Jump to content

[Magic Lore] Necromantic Thaumaturgy


dard
 Share

Recommended Posts

[ Hub Main ]

rvFV5EO_sPjLF5DVLvOochUuCXIByHWYMqK8V4moygRuUUE_ZAwHHTyxOgIdPSzCAfsjm77bDnNI_YQn4ioMbq6pO042AXBhdLEkXZFKtQDCHTWgR7JljPhOCFF72WBz9nUI02Q8

Thaumaturgy

Though infamous in their ability to weave death and decay, a necromancer is nothing without the aid of their coven.  From the creation of the lich to damning cities to disease, necromancers are cunning and powerful in groups. Their affinity for working together to achieve great power is only rivaled by the coven politics of hierarchical backstabbery.  

 

Ritual

The first practices a necromancer undergoes upon ordainment into the coven are rituals.  A necromancer must learn their powers are nothing without the unity of a coven. Rituals are lesser acts of cult proportions that do not require an archlich or elder necromancer’s oversight.  

 

Spoiler

 

Rite of the Returning

Oft, a necromancer is forsaken by society and actively hunted for their abuse of life.  Throughout their long and scrutinous existence, many necromancers will be killed at least once—whether it be by the world turned on them, or through reckless abandon with the creatures of death—and those that are must depend on the cohesiveness of their brethren to return them from the grave.  Requiring two necromancers as well as sums of meat and bone, a willing fallen necromancer can fully resurrected with no memories of their death prior—grotesquely taking shape within the mound of gore.

 

Requirements:

  • A corpse worth of flesh and bone

 

Spoiler

Mechanics: Two necromancers gather together a corpse and resurrect a dead necromancer.

 

Redlines: 

  • Necromancers killed by methods other than suicide or old age can be resurrected if they are willing.

    • This cannot bypass normal PK rules.

  • Flesh and bone used can be from any creature, animal or otherwise.

  • Necromancers revived do not retain memories leading up to the moment of death.

  • A resurrected necromancer is revived in their normal state with their modifications.

  • This rite works in tangent with a necromancer’s death system (See The Necromancer of Heith-Hedran).

Rite of Communion

In the primal times of mankind, necromancy began as a means to commune with one’s cherished ancestors.  The first clergy of Rh’thor began as specialists in ancestral communion, able to reach through the soulstream and the weakened veil of Heith-Hedran to call upon the dead.  By having two or more necromancers surround a worthy vessel—usually a corpse or skeleton—they temporarily animate it as a blank slate for a departed soul to enter and speak again to the living.

 

Requirements:

  • A humanoid corpse or skeleton

 

Spoiler

Mechanics: Two necromancers can reach out to speak to a willing, deceased person.

 

Redlines:

  • The original roleplayer of the summoned spirit must reprise their role for the communion.

    • The player must be PK’d for this to ensue.

    • The PK’d player must consent OOCly and ICly for the communion to transpire.

  • Interaction with characters formerly roleplayed by communion participants is disallowed.

  • Magic or lessons cannot be taught through communion.

  • The communed character cannot recall actions that led to his/her death.

  • While inside of the vessel, the character can move and speak, but cannot engage in combat without being ejected immediately from their host.

  • A PK’d persona can only be contacted once a narrative month.

Rite of the Oculus

The power of reanimation can only through a properly imbued focus in the hands of a necromancer.  Without it, their shambling servants would turn on them indiscriminately and attempt to devour the hand that raised it.  By taking a glass trinket and imbuing it with one’s lifeforce, it becomes a conduit that can direct undead servants bound to it.  This object, fragile as it is, becomes the most dangerous object in a necromancer’s arsenal, and it is easily identified by a low sense of anxiety and despair that it causes to mortal eyes that look upon it.  

 

Requirements:

  • A glass object or trinket

 

Spoiler

Mechanics: One or more necromancers imbues a glass trinket with lifeforce that exists as the color of their aura. 

 

Redlines:

  • An oculus can range from a necklace, an amulet, a hollow orb, or even a crystalline series of jewels embedded onto the front of a book.  The only constraint is that they are visible and capable of being taken during acts of  commanding the undead.  These objects cannot be a part of weapons (like a dagger or its jewelled hilt).

