the jump at the beginning (as long as you have it in your possession already), but nothing past that, including Companions. You cannot take this with other warehouse drawbacks. No Hiatus. Must keep for 10 jumps or more before Revoking.
• +200cp - Earlier Beginning
  • You begin each jump at age four, or the nearest equivalent, and remain until the jump’s normal start date. Your memories, personality, and experiences are fully intact from the beginning. Local powers mature naturally as you grow. Out-of-jump powers return at 2% per year until puberty and 12% per year thereafter, scaled proportionally for species with different maturation rates. Power returns qualitatively rather than absolutely. You retain only two years of plot armor against random childhood misfortune. Imported Companions receive the same effects. Your warehouse and any unimported Companions become available at the jump’s normal start date.
• +200cp - One Life To Lose
  • Death is no longer a revolving door for your Companions. If a Companion dies beyond the point of medical recovery, they are removed from the Chain and returned to their reality of origin, though Undead Companions use an equivalent definition of death. Once lost, a Companion may only be reclaimed through Return, a continuity toggle in a later Jump to the same setting during that Companion’s lifespan, or by earning your Spark. Respawn mechanics, resurrection powers, 1-Ups, recovery items, and similar abilities cannot restore a dead Companion. Powers, Perks, and Items may still prevent death before it occurs. To prevent arbitrary losses, Companions will not die from random accidents, casual illness, age-related complications, or similarly insignificant causes. Only deliberate action or major plot-level threats can kill them. Each Companion gains an additional 600 CP at the beginning of every Jump while this Drawback is active, while the Jumper gains +200 CP. Companions who are not imported cannot receive Origins, freebies, or other import benefits.
• +100cp - Humiliation Congo
  • Your enemies will not willfully kill you. Oh no… they want you to suffer. Some will torture you, others subject you to humiliation and or degradation… Some will prefer physical methods, others mental, still others sexual or emotional techniques… Feel free to customize what, exactly, each enemy will do to you… or just pick a single specific theme (Everyone wants to tickle you for hours would work. As would people keep crucifying you.) It has to be something generally bad. You can’t say “They’ll give me a nice meal and subject me to small talk.”