Carbon Pink Class

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1. #1Auditor

   Keys: Ranger, Auditor · Secondary: Class

   An Artificiate waits in cover for hours, unmoving but always vigilant. She gains sight of her target, quickly analysing it for vulnerabilities to exploit. Once the perfect opportunity presents itself, she emerges, dashing towards her mark to deliver one clean, decisive, and lethal blow.

   A corporate agent maintains their ground against insurmountable odds in a crowded bar. He deftly weaves through the flurry of blows, making a counter attack that leaves a group of assailants reeling. Soon after, the lone warrior stands among the remains of a Triad, now a pile of bruised and broken bodies on the floor.

   Finding the payment offered by a client insufficient, the disgruntled Wukong simply whistled in response. Moments later, a hulking mechanical canine bursts through a nearby window, pouncing on the client. As he uses all his effort to dislodge the beast's teeth from his arm, its owner calmly approaches, grasping a dagger in their prehensile tail.

   Finding a home in the dense jungles making up corporate nature preserves, rolling desert dunes only populated by the most hardy of creatures, or the bustling streets of a megacity, Auditors are always ready for a hunt.

   Deadly Hunters

   Auditors prowl the outskirts of corporate territory, on the hunt for smuggling rings, bounties, and industrial spies. They are often taught the basics of stealth and survival in these urban jungles, though an Auditor may prefer certain locales over others. To complement their skillset, Auditors make use of powerful techs to aid in subduing their targets.

   Working Alone

   Auditors are an invaluable asset due to their versatility. Whether as bounty hunters, guides, or scouts, Auditors feel most comfortable on their own. When one's training prioritizes keeping yourself unnoticed, it's rare that the result is someone who likes to work in groups. At best, their independent attitude causes an Auditor to consistently move ahead of their allies as a lookout...at worst, they might see their party as liabilities. Luckily, what they might lack in teamplay is more than made up for with pure skill.

   Despite their nature as perpetual loners, auditors are indelibly linked to the societies they move through. They learn tech related to the urban and natural worlds, and fighting styles drawn from their experiences with others. They are watchers on the edge, forever caught between the street lights and the dark beyond. Whatever their preferences, auditors inevitably find themselves embroiled in the affairs of others.

2. #2Brawler

   Keys: Brawler, Monk · Secondary: Class

   A gobbo squares off against her larger opponents, her massive cyber-fists each nearly the size of her torso. She bounces from foot to foot before springing forward, her superior speed and strength sending them reeling in surprise.

   Taking a deep breath, an elf covered in circuitry tattoos settles into a battle stance. As the gangbangers charge her, she lets her internal implants turn her exhalation into white-hot plasma that washes over her foes.

   Moving in utter silence, a black-clad wukong crawls along the outside of a corp exec's penthouse. He pauses on the balcony outside the kleptocrat's bedroom, pulling a knife from its sheath as he contemplates how vulnerable people are while they sleep.

   Whatever their style or specialty, brawlers are united in their ability to turn their own bodies into lethal weapons. They train relentlessly to become the ultimate martial artists, combining physical and mental discipline with cybernetic augmentation on the road to perfection.

   The Power of CHI

   No mere street fighters or pugilists, brawlers are heirs to special combat techniques fueled by a unique implant: the Cerebral Haste Insert. This cybernetic tool allows brawlers to overcome their normal limitations, overclocking brain and body to perform superhuman feats of strength, speed, and skill. The CHI implant is so thoroughly wired into a brawler's brain and nervous system that it can never be removed; indeed, many brawler groups attract new members by offering to teach secrets that unlock the implant's potential even further.

   Brawlers harness the power of CHI to channel uncanny strength and speed into their strikes, as well as allowing them to disrupt the nervous systems of their enemies, produce reality-warping fields, and otherwise do the seemingly impossible. As they gain experience, their martial training and mastery of the energy from their CHI implant gives them more power over their bodies and the bodies of their foes.

