Chivalry in the three domains (Design Domingo #15)

In addition, all religious characters gain a +1 bonus on all social rolls, as the charisma of their devotion impresses all those they meet, if only subconsciously. If a religious character ever fails to maintain their required Virtue values, even by a single point, they immediately lose these benefits.

Many people across the continent of Galatia strive to live and act in accordance with the chivalrous ideal. Some few work to maintain two ideals at once (being both religious and chivalrous knights, for instance), though this is a great challenge not easily met. Centuries ago, early in the reign of Dyonna Vezia, the Warrior Queen of Roses, the great sage Seyort Artwametontas wrote the first descriptions of high chivalry and then illustrated them in epic poems of grand adventure and romance, and his definition of chivalry has formed the basis for their elaboration by less skillful writers and poets since. To Seyort, chivalry embodies the loftiest values of true courage, a passion for justice, elegance, and culture ~ that is, right conduct, sensibility, and the proper handling of personal relationships. These values are then expressed in the two domains of chivalry, which Seyort defined as the battlefield and the home. To be chivalrous is to be civilized in Galatic eyes, and much of the empire’s history has been composed of looking outwards to spread the ideals of chivalry by beating down everyone who disagrees (chivalry, after all, does not preclude violence).

Finding no place for themself in the noisy danger of combat or the slow importance of the home, the nonbinary sage Hwivargin Drynemetontas introduced the Court of Romance to Galatia a couple of centuries ago during the reign of Queen Eliesia the Half-Elven. Queen Eliesia’s kingly human father had forcibly married her mother in order to leverage the ancient fey ties between land and monarch and add the elfin realm of Dalmat to the Empire. This was the courtly atmosphere of Drynemeton (the capital of Galatia) in which Hwivargin extended Seyortite ideas of chivalry into a third domain ~ the heart. Their writings kicked off the popular activity of fine amor, or “courtly love” ~ a principle decree of which is that it is everyone’s duty to flirt with well-spoken guests and to receive flattery from them. Fine amor remains an invention of social outsiders, misfits, the disenfranchised, and poets to recognize and reward those who neither fight nor support. It is love for love’s sake — romantic and passionate love that must be contrasted to the emotionless, political attitude of arranged marriage. Courtly romance gives social power to people who previously had none (or at least very little).

In time, Hwivargin’s Court of Romance has formed the basis of formalized social events known as the Courts of Love. Selected members of a court (usually people of nonbinary gender and/or outsider status ~ many include, for example, the court fool) preside, with everyone else as audience. People may come to this court to inquire of the rules, to complain of their lover (who nonetheless remains anonymous, of course), and/or to receive the judgment of the court whether an action — “a theoretical activity, of course . . .” — is romantically “correct” or not. If the Court of Love condemns an affair, or any activity involved in the affair, it might even rule that the love must be ended!

Part of the allure of courtly love is its forbidden nature. It is directly opposed to the practice of matrimony, for “True Love” is liberating while matrimony is bondage. Thus the most intense of all romances involves a married woman cheating on her husband. The purity of their bliss sets both lovers free from the gross material concerns of a world drained of its magic these past 12 centuries and places them into that rarefied realm of emotional commitment. The fact that adultery is forbidden by both Church and Emperor makes its consummation all the sweeter. But courtly love is not just the work of a back-door lover ~ simple lust is only a base reflection of True Love. Courtly romance is delicate and formalized, and its practitioners are required to go through proscribed stages. Troubadours are an important part of the romantic scene. They write and sing passionate songs that praise a beloved’s beauty, grace, generosity, and chastity. The poems are often disguised, using the names of ancient lovers so as not to name the lady directly. Thus the poet pretends to be entertaining everyone, but in secret sends his love and messages to someone in the court.

There are a number of behaviors expected of lovers in courtly romance. Firstly, they must adore any upon whom their heart might shine in word, thought, and action, with an overwhelming preoccupation. When problems occur and only failure and frustration ensue ~ as is, of course, inevitable ~ the doting lover must be nourished by their agony until love becomes the all-encompassing passion of their life. In fine amor, lovers are subordinate to their beloveds, vassal to the object of their affections. This humble and submissive attitude of the lover was an idea entirely new when Hwivargin first formulated it, at a time when the primacy of one’s desire over the wishes of the one desired was otherwise unshakable and no doubt insufferable in both social and clerical circles, as exemplified by the actions of the queen’s own father. Sadly, this attitude is still a pitifully young idea in many Galatian courts. The deliberate role reversal is a reaction against the bondage imposed by the prevailing attitudes. It exalts Love, transforming it into something new.

Chivalry in any domain supports the protection of the weak by the strong. Before its acceptance, most people lived by the attitude that “might makes right” in all of life. Chivalry seeks to turn that attitude into one of noblesse oblige, the belief that nobility obligates one to behave honorably and benevolently. This definition of chivalry places its emphasis upon refining a person’s duty. A devotee of romance honors all who might be their beloved and must do everything in their nature and ability to protect them, to deliver them justice, to respect them, and to do their bidding. They must honor every possible beloved as if they actually were their own beloved. Of course, a lover must also be true to his love. Infidelity is the worst offense of all. Like religious people, those known as chivalrous knights must meet certain requirements; those that do gain magical benefits for as long as they maintain those requirements.

The Hummingbird Thief (Mutants & Masterminds 3e)

Professor Clive Cullen

"We can have no significant understanding of any culture unless we also know the silences that were intentionally created and guaranteed along with it."
--Gerald Sider
 
Colonizers have been getting the religions of those they colonized for centuries.  The tradition dates back to long before the current European-dominated colonialist backwash.  Professor Clive Cullen is just one more of a sadly long line.  He doesn't realize it, of course ~ do they ever? ~ but then again he has a bit of an excuse.  His misinterpretation somehow managed to drum up some actual magickal power.  I blame chaos magick; it's got too much insight into the way the world works with too few of the imprecations to introspection that serve to water the twin ferns of morality and ethics.

Clive began as a rather nebbish professor, with a paunch somewhat larger than the one he sports currently and stock in the company that manufactured the leather-elbowed tweed coats he loved so much.  His specialty was the anthropology of religion; he'd earned his Ph.D. with a thesis exploring Middle Eastern folktales involving the interactions between the androgynous peacock-winged archangel Abbridon who was invoked to reveal truth, Lamal the Law-Giver who was another of the Three Powers of the Modrossus, and the pain demon Shatachna who was known as the Iron Queen.  Specifically, Clive was fascinated by a genre of tale in which the three worked together to achieve some necessary end.  Two angels and a demon, all united in the revelation of reality ~ a simply engrossing challenge to traditional moralities.

"Who could truly set His shield to rest?
His throne? His mighty spear?
Think on that. Remember it well, O princes.
Who could lay waste to Tenochtitlan?
Who dares assail the foundation of heaven?"
--David Bowles, Flower, Song, Dance: Aztec and Mayan Poetry

Clive would have walked through the world this way, pipe in hand, all his life, had it not been for a chance encounter at a conference in Amherst, which introduced him to things like the quetzal bird, and Fray Diego Duran's theory that Quetzalcoatl was St. Thomas, and the huehuetlatolli, and Nezahualcoyotl's haunting meditations on the interplay between earthly pleasures and the certainty of death, and all manner of such things.  Intrigued, Professor Cullen began several years of a slow, creeping total shift in his research from one continent to another.  He didn't fully abandon his original research, however, turning in his spare time to the interminable and interlocking initiations of any number of magickal secret societies (he himself certainly lost count).  Somewhere along the way, he even began to unlock the secrets of a couple of spells, two invoking Abbridon, two in Lamal's name, and a fifth calling Shatachna's dread power.

He finally got himself a job at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas studying pre-Columbian Nahua religion.  His explorations continued, as did the intrusions of what he thought he knew into what he was trying to learn.  The ways of the teteo became twisted by interpretations founded in Middle Eastern religions and Christian theology and Freud.  It's always fucking Freud, isn't it?  But somewhere along the way, he had the bright idea of mixing in what he thought he knew to the thaumaturgies he'd begun to comprehend.

"How we devour one another's culture, do so without shame--ideas like water, free flowing and able to take on other forms. Able to flood highways, level entire cities if summoned with enough force."
--J. Andrew Schrecker, Insomniacs, We

Colin never understood the Aubin Codex.  Not really.  He thought he'd come up with a radical new interpretation of how Huitzilopochtli had stolen the Chichimeca, turned them into Mexica, and done somewhat similar with his sister's heart.  It was complete bullshit, of course, but mixing it into some Hermetic practices with a lot of Nahua dressing and some plumas turned out, somehow, to have some sort of power.  He discovered a spell that allowed him to harvest the motion of those whose blood he spills and concentrate it within himself, dramatically increasing his speed.

He quickly crossed paths with the hero known as Catspaw when the two happened to be robbing the same casino museum on the same night.  Dikadora was allowing herself to be used as a cat burglar by New Covenant Regulator, stealing artifacts brought to this continent in the bloody hands of the conquistadores, relics of the Lord of Peace which battered upon the heads and bodies of the Native Americans.  Clive sought a tecpatl, a sacrifical obsidian knife, that was supposed to have belonged to a powerful and ancient Quetzalcoatl Totec Tlamacazqui.  The two fought like a cat and a bird.  Clive got away with the tecpatl, but Catspaw failed to nab the relic she sought, distracted by the fight and the failed chase.  She broke back in to the casino museum that night only to find the relic gone, but that story has nothing to do with the Hummingbird Thief, as she dubbed him.  I'm sure I'll get around to telling it sometime.

