You once served the Circle as a scholar, researcher, archivist, or occult specialist. Your work focused on forbidden magic, ancient artefacts, forgotten gods, planar phenomena, and the secrets surrounding the Cut.
Perhaps you joined willingly, believing that the Circle sought knowledge that others were too frightened or narrow-minded to pursue. Perhaps your abilities attracted the attention of one of its agents, who offered you access to resources unavailable anywhere else. You may instead have been manipulated, threatened, or raised within the organisation without ever understanding its true purpose.
Your research was rarely conducted openly. You may have worked beneath a respected university, inside a private laboratory, among the archives of a noble family, or within one of the Circle’s hidden sanctuaries. Your discoveries were passed through coded reports, secret ceremonies, and intermediaries whose real identities were often concealed.
Eventually, something changed. You discovered a truth that disturbed you, witnessed the consequences of the Circle’s work, or realised that your research was being used for a purpose far darker than you had been told. You have now separated yourself from the Circle—or at least attempted to—but you still carry the knowledge, habits, and connections you gained while serving it.
The Circle does not easily forget those who know its secrets.
- Skill Proficiencies: Stealth, History
- Tool Proficiencies: two tool of your choice
- Equipment: A notebook containing incomplete research and coded observations, a concealed Circle symbol or identification token, a Ink, a Ink Pen, a set of Clothes, Common, and a pouch containing 10 gp.
You understand the Circle’s hierarchy, customs, coded language, rituals, and methods of communication. You can usually recognise signs that the Circle has been operating in an area, such as concealed symbols, unusual academic research, ritual markings, coded correspondence, or the involvement of one of its agents.
When searching within a populated settlement, academic institution, religious organisation, noble household, or similar community, you can usually locate a low-ranking member, sympathiser, informant, or former associate of the Circle, provided one is present.
Lower-ranking members may recognise your knowledge, reputation, former position, or familiarity with the Circle’s customs. Unless they have been warned about you, they are initially inclined to believe that you remain connected to the organisation.
Such a contact may provide basic information, temporary shelter, access to a restricted location, research materials, or minor assistance. They will not willingly place themselves in immediate danger, openly betray a powerful superior, or reveal information they do not possess.
You also know fragments of the Circle’s secrets. These might include the identities of certain members, the meaning of particular symbols, the locations of former meeting places, details of past operations, or rumours concerning the Circle’s greater purpose.
However, the Circle deliberately divides information between its members. Your knowledge may therefore be incomplete, outdated, or intentionally misleading.
Using your former connections carries a risk. Questions travel quickly through the Circle, and relying too heavily on this network may reveal that you are alive, active, and searching for answers.
Suggested Characteristics
| d8 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I analyse everything around me, even when others believe there is no time. |
| 2 | I become visibly excited whenever I encounter unfamiliar magic or ancient technology. |
| 3 | I record every discovery, no matter how insignificant it may appear. |
| 4 | I rarely trust appearances; the Circle taught me that everything hides another meaning. |
| 5 | I explain complicated magical theories even when nobody has asked me to. |
| 6 | I remain calm in dangerous situations by treating them as experiments to be understood. |
| 7 | I instinctively search rooms for hidden symbols, coded messages and concealed exits. |
| 8 | I avoid speaking about my past, but my discomfort makes it obvious that I am hiding something. |
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Knowledge. No discovery is inherently evil; only the purpose for which it is used. (Neutral) |
| 2 | Redemption. I will use what the Circle taught me to repair some of the damage it caused. (Good) |
| 3 | Freedom. Knowledge must never be controlled by a secret organisation or powerful elite. (Chaotic) |
| 4 | Responsibility. Dangerous knowledge must be studied, protected and handled with care. (Lawful) |
| 5 | Power. The Circle was wrong to waste its discoveries on those too weak to understand them. (Evil) |
| 6 | Progress. Tradition and fear must never prevent the advancement of magic and science. (Any) |
| d6 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | My research is my greatest achievement, and I will not allow the Circle to reclaim it. |
| 2 | A fellow researcher helped me escape the Circle, and I must discover what happened to them. |
| 3 | I possess a fragment of research that could expose one of the Circle’s most powerful members. |
| 4 | Innocent people suffered because of my work, and I have sworn to make amends. |
| 5 | My former mentor remains within the Circle, and I still believe they can be saved. |
| 6 | I will uncover the Circle’s true objective, regardless of what it costs me. |
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | My curiosity often overcomes my sense of self-preservation. |
| 2 | I believe my knowledge makes me better prepared than everyone around me. |
| 3 | I sometimes conceal important information because I fear how others might use it. |
| 4 | When confronted by authority, I instinctively become secretive, defensive or dishonest. |
| 5 | I struggle to abandon an experiment, even when it is clearly becoming dangerous. |
| 6 | Part of me still admires the Circle and the extraordinary things it was capable of achieving. |
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