    • For instance, because a ring cannot be easily snatched off a necromancer it is mechanically disallowed.  However, something like an amulet, which can be ripped off the neck of a necromancer, is allowed.

  • A necromancer’s oculus must be signed by a member of the Story Team Lore (See Reanimation).

    • The lore signed oculus denotes what type of undead are bound to it (such as a skeletal minion, an undead animal companion, or a behemoth creature). 

    • The request for a signed item should come after the necromancer has done the Rite of the Oculus and then successfully bound their reanimations to it.

  • An oculus takes the color of the necromancer’s aura. It is filled with their unique lifeforce, meaning they are specific to that necromancer only.

  • This object is extremely fragile and will shatter if dropped, causing a loss of control.  

  • Note, a newly ordained necromancer will require their oculus to be made for them until they reach the appropriate tier to make it for themselves (see Tier Progression).

  • Only one oculus can exist per necromancer at any given time.

Rite of Draining

Necromancers are often driven out of areas near settlements and their camps along the road if discovered.  The blight they have on society is something that cannot be ignored: stealing the vitality of innocent men and women.  This evil, however necessary, is instrumental in obtaining a prized reagent often used in Black Alchemy known as liquid lifeforce.  By taking a willing or unwilling victim and placing them in a ritual setting, a two necromancers are capable of siphoning life out of the victim through an advanced form of Darkening.  This esoteric vitality is stowed into small, glass flasks for further nefarious purposes. When the process is complete, the victim is left unconscious with a no memory of the encounter—strangely unable to recall the events, faces, or otherwise.  For upwards of a day following, these victims lack motivation and appear frail and sickly.

 

Requirements:

  • A living player character with lifeforce

 

Spoiler

Mechanics: Two or more necromancers steal the lifeforce from a victim, storing it within a vial as a milky liquid. 

 

Redlines:

  • A person can be siphoned from per three days, providing the same quantity of liquid lifeforce no matter the size of the victim.  Further draining will yield nothing and do no excess harm.

    • This reagent is considered magical must be signed by a member of the Story Team.

  • When a person is siphoned from, they lose all memories of the encounter as if they had died, though no death truly ensued.

  • If the raw lifeforce were to be drunk, it will taste as raw ambrosia and begin a lifelong addiction.

Rite of Ordainment

A rite only capable of being performed by an elder necromancer, Ordainment is considered a right of passage for any would-be necromancers in a coven, granting them the capacity to reach mastery over life itself.  Those who earn the coven leader’s favor, typically from showing devotion through some trial, are then placed in a state of near death and remain teetering through the weaves of Heith-Hedran. A difficult technique, even elder necromancers struggle with keeping their would-be acolyte from going over the edge.  Even still, not all who undergo Ordainment make it through alive, even still, those that do are often are traumatized. After the rite is orchestrated, the soul of the necromancer is forever marked as one that has cheated death.

 

Requirements:

  • A Zealous Idol

 

Spoiler

Mechanics: A single necromancer at the fourth tier can teach a person necromancy.

 

Redlines: 

  • Once one has learned necromancy, it cannot be unlearned except through Story Team lore intervention.

  • Undergoing Ordainment marks the necromancer as having a black soul for the purposes of other magics or events.

  • Ordainment requires OOC consent of the would-be student and can only be conducted by those with a TA and an empty student slot.

  • The would-be student drops all magics after the process transpires.

 

Rite of Sealing

When faced with rebellion and tyranny from undying men, there is but one option: the Rite of Sealing.  Unable to truly banish those who have risen in immortality against the agents of oblivion, a necromancer’s only choice is to imprison the dead in their own bodies, banished to purgatory and encased in metal or stone.  Forever awake, forever bound, woe to the deadmen who draws the ire of their makers for it is only at their mercy or hapless chance that they be freed.

 

Requirements:

 

  • A tomb

 

Spoiler

Mechanics: A group of four necromancers can seal away a subjugated Archlich or Darkstalker.

 

Redlines:

 

  • The Rite of Sealing soft-PKs a Darkstalker or Archlich, locking them away in a tomb of some sort, such as an Iron Maiden, a chain-wrapped coffer, or even some type of grand pyramid. 

