This is a quick summary of much of what has been revealed about Invisible Sun. We will update this article as we post updates with more information.
In Invisible Sun, your character is a magic-using person called a vislae. Your character statement is:
“I am a [FOUNDATION] [HEART] of the order of [ORDER] who [FORTE].”
(But that sentence isn’t what drives and guides character creation.) (For most vislae, these concepts are represented physically by a token they carry.)
Foundation represents the character’s past, their relationships, their living situation, and their general circumstances. In Invisible Sun, none of these things are inconsequential “character background” but instead are vital parts of the game.
Heart is the very basis of your character—your purest, truest self. Each of the four is associated with a classical element, one of the Sooth Deck families, an animal, and an object.
Order is an organization that a vislae belongs to, and can advance within, which determines the way they express their magical talents.. The orders are:
- Vances, who tame spells as you’d tame a wild creature. (video)
- Goetics, who forge deals with powerful entities. (video)
- Makers, who focus their magic into things that they craft. (video)
- Weavers, who take various qualities called aggregates (such as “moonlight” and “shields”) and weave them together to create custom spells. (video)
- Apostates, who are excommunicated from the orders (sometimes voluntarily), and use bits of magic from the other orders and mix it with their own discoveries. (video)
Forte reflects a talent or focus that is essentially unique to the character.
Vislae use secrets like currency. They are said to have seven secrets (including that they have secret souls). Those who fled to Shadow to escape the war have returned with a skill and memento from that experience.
Vislae understand that the Sooth Deck represents the magical connections between all things. (video, and read Monte’s Design Diary about the Sooth Deck’s many uses!)
Character creation is an ongoing process, for during the campaign, events occur, secrets are discovered, and lore is mastered that alter characters in both personality and abilities. (video) In the first session of the game, you and the other players finish creating your characters, establish connections to each other, and add interesting features to their neighborhoods. Players choose an initial story arc for their character, which means the players and GM are working together to create the story for the campaign.
Vislae use magic in the form of spells, the most fundamental way in which a person can wield magic. Spells and artifacts can be used again and again. Ephemera are items or abilities that are fleeting, such as a potion, talisman, or incantation. Death is not the end for a vislae, merely a state of being, and it is possible to keep playing as a ghost. (video) Long form magic are invocations, enchantments, and rituals that take a long time to perform and have requirements.
There are three stats: Certes, Qualia, and Hidden Knowledge.
Characters earn different resources to learn different kinds of abilities.
There are three modes of gameplay: Action Mode, Narrative Mode, and Development Mode. Invisible Sun is different than other RPGs because it integrates Development Mode into the game at the core level.
The Path of Suns is a representation of the way magic works, the known levels of existence, the stages of a life, and the makeup of the mortal soul, all in one. It is a symbol. A metaphor. A diagram. A map. (video) Beyond it is the Dark.
Each sun has a warden. Wardens are guardians, gatekeepers, protectors, and in some cases rulers.
The suns are:
- Silver Sun, which represents birth, beginnings, and potential.
- Green Sun, which represents life, growth, flourishing, and prosperity.
- Blue Sun, which represents the unnoticed, the future, and dreams.
- Indigo Sun, which is truth, and the location of the city of Satyrine.
- Grey Sun, which is shadow, illusion.
- Pale Sun, which is death—a place, not a state of existence.
- Red Sun, which is destruction, annihilation, and change.
- Gold Sun, which represents new beginnings, redemption, mercy, and forgiveness.
- Invisible Sun, which the source of magic, mystery, and wonder.
The Nightside Path is a current of magic that flows through the suns in the opposite order of the traditional Path of Suns, starting with Gold and moving back up to Silver.
- Nightside of the Gold Sun is new beginnings and new rules.
- Nightside of the Red Sun is chaos, destruction, and constant upheaval.
- Nightside of the Pale Sun is a place of quiet, desolation, and dread.
- Nightside of the Gray Sun is an empty, featureless place.
- Nightside of the Indigo Sun is dark, secret truths.
- Nightside of the Blue Sun is the beginning of the end.
- Nightside of the Green Sun is ravenous, expansive, even dangerous growth of life.
- Nightside of the Silver Sun is true endings, utter finality, forgetting, fading, and loss.
