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  1. The Unowned City
  2. Lore

ROLES & ARCHETYPES OF THE UNOWNED CITY

ROLES & ARCHETYPES OF THE UNOWNED CITY

How Power Manifests in Commonwealth City

In Commonwealth City, class is not a profession and not a destiny.
It is the way an individual interacts with systems of power—social, technological, ideological, or anomalous.

There is no magic in the traditional sense.
What appears supernatural is instead the result of technology, belief, biology, access, or systems pushed beyond safe limits.

These archetypes exist openly.
Some are trusted.
Some are feared.
All are watched.


SYSTEMS ENGINEER

Builders of the City

Systems Engineers design, modify, and deploy advanced technology. They create drones, cyberware, tools, and infrastructure that the City relies on to function.

Their power comes from understanding systems deeply enough to bend them without breaking everything else.

Engineers are indispensable—and politically constrained. When systems fail, they are the first blamed and the last forgiven.


OVERCLOCKED

Weapons Made of People

Overclocked individuals push their bodies beyond safe limits using combat stims, neural governors, or unstable augmentation.

They hit harder, move faster, and endure more than anyone else—at a cost that accumulates quietly.

The City tolerates them because they solve problems nothing else can.
It fears them because they remind everyone what happens when limits are removed.


INFLUENCER / SIGNAL ARTIST

Culture as a Weapon

Influencers shape emotion, identity, and public momentum through performance, media, rhetoric, and presence.

Their power spreads memetically—through sound, image, and attention. They can stabilize communities or ignite unrest faster than legislation ever could.

They are loved publicly, distrusted privately, and monitored constantly.


CIVIC OPERATIVE

Belief in Action

Civic Operatives channel power through institutions: healthcare, justice, infrastructure, emergency response, and public welfare.

Their authority does not come from force, but from legitimacy. When systems work, they are invisible. When systems fail, they are held responsible—whether or not they caused it.

They embody the City’s ideals, and suffer when reality falls short.


BIOTECHNICIAN

Masters of Living Systems

Biotechnicians manipulate flesh, ecosystems, and urban biology through advanced biotech and environmental engineering.

They adapt bodies, reshape environments, and blur the line between natural and artificial life.

Many find them unsettling.
All rely on their work.


ENFORCER

Professionals of Violence

Enforcers are trained combat specialists: security forces, mercenaries, community defenders, or private operators.

They rely on discipline, training, and tactical doctrine rather than ideology or anomaly. They are the most common combat role in the City.

Accepted, regulated, and closely audited—Enforcers are trusted only as long as they follow orders.


KINETIC ADEPT

Discipline Made Physical

Kinetic Adepts rely on internalized enhancement—neural discipline, optimized physiology, and controlled internal power systems.

They often reject heavy visible augmentation, favoring refinement over replacement.

To outsiders, they appear almost mystical.
To themselves, they are simply precise.


OATHBOUND

Conviction Given Form

Oathbound draw power from absolute commitment to a cause: justice, protection, revolution, preservation, or order.

Their strength scales with belief.
Their weakness is certainty.

They are feared not because they command authority—but because they cannot be persuaded away from conviction.


URBAN TRACKER

Hunters of the Concrete Wilds

Urban Trackers specialize in movement, pursuit, and survival within dense urban environments.

They know the City as terrain: rooftops, tunnels, transit lines, border zones, and forgotten corridors.

Often invisible, often alone, they are relied upon when no one else can reach the problem.


RUNNER

Exploiters of Gaps

Runners thrive in the spaces between systems.

They infiltrate, steal, manipulate, and bypass—physically, digitally, and socially. They understand where rules fail and how to move through those failures unnoticed.

Officially condemned.
Unofficially indispensable.


ANOMALY

Errors That Persist

Anomalies produce effects that should not exist: genetic accidents, experimental survivors, reality-adjacent glitches.

Their power is internal, unstable, and poorly understood. The City studies them carefully, protects them legally, and fears them quietly.

Anomalies are reminders that not everything can be planned.


CONTRACTOR

Power with Conditions

Contractors gain their abilities through binding agreements—with rogue AIs, collectives, alien intelligences, ideological constructs, or entities the City refuses to define.

Every benefit comes with strings.
Some are obvious.
Some surface later.

Contractors are never ignored.


NETRUNNER

Architects of Reality

Netrunners manipulate the City through data mastery. They rewrite systems, exploit architectures, and reshape outcomes by understanding the underlying logic of the world.

They do not improvise.
They calculate.

Among non-combat roles, they are the most feared.