Who you are
The ten peoples
When you make a character, the first thing you choose is your people, and then one of their two paths. Every people is drawn from an old mythology. The four elements are the same in every world; each people understands them in its own way. Lightning is Thor's to one, Zeus's to another, Tengri's to a third.
Your people decides the colours of the screen you make your character on, the element offered to you first (never forced), the old script your words of power are carved in, and the names the game suggests. Each people also starts out good at two skills: both begin a little higher and rise a little faster for the rest of your life. The path you take adds a touch more to one of the two. Any people can still master any skill. The head start is all it is.
Norse
Longhouses, sea-roads and oaths sworn on rings. The world-tree holds nine worlds; the gods know they will fall at the end and fight anyway.
Children of Sól
Hall-folk of the bright half of the year: smiths, skalds and shield-bearers who follow Sól's chariot and keep the hearth-fires.
Children of Máni
Seers and wanderers of the long night, who read the runes by Máni's light and walk where the wolves run.
Good at Blacksmithing and Swordsmanship · often earth · runes in Futhark
Turkic
Horse-folk of the endless steppe under Tengri, the Eternal Blue Sky. Fire is sacred, the hearth is Od Ana's, and the kam walks between the worlds above and below.
Ak, the White Way
Those who follow the ak kam to the sky-world of Ülgen and Tengri: healers, riders and keepers of the sacred fire.
Kara, the Black Way
Those who follow the kara kam down to Erlik's realm, keeper of the underworld and the dead: they bargain with spirits and know the paths below. Kara does not mean evil.
Good at Archery and Animal Taming · often fire · Old Turkic script
Japanese
Eight million kami dwell in mountain, river and tree. Shrines mark the places where the worlds touch, and purity is kept with water and salt.
Amaterasu's Light
Shrine-keepers and sworn blades of the Sun Goddess, who drew the light back into the world from the rock cave.
Tsukuyomi's Court
Night-walkers of the Moon God, who rules the hours after dark and keeps their own counsel.
Good at Stealth and Meditation · often water · written in Japanese characters
Greek
Olympus over the cities of marble and the wine-dark sea. Heroes win a name the gods remember, and the Fates spin every thread.
Followers of Helios
Athletes, healers and singers of Apollo and Helios, who drives the sun across the sky.
Followers of Selene
Hunters of Artemis and seekers of Hecate at the crossroads, who keep the moon's mysteries.
Good at Healing and Musicianship · often air · Greek letters
Celtic
Oak groves, holy wells and the Otherworld just past the mist. The year turns on two great feasts, and the druids keep the old law.
Folk of Bealtaine
People of the bright half of the year, who light the fires of May and follow Lugh of the many skills.
Folk of Samhain
People of the dark half, when the doors to the Otherworld open; they heed the Morrígan and speak with the dead.
Good at Herbalism and Animal Lore · often water · Ogham
Chinese
The Jade Emperor's court rules heaven, rivers have dragon kings, and every thing holds yin and yang in balance among the five phases.
The Way of Yang
Followers of the three-legged crow of the sun: bright, outward and strong.
The Way of Yin
Followers of Chang'e in the moon palace and the jade rabbit: deep, inward and patient.
Good at Alchemy and Martial Arts · often fire · written in Chinese characters
Roman
Roads, laws and legions. Every hearth has its lares, every crossing its god, and the city's fortune is kept by rite and duty.
Sol Invictus
Legionaries and magistrates of the Unconquered Sun, who hold the line and the law.
Diana's Grove
Hunters and priestesses of Diana and Luna, keepers of the wild places beyond the roads.
Good at Tactics and Parrying · often earth · Latin capitals
Indian
Rishis in the forest, kingdoms on the great rivers, and gods whose stories run through the epics. Every life turns on dharma, and every age of the world turns in its great wheel.
The Solar Line
The Suryavamsha, the royal line descended from Surya, the sun: keepers of law, learning and the word given.
The Lunar Line
The Chandravamsha, descended from Chandra, the moon: herders, healers of beasts and keepers of the night's quiet wisdom.
Good at Evaluating Intelligence and Veterinary · often fire · Devanagari
Egyptian
The Nile floods, the sun boat crosses the sky by day and the underworld by night, and a heart is weighed against a feather. Scribes keep the words that keep the world.
Followers of Ra
Priests and scribes of the sun god Ra, who crosses the sky in his boat each day: keepers of the written word and the temple's order.
Followers of Khonsu
Followers of Khonsu, the moon who travels the night sky, and Thoth his companion: they speak with the dead and know the paths of the Duat.
Good at Inscription and Spirit Speak · often earth · hieroglyphs
Inca
Terraces climb the Andes, stone fits stone without mortar, and roads tie the four quarters of the world together. The mountains themselves, the apus, are watched and honoured.
Children of Inti
People of the sun god Inti, father of the royal line: farmers of the high terraces and keepers of the harvest feast.
Children of Mama Killa
People of Mama Killa, the moon mother, who keeps the calendar and the silver in the mountains' hearts.
Good at Farming and Mining · often earth · Latin letters
Every land looks like its people
A seeded world is made of two peoples' lands that meet across it. Each land has its own grass, trees, creatures, fish and weather, and its own look for what you build and make. A wall built in Norse land is dark, cold pine; the same wall in Egyptian land is warm and pale. A hatchet made in Norse land is "a Norse hatchet" in the Norse colour. The look changes; what the thing does never does.
Drawn from the myths themselves
Many of these traditions are living cultures, and some are still religions. Boz Universe draws on the old myths themselves, not on anyone's modern retelling. Gods appear as the source of power and of story, never as jokes. Norse and Turkic are the first two peoples being built in full; the other eight follow. Coming