Hey Rhoklaw,
Thanks for your post. There's a few important things I wanted to point out from the article in case it wasn't obvious to people.
First, and this is the most important - not every soul has a Talent. In fact, we're thinking that between 0.1% and 5% of the population will have a Talent - depending on what the Talent is. If you don't have a Talent, you can go through the entire Wikipedia list of ways Talents were triggered, and none of them will become activated.
2. Many of the Talents will be things that help you avoid death. Why? Because it's EPIC! Imagine you're sailing the ocean blue when a giant Kraken comes up out of the water and begins ripping your ship apart. Your crew of stalwart sailors are throwing spears and harpooning it but it's all in vain. Finally, with one final surge it reaches up and pulls the whole boat down. The surge creates a whirlpool that sucks everyone under... down.. down... down... until there's no hope of survival.
Things begin to go dark as you see blood pooling in your eyes. You hear the sound of your own heart beating as your lungs begin to burn.... and then, your lungs give way, you open your mouth to cry out, soundless in the darkness, and bring the salty water into your chest... but instead of darkness, your vision clears. Your heart returns to normal... and you realize you are one of the gifted few... one whose life now consists of everything above the water... as well as below.
Sounds awesome, right?! Unfortunately, to test the theory you risk death - or even permadeath. So to actually determine if you've got a Talent, would require you to throw your life away in the pursuit of just discovering if it's worth it.
3. We want to avoid having too many of the rare Talents running around in the world at once. Even if you have a Talent, if too many souls are already exhibiting signs of that Talent, the Soulborn Engine might just let you die and give the Talent to another soul anyways. After all, you never knew you had it, so in the interest of game balance, it'll be like you never did.
