Editing Arcane Background (section)

===Shaman===
The Indian equivalent to the Blessed, Shamans use various forms of Rituals (which are treated as different Concentrations for the Ritual Aptitude) to invoke the Favors of the nature spirits. This means that, unlike the Blessed, they can sometimes accidentally call up manitou, who will tear a metaphysical chunk out of them if the shaman fails an opposed Spirit check.

It goes without saying, but this Arcane Background is pretty much exclusive to American Indian characters. If you really want to play a non-Indian shaman, your Marshal has every right to expect both a good backstory for how you came to learn shamanism ''and'' mechanical reinforcement of this bond to a foreign culture, such as the 3 point Gone Native Edge introduced in Ghost Dancers, the Kemosabe Edge (maybe even at a higher point value than the normal 2 point version), the Paleskin Edge, or the Injun Half-Breed Hindrance.

A shaman performs Rituals like Dancing, Fasting, Maiming, Scarring, Tattoing, etc, to generate Appeasement Points. These serve as a kind of mana, and are spent to invoke the Favors (powers) of the spirits.

The Shaman is covered in more detail in the Indian sourcebook "Ghost Dancers", which heavily reworks the Shaman. Firstly, it introduces a new Edge called Guardian Spirit, which it mandates Shamans to have. Secondly, it divides  Favors into different styles of "Medicine" - think of these as the Deadlands equivalent to the Magic Schools or [[Cleric Domain]]s of [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. Every Guardian Spirit has one or more styles of Medicine associated with it; Shamans can readily learn their Guardian Spirit's Medicine (or "Favored Medicine"), but they can't learn other forms of Medicine anywhere near so easily.

The "Hexarcana" sourcebook adds 3 new Guardian Spirits, Butterfly, Dog and Thunderbird, and assorted new Favors.

The Blessing Medicine Way is focused on property, luck and chance.

The Earth Medicine Way is focused on the spirits of nature as a whole.

The Ghost Medicine Way is the dominion of sorcerers and warlocks; it is what the Indians consider "evil magic" - though some are willing to use it under the principle of fighting fire with fire. This means that Shamans count each Ghost Medicine Favor as a bonus point of Grit when determining if they come back as [[Harrowed]]. The downside? If they come back, then their manitou has ''automatic'' Dominion, and they need to win an opposed Spirit role or their soul is cast out of their own body, leaving their corpse permanently under the manitou's control!

The Trickster Medicine Way seeks to use trickery and deception to expand consciousness and bring understanding.

The Visionseeking Medicine Way focuses on more directly interacting with spirits as a whole, and is perhaps closest to the kind of magic wielded by the Blessed.

The War Medicine Way focuses on enhancing the abilities of warriors and combatants, granting them victory in battle.

The Guardian Spirits of the Shamans consist of: 
* Bear (Earth)
* Buffalo (Visionseeking & Blessing)
* Coyote (Trickster)
* Crow (Trickster)
* Eagle (Visionseeking)
* Elk (Blessing)
* Owl (Ghost)
* Raven (War & Ghost)
* Snake (Visionseeking)
* Spider (Ghost)
* Turtle (Blessing)
* Wolf (War)
* Butterfly (Trickster)
* Dog (Earth)
* Thunderbird (Visionseeking & War)

====Aztec Shaman====
One of the many ways in which the West is Weird is that the Aztecs have survived in hidden valleys in South America. And whilst most of them want a murderous revenge on the White Man, not all of them think the paleskins need to be obliterated. As such, "South o' the Border" includes rules for playing Aztec Indians, including their own take on Shamans.

Insted of having animal totems or guardian spirits, Aztec priests worship a specific god. PC Aztec priests should come from the faiths that don't practice human sacrifice; Quetzalcoatl (the god of learning, culture, wisdom and wind), Tlazolteotl (the goddess of earth, sin and cleansing), Heuheucoyotl (a trickster god), Ometecuhtli (a creator god), Patecatl (the god of medicine and healing), Xoxchipilli (the god of pleasure, games and frivolity) and Xochiquetal (the goddess of flowers & craftsmen). 

Aztec priests can't use the Animal Spirit, Sacrifice, Spirit Song, Sweat Lodge or Tattoo Rituals to gain Appeasement Points - these aren't part of the Aztec faith, so they mean nothing to the gods they worship.

Fasting Aztec priests also forego bathing whilst they undertake this Ritual; the stink gives them a -2 penalty to Persusasion rolls against non-Aztecs.

Aztec priests regularly offer blood to the deities - it's the cornerstone of their faith, after all. But this doesn't work the same as the normal Maiming ritual. Instead, this is replaced with Ritual: Bloodletting. Bloodletting functions like Maiming, but inflicts a Light Wond, Heavy Wound or Serious Wound instead of causing permanent damage. The greater the wound, the easier it is to earn their god's attention and the more Appeasement points they earn. That said, they must forgo magical healing of their wound for Bloodletting to actually count.

Aztec priests can also only use the Painting Ritual to create permanent paintings (murals or codices) rather than temporary ones; sand painting is a tradition of the North American Indian tribes.

These mechanical traits add up to sufficient differences that, whilst gaining Appeasement and invoking Favors functions the same for Aztec Priests as it does for Indian Shamans, "Aztec Priest/Aztec Shaman" is treated as a unique Arcane Background.

It should go without saying, but trying to play a non-ethnic Aztec Priest should be even more firmly discouraged than doing it for a non-ethnic Shaman. It's not technically impossible, but many Marshals may have issues believing the background of such characters.

====Anahuac====
Originating from the "Lost Angels" sourcebook, Anahuac is the bastard child of the original Aztec religion and the Catholic religion forced upon the South American Indian tribes by their Spanish conquerors. Spiritually, it's closest to Voodoo (see below), in that whilst it has some Christian trappings, it's still fundamentally invoking the powers of the Aztec gods. Unlike Voodoo, Anahuac hasn't pushed away its Christian cloak yet, and only someone who is both proficient in Nahuatl (the ancient Aztec language, which replaces Latin in Anahuac rites) and theology has a chance of recognizing what is going on.

What this means is that, whilst Anahuac uses the basic mechanics for shamans to gain Appeasement and perform favors, with the unique Group Ritual and Ceremony mechanics, they ''also'' have to worry about Sinnin' and the resultant Loss of Faith issues that plague the blessed!

Anahuac priests use their own unique set of Rituals and Favors, rather than using the Medicine mechanics. They also have Patron Saints, which function almost exactly like Guardian Spirits, apart from restricting access to Favors.

Anahuac is pretty much exclusive to mestizos; you could justify a non-mestizo practitioner, but as with a non-Indian shaman, your Marshal has every right to expect a good backstory and the Kemosabe Edge to represent you making enough of a bond with the mestizo to be inducted into their faith.