Tir Hathar — The Sigils and the Great Houses

Overview

The Sigils are hereditary magical abilities that manifest in specific bloodlines, visible as luminescent purple veins that glow when channeling any magic. All Sigil-bearers also have purple eyes — a constant, visible identifier present from birth that cannot be hidden.

Sigils are the engine of the magitech economy. The great houses don't just hold economic monopolies — they are the monopoly, because the underlying technology requires Sigil bloodlines to function. Nations without sufficient Sigil bloodlines must import, negotiate, or steal.

There are thirteen recognized Sigils distributed among the great houses — Catfolk are the only race that holds two (Healer and Tide). A further, illegitimate one — the Aberrant Sigil — exists outside the house system and is considered a curse or ill omen rather than a legitimate hereditary trait. Common people don't say someone carries an Aberrant Sigil. They say someone carries the thirteenth mark — a folk name older than the current count, kept for the unlucky number rather than strict arithmetic. It is spoken of as a curse, whispered rather than named directly.

Beyond even that, three Cruel Sigils exist among Tir Hathar's monstrous peoples — Giants, Goblins, and Hobgoblins — entirely outside the mortal economy the thirteen houses run on. Nobody trades in them. See "The Cruel Sigils" below.

What the Houses Don't Know

The houses' understanding of their own Sigils is incomplete and may be partially incorrect. This is not widely admitted.

The complete theoretical and theological framework for how Sigils work — where they came from, what they were capable of before the Long War, and what the full progression of abilities looks like — was partially maintained through divine tradition. When the God of Knowledge died, that tradition died with them. What the houses know now is what survived in family practice, oral history, and fragmentary written records accumulated over 250 years of war and a century of reconstruction.

It is enough to function. It is not enough to be certain.

Specific implications: - The Minor/Lesser/Greater progression documented here reflects what the houses have observed and codified. It may not reflect what the Sigils were originally capable of. - Some abilities attributed to Aberrant Sigils may be pre-war Sigil expressions that surviving houses simply don't recognize — knowledge of them was lost with the God of Knowledge and with the destruction of pre-war records. - The houses treat their Sigil doctrine as authoritative because they have to. Internally, the most senior house scholars know the documentation is incomplete. - A character who manifests a Sigil ability that contradicts house doctrine is simultaneously valuable and threatening — evidence that the house's understanding is wrong, which undermines centuries of carefully cultivated authority.

The Scholar Nation's locked archives contain pre-war texts about Sigil theory. They are among the most closely guarded documents in the collection. The houses know they exist and have been trying to access them for decades.

Visual Identity

Purple eyes: Constant. Present from birth in Sigil bloodlines even before the Sigil manifests. Immediately identifies someone as Sigil-bearing to anyone who knows what to look for.

Luminescent veins: Activate when channeling any magic — Sigil abilities, arcane spells, divine spells, anything. Glow purple; intensity scales with the power being channeled. Cannot be suppressed while actively casting. A Sigil-bearing wizard cannot hide what they are while working.

In some places, purple eyes mean privilege and status. In others, they mean a target.

The three Cruel Sigils don't share this marker — see below.

Sigils as Ancestry Feats

Sigils are taken as Ancestry feats, available only to members of the associated race. Sigil progression follows the standard Ancestry feat schedule:

• Minor Sigil — available at level 1
• Lesser Sigil — available at level 5, requires Minor Sigil
• Greater Sigil — available at level 9, requires Lesser Sigil

Levels 13 and 17 Ancestry feats are available for other ancestry options — the Sigil does not consume the entire ancestry identity.

The Thirteen Houses

The Artisan Sigil

Race: Dwarf Domain: Crafting, artifice, manufactured goods

Minor — Craft any non-magical item in half the normal time. +1 to Crafting checks.

Lesser — 20% discount on the starting cost of crafting any item (magical or non-magical). Represents house supplier relationships and material access — the materials aren't cheaper, but the house gets them first and gets them better.

