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[CA Races] Necromantic Simulacra


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Let me show you the countenance of HEITH-HEDRAN, borne of conjunction, 

whose sons breathe air of long darkness. We stand now, in unbound breadth,

and take sight of shadows once banished between sky and earth.

Simulacra

Beyond the ability to sew dread and grief into one’s enemies from undead horrors, the greatest feat of modern necromancy lies in the ability to reach beyond the veil of death and return sentient life to the fallen.  Though aware of what they are and capable of recalling memories and sensations of a past life, they are foreigners housing those thoughts. The life they bore before undeath exists intangibly; a shadows in the desert of the real.
 

The Darkstalkers, children of Heith-Hedran

Borne of occultism through the Sacrament of the Userer, the newfound Darkstalkers differ from the previous generations of skeletal soldiers. Those placed in this state of undeath are generally accomplished heroes or veterans of some sort, those efficient or proven in martial warfare. Most are risen against their will, as who but the deranged and demented would willingly give into this twisted form of Undeath. Such was how it was for the first generation of Darkstalkers: Vor’kalon, first of the stalkers, Varron, defiler of dragonkin, Jackal, traverser of realms, Mercer, bulwark from the mindless, and furthermore. Because of this, Darkstalkers act as the dedicated soldiers and warrior-slaves of the coven that raised them.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Physical Characteristics 

These Darkstalkers can vary in shape as no two people share the exact same stature. As time passes by the body of the Darkstalker becomes more and more unsightly, though the occult sorcery ensures they will not expire from mere age. Possessing limitless endurance as well the strength of a knight, they make for troublesome foes, but not invincible ones. While they may not feel most degrees of pain, they still bear flesh and bone that can be cut, hewn, maimed, or broken. This opens up more viable methods to combat them than the Darkstalkers of past. Because of this they often take to donning armaments, though they can only don those that the common knight would have trouble adorning at the very most, though of course at the cost of speed and skill. Armor and cloaks are also not worn for the sole purpose of protection; the sun’s rays usher a sensation of growing discomfort upon their uncovered beings. This pain magnifies the longer it lingers upon them, eventually making them feel as though they are aflame.

 

Mental Characteristics

The undying Darkstalker exists with a sliver of their previous humanity, unable to experience empathy and are widely regarded as extremely apathetic, sometimes being outright regarded as immoral, cruel, or evil.  That is not to say that sentient undead are inherently sadistic; in the days of the Redshrouds, undead subjected themselves to a moral code to feign a moral conscious. However so, they exist forever with a growing, insatiable hunger for raw humanoid flesh that only perpetuates the societal fear of living corpse-men.  

 

The cursed warriors are forever burdened with the realization that they inhabit a corpse that is not their own.  Many often grow disillusioned with life itself. Woe to the poor Darkstalker that begs for the quiet of death, as the shortlived peace of the grave will never last.  For some, every waking moment in an eternity forsaken is lived in misery, an agonizing reminder of a life they will never have.

 

Abilities

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 Darkstalker 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.

 

Once sapped completely, the victim is desiccated and near-death, but not completely gone. The necromancer, however, finds themselves rejuvenated, their strength restored via victimizing many people over many years. Darkening grants a kind of ephemeral satisfaction that cannot be achieved by other means, so much so that to use the power in excess would be to plunge the Darkstalker into addiction, where rather than enjoying stable health they experience long-term mental instability and the blackening of the veins and extremities.

 

Darkening is channeled for upwards of ten emotes.  The first two emotes consist of conjuring the aura, the third is the attempt to grapple the victim, the rest require the individual to keep a consistent grasp on their victim, causing excruciating pain and fatigue for the victim that becomes unbearable at the seventh emote.  Should the full channel be conducted, the victim is incapacitated.

 

Spoiler

Mechanics: Lifeforce is stolen from the victim over the emote count, causing excrutiating pain and a week long infection.  At the maximum count, the victim is incapacitated.

