[Magic Lore] Necromantic Maledictions

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“You think because you recite my words that all is forgiven?  Because they are all under the earth and you're up here that makes you special? You are wrong.  The dead don’t forget.”

Malediction

Beyond life, beyond death, necromancers pride themselves on their ability to weave primal sources of life force into their twisted creations and use it for nefarious purposes.  They embrace the occult, the abomination, the grotesque, be them live or dead, all in the service to defy an inevitable fate that all must face.

 

 

Darkening 

 

A relic spell that had been passed down through eras, first from the Old Lords and before them an obscure source of power lost to time.  Perverting the teachings of Rh'thor, a necromancer is capable of conjuring an abyssal aura upon one hand and steal the victim’s lifeforce, inducing painful necrotic disease equivalent to being doused in fire, intensifying the longer the touch is maintained.

 

Spoiler

 

Non-Combat - Cantrip

To perform darkening, a necromancer must manifest an abysmal aura which appears as a thick black haze which swirls around their hand. With this, the necromancer may manipulate lesser living lifeforms as they see fit, such as a patch of grass or shrub. So long as it is touched or in the immediate proximity of the necromancer (5 meters) they may steal the life from it so that it appears withered and decayed. This grants no benefit to the necromancer save for a slight euphoria, though does nothing to replenish their energy or ability to cast. As this is limited to a cantrip, it cannot be used combatively. Alternatively, when at T3, the necromancer may attempt to hide the aura and may perform such through subtle skin-to-skin interactions, such as leaving an individual feeling lethargic after exchanging a mere handshake. 

 

Combat - Direct Drain

The necromancer may also use this method to a more malefic capacity, capable of actively sapping the lifeforce from a descendant. This would require two emotes to channel the haze, before the necromancer must grapple their target victim and begin to drain the lifeforce. This feels alike to hot needles which are pulled out from under the flesh, which may overwhelm the victim and cause them great degrees of pain. Over the duration of two more emotes, assuming direct physical touch was sustained, the victim will become gradually weaker and frailer until they are incapacitated. This would not kill them outright, though would render them unconscious and gaunt for a moderate duration until aroused. Should they be drained yet a second time, the individual would shrivel up and be killed.

 

Combat - Tether Drain

Bestowed upon necromancers that have achieved proficiency of T4 or higher, tether draining allows the necromancer to drain their target from a distance rather than direct touch. This would require an adequate amount of concentration and limits the necromancer’s movement to two blocks per emote while sustaining the tether. This requires two emotes for the necromancer to manifest the haze, lock upon their target and weave it. So long as the victim is within ten meters of the necromancer, the tether would drain their lifeforce over the course of four emotes before rendering them fully incapacitated. This tether may snap should the target go beyond eight meters of the necromancer, or if it was severed by energy-based magics such as fire or electric evocation, aurum, or holy magic.

 

Effects of Draining

In contrast to the victim’s agony, the necromancer is granted a brief euphoria and sense of vitality when draining, equivalent to a brief and potent high which lasts for a few moments after the draining is complete. Though this does not make them any stronger or improve their physical state to any significant degree, it would be heavily addicting and drive them to great lengths the longer they attempt to go without it. Necromancers who deny themselves the art of draining will often go mad from their lack of the vital sustenance they so crave in their state, becoming weak and lethargic until they shrivel away and die.

 

Darkening Rot

The afflicted area of Darkening will become stricken with necrosis at the fourth emote, causing the flesh to rot away and become infected with time. The victim will require treatment of the area within a narrative week or will risk needed amputation or death. The visual aspect of Necrosis is immediately noticeable from when it is inflicted upon the victim, appearing to be an imprint of the casters hand when removed.

It can be treated through any sufficient medical RP (homeopathy, alchemy, magic, etc...) 

 

 

Redlines:

 

• Does not kill the victim the first time, only renders them unconcious.
• Direct touch must be maintained the entire spell’s duration for success.
  • Touch draining requires 2 emotes to channel + 2 for full effect.
  • Tether draining requires 2 emotes to channel + 4 for full effect.
• Tether draining can be severed via aurum or holy magical disturbances.
• A necromancer’s draining can be disrupted similar to any mage’s casting, such as stabbing, wounding, or wrestling them sufficiently enough to break their connection.
• Cantrip draining cannot be used to drain more than plants and small animals. It can inversely be used to replenish the life of such creatures for aesthetic only. Only up to five meters around the necromancy can be drained via cantrip at once, having no effect on nearby mortals/large animals.
• Necromancers are not granted any combative benefit from draining unless they had been made weak/frail from going a particularly long period of time without lifeforce.
• Mortal/Combative draining refers to the draining of any humanoid, mortal, or otherwise player character that is not explicitly weaker or more resistant against necromancy.
• Combative draining does not wipe the memory of victims.
• Draining can be used in tandem with ordering other undead.

