Marked for the Void
In the Starfall Galaxy, Doomed is what spacers call being marked by the Rift. It’s the cold conviction that the next time you fall, you won’t get back up.
Sometimes it’s obvious: you walk away from a Rift storm with your veins glowing faintly, shadows lagging half a heartbeat behind your body. Chronologists read your Metronome resonances and go quiet. Other times it’s subtle: a curse from a dying cultist, a fragment of hostile code in your neural suite, a bargain you thought you’d outsmarted that leaves a “due by” stamp on your soul.
A doomed character looks normal on the outside. They can laugh, fight, and drink like anyone else. But metaphysically, the tally has been changed: when they hit the deck bleeding, whatever holds the ledger has already written in the final number—and it’s smaller than it used to be.
Implications
Long‑Term Campaign Pressure:
Doomed is an excellent way to represent the accumulation of spiritual wear and tear over a long arc—each brush with ancient engines, forbidden trials, or reality-breaking rituals can nudge a character closer to an eventual, meaningful death.
Consequences for Deals and Failures:
Failing certain social or ritual challenges (bargains with Rift entities, breaking Chronologist compacts, abusing resurrection magic) can impose doomed as a story consequence rather than a simple numeric penalty.
Foreshadowing:
NPCs with visible doom (prophecies, weird scanner readings) become walking plot flags—everyone knows their death means something and is coming sooner rather than later.
Social Impact
Religious and Occult Attitudes:
Many Orders teach that doomed is a sign of cosmic debt—too many resurrections, too much stolen time, or a soul that’s out of sync with the Cycle.
Guild & Military Policy:
Units with doomed personnel might adjust deployment; a doomed veteran might be barred from routine front-line duty and reserved for specific, high‑stakes missions where their “last life” matters.
Economy of Resurrection:
Access to revival magic or Rift-tech doesn’t fully comfort those with high doomed values: yes, you can be brought back—but each death pushes you closer to a hard, unalterable stop.
Stuff