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[✗] [Feat Lore] - Haruspex, The Martial Shamans


Boomzerang
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Haruspex
The Martial Shamans

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Origin 

Within the ancient orcish lands of Mor’Ghuun, shamanism was in its infancy. The early children of Krug did not understand the Elemental and Immortal Spirits, nor had the power to walk their planes. In the war against Iblees, many of the orcish people were lost to the undead, empty souls wrenched from the Soul Stream to fight against the living. 

War horns blared distant, sonorous booms into the fields of battle. The armies of the Four Brothers clashed with Iblees’ undead legions. With each fallen descendant, a novel undead soldier shambled forth in their place, using their weapons to carve their past kinsmen asunder. Yet the Urukim held steadfast against the Fallen One’s onslaught - so too, did the other descendants stand strong in the face of the undead. For decades the battles raged on, and when the dust had settled, and the soulless battalions were driven off, all that remained were the tarnished breastplates and weapons once wielded by warriors of legend. But these were not simple weapons, nor were their blunt edges devoid of use.

Once Apohet saw the might of Krug, he created the Spiritual Realms, forming the Immortal, Elemental, and stagnant spirits. The weaker, stagnant spirits gushed into the Mortal realm to embody aspects of the world with no true power themselves.

Dlimbok the Wise, the most intelligent of Krug’s four early children, was the lead strategist in the war against the undying. He watched as his people were slaughtered in battle, and their lives lost. It brought him an anguish indescribable, and a rage that nearly matched his father’s. To mourn for the lives of his fallen, he collected their weapons,armor and tomes and restored them to their original form. In doing so, he empowered the stagnant spirits within them.  Without mouths or language, the stagnant spirits taught him how to see. He could listen to their stories and see the battles again in renewed vigor. In doing so, he could see the battlefield and how Iblees’ soldiers and generals waged their war against the living and how to strategize against it.

Quickly, he turned to  his advisors, who in turn spoke to their stewards, and these brought word to the orcish generals, and Krug Himself at last. He had unlocked the histories of each of the weapons, and had dissected the strategies and fighting styles of their wielders. Much of recorded history had been cast into the horrid fires of Iblees, and with it had gone the proficiency of veterans long dead, but this newly-restored knowledge would help to reshape the ragtag bands of amateur fighters into elite squadrons of feared combatants.

    Under the same banner, and led into battle by Azgal the Titan, the orcish war machine began once more churning and pushing back against the forces of Iblees, now able to outmaneuver and preserve the lives of the living. They matched  the once seemingly endless ranks of undead in fierce combat - and as they spread their knowledge to the other descendant races, Iblees’ lines and formations grew thin across the many fronts.

    And so, with its aid in Iblees’ defeat, the orcish people learned and grew reverent of this primitive form of shamanism, and many of the former soldiers learned among the greenskins sought out Dlimbok, so that he could teach them in his ways.

    In discovering the stagnant spirits, the orcs of Mor’Ghuun were able to interact with the Immortal Spirits, granting them a tenebrous and loose form of shamanism; the Haruspices were born.

 

Explanation

Stagnant spirits are extremely weak spirits that exist within everything. They are the means by which the Immortal and Elemental spirits influence and interact with the world, as their power is far too great to manifest within the Mortal Realm without disrupting balance, or bringing about an apocalypse. It is nearly impossible to interact with them, but in goading out the minute power of stagnant spirits through worship and sacrifice, some feats of power are possible.

Dlimbok was a great orator and strategist, and taught his future students how to use this art in providing knowledge to his people, allowing them to gain insight via the stagnant spirits and how to extract insight from the world around them. Later Haruspices were able to pull these out of not just weapons, but tools and artifacts as well.

Haruspicy is a non-combative magic dedicated to story-telling. Rather than pulling upon powerful sources, Haruspices are extremely humble in conversing with the stagnant spirits, and tell their stories via pictures and drawings.

Rather than connecting to the spiritual realm akin to other types of shamanism, Haruspicy calls upon stagnant spirit in the mortal realms through praise and rituals. These spells are a more powerful form of spiritual worship, and do not grant the user any abilities featured in shamanism, nor allow the user to speak Old Tongue without having knowledge of it.

To become a haruspex, one must have studied the spirits for at least an irl month, as well as encountered them in events or brought on by spirit walks. This feat does not teach any form of shamanism or any aspects about it, and to find knowledge on this feat, one could speak with any type of shaman, or find the book within their personal libraries, or libraries with extensive information on the spirits.

 

Spells

Weapon Distinction [Non-Combat];

Stagnant spirits occupy all that surrounds the inhabitants of the world - this can range from a simple stone, to a crossbow bolt, to shields, daggers and pikes. These spirits leave behind unique, marginal traces of their presence in the wounds they inflict, and through careful studying, these same traces can give them away.