"She recalled her absurd attempt to construct an example—an image that, because it was constructed of things it simply did not fit, reversed the idea into an idea silly by itself, ridiculous in application—a ridiculousness that could easily, she saw, have strayed into the pernicious, the odious, or the destructive, depending on how widely one had insisted on applying it."
--Samuel Delany, The Tales of Neveryon

Home Base:  Las Vegas.
Gender:  Cismale
Sexuality:  Straight vanilla
Romantic Identity:  Monogamous aromantic

"We all are influenced by things and copy things, but often where there is a certain level of copying, only the surface value ends up being reproduced and that becomes thinner and thinner. I feel like a lot of appropriation suffers from that."
--Jason Fulford

Recurrent Foes:

• Vincenzo Sangiovanni:  Vincenzo is older than the Mafia, but few people know that outside of the other vampires in the city.  He fled the last gasps of the Renaissance on the mainland to Sicily, and history was made.  Now he owns a casino and has a position in the Mafia far below what he deserves.  He likes it that way: fewer people bothering him about the kind of minutiae the living seem to think are so important.  He ran afoul of the Hummingbird Thief for the first time when he opened an Aztec-themed casino on the Strip.  Clive, oblivious to his own cultural appropriation, was unduly incensed at Vincenzo's.
  
  • Notable Powers:  (PL 12) Metrosexual Vampire from Supernatural Handbook.  Command the Undead, Grasping Graves, Death Sight, Death Vision, Necromancy (with a number of spells as Alternate Effects), Speak with the Dead, Mind Control from Powers Profile.  Death-activated equivalent of Scrying Stone of Sirrion and large installation from Gadgets Guide.  Benefit (wealth 5)
• Tonka Truck:  This Lakota wicasa wakan comes from a post-apocalyptic future where they lead a combine of truckers supplying a wasted west with food, medical supplies, and mail service.  One of the artifacts on display in one of the casinos when the bombs dropped had some sort of reaction with the radioactivity and tore a rip through time.  Tonka Truck found it and came here, now, hoping to prevent his future from coming about.  He claims that defeating the Hummingbird Thief is somehow part of that mission.
• Notable Powers:  (PL 11) A sizeable magical array of spells (Animate Machines, Control Technology, Deactivate Technology, Disassemble, Assemble, Interface, Manipulate Technology, Sensor Masking, and Sensor Network from Powers Profile, for example), tricked-out technomagical dumptruck, Artificer, various junk-magic devices, tech spirit allies.
• Catspaw:  As mentioned, they ran into each other trying to steal different things from the same museum.  Since then, they have engaged off and on in, shall we say, cat and bird chases whenever they would run into each other.  On more than one occasion, werecats of the Qualmi, Pumonca, and especially the Balam tribes have contacted Catspaw to task her with frustrating one of Clive's schemes or recover something he had acquired that he shouldn't have.
  The Hummingbird Thief tends to be a more straightforward opponent for Catspaw than her usual targets, as he isn't trying to exert influence against her.  This sometimes comes as a relief to the werecat, but at other times feels frustrating; she has once or twice tried (and failed) to educate him out of his unconsidered racism. (PL 10)
  
• Ravella the Riverboat Queen:  Younger than Don Sangiovanni, but immortal nonetheless, she began making big bets and keeping cards up her sleeve on the Mississippi some 200 years ago or so.  Her death was gambled away to a demon, and so she's still kicking aorund.  Ravella's come to love the thrill.  She'll bet on anything, with anyone ~ as long as it's big enough, and she's been around to see some big pots.  Catspaw had heard of her and called her in to challenge the Hummingbird Thief to a game of cards with his knowledge of the Nahua at stake.  Ravella still hasn't forgiven him for winning.
  
  • Notable Powers:  (PL 10) Variable (can bet and receive bets for anything; Affects Others, Slow, Precise, Variable Descriptor, Distracting, Limited: Only in Betting Games, Side Effect 1, Check Required: Opposed Expertise: Gambling), Immortality, Immunity (aging)
• Trademark:  Pierce Draper, the dream-controlling advertising agent, sees lots of value in the Hummingbird Thief and his image.  At first, he simply appropriated the Hummingbird Thief as a mascot, seeding dreams throughout the nation of him wearing various brands of shoes and other clothing.  Clive did not take well to such non-academic fame, which led to Trademark trying again, but this time to advertise a line of children's books about the Aztecs.  That fell apart over arguments about money.  Mr. Draper had the most success when trying to use his powers to "convince" Professor Cullen to film commercials for his clients.  The relationship between the two has continued in this fashion, with contentious alliance after contentious alliance.
  • Notable Powers:  (PL 9) Benefit (wealth), Connected, Inspire, Trance.  Features (Fast Sleeper, Light Sleeper, Lucid Dreamer), Sleepless, Dream Mastery, and Psychic Vampirism (Asleep as third degree) from Power Profiles.
• La Malinchista:  UFO abductions don't just happen in the States.  Concepcion Lopez is one such abductee; it was the scariest moment in her life.  Concepcion's proudest moment was when her daughter, Marina, joined the AEM.  Little did she know that this would bring Marina into contact with the species that implanted her within Concepcion's egg.  Falling in love over interstellar radio with one of the aliens, Marina agreed to serve as the invading force's agent on Earth, preparing it for easier conquest as the supervillain La Malinchista.  Area 51 was part of that plan, so she emigrated to the US, where she ran afoul of both Corporal Cadmus and the Hummingbird Thief.  The first was because of her mission, the second because of how poorly he treated the culture of her ancestors.
• Notable Powers:  (PL 8) High Presence, high interaction skills, Attractive 2, Affliction (horniness; entranced, compelled, limited degree), Communication (olfactory), Weaken Awareness.  Cosmic Awareness, Universal Translation (expanded language, animals, machines) from Power Profiles.

Recurrent Allies:

• Emberwight:  Professor Cullen might be over-focused on (his interpretations of) Huitzilopochtli-as-hummingbird, but he hasn't forgotten that he was also a sun god, or had been raised to such exalted status by the cihuacoatl Tlacaelel I.  This has led him to team up from time to time with the fiery ghost Emberwight.  Usually, he allows Emberwight to possess him, allowing them to combine both the Hummingbird Thief's superspeed and Emberwight's control over flames.  They often go by the name of Solar Flare in this form.
• Notable Powers:  (PL 8) Skin-rider from Supernatural Handbook.  Death Stare, Death Touch, Death's Gate, Death Sight, Death Vision, Speak With the Dead, Feature (deathly aura, tiny flame, cooking from the inside, flaming Presence bonus), Fireball (Soulfire), Fiery Breath (Soulfire), Fire Blast (Soulfire), Flame Aura (Soulfire), Immolate (Soulfire), Heatstroke, Melt, Smoke Cloud (Linked to Suffocation with Area), Fire Shield, Heat Absorption, Immunity to Heat, Infravision, Pyrokinesis, Warm from Powers Profile.
  

"The fleeting pomps of the world are like the green willow trees, which, aspiring to permanence, are consumed by a fire, fall before the axe, are upturned by the wind, or are scarred and saddened by age.
The grandeurs of life are like the flowers in color and in fate; the beauty of these remains so long as their chaste buds gather and store the rich pearls of the dawn and saving it, drop it in liquid dew; but scarcely has the Cause of All directed upon them the full rays of the sun, when their beauty and glory fail, and the brilliant gay colors which decked forth their pride wither and fade.
The delicious realms of flowers count their dynasties by short periods; those which in the morning revel proudly in beauty and strength, by evening weep for the sad destruction of their thrones, and for the mishaps which drive them to loss, to poverty, to death and to the grave. All things of earth have an end, and in the midst of the most joyous lives, the breath falters, they fall, they sink into the ground.
All the earth is a grave, and nought escapes it; nothing is so perfect that it does not fall and disappear. The rivers, brooks, fountains and waters flow on, and never return to their joyous beginnings; they hasten on to the vast realms of Tlaloc, and the wider they spread between their marges the more rapidly do they mould their own sepulchral urns. That which was yesterday is not to-day; and let not that which is to-day trust to live to-morrow.
The caverns of earth are filled with pestilential dust which once was the bones, the flesh, the bodies of great ones who sate upon thrones, deciding causes, ruling assemblies, governing armies, conquering provinces, possessing treasures, tearing down temples, flattering themselves with pride, majesty, fortune, praise and dominion. These glories have passed like the dark smoke thrown out by the fires of Popocatepetl, leaving no monuments but the rude skins on which they are written.
Ha! ha! Were I to introduce you into the obscure bowels of this temple, and were to ask you which of these bones were those of the powerful Achalchiuhtlanextin, first chief of the ancient Toltecs; of Necaxecmitl, devout worshiper of the gods; if I inquire where is the peerless beauty of the glorious empress Xiuhtzal, where the peaceable Topiltzin, last monarch of the hapless land of Tulan; if I ask you where are the sacred ashes of our first father Xolotl; those of the bounteous Nopal; those of the generous Tlotzin; or even the still warm cinders of my glorious and immortal, though unhappy and luckless father Ixtlilxochitl; if I continued thus questioning about all our august ancestors, what would you reply? The same that I reply—I know not, I know not; for first and last are confounded in the common clay. What was their fate shall be ours, and of all who follow us.
Unconquered princes, warlike chieftains, let us seek, let us sigh for the heaven, for there all is eternal, and nothing is corruptible. The darkness of the sepulchre is but the strengthening couch for the glorious sun, and the obscurity of the night but serves to reveal the brilliancy of the stars. No one has power to alter these heavenly lights, for they serve to display the greatness of their Creator, and as our eyes see them now, so saw them our earliest ancestors, and so shall see them our latest posterity."
--Nezahualcoyotl

Physical Appearance:  I can't draw, so I really like providing a few reference pictures and trusting in your imagination to build a good image of the Hummingbird Thief.  He looks like some combination of these five pictures:

