[Token Add: 1]
Your Hero’s Motivation is the personal drive that keeps them moving forward. It may be a goal, responsibility, obsession, promise, fear, relationship, unanswered question, or belief they refuse to abandon.
Every Hero begins with 1 GRAY MOTIVATION TOKEN.
When your Motivation Token is drawn, consider how your Hero’s motivation is present in that moment. It does not need to be the direct subject of the Performance. Instead, ask what keeps your Hero trying, what they stand to gain or lose, or what memory, promise, fear, or desire pushes them forward.
Your written Motivation can be as brief or detailed as you like. It should answer one broad question:
Above all, what drives your Hero?
A Motivation may change as a Hero changes. When major experiences fundamentally alter what matters to your Hero, work with the WorldKeeper to rewrite their Motivation.
EXAMPLE MOTIVATIONS Copy link
A Motivation describes something important enough to keep a Hero moving when remaining where they are would be easier. It might be a promise, an unanswered question, an ambition, a person they refuse to abandon, an injustice they cannot ignore, or simply the conviction that there must be something more beyond the life they already know.
The examples below are starting points rather than restrictions. Origin may shape a Hero’s experiences and perspective, but it does not determine what they care about. Borrow a Motivation, alter one, combine several ideas, or use them to inspire something entirely your own.
A good Motivation should suggest action. It gives the Hero a reason to leave safety behind, make difficult choices, form relationships, take risks, and remain involved when the path forward becomes uncertain.
ASTRALKIN Copy link
Lives Beneath Greater Forces Copy link
Astralkin often possess an unusual relationship with Rhuna's oldest forces, histories, and mysteries. Their Motivations may concern the Threads, celestial phenomena, forgotten origins, ancient obligations, or the consequences of powers larger than themselves.
Yet an Astralkin need not be consumed by cosmic purpose. Some of the strongest Motivations are intensely personal—a person they love, a place they call home, a promise made in private, or the desire to determine who they are beyond the expectations attached to their Origin.
Example Motivations | |
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Zaltar | I need to understand why the Threads have begun behaving differently around me. I promised I would protect the people who gave me a home, even if it means defying my own kind. I have seen what happens when power is left unchecked, and I refuse to watch it happen again. Someone believes I was created for a purpose. I intend to decide for myself whether they are right. I encountered something within the Threads that should not have been there, and I cannot pretend I did not see it. |
Rhunai | I want to discover whether the old stories about my people are actually true. Someone I loved disappeared searching for an ancient place, and I intend to finish their journey. I believe the divisions between the peoples of Erevath can be overcome, and I intend to prove it. I inherited a story everyone treats as legend. Too many details fit the world around me for it to be coincidence. I have spent my life studying what came before. Now I want to know what should come next. |
Karthine | There is something wrong with the world that everyone else seems willing to accept. I am not. I want to understand the lives of people unlike me rather than merely observe them from afar. I carry knowledge entrusted to me by someone who died protecting it, and I need to learn why. I once believed understanding was enough. I have learned that sometimes knowledge demands action. There is a pattern connecting events that should have nothing to do with one another. I intend to discover what lies beneath it. |
Veloth | I need to know whether what I am determines what I will become. I have spent my life being feared for something I did not choose. I intend to become something of my own choosing. The Wither has touched too much of my life already. I will not allow it to claim anyone else. Someone once treated me as a person when everyone else saw a threat. I have never forgotten it. There are truths about my existence that others would rather I never discover. That only makes me more determined to find them. |
VATHIAN Copy link
Fragments, Instinct & Identity Copy link
Every Vathian exists as part of a history that began with something far greater than themselves. Though the fractured gods from which their peoples descend may shape their bodies, senses, traditions, and cultures, no Vathian is defined solely by that inheritance.
Their Motivations often emerge from physical tradition, unusual perception, community, survival, transformation, legacy, and the tension between instinct and individual choice. Some seek to understand what they inherited. Others want nothing more than to become something their ancestors never imagined.
