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[Lore Addition] Soulbound Servants: Diadacts of the Eternal Forest


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The Soulbound Servants: Didacts of the Forest
Holy Ghosts of Druids

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An elven druid returns as a Soulbound Servant, watching over the forest with a careful eye.

 

It is a well known truth among druii and those that study the aspects or their faith, that devout druids who die ascend to the realm of the fae, to serve out their days as Soulbound Servants. In the realm of fae, these spirits of passed druids are revered by all as wise men and oracles. Creatures of the fae flock from every corner of the realm to hear their words of wisdom. In the realm of fae, they are considered demigods, chosen of the aspects themselves. (The Fae Realm).

 

In death, these sages reflect the souls of what they were in life. For those that sought the taste of battle in defense of the balance, they may find themselves as a spirit of fury, blessing those of the Twilight Bound. A gentler druid, a healer perhaps, may find themselves as a mending spirit of the Dayward Way. All these such spirits are revered amongst the fae creatures of the world.

The servants can take the form of an incorporeal spirit, the physical body they had in life, or even as a reflection of their own spirit animal. Respected and revered by all races of the fae as the chosen vessels of the Aspects themselves, the Soulbound enjoy their afterlife by serving as wise men and priests. The most dimwitted of rock-creatures to the most cunning of Imps will travel across the entire Fae for the chance to meet one of the Soulbound and receive words of wisdom.

 

Like all fae creatures, they possess the ability to traverse over one of the many thin threads that hold our realms together, through a fae ring. For one that may find themselves facing one of these spirits, they can expect only unbridled wisdom, for they gaze upon a fragment of the fae realm itself. However, while they were able to become corporeal in the Eternal Forest, their journey to the mortal realm has diminished their strength, and they hold but a fraction of the power they hold in the Fae Realm.

 

A soulbound servant, in the mortal realm, is little more than a spirit of the fae. They cannot touch or interact with the world. They will never again feel the embrace of a loved one, nor the wind on their cheek. They are dead, lost to the world. Incorporeal beings that merely exist as a passer of knowledge, a wielder of the torch of druidic power. Even when their connection to the Eternal Forest is strongest, standing within the fae ring, they are unable to lay a finger on the world of the living.

 

One may ask, why would a soulbound servant return to the mortal fold? What other reason than the one they hold in the realm of the fae. They serve as ancient teachers, passing on the wisdom of their many years. It is the primary mission of all Soulbound Servants to pass down their own knowledge of the balance, and to guide the druids of the world towards a heightened understanding of what their duty is, and how they might attain it. They serve as powerful guides to all that follow the path of the aspects. To dedicants, they serve to inform and teach. To Druii, they seek to offer their different perspective on the world and how it may function. And above all, to Archdruii, they serve as powerful advisers in the face of great adversity. But they are just that. Guides, advisers, wise-men. Vessels of knowledge.

 

Due to the distance from the realm of the fae, and their diminished power, they are unable to use the gifts that they had throughout their lives as druii, but they still retain their ancient knowledge of the arts. To fulfill their mission, these spirits are able to pass on their understanding of the gifts into the druii of the world in several ways, detailed a bit later. In addition to this, the servants have access to a few smaller tricks from their time in the fae realm that they would use in pursuit of guiding dedicants, druids, and archdruii alike, without impacting the world on a physical level.


Blessings of the Aspects

Gifts From the Eternal Forest

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A druid completes a task with the oversight of the Soulbound Servant

 

Soulbound Servants tend not to intervene in worldly affairs, beyond their task of guiding others, and serving the balance. Without the ability to hold a sword, or travel far beyond their fae rings, they take up a more guiding role, using their abilities to teach, rather than lead. Their time spent in the realm of the fae shows now though, and Soulbound Servants find that they have a few lesser abilities that they didn’t have before. These can be very straining for the spirit to perform, and only one may be used per day, that they might serve the spirit in guiding others.