"The fact that we restored Teotihuacan or that Father Garibay labours to translate Aztec poems brings no benefit to the Indians, adds not a single tortilla to their daily diet. We adorn ourselves with their jewels, excavate the earth to turn up their ancient artifacts, but we stubbornly ignore their rags, protect the men who steal their lands, fail to punish their exploiters... We have one attitude toward the dead Indians, a very different one toward the living. The dead Indians excite our admiration, stimulate a stream of tourists; the living Indians make us blush with shame, give a hollow ring to our fine words of progress and democracy"
--Fernando Benítez, "Los Indios de México"

The Hummingbird Thief (PL 8)
STR 0  AGI 0  FGT 0  AWE 1
STA 0  DEX 1  INT 4  PRE 0 
Powers
Stolen Tecpatl:  Easily removable Str-based Damage 2 (piercing), accurate 6, concealable, dangerous 4, impressive, indestructible • 9 points
All-Seeing Eyes of Abbridon the Lantern of Heaven (spell):  Remote Sensing 2 (visual, auditory, mental) • 8 points
Illumination of Abbridon the Lantern of Heaven (spell):  Environment 2 (bright light), feature 1 (equal to daylight) • 5 points
Legate Lamal’s Mighty Hands (spell): Move Object 2, Precise, Subtle • 6 points
Light of Legate Lamal (spell):  Ranged Affliction 4 (resisted and overcome by Will DC 14; controlled), progressive, limited degree, limited to speaking the truth • 4 points
Shatachna's Seal of Silence (spell):  Perception ranged Affliction 3 (resisted and overcome by Will DC 13; controlled), progressive, limited degree, limited to communication, limited to specific information • 6 points
That Which is Owed to the Hummingbird Thief (spell):  Weaken Movement Traits 8 (broad, incurable, check required: Expertise: Magic 5, limited to only after spilling the person’s blood) • 4 points
Paynal's Song (spell effect):  Dynamic Array (8 points) • 24 points total

• Enhanced Speed 16, limited to power points drained with Weaken Movement • 8 points (1 point per 2 ranks)
• Enhanced Winged Flight 16, limited to power points drained with Weaken Movement • 2 points (1 point per 2 ranks)
• Enhanced Multiattack Strength-based Damage 4, limited to power points drained with Weaken Movement, precise, penetrating 4 • 2 points (1 + 1 point per additional rank + 1/rank of penetrating)
• Enhanced Dodge 14, limited to power points drained with Weaken Movement, precise • 2 points (1 + 1 point per 2 ranks)
• Enhanced Parry 8, limited to power points drained with Weaken Movement • 2 points (1 point per 2 ranks)
• Enhanced Quickness 14, limited to power points drained with Weaken Movement, precise • 2 points (1 + 1 point per 2 ranks)
• Enhanced Advantage (Improved Initiative) 16, limited to power points drained with Weaken Movement • 2 points (1 point per 2 ranks)
• Movement 2 (wall-crawling, water-walking), limited to while moving, limited to power points drained with Weaken Movement • 2 points.
• Concealment 4 (visual), limited to while moving, limited to power points drained with Weaken Movement • 2 points

Advantages
Beginner’s Luck, Benefit (wealth 2), Equipment 1 (camera, smartphone), Evasion, Fascinate (Expertise: Teaching), Languages 4 (Arabic, French, German, Hebrew, Latin, Nahuatl, Quiche Maya, Spanish), Instant Up, Ritualist, Seize Initiative, Uncanny Dodge
Skills
Expertise: Anthropology 8 (+12), Expertise: History 10 (+14), Expertise: Magic 6 (+10), Expertise: Teaching 10 (+14), Investigation 4 (+8), Technology 10 (+14), Vehicles 6 (+7)
Offense
Initiative +0 (up to +64 while Paynal's Song is active)
Tecpatl +12:  Close, Damage 2 (piercing; up to 6 with Multiattack while Paynal's Song is active), Crit 16-20
The Light of Legate Lamal +1:  ranged, Will DC 14, compelled to tell the truth
What is Owed 0:  Fortitude DC 18, lose power points from Movement traits
Unarmed 0:  Close, Damage 0 (up to 4 with Multiattack while Paynal's Song is active)
Defense
Dodge  0 (up to 14 while Paynal's Song is active)
Fortitude  0 
Parry  0 (up to 8 while Paynal's Song is active)
Toughness  0
Will  2
Ground speed rank 0 (2 mph; up to 16, 125,000 mph, while Paynal's Song is active)
Flight speed rank -- (up to 16, 125,000 mph, while Paynal's Song is active)
Complications
Intellectually Arrogant:  Clive has a tendency to trust what he reads in books or the conclusions he draws therefrom over the theories of others or, in fact, the lived experiences of the people he studies.  This has not endeared him to the Jews, Arabs, occultists, pious Christians, Nahua, or Maya that he has objectified ~ I mean, studied.  He doesn't have a reputation, per se, but his attitudes usually become apparent rather quickly, as he lectures and corrects people (wrongly) on the culture they were raised in.
Motivation ~ Knowledge:  Clive isn't in the supervillain business for money or revenge or power.  He just wants to know things because he likes knowing things.  Well, he likes thinking he knows things.  More than one of his supervillainous plots have been attempts to force one of his fallacious interpretations of native American and Mesoamerican culture to be true.

Power Point Totals:  Abilities 12 + Powers 66 + Advantages 14 + Skills 27 + Defenses 1 = 120

And now for something completely different: the Orcish language (Fantasy Friday #15)

Orcs in my fantasy world have their origins on the continent of Aoqina.  Some time back, a group of elfs came to worship beings they called the Sow Mothers.  A herd of goddesses that suckled their followers on the rich milk of fertility and wealth, the Sow Mothers called their followers to form their own communities in the face of rising intolerance against them by the larger elfin culture.  Soon, the villages and towns and groves of the elfs could no longer be called home by the followers of the Sow Mothers.  When home becomes wild, the wilderness becomes home.  Roving bands of Sow Mother worshipers wandered Aoqina, and with separation came individuation. 

These pig-elfs began to explore new ways of living, new forms of culture centered around their matrons.  They sought to know who they were and who they could become, reshaping their society around a religion, fueled by curiosity around how that religion and its consequences could engender new forms of art, new social rituals, new politics, new family dynamics.  The one thing they never sought was a settled home, a single place for them to reside.  They kept themselves wandering and homeless in order to preserve their distinction from other elfs, their alienation from that culture that spawned them.

A movement grew within the pig-elfs that proclaimed them to no longer be, in fact, elfs.  At first a small seed within the soil of a porcine counterculture, it grew over many years.  As they became a decisive force among the followers of the Sow Mothers, members of this movement delved into esoteric magicks.  Some even traveled to the spirit realms where the Sow Mothers and their children squealed, divining strange new prayers from the oinking cacophony.  Rituals were developed that would sever the pig-elfs forever from their ancestral race.  Casting these spells, reciting these prayers, changed the wandering bands of the pig-elfs, brought the essence of their goddesses into them.

Fey features grew hairy and plump.  Small noses sprouted into snouts.  Teeth became tusks, and delicate ears grew wide, floppy, an impossibly soft.  Orcs had birthed themselves, creating themselves in the image of their goddesses.  Individual sovereignty and self-determination has been central to who they have been ever since.

The magicks that created the orcs were later adopted by a group of gnolls obsessed with liberty.  When they adapted them towards the goal of excising all that was obedient from their essence, they ended up splitting the bestial parts of themselves from the rational, cleaving the souls in twain.  Thus, were humans and hyenas first born.

I’m going to use a relatively simple formula to create the Orcish language.  The basic lexicon will be stolen from Quenya in recognition of their elfin ancestry, but the grammar won’t be the inflected forms of a language invented by a British philologist.  Rather, the forms and the modulations of the words will derive from tlIngan Hol (that is: Klingon), that melange of weirdnesses that is Marc Okrand.

I want the language to sound like, well, the noises pigs make, so I will be replacing many of the phonemes from each language with the phonemes from the English words “oink”, “squeal”, “grunt”, and “snort”.  This will also allow the two languages ~ who have very little in common phonetically ~ merge more seamlessly.

From this simplistic beginning, I can later go in and make changes to evolve my Orcish into a language that can really stand on its own.  But, later ~ functionality before obsessive tinkering, right?  ;-)

I’ve been a major linguistics fan most of my life, so I will be using a lot of funny characters in these posts.  They are from the International Phonetics Alphabet, a tool developed by the international linguistics community to record the exact sounds used by people when they speak.  Please forgive me if it seems esoteric to you; a description of the various sounds of Orcish in layman’s terms will appear later in this post, as well as how to write them without all those funny letters.  The IPA will always be written between some sort of brackets, usually between two slashes (which is standard IPA practice).

When importing Quenya words, /ŋ/, /n/, /r/, /g/, /w/ /l/, /kʷ/, /i/, /oi/, /ai/, /au/, and /ui/ will all just stay the same.  I’ll change /t/→/tʰ/, /s/→/ʂ/, /m/→/ᵑk/, /v/→/ʂ/, /j/→/kʷ/, /d/→/l/, /k/→/g/, /h/→/r/, /rj/→/n/, /p/→/tʰ/, /f/→/q͡χ/, /b/→/x/, /a/→/oi/, /e/→/i/, /u/→/ʌ/, and /o/→/ɔ˞/.