Greater — Crafted items gain one subtle persistent magical property. Not a spell effect — a quality. A blade that never dulls. Boots that never wear through. A rope that never frays. The item ignores the first Broken condition it would normally gain, or provides a +1 item bonus to one specific narrow use. Nothing that overshadows a proper magic item; something that makes Dwarf-made goods quietly legendary and commands a market premium.

House notes: The most economically entangled house with the Dwarven monarchy. A Sigil appearing in a non-Artisan clan creates immediate marriage negotiations from three directions.

The Healer Sigil

Race: Catfolk Domain: Medicine, recovery, diagnosis Formal academic term: Chirurgeon (Scholar Nation usage)

Minor — Use the Medicine skill rules as written. All other ancestries use a diminished version of Medicine with reduced effectiveness and limited feat access.

Lesser — Once per day, through hands-on physical treatment — not spellcasting — remove one condition from a patient. Works regardless of class. Requires physical contact and several minutes of work.

Greater — Once per day, through an extended examination involving sniffing, tasting, pressing, and probing — causes significant pain but no injury, requires patient cooperation or restraint, involves things both parties would prefer not to discuss afterward — diagnose a creature completely. Learn every condition, disease, poison, and injury affecting them including magical sources and hidden effects. Takes approximately ten minutes. Patient is uncomfortable for an hour after.

House notes: The most politically fraught Sigil assignment. Catfolk hold healing — meaning every nation has a reason to tolerate them that they'd rather not state openly. The Catfolk elders know this and use it deliberately. A scattered, colonized people with no nation who also hold the Sigil every government desperately needs is not a coincidence. See also the Tide Sigil, below — the same pattern, applied to shipping. (There's a small chance Healer eventually moves or opens up to another race — unresolved, see Open Questions. The Catfolk connection is the good version of this and the current assumption.)

The Tide Sigil

Race: Catfolk Domain: Navigation and vessel mastery — knowing exactly where you are, where you're going, and what a ship needs, on water or in the air. Not the raw force that drives a hull forward; that's just competent captaincy. Tide is what makes a captain a legend.

Minor — Always know your exact position and heading, on water or in the air, without instruments — by the stars, the swell, the wind, or (aboard an airship) the pull of the currents that keep it aloft. Read water depth and hazards beneath a hull by feel alone; a Tide-marked captain doesn't run aground on a reef they haven't charted. +1 to checks made to pilot, navigate, or read the conditions around any vessel.

Lesser — Once per day, spend ten minutes reading a stretch of water, sky, or terrain ahead to know every hazard, current, and shift in conditions along the next leg of a journey before it happens — reefs, becalmed patches, a coming squall, turbulence over a ridge for an airship. Acting on the warning is up to the captain, but nothing on that stretch catches a Tide-marked crew by surprise.

Greater — Once per week, become the ship for up to a day: your reflexes are its rudder, your judgment is its trim, and it answers to intention as fluidly as your own limbs. A vessel under Tide command executes maneuvers that shouldn't be possible for something its size and crosses a long stretch of open water or sky in a fraction of the normal time. The vessel and crew arrive exhausted but unharmed. Works for ships and airships alike — the sensation is the same, whatever the ship is actually moving through.

House notes: Catfolk have always been Tir Hathar's finest shipwrights and captains — a reputation that predates the Long War and traces back to the sea they lost, when their fleets crossed a coastline no longer on any map. They're widely credited as the ones who worked out how to build the first airships, and every nation that fields one wants a Catfolk hand on the wheel when it can get one. What other houses call "Catfolk seamanship," they mean literally: put a Tide-marked captain on anything with a rudder or a set of control lines and it performs like a different vessel. A stateless people whose most reliable export is "the captain who gets there first, and gets there in one piece" is not a coincidence, and the elders quietly steering the Healer Sigil's long game know exactly what a monopoly on that is worth too. (Some master Catfolk shipwrights are rumored to go further still — building hulls with something like a spark of their own awareness. Not a standard Sigil tier; see Catfolk document and Open Questions.)