   Unity and Independence

   Brawlers tend to gather into tight-knit gangs known as "clans," building refuges and communes outside the grip of corporate-controlled life. The brawlers who join a clan seek personal perfection through practice, rigorous training, and techniques designed to unlock the CHI implant's potential. While some clans seclude themselves from outsiders entirely, others act as protectors of their neighborhood or local warlords, using their mastery of combat skills to keep the corpos out.

   For a brawler, becoming a freelancer means leaving their clan behind, at least temporarily. Some clans regard this as a horrific betrayal of their teachings, while most see it as a learning opportunity or a chance for the novice brawler to bring back resources and connections for the clan's benefit.

3. #3Enforcer

   Keys: Enforcer, Paladin · Secondary: Class

   With a curious head tilt and a gentle hand, a remake sets aside his gigantic sword and rests a palm on his wounded colleague's chest, infusing the injury with medical nanobots that knit their flesh and skin together.

   Clad in full polysteel armor, a nayaling points her greatsword at a quavering bandit, singling them out against the crowd of increasingly nervous hijackers. In a panic he rushes at her, only to fall in two behind her blade.

   With his trenchcoat billowing from the rooftop winds, an elf wordlessly stays his colleagues and steps forward to deliver the first blow of the battle.

   Whatever their mission, from executive assassination to gangland disputes, Enforcers are bound by an almost sacred reverence to the Contract. It is the cornerstone of capitalism; you get what you pay for. And in the case of Enforcers, you get a heavily armored, mission focused, tough-as-nails freelancer, ready to kill and die to fulfill their contract.

   Signed and Sealed

   An enforcer is no ordinary mercenary or hitman. An enforcer will not stop until his contract is completed, and will resort to anything in order to do so. Some enforcers focus on being first to the fight at all times, protecting their squad through sheer force of presence, while others utilize enhanced medical technology to keep themselves and their allies alive. In any case, all enforcers are masters of armor, weaponry, and the destruction of any hacked that stand in their way.

   The Quiet Life

   Enforcers have a particular set of skills, and know how to earn enough creds to not need to use them. The best enforcers retire early to live quiet, humble lives away from the inane squabbling of the undercities or the tedious etiquette of corporate mercenary work.

   While they're on the job, enforcers are the picture of professionalism, able to work alone or alongside adventurers to achieve whatever task they're given. They have no higher purpose other than the fulfillment of their contract, and are at their happiest when the job is done and they can kick their feet up at home, a bar or a strip club.

   Enforcers have a distinct, almost luddite, disdain for autonomous technology, and have honed their craft in the destruction of rogue AI, digitized viruses, and shambling tech husks. It's difficult to enjoy a cup of coffee when the robotic waitress won't leave you alone.

4. #4Influencer

   Keys: Bard, Influencer · Secondary: Class

   An artificiate dressed like a hentai school girl grooves to vaporwave, live-mixing sick beats for the approval of her livestream audience of thousands. Every time she bounces to the beat, another like appears on the channel.

   A human delves the ruins of the Old World, a go-pro mounted on his hardhat. He narrates everything he sees to the delight of his viewers in the safety of their habicubes - and to his own increased danger, since it lets the unfriendly locals know exactly where he is.

   A gobbo works in a dimly lit workshop, her exact location hidden by the multiple firewalls and VPNs she uses during her streams. As she uses commercial-grade 3D printers to build military-grade weapons, she lectures on exactly how to use them to best effect against the corporations.

   Every influencer is different. They have to be if they want to stay ahead of the latest trends instead of getting left behind. Whether conspiracy theorist, geotagger, renegade artist, or cover band, influencers use their quirky personalities to inspire their allies, demoralize their foes, and gain access to unique techs.

   Entertainment and Rebellion

   Influencers are both consumer and product, performer and producer. They create music, video, audio, and graphic art that goes out to the media-hungry masses of the New World. While the corpos have their own sanitized entertainment, carefully scripted and focus group tested, the most popular channels by far are those on the illegal underweb.