 

Redlines:

  • Darkening cannot be used in tangent with weapons by Darkstalkers.

  • While being Darkened, the victim is stricken with necrosis of the affected area causing rot and infection that requires treatment within a narrative week or risk amputation or death.

  • Darkening requires total concentration, being interrupted by either breaking the channel or causing pain to the user.

  • Overuse of the spell in timeframes of more than once an narrative week can cause a maddening addiction to lifeforce 

  • Darkening does not immediately grant usage of lifeforce for other spells, their body needing rest (period of noncombat) to process it.

  • Darkening has a refractory period that prevents it from being used more than once in a combat scenario by a Darkstalker.

 

The Infallible Curse

Those afflicted with the Infallible Curse—some in their pursuit of immortality and others against their will—are forever cursed to walk the realm.  When the undying are disposed of, their soulbound lifeforce lingers in the world, unable to find peace beyond in the soulstream or the certainty of Ebritaes.  Doomed to the fate of the mortal plane, this energy coalesces over a year before it finds a new host to inhabit. After this time has passed, the residual energy of the slain undead is forced to once again inhabit a random corpse, the soul forcing upon it the burdens of the body the undead once had.  Even for those who willingly succumb to the fate of the Infallible Curse, it exists as a hellish purgatory for the damned dead, as one may find undeath is not so easily escaped.

 

Redlines:

  • Darkstalkers and Archliches can never be truly slain.

    • Normal hard PK rules still apply, such as killing one’s self or otherwise.  An undead that PK’s according to these rules cannot be brought back.

  • After one 30 IRL minutes from the point of their death, the Archlich or Darkstalker will inhabit a new body.

    • This body takes the augments of one’s soul, whether it be a necromantic modification or the capacity to wield mighty powers of undeath.

    • Dying takes a toll on one’s psyche when the once again awake to find themselves in a new body, capable of causing one to feel numb and disillusioned to reality.

  • This process does not require the assistance of a necromancer.  A body is just found, where the undead simply awakes with their new body narratively in Cloud Temple or a soulstone pillar they are bound to.

 

Memento Mori

For those whose soul has been returned to the mortal realm, the tool of their resurrection acts as the method of their subjugation: the memento mori.  It is a grim reminder of mortality, something they will never be able to experience again.  They exist in variety, no two are alike, for these trinkets were personal affections that signified something close to them in life.  They can be in the form of a portrait, a necklace, a ring or anything else that a person could conceivably fathom to hold dearness to. For when the reanimated are exposed unto this item, they are overwhelmed with emotions and feelings they cannot grasp—the mortality that they once possessed.  The act of such incomprehensible memories cause grave mental duress and agony. Until the item is destroyed, a Darkstalkers forever at the mercy of its wielder.  

 

Redlines:

  • The memento mori is chosen by the Darkstalker OOCly when their CA is posted.  This item is specific to the Darkstalker it creates and will not function on another. 

  • The memento mori must be Story Team signed.

  • The memento mori is not a phylactery, and ultimately the goal is for the undead attached to it to have the item destroyed to forever be free of its presence.

  • Orders cannot be issued without the object within the presence of the Darkstalker. 

    • Merely averting averting the gaze from a memento mori will not detract from its agonizing presence.  

    • Using the memento mori as a tool for subjugation requires it to be exposed to open air and for the Darkstalker to be within its presence.

    • These orders do not have to be strictly followed as this tool is merely a form of pain compliance.

 

General Redlines

 

Redlines:

  • Darkstalkers are undead and do not bleed, eat, sleep, drown, age, or feel most degrees of pain or sensation.

  • Darkstalkers cannot bear children or enjoy the pleasantries of mortal existence.

  • Darkstalkers possess limitless endurance and strength comparable to a human knight, though their bodies will falter and give way should they push themselves beyond their bodily limitations.

