The one who never drinks the kool-aid.

The Cynic is the voice of doubt in a world of acceptance. She criticizes. She finds faults. She nitpicks and whines and has no faith.

Cynics are more useful than pleasant. When times are good, they rain on everyone’s parade. They muddy every message and put fear, uncertainty and doubt in everyythong. When times are bad, they can be heroes – they’ll see problems first, find flaws and vulnerabilities which others might not notice, and alert the blithe captain that the boat’s headed straight for an iceberg.

Attributes: Doubt and negativity. The Skeptic sees the world through a negative lens, finds the worst in others, and speaks only of what’s wrong. This can provide perspective – while most people want to see the best side of things, the Cynic is more than willing to see the worst. However, the Cynic can also become jaded and amoral, joining the carnival of evil, selfishness and stupidity she sees.

Symbols: Angerless protests and confident disapproval. Written and published insults, especially humorous ones. Cigarettes, coffee and alcohol. Bitter scents and flavors. A single frown in the center of smiling faces. Ridicule. Wilted flowers, plain dark clothing and weary grumpiness.

Masks: Not many, and they’re pretty contrived. Some see Odin (Norse) as a mask, others see Hades (Greek) or other morose gods of the underworld as masks. Thomas, the doubtful apostle from the New Testament Gospel, is a classic. So’s the fairy-tale child who declared that the emperor had no clothes.

Suspected Avatars in History: The Roman poets Marshall and Juvenal are well-accepted examples. American pundits and writers are common proposals, including Mark Twain, H. L. Mencken and Dorothy Parker.

Taboo: The cynic can never make a positive, optimistic or encouraging statement unless the statement also includes an attack on someone or prediction of ill tidings.

Channels:

01-50% It’s hard to pull one over on the Cynic. The Cynic can use the Avatar: The Cynic roll to resist Charm, Lie and similar skills. If the Cynic is expecting it, this can even resist Avatar channels (but not formulas) as a contest roll, but only if someone is trying to make the Cynic like or trust someone.

51-70% The Cynic’s disbelief can interfere with magic. His skepticism tempers the extreme belief of adepts. Any attempt to use formulas or random magic to do something the Cynic would be able to perceive costs twice as many charges. Any attempt to do something while the Cynic is actively disbelieving and criticizing fails (with charges spent) unless the adept beats the Cynic in a contested roll.

71-90% The Cynic finds faults in things. By studying something with a critical eye for a minute or two, the Cynic can find something wrong with it that she hasn’t noticed before, if any such flaw exists.

91-98% Criticism from the Cynic is overwhelming. The Cynic can cause others a rank-9 Isolation or Self check by making a cruel comment. If the victim fails, they’re filled with embarassment and self-loathing for an hour, responding defensively but not initiating any new actions except to leave, and will avoid risk-taking and exposure to the public.