Ideal of Life

“If carefully nurtured, a tree can reach grand heights, far suppassing its neighbours; so, too can an empire. But in the end, both will fall.”

Jo

The Ideal of Life encompasses the aspects of Growth and Decay. It deals with natural (and unnatural) cycles in the natural world and beyond. Such Muses are particularly in tune with the landscape and the world, as well as the systems that allow life, and civilisation, to thrive (or fail).

Muses of Life have power over themes of development and deterioration, the rise and fall of power, and maturation and inevitable decline. They believe that the course of the Narrative is governed by characters' relations to the world around them. Hence, when a Muse of Life wants to use their Skills to manipulate the Narrative of a Vignette, they must act to change those relations.

The Strife Skill governs the use of powers to attack others. With Life, a Muse could inflict sickness upon their foes, or imbue themselves or their allies with greater strength.

Some examples of application at different power levels are:

• Weak: A Muse might infect a foe's wounds, impairing their ability to fight.
• Moderate: A Muse might cook up a hearty meal to restore a small group of fatigued soldiers to fighting fitness.
• Strong: A Muse might reveal weakness in a city wall's foundations, allowing defences to be breached.
• Exceptional: A Muse might imbue a person with heroic vitality, appearing as a giant on the battlefield and cutting down swathes of foes.

The Subvert Skill governs stealth, duplicity, and forgery. With Life, a Muse could cause a lock to rust and break, or quickly degrade evidence beyond the point of recognition.

Some examples of application at different power levels are:

• Weak: A Muse might spill water on an important note, making the ink run and the message hard to discern.
• Moderate: A Muse might corrupt a hard drive's data beyond readability or recovery.
• Strong: A Muse might use the motion of a dense crowd to obscure a large and complex operation to kidnap an important dignitary.
• Exceptional: A Muse might create a rumour which spreads like wildfire, growing in magnitude each time it is retold.

The Seek Skill governs the use of powers to gather information. With Life, a Muse could read the lines of wear on an unknown object to determine its use, or discover something about an area based on the things that live there. Muses of Life are, of course, particularly well suited to uncovering knowledge wherever the natural world and living things are concerned.

Some examples of application at different power levels are:

• Weak: A Muse might predict the next day's weather by observing the behaviour of local animals.
• Moderate: A Muse might determine the cause of a person's illness from tea leaves - even if the symptoms are obscure and unusual.
• Strong: A Muse might encourage the rapid development of a new line of research, ensuring bountiful knowledge for the future.
• Exceptional: A Muse might determine the social, economic and political state of an entire country by observing a day's activity on a single street of the capital city.

The Sculpt Skill governs the use of powers to modify objects. With Life, a Muse could cause a rosebush to produce a particularly beautiful bloom, or reduce a building to ruin by weathering the timbers.

Some examples of application at different power levels are:

• Weak: A Muse might weaken a tool so that it breaks easily when next used.
• Moderate: A Muse might pack a wagonload of provisions in a manner to keep them fresh and free from rot for longer.
• Strong: A Muse might target structural regions of a dam in order to weaken it, which will have disastrous consequences if left unchecked.
• Exceptional: A Muse might use chemical warfare to reduce a large swathe of farmland to a fallow waste.