    • Wearing armor or carrying objects, Darkstalkers are encumbered and slowed down as if they were alive, despite this limitless endurance.

    • Even if a Darkstalker was a former Orc, their strength is degraded to that of a human with knight prowess.

  • Bearing flesh, a Darkstalker could likely pass as a member of their original race, though by time and physical weathering they will begin to look more and more unsightly, perhaps questionably so.

  • Striking a Darkstalker in fatal areas such as the heart, the throat or the head kills their current vessel. 

    • Being touched by sunlight is painful, and eventually feels like fire on living skin if unshrouded.

    • Darkstalkers are just as vulnerable to mundane weaponry, and are not any more adverse to gold or silver compared to living beings.

 

  • As an undead being, both of these creatures are capable of being effectively dealt with using bludgeoning weapons like hammers or heavy maces.  In how these weapons would break the bones of the living, they would crush and maim the rotted bones of a Darkstalker, if not completely severing limbs.

 

  • A Darkstalker who attempts to regularly bypass the limitations of their corpse-body through their limitless endurance will find themselves having their attacks falter as they repeatedly do so after the first strike.  

 

  • Following any attempted attack after the first, the impediments begin with the cartilage-less joint locking up (causing stiff/unwieldy maneuvers with it), a subsequent attack results in dislocating the shoulder (making the limb hang limply from their side), thereafter vital bones breaking and snapping and even entire parts of their limb being torn and flung off from the force alone in their attack (complete unuse in their limb).

 

  • If a Darkstalker experiences their body breaking down, they will need to take time out of combat to have themselves, another individual or a necromancer themself to “mend” themselves.
     
  • Darkstalkers have an inability to learn any magic whatsoever.

 

 

The Archliches, Forebears of Necromancy

Often mistaken for their lesser counterpart, the lich, the first Archliches came to the land, stolen from the far away land of Rh’thor.   Elder necromancers who bargained and schemed their way to the top of their hierarchy and achieved immortality, an Archlich differs from a lich through the mastery they hold over the dead.   It is for this reason that knowledge on attaining the power of the archlich is safeguarded to only the most venerated of necromancers. The Archlich exists beyond lichdom of yore, in a state that garners and attracts the quintessence of death, acting as a beacon to the damned, and commanders of their coven.
 

Spoiler

 

Physical Characteristics

The shrewd Archlich can take many shapes, ranging from fleshy half-skeletons draped in ceremonial shrouds, walking corpses covered in linen as mummified demons, or the rotted, gaunt image they held in life.  Pinnacles of unliving flesh and bone, an Archlich can choose to even fleshsmith their body so long as it is within average human or elven proportions.  

 

The Archlich, at the price of retaining their necromancy and affinity to study other arcane techniques, is a being much more physically weaker than other undead and that of their once-living state.  Capable of lifting a sword and not much more, they are regarded not for their martial prowess but their arcane mastery.  

 

Mental Characteristics

More often than not, the Archlich is violent, cruel, and sadistic.  Their minds that have been perverted their undeath into the hunger that had consumed them, making use of their twisted bodies and powers to fuel their will.  Even the wisest among these powerful undead now are numb to the realities of life. They will find no empathy to the humanity they once bore, often resorting to feigning moral codes if any semblance of who they were remains.   

 

Despite this, these beings are not inherently evil, nor do they exist hellbent on seeing the world burn.  Regardless of how Archliches have earned a name aberrant monstrosities and coldhearted perversions of undeath, many exist with logical convictions that can give a facetious semblance of morality—feigning moral codes in order to reach to something that they will now understand is lost.  

 

Abilities

Arcane Affinity

Capable of capitalizing on the arcane brilliance of their newfound dragonflesh, an Archlich is able to expand their studies to other fields beyond that of their necromantic pursuits.  Their dark, corrupted souls prevent practices and delvings into magics that may otherwise conflict with their ability to utilize lifeforce, nor can their soul tolerate the tampering of deities.  Woe be to those who would underestimate the power of undeath.