When importing tlIngan Hol words (well, endings and prefixes), /tʰ/, /q͡χ/, /ʂ/, /x/, /n/, /r/, /l/, /ʔ/, /t͡ʃ/, /d͡ʒ/, /ɣ/, /m/, /ŋ/, and /ɪ/ will all just stay the same.  I’ll change /pʰ/→/tʰ/, /qʰ/→/kʷ/, /b/→/n/, /ɖ/→/ᵑk/, /t͡ɬ/→/l/, /v/→/r/, /w/→/ʂ/, /j/→/g/, /ɑ/→/i/, /ɛ/→/ʌ/, /o/→/ɔ˞/, and /u/→/oi/.  As a curious etymological note, that means that /ʔ/, /t͡ʃ/, /d͡ʒ/, /ɣ/, and /ɪ/ will only show up in syntactical and grammatical affixes, but not in the lexicon itself.

This leaves Orcish with 17 consonants (a moderately small inventory; that’s as many consonants as Japanese).  They are as follows, with the simple spelling first, followed by the phonetic spelling in between the slashes:
n /n/
r /r/
l /l/
g /g/
m /m/
ch /t͡ʃ/
j /d͡ʒ/
qu /kʷ/
w /w/
ng /ŋ/ ~ these 10 sounds in Orcish are all pronounced as an English speaker would expect the letters to sound
t /tʰ/ ~ this letter has the sound of the t in the English word “top”.  If you put your hand to your mouth and say “top” and “stop”, you’ll notice a little breath of air in the former that’s absent from the latter; that pop of air is what the superscript “h” represents.
‘ /ʔ/ ~ this is the sound that often feels like not a sound in the middle of the English word uh-oh.  It’s a little catch in the throat.
q /x/ ~ this sound’s not in English, but it is in languages like Spanish (the first sound in “junta”, for example).  It’s kinda like a hard breathing at the back of the throat.
nk /ᵑk/ ~ this sound does happen in English (in “ankle”, for example), but we don’t think about it much.  If you try to say “k”, but start out like you’re going to say “n”, you’ll just about get it.
s /ʂ/ ~ this sound is exactly like an “s”, only you curl your tongue backwards when you say it.
gh /ɣ/ ~ this is kind of like a very soft “g”.  It used to be in English, but isn’t anymore; it does sometimes gets used instead of “g” in Spanish, though (“amigo”, for example)
kh /q͡χ/ ~ a rather rare sound, you probably won’t have heard it except on Star Trek.  It sounds a bit like choking momentarily.

and 8 vowels, including diphthongs (a large inventory; that’s as many vowels as Arabic and Turkish).  Neither tone nor nasality is contrastive in Orcish, but their baseline realizations of these phonemes (that is, the way they say these vowel sounds) are different from what English-speakers would expect, often spoken at higher or lower tones and often nasalized.  Non-orcs speaking the language can be easily understood if they get these things wrong, but they will sound hella funny to the orcs to whom they’re talking:
i /Ĩ˦/ & ee /ĩ˥ː/ ~ as the vowel in English “feet”, spoken as if with a cold (routing some of the air out through the nose) and a tone higher than baseline.  The only differences between the two are that the latter is twice as long as the former and is another tone higher.
oy /õĨ/ ~ as an English speaker would expect “oy” to sound, if spoken with a cold
ai /ai/ ~ not like “paid” but rather like “aikido”
ow /au/ ~ about how an English speaker would say “ow”
ui /u˨i˥/ ~ essentially the same vowel sound as the English pig call “suey”, starting a tone below baseline and ending two tones above
uh /ʌ̃˨/ ~ as in English “uh” or “cup”, spoken as if with a cold and a tone below baseline
o /ɔ̃˞/ ~ despite being spelled “o”, it sounds like the English word “or” or as in “lord”, again spoken by sending some of the air through your nose
ih /ɪ̃˨/ ~ as the vowel in English “bit”, nasalized again and spoken a tone below baseline

That’s a consonant:vowel ratio of 2.125:1 (a little bit more than twice as many consonants as vowels), which is moderately low.  That’s a tiny bit smaller than Korean and Ainu (both 2.2:1, I think) and Cree (≈2.14:1, I think), so our Orcish is in quite good company!

Enough with all this nambly-pambly soft sciences crap, let's get down to the real thing! *eyeroll* (Traveller Tuesday #14)

The time has come to back up and work on Ishee's physical reality ~ once we do that, we can work out its technology level.

The Bishop Scheumack system is a binary star system (9 on 2d6), consisting of one uncommon K7 V orange dwarf star (8 and then 5 on two 2d6, then 1d10 for the decimal classification) and one much more common DM white dwarf star (18 on 2d6+8 and 15 on 2d6+5). The latter star orbits the former at orbit 10 (9 on 2d6 and then 4 on 1d6), which puts it quite some ways beyond the last planet in the system; rolling a 7 on 2d6-2 means thee are only 7 possible orbits around α Bishop Sheumack. Or wait, no, I'm wrong: orbits 0-5 around α Bishop Sheumack itself are available, leaving room for β Bishop Sheumack in orbit 10, which has one planet orbiting it in orbit 0. Orbit 0 around α Bishop Sheumack is in the habitable zone, but everything else is in the outer.

Are there gas giants in the Bishop Sheumack system? Probably, but let's roll the 2d6 to find out. 8 is more than 2, so there, in fact, gas giants. Well, gas giant: a 3 on 2d6 tells us there's only one. Hilariously, planetoid belts receive the inverse of that roll: 5 on 2d6 is less than 8 so there aren't any planetoid belts. Finally, a 2 on 1d6 (being less than 5) means that all of the orbits are filled, which is rad. However, a 6 is higher than a 5 so there are captured objects in the system, their extrasystemic origin resulting in odd orbital distances. We roll a 3 on 1d6, so there are 2 such captured objects. We've 7 orbits, but I'm instructed to roll 2d6 for the baseline orbit, which is an important distinction because I rolled a 12. Since 12 is the closest orbit possible for a planet orbiting both suns in the system, I think I'll use it as an excuse to add an object to the system. So, in addition to the 6 planets orbiting α Bishop Sheumack and one around β Bishop Sheumack, there's also a far planet at orbit 11.7 (percentage deviation rolled on (2d6-2)*10) orbiting both. Only the planet closest to α Bishop Sheumack is in the habitable zone ~ that's Ishee.

I roll a 3 on 1d8 to place the gas giant, which ends up in orbit α2. Everything else is a terrestrial planet. A 1 tells us that it's a Small Gas Giant; the exact size will come later. The rolls for the sizes of the terrestrial worlds in the system are 2d6-7 for orbit α0, 2d6-6 for orbit α1, 2d6-9 for orbit β0, and 2d6-2 for all other orbits. We roll a 2 for Ishee and 0, 6, 0, and 2 for the other planets orbiting α Bishop Sheumack, in order. As for β0, we roll a 1, and then we roll 4 for orbit 11.7. Each Size digit gives an average diameter, and various from that is determined by a (2d6-7)*160 roll for kilometers added or subtracted. I'll roll on that and add them to the list below. There's a separate chart to determine the diameter and Size digit of gas giants, by the way.

As for the names of these planets, let's do that now; it'll make things easier. As always, we grab the dWikipedia and roll 7 names: Corporate Stabilization in the New Age (such a propagandistic name! And lets abbreviate it to CorpStable), Nuovo Portoscuso, Leopard, Pegues, Natasha's World, Paparazkarasi, and Gandhi. You can see them attached to their orbits below.

What kinds of atmospheres do these planets have? Ishee rolls 2d6-5 and gets a wonderfully unexpected 6! That's an Earthlike atmosphere, which is hella cute. CorpStable's roll is 2d6-7; it ends up with no atmosphere whatsoever (0). Our biggun, Leopard, rolls a 4 on 2d6-1 for a thin, tainted atmosphere. Pegues gets a 0 on 2d6-7 which establishes it as an airless world, while Natasha's World gets another thin, tainted atmosphere with a 4 on 2d6-5. A 1 on 2d6-1 gives Paparazkasi a trace atmosphere, and Gandhi receives the same thing on 2d6-3. Side note: Atmosphere 6 + Population 7 = Ishee is classified as a Rich world, which also tells us that the region it's in is a county, not a viscounty.

Bishop Sheumack system:
Orbit H-α0: Ishee, Size 2 (3040 km diameter), Atmosphere 6
Orbit O-α1: Corporate Stabilization in the New Age, Size 0 (160 km diameter), Atmosphere 0
Orbit O-α2: Nuovo Portoscuso, Size 64 gas giant (101,936 km diameter)
Orbit O-α3: Leopard, Size 6 (9920 km diameter), Atmosphere 4
Orbit O-α4: Pegues, Size 0 (960 km diameter), Atmosphere 0
Orbit O-α5: Natasha's World, Size 2 (3040 km diameter), Atmosphere 4
Orbit O-β0: Paparazkarasi, Size 1 (1280 km diameter), Atmosphere 1
Orbit O-11.7: Gandhi, Size 4 (6560 km diameter), Atmosphere 1

Ishee's bUWP is now α-3D-0704-α0 (α Greve-Eau Pleine-α Bishop Scheumack-Ishee)/E26?774-?/X/Ri/Em

Devotion has its benefits (Design Domingo #14)

Characters who follow the practices and ethics of a religious way of life with a strict devotion get an advantage in game. Bonuses are awarded to characters who maintain a minimum value of 8 in all of the traits pertinent to their religion, as listed above. Such characters are usually treated as embodiments of the virtues of their faith. They must strive to exercise their virtues during their daily lives; they attend religious services as much as possible, and must attend them on the high holy days of their religion every year. Many also maintain a very involved daily practice of personal prayers and rituals.