 

Branding

 

The craft in which gives necromancy its very name, reanimation of corpses into animate servants is a feat of strength unlike any in the realm of men.  In the event that a hasty animation made in either completing a menial task or for defense, a necromancer is able to use their own latent life force to pervert the residual lifeforce in an untreated corpse so that it may move again for a short time.

 

Capable of being performed in any situation, a necromancer may brand a corpse they touch, causing it to once more shamble to its feet and heed the command of the master.  This technique suffers detriment to the host, however. Over its duration, the reanimation degrades from knight-tier strength to that of an enfeebled old man until it eventually crumbles.

 

Branding requires three emotes to perform on a humanoid corpse.  An additional emote is required before the corpse shambles up to its feet and is able to obey commands for seven more emotes.  The corpse will obey the user’s simple verbal commands.

 

Spoiler

Mechanics: A corpse that obeys the necromancer is reanimated and lasts for eight emotes, degrading from knight-tier strength to nothingness at the end of the emote count.

 

Branding - Living Touch

Spoiler

Just as Branding may be utilized on fallen corpses, it may likewise be applied to those who still walk the earth- at least for the time being. By utilizing another necromancer or any within the weaver’s path, they may embellish a ‘brand’ unto the person by means of touch. Once their lifeforce has been conjured and weaved, they are ready to enact the spell. Taking three whole emotes, where the first two are spent conjuring one's essence, the spell requires full contact to inflict. Upon the third emote they must touch a living person anywhere, as long as it is in contact with either skin or light cloth. This funnels the lifeforce into the living person, acting as an invisible battery that would reanimate the afflicted should they perish. The contact must also be done on skin, as thick armors and hides would protect those from the enthralling spell of the necromancer.

 

A slight numbing sensation would sprawl over where they were touched, though no visible brand would be seen, only felt. There are no effects caused by this brand outright once it is enacted, lasting through only the combat encounter and no longer. The purpose of the brand comes once the brand falls or succumbs to death, as after this brand has been applied- should the branded individual perish, it would take one emote after the death for the corpse to shamble to a rise. Thereafter, the corpse simply acts as a normal Branding reanimation, lasting for 8 emotes until it succumbs to the earth once more.

 

• Branding on a living individual requires two emotes of charging with lifeforce, then a third emote where direct touch on skin is required to set the brand.
• Hides and plate armor will protect against the touch brand, but light cloth will not.
• The brand has no effects outside of a slight sensation upon anointing, remaining unnoticeable thereafter.
• The brand only comes into effect is the individual dies, reanimating them in the next emote as a combat reanimation.
• A necromancer may only use branding when not in use of their oculus, as this follows all redlines of the normal branding spell.
• The brand will lose its effect after a narrative hour, or after combat has been concluded.
• Branding is unusable on any undead or likewise spectral/holy or soulless creatures.
• Should the branded individual be drained of their lifeforce by darkening, the brand would expire. Branded individuals must be culled by other means to raise them from the dead.

 

Branding - Cantrip

Spoiler

Often utilized by necromancers in the midst of projects or in preparation of rituals, these masters of life and death may raise the fallen cadavers within their lair to mill about, completing tasks and even cleaning the debris of lost projects if they so wish. A rotted half skeleton may bring their master the herbs and salts they require, while others may simply pile the skulls of the deceased into a ‘tidy’ pile. No matter the task or the empty husk commanded, these corpses range from swarms of small insects to humanoid descendants, their role in the afterlife but one of labor and service to their master until they are once more quelled to eternal slumber. Tasks uttered by the weaver must be simple and clear, unable to give commands such as ‘build a house’, or ‘forge a sword.’ Instead, much more simple commands are optimal for the reanimated, such as ‘sweep this room,’ or ‘bring me two saffvil from my quarters.’ etc etc.

