Five traits make a personality

In Underlives, your character is more than a face and a few skill sliders. Before you step into the city, you pick five traits that define who they are.

A tree, not a list

The 128 traits sit in 16 families: temperament, social style, integrity, intimacy, power, conflict, money, work, self-image, harmful patterns… Each family is a branch around the core. Click a family to fan out all of its traits.

For each trait, the panel on the right shows what it means, how your character reacts under stress and what it changes in their personality.

Choices that rule each other out

Some traits don't go together. An assertive person can't also be submissive. As soon as you pick a trait, the ones that contradict it turn red and lock. Only five slots: you have to choose what really matters.

Why it matters

The people of the city have the same kind of personality you do, built from the same traits. They act on their own, whether you are there or not, and their traits decide what they do: who they love, who they betray, how they react when things go wrong. Your five traits put you in that same world, under the same rules.

For modders

Traits, families, their colours and their icons are all mod data. A mod that adds a trait or a whole family grows the tree by itself. The same goes for skills, now grouped by category (body, mind, reputation, career, money…).