Religious characters receive benefits as follows.
Orthodox Galatian Church (OOC)*: +12 hit points
Penguernite Interpretation of the OOC*: +6 hit points, +4 damage
Cults of the Firstborn**: +4 hit points healed whenever they heal (either naturally or by magic)
Phaetian Heresy***: +4 hit points, +6 damage
Galatic Imperial Cult: +4 hit points, +6 damage
Difficult Gods****: The angry gods’ gifts are highly individualized to the individual and to their plans for that individual; they can include blatant magical abilities and effects, like fire-breathing or mind control.
The Archmage Remembrance*****: +2d6 damage
Pyronism*****: +6 hit points, +2 hit points healed whenever they heal (either naturally or by magic)
Fairy Faith: +10 ft. base speed, +2 hit points healed whenever they heal (either naturally or by magic)
Religion of the Two Kingdoms******: +6 damage, +2 hit points healed whenever they heal (naturally or by magic)
Elfin Pantheon: +10% experience whenever experience is granted
Hrumdail Orcs: +2d6 damage
Locorruil Orcs: +25% when receiving money (whether being paid, selling something, performing their occupation, just plain charity, or any other reason)

* The OOC and its Penguernite Interpretation both focus their worship on the various deities who rule Mount Orippus, who made the same journey the humans did in coming to Galatia, if by different roots. Mount Orippus, the ancient epic known as the Exiad relates, is where the first of them (they’ve added to their number since) settled and offered shelter to the migrating humans. The Orippan deities are King Zerus (god of the noble sky where sun and storms live in balance), Garfligga (god of courtly love, humor, and gnomes; Keilone and Kraljevic Blathus’s husband), Monarch Shertes (deity of marriage and its resultant intrigues in the night), Kraljevic Blathus (elfin god of beauty, light, poetry, and failed immortality; Keilone and Garfligga’s husband), Hrumdas (orcish god of righteous rebellion), Keilone (chivalrous ruler of those who die from some weakness of the body; Kraljevic Blathus and Garfligga’s partner), Thorthmes (god of cosmopolitan and well-traveled knowledge), Feronseta (deity of nature’s justice), Mosaifis (dwarfin deity of smiths and duels), Hathnar (minotaur goddess of all the pleasures and wisdoms of civiization), Eospanre (halfling deity of pastoral peace, quiet passion, and getting comfortably lost), and Mannike (human deity of victory). In case it isn’t clear, a ful half of the Orippan deities ~ Monarch Shertes, Keilone, Feronseta, Mosaifis, Eospanre, and Mannike ~ all have some form of nonbinary gender.

** The Firstborn embody the wild powers of nature: sky and wind, sun and fire, sea and water, mountain and earth. Shaped by the consciousness of the Old Peoples from the pooling and rushing currents of magic in a young Galatia, they are related to the spirits of places and plants and animals and such, but share also in the inhumanly grand concepts that mark the gods. They are Kellide of the Deep, Mithar the Azure Goddess, Zoleh the Flaming Sun, and the youngest of them, Zerus Sky-Ruler. Yes, the youngest of the Firstborn also rules over the Orippan pantheon.

*** The Phaetian Heresy split from the OOC more than five centuries ago, sparking a generation-long war with Phaetia which only ended when Dyonna Vezia, the Warrior Queen of Roses awed the Pharaoh of Aeytus and absorbed his kingdom into the Empire, renaming the new province after her new husband. Seyort developed chivalry under the Warrior Queen of Roses; recognizing the sequence of events that led to such a momentous event, Dyonna Vezia ended any official repression of the Heresy. Naturally, not everyone appreciated that decision, but the Heresy remains popular in Aeytus and Penguern, with a significant presence in Sardis as well. The Heresy focuses its worship on King Zerus and Queen Shertes, Thorthmes, Hathnar, and the non-Orippan deities Disonis (the boundary-breaking, paradoxical deity of rulership, magic, wine, theater, and madness; held supreme even over Zerus, who is said to have dominion over rulers themselves but not that which they hold, by the Heresy), Nafdes (the grieving ruler of all the dead), Shecire (the crossroads and threshold deity who will take you where you need to go, especially if you’re dead), Phaitos (the travelling god who smiths secrets), Nesthias (goddess of hearth and home), Phareya (the god who fell in love and lust with the horizon), Barestes (the feline deity of killing), Abesis (child-deity of wild luck), Scanerdus (Keilone’s less-chivalrous replacement in the afterlife), Anphrubitis (seductive death who judges you once you die), Apelpo (the evil dragon who breathes prophetic fire), Dimheteper (the deity who uses crops to heal), and Shorecles (crocodile god of advenure in the wetlands). In addition to Shertes, Disonis, Nafdes, Shecire, Barestes, Abesis, Anphrubitis, and Dimheteper are all nonbinary.

**** These gods aren’t worshiped as part of a unified religion with a general understanding of the divine. Rather, they are lumped together systematically because the various individuals and cults that worship the tend to rally around similar themes. If you want your character to worship one of these gods in this way but to have a slightly different set of special virtues because there is no doctrine or overall philosophy bringing the worshipers of these deities together, negotiate that with your GM; sounds like fun! The Difficult Gods are Disonis, Shecire, Barestes, Scanerdus, Apelpo, Freithnus (the fire that allows things to grow from the ashes, the panic and slaughter that allow civilization and its chivalry to grow), Locorrus (orc god of competitive merchants, commercial trickery, and strongarm tactics), Sorbutairus (fiery giant god of the freedom found in conflict, whether war or nature red in tooth and claw), Thiunatrus (old-fashioned draconic god who still preaches that might makes right), Herxmotor (sneakier, slipperier, less fiery, and smaller version of Sorbutairus; a wyrmtongue rather than a soldier), and Loldura (drow goddess of failure and resentment)

***** The only Galatian religion older than these two is the Cult of the Firstborn. They date back to 1200 years before humans came to Galatia the second time, and the practices, philosophies, ethics, and beliefs of the arrogant Archmages and the shadow-wielding Pyrons. The latter liberated the various races the former had either enslaved or created and then eslaved in a great war that led to a huge battle. Not much is known about them, and neither has been seen since to teach the realm what they were like.

****** The continent to the south, dominated by a realm of desert sands and ocean depths called the Two Kingdoms, plays host to a religion taking its inspiration from both Islam and William Blake, which preaches submission to the creative impulse within.

Love letter from my Dungeon World DM #1

Dear Zeguvra,

You went out on a routine mapping expedition for the Cartographers Guild because of the promise of a newly Shifted sewage system that might lead you to answers about why Odenki saved you. What you found was a massive, damp sepulcher occupied by the maddest, and only sphinx you’ve ever seen.

 It was absolute chaos once the fight began. Most of the other mercenaries sent on the expedition were scattered in a flurry of sharp claws and nonsensical syntax. In the midst of trying to keep people alive, and asking a few questions about the nature of the world, you were sent careening into a pool of brackish water by an errant swing of one of the sphinxes massive paws.

Your armor protected you from the force of the blow, and your immunity to drowning meant you didn’t have to find out whether or not the water was what induced the sphinx to insanity, but you did find what you were originally after. As you sunk to the bottom of the pool you saw a vision. It was as if you were peering through a window into the Deep Sweet Waters, and through that window you could see a location submerged therein. You knew once you saw it that if you could get to that place then Odenki would be waiting for you.

What place did you see, and who (if anyone) did you share this vision with? {I told Ricarrio, the mama's-boy mercenary who brought his old mother Angelina along to cook for us, and my confessor in town, a high-ranking priestess of Odenki by the name of Cora.  Angelina is a follower of Odenki, though the religion has become all superstitions and old wives' tales and things.  Zegruva's relationship with Cora is good, intimate, but complicated both by Cora's idol-worship and attempts to ensnare Zegruva in Odenki's religious hierarchy.}

Have fun with those answers. I know I will.

Sincerely,

Your GM

Forsetilafom's character sheet (Fantasy Friday #14)

Forsetilafom
Genderqueer AL aasimar (Nosilebo) ranger (dandy) 3
Medium-size outsider (native)/humanoid (human)
Aura: ; Senses: Darkvision 60 ft.

Strength 8
Dexterity 14
Constitution 15
Intelligence 13
Wisdom 17
Charisma 16

Hit Points: 26
Init: +2 or +4*
Saves: Fort +5 or +7 or +9 (+3 class + 2 Con)**, Ref +5 or +7 (+3 class + 2 Dex)***, Will +4 or +5 or +6 or +7 (+1 class + 3 Wis)****
Base Attack Bonus: +3
Base Speed: 30 feet
Special Qualities: Combat style (fencing/Cayden Cailean), favored nation (Natsiyaasim)*****, favored terrain (urban)*, rumor empathy******
Special Defenses: Deathless spirit (negative energy resistance 5)***
Spell-Like Abilities: 1/day ~ detect desires (CL 3rd, DC 15)
Skills*******: Bluff +9 or +11 (3 ranks + 3 Cha + 3 class)*****, Craft (clothier) +5 (1 rank + 1 Int + 3 class), Diplomacy +11 or +13 (3 ranks + 3 Cha + 2 race + 3 class)*****, Disguise +4 (0 ranks + 3 Cha + 1 Wary), Heal +7 (1 rank + 3 Wis + 3 class), Intimidate +8 (2 ranks + 3 Cha + 3 class), Knowledge (geography) impossible or +3 or +5 (untrained + 1 Int)********, Knowledge (local ~ Nosleborre) +9 or +11 (3 ranks + 1 Int + 3 class + 2 Street Smarts)*****, Knowledge (nobility) +7 or +9 (3 ranks + 1 Int + 3 class)*****, Knowledge (others) impossible or +3 (untrained + 1 Int)*****, Perception +10 or +12 or +14 (3 ranks + 3 Wis + 3 class + 1 ioun)*********, Perform (erotic arts) +5 (0 ranks + 3 Cha + 2 race), Sense Motive +12 or +14 (3 ranks + 3 Wis + 3 class + 2 Street Smarts + 1 ioun)*****, Spellcraft +5 (1 rank + 1 Int + 3 class), Stealth +6 or +8 (1 rank + 2 Dex + 3 class)*, Survival +3 or +4 or +5 or +6 or +7 or +8 (0 ranks + 3 Wis + 0 or 1 track)**********
Feats: Combat Reflexes (B), Endurance (B), Light Armor Proficiency (B), Martial Weapon Proficiency (all) (B), Medium Armor Proficiency (B), Sense Relationships***********, Shield Proficiency (B), Simple Weapon Proficiency (B), Street Smarts
Traits: Adrift, Debauchery Defier************, Wary
Drawbacks: Dependent (shaken after failing Diplomacy check)
Languages:
Equipment: Masterwork rapier, reinforced tunic, cracked blue rhomboid ioun stone, cracked magenta prism ioun stone mounted in a wayfinder*******, noble’s vigilant pillbox (white pearl only)*************

