Characters

A character in After the Chaos Event The Chaos The Chaos was a continent-wide civilisation-collapse spanning approximately ninety-eight years, beginning around year 1700 of the Inarin Calendar when the Iru Parliament of the... is built in twelve ordered steps, each one building on the last. The order matters: the process asks who they are before it asks what they can do. The result is a person with history, limits, and something to lose, not a list of class features. This page mirrors the in-app Character Creator step for step, with the point budgets, caps, and tables you need to build a playable sheet.

Character Creation

Character creation proceeds in twelve steps. Each step feeds the next, so work top to bottom rather than jumping ahead. The summary below walks the whole sequence; the sections that follow it give the numbers.

1. Step 1: Concept. Write one or two sentences describing the character before assigning any numbers. Useful prompts: Who is this person? What do they want? What are they afraid of losing? What do they know that others do not? Why are they involved in dangerous events? If the campaign is set during or after the Yara Massacre, decide how the character relates to it, whether they were near Baramma, heard the news in Nilas, or know more or less than the official narrative tells them.
2. Step 2: People. Choose one of the six peoples of Elshore: Iru, Maan, Bar, Erg, Annil, or Meir. The Erg are divided; pick Northern (Rafadin lineage) or Southern (Frozen Highlands lineage). Each people grants a species Attribute package and one or more species traits, listed in Part IV, Races. The grël category is a status, not a people, and is set in Step 3.
3. Step 3: Path. Pick the starting position: User (active system access from session 1), Non-user (no Attunement training but +5 Attribute dots), or Meir (locked out of the Iru system entirely, compensated by a large fixed species Attribute package). Path is descriptive shorthand for one binary choice, with or without starting system access; it is not a class. Every path receives the same 3 flex dots per level. Non-Meir characters can transition between User and Non-user states through play; only Meir is locked. Grël status auto-assigns the User path.
4. Step 4: Region and Culture. Culture replaces class. It defines the world the character grew up in: what they were taught, learned by hand, and believe by default. Each culture grants a +1 Attribute bonus and one cultural trait, on top of the species package. Record the result in the Origin field as Region or Culture / Faith (example: Maaniskaar Empire / Randenist). Faith grants no mechanical effect; it is recorded for fiction. Two cultures are era-locked: Capehavener (post-AC 138 only) and Republican (post-AC 200 only).
5. Step 5: Age. Choose one of six life stages: child, youth, young adult, adult, mature, or elder. Different peoples pass these stages at very different absolute ages, so a Bar adult may be older than a Maan dynasty and a Meir ancient may have lived under three empires. The age table below maps each stage to approximate ranges by people; the GM may adjust at the margins, since a hard life ages a body faster.
6. Step 6: Attributes. There are eight Attributes, four physical and four psychological, each rated to 10 dots with one dot already filled. In a Standard campaign, distribute 6 additional dots, then apply the species package and the +1 cultural bonus. Starting cap is 5 (hard cap 10). Non-user characters add 5 more dots at this step (11 total in a Standard campaign). Meir distribute the normal 6 then receive their fixed +7 species package on top.
7. Step 7: Abilities. There are sixteen Abilities, eight Practical and eight Mental, each rated to 5 dots. In a Standard campaign, distribute 20 dots. Starting cap is 3 (hard cap 5). Abilities cover everything from Close Combat and Medicine to History, Languages, and Engineering.
8. Step 8: Proficiencies. Proficiencies describe what life has made familiar. There are sixteen, in two groups of eight (Cultural and Physical). The character receives 1 Cultural Proficiency dot from their culture automatically, then has 5 Proficiency points to place freely across either group. Distributed points may stack on the cultural grant. Starting cap is 5 (hard cap 5). Multiple Proficiencies can stack on a single roll where the fiction supports each.
9. Step 9: Talents. Talents are trained, biological, or species-typical advantages, rated 1 to 5 dots. Species and culture grant baseline Talents for free; they appear on the sheet automatically. The character then receives 3 distributable Talent dots to raise baselines or acquire new (including qualifying species-locked) Talents. Starting cap is 3 (hard cap 5), counting free and distributable dots together. Biotech Usage, the Meir parallel skill, is acquired here only through Vaparian culture.
10. Step 10: Attunements. User-path characters and grëls only; Non-user and Meir skip to Step 11. In a Standard campaign, start with one Attunement at 1 dot (strong campaign: one at 2 dots, or two at 1 dot each). Note the source of authorisation on the sheet. A grël begins with an additional free Attunement from their engineering, so two at 1 dot each. The GM should approve any grël concept before creation; one grël per party is the recommended ceiling.
11. Step 11: System Credits, Health, Equipment, Starting Ïsuulë. Set Maximum system credits (100 active for Users and grëls, 100 reserved for Non-users, zero for Meir). All three damage tracks (Physical, Energy, Psychological) start empty at 0 of 10. Starting Ïsuulë is 0 of 7 for most characters; Iru and grëls always begin with 2 filled boxes and 2 backstory Folder entries. Add 50 imperial credits of pocket coin. Take the universal equipment package plus one culture-specific add-on plus two role-specific items.
12. Step 12: Final Review. Does the character read as a person, not a list? Are there at least two things they cannot do that other party members might need? Is there at least one thing the GM can use to put pressure on them? If any answer is no, adjust before play begins.