Example Motivations | |
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Gahlian Dalo | My strength failed someone once. I refuse to let that happen again. I want to build something that will outlast every battle I have survived. Everyone expects me to solve problems through force. I want to discover what else I can become. There is someone stronger than me whom I once believed could never be defeated. I intend to prove myself wrong. I was taught that strength exists to protect others. I need to decide what that actually means. |
Gahlian Cora | I was entrusted with the safety of someone who no longer wants my protection. I want my name to mean something other than the deeds of those who came before me. There is a place I could not defend. Someday I will return strong enough to reclaim it. I have carried responsibility for others for so long that I no longer know what I want for myself. Someone I once protected became someone I now have reason to fear. I need to understand what happened to them. |
Kalthir | I am following a trail no one else believes exists. Something about the world has changed, and I can sense it even if I cannot yet explain how. I left home searching for someone whose memory I refuse to surrender. My instincts warn me about a place everyone else considers harmless. I need to know why. There are things I perceive that I have never been able to explain to anyone else. Somewhere, I believe, there is someone who understands. |
Pahric | I have seen something on the horizon that I cannot forget. I want to see what lies beyond every boundary someone tells me not to cross. I witnessed an injustice from afar and chose not to act. I will not make that choice again. There is a road no one from my home has ever returned from. I intend to discover where it leads. I have spent my life watching the world change around me. For once, I want to be the reason something changes. |
Ezhani | There is a sound I have heard since childhood, and I need to discover its source. I want to create something beautiful enough to be remembered after I am gone. Someone silenced a truth my people needed to hear. I intend to give it a voice again. I once heard something I was never meant to hear, and I still do not understand what it meant. I believe memory can survive through what we create. There is someone I refuse to allow the world to forget. |
NUHLRIN Copy link
Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Reasons Copy link
Nuhlrin Motivations are as varied as the Nuhlrin themselves. Family, ambition, wealth, discovery, community, justice, revenge, curiosity, love, belonging, faith in an idea, or simply the desire for a different life may be enough to send one beyond familiar roads.
Their Motivations often provide some of the most immediate reasons for adventure. A Nuhlrin does not require a cosmic destiny or ancient inheritance to change the world. Sometimes a debt, a promise, an unanswered question, or one person worth crossing Rhuna for is enough.
Example Motivations | |
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Ereth | I need to prove that the future does not have to resemble the past. My family sacrificed too much for me to waste the life they gave me. I am searching for the truth behind a story everyone else dismisses as superstition. Someone from my community vanished and everyone has accepted an explanation I do not believe. I want to return home someday with proof that the world is larger than we were taught. |
Duranine | I intend to build something no one can take away from me again. I owe a debt that cannot be repaid with money. My people taught me endurance. Now I need to discover what is worth enduring for. Everything I owned was once taken from me. I will never again allow another person to decide whether I have a future. I know how to survive hardship. I want to learn how to create something better than survival. |
Corvian | I know someone is lying about what happened, and I intend to expose them. I want enough influence that I never have to watch helplessly again. I left someone behind believing I would return. I still intend to keep that promise. There is a secret everyone around me seems determined to preserve. That is reason enough for me to uncover it. I once used what I knew to protect myself instead of someone else. I intend to make that mistake matter. |
Imari | The world is larger than the life others planned for me, and I intend to see it. I am looking for somewhere—or someone—that finally feels like home. There is one question about my past that nobody will answer honestly. I was given every reason to stay where I was. None of them were mine. Someone once told me exactly who I would become. I have spent every day since proving them wrong. |
Meridian | I want to leave behind something that proves my life mattered. I have spent years following other people's plans. The next decision will be mine. I believe something valuable has been forgotten, and I intend to recover it. I want to create something no one has ever seen before, even if I must cross half of Rhuna to learn how. I have achieved everything I was told should satisfy me. It did not. I need to discover what will. |
ORVAH Copy link
Kinship, Wildness & Belonging Copy link
Orvah Motivations often grow from kinship, freedom, survival, ancestral responsibility, instinct, spirits, old traditions, and the changing Wildlands.
Many Orvah Heroes also find themselves negotiating the space between worlds. Tradition may give them identity without providing every answer. The outside world may offer freedom while demanding compromise. Their journeys can become questions not only of where they belong, but of which parts of themselves they are willing to change along the way.
