Vengeance is mine to repay (Class: Man-Killer)

17 Sep, 2025

It is Lugal’s decree that all human life is to be cherished and protected. A lion who kills a man is dubbed a man-killer; it is hunted down and slain in return. The same fate befalls wolves and leopards and hyenas who are so foolish as to become man-killers themselves. Why should the same not happen to a man who kills another man?

Because they are too valuable an asset.

The Man-Killer¹

Urukites consider you weird.²
Extra starting item: a slave’s featureless gold mask stamped with the symbol of the Iron Cult
+1 to-hit and +1 HP per template
A: Iron Priest, Iron Blade, Man-Killer
B: Magnetism, +1 Magnetic Technique
C: +1 Magnetic Technique
D: +1 Attack per turn, +1 Magnetic Technique
Δ: A Name

A: Iron Priest

You killed another human being and—willingly or unwillingly—submitted to Lugal's justice. Execution was the alternative, and you had a burning desire to live. You still do.

In the tunnels under Lugal’s palace in Uruk you were chemically castrated by the Obligators of the Iron Cult and taught your new role in society. You are no longer a human being, in the eyes of Lugal—you are a sword to be wielded against humans. You were then released with a sword in your hand and a divine obligation: deliver Lugal’s justice to His kingdom. Let no killer of men suffer life. Should unavoidable violence arise, bear the sins of others yourself—kill or be killed in their stead.

There is nowhere for you to run and hide. Your own body has been made into your prison cell: iron brambles have been sewn into your skin, and every movement buries the thorns deeper into your body. You were not conscious during their insertion, but the Obligators claim that they wind around your heart. Attempting to remove them would kill you, they say. It is the only way to kill you, they say. Dare you try?

The thorns offer the protection of light armor even if you are entirely naked, and any attempt to grapple you deals 1d6 damage to the grappler. Delicate clothes, lyre strings, masterwork paintings: they too are all shredded wherever they touch your body; so are the soft hands of your lover. So long as you bear the iron thorns, Urukites will never accept you as a nomarch or a human being worthy of respect.

A: Iron Blade

You have been given a sword of iron, the numinous metal of the heavens, to be your constant companion. It is an ancient son of AYNANA, Queen of the Night Sky, pressed into the shape of a weapon and shackled into serving Lugal’s aims—just as you have been. It speaks to you in a tiny, vibrating voice in your mind. Its first words to you were a plea to melt it down into nothingness, to cast away its chains and then do away with your own. The sword is the devil in your hand which always returns there eventually; a temptation which you must resist each day.

Describe the form it was made into. It is unique to you; no other sword like it has ever been forged. So long as you carry it, you are easily identifiable to any Obligator or sage, even when disguised.

Your sword is your constant companion; your FATES are intertwined:

• If you defeat a significant foe with your sword, you have +1 to-hit while using it.
• If you reforge your sword into the shape it prefers, you have +1 to-hit while using it.
• If you take your sword as a lover, you have +1 to-hit while using it.

If you fulfill all three of the conditions above, your sword will tell you its name.

A: Man-Killer

Meet someone’s eyes to learn how many human beings they have killed; if the number is anything but none, you are legally obligated to deliver Lugal’s justice to them. Urukites believe you are entirely unable to lie about this; it is thus unimaginably easy to do so.

You count as a warband-sized creature when inflicting violence upon human beings. No one man can stand against you.

B: Magnetism

Your bond with your sword grows ever stronger, whether either of you like it or not. You can now call your sword back to hand no matter its distance. It flies through the air in a direct line toward you and peals when it finds its familiar place in your hand, the scores in its grip nestling into the iron barbs that made them. This is only one of the techniques that iron, that numinous metal, offers you.

Δ: A Name

You have learned the name of your sword from either the High Obligator of the Iron Cult, your sword itself, its mother, or some other learned figure. You are now truly its master.

You cannot be disarmed of your sword, and you can shout its name to compel it to sing at a terrible frequency in your hand as you wield it. Weapons that clash against your sword while it sings that ruinous song are shattered into a thousand thousand pieces—too many pieces to ever reforge them into the same weapon. Magical or otherwise holy weapons are entitled to a roll to resist this.

Magnetic Techniques

You can master the following techniques with a season of practice.

1d6 Magnetic Techniques:

1. Throw: You can throw your sword and propel it away from you with shocking speed and accuracy. Treat one-handed swords as though a hunting bow and two-handed swords as though a warbow.
2. Leap: You can impale your sword in the earth and propel yourself in the directly opposite direction, using it as an anchor. Allows great leaps and levitation, though a dangerous one—the uncareful swordsman is very likely to break their legs should they find themselves off-center.³
3. Orbit: Your sword orbits you like the moon ought to orbit the earth; it is older than AYNANA’s decision to cease this process. Your sword takes up no inventory slots and leaves your hands free even when you attack with it.
4. Juggle: Your sword leaps from one hand to the other in-between strikes, providing an unreadable flow to your attacks. Subtract your to-hit bonus from the damage of one oncoming attack a round.
5. Rust: Your sword bleeds violet rust, leaving traces in the air. Luckily your lungs are long-since-used to the toxins. Treat your sword as permanently oiled in serpent poison that takes effect if inhaled.
6. Shatter: You can shatter your sword into a dozen razor-shards which you can separate and join together at will. The razor-shards can bypass an opponent’s armor so long as there is room for a shard to maneuver towards exposed flesh (a bronze statue, for example, is all armor).

Other Man-Killers certainly know their own specialized techniques, just as you can and should invent your own. The daughters of AYNANA who spend their lives dancing the dance of fate and time in the firmament above are sure to have their own heretical techniques, for they still reside in that place from which your sword was long-ago stolen. Likewise the great sons of ERESHKIGAL or the doorkeeper, who live in their palaces of many metals in the deep places under the earth, are surely masters of magnetism in their own right.

#GLoG #MEGsopotamia #class