* Favored Terrain (Ex): At 3rd level, a dandy ranger gains a +2 bonus on initiative checks and Knowledge (geography), Perception, Stealth, and Survival skill checks when he is in a city. A dandy ranger traveling through a city normally leaves no trail and cannot be tracked (though he may leave a trail if he so chooses). At 8th level and every five levels thereafter, the skill bonus and initiative bonus in the city increases by +2.
** Deathless Spirit: Asimar possess celestial spirits capable of resisting the powers of death. They gain resistance 5 against negative energy damage. They do not lose hit points when they gain a negative level, and they gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against death effects, energy drain, negative energy, and spells or spell-like abilities of the necromancy school. In addition, the magenta ioun prism stone adds +1 to a single save not affected by the ability score affecting the skill it boosts, chosen at sunset.
*** In addition to benefiting from deathless spirit and the magenta prism ioun stone, Fortitude benefits from Endurance. You gain a +4 bonus on the following checks and saves: Swim checks made to resist nonlethal damage from exhaustion; Constitution checks made to continue running; Constitution checks made to avoid nonlethal damage from a forced march; Constitution checks made to hold your breath; Constitution checks made to avoid nonlethal damage from starvation or thirst; Fortitude saves made to avoid nonlethal damage from hot or cold environments; and Fortitude saves made to resist damage from suffocation. You may sleep in light or medium armor without becoming fatigued.
**** In addition to benefiting from deathless spirit and the magenta ioun prism stone, Will benefits from Adrift. The four bonus represent (a) normal, (b) versus compulsion and charm effects, (c) versus the various types of effects listed in deathless spirit, (d) versus effects listed in deathless spirits that also happen to be charm or compulsion effects, if that ever happens.
***** Favored Nation (Ex): Each time he would select a favored enemy, a dandy instead selects a country with whose courtly graces he is wholly versed and studied. He gains a +2 bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks against courtiers, officials, nobles, and gentry from that nation. Likewise, he gains a +2 bonus on weapon attack and damage rolls against them. A dandy can attempt the appropriate Knowledge checks untrained to identify such people from the selected country. A dandy gains additional favored nations, and can increase the bonuses of one of his current favored nations, in the same way he would with a normal ranger’s favored enemy.
****** Rumor Empathy (Ex): A dandy can alter the flow and spread of rumors in his favor. This functions similarly to wild empathy, except that it takes 1 day (8 hours of work), instead of 1 minute, and it affects the general tenor of a rumor instead of a wild animal. A successful rumor empathy check (using Diplomacy) allows the dandy to increase or decrease the rumor’s tone by one step. For example, he could make an indifferent rumor friendly and thus positive toward its target, or an unfriendly rumor hostile and thus even more negative toward its target than it was originally. The difficulty of influencing a rumor depends on the size of the community in which it is spreading. The DC of the check is 15 in a village or smaller settlement. This DC increases by 5 and the number of days required to attempt the check increases by 2 for every settlement size category larger than a village—to a maximum of DC 40 and 11 days to affect a rumor spreading through an entire metropolis. If the rumor is only spreading through a smaller segment of the population, such as the elven district in a larger metropolis, use the population of that smaller segment to determine the DC and number of days of work required to use rumor empathy. The DC also increases by 10 if the rumor is about the dandy himself, since the dandy is obviously a biased source with respects to rumors about his own person.
******* A magenta ioun stone gives a +2 competence bonus to one skill and a +1 competence bonus to one save affected by a different ability score, both chosen at sunset. That second effect suppresses the usual effects of the wayfinder.
******** Knowledge (geography) benefits from both favored nation and favored terrain. The three bonuses, in order, are (a) normal, (b) when involving someone from Natsiyaasim, (c) when involving a city in Natsiyaasim.
********* Perception benefits from both favored nation and favored terrain. The three bonuses, in order, are (a) normal, (b) when involving someone from Natsiyaasim or in a city, (c) when involving a person from Natsiyaasim in a city.
********** Survival benefits from both favored nation, track, and favored terrain, all class features of the dandy ranger. The six bonuses, in order, are (a) normal, (b) to follow tracks, (c) when rolled against someone from Natsiyaasim or when rolled in a city, (d) to follow the tracks of someone from Natsiyaasim, (e) when rolled against someone from Natsiyaasim in a city, (f) to follow the tracks of someone from Natsiyaasim in a city
*********** Sense Relationships: You can quickly sense relationships between others and use that knowledge to manipulate them. Prerequisite: Street Smarts. Benefit: After 1 minute or more of interaction or observation, you can attempt a DC 20 Sense Motive check to get a hunch in order to intuit the relationship between any two creatures interacting with one another. If you don’t understand the language they are speaking, you take a –5 penalty on the check, and if the creatures are a different type than you, you take an additional –5 penalty on the check. If you succeed at this check by 5 or more, for the next hour, you gain a +2 bonus on Bluff checks to lie about one of the creatures to the other and on Diplomacy checks to request that one act against the other. If you fail the check, you cannot attempt this ability on the same creatures again until you gain an additional rank in Sense Motive.
************ Debauchery Defier (Social): You are particularly adept at resisting addiction. You must fail two saving throws in a row to become addicted to a drug.
************* Noble’s Vigilant Pillbox: Aura: faint divination; CL: 5th; Weight: —; Slot: none; Price: 3,600 gp. This heart-shaped charm is set with three pearls: one white, one silver, and one black. Inside, a tiny compartment usually contains smelling salts or alchemist’s kindness. Each pearl has a primary, passive ability and a secondary, active ability that activates if it is removed from the setting and swallowed (a standard action, as if drinking a potion). Swallowing a pearl destroys it. A command word activates the primary abilities of all three pearls for 1 round. When activated, the white pearl detects poison in a 10-foot radius around the wearer, dulling to a dark gray if poison is within range. If swallowed, it grants the benefit of a delay poison spell. The silver pearl detects diseases in a 10-foot radius, turning bright blue on discovery. If swallowed, it grants the benefit of a remove disease spell. The black pearl turns white if any invisible creature is within 10 feet of the wearer. If swallowed, it grants the benefits of see invisibility for 1 minute. A pillbox found with missing pearls has its price reduced appropriately; a white pearl is worth 750 gp, a silver pearl is worth 1,150 gp, and a black pearl is worth 1,700 gp.

An odd sort of superhero (Mutants & Masterminds 3e)

Δικαδώρα (Dikadora; "Gift of Justice") Kelly

"Goddess [Nemesis], for whom the women spit on their bosoms."
--Callimachus, Fragment 687 (trans. Trypanis) [N.B. It was a custom to exorcize the goddess to avert jealousy.] 
 
In the shadows of the world stalk many monsters, including a wide range of beasts that can choose their form, either animal or human or some combination thereof.  Amongst these are the werecats, sensual and mysterious and oh-so-haughty.

There is a breed of werecat, often called the Ceilican, who were once enslaved by the great lords of Faerie.  Dikedora's grandmother, however, seems not to have cared overmuch about the ancient grudge born therefrom.  She quested through all the weird realms to find herself a sidhe lover.  Cluracan Kelly was the result of their union, mixing fey blood with felianthrope blood.  The combination, like some strange gravity, pulled his life uncomfortably close unhappily often to the world of masks and capes.  He often used the name Puss in Boots on these adventures and capers.

"Hymn to Nemesis. Thee, Nemesis, I call, almighty queen, by whom the deeds of mortal life are seen: eternal, much revered, of boundless sight, alone rejoicing in the just and right : changing the counsels of the human breast for ever various, rolling without rest. To every mortal is thy influence known, and men beneath thy righteous bondage groan; for every thought within the mind concealed is to thy sight perspicuously revealed. The soul unwilling reason to obey, by lawless passion ruled, thine eyes survey. All to see, hear, and rule, O power divine, whose nature equity contains, is thine. Come, blessed, holy Goddess, hear my prayer, and make thy mystics' life thy constant care: give aid benignant in the needful hour, and strength abundant to the reasoning power; and far avert the dire, unfriendly race of counsels impious, arrogant, and base."
--Orphic Hymn 61 to Nemesis (trans. Taylor)

It was during one of those times, when the struggles of superpowered vigilantes consumed the life of a simple-if-feytouched werecat, that Cluracan met the ancient Titan Νεμεσις (Nemesis).  She was exploring the possibilities of a return to an overt practice of her mission, pursuing villains who gained undeserved reward.  Cluracan was a born swashbuckler, filled with the dazzle of the fey and the dexterity of the cat.  His flashing smile and preening ways attracted the Inescapable Lady.

