The Sky for Roof, Mountains for Walls (Class: Cossack)

For Cloak-and-Sword, again. This one shares a lot of DNA with Phlox's iconic Barbarian.

Józef Brandt

Class: Volni
Start with: colorful foreign clothes, decorated fur hat, a shashka sabre, a nagaika short whip, a big bottle of chihir (intoxicating to any constitution), an animal companion (see below). 

You are one of the Volni, free semi-nomadic people of the east. You hail from Dikoe Pole (known in Manteu as Le Territoire Indompté, or simply The Wild Steppe), a region of mostly unexplored sprawling steppes located between the Dragoman Empire to the south and the northern Tsardom, where laws imposed by its neighbors seldom take hold.

Twinsoul: At the moment of your birth, the soul that was meant for you split in two, and one half entered an animal that was born at the exact same time. This is a common occurrence for the Volni and an important part of their culture.

You are accompanied by an incredibly loyal and smart 2 HD animal (usually a horse, though wolves and eagles aren't unheard of), with which you share a soul. This has the following implications:

• You can share senses by closing your eyes and concentrating.
• You can feel each other's emotions and pain when close together.
• You can tell the rough direction to one another when far apart.
• Anyone who holds Esprit for one also holds it for the other.
• Your companion's lifespan is extended to match your own.
• For purposes of faith and magic, you are a single soul in two bodies.

Mechanically, you essentially control both the animal companion and the Volni. In combat, the animal companion acts on the same turn as the Volni.

If one of you dies, the other is doomed to perish within a year.

Steel and Saddle: When rolling damage, you add an extra damage die for each of the following and take the highest result:

• You used one of the traditional Volni weapons, like your shashka or nagaika.
• You fight alongside your animal companion.
• You are outnumbered 2-to-1 or more.

Patchwork Tongue: You speak Surjik, in addition to any other languages you might know. Surjik is the native language of the steppes, composed of words and phrases borrowed from every culture your people ever encountered (which is most of them).

When speaking Surjik to someone who doesn't, there is a 1-in-6 chance for them to still understand what you're saying. This also applies to animals. 

Iron Guts: Your tolerance for alcohol is impressive. For you, weak alcohol (like ale or wine) acts like water, and strong alcohol (like vodka) acts like weak alcohol. After downing a full bottle of strong alcohol, you are immune to fear until you become sober again. If relevant, you have +4 to saves vs getting stupidly drunk.

People you spend the whole night drinking with hold Esprit for you, and you for them.

Story-Fated: When rolling for consequences of Carousing, you may roll twice and pick. If you do, you now hold mutual Esprit with one of the people involved and are bound by fate to cross paths again, for better or worse. 

Steppe-Born: You never suffer penalties when camping or sleeping out in the wilderness, no matter the weather or other natural conditions. However, you suffer those penalties when you are forced to sleep under a roof instead of an open sky.

Wind-Guided: When traveling, you never leave foot- or hoofprints, nor scent by which you can be tracked. You can make sure that none of the ones you travel with leave them either, as long as all of you slow down and travel at half speed. 

Barbare: Your rough foreign manners tend to put people off. You have -2 to reactions from nobles and other more civilized city-dwellers, and are forbidden from entering churches without explicit permission.