the True Pyromancer

[Raghnall]

Recently, I've been looking at my namesake's warband and making some changes. Nothing controversial enough to warrant reposting the characters that I've already put up here, but it did make me pause before posting Lykos*, and wait until I'm settled on the group as a whole. The total number of characters is going to increase from three to five**, with the addition of a fairly non-militant sanctioned psyker, and a savant. Here is the beginnings of the aforementioned psyker.

Its something that people have picked up on before, but I've never seen anyone do anything about it. The discipline referred to in the LRB as pyromancy would more correctly be called pyrokinesis. Etymologically speaking, pyromancy is actually divination through fire. This character is going to be a genuine pyromancer, who utilises fire to see the future.

That's the basic character concept, but I'm not settled on many details yet, so I would like to ask the Conclave for help in developing the character. In particular I don't really know what sort of rules to use in order to emphasise the whole 'divination through fire' thing, as opposed to just a diviner/pyrokine.

Here are the details I have decided on so far.

• Probably female.
• I like the name Solomon Tal, and while Solomon is generally a male name, it can be used as a female name, and I rather like the idea that the name seems a little at odds with the person.
• Young and brash, in contrast with some of the older and wiser members of the group.
• Not particularly suited to combat, with some of the lowest physical stats in the warband.
• Will possess some level of conventional pyrokinesis, but it primarily won't be offensive, more in the vein of Blinding Flash than Fireball.
• Almost certainly going to possess some sort of psychic amplification device, such as a force weapon or psi-booster, or perhaps a Psychic Foci or Psi-omn inhaler from 'The Sanctioning Brand'. Definitely not a psychic hood.

Thanks in advance for any help.

*Augmented pilot/scum/tech-expert.
**Obviously not all of them would be used at the same time, as different characters fulfil different roles, and are more likely to be seen in different places. Having more than are likely to be used in one game allows me to taylor the group to the scenario***, and from a roleplaying perspective, to follow up on multiple leads at once.
***Bring the scum to meet the dodgy underhive contact, bring the crusader to fight the Big Evil Guy^TM, bring the savant to the data-archive, etc.

[Alyster Wick]

Really interesting concept here. If you want to go a somewhat simple route you could take a look at various divining spells and add in a mechanic like the RIPPA's sorcery requires some kind of catalyst (cutting ones' self, etc) but making it dependent on fire in some way.

Other new ideas would be some kind of Divining Flame that the character looks at while interacting w/ other characters that will give an indication whether they are lying or not (it could be a persistent power that gives a bonus to her Leadership when testing to detect a lie or something, depending how your gaming circle tests for such things, if they do). You could give other character's brief visions of the future via a blinding flash (they voluntarily are subjected to blinding flash, when they recover they get to re-roll d3 failed actions, maybe a bonus depending on how long they were stunned). Summoning a holy flame that only burns the wicked but leaves the righteous unscathed could be a fun combination of pyrokinetics/pyromancy.

Based on how you describe the character, some kind of psy-inhaler sounds interesting. A little dangerous and edgy, just like her. Some kind of pseudo-force weapon could be interesting. Some mix of a fetish, foci, force weapon. Maybe it's some kind of memento or relic (whether with personal significance or imperial import) that is weaponized some how. On a slightly separate note, I just got a vision of her with some kind of psi-conducting glove that enhances her abilities and allows her to focus fire into more destructive blasts (so her natural abilities remain purely pyromantic, she relies more on the glove for offensive capabilities).

Anyway, I'm rambling, but you gave me lots of interesting ideas so I hope I returned the favor

[MarcoSkoll]

In particular I don't really know what sort of rules to use in order to emphasise the whole 'divination through fire' thing, as opposed to just a diviner/pyrokine.

In game terms, I don't think pyromancy needs to be handled radically differently to divining with a Tarot deck, reading tea leaves or merely concentrating on the strands of fate. In all cases, it's a character taking time to consult their chosen method of divination.

Beyond ruling differences in how difficult the method is, how long it takes to read, how vague/fallible it is, how far it can see into the future... they're all going to play fairly similarly in game.
The only real difference I can think of in how they might work is the limitations associated with the method*, like fire not being very subtle when you're trying to sneak around in the dark and not being great when it's raining, but I think that kind of thing might need to be played a bit by ear.

* It could be interesting to see people putting more detail into their diviner characters in this way though, looking at claimed methods and looking at potential drawbacks.
Reading the patterns of salt cast onto the ground won't work so well on grate floors, interpreting wind and weather doesn't work well indoors, and palm reading is a lot less good on bionic hands!

[Raghnall]

Really interesting concept here. If you want to go a somewhat simple route you could take a look at various divining spells and add in a mechanic like the RIPPA's sorcery requires some kind of catalyst (cutting ones' self, etc) but making it dependent on fire in some way.

I'm using the RIPPA anyway, so I might try and adapt 'the power of blood', with regards to her divination. Could just be as simple as requiring a flame in order to use those powers. Obviously this restriction wouldn't apply to any pyrokinetics, but equally they wouldn't gain any bonuses from this ability either.

You could give other character's brief visions of the future via a blinding flash (they voluntarily are subjected to blinding flash, when they recover they get to re-roll d3 failed actions, maybe a bonus depending on how long they were stunned). Summoning a holy flame that only burns the wicked but leaves the righteous unscathed could be a fun combination of pyrokinetics/pyromancy.

Now these are ideas. The blinding flash is particularly nice, although it may require a bit of thinking to correctly balance it, and actually make up for having missed however many turns.

Some kind of pseudo-force weapon could be interesting. Some mix of a fetish, foci, force weapon. Maybe it's some kind of memento or relic (whether with personal significance or imperial import) that is weaponized some how. On a slightly separate note, I just got a vision of her with some kind of psi-conducting glove that enhances her abilities and allows her to focus fire into more destructive blasts (so her natural abilities remain purely pyromantic, she relies more on the glove for offensive capabilities).

I'm sold on the relic. The Inquisitor is Ordo Obsoletus, so I'm trying to give each character a little bit of unconventional equipment. Unfortunately, the Inquisitor is a psyker himself*, and already has a psychic amplification ring, so I worry that the glove is too similar. I might make it a staff or something instead.

Anyway, I'm rambling, but you gave me lots of interesting ideas so I hope I returned the favor

No problem, and thanks for the help.

It could be interesting to see people putting more detail into their diviner characters in this way though, looking at claimed methods and looking at potential drawbacks.
Reading the patterns of salt cast onto the ground won't work so well on grate floors, interpreting wind and weather doesn't work well indoors, and palm reading is a lot less good on bionic hands!

This is precisely the sort of thing I am interested in. For the most part, divination is presented as simply seeing the future, whereas I want to explore the idea of actually interpreting it through a medium, which may potentially offer greater clarity or ease or certainty or some other advantage, but comes with a list of accompanying drawbacks. My chosen medium happens to be fire, and I'm now looking at precisely what those pros and cons should be for this specific method, along with equipment that seems thematically appropriate.

*Although with a completely different set of abilities, so they have almost no overlap in terms of use.