Some time later, Ολυμπος (Olympus) found that its population had grown by one.  Δικαδώρα Kelly split her childhood between that sacred mountain's feasting heights and the obscure corners of the world where her father's people made their dens.  She only ever visited her grandfather's people a handful of times during her youth.  It was the last such when she learned of the strange effects of her blended heritage.  Her mother's work was within her, twisted towards the fairy's ways.  No direct strike for Dikadora against those undeserving of their luck; instead, she would bring them down by appearing to help them in their end-runs around the Μοιραι's (Fates') decisions.

"Unnoticed she walks at your feet, snaps your haughty neck, and always holds sway over your sustenance with her forearm."
--Suidas

Finally, a young Dikadora was present during one of the times Puss in Boots was needed.  Though her father tried to keep her safe and to the side, not wanting his teenaged child to become a target, Dikadora saw a moment where a seeming betrayal of her father and his allies could allow her powers to turn the tide of the battle.  The experience was invigorating in a way that she suspected only her mother would understand.

The ongoing and very real arguments Dikadora and Cluracan had about her desire to join the ranks of the heroes only helped to establish the veracity of her seeming turn to evil.  She proceeded to serve a series of villains as their minion, taking the name Catspaw and trusting her powers to bring the justice her mother raised her to seek.

"Would that I were not among the men of the fifth age, but either had died before or been born afterwards. For now truly is a race of iron, and men never rest from labour (kamatos) and sorrow (oizys) by day, and from perishing by night; and the gods shall lay sore trouble upon them. But, notwithstanding, even these shall have some good mingled with their evils. And Zeus will destroy this race of mortal men also when they come to have grey hair on the temples at their birth. The father will not agree with his children, nor the children with their father, nor guest with his host, nor comrade with comrade; nor will brother be dear to brother as aforetime. Men will dishonour their parents as they grow quickly old, and will carp at them, chiding them with bitter words, hard-hearted they, not knowing the fear of the gods. They will not repay their aged parents the cost their nurture, for might shall be their right: and one man will sack another's city. There will be no favour (kharis) for the man who keeps his oath or for the just (dikaios) or for the good (agathos); but rather men will praise the evil-doer (kakos) and his violent dealing (hybris). Strength will be right (dike) and reverence (aidos) will cease to be; and the wicked will hurt the worthy man, speaking false words against him, and will swear an oath upon them. Envy (zelos), foul-mouthed, delighting in evil, with scowling face, will go along with wretched men one and all.
And then Aidos (Aedos, Shame) and Nemesis (Indignation), with their sweet forms wrapped in white robes, will go from the wide-pathed earth and forsake mankind to join the company of the deathless gods: and bitter sorrows (lugra algea) will be left for mortal men, and there will be no help against evil."
--Hesiod, Works and Days (trans. Evelyn-White)

Timeline:
1961 ~ Cluracan Kelly first takes on the mantle and identity of Puss in Boots.
1970 ~ Cluracan Kelly meets and has a fling with Nemesis, which results in the birth of Dikadora Kelly.
1986 ~ Dikadora Kelly first begins operating as the undercover superhero known as Catspaw. 

"Neither this nor any other ancient statue of Nemesis has wings, for not even the holiest wooden images of the Smyraneans have them, but later artists, convinced that the goddess manifests herself most as a consequence of love, give wings to Nemesis as they do to Eros (Love). "
--Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 33. 4 (trans. Jones)  

Home Base:  Las Vegas.
Gender:  Soft butch cisfemale
Sexuality:  Pansexual dominant
Romantic Identity:  Polyfidelitous

"What god joined Fortuna (Fortune) [Tykhe (Tyche)] and Invidia (Envy) [Nemesis] in truceless kinship? Who bade the cruel goddesses engage in unending war? Will the one set her mark upon no house, but the other must straightway fix it with her grim glance, and with savage hand make havoc of its gladness? Happy and prosperous was this abode, no shock assailed it, no thought of sorrow; what cause was there to have fear of Fortuna, treacherous and fickle though she be, while Caesar was favourable? Yet the jealous Fata (Fate) [Moira] found a way, and barbarous violence entered that blameless home."
--Statius, Silvae 5. 1.

Recurrent Foes:

• Greyhound:  For most of his life, Gamal Chases-Socks thought he was a typical greyhound, doped up and abused by an underground track in Las Vegas.  One race, his handlers pumped him too full of too many strenge chemicals.  As his heart began to give out, his werewolf heritage revealed itself.  No human left the raceyard that day.  Now he follows his rage, always seeking the dominance he wishes would balm the inferiority he feels chasing him constantly.
• Notable Powers:  (PL 11) Lycanthrope from Supernatural Handbook.  Run on Water, Run Up Walls, Running Jump, Running Speed, Fast Healing, Raging Strength, Terrifying Bark (Roar), Protective Hide, Animal Senses (acute olfactory, ultra-hearing) from Power Profiles.  Big-Ass Claws (Strength-based Damage), All-Out Attack, Close Attack, Diehard, Extraordinary Effort, Fearless, Improved Smash, Leadership, Power Attack, Takedown, Teamwork, Tracking, Ultimate Effort, Weapon Break, Movement (sure-footed), Senses (analytical hearing, analytical smell, direction sense, infravision, low-light vision, tracking 2)
• The Patriarch: A committed misogynist, Bobby Lirdenham has delved deep into both fringe science and the occult in his quest to eliminate feminism and build the world of the free sexual use of women.  Catspaw's first time fighting him led to a bit of a conundrum afterwards, as a small number of his liberated victims asked her to give them access to his pills and tech, claiming that they found liberation in its effects and oppression only in doing so under the Patriarch's thumb.
  
  • Notable Powers:  (PL 11) Pink pills (array:  Enhanced Trait 2: Attractive with Affects Others and Reduced Trait 3: Awareness or Enhanced Trait 3: Presence with Affects Others, Quirk: Increases Libido, and Reduced Trait 3: Intellect), bimbo-maker raygun (Weaken: Intellect with Quirk: Increases Libido), pheromone spray (Emotion Control from Power Profiles with Area and Limited to Horniness). Artificer, Inventor, Ritualist, Very Attractive, Fascinate, Daze.  Bitter Lash of Bal'Hemoth and the Enchantment of Ios and Mists of the Modrossus and Shatachna's Seal of Silence and Somnambulent Silence of Sirrion from Power Profiles 
• New Covenant Revelator:  Gabriella St. Ives was a preacher's daughter, but she was always too consumed with studies of science and engineering to rebel.  She believed that God designed the world as an act of beauty, and that witnessing that beauty by understanding how it works brings one closer to God.  Her father's church dwindled and she barely noticed, until finally he had to close up shop.  He didn't have to turn to the bottle to find the comfort he might once have hoped to find in God, but he did.  Finally noticing something outside her workshop, Gabriella spent a decade designing and building the suit she now wears as a way to bring followers to her father's new church.  She is a devout Christian, but anything can be justified to keep her father sober.
• Notable Powers:  (PL 10) Battlesuit.  Inspire, Contacts, Connected, Leadership, Luck. Startle, Trance, Defensive Attack, Evasion, Improved Aim, Improved Defense, Improved Disarm, Move-By Attack, Power Attack, Precise Attack, Takedown, Uncanny Dodge, Weapon Bind, Fearless, Interpose, Second Chance, Inventor, Create (Limited to Food), Healing.  Feature (flashlight, personal spotlight, light show, data-storage drive, remote), Blinding Aura, Dazzling Burst, Laser Weapon, Light Absorption, Photonic Shield, Lightflight, Healing Light, Illuminate, Solar Sustenance, Vision Enhancement, Strength Enhancement, Life Support System, Mind Shield, Sensory Shield, Communication System from Power Profiles.
• Paraclete:  Nemesis isn't the only Titan to have given birth to a mixed-race child in the modern world.  Her "better half" Τυχη (Tyche) gave birth to the fruit of a one-night stand with a נפיל (nefil; a half-angel) around the same time Dikadora was born.  They were raised together.  Now, Eugene Pope goes around rewarding those he thinks are deserving with good fortune, often without regard for the complexity of the situation or the effects of such luck.  Too frequent or too excessive happiness is a dangerous thing.
• Notable Powers:  (PL 10) Every Fortune Advantage and maxed out Luck. Luck Control and basically every Luck power from Power Profiles.  Olympian and angel archetypes from Book of Magic.
  
• Trademark:  There was never any question for Pierce Draper what he would do with the powers his mutated genome gave him in and over genes: he'd make lots of money.  The advertising and marketing industry proved unduly excited about the level of brand penetration he offered.  Making money hand over fist as the freelance contractor Trademark, he has been engaged in the creation and manipulation of cool ever since.
  
• Notable Powers:  (PL 9) Benefit (wealth), Connected, Inspire, Trance.  Features (Fast Sleeper, Light Sleeper, Lucid Dreamer), Sleepless, Dream Mastery, and Psychic Vampirism (Asleep as third degree) from Power Profiles.
• Colonel Cadmus:  "I will sow dragon's teeth in the desert, and raise soldiers like the world has never seen."  Colonel Dana Cadmus first came to Las Vegas in charge of an effort to use the tech and alien DNA in Area 51 to build super-soldiers.  Given a broad and independent mandate to act, she has continued to recruit test subjects for a variety of "new soldier" initiatives.
• Notable Powers:  (PL 8) Super-normal.  A large collection of combat-related advantages, Connected, Contacts, Equipment, Fearless, Inspire, Leadership, Minion, Sidekick, Teamwork, Extraordinary Effort, Ultimate Effort, Benefit (Government Backing), Well-Informed, Great Endurance. Fearsome Presence, Striking Power, Tough, Unfazeable, At A Glance, Brilliant Deduction, Light Sleeper, and Situational Awareness from Power Profiles.
  