 

Greensight
Soulbound Servants mimic many of the abilities of regular ghosts, being able to use their own version of Horrorchill called Greensight. With this ability, Soulbound Servants have the ability to reach out to attuned minds, and are able to incur visions of the past, things that the servant themselves have seen, or even things that the subject has seen. Through this, they can evoke calming memories, or through their own memories, lessons of the past. These visions can be as vivid or as vague as the spirit wills it. This ability, unlike horrorchill, only works on a willing subject who knows they are being affected. This only affects attuned druids, and those affected by fae rings.

 

Oversight
Similar to the talking host ability that usual ghosts have, soulbound servants are able to bind themselves to a druid for as long as they wish, seeing what they see, hearing what they hear, allowing them into their thoughts. However, this must be entirely willed on the part of the druid and the servant. During this time, the druid is marked with a fae rune upon their forehead, showing that they are a vessel of the spirit. This lasts until the subject no longer wills it, or the spirit decides to leave the body. If the host is killed while the servant is inside of the body, that spirit demanifests as they gather themselves again.

 

In addition to these two abilities, Soulbound Servants can do several abilities like their ghostly cousins.

  • Soulbound Servants may shift between visibility and invisibility at will, disappearing or appearing in a flash of their fae energy.
  • Soulbound Servants can interact with the environment in limited ways, such as opening doors, or nudging objects. (In the same way that ghosts do.)
  • Soulbound Servants may float (In the same way that ghosts do)
  • Soulbound Servants give off a glow that reflects their fae energy.   
  • Soulbound Servants can change their appearance in a limited way, such as gaining fae attributes, or taking on the form of their spirit animal
  • Due to their distance from the realm of the Fae, they cannot fully return to their physical form. However, when in the Eternal Forest, they can regain such a form.
  • Instead of decaying life around them, and feeding on it, Soulbound Servants serve as a conduit of fae energy, and many may find the world around them blooming to life as the world is touched by the mystical energies of the Eternal Forest.
  • Soulbound Servants do NOT have telekinesis, unlike their ghostly cousins.

 

Guides and Redlines

  • Soulbound Servants must have been at least a T5 in Control and Communion before their death to be brought back.
  • Soulbound Servants require a CA to be played.
  • Soulbound servants are the spirits of druids that return to the mortal realm to continue their duties as druids.
  • In order to be brought back from the realm of the fae at first, the spirit must be guided back by a druid using transcendence. They cannot be forced back if they do not want to come back.
  • If a druid already knows the Transcendence feat, they can bring themselves back.
  • Soulbound Servants can appear as a manifestation of their former selves, or as a reflection of their spirit animal
  • Soulbound Servants can interact with the environment in limited ways, such as opening doors, or nudging objects. (In the same way that ghosts do.)
  • Soulbound Servants can no longer perform control, blight healing, or herblore, shapeshifting, unattunement, attunement, or powersharing.
  • Soulbound Servants can no longer teach unattunement, attunement, or shapeshifting.
  • Soulbound Servants can still teach druidism, including control, communion, blight healing, and herblore if they have a TA
  • A servant doesn’t need to eat, sleep, or breathe; they may survive indefinitely without damage
  • Golden Weaponry affects the spirits as a normal weapon would to a person, and cannot use any of their abilities on gold.
  • To banish a servant to the Eternal Forest, one can summon a cleric, shaman, Fi’ user, or alterationist to perform an exorcism. This demanifests the ghost, but is not a Perma-kill on the Soulbound Servant.
  • It is not necessarily possible to "kill" a Soulbound Servant, but they can be forced them into the Eternal Forest. This causes the Ghost to demanifest for 30 minutes, akin to death for other Descendants, and leave the area to go to the Eternal Forest for a prolonged amount of time.

 

OOC Note: What I really tried to change with this rendition of the lore was the “how” one becomes such a thing, and the abilities. I really tried to trim down the lore piece from Shade lore levels of length to a nice, easily read piece. Short, sweet, simple. I’ve turned it into a lore addition, as a way to extend the ghost lore into other aspects of the server. I’ve translated a lot of the “horror” of the abilities into more Fae abilities. I wanted to create a way for druids to return as ghosts without relinquishing their connection to the Emerald Forest. So, druidic ghosts!
 

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As a ghost player, a fae dude, and an ex-druid, I welcome this addition!