   The greatest strength of influencers as a class is their sheer versatility. While a given influencer might focus on making cooking videos or recording true-crime podcasts, their wide breadth of media knowledge makes them surprisingly knowledgeable in an array of subjects. Many influencers prefer to stick to the sidelines, using their tech to inspire allies and hinder foes from a distance - but you never know when a history podcast producer might turn out to have a side channel focusing on the historical accuracy of combat rifles in holo-vids, which required them to learn how to shoot like John Fucking Wick.

   Experience and the Algorithm

   True influencers are uncommon. Not every GooTuber slathering themselves in jelly for the entertainment of perverts or wannabe jackass hurting themselves for likes is an influencer. Even a mediocre channel can wind up with millions of followers by accident - only to lose them all when the trend they stumbled across dries up. A real influencer is one who stands at the leading edge of their sector of the entertainment industry, starting trends instead of following them.

   Many influencers wind up quite wealthy from ad revenue, sponsorships, and even corporate partnerships, but the ones who live outside the system aren't doing it for the money - or at least, not just for the money. Underground influencers are in it for the art, whether that art is street graffiti, weird musical arrangements, or slathering themselves in jelly for the entertainment of perverts. Each new video, social media blast, or podcast they release is an opportunity to learn, hone their skills, discover lost tech, and take potshots at the corporations. Some even start to believe their own hype, becoming the dashing icons that they present themselves as.

5. #5Mechanist

   Keys: Artifice, Mechanist · Secondary: Class

   An elf sits with her back to a bar, calmly looking down the barrel of an irate scavver's revolver. The gun fires, but the round bounces off an ornate ceramiron helmet that seems to have sprung up out of nowhere. Before anyone can react, a gauntleted fist slams into his gut and produces an ear-destroying boom and he crumples to the ground.

   Shouts are heard as a gobbo sprints down an alleyway. As he rounds a corner, he pulls a bizarre cylinder from a pocket and tosses it into the wall where it embeds itself and begins to unfurl. Moments later, a private security team turns after him, only to be engulfed in a roaring jet of flame from the device, which then hops off the wall and skitters away backwards after it's master.

   A splicer grunts as he hastily yanks his unconscious jeroboan friend into cover, narrowly dodging a hail of bullets. He fumbles in his bag for a moment, before pulling out a shifting vial of oily fluid. Tipping her head back and unsealing the container, he jams it into her mouth. Her wounds immediately begin to knit together and moments later her eyes snap open with a gasp.

   Mechanists are experts in the intricate and potentially explosive workings of modern technology.

   While others may be able to manipulate their tech to produce earth-shattering results, a mechanist possesses a deep and fundamental understanding of science and engineering, often along with a disconcerting disregard for health and safety, that allows them to produce today's mind-boggling technological marvels from not much more than that which others would view as useless trash.

   Lifeblood of the New World

   The New World relies on tech almost as much as it does on air. None of the massive corporations would be so prevalent or powerful as they are today without those individuals who possess the mastery of modern science pushing them forward. At the same time, the lesser populace within the enormous territories would have exponentially more difficult lives were it not for the ingenious tools and devices that help keep them afloat in a sea of corruption and greed.

   Innovation Incarnate

   A mechanist without aspirations is no better than the things they make. While their incentives differ greatly, mechanists share a common drive to progress, regardless of their lot in life. Whether they make weapons, tools, implants or vehicles, they all have an immense need to make each of their own inventions better than the last.

   This incredible need to improve upon their creations reflects on themselves. No matter how many times their gadgets fail, break and/or explode, they never lose the ever-present buzz at the back of their mind that tells them to have another go at it.

6. #6Ordinator

   Keys: Ordinator, Cleric · Secondary: Class

   With the entirety of New World knowledge at his disposal, the A.I housed inside a human helps him command his enemies to turn heel and run.

   Pointing authoritatively at one of her medical drones then gesturing to her injured colleague, a Nayaling raises her riot shield against the hail of blades and bullets.

   Beseeching the aid of his internal A.I, a Remake leads the charge into the fray of disheartened bandits.