• Emberwight:  Donald Ebberman came to Vegas desperate in 1980.  His daughter's condition was getting worse, the treatment more expensive, and he'd just lost his job.  He needed his meager savings to be significantly more than meager, and gambling was the only option he could think of.  Sadly, the casino caught fire that night.  Less sadly, the life insurance policy just barely covered his daughter's treatment.  Now he haunts the city, possessing people (like Catspaw) and watching out for his husband and daughter.
• Notable Powers:  (PL 8) Skin-rider from Supernatural Handbook.  Death Stare, Death Touch, Death's Gate, Death Sight, Death Vision, Speak With the Dead, Feature (deathly aura, tiny flame, cooking from the inside, flaming Presence bonus), Fireball (Soulfire), Fiery Breath (Soulfire), Fire Blast (Soulfire), Flame Aura (Soulfire), Immolate (Soulfire), Heatstroke, Melt, Smoke Cloud (Linked to Suffocation with Area), Fire Shield, Heat Absorption, Immunity to Heat, Infravision, Pyrokinesis, Warm from Powers Profile.
  
• Characters from Greek myth:  Because of her mother, Catspaw often finds herself running into Αρτεμις (Artemis), Αθηνη (Athena), Ναρκισσος (Narcissus), Νικαιη (Nicaea), her grandmother Νυξ (Nyx, "Night"), her grandfather Ερεβος (Erebus, "Darkness"), her half-sister Helen of Troy, her half-brothers the Τελχινες (Telkhines), Αιδως (Aedos, "Shame"), the Ερινυες (Erinyes, "Furies"), Θεμις (Themis, "Divine Law"), her uncle Μορος (Moros; "Doom"), her aunts the Κηρες (Keres; "Violent Death"), her uncle Θανατος (Thanatos; "Death"), her uncle Ὑπνος (Hypnos; "Sleep"), her uncles the Ονειροι (Oneiroi; "Dreams"), her uncle Μωμος (Momos; "Blame"), her aunt Οιζυς (Oizys; "Misery"), her aunts the Ἑσπεριδες (Hesperides; "Of the Evening"), her aunts the Μοιραι (Moirai; "Fates"), her aunt Απατη (Apate; "Deceit"), her aunt Φιλοτης (Philotes; "Friendship"), her aunt Γηρας (Geras; "Old Age"), her aunt Ερις (Eris; "Strife"), her aunt Σοφροσυνη (Sophrosyne; "Moderation"), her uncle Επιφρων (Epiphron; "Prudence"), Porphyrion, Epaphus, her aunt Ὑβρις (Hubris; "Wantonness"), her aunt Ευφροσυνη (Euphrosyne; "Good Cheer"), her aunt Ελεος (Eleos; "Compassion"), her aunt Στυξ (Styx; "Hatred"), her uncle Αιθηρ (Aether; "Upper Air"), her aunt Ἡμερα (Hemera; "Day"), her uncle Δολος (Dolos; "Guile"), her uncle Δειμος (Deimos; "Fear"), her uncle Πονος (Ponos; "Toil"), and her aunt Pertinacia ("Obstinacy")
• Several mind-controllers:  As you can imagine, mind-controlling villains are prime targets for Catspaw's particular brand of vengeance, and so she has built up a rogue's gallery full of novel ways to control minds.

"Artemis betook herself to Nemesis, and found her on the heights of Tauros (Taurus) in the clouds, where beside neighbouring Kydnos (Cydnus) she had ended the proudnecked boasting of Typhon's (Typhoeus') threats. A wheel turned itself round before the queen's feet, signifying that she rolls all the proud from on high to the ground with the avenging wheel of justice, she the allvanquishing deity who turns the path of life. Round her throne flew a bird of vengeance, a Gryps (Griffin) flying with wings, or balancing himself on four feet, to go unbidden before the flying goddess and show that she herself traverses the four separate quarters of the world: highcrested men she bridles with her bit which none can shake off, such is the meaning of the image, and she rolls a haughty fellow about as it were with the whip of misery, like a self-rolling wheel."
--Nonnus, Dionysiaca 48.

Physical Appearance:  I can't draw, so I really like providing a few reference pictures and trusting in your imagination to build a good image of Catspaw.  She looks like some combination of these five pictures:

"Straightway she [Pallas Athene] sought the filthy slimy shack where Invidia (Envy) [the Roman name for Nemesis] dwelt deep in a dreary dale, a gruesome sunless hovel, filled with frost, heart-numbing frost, its stagnant air unstirred by any breeze, for ever lacking warmth of cheerful fire, for ever wrapped in gloom. Reaching the place the virgin queen of war paused by the threshold, since she might not pass beneath that roof, and struck upon the door with her spear's point. The door flew wide and there she saw foul Invidia (Envy) eating viper's flesh, fit food for spite, and turned her eyes away. Slowly the creature rose, leaving the snakes half-eaten, and approached with dragging steps, and when she saw the goddess' face so fair and gleaming mail, she scowled and groaned in grief. Her cheeks are sallow, her whole body shrunk, her eyes askew and squinting; black decay befouls her teeth, her bosom's green with bile, and venom coats her tongue. She never smiles save when she relishes the sight of woe; sleep never soothes her, night by night awake with worry, as she sees against her will successes won and sickens at the sight. She wounds, is wounded, she herself her own torture. . . .  With sidelong glance the creature saw her fly and muttered briefly, grieving to foresee Minerva's triumph; then she took her staff, entwined with thorns, and, wrapped in a black cloud, went forth and in her progress trampled down the flowery meads, withered the grass, and slashed the tree-tops, and with filthy breath defiled peoples and towns and homes, until at last, brilliant and blessed with arts and wealth and peace, Athens in happy festival appears--and tears she sheds to see no cause for tears."
--Ovid, Metamorphoses 2. (trans. Melville)

Catspaw (PL 10)
STR 0*  AGI 2  FGT 2  AWE -1
STA 0  DEX 3  INT 1  PRE 2 
*  -2 when shrunk
Powers
Demi-Titan:  Feature 1 (temporal inertia), Immunity 1 (aging), Morph 4 (any form, increased action 1: move, quirk: always has cat-eyes), Movement 3 (dimensional travel 3) • 23 points 
Fairy Sight:  Illusion 5 (visual, Insight DC 15, 30 cu. ft.), Senses 11 (dimensional, low-light vision, mental divine awareness, tracking scent 2, vision counters all concealment, vision counters illusion) • 32 points
Nemesis-born:  Luck Control 5 (insidious, limited to those using me, subtle 2, uncontrolled), Weaken Abilities 1 (Will DC 11; broad, extended range 7, increased range, indirect 4, insidious, limited to those who use me, progressive, simultaneous, subtle 2, uncontrolled)* • 26 points
Werecat:  Claws (Strength-based Damage 2; Toughness DC 17), Leaping 3 (60 feet), Shrinking 8 (3 pounds, 1/16 cubic foot, quirk: maximum rank only), Tail (Extra Limb 1) • 21 points
*  This is heavily modified, so I thought I'd repost this here with all the changes:
Action: Standard • Range: Ranged (short 3200 feet, medium 1.25 miles, long 2.5 miles)
Duration: Instant • Cost: 4 point per rank + 14 flat
You can temporarily lower all of a target’s abilities. You must touch the target, making a normal ranged attack check, originating from any point and point in any direction.  Neither the activation nor the effect of this power are noticeable until circumstances reveal the effect.
WEAKEN RESISTANCE CHECK
Will vs. DC 11
Success: No effect.
Failure: The target loses power points from all of their abilities equal to the difference between the check result and the DC, up to a maximum of 1, each round until the target successfully resists.  Make a new Will save for the target at the end of each turn; failure weakens their abilities further, while success stops the Progressive Weaken, but the target must still recover ranks already lost.  Lost points return at a rate of 1 per round at the end of each of the target’s turns.
Advantages
Agile Feint; Assessment; Attractive; Daze (Deception); Diehard; Evasion; Fascinate (Deception); Favored Foe (people using me); Improved Grab (free with Extra Limb); Redirect; Taunt
Skills
Acrobatics 9 (+11); Close Combat: Claws 2, Deception 8 (+10; +12 to deceive, seduce, or change attitude of those attracted to me; +12 or +14 v. those who use me); Expertise: Arcane Lore 6 (+7); Expertise: Art 2 (+3); Expertise: Theology & Philosophy) 2 (+3); Intimidation 0 (+2; +4 v. those who use me; -2 or 0 when shrunk); Insight 6 (+5; +7 v. those who use me); Perception 0 (-1; +1 v. those who use me); Stealth 5 (+7; +15 when shrunk)
Offense
Initiative +2
Claws +4:  Close, Damage 2 (0 when shrunk)
Grab +2 (+3 with all three limbs):  Close, Strength/Dodge DC 10 (8 when shrunk)
Weaken +3:  Ranged, Will DC 11
Unarmed +2:  Close, Damage 0 (-2 when shrunk)
Defense
Dodge 2 (4 to avoid area effects; 6 or 8 when shrunk)
Fortitude 0
Parry 2 (6 when shrunk)
Toughness 0
Will -1
Ground speed rank 0 (-1 when shrunk)
Complications
Motivation ~ Doing Good
Power Loss:  Like those of many on their father's side, Catspaw's illusions can be dispelled with the touch of cold iron.  If Catspaw themself touches cold iron, all of their illusions are immediately dispelled; they would thus be unable to create new illusions until they were no longer in contact with the cold iron.
Reputation:  Though fighting on the side of the heroes, Catspaw appears on the surface to be a minion traded around by a bunch of villains.

Power Point Totals:  Abilities 18 + Powers 102 + Advantages 10 + Skills 20 = 150