Example Motivations | |
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Daathru | I carry a promise made to someone who is no longer alive to see me fulfill it. My people are losing something they do not realize they have already begun to forget. I want to understand the world beyond my traditions without abandoning who I am. An old responsibility has passed to me, but no one can explain why it still matters. I intend to find out before I accept it. I fear that preserving everything we were may prevent us from becoming what we need to be. |
Tyrru | I have spent too much of my life living according to someone else's expectations. There is a person I could not save, and every choice I make now carries their memory. I want to find a place where I am valued for who I am rather than what I can provide. Two worlds both claim some part of me. I intend to decide for myself where I belong. I once changed myself to become what others needed. I am trying to remember who I was before that. |
Uthuru | The Wildlands are changing, and I intend to discover why. Someone crossed into my homeland and took something they did not understand. I intend to recover it. I want to prove that instinct and reason do not have to be enemies. Everyone around me fears what is changing. I want to know what the change might make possible. Something ancient is waking where my people were taught never to go. Avoiding it has not stopped it from coming closer. |
THE UNBOUND Copy link
Lives Beyond Easy Categories Copy link
The Unbound exist outside many of the categories through which the peoples of Rhuna understand themselves. Their Motivations frequently involve identity, belonging, inheritance, discovery, obligation, isolation, and the search for others who might understand experiences few people share.
Yet being Unbound does not require a Hero's story to revolve around what makes them unusual. Their strongest Motivation may be a friend, a profession, an ambition, an old mistake, an unanswered mystery, or any other concern important enough to pull them into the wider world.
Example Motivations | |
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Stranded | I need to discover where I truly belong. Someone once welcomed me when they had every reason not to. I intend to repay that kindness. I want to understand the people my community taught me to distrust. I have spent my life adapting to other people's homes. Someday I want to create one of my own. There is somewhere I remember only in fragments, and I need to discover whether it was ever real. |
Irenuk | There is knowledge my people have protected for generations, and I need to understand why. I am searching for someone who disappeared beyond the places I know. I have inherited an obligation I am not certain I believe in. Something my people consider forbidden may be the only way to save what they value most. I was taught never to question an old truth. The first question I asked changed everything. |
Zhe | I want to be understood as myself rather than as what others believe I am. Something is happening to the Wildlands, and I cannot ignore it. I am searching for others like me—and I am not certain what I hope to find. Someone once treated my existence as an omen. I intend to determine what I mean for myself. There is something within me I do not yet understand. I need to know whether it is inheritance, accident, or something entirely new. |
CREATING YOUR OWN MOTIVATION Copy link
Give the Hero Somewhere to Go Copy link
A Motivation works best when it contains an unresolved element. “I care about my family” describes something true about the Hero, but “My sister disappeared three years ago, and I am convinced she is still alive” creates somewhere for the story to go.
The same principle applies to ambition. “I want wealth” can work, but “I want enough wealth to buy back the land my family lost” immediately reveals something about the Hero and gives that desire context.
Motivations do not need to be grand. Saving Rhuna is not inherently more interesting than finding one missing person. What matters is that the Hero cares enough about the outcome for it to influence their choices.
Leave Room for Change Copy link
A Motivation is not a contract guaranteeing how a Hero's story will end. A Hero searching for revenge may discover forgiveness. Someone trying to restore a lost tradition may decide that it deserved to disappear. A Hero seeking the truth about their parents may eventually realize that the family they found during their journey matters more.
A Motivation gives the Hero a direction, not a predetermined conclusion.
Tie Motivations to the World Copy link
The strongest Motivations give the WorldKeeper something that can return to the story. A missing person can leave traces. A rival can act independently. A forgotten ruin can be discovered. A promise can become inconvenient. A belief can be challenged.
Whenever possible, create a Motivation containing at least one person, place, belief, mystery, obligation, or desired change that could someday appear in play.
That gives the WorldKeeper something to pull on—and gives the Hero a reason to care when they do.
USING MOTIVATION Copy link
A Motivation does not need to describe the action being attempted. It explains why the Hero continues to act at all.
A Hero motivated to find their missing brother does not only draw upon that Motivation while physically searching for him. The thought of their brother might push them to survive a dangerous climb, persuade someone to reveal information, protect a new companion, continue after a failure, or take a risk they would otherwise avoid.
When the Motivation Token appears, bring that drive into the fiction whenever it meaningfully fits the moment.
Your abilities describe what your Hero can do.
Your Motivation reminds you why they keep doing it.