Editing Truenamer (section)

==The Pitch==

In theory, a truenamer's focus is pretty cool: more or less, when the universe was created, it involved the use of a hidden language, supposedly only known to the gods. This language, now called "truespeak," included the "true" names of everything that ever would and will exist. Only snippets of it still survive, and these snippets are what truenamers use. They identify the true name of a target and then modify it using the words of the cosmos. (Mechanically, this is shown by the existence of a Truespeak skill, which the player rolls against a DC to determine whether it works or not.) It has the same origins as spells like the Power Word spells, Holy Word and its variants, and Command, but truenamers focus on it full-time.

Utterances, their equivalents to spells, are divided into three Lexicons: the Evolving Mind, which make up the majority of options, affects creatures, the Crafted Tool, which comes somewhat later, affects items, and the Perfected Map, which kicks in at high levels, affects the environment. Additionally, Evolving Mind utterances can be said in reverse, meaning they create the opposite effect: an utterance that normally heals can be reversed into one that deals damage, for instance. This slots them into the role of a kind of pseudo-caster, focused mostly on buffs and debuffs and occasional utility, with enough tricks to give them a lot of things to work with. All in all, barring the unintentionally hilarious quotes of what truespeak sounds like ("shake the earth" apparently translates to "thremcheumalach-tura’abachnir"), a solid foundation, especially if you're a fan of ''[[The Earthsea Cycle]].'' Unfortunately, once you get into the mechanics, things start going downhill fast.