 

By using branding, a necromancer is capable of raising embalmed corpses and skeletons to work as their assistants and janitors outside of combat. There are tools for different tasks, as a few undead rats will be quite useful in retrieving bone matter and viscera from a gutter- but a full sized human will not. As these animations are purely non-combat, anything relating to combat including traps, pit falls, etc are unable to be constructed by these undead. In addition, if combat is to ever start in the vicinity of a risen cadaver, it will immediately fall inert as the Necromancer’s attention is then focused on their oculus, or on a branded combat animation. Cantrip branding may be used in tandem with oculus bound undead, up until combat starts in their vicinity. Anything larger than a descendant is unable to be risen by the cantrip, requiring the handling force of an oculus to restrain the creature. As for miniscule creatures, ‘swarms’ of risen insects may be no larger than a human’s head, whereas rodents and other small fauna may range in their numbers, but are limited to the mass of a human. Notable as well is that swarms of creatures operate in a hivemind, unable to work as individuals in any regard.

 

This spell has no range, as the creatures will simply continue to toil in the absence of their master. This means they may be used as messengers or as aesthetic creatures which simply mill about one’s lair. Should any person touch or jostle the undead minion, it would crumble and fall dead, inert as the last remaining lifeforce escapes from the husk.

 

The cantrip of branding requires two emotes of conjuring one’s aura, and one emote of touching or pointing/motioning to a corpse within quiet range. On the third emote where it is touched, the body will begin to shamble upwards, and on the fourth it will be ready for whatever orders it is given.

 

• The branding cantrip is learned once the base branding spell is learned.
• The cantrip cannot be used in the midst of combat, nor to serve ANY combat purposes (other than an undead retrieving the necromancer’s weapons before a fight, or anything of that caliber.)
• Should combat start in the vicinity of the undead, it will simply fall inert until combat is resolved.
• Servants can’t build traps, pit falls, wards, or anything requiring higher intellect.
• Servants can’t aid a necromancer in reaching areas mechanically unable to be reached, save for if specifically allowed in certain ET events.
• Commands must be simple and clear, as far too complex commands will offer nothing to the necromancer.
• The undead must be capable of doing whatever task they are given. Telling a skeleton to lift a boulder will result in a broken skeleton, just as telling one to fly will result in either nothing, or a broken skeleton that has fallen from a great height.
• Commands must be spoken verbally, in any language.
• Commands must be made in RP chat range.
• Swarms of insects may never exceed the size of a human head en masse.
• Groups of small animals may be utilized within reasonable numbers. (No groups of animals may reach more than a descendant’s worth of mass.)
• Anything larger than a humanoid descendant corpse is unable to be risen by the cantrip.

 

Redlines:

• Regardless of tier, a corpse raised without preparation will fall under this category and will only act for eight emotes.

• A branded body will begin with Knight-tier strength, degrading to that of an enfeebled old man, crumbling away by the end of its duration.

• The commands capable of being carried out by a branded reanimation must be simple, generally only two-three word statements, such as “attack Jim” or “defend me,” they will simply stand deaf to anything complex such as “write a letter to the Duke of Adria.”  

• Once this technique has been used, the essence within the corpse no longer functions for further use and will eventually run dry as a fuel source.

• Only one branded reanimation can be active at once.

• Branding cannot be performed when a necromancer has an active oculus controlling other reanimations.  They may only do so when their oculus has been broken, stolen, left behind, or is otherwise not on their person (See Reanimation).

• A reanimated corpse is only a shell and cannot assume or disclose memories of who they used to be.

 

Cauterization 

Though dissimilar to previous Maledictions, Cauterization is breaking discovery that first came to fruition under the necromancers of Devirad.  By taking the brutality of lifeforce manipulation and using it to cruelly stitch together living flesh and bones, a necromancer is capable of mending wounds and reattaching severed limbs.  The process crudely takes vast sums of the user’s lifeforce to solder organic tissues together crudely, causing agonizing pain akin to red hot needles piercing and weaving through the affected area.  What remains is the patchwork job and hideous scar of what could have been a life-threatening wound.

 

Cauterization requires two emotes to conjure a black aura on the hands, and an additional two to five emotes to seal the wound.  

 

Spoiler

Mechanics: A person with flesh is forcibly fleshsmithed together at the location of their wound.  This process is extremely tiring for the user and excruciating for the recipient.