The Tempest Sigil

Race: Jinn-touched (Nasrin) Domain: Weather, lightning

Minor — Always know current weather conditions and predict weather accurately up to 24 hours ahead. +1 to saves against weather effects including wind, lightning, and temperature extremes.

Lesser — Gain electricity resistance equal to your level. Gain a level-appropriate bonus to saves against wind effects and to checks for enduring hot or cold weather environments.

Greater — Gain access to the Control Weather ritual. Can cast it in 2 hours at half character level effect, or spend the normal full day to cast at full character level. No additional components required beyond the Sigil itself.

House notes: The Jinn-touched relationship with storms is inherited rather than learned — passive awareness first, then resistance, then command. Pairs thematically with the Hearth Sigil: shelter versus storm, comfort versus fury. Formerly listed "navigation" as part of its domain; that's fully Tide's territory now — Tempest reads and endures the sky and sea from the outside, Tide is inside the hull.

The Hearth Sigil

Race: Borderless — the one house with no racial home nation Domain: Shelter, neutral ground, safe passage through social spaces

Minor — Always know the nearest safe shelter, food, and water within a reasonable distance. +1 to Society checks in situations involving food, shelter, or neutral ground.

Lesser — Cast Cozy Cabin once per day as a Sigil ability. No spell slot required. Works for any class.

Greater — Once per day, declare a location neutral ground. Creatures inside are supernaturally compelled toward non-violence — not magically prevented, but something in the air makes aggression feel wrong and costly. The effect is subtle enough that most people don't realize it's happening. They find themselves wanting to talk instead of fight.

House notes: The House of Hearth operates the Blue Boar inn network. Every Blue Boar location maintains something close to a standing Greater Sigil effect. Every nation has agreed, formally or informally, that this house is untouchable — attacking them would be like burning the post office during wartime. Their borderless nature and universal necessity makes them the most politically neutral major power in Tir Hathar.

The Scholar Sigil

Race: Human (Scholar Nation) Domain: Communication, language, written records Formerly: Scribing

Minor — Translate any non-magical written document in an unknown language without magical assistance. A single page or short document takes one day; a full lengthy document takes one week. Magically obscured or enchanted documents double the translation time. No check required — only time.

Lesser — Once per day, send a written message to any known recipient regardless of distance. Requires a physical writing medium (paper, papyrus, bark, skin, leaves) and something to write with (ink, blood, charcoal, grease). The message arrives as if physically delivered.

Greater — Once per week, scribe a scroll of any spell you witnessed being cast in its entirety, provided the spell's level does not exceed what you could theoretically cast at your current character level. Requires standard scribing materials. Material component costs for the spell are not waived — you must provide them separately. The scroll is single use.

The Sentinel Sigil

Race: Human (Imperium) Domain: Protection of persons, bodyguarding, personal defense

Minor — +1 to Perception for detecting threats to a designated ward or person. Never flat-footed while actively guarding.

Lesser — Once per day as a reaction, intercept one attack targeting a creature within reach, taking the hit yourself with damage reduced by your Sentinel proficiency bonus.

Greater — Mark a willing creature with your personal Sigil symbol. While they carry a specially prepared gem they gain a bonus to DR based on gem quality: +1 DR (1gp/day), +2 DR (5gp/day), +3 DR (20gp/day). The gem dissolves when its duration expires or can be shattered voluntarily by the Sentinel to end the protection immediately. You may maintain a number of active marks equal to twice your Wisdom modifier. Removing a mark otherwise requires your consent or a successful countermagic effect.

House notes: Was the Emperor's house. Now politically complicated in a republic that resents everything they represent. Some Sentinel-marked nobles are genuine republicans adapting to the new order. Others are quietly working to restore the throne.

The Warder Sigil

Race: Human (Imperium) Domain: Security, locks, alarms, keeping things contained or excluded Formerly: Warding

Minor — Detect any magical surveillance or scrying targeting you while within a Lodge. +1 to saves against mind-affecting magic at all times.