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A done do-diddly-doo-da-dee deal of a delightful post if I do daresay. Glad to see this make its return. +1
 

Spoiler

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I get that being able to contact Druid ghosts seems appealing, but being able to permanently play one with a CA is stupid.

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Tasty

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It's basically just druid version ghosts and I don't see much problem with expanding ghost lore. It's just a new flavor to play with as opposed to only the horror trope. Seems fine.

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+1

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Okay, may as well air my qualms with this piece of lore. Giving druids a way to basically reverse a PK and come back as a "ghost" is absolute dogshit. For why the Aspects would let any spirits manifest in the real world even fae attuned is completely unfathomable to me, creating a "new" flavour lore ghost is just probably the worst thing you could do, especially with druidism.

 

My favourite thing is that this skips the entire "you can PK a ghost clause" and hides it behind the fae realm. You can have spiritual guidance and things with transcendence done without having these creatures be able to operate within the physical realm. I'd be perfectly happy with these staying within the confines of the 'Eternal Forest' and never stepping foot into the world once again. Though what is seen as a nice flavour addition will be abused notoriously by druids who regretted their permakills. This is bloat for the sake of bloat, you do not need druid ghosts for reality.

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1 minute ago, GrimReaper98 said:

Okay, may as well air my qualms with this piece of lore. Giving druids a way to basically reverse a PK and come back as a "ghost" is absolute dogshit. For why the Aspects would let any spirits manifest in the real world even fae attuned is completely unfathomable to me, creating a "new" flavour lore ghost is just probably the worst thing you could do, especially with druidism.

 

My favourite thing is that this skips the entire "you can PK a ghost clause" and hides it behind the fae realm. You can have spiritual guidance and things with transcendence done without having these creatures be able to operate within the physical realm. I'd be perfectly happy with these staying within the confines of the 'Eternal Forest' and never stepping foot into the world once again. Though what is seen as a nice flavour addition will be abused notoriously by druids who regretted their permakills. This is bloat for the sake of bloat, you do not need druid ghosts for reality.

latest?cb=20121001165849

Grim on his way to axe lore bloat

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1 hour ago, GrimReaper98 said:

Okay, may as well air my qualms with this piece of lore. Giving druids a way to basically reverse a PK and come back as a "ghost" is absolute dogshit. For why the Aspects would let any spirits manifest in the real world even fae attuned is completely unfathomable to me, creating a "new" flavour lore ghost is just probably the worst thing you could do, especially with druidism.

 

My favourite thing is that this skips the entire "you can PK a ghost clause" and hides it behind the fae realm. You can have spiritual guidance and things with transcendence done without having these creatures be able to operate within the physical realm. I'd be perfectly happy with these staying within the confines of the 'Eternal Forest' and never stepping foot into the world once again. Though what is seen as a nice flavour addition will be abused notoriously by druids who regretted their permakills. This is bloat for the sake of bloat, you do not need druid ghosts for reality.

 

The question of “why” can be answered as simply to allow Druids to pass on their teachings to the next generation. It’s not like letting them burdens the Aspects. It’s the Transcendent Druid and the Soul doing all the work. There aren’t that many folks who are versed in Transcendence, thus it also acts as a limiter for Soulbound Servants. Which only compounds when you realize how few Druids “officially” PK comparatively to those who just disappear into the wilds.

 

These spirits have a place to go, it’s a given they would return to the Fae realm under normal circumstance. Besides, the forced PK clause got scrapped for ghosts anyway (too many ghosts were targeted for purging), so that point seems a bit moot. Course it might still be changed if the LT request it.

Can’t really change your opinions, but look at it this way. Do you really think something with under a dozen paragraphs is going to bloat up lore in any noticeable way? Especially since it’s such an easy concept – I doubt people will need to refer to it more than once to memorize it.

Edited by ThatGuy_777
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You know, I can sort of get behind this, but at the same time, no. Druids don’t particularly /need/ undead teachers. It seems like just a way for PKed druids to come back and still have druidic power compared to the usual soul shadows available. Just use the immortality button that is Treelord and be content with that. Y’all already give it out to most druids near a PK age to begin with. 

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