 

Redlines:

• This ability is capable of being used in combat, however, it is interrupted if concentration is broken from pain or contact is removed.

• The process is extremely painful for the victim, feeling as if hot irons were weaving through flesh, and leaves behind a noticeable and gruesome scar.

• While Cauterization is taking place, a person cannot die from bloodloss or grievous wounds, being sustained by the caster’s lifeforce itself. 

• While it is capable of being used for torture, cauterization exhausts the user regardless of tier after its use and they require a long rest to recuperate, regardless of tier. 

• After Cauterization is used, both the recipient and the caster are exhausted for the day and cannot engage in combat to any degree besides attempting to run.

• Cauterization cannot regrow limbs , but it can attach limbs that have been freshly severed, (within one IRL day) even one not belonging to them originally.

  • Attaching a limb requires OOC consent and cannot be used to add a functioning appendage that doesn’t fit a person’s biology (i.e. an arm growing out of their head).

• Cauterization can only close wounds and stitch together flesh.  Critical organ damage can only be “repaired” through surgical RP where a necromancer takes freshly harvested organs and cauterizes it into the body.  There does not need to be a “donor” match.

  • Organ harvest does not require OOC consent, but implanting a new organ does.  One cannot add more organs than is biologically sound (i.e. four lungs to breath better).

  • Brain transplants or “body swaps” cannot be done in any fashion through Cauterization.

 

Bursting 

The defining recourse in how necromancy earned a name for its grotesque machinations lies in its manipulation of cadavers.  By inverting the process of Branding, Bursting is the crudest of these techniques that causes a corpse to bloat until it bursts forth, spewing infectious gasses to the living.  

 

After imbuing volatile lifeforce into a corpse, it reacts with the body’s residual lifeforce to reach critical mass.  With a brief delay, the cadaver explodes in a virulent expulsion of disease ridden gore, covering a medium radius around the corpse’s location.  Those caught in the immediate explosion vicinity will be hailed with the shrapnel of bones and mutilated appendages capable of piercing flesh that later can cause infection.  

 

The residual impact of this ability is the air of plague it leaves in its wake.  If inhaled by the living, they will be stricken with immediate shortness of breath and infection of the lungs if detours are not made.

 

Bursting requires four sustained emotes touching the corpse to imbue it with lifeforce.  The fifth emote details the corpse smoldering black and grotesquely bloating, and the sixth causes it to rupture and explode

  

Spoiler

Mechanics: A corpse, either reanimated or not, is set to explode after a short channel.  After a delay, it explodes in a 5x5 block area. The explosion is lethal to those in a two-meter radius, causes injury and disease at a three to five-meter radius.  

 

 

Redlines:

• Those caught in the explosion radius suffer maiming wounds based on their position to the corpse.

  • Point blank range will suffer lethal damage, while those within five meters suffer infectious wounds based on positioning to the exploding corpse.

• If untreated (any medical roleplay is sufficient), infection will persist and can cause pneumonia, respiratory infections, or even death within an IRL week.

• Bursting can be cast upon a non-skeletal corpse, a branded reanimation, or an active reanimation that has been prepared and reanimated, following commands until it explodes (see Corpse Crafting).

• Bursting cast on an oculus-bound reanimation requires that an updated version of the player's oculus be made if they have any remaining animations tied to it after it has exploded.  This must be lore signed.

Tier Progression

Maledictions, as not the focus of necromancy, are inherently limited based on the availability of corpses and use of an oculus.  As a necromancer climbs in tier, the only baseline improvement to their abilities comes from the ability to cast Darkening more than once per combat scenario.  A 1st tier necromancer and a 5th tier necromancer hold no disparity in the quality of their maledictions once they’re learned.

 

Tier 1: Capable of utilizing Darkening.  Darkening can be used once per combat scenario.

Tier 2: Capable of utilizing Branding.  Darkening can be used twice per combat scenario.

Tier 3: Capable of utilizing Cauterization.  Darkening can be used thrice per combat scenario.

Tier 4: Capable of utilizing Bursting.  

Tier 5: No further improvement.

General Redlines

• Abilities classed as Malediction are a subsection of spells for Rh’thoraen Necromancy.  

• Maledictions are capable of being utilized during immediate combat.

• Maledictions do not require a magic slot to learn, they are a subsection of the core magic for Rh’thoraen Necromancy.

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