In a Fated season there is one class, and it learns no fixed list of skills. A Fated walks Ishar under permadeath: when the thread is cut, that life is over, and the next one begins at level 1. Only one living Fated may exist on an account; a new thread is spun only after the old one ends — by death, by abandon run, or by ascension.

Everything that belongs to the account — essence, upgrades, remembrances, achievements, titles — was never at stake. Only the life is.

At each level the Dancers offer a random draw of skills. Choose one and it is yours for this life. Rarer skills enter the draw as you grow, and skills unlock along pathways: the plain arts are open to everyone, and each line's strongest skills appear only once you hold a foundation for them. Your first choice, at level 1, is a guaranteed key — a core skill that opens one pathway on the spot.

The choice is made at the moment of leveling, so advance with train level when you are ready to choose.

A life holds 10 remorts. At each remort, one skill learned this life may be bound to your soul. A bound thread belongs to the account: every future Fated life begins already knowing it, at the strength it was bound — through death and through ascension alike. A skill is bound once, at the level you have practiced it to.

Bound threads can be severed with sever <skill>: the thread's weight is shed, but the skill is gone for the season and can never be re-bound. Your pool is on your portal page, thread by thread.

When a thread is spun, the loom asks which knots to tie. Each knot is a rule the loom holds you to for that whole life — healing that lands lighter, recall that fails, foes that think a step sharper — and each carries a weight. Some knots can be pulled tighter: a harsher version of the same rule at a higher weight, which replaces the looser one rather than stacking with it.

Knots are immutable once tied. Death, abandonment and ascension all untie them, and the next life ties its own. Study the whole menu on the knots page before you spin; a rule is never discovered mid-fight.

Every bound thread weighs by rarity — common 0.2 · uncommon 0.3 · rare 0.5 · epic 1.0 · legendary 1.5 — and a passive weighs its burden once per bound tier. That is your loom burden: a heavy pool is real power, and a heavier climb.

Your Tension is the total weight of your knots minus your loom burden, never below zero, and it is locked the moment the knots are tied. It is the one number the outside world sees: on your character page, in the web client, and on the Tension board.

A life with no knots is played at Tension 0: the full game, one climb's pay, no rank. Burden prices the climb, never the life — at zero knots it does nothing.

Remort 10 is the summit, and there is no way past it. The eleventh prayer does not remort — it ascends: the loom draws every thread of you taut and reweaves you from nothing. You will be warned when your tenth bind completes, and asked to confirm at the altar; declining is simply "not yet".

What you keep

Every bound thread — ascension never touches the pool.

What you lose

This life: its level, renown, gear, and the offering.

What you bank

Woven essence, at the Tension this climb was played at.

A character parked at remort 10 may keep playing, but earns no essence beyond one climb's worth and holds no rank — while every death returns them to the same floor an ascender starts from.

Fated essence comes in two states. Woven essence has been banked by an ascension: locked in the moment you ascend, it survives death and pays out when the season ends. A completed climb is worth 16 woven essence at Tension 0, and a fifth more for every point of Tension it was climbed at.

Loose essence is the current climb: the best remort you have reached, multiplied by that life's Tension, paid when the season ends. Loose essence is not lost on death — the high-water mark persists. Ascending weaves it in and begins the next climb. Without ascending, loose essence caps at one climb's worth for the whole season.

The best net Tension at which you complete a climb is your mark. It ranks the season board and the lifetime board, and it earns the loom's trophies — the first tightening at Tension 1, pulled taut at 3, wound tight at 5 with the title the Rewoven. The loom keeps one more for those who stand level with it.

In the game: help tension · help knots · help ascension · help woven · help fated