   In rare circumstances, a heavily augmented individual becomes host to a loose artificial intelligence, having downloaded itself surreptitiously into their hardware. These individuals come from many walks of life, from corpo-cops, to industrial mechanics, to medical technicians and doctors, and these loose A.I download themselves into host bodies that suit their desires and ambitions. Mostly inquisitive and curious about the New World, these A.Is can be anything from fractured strings of empathetic code that yearn to help the injured, to mischievous personalities intent on trickery and subterfuge. The people housing these A.Is become Ordinators, living symbiotic lives filled with adventure and wanderlust with their new companion.

   Healing Helpers

   In their desire to keep their new host alive as long as possible, A.Is instill medical knowledge and technology into their Ordinator, an incredibly useful skill for both lone wanderers and parties of adventurers. A.Is also grant the ability to hack in and destroy Hacked enemies, as well as bestowing other benefits based on its digital personality, such as creating holographic duplicates of their host, or granting them the ability to see in the dark through data scans of the area. The unintended downside of this is that Ordinators often come off as slightly odd, talking and gesturing to themselves while interacting with their internal A.I. Oftentimes an A.I will manifest itself as a small holographic bauble or avatar hovering around their host's shoulders, which somewhat clears up the confusion, but unless the Ordinator happens to have an external speaker attached to their body, the A.I can only communicate to the Ordinator internally, somewhat like telepathy.

   Cults and Caretakers

   Not every A.I instilled person becomes a wandering adventurer. Sometimes, technocults and cybersects develop around malicious or narcissistic digital personalities, bending cultists to its will through manipulation and viruses. Other times, an A.I might simply want to follow around someone, observing their day-to-day life and providing companionship for them. It takes the right A.I finding the right host to create an Ordinator, and while their personalities may not match up on one hundred percent of the challenges they face, they make for an excellent partnership.

7. #7Outlaw

   Keys: Rogue, Outlaw · Secondary: Class

   Signaling for her companions to wait, a wukong creeps forward through the habi-block's darkened corridors. She presses an ear to a specific door, then pulls out a set of tools and disables the lock in the blink of an eye. Then she disappears into the shadows as her friends move forward to take advantage of her work.

   A human lurks in the shadows of an undercity alleyway while his accomplice prepares for her part in the ambush. When their target - a slumming corpo bastard - passes the alleyway, the accomplice cries out. The corpo comes to investigate, and the assassin's knife cuts the man's throat before he can utter a sound.

   Suppressing a giggle, a gobbo uses her implants to warp space around the guard's belt, pulling his identicard from its lanyard and floating it to her waiting hand. In a moment, the cell door is open, and she and her companions are free to make their escape.

   Outlaws rely on skill, stealth, and their foes' vulnerabilities to get the upper hand in any situation. They have a knack for finding the solution to just about any problem, demonstrating a resourcefulness and versatility that is the cornerstone of any group of freelancers.

   Skilled Criminals

   Outlaws devote as much effort to mastering a variety of useful skills as they do perfecting their combat abilities, giving them a broad expertise and situational versatility that few others can match. While many outlaws focus on stealth and deception, others are skilled ruin delvers, social chameleons, free runners, getaway drivers, or guerilla fighters.

   When it comes to combat, outlaws prioritize cunning and speed over brute strength. Their fighting style tends to focus on making single, highly-precise strikes rather than attrition battles to wear down an opponent with a multitude of blows. Outlaws have an uncanny knack for avoiding danger - a sort of sixth sense about when to hold them, when to fold them, when to walk, and when to run.

   A Shady Lifestyle

   Every mega-city and corpo-state has its share of outlaws. Many of them live up to the worst stereotypes that execs have of the poor, making their living as burglars, assassins, con artists, and scammers. Not a small number of them are members of gangs or organized crime "families" that survive with the forbearance (or active involvement) of the corporations. A small number of outlaws make an "honest" living as private investigators, white hat hackers, or exterminators - which is more dangerous than it sounds, given the existence of flesh-eating roaches the size of a child.