Lesser — Establish a Warding Lodge in any enclosed space. See Lodge table below for ratings, costs, and establishment times. A Lodge is permanent until dismantled and belongs to the location, not the Warder character.

Greater — Reflect one directly targeted spell back at its caster. Costs 2 Focus points. Only works on spells that target you specifically — areas, emanations, and untargeted effects don't qualify.

House notes: Has successfully placed multiple senators in the Imperium Republic and is better positioned for the new government than anyone expected. Several senators hold the Warder Sigil, though it is not the "Sigil of the senate" — the house simply plays politics well.

Warding Lodges

A Lodge is a prepared magical space established by a Warder Sigil-bearer. It requires an enclosed space — a room, a tent, a cave with a covered entrance. An open field does not qualify.

Rating	Radius	Area	Fast Setup	Fast Cost	Slow Setup	Slow Cost
1	9ft	~254 sqft	1 hour	30gp	5 days	6gp
2	18ft	~1,017 sqft	8 hours	500gp	20 days	100gp
3	27ft	~2,290 sqft	27 hours	4,500gp	45 days	900gp

Detection (within Lodge only) - R1 — +2 to Perception vs intrusion. Arcana/Occultism check to identify magical effects targeting Lodge. - R2 — +4 to Perception vs intrusion. Improved Arcana/Occultism check to identify and partially suppress detected effects. - R3 — +6 to Perception vs intrusion. Arcana/Occultism check can fully identify and track the source of magical effects targeting Lodge.

Exclusion - R1 — Totally prevents Possession of Lodge occupants. - R2 — As R1, plus forces Will save against mental influence and compulsion per Protection spell. - R3 — As R2, plus totally prevents summoning of any creature within Lodge boundaries.

Teleportation Interference (additive to existing imprecision) - R1 — Adds imprecision equivalent to teleporting from 10 miles away. - R2 — Adds imprecision equivalent to teleporting from 100 miles away. - R3 — Adds imprecision equivalent to teleporting from 1000 miles away. - Save allowed at each rating to halve the imprecision penalty.

Save Bonus - R1 — +1 to saves vs hostile magic cast within Lodge. - R2 — +2 to saves vs hostile magic cast within Lodge. - R3 — +3 to saves vs hostile magic cast within Lodge.

The Shade Sigil

Race: Human (Confederacy) Domain: Stealth, deception, disguise Formerly: Shadow

Minor — +1 to Stealth and Deception checks.

Lesser — Once per day, become invisible for 1 minute. Footsteps make no sound while invisible. Invisibility ends if you make an attack.

Greater — Once per week, spend one minute in conversation with a creature to implant a suggestion they follow as if it were their own idea. Not a magical effect — undetectable by magical means, cannot be dispelled. Target resists with a Will save against your class DC. The suggestion must be plausible and cannot directly endanger the target. Effect lasts until completed or one week passes. The target may eventually realize they were influenced through natural reflection — the memory feels entirely genuine and self-motivated at the time.

House notes: An open secret that nobody raises at diplomatic functions. The Confederacy calls it "information gathering." The Imperium calls it what it is.

The Wayfarer Sigil

Race: Human (Confederacy) Domain: Movement, travel, transportation

Minor — Never treat natural terrain as difficult terrain. +5ft to primary movement speed.

Lesser — Once per day, cast Dimension Door as a Sigil ability. No spell slot required. Works for any class.

Greater — Once per week, spend two actions to open a stable portal between any two doorways personally marked with your Sigil. Marks can be as small as a coin and can be hidden. Portal remains open for up to one minute. Anyone may pass through in either direction while open. Creator may close the portal as a free action at any time.

The Diviner Sigil

Race: Elf Domain: Sensing magic, awareness, detection of supernatural phenomena Formerly: Detection

Minor — +1 to Perception. Cast Detect Magic at will as a Sigil ability. No Focus point required.