Step 3 in depth: the three starting paths

Path is the binary choice of starting with or without system access, dressed in three convenient labels. The label only describes what the character begins with; it does not lock their future. Both User and Non-user give a comparable creation budget: the Non-user trades a starting Attunement and active credits for +5 Attribute dots, the User trades those dots for the Attunement and active system credits. The choice is qualitative, not quantitative.

User path: system access at creation, starting with 1 Attunement at 1 dot (Standard). Maximum system credits 100 / 100, spendable from session 1. Decide the narrative source of access at the table: native (Iru People Iru The progenitors, and the only naturally evolved people of Elshore.), grël status, a Relic carried, a species-bound RF tag, an Inarin-era bedn worn at the wrist, or a connection earned some other way. Available to all species except Meir People Meir The only people of Elshore not born of it..

Non-user path: no Attunement training at creation, in exchange for 5 additional Attribute dots (11 instead of 6 in a Standard campaign). Maximum system credits 100 reserved, inactive until access is acquired in play. The character can still use folk medicine, mundane craft, and physical training without limit. Available to all species except Meir. An Iru Non-user holds native authorisation but no training; until their Awakening (their first Attunement dot) they cannot use the system at all, including Universal commands.

Meir path: locked, required for Meir, and forbidden to everyone else. Meir bodies are extra-systemic; the planetary substrate, built for the Iru and the engineered races, does not recognise a species that arrived on generation ships from another star. Meir cannot transition to User state ever, cannot become grëls, and gain nothing from a Relic or RF tag. They do not receive the +5 Non-user dots; their fixed +7 species package is the compensation, and they receive zero system credits at any level. This asymmetry is intentional.

Grël status auto-assigns the User path and cannot take Non-user. The grël package includes 1 free Attunement at 1 dot in addition to the standard Step 10 Attunement (so two Attunements at 1 dot each), the Clean Authorization Talent, accelerated healing, and a conditional-immortality option. Iru cannot be grëls.

Transitions in play: a Non-user who acquires authorisation (Iru Awakening, a first Relic or RF tag, a system-bound implant) becomes effectively User-state from that level forward and their reserved credits activate at the cap reached. A User who loses their access mechanism drops to Non-user-state but keeps all dots and pool as latent capability. Iru and grëls never lose access; their authorisation is internal. Meir cannot transition either way.

Step 5 in depth: age stages by people

Annils mature fast and age fast; Iru mature slowly. The Bar People Bar Towering, massively built, and engineered for high-load work and vertical terrain, the Bar are the strength line. Adult range is wide because Bar middle age comes late and lasts long, so a Bar at 60 is firmly in their Adult prime. The long Meir Adult range reflects centuries of effective active life. A grël ages on the timeline of their birth species unless they have learned ISEMH Technology ISEMH System The Infrastructure for Synthetic Emergence and Matter Hosting, the planet-scale Inarin-era system that underlies the fallen world: an identity, logistics, fabrication, and senso...-mediated immortality (Part IV, Races), in which case ageing stops.

Approximate age ranges by life stage and people (years). The GM may adjust at the margins.

Ranges are guidance, not hard mechanics. The fictional effect of age follows the situation, not a stat penalty: a Meir ancient is shaped by centuries of memory, a young Erg by a single completed name-rite.