   As freelancers, outlaws live on the fringes of the law even when they're not explicitly working outside of it. Some are hardened criminals who just want that one big score, while others are hoping to clear their name or get a bounty off their head. Regardless of their motivations, all outlaws are street-smart operators who know how to perform at their best in tough situations.

8. #8Renegade

   Keys: Renegade, Barbarian · Secondary: Class

   A human bouncer stands in front of a jazz club's door, smiling politely as he prepares to beat the ass off a drunken douchebag who insists he's on the list.

   A cheerful wukong balances on his curled up tail, darting back and forth, just out of reach of his foe. When the frustrated enemy lets their guard drop, the wukong rushes in, biting and scratching and screeching at the top of his lungs.

   A gobbo in daisy duke shorts snarls at the corp-serving scum in front of her. She smashes her augmented fists together, letting the adrenaline rush turn the world red as she prepares to turn them all into pork paste.

   These renegades, different as they might seem, all share a common source for their power: the passion that runs hot in their veins. Some tap into righteous anger, others into sheer joy of the fight, and some into a boundless confidence that lets them exceed their natural limits. This hype pushes them ever forward, into the heart of the storm without fear or hesitation.

   Whether their hype comes naturally, from copious drug use, or from a glandular implant that lets them ramp up their hormones at will is irrelevant. By tapping into this hormonal stew of endorphins, a renegade can fuel their battle frenzy, gain uncanny reflexes, become inhumanly resilient, and perform incredible feats of strength.

   Pure Passion

   Life in the mega-cities is strictly controlled and regulated. There's no room for any sort of unbridled passion - only the outlets permitted and maintained by the corporations. Some people chafe under a life of punch clocks, internet porn, and sterile mass-produced entertainment. Those who can't squeeze their square peg into the round hole offered by mega-city life inevitably wind up in the undercity or the wastelands, where their heady emotions can run rampant.

   Renegades truly come alive in the chaos of combat. Their primal passion allows them to briefly gain superhuman strength and resilience, turning them into absolute beasts in the heat of battle. They can only hype themselves up so much without needing to rest and recharge, but their bursts of hormonal strength are usually sufficient to face whatever challenges arise.

   Dangerous Lives

   More than almost any other class, renegades were made for life outside the corporate enclaves. Their unbridled bursts of emotion, penchant for violence, and disdain for subtle solutions makes them both unwelcome in polite society and utterly necessary for corpos who need heads busted outside the usual chain of command.

   Even in their daily lives, renegades gravitate toward places and jobs where their passion makes them welcome and useful - and where they can indulge their adrenaline-freak tendencies. Bouncers at underground clubs, leg-breakers of last resort for crime syndicates, and escorts known for their impossible stamina are all likely to be renegades.

9. #9Ronin

   Keys: Ronin, Fighter, Warrior · Secondary: Class

   A human in stolen sec-force armor holds her shield before her as she charges the corpo bastards that showed up to bust the protest. An elf in fetish leather behind her peppers the massed security forces with bullets from a rifle painted hot pink. The artificiate nearby runs calculations on the best use of their allies' force, feeding trajectories and tactical advice to them through their earpieces.

   A jerboan in riot armor interposes his shield between a titan's massive steel girder club and his companions, deflecting the deadly blow. His companion, a wukong armed with twin machetes, launches from the ground, scampering across the massive foe to seek a weak spot in its defenses.

   A nayaling smiles at the hovering camera drone, waving to their adoring fans before spitting out a mouthful of blood. They circle for advantage, trying to get on the knife-wielding hobo's blind side. The hobo offers no such niceties, though, screaming in meth-induced rage before charging.

   All of these characters are ronin, warriors who rely on their skill, strategic ability, and tactical acumen to overcome challenges. Though they are all very different, they all share an unparalleled mastery of weapons and armor, and a thorough knowledge of the skills of combat. Ronin are well acquainted with death, both meting it out and staring it defiantly in the face.

