Effect Trees

Effect Trees
Written By The Developer

Nurturing and mastering Effect Trees allow our characters to do the impossible. From our Core Effect Tree that loosely defines our characters Archetype and gives us a a basis of the kind of back story our character may have had, to the devastating and world altering Crown Effects, our choices in how we grow help us shape our fantasy.

Core Effect Tree: The core sets of Effects our characters can choose at level One. When we choose our Core Effect Tree, we unlock all of the Talents and Boons associated with it.

Talents: These special abilities have a Mastery Potential of 3. When they are mastered, the character unlocks the Root Effect associated with the Talent.

Boons: Boons are items, equipment, or real estate granted by a Core Effect Tree.

Root Effect: These special abilities usually have a Mastery Potential of 5. Mastering them may unlock Branch Effects.

Branch Effect: These special abilities are upgrades of Root Effects. Once a Branch Effect is unlocked, Leaf Effects become available.

Leaf Effects: These are either upgrades to Root or Branch effects. Abilities not associated to Core Effect Trees, Root Effects, or Branch Effects are Leaf Effects that may be added to any Branch.

Crown Effects: These are the Ultimate Abilities in the game.

Featured
Effect Tree Progression

At level One we get to unlock one Core Effect Tree.

  • Beyond that we may spend experience points to unlock more Root Effects, Leaf Effects, or Crown Effects.

  • The barriers for unlocking Effect Trees are written into their entries.

  • Mastery unlocks the Root Effects associated with the Talents in our Core Effect Trees.

  • We may also spend our Experience, xps, to unlock additional Root Effects.

Branch Effects are unlocked by getting the prerequisite Mastery in Root Effects.

  • In many cases a certain amount of Mastery is required from multiple Root Effects to unlock a Branch Effect.

Leaf Effects are only available once a Branch Effect is unlocked.

  • Each Branch Effect has a pre-determined Number of Leaf Slots.

  • Leaf Slots may be upgrades or unrelated to the Roots & Branches.

  • Leaf Effects cost xps to learn.

  • Leaf Effects may be discarded by going through Abscission.

Crown Effects are the ultimate abilities in Vaia and cost a significant amount of Experience, xps, to unlock.

  • It is common to fill the tree with Leaf Effects, then go through Abscission to regain the experience needed to unlock a Crown Effect.

Unlock by Study or Apprenticeship: Some Effect Trees may be unlocked by reading special books or receiving special training.

  • These can not be Reserialized to gain experience.

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Effect Tree Reserialization

Abscission is a voluntary discarding of Leaf Effects to regain xps.

  • Abscission usually takes up to a week and one day, (v:8), and is commonly done to learn Crown Effects.

Epiphany: An epiphany is when we discard enough Leaf Effects to learn a Root or Crown Effect instantly.

  • An Epiphany causes 5 Mental Stress.

  • This may only be done to learn one Effect at a time.

Pruning: We can regain spent xps by Pruning Root Effects or Crown Effects.

  • Pruning leaves us Vulnerable for (v:4) days.

  • Any Branch Effects associated with Root Effects that are Pruned are also lost.

  • Only one Effect may be Pruned at a time.

  • Core Effect Trees can not be pruned.

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Core Effect Trees

The Developer

If you stumbled here by accident, that’s all gravy. We use these pages in our archives as templates, style guides, reference content, and reusable assets. I’m also getting to write the FAQ, which is fun.

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Effect Tree Reserialization
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