New Quality: Nascent Triton Hybrid
7-point Quality

Long ago, before commonly accepted recorded history began, there was a great empire known as Merou, a land of powerful magics and strange sciences which would one day give rise to the legend of Atlantis. As the last great demons were driven from the face of the Earth, an unknown cataclysm struck the very continent on which Merou sat, sending the land plunging into the ocean depths. To survive, the last Merouvians adopted new, aquatic forms, capable of extracting life-giving oxygen from the water around them and of withstanding the pressures of the deep. Over the years, the Tritons, as they styled themselves, also passed into legend, becoming gods and demons, merfolk and Deep Ones. And yet, for all their obscurity, they are very real. And while their empire continues to expand beneath the waves, from time to time, they return to the surface, to have contact and congress with their now all-too-distant human cousins. In such times, hybrids are sometimes born, occasionally giving rise to entire bloodlines which are more than human and connected in some overriding way to the sea. Human for the majority of their lives, these hybrids frequently begin to come into their own around the time of their eighteenth or nineteenth birthday, dreaming strange dreams and discovering new skills, and moving gradually but inexorably toward the point at which they will truly come of age and assume the full range of their abilities.

The Nascent Triton Hybrid Quality uses various Qualities and Drawbacks described in the Angel RPG Corebook to represent just such an adolescent hybrid. It's designed to stack with a later caste-specific Hybrid Quality, and as such, contains only those abilities that are universal to all hybrids. The Nascent Triton Hybrid Quality shouldn't be taken to preclude the purchase of any other Qualities save for Slayer (hybrids cannot be called to that destiny) and any other demonic package Qualities (though there are stories of demon/Triton hybrids, the vast majority - and only playable characters - possess more or less purely human and Triton ancestry). Other exclusions are at the Director's discretion.

Naturally, many of the hybrid's abilities are designed to ease the transition to an amphibious way of life. Each hybrid receives +1 to their Strength and Constitution, making them more resilient in general, as well as +2 to their Dexterity, to improve the natural swimming ability that many seem to possess. The natural resilience of the hybrids is improved by their ability to regenerate a number of points equal to their Constitutions each hour. They also receive Acute Smell, while suffering from Impaired Vision (though contacts or glasses are sufficient to correct this), and have the unique ability to hold their breath five times as long as an ordinary human can under ordinary circumstances. When holding their breath while underwater, specifically, hybrids are able to do so for ten times as long.

Hybrids also possess certain supernatural abilities from the start, including Telepathy and Supernatural Senses (Insight). They also experience Psychic Visions, of the Drawback variety; when receiving such a vision, a hybrid will experience a sensation of suffocation that can lead to incapacitation and other effects as described in the rulebook should the vision last too long. Most of these visions are vague flashes of Triton history and culture, which feed into Recurring Nightmares of strange, Lovecraftian visions of life beneath the surface. Last but far from least, Triton hybrids heal much faster than ordinary humans, regenerating a number of Life Points equal to their Constitution each hour.

As they adjust to their new abilities and impulses, young hybrids run up against Antisocial Impulses (Violence); when in particularly stressful situations, they must make a Willpower (doubled) roll at a -2 penalty to avoid simply attacking indiscriminately. This penalty doubles on the night of the new moon and the nights immediately before and after. As well, the hybrid can be identified as such through various powers and spells, and may be tracked, abducted and/or assailed by other Tritons (for various reasons), cultists, demon hunters and so forth. As such, they receive two levels of the Hunted Drawback (see "Spacefarers and Prairie Folk," Eden Studios Presents Vol. 1) to represent this general threat.

It's important to note that the true nature of Triton culture at large has yet to be revealed within the Greyverse, and even if Merouvian culture is generally malevolent, this does not mean that a Triton hybrid should be considered automatically or irredeemably evil. Though the hybrids do possess certain dark impulses, these are not so strong that they can't be fought and overcome, and individual hybrids can choose their paths just as individual human beings can.