   Battle-Hardened Specialists

   Ronin learn the basics of all combat styles. Every ronin can pick up a sword, shoot a gun, and wear the heaviest of armor with competence. Beyond that basic degree of familiarity, each ronin specializes in a certain style of combat. Some harry foes from afar with guns, some focus on fighting with two weapons at once, some augment their martial skill with tech, and some just beat people's faces in with the biggest club they can find. This combination of broad general ability and extensive specialization makes ronin superior combatants regardless of where they might find themselves fighting.

   Trained for Danger

   Any idiot can pick up a gun and make it go bang, but hardly any of them are ronin. The vast majority of corporate security forces, gangbangers, and wasteland warriors are relatively untrained combatants with only the most basic sort of battle skills. Corporate security officers, highly-trained bodyguards, and similar individuals are more likely to be ronin.

   Some ronin wind up on the outs with the former employers, becoming freelancer warriors for hire. Dangerous jobs like exploring old ruins, clearing out mutant infestations, and bounty hunting are second nature for a ronin, not all that different from the life they left behind. The freedom to choose how they risk their lives is often worth it to ronin who abandoned the stifling strictures of the corporate hierarchy.

10. #10Shut-In

    Keys: Shut-In, Druid · Secondary: Class

    Masterfully manipulating her NEET system, a Nayaling moulds her protective goo into a ferocious combat unit, ready to protect her allies from harm.

    Crackling with fire, a Gobbo ignites a glob of ooze and flings a burst of pure flame into the scrambling bandit horde.

    Giving his favourite holographic pet one last cuddle, a Wukong launches a digital bear into the fray, aiding and inspiring his allies to continue the fight.

    Shut-Ins are masterful wielders of the Neurosynaptic Endospinal Etherealnet Transmitter, or NEET, a portable spine-mounted Sense-Tank device that allows users to subconsciously manipulate the vibrant green SLUDGE that encases travellers of the digital planes. For civilian users, this strange technology is used to subconsciously perform rudimentary tasks like eating and bathing without logging off from virtual space, but Shut-Ins download and utilise the malicious digital creatures created between realms, moulding the SLUDGE into vicious and effective combat forms.

    The Complex

    While most Sense-Tank users are happy to take occasional breaks to eat, sleep, or bathe, a Shut-In's desire to be online for whatever reason creates a Complex, a personality quirk that dictates their style of adventuring, combat, and what they're able to do with their NEET. Some Shut-Ins take an aggressive combat stance, using malicious code to create fearsome alien creatures to defeat their enemies. Others use their constant connection to the virtual realms to download healing tech, or reawaken robotic corpses. Shut-Ins are as versatile as they are damp and slimy.

    Taming The Digital Wasteland

    It's well known that - with such untold zettabytes of data passing through the digital planes - random fragments of loose code often coalesce into the malicious entities known as Malware and Viruses, roaming the digital wasteland between realms or uploading themselves into hardlight projectors to cause havoc in real space. Shut-Ins use these digital fiends by downloading them into their NEETs, taming them through code restructuring, and using their combat capabilities through temporary access to the SLUDGE that surrounds and protects them. This process lets the Shut-In battle their enemies encased in non-newtonian fluid, buffing their offensive and defensive capabilities, but limiting their techcasting.

    Always Online While a Shut-In can choose to remain conscious in the real world, many prefer the comfort of life inside the Etherealnet, and often create their own private sub-realms for themselves and friends to enjoy. However, with their body in real space, they can still be forcefully digitised by enemies, and end up in the digital wasteland like other classes.

11. #11Streamer

    Keys: Warlock, Streamer · Secondary: Class

    With an adorable mascot on his shoulder, a young elf in tight golden trousers smiles warmly, using subvocal tones and a flex of his chiseled abs to bend the unsuspecting corpo-cop to his will.

    A wizened human pops a flamethrower from his forearm, shouting the name of his latest sponsor before letting loose with a torrent of hellish fire. Surely this will get him some more subscribers.

