There are things that are more and less than human which dwell amongst us. They can change their shape, or change reality. They can shrug off injury and the weight of years. They can speak lost tongues and write in letters that twist the mind and coax the Veil to parting, and they have attended us through our history.
Shapers
Those who reshape reality, controlling forces and materials. A Shaper's presence makes the world uncertain. In their proximity, the boundaries between solid and ephemeral, dense and sparse, even constants like light, gravity, and time begin to blur. A wrathful Shaper is among the most frightening things a mortal can encounter: the world itself becomes hostile, bending to the will of someone who has decided it should be different.
Also known as: Mages, Sorcerers.
Shifters
Those who change their bodies, controlling form and biology. Shifters have learned to bend their own being, taking on the bodies of animals, hybrids, or totally novel creations. An angry Shifter is a primal threat, a thinking mind wielding the weaponry of evolution itself and capable of healing from grievous wounds in moments.
Also known as: Shapechangers, Werecreatures.
Seers
Those who perceive beyond the limits of ordinary senses, perceiving effect before cause and event before action. Seers are less immediately threatening than Shapers or Shifters, but significantly more dangerous. A scorned Seer can pull hidden strings that ruin a life in a single act, not through force, but through knowledge that should not be available and the willingness to use it.
Also known as: Prophets, Oracles.
Speakers
Those whose words can be understood by all and, in their darkest incarnation, whose words bend will and bind action. Speakers present a deeply unpleasant danger: they can make one believe and do things they would not otherwise with a few simple words in the right tone, and a skilful Speaker can do so without even revealing the manipulation. They are feared and hated accordingly.
Also known as: Mesmers.
Summoners
Those whose words conjure and command entities and constructs bound to them. Summoners are creature-keepers who have learned both how to soothe and bond with dangerous entities and how to link their spirits in a way that allows them to act as one.
Also known as: Conjurors.
Scribes
Those whose inks and icons imbue arcane power into paper and skin alike. Scribes externalize their power in a way similar to Summoners, relying on the materials and the canvas, normally acting more as indirect conduits for power than wielders of it. But a Scribe can also mark their own body, or create written artefacts or traps that hide devastating power. Scribes are best known for their ability to create Gate-Marks, symbols that can grant passage between Domains, allowing a mortal to cross from Earth to Nod or any other Domain as they wish.
Also known as: Scriveners, Chimori.
Striders
Those who can move effortlessly across distances and Domains with a thought. Striders who develop their ability can bring others with them and even create temporary portals between distant points.
Also known as: Travelers, Skips.
Singers
Those who can conjure deep emotion in the form of music. Singers are often considered benign, but they wield the ability to raise or quell riots, to calm or agitate, with just a few notes, hummed or strummed.
Also known as: Bards, Troubadours, Skalds.
Spectres
Those who escape death by feeding on life. A Spectre is any being which can either halt the normal forces of entropy and decay by feeding on the life-energy of others, or who can persist past the boundary of death by tying their spirits to the living. This includes vampyr, revenants, phantasms, concubi, and other necrotic creatures.
Also known as: Undead.
Strangers
There are odder powers, less consistently wielded or rarer, that fall into the category of Stranger. Strangers are most frequently the result of Nod's transformative effect on mortals.