  • The lead ritualist can specify a time limit of the soft-PK or have it be indefinite.  This does not require OOC consent.

  • The sealed undead can be unsealed at any time and freed if their tomb broken.  The sealed CA then may resume playing their character again.

  • The sealed CA must OOCly consent to being placed in extra-dimensional planes or somewhere that cannot be mundanely traversed to (such as a blood rift).

  • If a Darkstalker or Archlich is in a place that cannot be accessed mechanically (i.e. a map has changed, a blood rift, or otherwise), the Story Team must be consulted with an appropriate plan that includes: knowledge of where the tomb is, method of getting there, and and method of getting back.  If ST approved, this can be done through a private event overseen by a Story Team member and the CA can be played again.

Rite of the Aberrant

Through assisted effort, an elder necromancer and his coven can fleshmith absolute horrors as month and year long projects.  Amalgamations capable of ranging from large skeletal drakes to a necrotic cerberus, reanimations of this magnitude are massive investments of both time and resources. These behemoth beings, limited to the imagination of the depraved beings who craft it, are then bound to a specifically created oculus that requires the use of multiple necromancers to control.

 

Requirements:

  • A massive cadaver of a creature

 

Spoiler

Mechanics: A group of necromancers attempt to reanimate a very large creature.

 

Redlines:

  • Gargantuan Amalgamations of flesh are classed as creatures that scale in sizes above that of a grizzly bear require MArts to create.

  • The MArt should include screenshots of roleplay creating the creature, how many necromancers are capable of controlling it, obtained necessary reagents, OOC and IC purpose, and any other redlines that the Story Team deems necessary. 

  • The purpose of these creations is to have a single use (or substantially limited) for the purposes of events, warclaims (providing the other party consents OOCly to such), or any other Story Team sanctioned purpose (requiring team approval).

 

Rite of Malediction

 

Woe be to those who garner the vice of a necromancer, for their covens may harness pestilence to reap the harrowed fields of decaying kingdoms and bastions alike. By gathering a mass of lifeforce is a coven capable of spreading disease across a region of land, varying from fields of grain to entire lakes that subside the populace with water. Twisting and stagnating the land can produce abyssal effects, giving those who enter the area flu like symptoms, and perhaps even benign tumors and growths if exposed for too long. Those who consume the afflicted substance are then wrought by whatever malediction has been planted within the chosen substance. Whatever disease the coven opts to infect the area with, it must be done upon fields capable of life, either farms or grassland, or a body of water.

 

The Rite of Malediction is a ritual that requires at least two necromancers to perform, growing in size and intensity with each additional necromancer present. By fusing twisted lifeforce into the earth and the targeted harvest or body of water, a necromantic pestilence may be fused with the mass. This may extend from a small field of wheat, to an entire lake given the needed amount of necromancers are present to expand the area of effect. This land may be afflicted with a specific pestilence within necromancy, or may simply bring about abyss-like taint and effects. Abyssal taint infers that flu-like symptoms are felt by those who ingest the tainted substance or meddle in the area affected for a narrative hour. After two narrative hours of standing within the region, small bulbous tumors may begin to appear on ligaments and appendages, offering no true harm other than acute sores and a dulling pain.  

 

Spoiler

A gathering of two or more necromancers may call upon their lifeforce to twist and plague a field of farmland, flora, or any body of water with a chosen malediction. If no malediction is chosen, abyssal like taint is instead called upon as fields grow grey and the air lingers with stagnant lifeforce.

 

  • The rite requires two or more necromancers, with the scourge scouring a base range of a 20 meter radius with only two present. With each additional necromancer 10 meters of range are added.

  • The disease has no max range, as long as PRO permission is given and there are the required amount of necromancers.
  • The chosen disease must be an approved pestilence from the necromancy pestilence section. If a pestilence is not chosen, the land is instead given abyssal like taint, lesser to that of the Heith-Hedran scars.
  • One must spend over a narrative hour in these areas to have flu-like symptoms appear.
  • Consuming the afflicted substance, whether food or water, will infect the individual with the chosen pestilence.
  • Plagued land may be mechanically plagued, having either swarms of locusts consuming entire fields, or holding strange growths and abyssal taint within crops.
  • Plagued fields and crops only affect those within the area and region specified. This is locked to the tile that the plague is set upon, with afflicted substances falling to ash when carried long distances.

