You will find them at the edges of battlefields where the clouds of war have scattered briefly. They move amongst the bodies and step between fallen flags. To the still living they give water, light healing, and usually a hand to lay on their shoulder as they recover. From the dying and the dead, they collect last letters home, personal tokens, and sometimes final promises delivered out of ashen lips.
They do not have names, titles, or orders. Their clothes are those of peasants or monks, but they usually wear a white sash about them, which they keep clean with great effort. The armies of the living do not usually trouble them, even when they give succor to their enemies. They do not offend them, because they know that if they ever fall in battle these people may be their final mercy. From them come the stories of valkyries and battlefield saints, but these are not demigods. If you cut them, they will bleed.
If they must be referred to somehow, they are known as the ones who pass through the fields. Sometimes, one whom they heal elects to join their ranks. Sometimes, more rarely, someone joins their ranks of their own volition. Perhaps this will be you.
This group can serve as NPCs, a class, or as the basis for a campaign. There is no prohibition against violence for this class, because above all the ones who pass through the fields are practical and do what needs to be done. However, doing harm to others is contrary to their spirit.
One Who Passes Through the Fields (Δ)
Skills: Diplomacy, Observation, Medicine
Starting Equipment: Plain clothes, white sash, walking staff, waterskin, wrapped bundle of farm cheese and bread, dagger, rope, wing-charm.
On Wing Charms
The more established groups of ones who step through the fields will give new initiates a small charm, a wooden carving in the shape of a wing pierced by an arrow. None know why or how this tradition started, but those who receive one guard it jealously.
Display of the charm grants you safe passage in some civilised kingdoms (3-in-6), and may even stay the hand of bandits in rougher ones (1-in-6).
In Widdernmark they call these feather-gifts (federgifter). Whose gifts they are is not known. And while the empire keeps records stretching back hundreds of years in an unbroken chain, it sees no need to record the lore of unimportant peasants who can neither fight nor rule.
Take My Hand
Δ: Spend a day comforting someone who is dying. If they recover, it does not count.
You always know what to say to calm down the dying and wounded. This means that you can often gain valuable information about who or what wounded them. They will often instinctively trust you, and tell you their dying wishes. You are compelled to complete them, even if they are impossible or extremely difficult.
A Word to Power
Δ: Stand up to an agent of violence, knowing that they can always kill you if they get too annoyed. If they weren't actually a threat to you, it does not count.
Once per day, when you stand tall and wield the moral high ground against a superior foe, you can force them to make a morale check at disadvantage.
Lay On Hands
Δ: Watch over someone as they recover from near death to full health. If they don't reach full health before you leave them, it does not count.
You can touch someone and grant them 1 HP. This will stabilise them if they are dying. You can do this X times per day, where X is the number of Δ templates you have in this class.
See Through Shadow
Δ: Live amongst the agents of a temporal power for a month, sharing in their cruelties and revelries. If they are not cruel to each other and those weaker than them in an ostentatious manner, it does not count.
You can detect the lies and superficial deceptions of power with ease. This includes lies told in speeches, proclamations, signs, archival records, and history books. Where you notice them, you become irrationally angry.
Succor for the Wicked
Δ: Save the life of someone whom you hate and revile, then let them go. If you don't actually revile them, it does not count.
You register as non-hostile to most intelligent creatures, unless you attack them. Unless supernaturally motivated, reaction rolls made by monsters against you and your party will never result in immediate hostility. They must see or otherwise sense you for this effect to work.
Power of the Powerless
Δ: Accomplish someone's dying wish at great cost or difficulty. If the wish is not difficult to complete, it does not count.
When you are acting to complete someone's last request, you can reroll dice (attack rolls, initiative, saving throws, ability checks etc.). You can do this X times per day, where X is the number of number of Δ templates you have in this class. You cannot reroll multiple times in a roll, and you must take the rerolled result.
Passthrough
Δ: After accomplishing all the other Δ templates, give your wing-charm to your successor, or make a new one to give them if the old one was destroyed. If you don't believe in them and their ability to carry on the work, it does not count.
A door opens in the side of reality. Someone walks through, someone you knew once. They take your hand, and lead you through the portal. One day the battles will end, they tell you. One day there will be no more tears. But your part, at least, is done.
Did I do okay? You ask.
You can't help yourself. It's been so long, and so hard.
You've fought well, they say. And that's all you can ask for.
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