Point budgets and starting caps

Every rated track is built from a fixed pool of dots, scaled by campaign tone. The starting caps apply at character creation only; through level-up advancement (see Progression) Attributes rise to a hard cap of 10 and everything else to 5. The table below is the at-a-glance budget for a Standard campaign.

Standard campaign creation budget. Add the +5 Non-user Attribute bonus on the Attributes row if applicable.

Campaign scaling

The GM sets the campaign tone, which scales the Attribute and Ability budgets. Caps do not change with scaling; only the number of distributable dots does.

Distributable dots by campaign tone.

Non-user totals shown in parentheses include the +5 path bonus. The Ability column uses the Expert label at the high end; the Attribute column uses Heroic. The two scale on separate ladders set by the GM at the start of the campaign.

Step 6 in depth: the eight Attributes

Each Attribute starts with one dot filled. Distribute the campaign budget, then apply the species package and the +1 cultural bonus. Most non-Meir species grant 2 dots split across two Attributes; the Southern Erg People Southern Erg The violet-skinned Erg of the Frozen Highlands, nomadic tribal confederations who were never absorbed into any empire. grant +2 to one Attribute; the Meir grant a fixed +7 concentrated in physical Attributes. Focus drives most magic and system-command rolls.

• Strength (physical): force, lifting, striking, carrying, restraint.
• Dexterity (physical): precision, fine control, hands, aim, delicate work.
• Agility (physical): speed, balance, reflex, dodging, body movement. Initiative is rolled flat from Agility.
• Endurance (physical): stamina, resistance, long effort, survival under strain.
• Willpower (psychological): resolve, self-control, resistance to fear or pressure.
• Perception (psychological): noticing, sensing change, reading surroundings.
• Memory (psychological): recall, pattern retention, languages, history, faces.
• Focus (psychological): concentration, mental precision, system command. Most magic or system-command rolls use this.

Step 7 in depth: the sixteen Abilities

Distribute 20 dots (Standard) across the sixteen Abilities, none above the starting cap of 3. Three coverage notes are worth knowing before you spend.

• Practical: Athletics, Stealth, Close Combat, Ranged Combat, Survival, Riding & Handling, Craft, Medicine.
• Mental: Mathematics, Natural Science, Geography, History, Languages, Law & Civics, Engineering, Philosophy & Theology.
• Riding & Handling covers Caerans, Isyrans, the heavier reptilian draught beasts of the Highlands, plus driving carts, calming animals, and managing pack teams.
• Engineering covers Iru-era machinery and infrastructure. High Engineering plus the Infrastructure Proficiency can do things most empires execute people for.
• Languages covers New Arram (the Maan trade tongue), Old Arram, High Arramic (Iruel), Waihy (the Meir High Tongue), Ilso script, regional Erg dialects, and the gesture-tongue of the Voicers.

Step 8 in depth: the sixteen Proficiencies

Proficiencies are rated 1 to 5; each dot adds 1 die to a relevant roll, and several can stack on a single roll where the fiction supports each (a forest stealth approach by a Bar veteran can fire both Wilds and Terrain). The fiction is the limit, not the dot count. One Cultural Proficiency arrives at 1 dot free from culture; the player then spends 5 points freely, including stacking onto that grant.

• Cultural Proficiencies: Urban, Rural, Wilds, Maritime, Trade, Martial, Sacred, Infrastructure. These describe the social world the character has lived in.
• Physical Proficiencies: Blades, Hafted Weapons, Missiles, Shields & Armour, Terrain, Watercraft, Tools, Burden. These describe the tools, weapons, and environments the body knows.
• A character with Wilds 1 from culture may spend all 5 points to start at Wilds 5; another may spread the 5 across five different Proficiencies at 1 dot each.
• In play, Proficiency dots rise by spending a level-up flex dot, or a wholly new Proficiency at 1 dot may be granted by the GM when the character has spent enough time in the relevant context. The fiction grant is in addition to dot-based advancement.

Step 9 in depth: Talents and Biotech Usage

Talents are not freely chosen; they are anchored to people and culture. Every species starts with a fixed set of Talents at 1 dot each (Part IV, Races); every culture grants one or more additional free Talent dots (Part IV, Civitas / Cultures). The character pays for none of these. On top of the baselines, the character receives 3 distributable Talent dots.

