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The Protector

What would you give your life to protect?

Attributes: When something is important enough to you that you’re willing to risk life and health to make sure it remains secure, everyone can rest easier, knowing that the Protector is there to guard it.

The Protector represents the desire to protect something from harm. What the actual Protectorate itself happens to be is fairly arbitrary; all that matters is that no ill shall come to it.

Taboos: The Protector must have a Protectorate, and the Protector cannot allow the Protectorate to come to harm. What constitutes “allowing” and “harm” can vary wildly depending on the Protectorate; for instance, if your Protectorate was “my family,” letting your kid brother smoke a cigarette would not violate taboo (though a stern warning against self-harm wouldn’t be amiss). However, if your kid brother started driving drunk and got hurt in a non-fatal accident that you could have prevented, that would be a taboo violation. Also, you automatically violate taboo if a part or the whole of your Protectorate is destroyed; if your kid brother wandered out into the street and got hit by a car while you were at work four miles away, that would be a violation of taboo, because even though you could not have done anything to prevent it, that which you were supposed to protect is gone.

Symbols: The Protector’s primary symbol is the shield. Other common symbols are any kind of armor, polearms, rifles, military and police uniforms, various badges of authority (particularly shield-shaped ones), and an unwavering gaze that constantly scans the area.

Masks: St. Michael the Archangel, Heimdall, Wadjet, Angerona

Suspected Avatars in History: Alas, successful individual Protectors tend not to become famous, because they’re usually just doing their jobs. Numerous nameless guards in the service of leader figures throughout the world could have been channeling the Protector and never known it. Less successful Protectors become known for participating in heroic last stands; Some of the Spartans at Thermopylae, quite possibly everyone in the Alamo, and Admiral Spruance at the Battle off of Samar come to mind.

Protectorates: A Protectorate can be a single object or set of objects (e.g. “the remains of St. Francis in the Basillica that bears his name in Assisi, Italy”), an area no larger than the Avatar’s skill level of miles in diameter (e.g. “Fort Necessity”), or a group of people consisting of up to the Avatar’s skill level in individual persons (e.g. a range from “The President of the United States” to “Everyone in the West Wing.”).

Once a Protector’s Protectorate has been determined, either by the Protector’s choice or by some external authority, it cannot be changed except by some appropriate ritual. Possible examples of such rituals include the Protector making an oath of loyalty to his new Protectorate, receiving orders from on high, or spending three days carefully studying the area in which their new Protectorate lies. A Protector cannot have more than one Protectorate at a time, nor can they benefit from the use of their Protector abilities when guarding a previously-had Protectorate unless they have been ritually bound to that Protectorate again. A Protector cannot be his own Protectorate.

Channels:
1%-50%: The Protector does not falter when his protectorate is in danger. When currently engaged in making an active defense (usually, but not always, combat) of his Protectorate, the Protector can ignore any stimulus that would force him to make a stress check. He does not automatically gain hardened notches on his madness meter; his simply does not need to make the check.

51%-70%: The Protector displays extraordinary competence in the defense of his Protectorate. Whenever making a skill check that directly relates to guarding the Protectorate (watching security camera monitors, fighting would-be assassins, searching people for forbidden objects), he can flip-flop or re-roll any failed roll once. In combat, this ability can only be used once per round. This ability stacks with flip-flops or re-rolls from other sources.

71%-90%: The Protector always knows where danger is coming from. Whenever any people, supernatural creatures, natural events, or magicks threaten the Protectorate in some way, circumstances will always conspire to inform the Protector of them with enough advance warning for the Protector to prepare a defense. For example, the Protector might receive intelligence that the enemy plans to attack at dawn, or hear a rumor that someone plans to hex the VIP they’re guarding, or gets a hunch that earthquake-proofing the house might be a good idea. The threats to the Protectorate are always immediate, and never merely potential.

91%+: The Protector will never fall while his Protectorate stands. If the Protector is reduced to 0 wound points, he can continue to act without penalty until either his Protectorate is literally or symbolically destroyed (the President dies, the city is overrun, the flag falls), or all immediate threats to the Protectorate are removed. After that point, the Protector dies.

What you hear:
Officially, the President chooses who the head of the Secret Service is. Unofficially, Ed Ward has had that role since the Kennedy era. He’s getting on in years, but he’s sworn that no one in the Oval Office will ever die again on his watch. So far, he’s been remarkably successful, though he seems to be getting more paranoid every year.

3 thoughts on “The Protector

  1. semicasual says:

    My first submission. I hope it satisfies.

    I made this avatar up for one of the players in my campaign. The guy seemed to be going out of his way to prepare for fights, and his Fear stimulus was “friends dying,” so one day I decided that he was channeling this archetype, with his protectorate being “my friends.” I hope to use it to keep him close to the rest of the party and encourage him to roleplay more.

    Reply
  2. Atama says:

    It also goes well to explain the dead woman swinging a frying pan in the first pages of the 2nd edition book.

    Reply
  3. Locke says:

    The dead woman swinging a frying pan was channeling the Mother.

    Reply

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