By touching the wound and discovering these traces, the shaman is capable of identifying the exact weapon that inflicted it for up to 3 hours. The shaman cannot, however, be led to the weapon in any way - only when he is in close proximity with the weapon (within 5 blocks) may they sense it, and find it in that way. If the person logs out before the 3 hours are up, they have 1 hour the next time they log in.

1 EMOTE MEDITATION, 1 EMOTE INTERPRETATION
PASSIVE EFFECT
lasting up to 3 hours

 

Vital Fluid [Non-Combat];

    Stagnant spirits are not confined to inanimate objects; indeed, they also inhabit many living beings throughout the world. And much in the same way that Haruspex can commune with those stagnant spirits within swords, axes and spears, so too can they listen to the voices of those within the living. Saranak the Far-Sighted, one of Krug’s first daughters, was an unparalleled hunter and used this ability to understand the way her prey lived so that she could track them with unbridled efficiency.  This is done through the consumption of such a being’s blood, which would boon the shaman with knowledge of the creature’s past.

    By consuming the blood of a felled beast under heavy meditation, the shaman is capable of learning the semi-recent history of the animal, although this history stretches back only a limited amount [3-6 months IRP]. This spell may only be used on animals.

1 EMOTE MEDITATION, 1 EMOTE DRINKING, 1 EMOTE INTERPRETATION


A Storied Artifact [Non-Combat];

    The caster is able to impart or draw out the stagnant spirits of an object, allowing them to portray a tale within the weapon visually - be that through fire, water, paper, or some other such medium. To tell the story, the Haruspex must spill their blood onto the object, and onto the canvas they wish to tell the story. In meditating and revering the stagnant spirits within the story, they become the actors for the play that the Haruspex tells. 

Once the Haruspex grows more proficient,  they are also able to preserve stories within the object of its wielder through ritual. The Haruspex must have the memories so vivid that they are able to describe and feel the sensations the memory’s owner experienced. By engaging the senses with stimuli relevant to the story (the smell of burning flesh, the sounds of war drums), the shaman is able to fully immerse himself, and the stagnant spirits are able to better convey the tale. The more objects and information they have relating to the event and its characters, the more vivid and detailed the story becomes.
READING:

1 EMOTE MEDITATION, 1 EMOTE SLIGHT MOVEMENT

The scene that plays out is then emoted by the shaman

 

WRITING:

1 EMOTE MEDITATION, 1 EMOTE RECALLING, 1 EMOTE IMPARTING 

 

Redlines

-The object must be signed or have some roleplay significance. A normal sword does not contain enough stagnant spirits to convey a message.

-The Haruspex must already have extensive knowledge about the wielder, either by reading about them in text or having known them for at least an irp year (one irl week). 

-Other characters in the story are present, although the same requirements exist for the spell. Characters in the story who are not unknown to the Haruspex simply appear as faceless visages and cannot be used to discern any information about them whatsoever. 

-A Haruspex is only able to put the memories of the owner into their own tools. Memories cannot be put into items that belong to other people, and these memories cannot be used to teach magics or other complex skills that need to be taught in person.

 

General Redlines

-A Haruspex needs to be able to interact with Stagnant spirits and thus other non spirit-magics interfere with this practice.

-A Haruspex cannot identify anyone in their visions unless they have extensive knowledge about the people within the story, or have interacted with their tools or weapons via ritual.

-Memories imparted on objects cannot be used to learn magic, or other such tasks.

 

OOC

This is a feat accessible to anyone with knowledge of the spirits and a desire to learn the histories of weapons and wounds alike. In doing so, I hope Haruspex gives more flavor to combat, in being able to regale tales of battle, as well as making RP items more valuable and useful to the people who have them, rather than sitting on the shelf till the next map. I realise that some objects cannot be 'written' as such - that is, their stories can't be described as their owners may not use the server anymore, which is the sole caveat of the feat itself.  If the feat is accepted, or a majority of people show interest in the magic, a cultural post explaining more of their history and practices will be posted to explain how to roleplay as one. Thanks for reading!

 

 

Inspired by:

https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/151780-%E2%9C%93-origins-of-the-orcs-and-morghuun-the-land-of-warfare/?tab=comments#comment-1433374

 

Edited by Boomzerang
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Shame you used the **** made-up Mor’ghuun lore, but magics that aren’t O.P and add flavour to RP is good.  Will have to see what the Shamans think of non Shamans interacting with Spirits and their power though, if that is what this is

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Nice lore, seems like a good hunter/gatherer type magic and I dont mind it!

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This lore has been denied.

 

Apologies for the long response, this lore has been denied due to incompatibilities with Shamanism.


Genuinely I would advise resubmission as this is an interesting piece, albeit with minor edits and changes to be updated to the modern day lorepieces. 

Thank you for your submission.

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