Talents stack when species and culture grant the same one: a Bar from a Baramman village starts with Path-Song Memory at 2 dots, one from each source, which is an intended reinforcement. The starting cap of 3 applies to the total, free dots included, not just to distributable dots. A recommended split of the distributable dots is one Talent at +2 and one at +1, leaving baselines at 1 where the player chooses not to invest.

Biotech Usage is the Meir equivalent of System Usage: a parallel skill on its own 1-to-5 track, not a Talent and not Attunement-based. The only route to active Biotech Usage at creation is Vaparian culture, which grants Biotech Usage 1 together with the Vaparian implant. A non-Vaparian character has no Biotech Usage at level 1; the implant can be acquired later in play, opening it as a flex-dot category. Starting cap 3, hard cap 5; its dots are not interchangeable with any other track.

• Distributable Talent dots may: raise a starting Talent above baseline (one dot per dot), acquire a new Talent at 1 dot, or acquire a qualifying species-locked Talent at 1 dot.
• Energy-cost Talents (Brutal Strike and similar) follow the voluntary-spend rule: the system refuses the operation if the cost would fill the Energy track to 10 or beyond. A character at Energy 9 cannot use Brutal Strike that turn.
• For Meir, each filled Ïsuulë box reduces Biotech Usage by 1: the Ark withdraws as the moral burden grows. Lost ratings are rebuilt one per level through flex dots. This applies only to Meir; non-Meir implanted characters do not lose Biotech Usage to Ïsuulë.

Design note on starting power: the 3-dot cap exists because too-strong characters kill the mystery, and without hardship the game is not fun. A Talent at 3 is exceptional; a Talent at 5 is the work of years. The GM can overrule any cap when the fiction justifies it, but the recommendation is to hold the line.

Attunements

Attunements are the character's trained, licensed ways of working the planetary system, the Iru-built substrate that underlies most of what looks like magic in Elshore. Each Attunement covers one functional domain (such as Cognition, Aegis, or Vitalurgy) and is rated 1 to 5 dots. Having an Attunement means the character can issue commands in that domain; the depth of what they can do scales with the dot rating.

Attunements are available only to User-path characters and grëls. Non-user and Meir characters have no Attunements at character creation and cannot issue system commands until they either acquire access through play or, for Iru, reach their Awakening.

At creation, note the source of authorisation on the sheet: Iru native (no further note needed), hereditary grël (born to a grël parent), protocol grël (engineered by the ISEMH grël protocol Technology The Grël Protocol An autonomous ISEMH sub-system initiated in AC 7 on the reawakening of the facility from deep reserve, designed to synthetically re-seed civilization through a programmed bloodl...), Relic-bearing User path (specify the Relic), implant-bearing User path (specify the implant origin), or other (awakened by a Tharuun event, granted by a Sovereignty user, and so on). Hereditary grëls usually know what they are; protocol grëls usually do not.

The full list of Attunement domains, the operation catalogue, and the rules for system command rolls are covered on the System page.

Step 11 in depth: credits, health, and starting equipment

Maximum system credits: 100 active (User or grël), 100 reserved (Non-user, inactive until access is acquired), or zero (Meir). All three damage tracks (Physical, Energy, Psychological) start empty at 0 of 10; each filled box subtracts dice. Pocket coin is 50 imperial credits, the empire's currency, tracked separately from system credits and used for lodging, meals, transit, and basic supplies.

Every character takes the universal package, one culture-specific add-on, and two role-specific items. The total fits in what the character can carry; anything heavier needs GM approval and is unusual at level 1. The GM may trim or pad the package for tone.

• Universal: travel clothing for the home region; one personal token carried for years; food and water for three days; a belt knife or comparable cutting tool; flint and steel (or one equivalent universal command for User-path characters).
• Culture-specific add-on (examples): Northlander imperial papers; Iruel-born Ooliran recitation booklet in Old Arram; Rafadiner Annilian Ltd. hand-tools; Highlander Tir-Kul'ei prayer cord with seven knots; Baramman clan-marked stave; Underground Annil-cut keystone; Dune-bound desert-survival kit; Annilian salvager's loupe and parts caddy; Vaparian biotech access port (implanted, not removable); Caravan circuit road map and recognition tokens; Order-bound vestments and procedural manual.
• Role-specific gear (choose two): a specific trained weapon; riding gear and tack; medical kit; tool kit; cartography kit; minor relic fragment (GM approval); protective clothing or light armour; rope and climbing kit; study kit; trade goods; stealth kit.
• Era-locked add-ons: Capehavener phrasebook and Kingdom harbour passes (post-AC 138 only); Republican identity card, Gendarmerie pass, and civic-doctrine handbook (post-AC 200 only).

