The Brimo
A giant fills the frame while a crowd floods the valley below, unable to tell whether it is protector or catastrophe, the Brimo’s condition exactly: force enough that intention becomes almost beside the point. The Colossus, traditionally attributed to Francisco Goya, c. 1808–1812. Museo del Prado, Madrid. Public domain.
Βριμώ: “the raging one,” “the terrible.” One of Hecate’s oldest epithets, and one of Persephone’s. Also an epithet of Demeter in the Eleusinian mysteries. The root brimē: strength, force, the quality of making others tremble.
Also called: the Pressed, the Held, the Raging. Common parlance: Fury, Berserker, the Terrible.
The Force threshold is not about violence as a skill. It’s about violence as a condition.
You said yes to something that overwhelms ordinary human limits: raw force, the capacity for devastation, the terrible clarity of someone who no longer flinches. You may have wanted protection. Vengeance. Survival at any price. What you got was this: something inside you that does not stop. The bargain gave you extraordinary capability in moments of force. The geas gave you something that presses against containment, always, looking for a way out.
The distinction between a Brimo who carries Sustains Themselves on the Living and the Hungry is this: the Hungry’s condition is a lack. The Brimo’s condition is an excess. One hungers. The other holds.
What you are is not a warrior, though you may be one. A surgeon who can cut without hesitation, a negotiator who carries something cold and crushing in the room, an artist whose work frightens people who cannot say why — any of these can cross the Force threshold. The force does not care what form it takes. It only cares that it is eventually expressed.
You are not dangerous because you know how to fight. You are dangerous because something in you does not have the same relationship to destruction that ordinary people do. The body it inhabits is yours. The body it inhabits is also, in some important sense, a container.
Background Options
- You were protecting someone who couldn’t protect themselves. The force worked. The problem was what happened after.
- You were losing, badly, finally, completely, and you made the bargain with your back to the wall. It saved you. You have not stopped being afraid of what you agreed to.
- You thought you could control it. You were right for longer than most people are. Then you weren’t.
- The force was offered to you as a gift by someone who presented themselves as a teacher. You accepted. They are gone now. The force is not.
- You were already someone who understood force: a soldier, a fighter, someone for whom violence had long been a tool. The bargain did not change you. It clarified you. The difference is subtle and terrifying.
- The threshold crossed you, not the other way around. Something forced a choice upon you and you made it in the half-second available, and now here you are.
- You made the bargain for reasons you no longer fully understand. The person you were at that moment seems distant and strange. You are still trying to remember why they thought this was a good idea.
Brimo Abilities
You gain all of the following benefits:
- Able to take three more minor wounds and one more moderate wound
- Add +3 to Might Pool
- Add +1 to Speed Pool
- Add +1 Edge in Pool of your choice (Might recommended)
- Freely use all weapons
- Freely use light and medium armour
- At tier 3 and tier 6, choose an ability from the Sanctuary Genre Abilities list
Pressure Reading: You sense the capacity for force or violence in any person or creature within short range. Without being told, you know if someone is suppressing aggression, about to act on it, or has decided. You gain an asset on tasks to identify the most dangerous person in a group, to act first in a situation about to turn violent, and to notice hostility that has not yet surfaced. Enabler.
Contained Force (3+ Might): You direct the internal force into one precise action: an attack, a feat of strength, or a display of devastating capability. The action is eased by two steps. On a successful attack, deal +2 additional damage. Unless you immediately perform your containment action (a brief, instant, no-action reset you define when you take this type: a word, a gesture, a specific breath; something that is yours), the Geas advances by 1 state. Effort: Each additional level of Effort adds +2 damage. Action.
Hard to End: The force in you is not particularly concerned with whether your body continues to function. When you take a major wound, you may immediately take one action before the wound’s hindrance applies. After that action, the wound’s effects apply normally. At tier 3, this extends to moderate wounds as well: when you take your last moderate wound, you may take one action before all your actions become hindered. Enabler.
Brimo Equipment Bundle
A weapon of your choice (the one you have always reached for), appropriate clothing for your context, a way to bind your hands if they need to be controlled, something that belonged to someone who trusted you before you became this, and currency enough to replace what you break.
Or assemble your own: appropriate clothing, one expensive item, five moderately priced items, six inexpensive items, and currency equivalent to a moderately priced item.
The Geas: The Pressure Within
The force presses. The Geas tracks containment.
Trigger: The Geas advances by 1 state when you use Contained Force without performing your containment action, are physically restrained for more than a moment, witness significant violence you cannot act on, or are deliberately humiliated, cornered, or held against your will.
State 0 — Settled: Baseline. You are managing the force. No penalties. You are, to anyone looking, a person.
State 1 — Stirring: The edges show. Tasks requiring patience, sustained attention, or gentle social presence are hindered. You are not dangerous yet. You are hard to calm.
State 2 — Rising: The force is close to the surface. You gain a free level of Effort on all Might-based attack rolls. However, you also take +1 damage from any successful attack against you — the force does not distinguish between direction and does not particularly care about the vessel.
State 3 — Breaking: The force has its say. For one scene, you act on the force’s agenda rather than your own. You do not necessarily become violent, the force is not stupid, but you are not driving. All Might and Speed actions during this scene are eased. All Intellect actions are hindered by two steps. When the scene ends, the Geas returns to State 2.
Relief: Once per scene, a deliberate act of channelled force, not reactive, not incidental, but chosen and purposeful, drops the Geas by 1 state. Breaking something significant. Completing a physically demanding task with full attention. A specific kind of violence with intention behind it, not just reaction. The act must be voluntary and directed. The force must feel it was given something rather than simply suppressed.
Cypher Manifestation Styling
Brimo styling for Cypher Manifestation will be detailed in the Sanctuary Manifestation Guide. Provisional: styling expresses as kinetic, pressure-based, and visceral. The force has a direction. It shows in the body.
See also: The Axiomata, Character Foci, Character Types