“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world” – Albert Einstein
“The secret of life is in art.” – Oscar Wilde
The Artist is devoted to artistic expression, specifically art that has a physical form (as opposed to music and dance). Art can take many forms, from sculpture to paintings to comic books. In all its forms, however, art has the potential to touch people on a fundamental level, and that fundamental connection is what the Artist tries to understand, and to invoke in his own work.
Taboo: The Artist must attempt to preserve art, both their own and others. This means that prying open a generic office desk is no problem, but harming a piece of antique furniture is something else entirely. Artists have been known to run into burning buildings to try and save what artwork they can. If opponents are aware of this, they may try to take advantage. (“Drop the gun, or the Ming vase gets it!”)
Symbols: Paint and paintbrushes, pencil and paper, and sculptor’s tools are all symbols of this archetype
Masks: Pygmalion (the sculptor who fell in love with his own statue) is an example of this archetype, while more recently it has been represented in the painter Isaac Mendez on Heroes.
Suspected Avatars in History: Michelangelo, Vincent Van Gogh, and Pablo Picasso may have been channeling this archetype, as well as many other famous artists – who was and was not an avatar is sure to be a subject of debate among art critics who know about this archetype.
Channels:
1%-50%: The Artist can flip-flop any roll to create a piece of art, as long as the result is beneath his avatar score. This means the actual preparation and use of materials; if you’re trying to haggle for some paintbrushes or bluff your way past a guard to see the subject you want to paint, this doesn’t help.
51%-70%: Art can provide insight into its subject. Those who view the piece of art can perceive something about the subject’s true nature (this insight is the same for all viewers). If the subject is human, the art may reveal the subject’s current motivations or one of the subject’s passions. If the subject only appears to be human, the art will reveal that. If the subject is an object, it may reveal how the object has been used recently or what sort of person owned it. If the subject is a place, the art may reveal what sort of things happen there.
71%-90%: At this level, the Artist can begin to see the patterns in reality itself. By putting himself in a trance-like state, he can create a piece of art that predicts the future. It is entirely up to the GM how much information is provided, and how easy it is to interpret. Note that the future can be changed, depending on the actions of those who view the piece of art.
91+%: At this point, the Artist can create a masterpiece that literally comes alive. A sculpture comes to life, or a person actually steps out of a painting. If the subject is a creature, it gets created as per normal character creation, as a Global level character. The creature or person created will have a tendency to be well-disposed to its creator, but has free will and its own nature. If the subject is a place, the piece of art becomes a portal to an Otherspace that matches the place depicted (those who travel there may be seen in the picture). If the subject is more abstract, the results may be more bizarre. An Artist can only have one masterpiece at a time; to create a second one, the first must be destroyed (sentient creations will NOT like this idea, plus there is the issue of the avatar’s taboo).
holy jiminy criminy that’s a powerful yet cool top level power.
Throughout history, one of the types of people most likely to go out of their way to DESTROY art has been other artists. Perhaps the taboo would be more that they can’t let art be destroyed in a non-artistic way? Or perhaps can’t turn down a valid excuse to practice their art? Artists are addicted to expression, after all. So that, if the artist is a pyrotechnics engineer, or just really into bright colors, they would technically break taboo if given the opportunity to easily set the city on fire. And it’s easier to define “opportunity for expression” than it is to define “what counts as art re: needs to be preserved”. Neither is easy, but still.
I have considered changing the taboo to something about practicing their art. Perhaps something along the lines of requiring the avatar to spend a certain amount of time each day working on their art, except that is easy for some (sketching) and more difficult for others (sculpting). I like the idea of having the taboo be that they can’t turn down an opportunity to practice their art, except that defining “opportunity for expression” might be tricky. Of course, as you noted, “art that needs to be preserved” is tricky as well.
Opportunity for expression could be: the materials are present and available, are easily made present and available, and that how easy “easily” is could get less easy the stronger they get (as seems normal), and/or they haven’t REALLY done their art in a while (so that for an illustrator, sketching casually at the bus stop would help extend how long they have to go without Major Expression, but at a certain point probably wouldn’t be enough). Then again, the “haven’t for a while” could also be extended if they were/are explicitly doing things PRIMARILY for the inspiration/source material (so, no claiming that “All life is inspiration” but giving a bit of slack to the guy that goes on a six-month sketching backpacking trip over unspoiled countryside). But the longer they go without REALLY expressing, the more intense/longer they have to go when they finally do have the time.
Honestly, I’m trying to figure out how to phrase it so that it encourages them to be late to interviews, stay up all night, and be tempted to start fires.
Gonna keep on thinking…
How’s this for a taboo – The avatar must not let themselves be interrupted while in the throes of inspiration. If they become inspired while working, the Artist must continue working until they finish the work or (in the case of larger works) until the inspiration releases them. The GM may simply decide whether or not inspiration hits, or may choose to roll the avatar’s skill rating, with success indicating inspiration. The GM also determines how long this inspiration lasts, although it will never last more hours than the tens place of the avatar’s skill at maximum.
Obviously, this can lead to the avatar missing meetings, staying up all night, putting off requests for help, etc. Interrupting your work does not break taboo if there is an immediate threat, i.e. someone in the room is pointing a gun at people (hey, they might hit the art…). If you get a phone call saying your buddy across town is getting shot at, however, leaving to help him does break taboo. (Hey, he’s a tough guy, he can take care of himself long enough to just finish that one spot, right?)
Yeah, yeah, that’ll work. It’s a trickier avatar to work the mechanics out of while remaining true to the concept, but that seems to be a good one. Clearly an avatar that requires a fair amount of house rules, or rulings specific to the style of the given character (it could also require that the avatar, in addition to being vulnerable to random inspiration, has to set up a Typical Source of Inspiration for every ten percent of avatar rating or for every power level, whichever – i.e. typically inspired once they’ve “gotten into the groove” after a couple hours or typically inspired closely after seeing a lot of suffering or typically inspired after a walk around town or etc.)