Folders

A Folder is what a character carries out of the worst moments, not a wound that heals, but a way of coping with something that did not. In the fiction of Elshore, the planetary system measures moral and psychological weight through a track called Ïsuulë. Each filled Ïsuulë box corresponds to one Folder: a single sentence, written in the character's own voice, naming what they took from that event and how it changed how they move through the world.

Folders are not debuffs to be cleared. They are the texture of who the character has become. A character with three Folders is not broken; they are someone who has survived three things that left a mark. The GM and player agree on what each event was and how it is carried: the coping posture, the avoidance, the compulsion, the ritual.

Mechanically, a filled Ïsuulë box subtracts from the character's effective pool in situations that press on that Folder's wound. For Meir characters, each filled box also strips one tier of Biotech Usage: the Ark withdraws as the Meir's burden grows, and they rebuild one tier per level.

Iru and grëls always begin play with 2 Ïsuulë boxes filled and 2 Folder entries written; their people's history writes itself into them before the campaign begins. Other peoples start with empty Folders unless the GM agrees a pre-campaign event justifies a starting box.

Folders are the signature weight mechanic of After the Chaos. Fiction first: agree on the event, write the sentence, then consult the track. On the sheet, write one Folder line for each filled Ïsuulë box, in the character's own voice.

Sheet conventions

The character sheet has a small number of formatting conventions that keep it readable across many tables. They are not mechanical rules; they are the table manners of how to record what the rules tell you to record.

• Identity block: write Species as it appears in the rulebook (Iru, Maan, Bar, Annil, Erg, Meir), with subspecies if relevant (Northern Erg, Southern Erg). Write Origin as Nationality / Faith (Maaniskaar Empire / Randenist, Vaparium / none). A lapsed believer notes it; Meir typically write the region and none.
• Equipment is a free-form inventory, one item or related set per line, written as the character would describe it. Combat gear is annotated with HP in parentheses; other gear with whatever qualifier helps (colour, length, source, condition).
• Damaged combat gear shows current and maximum HP when they differ (Iruel-forged sabre, +1 Close Combat, HP 2 / 4). Repaired gear returns the current value to maximum; broken gear at HP 0 is struck through or noted as broken until repaired.
• There is no Path field. The System Credits block state reflects current access: Active (User-state or grël), Reserved (Non-user-state), or N/A (Meir). Update it the moment access changes in play; past flex-dot allocations stay where they were spent.
• The implant note field records the in-fiction details of any Vaparian implant: who issued it, where on the body, when, and any conditions. It is reference, not a mechanical field.
• The Quick Combat Stats box is optional pre-calculation: Attack, Dodge, Parry, Block, Armour, and Shield as pre-summed pools, plus weapon, armour, and shield HP. Initiative is not in the box because it is rolled flat from Agility.

Example Characters

Seven example characters show how the procedure produces complete sheets across the six peoples and the available paths. Each carries a Concept tag and a Region as reference only; neither is a mechanical sheet field.

