Choose Your Magical Faction with 9 of the New Backgrounds and Feats from Arcana Unleashed

Coming September 15, Arcana Unleashed helps you achieve more together than you ever could alone! Whether your interests lie in the necromantic, the cosmic, the spectacular, or the divine, there is a faction out there ready to welcome you into their niche community.

Nine of the backgrounds and corresponding Origin feats in Arcana Unleashed tie your character's backstory into a respective arcane faction. As your reputation with your chosen faction grows, you'll gain renown, which comes with access to connections, items, information, and other benefits.

Below, we'll examine these new origin options so you can start workshopping a character who hails from a world saturated with magical potential and political intrigue.

Agent of the Ninth Quill

Swatches Studio

Characters with this background are cunning agents of intrigue with a penchant for thievery. You've fallen in with a group of sophisticated saboteurs and learned a thing or two about picking locks and stealing magic items along the way.

Though the Ninth Quill attracts thieves of all stripes, they prefer those with some degree of arcane knowledge, such as Arcane Tricksters, Eldritch Knights, or other spellcasters.

Origin Feat: Arcane Infiltrator

You've become a bit of an expert in sneaking past the guard — and skedaddling once they realize they've been fooled. You learn the Friends cantrip, and can take the Dodge action as a Bonus action a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus.

Join the Ninth Quill Today!

Unlock the following Ninth Quill options with the free Dungeon Masters: Living Spells Play-Along Pack:

• Agent of the Ninth Quill Background
• Arcane Infiltrator Origin Feat
• Renown Options
• The Heist Planning Chamber Bastion Option

This pack takes Agents of the Ninth Quill into an archmage's workshop, where they intend to steal an evolving magic item that is much better off in the Ninth Quill vault than this flimsy place. (Just look how unsafe the item is here, where anybody could break in and steal it!)

• Claim with a Free Account

Bejeweled Conclave Spy

Swatches Studio

Bejeweled Conclave Spies use their talent for stagecraft, diplomacy, or politics to uncover the secrets of the powerful—and then exploit that knowledge to advance their faction's position. Though you never know who might be part of their whisper network, they are known to prefer those with skill in enchantment magic, entertainment, and subterfuge, like Enchanter Wizards, Bards and Rogues of all kinds, and sometimes charismatic Sorcerers and Warlocks..

Origin Feat: Arcane Eloquence

Your words carry more weight. Make the audience laugh—or blush—with Vicious Mockery, and add 1d4 to your Deception, Intimidation, and Persuasion checks.

Cosmic Dawn Experiment

Sylvain Sarrailh

Products of strange circumstances, characters with the Cosmic Dawn Experiment background have been altered by forces beyond their understanding. Whether your initial transmutation was intentional or accidental, you now find yourself drawn to the Bringers of the Cosmic Dawn, an amoral faction of transmutationists preparing for the arrival of otherworldly entities.

Aberrant Sorcerer Sorcerers, Pact of the Great Old One Warlocks, and Transmuter Wizards are especially drawn to the Bringers of the Cosmic Dawn.

Origin Feat: Transmuted Anatomy

Through magical augmentation your body has been warped, increasing your Speed by 5 feet and giving Advantage on Saving Throws to resist shape-shifting against your will. (Use this Resilient Anatomy to prevent being turned into a toad by an enemy's Polymorph, or to maintain a shifted form when hit by a hostile Moonbeam!)

You can also take a Reaction to add 1d4 to your Constitution Saving Throws a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus.

Covenant of the Grave Recruit

Sylvain Sarrailh

As a Covenant of the Grave Recruit, you've acquired a predilection for the ghastly and the morbid and a fascination for the boundaries between medicine and necromancy.

The faction itself is largely amoral, with no tolerance for cackling lich villains in their ranks; in fact, they often work to suppress undead hordes and evil necromancers, as such behavior stymies the progress of the community's research, endangers innocent academics, and is downright unbecoming.

Monks, Necromancer Wizards, and Clerics are often drawn into the Covenant of the Grave's ranks.