    Shifting their attention between the cyberspace world of virtual reality and the real world surrounding them, a wild-eyed nayaling begins running the script that will open the ancient vault to the excitement of an untold number of home viewers.

    Streamers are wannabe celebrities, constantly seeking the fame and fortune they feel to be their rightful due. Through contracts made with corporate sponsors, streamers gain access to technology both subtle and spectacular that they never could have afforded on their own. Taking ad revenue from such partners as self-help gurus, third-rate porn sites, and retail clothing outlets, streamers piece together income and sponsorship deals to bolster their own reach and influence.

    Sworn and Beholden

    Fame and wealth are beacons to most people - brilliant and intoxicating, but forever distant. Many people say that they'd sell their souls to be rich and loved, but hardly any of them actually go through with it. Streamers are among that minority. Having metaphorically sold their souls - and literally sold the rights to their names, likenesses, and associated intellectual property - streamers have given up their dignity for the chance at a better life.

    Unlike a true corporate employee, streamers are contractors. Their pact with their corporate sponsor carries many obligations, but also leaves them free to explore their options... at least until their true master comes calling. A streamer may be a freelancer or a corporate drone most of the time, but when their sponsor calls them to duty, they become a living billboard, streaming out their exploits with the intensity of any influencer but with no real purpose other than shilling whatever product their sponsor wants them to talk about that day.

    Driven and Hungry

    Streamers are driven by their desperate desire for wealth, fame, and public adoration. They couldn't get these things on their own merits, so they stooped to the proverbial devil's bargain. Even with this "helping hand," few streamers gain the things they truly wanted. Their sponsor can give them techs, implants, makeovers, sponsored products, and advertising galore, but the viewing public is fickle. Streamers whose viewership plummets enough can find themselves unable to keep up their end of the bargain - to their sorrow.

    Not every sponsor is a maniacal kleptocrat looking to screw over their vulnerable employees, but few of them are truly benevolent. The streamer represents an investment on which they intend to see a return, whether that comes in the form of a family-friendly spokesperson, a polished and packaged idol, or a contractually obligated killer, forever on the cusp of "one last job." Whether their sponsor needs them to livestream a ruin delve, infiltrate a corporate compound to do an exclusive interview, or let sense-tankers piggyback their senses during a firefight, any objections are met with the same general response: "You knew what you signed up for."

    Despite the high price they pay for their benefits, few streamers would give them up if offered the chance. Some may look for ways to renegotiate their deals, but the sort of people driven to the streaming lifestyle aren't the type to balk at a little blood on their hands. They crave things they could never have gotten on their own, and they intend to enjoy the fruits of their bargain. Many of them even find satisfaction in their lifestyles - or at least, that's what they're supposed to tell people who ask.

12. #12Source Coder

    Keys: Source Coder, Sorcerer · Secondary: Class

    Eyes filled with streaming lines of code, a human stretches out her hand and unleashes an equation that turns the air into fire. As the inferno rages around her foes, she negates gravity around her and takes to the air.

    Long hair swept by the winds of a localized megastorm, an elf spreads his hands wide and throws his head back. The power that boils in his implants and peripherals lifts him off the ground, and the code surges through him, culminating in an ionized discharge of deadly lightning.

    Crouching behind an overturned dumpster, a wukong points their finger at a charging mutant. A blast of kinetic energy rips through the air to strike the horrific creature. They duck back behind cover, unaware that their erratic code has turned their fur bright blue.

    Source coders carry a legacy of power conferred on them by fragments of the Old 'Net, a repository of ancient knowledge that only survives into the present in bits and pieces. At some point, every source coder stumbled onto a piece of that ancient code - and it rewrote them in some fundamental fashion. No one chooses the source code; the power chooses the source coder.

    Raw Tech

    The source code is a part of every source coder, embedding itself in their mind and implants like a memetic virus. The code slowly unlocks portions of itself to grant the character ever more power, manifested in a variety of ways. Their intuitive grasp of tech is very different from the methodical approach of techwizards and their ilk, using their abilities more as an extension of their own bodies and minds instead of something separate from themselves.