    Such prevents intentional transferring of plagued items to be “spread.”

  • Bodies of water may be murkier, or hold strange scents that are not natural.
  • Plague lands may be purged by fire for crop fields, removing the taint once all has been reduced to ash.
  • Blight healing is capable of purging mass plague.
  • One an afflicted substance is consumed it takes 3 OOC days for the disease to arise. This disease lasts for 2 OOC weeks, unless cured.
  • Victims may choose to permanently keep the affliction, if chosen OOCly.
  • Diseases may be cured by means of homeopathy, alchemical remedies, or any general healing magic.
  • Plagued lands must be ST reqed, either having put down a sign to signify its effects, or to show signs of plague. 
  • The visual effects of pestilence are left to a notice sign or otherwise, with in game builds requiring RO permission to aesthetically change and alter the blocks. Land outside of a region is determined by WT on if it is viable or not.
  • Mass plague as a ritual is only capable of being done once every OOC month by those who enact it. Likewise, attempts to spam the spell in aims to ruin nations is thoroughly frowned upon.

 

 

 

Sacraments

Though capable of being aided in by any necromancer, the Sacraments require oversight of an archlich or elder necromancer to commence.  These acts are vile, dangerous deeds that typically involve the entire coven as each and every one possess some manner in which they can go terribly wrong.  

 

 

Spoiler

 

Sacrament of Heith-Hedran 

From the combined efforts of an elder necromancer and four of their most powerful necromancers, the fracture between the lifebanks and the mortal world is pierced and sundered.  This rift is perpetuated by a beacon, where it must stabilize through maturity and be protected over time. Due to the rift, the planes of the mortal realm and the lifebanks are weakened, allowing one to theoretically reach through and utilize the powers of Heith Hedran to fuel more nefarious sacraments. Where Heith-Hedran is breached, the fields grow barren with unnatural storms of black lightning and screeching thunder, enshadowed in an unnatural twilight that perpetuates unsightly light. 

 

Requires:

  • A Zealous Idol

  • Blessed Aurum

  • Sacred Oil

 

Spoiler

Mechanics: A group of three necromancers, one being of the fourth tier,  conjure a fracture in the lifebanks.

 

Redlines: 

  • This Sacrament requires a necromancer that is tier four to conduct it, as well as two other necromancers of any other tier to support them.

  • The swath of land affected will expand no further than 50 meters without another beacon overlapping.

    • Corrupted land cannot bypass the mechanical region’s borders into another settlement unless consent is given from the second PRO, and so forth.

  • Heith-Hedran can be utilized in events or by ritualistic spells below (See Thaumaturgy).

  • Land scarred by Heith-Hedran is largely an aesthetic effect that necromancers can create alone or through the assistance of their coven.  

    • There are no theoretical limits on its boundaries, so long as the PRO gives approval to use the land.

  • When living, non-necromancers enter tainted land can cause some minor tertiary effects, such as sneezing and coughing.  

    • These effects are minor and subside quickly after leaving.  They do not impact combat or concentration for spellcasting.

  • Tainting land requires PRO permission.  Land that isn’t claimed can be tainted provided staff agrees to it, and they allowed to build it.

 

Sacrament of the Usurer 

A rarity in the times before Devirad, the mighty Darkstalker carries with it a legacy that merits fear in speaking their name.  This sacrament is conducted by an elder necromancer, whose endeavours are aided in by three other experienced necromancers in a land where the veil of Heith-Hedran is the weakest.  Intended to become puppets, slaves and guardians to the coven that raises them, these beings are the children of Heith-Hedran, forever changed from the life they once bore.  

 

Beginning with a worthy corpse, an either willing or unwilling soul is anchored down to the earth and bound to the body.  The first stage of the sacrament involves annointing the corpse with the appropriate reagents in arcane glyphs and sigils that prepare the host body for recieving the soul without overloading in a viscera of splayed gore.  The corpse acts as a vessel for the chosen spirit, where the necromancers participating in the sacrament flood the cadaver with lifeforce until the soul is tricked into uniting with the foreign surrogate. The being, now undead, is named Darkstalker—child of Heith Hedran and servant of the coven who has raised them. 