• Trif Bigtooth, Annil, a young Guardian of the Grël still at his post fourteen years after the order was wiped out in AC 36, protecting two hibernating Iru below an ISEMH without knowing relief will not come. The pods are exactly what the Maaniskaar Empire's Eradication Services exists to find; his vigil is the only thing keeping them undiscovered.
• Sila of Three Streams, Bar, a Baramman forest scout who reads forest, breath, and weather, and has chosen Non-user path because the empire's substrate can keep its dice.
• Aelys Voren, Maan, a Vitalurgist healer working at the edges of imperial legality, presented at level 3 with one Folder already written from a patient she could not save. Her psychological spread reflects pre-campaign flex dots, not the level-1 budget.
• Vell of the Quiet, Maan grël, a woman with neon blue protocol-grël eyes hiding in a caravan circuit; the User-path and grël Attunement dots both went into Cognition for a starting rating of 2, Clean Authorization is free at 1 and raised to 2, and the remaining dots went into Cold Read and Veiled Speech.
• Therrahin Vol-Sa, Meir, a four-handed Vaparian envoy, 512 years old, whose two pre-campaign Ïsuulë boxes have stripped her Biotech Usage from 2 to 0 and left the Ark answering only thinly. She rebuilds at one tier per level.
• Eron Sennaaril, Iru, a Voicer initiate in her late thirties dispatched on a mission Iruel does not officially endorse, with native authorisation, the Iruel-born Controlled Breath stacked to 2, an Aegis Attunement, and the 2 starting Folder entries her people carry.
• Hin'sho the Long-Walked, Southern Erg, a Highlands tribesperson fresh from her name-rite and beginning Kulnaro training; +2 Endurance concentrated species package, Cold Discipline, the Ritual Focus species-locked Talent, Snowread from Highlander culture, and Non-user path with the +5 Attribute dots visible in her scores.

Progression

All characters begin at level 1 with 0 XP. The cost to gain each new level is the current level multiplied by 100 XP (level 1 to 2 costs 100, level 2 to 3 costs 200, and so on). XP is awarded by the GM at the end of each session: 10 to 20 for a routine session, 20 to 40 for a significant one, and 50 or more for a major event or arc closure. XP rewards solving real problems, surviving real danger, acting consistently with (or transforming) the character's identity, and roleplay that mattered. Combat victories do not earn XP as such; a desperate flight earns the same XP as a clean win if both were the right outcome.

• Per-level reward (all paths): 3 flex dots to allocate freely to any rated track, Attribute, Ability, Talent, Proficiency, Attunement (if the character has access), or Biotech Usage (if the character has the Vaparian implant). Each dot raises one rating only. Caps still apply.
• Per-level reward (all paths): +100 Maximum system credits, active for User-path and grël characters, reserved for Non-users, and never granted to Meir.
• System credits are spent to issue Attunement commands; they replenish at +100 per level and do not carry over the cap. Unspent credits are lost, not banked; the system recognises effort, not hoarding.
• Meir progression: each filled Ïsuulë box reduces Biotech Usage by 1. Recovery flex dots first restore lost ratings, then raise the rating up to the cap. There is no way to lock the rating against this loss; it is the cost the Ark exacts.
• Non-user transitions: when a Non-user acquires access in play, the reserved credits pool activates immediately at the cap reached, and future flex dots may be spent on Attunement training. Nothing already spent is refunded or moved.
• Hard caps beyond level 1: Attributes rise to 10; everything else caps at 5. The creation soft caps (Attribute 5, Ability 3, Talent 3) no longer apply. Raising Biotech Usage above 3 requires GM approval until level 6, the same soft-cap rule as any rated track.

Other forms of advancement

Some growth is GM-driven and earned rather than purchased. These changes reshape what a character can access, not just how many dots they hold.

• Acquiring a new Relic, through a quest, discovery, or inheritance. For non-Iru User-path characters, this is how new Attunement domains become accessible at all; the relic carries the recognition the body cannot produce.
• Iru Awakening: at any level-up an Iru Non-user may spend a flex dot on their first Attunement and become effectively User-state from that level forward. There is no roll or ritual; the dot is spent and the Attunement opens. The shift is permanent and unidirectional. Iru only; non-Iru bodies are not biologically compatible.
• Gaining authorisation, from a Sovereignty user, by reaching a node, or by passing a test.
• Losing access: an access mechanism (relic, tag, bedn) can be lost, broken, confiscated, or destroyed, after which the character cannot issue commands until they reacquire an equivalent. They retain all Attunement dots, Talent dots, and the credits pool as latent capability; reacquisition reactivates everything immediately. Iru and grëls do not lose access this way; Meir cannot lose what they never had.

Why rewards are unified: earlier drafts had separate per-level tables for User, Non-user, and Meir, almost identical (3 dots in different categories) and only producing bookkeeping confusion. The flex-dot rule preserves the player's choice without locking it to a path label. Path stays descriptive shorthand for the starting position, not a class that constrains advancement.

In the Codex

• The System (Attunements and commands)