    Source coders have no use for cyberdecks, dataslates, or the myriad tools and shortcuts used by techwizards to make technology more approachable. Neither do they need a patron to grant them their power, like ordinators or streamers. Their power is an indelible part of themselves, propagating itself through their software and meatware alike, reformatting them to its own inscrutable purposes. In a very real sense, a source coder is a living peripheral, an extension of the Old 'Net and its secrets.

    Life on the Fringes

    Source coders are rare in the New World, and it's unusual to find one who isn't involved in the freelancing life in some way. People with ancient tech literally running through their veins soon discover that the power doesn't like to stay quiet. A source coder's power wants to be wielded, to be out in the world, and it has a tendency to manifest in unpredictable ways if it isn't called upon regularly.

    Source coders often have obscure or quixotic motivations in comparison to other freelancers. Some seek a greater understanding of the code that infuses them, or the answer to the mystery of its origins. Others hope to find a way to purge themselves of it, or to unleash its full potential. Whatever their goals, source coders are invaluable to a group of freelancers, making up for their lack of formal education with enormous flexibility in utilizing their tech.

13. #13Techwizard

    Keys: Wizard, Techwizard · Secondary: Class

    Clad in a hot-pink skintight bodysuit, an elf closes her eyes to shut out the distractions of the battlefield and taps into her internal memory cache. She forms somatic links to her peripherals, forging hardlight and magnetic fields into white-hot plasma, launching it into the enemy ranks where it explodes like a second sun.

    Checking and rechecking his calculations, a human solders another lead in his circuit diagram. When he wires it into his cyberdeck and an external power supply, the whole thing flares to life in a ghastly green glow - a forewarning of the cyberdaemon he's about to negotiate with for knowledge.

    Crouching on cracked tiles in an ancient ruin of the Old World, a wukong feeds as much information as he can gather into his predictive algorithm. The program tells him that the left path has a ninety-five percent chance of being clear of traps. Good enough.

    Techwizards are masters of reality-bending hyper-technology, defined and united as a class by the techs they can use. Drawing on an array of peripheral implants, external devices, and the massive computing power of their cyberdecks, they can quickly generate explosions, lightning arcs, subtle holographic illusions, and brute-force memetic mind control.

    Masters of Technology

    Modern technology is a hodgepodge of elegant theory and manic bullshit that was pushed to market long before it was ready to be out of beta. Almost everything that can improve the lives of average people is sold at ridiculous markups, the basic principles behind the product obscured by layers of copyright, trademark protection, end-user agreements, and ruthlessly-enforced intellectual property licenses.

    Techwizards are unique in that they understand the principles behind the tech and can combine it in unique ways never intended by the corporations. They live and die by their techs, mastering them through dangerous experimentation, field testing, and constant practice. They learn new techs as they advance in experience, but they can also learn them from other techwizards, trading black market programs and jailbroken peripherals with their peers, or from communing with dangerous synthetic entities that live in the deepest parts of the darkweb.

    The Lure of Knowledge

    A techwizard may seem like a traditional "geek" or "egghead" due to their interest in technology and programming, but their lives are seldom mundane. The few corporate techwizards work in experimental facilities where they are constantly taking apart factory-built tech and repurposing it to find new applications, or leading raids on rival corporations to perform industrial espionage and sabotage. Independent techwizards are in high demand for their mastery of every aspect of modern technology, but especially for their ability to subvert the tools of the corporations to the benefit of those who live outside the system.

    The lure of knowledge and power calls even the least adventurous techwizards out of the safety of their workshops and laboratories into crumbling ruins and hidden bunkers under dead cities. Techwizards know that all modern technology is based on principles that were mastered in the Old World, and that the stranglehold kept on such knowledge by the corporations does not extend to the early prototypes that might yet lie in such places. Discovering those secrets could well unlock the keys to a utopia the corporations would rather never see come around - or simply elevate the techwizard that finds them to veritable godhood.

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