Origin Feat: Arcane Undertaker

Your studies of the border between life and death are paying off. With the Arcane Undertaker feat, you will learn one Cleric or Wizard Necromancy cantrip, add 1d4 to History and Medicine checks, and once per Long Rest gain Heroic Inspiration when you take the Help action to stabilize a creature with 0 Hit Points.

Crucible Storm Chaser

Alvaro Calvo Escudero

Whether you seek danger solely for the thrill or a blinding passion for the pursuit of knowledge, you find yourself drawn to these hazardous magical phenomena.

The Crucible Keepers boast many Barbarians, Druids, Sorcerers, and Evoker Wizards who are similarly drawn to the spectacle and science of destruction.

Origin Feat: Arcane Overload

Tap into your inner reserves. You learn the Fire Bolt cantrip, and once per Long Rest when you deal damage with an Evocation spell, you can add your Proficiency Bonus to one damage roll of that spell.

Horizon Weaver Initiate

Sylvain Sarrailh

You are drawn to travel the planes, or perhaps to the barriers between worlds. Whether out of academic curiosity, insatiable thirst for exploration, or a sense of duty to keep interplanar passageways safe, you make your way to the Horizon Weavers, who educate you in their ways of teleportation.

Though Horizon Weavers specialize in all forms of Conjuration magic, their predilection for extraplanar travel attracts many Druids, Rangers, and Wizards to their order.

Origin Feat: Portal Jumper

Walking into traps is for other, less worldly wanderers. Once per turn, you can spend 15 feet of movement to teleport 15 feet—a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus per Long Rest—though you must be able to see your destination.

You also gain Resistance to Necrotic, Psychic, or Radiant damage, reflecting your prolonged exposure to otherworldly energies or indeed other worlds themselves.

Phantasmic Circus Trouper

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Though they may share the gossip they've overheard from their audience or help smuggle friendly characters away from danger, the Phantasmic Circus is less interested in spycraft and subterfuge than most of the other factions listed here. Entertainers of all kinds, particularly Bards, Rogues, and Illusionist Wizards, join the Phantasmic Circus.

Origin Feat: Arcane Artist

Permanently upgrade your character's storytelling skills with Minor Illusion. This single cantrip ensures you can always support your tall tales with a horrifying visage of a villainous lich or replay that growls in the woods you heard for the party's Ranger.

Additionally, once per Long Rest, when you cast an Illusion spell, you can grant one nearby ally Heroic Inspiration.

Seer Apprentice

LEON TUKKER

It's time to consult the universe. Perhaps before, you reached for a deck of cards, a bag of runes, or a crystal ball? As an apprentice of the Seers of Sea and Sky, you have learned to look up at the sky and into the depths, finding omens in the natural world.

These discoveries, and others, are collected in the Seers' web of libraries across the world.

Flying and swimming creatures, as well as Clerics, Druids, Rangers, Divination Wizards, and anybody else with a fondness for prophecy are all welcome to the Seers of Sea and Sky.

Origin Feat: Arcane Omens

You learn Guidance, a deservedly beloved cantrip. Additionally, you can take a Reaction to add 1d4 to your—or a nearby ally's—failed Saving Throw a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus.

Ward of the Sheltering Hands

Sylvain Sarrailh

The kind people of Sheltering Hands helped you when you were in need, and you are determined to pay that generosity forward.

Whether you've always been an altruistic person or were a bit of a scrooge until you were profoundly changed by the selflessness of others, you currently find yourself wanting to help those who need it.

The order counts many Clerics, Fighters, Monks, Paladins, and Abjuration Wizards among its number.

Origin Feat: Arcane Safeguard

Your time with Sheltering Hands taught you how to look after yourself and others. You learn the Resistance cantrip, and you can cast it as a Bonus action a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus.

Further reflecting the magnanimity of your spirit, when you take the Help action to aid an ally with their Ability Check, they gain Temporary Hit Points equal to your Proficiency Bonus. Better roll up those sleeves and get to work!

Sew Your Origin from the Weave

Grab your books, your Spellcasting Focus, and your sense of adventure—Arcana Unleashed is coming September 15!

Whether you're sailing straight into a typhoon or studying a skeleton in a graveyard, the new arcane origins in this book, along with its litany of magical character options, have prepared you to discover what even the gods may not want you to know.