Lesser — Gain both Locate and Detect Scrying as Focus spells. Both are added to your Focus pool, granting +1 Focus point as per standard Focus spell rules (maximum pool of 3). Locate finds only general object types — nearest sword, nearest fire, nearest living creature — not specific named objects or individuals. Detect Scrying functions as the standard spell.

Greater — Cast Clairvoyance once per week as a Sigil ability. No spell slot required. Works for any class.

House notes: One of the few points where Elven isolationism intersects with the broader economy. An Elven house commercially entangled with other nations creates internal Elven political tension.

The Tracker Sigil

Race: Changeling Domain: Tracking specific individuals, locating people, navigation Formerly: Finding

Minor — Always know which direction is north. Can perfectly retrace any path you have personally traveled.

Lesser — Track any creature or object you have personally encountered regardless of mundane concealment or trail-hiding. Magical transportation (teleportation, Dimension Door, Gate, etc.) breaks the trail but leaves detectable traces — an Arcana, Occultism, Religion, or Nature check (whichever is appropriate to the spell used) identifies which type of magic was used to flee.

Greater — Once per day, cast a heightened version of Locate targeting a specific known individual or object rather than a general type. If the target is within range the spell functions normally. If the target is beyond range but within 10 miles the spell still points in the target's general direction. Ignores running water. Warding Lodges and sufficient magical concealment can still block or mislead this ability.

House notes: A shapeshifter who can locate anyone is genuinely frightening. The Tracker Sigil makes Changelings simultaneously the most valuable intelligence asset and the most feared individual in any room once their nature is known.

The Handler Sigil

Race: Wayfolk Domain: Animal handling and beastcraft — training, calming, and reading any creature that can be tamed at all.

Minor — Instantly gauge any animal's temperament, health, and trainability on sight. Use the Nature (or equivalent handling) skill rules as written for training and command. +1 to checks made to calm, train, or direct an animal.

Lesser — Once per day, calm or rouse an animal completely regardless of its natural temperament — a spooked warhorse or a half-wild beast responds, for a few minutes, as if perfectly trained.

Greater — Once per week, forge a working bond with an animal that lasts a season: while the bond holds, the animal follows complex multi-step instructions reliably, performs beyond its normal limits when asked, and shrugs off fear effects that would normally send it fleeing.

House notes: Wayfolk caravans are legendary for exactly this reason — their stock is always healthier, better-trained, and more capable than anyone else's, and every exotic beast worth owning has probably passed through Wayfolk hands at some point. Like Hearth, Handler doesn't map to a single nation; it travels with a people who belong to the road rather than to any one border, which makes it about as close to universally welcome as a Sigil gets.

The Aberrant Sigil — The Thirteenth Mark

The Aberrant Sigil is not a house. There was a house once — destroyed in a historical purge when the legitimate houses united to eliminate it. Now Aberrant Sigils appear randomly across any race in no predictable pattern, with no family consistency. Two Aberrant-bearing individuals may have completely different abilities.

Common people don't say someone carries an Aberrant Sigil. They say someone carries the thirteenth mark. It is spoken of as a curse, an omen — something whispered rather than named directly.

The legitimate houses consider Aberrant Sigils dangerous and illegitimate. Underground networks of Aberrant-bearing individuals exist — people who found each other out of necessity — but it is not a house in any formal sense and has no economic infrastructure. Ssyrathis (the Monster Kingdom) is the one place Aberrant bearers have an actual homeland rather than existing only as scattered, hunted individuals or underground networks — see Ssyrathis document.

The Cruel Sigils

Three more Sigils exist entirely outside the Great House economy — held by monstrous, non-player peoples rather than any of the thirteen recognized houses, and outside the Aberrant category too. They don't glow the familiar purple; bearers' veins run a duller red-black, and their eyes carry a corresponding cast rather than the houses' violet. Nobody in the mortal economy trades in them, negotiates for them, or wants them. (The visual distinction is a proposal, not settled — easy to change if it doesn't fit. See Open Questions.)

