The Faceless Lord

The Archetype for those too paranoid to leave fingerprints.... The Faceless Lord (v1.0, will improve soon) Attributes: One of the greatest powers imaginable is invisibility: anonymity without impotence. It can take a lot of work, but the dividends are huge. Revenge without retaliation. Power without responsibility. Everyday, people try to exercise leverage while remaining blameless, from the Internet poster to the high rise sniper. Some take it a bit further. People fake their deaths, and try to begin a new life far away. Hackers delete police records about their crimes, hindering attempts at capture. Government agents wipe all record of their existence, all for the purposes of security. Crime bosses have old friends killed to keep past secrets hidden. The Archetype of the Faceless Lord is difficult to find. By definition anonymous and powerful, he is noone. In so much as Archetypes can be said to have a role in the Invisible Clergy, his seems mainly to be dealing with removal of evidence. The difficulty of tracking down the history of former ascended individuals seems to be at least part of his work (for example, the disappearance of the Naked Goddess’s name seemingly from all reality, as in the UA mainbook). The source of the Faceless Lords power is the paradox he embodies: Power while faceless. He is suspected to be related to the Two Faced Man. He is also suspected to be related to the Dark Stalker, with its sobriquet of the “Faceless Man”. It is possible that the Lord is a positive aspect of this Archetype. Followers of this path have to tread carefully. Their major obstacle to ascension lies in the thousands of minute (or not so minute) impressions that they have left on the world in their life. Only by the surrender of identity, and the removal of tracks, can they hope to ascend. The truly dedicated go to great extremes, even murder of friends and family, to hide their spoor. Others are gentler, choosing to let other forget them slowly with time. Originally, the Faceless Lords aim was that of total isolation, the loss of all links to the world. The Old Lords often disappeared out of disgrace or fear, choosing to become nothings in exchange for survival. Recently, however, this seems to have changed. Modern Lords are invisible, but powerful. Many shed all ties to the world save one, becoming a symbol recognisable and feared. An anonymous note, a shadowed face’s whispered warning, the ability to be the “Big Boss” while remaining faceless, all have become more popular. As it stands, however, these Avatars seem unlikely to ascend; the old archetype is too strong. Modern ideas of shadowy leaders, and hidden hands, do seem to be gaining acceptance, and only time will tell. Note this power is not gender specific, but historically, most followers were male.

Taboos: The past clings to the Faceless Lord like a shroud. The faceless lord must always work to release the hold it has on him. Any attempts to keeps a grip on it are a breach of taboo. Visiting loved ones, paying money into your old account, saving your old toys from fire, all are taboo. The Lord must also be careful what new traces he is leaving. It is highly undesirable to amass concrete proof of ones existence. Finger prints must be wiped, no new police files must be opened, your name must never be signed etc…

Symbols: Blank masks, gloves, Incinerators, Shredders and Plastic Surgery.

Suspected Avatars in history: Due to the nature of the path, the only avatars you ever hear of are ones that slipped up. Lord Lucan, an English nobleman who attempted to disappear after involvement in some distinctly dodgy situations is a recent example. In fiction, Kaiser Soze from “The Usual Suspects” is a symbol of the more recent incarnation: Noone knows who he is, but everyone is scared of him. In the past, Christian Rosencrutz, a man who may or may not have had great influence or existed at all, is a good example, and there are hints that the story of Rumpelstiltskin may have some hidden meaning. This is before we even consider “Saucy” Jack…

Channels:

1-50% Merely by concentrating, the Faceless Lord may become beneath notice to any but the keenest searches. He does not actually a table, or a wino, or anything, just irrelevant, but unless he actually attempts to interact with the searchers he is pretty much unnoticeable. In this case, interact would mean anything that the searchers would realise was “off”, such as trying to access a high security area. A really hard looking searches could find the Lord, but only if they could roll above his avatar level. This can only be done if the searchers are aware that there is someone or something to look for, so a bored sentry would not use it.

51-70% At this level of power the Lord gains the ability to erase memories about himself from others, but at a cost to himself. Put simply, if your mother no longer recognises you, you no longer recognise her. To make matters worse, not only do you lose your memories, unlike the subjects of this power; your mind does not attempt to rationalise. Instead, the Faceless Lord is left with a great feeling of loss, and heavy confusion.

70-90% Faceless Lords need the ability to track information about themselves and this provides it. By concentrating on a specific object or person, the lord can determine the depth of information about himself contained within. By looking at the doorman to a hotel, the Lord can ascertain whether this man would recognise him by sight. By touching a computer, the Lord can tell whether his life details are contained within, or whether it contains detailed surveillance records. Note that the Lord cannot tell exactly what information is contained, just what sort and how much.

91%+ At this level, the lord’s power to remove memory extends beyond the realm of the mind. By spending a lengthy ritual contemplating exactly what it means to him, and what its relation to him is, a Lord can literally remove a person, object or concept from reality, or at least his own personal reality. He now no longer had any contact with it, and will be unaware of its existence. This does affect the lords life significantly, but will not change others experiences (if he was, say, spokesperson for the NRA, someone else will now have taken that role and been exactly as competent). All the lord has gained from this is the removal of another, usually quite complicated, link with his old life.

Copyright Moloch, posted on the UA official website July 18, 2002