 

Requires:

  • Ghoul’s Heart

  • Affection of the resurrected

  • A humanoid corpse or skeleton

 

Spoiler

Mechanics: A necromancer of the fourth tier and three other necromancers attempt to resurrect a dead warrior as a Darkstalker.

 

Redlines:

  • This Sacrament requires a necromancer that is tier four to lead, and three other necromancers to support them.

  • A Darkstalker can either come from a PK’d character, reprised by the original owner who has OOCly consented to the ritual.

  • Necromancers that partake in this Sacrament cannot perform or aid in a new Sacrament of the Usurer for 1 IRL month.

  • A memento mori must be chosen by the Darkstalker, which then signed by a Story Team Lore member.

  • The act of collecting a personal affection of the resurrected can either be a player prompted quest or simply done offscreen, provided OOC consent is given.

  • This sacrament can only be done in a place where Heith-Hedran has been established.

 

Sacrament of the Vicar

A sacrament foreign to all but the most adept of necromancy, it is seldom taught how one becomes an archlich among elder necromancers for its implication and risk to the entirety of the coven.  Only an elder necromancer who has garnered the support of their coven can advance to this stage, as becoming an archlich requires absolute coordination down to every subordinate. An archlich may only be created where the veil of Heith-Hedran is the weakest, first requiring the Sacrament of Heith-Hedran to have cursed the land.  

 

Unlike the creation of Darkstalkers, the vessel of an Archlich must be prepared well in advance.  Firstly, the body must be fleshsmithed from the remains of a slain dragon—a creature capable of holding the terrifying and raw amount of magic that is used in this proceedure.  It is then treated by the ground dust of a powerful lich’s phylactery before it is finally ready.  

 

The chosen necromancer must sacrifice themselves where Heith-Hedran is present, placing their faith in the abilities of their coven.  Careful as not to allow the wrong soul into the body, one must reach through Heith-Hedran and rend forth the sacrificed necromancer, forcing their soul into the dragon-forged corpse, where they are born again as death incarnate.

 

Requires:

  • Black Phylactery Dust

  • Blood of a Hag

  • Remains of a Dragon 

  • Fleshsmithing Tools

 

Spoiler

Mechanics: A necromancer of the fifth tier must kill themselves.  They are then raised as an archlich with the aid of another elder necromancer and four other necromancers.

 

Redlines:

  • This Sacrament requires six necromancers to conduct: two tier five necromancers, one who will lead the ritual and the other who will become the archlich, and four other necromancers to support them.

  • If the Sacrament is interrupted the would-be archlich must PK.  They may be brought back following 3 narrative months if a successful attempt of the ritual is completed at that time.

  • This sacrament can only be done in a place where Heith-Hedran has been established.

 

 

Tier Progression

The most sinister and dangerous rituals in a necromancer’s path come from their capacity to work with others to achieve knowledge and command death in perverse rituals.  Regardless of prowess, any necromancer, novice or expert, may act as a participant in a ritual by another necromancer.  These rituals and sacraments must first be learned, whether watching as a participating necromancer or through direct tutelage.

 

Tier 1: Capable of acting as a participant in any ritual or sacrament.

Tier 2: Capable of conducting the Rite of Returning.

Tier 3: Capable of conducting the Rite of the Oculus and the Rite of Communion.

Tier 4: Capable of conducting the Rite of Draining, the Rite of Ordainment, Rite of Sealing, the Sacrament of Heith-Hedran and the Sacrament of the Usurer.

Tier 5: Capable of conducting the Rite of the Aberrant and the Sacrament of the Vicar.

 

General Redlines

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

  • Thaumaturgy abilities may only be conducted in out of combat.  If combat erupts, the ritual or sacrament is interrupted and must be start over when combat has ended.

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

  • Information on the reagents mentioned can be found on the main lore hub page listed under the Apocryphynium.

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thank you for submitting your Lore Games draft! You will receive input on what needs to be fixed within the next 2 weeks.

Link to post
Share on other sites

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.



×
×
  • Create New...