Design principle: these are intentionally flawed. Evil corrupts rather than creates — when it copies or mocks something the Sigils represent (power, purpose, legitimate authority), the copy can't come out clean. Every Cruel Sigil should cost its bearer something the thirteen house Sigils don't ask for: Cinder burns the goblin who uses it, Yoke enforces obedience without ever earning it, and Bone's power is built directly on Giant cannibalism rather than sitting apart from it. This isn't a balance afterthought — it's the point, and it should hold for any future Cruel Sigil too.

The Bone Sigil

Race: Giants Domain: Necromancy, tied directly to Giant feasting culture — the skeletons of the honored dead they eat are kept and raised rather than discarded.

Minor — Command animated skeletons within sight as a free action; they never act against your orders. +1 to checks made to identify or work with the recently dead.

Lesser — Once per day, raise a skeleton from a fresh set of bones you possess. It serves until destroyed or dismissed.

Greater — Once per week, raise a small cadre of skeletons at once, bound to your will as a group, capable of coordinated action rather than simple mob behavior.

Notes: Ties directly to Giant honor-feasting — see Giant Kingdoms document. Not something Giants discuss with dinner guests, even though most human diplomats who've done their homework already know.

The Cinder Sigil

Race: Goblins Domain: Fire and lava, drawn from the volcanoes of Mexico that goblins worship.

Minor — Resist minor heat and open flame without harm. +1 to checks made around fire, forges, or volcanic terrain.

Lesser — Once per day, hurl a gout of volcanic fire at a target. The bearer takes a share of the damage themselves — Cinder never comes free.

Greater — Once per week, become wreathed in genuine volcanic fire for a short time — devastating to anything nearby, and painful even to the bearer, who takes ongoing damage for the duration.

Notes: The self-harm is the point, not an oversight — Cinder is meant to read as a cruel gift, powerful and costly in the same breath. See Goblins document.

The Yoke Sigil

Race: Hobgoblins Domain: Law without justice — command, caste, and compliance, enforced rather than earned.

Minor — Issue a simple command to a creature of lower caste/rank within your hierarchy; they obey unless the order would get them killed outright. +1 to checks made to intimidate or command subordinates.

Lesser — Once per day, compel obedience from a specific subordinate for a scene — they follow orders even against strong personal inclination, though not against their most basic survival instinct.

Greater — Once per week, bind an entire group within your command structure to a single directive for a day — no individual within it can meaningfully act against the order, however much they might want to.

Notes: Meant to be ugly rather than aspirational — the mechanical expression of Ssyrathis's caste system, wielded by a caste that is itself ruled from above. See Ssyrathis document.

All three Cruel Sigils are first drafts — tiers, costs, and exact numbers all need a proper design pass. See Open Questions.

Sorcerer Bloodlines and Sigils

Standard PF2e sorcerer bloodlines (draconic, fey, demonic) do not have obvious homes in Tir Hathar's cosmology. Sorcerer bloodlines in Tir Hathar are tied to Sigil heritage instead.

A Sigil bloodline in a sorcerer manifests differently than in a properly marked individual — the power is present but unstructured, coming out sideways as sorcery rather than as the clean focused ability of a Sigil-bearer. This explains sorcerers cosmologically without importing dragon ancestors or demonic taint.

A sorcerer with Artisan-adjacent powers who doesn't carry the Artisan Sigil is viewed very differently by the House of Artisan than a properly marked member. Are they a diluted bloodline? A failed manifestation? Something the house wants to monitor, recruit, or suppress?

The Aberrant Sigil bloodline as a sorcerer option is a natural fit.

Warforged and the Sigils

Warforged are intentionally excluded from the Sigil system. They have no Sigil bloodlines and no house affiliation. This is part of what makes them politically complicated — they exist outside the economic infrastructure that the houses control, which is simultaneously a disadvantage (no house backing, no Sigil abilities) and a freedom (no house obligations, no house politics).