 

Redlines:

  • Archliches exist as undead creatures of necromancy with capabilities to study other magic.

  • Archliches cannot learn deific magic, magic unable to be used by undead, or any otherwise soul-altering magic.

  • For the archlich, Necromancy becomes a 4-slot magic, and they are allowed to learn a single-slot magic of their choosing, provided it does not conflict with their undead bodies or dark souls.

    • If a magic that summons entities such as Conjuration is chosen, reanimations cannot be commanded in tangent with voidal conjured creatures.

 

 

Additional Modification

As creatures who have mastered undeath, so too have they mastered necromancy and the capabilities it holds upon their own form.  They are able to merge their enigmatic forms with more complex forms of fleshcrafting, perfecting death itself.  As such, an archlich has the capabilities of enhancing its form one additional time provided the two enhancement do not work against each others.

 

Redlines:

  • Archliches can obtain an additional modification to their bodies, provided it does not conflict with their current modification.

  • This additional modification is added to the MA of the necromancer, rather than the CA, for ease of tracking.

The Infallible Curse

Those afflicted with the Infallible Curse—some in their pursuit of immortality and others against their will—are forever cursed to walk the realm.  When the undying are disposed of, their soulbound lifeforce lingers in the world, unable to find peace beyond in the soulstream or the certainty of Ebrietaes.  Doomed to the fate of the mortal plane, this energy coalesces over a year before it finds a new host to inhabit. After this time has passed, the residual energy of the slain undead is forced to once again inhabit a random corpse, the soul forcing upon it the burdens of the body the undead once had.  Even for those who willingly succumb to the fate of the Infallible Curse, it exists as a hellish purgatory for the damned dead, as one may find undeath is not so easily escaped.

 

Redlines:

  • Darkstalkers and Archliches can never be truly slain.

    • Normal hard PK rules still apply, such as killing one’s self or otherwise.  An undead that PK’s according to these rules cannot be brought back.

  • After one 30 IRL minutes from the point of their death, the Archlich or Darkstalker will inhabit a new body.

    • This body takes the augments of one’s soul, whether it be a necromantic modification or the capacity to wield mighty powers of undeath.

    • Dying takes a toll on one’s psyche when the once again awake to find themselves in a new body, capable of causing one to feel numb and disillusioned to reality.

  • This process does not require the assistance of a necromancer.  A body is just found, where the undead simply awakes with their new body narratively in Cloud Temple or a soulstone pillar they are mechanically bound to.

 

General Redlines

  • Archliches exist as undead creatures of necromancy with capabilities to study other magic.

  • Archliches regain the modification they had as a necromancer, if they had one.

  • As undead, archliches are unable to sire living children.

  • An Archlich possesses the physical strength of an elderly old person, completely unable to adorn metal-plated armor.

  • Striking an Archlich in the skull instantly kills their current vessel. 

    • Being touched by sunlight is painful, and eventually feels like fire on living skin if unshrouded.

    • Archliches are just as vulnerable to mundane weaponry, and are not any more adverse to gold or silver compared to living beings.

 

 

General Redlines

  • Creatures listed in Simulacra can only be created through Sacraments in Rh’thoraen Necromancy.  

  • Simulacra is a subsection of Rh’thoraen Necromancy.

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it doesn’t really seem like a hellish curse and eternal purgatory if killing yourself gets you out of it

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18 minutes ago, Gallic said:

it doesn’t really seem like a hellish curse and eternal purgatory if killing yourself gets you out of it

if it was up to me I’d let them be forever undead but it it’s a server rule I can’t break.  Learned that from ghost lore.  We just gonna have to pretend

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

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17 minutes ago, ForeverGinger said:

Buckle up boys, ****’s about to get spooky.

woah, you’re still alive.

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What is dead can never die but comes back, stronger and more caffeinated than ever before.

Edited by ForeverGinger
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