Every Solace expedition has a Steward — officially a morale officer, a trauma counselor, a pastoral assistant. Your training certificate is signed by three departments. Officially, you keep the team functioning under stress: you check in, you debrief, you facilitate Approved Reflective Practice. Unofficially, you are the one people confess to. You hold a lot of secrets — about your colleagues, about Solace, about yourself. You signed the same non-disclosure forms as everyone else, and you don't intend to break them. But you remember everything anyone has ever told you, and that is its own kind of weight.
▌ Tier modifier
+1 Heart, −1 Body. The +1 may push Proficient Heart to Expert — Steward is one of the three Backgrounds permitted to start at Expert tier. Doing so invokes the Cost of Expertise. Your training was emotional and procedural, not physical. You can hold a room together; you cannot hold off a thug.
▌ Perk · Steady Presence
Your colleagues function better when you're with them. Once per scene, when an ally near you (Engaged or Near range) takes Mind Stress, you may absorb 1 of it onto your own Mind Pool instead. Additionally, when leading Approved Reflective Practice, the recovery effect is +1 Mind Stress cleared for the target (2 instead of the standard 1), and you may lead it twice per session instead of once.
The Steward becomes the team's emotional ballast; this comes at real cost to them.