Primary Talents
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Talents are matters of innate aptitude, requiring no training to develop, and they improve primarily or exclusively through experience. Characters get better at them only by doing them regularly. It's possible to attempt actions related to Talents that a character doesn't possess. Everyone (or nearly everyone) possesses a rudimentary grasp of each Talent, even without the minimal competence required for one dot's worth.
Alertness
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This talent indicates your character's (small-a) awareness of the world around her. She is practiced in keeping one ear to the wind and one eye to the sky, even when distracted with other things. Alertness is a measure of how well your character picks up on subtle details and changes in her environment. This Talent is typically paired with Perception, and is best used when sensing physical stimuli (as opposed to moods or clues).
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Athletics
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Athletics is aptitude for physical exertion, be it during relatively formal sports or simply in the course of active life. Climbing rocky cliffs, leaping chasms or playing brilliant games of badminton are all Athletics-based feats. This ability describes your character's general athletic prowess in both team and individual sports. It assumes a familiarity with the rules and play of the sport in question. Athletic feats that are directly related to combat are covered by Brawl, Dodge, Melee, and the other combat abilities, except in the case of thrown weapons. These require Athletics.
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Awareness
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Similar to Alertness, but for supernatural things not obvious to normal senses. See House Rules/Awareness.
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Brawl
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Brawling is the ability to fight without a weapon, including basic hand-to-hand maneuvers such as punching, kicking, grappling, throwing, scratching and biting. Brawling can get quite ruthless and sometimes inflicts serious damage if done properly.
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Do
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The Do skill represents a character’s all-around dedication to Akashic training methods, with an emphasis on the Dharmamukti, or unarmed combat arts. Do is the “secret art” whose many names are whispered of in martial arts legends, the progenitor of more modern forms and the most efficient, effective style of unarmed combat in existence. As a vital part of the Akashic paradigm, it serves as the focus for much of the Brotherhood’s magic. So much so that the magical and mundane aspects of the art are considered inseparable. Other Abilities must be purchased to learn it, and it is restricted to Akashic Brothers and very close allies. For more information, see WW4657 Tradition Book Akashic Brotherhood (Revised Edition) 61 and Advanced Combat
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Dodge
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Whether your character dives for cover, ducks a punch or sidesteps an arrow, he knows the best way to avoid injury is not getting hit. Dodge simply describes your character's ability to get out of the way of any oncoming attacks. Dodge is the ability to get out of harm's way, whether in combat or in the face of other sorts of danger. It encompasses the use of cover and agile maneuvering, and it comes from the systematic training of a knight or the tough-and-ready experience and instincts of a thief or brawler. Dodges plays a crucial role in survival of any character who fights often, greatly increasing his chances of escaping damage.
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Empathy
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Empathy is the ability to pinpoint what others are feeling. Through awareness of their facial expressions, body language and tone, your character gains a sense of the other person's general attitude, including her emotional state and her motives. With high levels of this trait, your character can sometimes tell whether someone is lying or not. Successful use of this talent prior to attempting to persuade, intimidate or use subterfuge on the same person reduces the difficulty number on the second action by one; failure increases the difficulty number by one.
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Expression
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Expression is the art of getting your point across, no matter what the medium. Expression covers the creation and delivery of speeches, poetry, and other writing.
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Intimidation
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The art of intimidation takes many forms from subtle threats to outright physical harm. Choice of method depends on the time, the place and those involved. Characters with this talent know how to get what they want from others when they want it.
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Kenning
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Kenning is the faerie sight, the ability to sense Glamour in whatever form it takes, be it a chimera, a changeling, or a freehold. Among other things, this talent allows a changeling to recognize a changeling who has slipped into the Mists or who has yet to achieve Chrysalis, sense the relative power of a chimera, and locate freeholds and trods. This insight is usually an impression. Gremayre is required to know specifics about what the changeling senses.
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Leadership
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You are an example to others and can inspire them to do what you want. Leadership has less to do with manipulating people's desires than it does with presenting yourself as the sort of person they want to follow. This Talent is usually paired with Charisma rather than Manipulation.
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Primal Urge
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This talent describes not only the bestial nature inside every shifter (or animal, for that matter), but also the level of gut feelings the character has in nonhuman forms. Characters with high Primal Urge can more easily rely on animal instincts for guidance and find it easier to transform into their non-human shapes. Moreover, werewolves with strong Primal-Urge find it easier to assume their various forms or take on partial transformations.
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Shentao
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Somewhere in the nexus of magic, Intuition, and Perception lays Shentao. It is the ability to perceive the shen and those humans who consort or hunt them. It is also the ability to divine the presence of drago lines and dragon nests. Shentao is partly cultural, therefore, hsien find it difficult to interpret the nature of Western supernaturals (+2 to the difficulty number).
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Streetwise
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The streets can be a major source of information, aid and money, but their culture and rules of conduct are as complex as the noble courts. The streetwise talent indicates how versed your character is with the local rumor mill, street slang and street etiquette. It represents her savvy when among the less desirable elements of society, and determines not only how well she can survive but thrive and fit in among them.
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Subterfuge
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This trait determines your character's ability to conceal his motives and feelings. Moreover, it allows him to decipher the motives of others and use their own plans against them. Subterfuge is the fine art of lying, deceit and underhanded manipulation. Characters skilled in this talent know how to call upon their best theatrics to influence situations and divert the blame without others realizing they've been manipulated.
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