Insect Sage

"I much prefer the company of an exo over a human. Humans lie, betray, and never stop talking. Exos just understand and act. Much preferred, yes..."

The Insect Sage is not a common path to walk, but Sages are integral to keeping the villages and cities that border Exo Forests safe on a daily basis. The village may not appreciate what they are capable of and what they do. However, a villagers praise is hardly the reason that most Sages choose to commune with Exos and follow The Natural Way.

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Cypher Type Info

The Insect Sage is a modification of the Speaker, along with pulling in setting appropriate Adept abilities. The Adept is not available in Honga as there is no overt magic or mastery of technology to this level, but Speaker as written is available. However, the Insect Sage's Speaker abilities have been modified to work with mindless Exos.
In the interest of maintaining Monte Cook Game's copyright, I will only reference the Cypher Core Rulebook page number when an ability is unchanged.

Insect Sage

You have studied and communed with the insects from the Exo Forests. You feel a special kinship with these creatures, and may even prefer the company of Exos over humans. Over time, you have learned how to communicate with them, even the ones that seem to have no intelligence to comprehend human communication. You achieve this via hand gestures or posturing, sounds, pheromone vials you have prepared, and some even claim to have some kind of psychic link with exos.
Individual Role: Sages are typically eccentric when compared to civilized society. They are some of the only people capable of understanding and communicating effectively with the exos that threaten others. They may be empathetic with exos, treat them as family, or even see them as mindless automatons that should be subjugated.
Group Role: Where other types may see an exo as a foe that needs vanquishing, the Sage may see a potential ally. Their speciality is not in destroying exos, but in pacifying them or coaxing them to flee. Being experts in the environment of the Exo Forest, they are also helpful when traversing this difficult land. When they are out of a forest and away from exos, they are fish out of water and their skills will be significantly less useful. However, they may still be able to bring a little of the wild into any location with enough guile.
Societal Role: Most normal folk would likely never interact with a sage, and would likely point and whisper when they do make it into town. Typically viewed as outcasts, pariahs, or plain old weird, few sages choose to live in town. Instead, most dwell on the periphery of society and only rely on towns or villages for occasional provision trips. Some may even live partially or fully in an Insect Forest. The typical sage attitude towards "frail and emotional" humans varies from contempt at worst, mistrust and apprehension at best.
Advanced Insect Sages: While a low tier sage is exceptional at handling exos, high tier sages grow their mastery over these powerful creatures and even learn how to bring parts of the forest with them, wherever they go.
Background Connection: Your type helps determine the connection you have to the setting. Roll a d20 or choose from the following list to determine a specific fact about your background that provides a connection to the rest of the world. You can also create your own fact.

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1d20 (Look on bottom left for result!)

Insect Sage Background table

Linked within the Insect Sage Type article.

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Roll	Background
1	You were born under auspicious omens, and your family was exiles from the tribe. You grew up as a social pariah.
2	You travel into town in disguise and few people, if any, know your true identity.
3	During your adolescence, you befriended a local sage who took you under her wing and taught you the true Natural Way.
4	After stumbling into a rogue exo nest outside of the forest, you suffered grave injuries and lost a part of your humanity. However, you gained an obsessive interest in these creatures ever since.
5	You studied exos and forests in an Empire research post until you tired of the tedious bureaucracy and set off into the wilds.
6	At one point, you were at the center of a small nomadic Flatland tribe and served as their spiritual guide. That tribe no longer accepts you, or no longer exists.
7	One day, you developed chitinous growths on your body, and you turned to the exo forest in order to understand this.
8	You were seperated from your Exo Forester party on one of your first expeditions and never regained your bearings.
9	The village you were born in was overtaken by an exo forest's rapid growth, and you had nowhere else to go.
10	Your family Nannybug pet had a cruel encounter with local bullies in your childhood, and you swore to defend exos from humanity.
11	You have been hired by Empire expeditions multipel times as a guide through an Exo Forest
12	You have an extensive garden of cultivated Exo Forest plants that you care for and study
13	Your book on exo research is known around throughout the world, but was published anonymously to maintain your privacy
14	You occasionally experience surreal visions through the viewpoint of an exo, while your physical body shuts down. They may be prophetic, delusional fantasies, or actually inhabiting another body.
15	Your father was a skilled Shardsmith, but you were more interested in the living creatures rather than their useful chitin.
16	A local village found you when you wandered out of the forest one day, and attempted to educate you.
17	Feeling a call to the forest, you would sneak away to spend time in the wilderness whenever you could.
18	You meet with a secretive group of insect sages on full moons and share your discoveries.
19	Poison spores infected your town's food supply, but you were mysteriously immune to them.
20	One day, you tried some mysterious mushrooms in the Exo Forest when you were low on supplies, and now you have a physical addiction to them. You seem to have occasional extraordinary powers after ingesting them.