[✓] [World Lore] The Implications of Lifeforce

[Sorcerio 4606]

 

Lifeforce and the Lifebanks

Lifeforce is the paramount essence which sustains all living creatures and things. It is a naive energy, malleable and moveable and present in all life, whether true, young, and ornery; or false, fleshless, and undead. When life manifests or is mended, lifeforce flows to it and sustains it; the birth of a child, a cleric’s mending of wounds, and a druid’s coaxing of nature to bloom are all examples of lifeforce granting healing, rejuvenation, and new life. Inversely, when a beast falls to the hunter, or a warrior to battle, their lifeforce will begin to seep aways, flowing back into an antipodean spring to be renewed. Once it has replenished itself, lifeforce will once again rise up from the earth to grant life elsewhere. This font of lifeforce, known as the Lifebanks, is the wellspring from and to which all life flows. Though it has been said to lie within the earth, in actuality the Banks are not physically present within the realm, but is separated by a thin, metaphysical veil which confines the unseen energy to its vibrant cycle and order.  

 

Only when torn from its cycle is the raw and primal nature of lifeforce revealed, assuming the appearance of an oppressive black mist – a feat achieved only by those who meddle with death. In this form, lifeforce cannot replenish or grant life, but instead spreads malignant tumors and growths in its wake, leaving the earth permanently scarred by decay yet unable to fully perish. 

 

Though oft unseen, there are some materials that can interact with this esoteric substance, chiefly that of Aurum. Gold can store lifeforce within itself, saturating itself with it so as to discontinue lifeforce from its cycle. This was often employed by ancient Gravelords who sought it as a means of stopping the flow all together, or even witch-hunters seeking to banish the dead. 

 

Key Points:

• Lifeforce exists as an energy which powers all organic life in the mortal realm; even the dead, who do not harbor ‘life’, require it to pilot their decrepit frames, 
• When a living being dies, most of their lifeforce will be lost, though some amount of it will remain, gradually seeping gradually into the earth. Even long-dead corpses, so long as they are not entirely decayed, will have very trace amounts of lifeforce saturating their bodies. 
• Lifeforce cannot be created nor destroyed. Lifeforce may be displaced and its flow damaged, causing it to become “stagnant”, but can be readjusted given the proper means. 
• Lifeforce is considered a "mortal" energy just as is genus or ectoplasm. It may be superficially exploited by deities and other entities, though it ultimately has no true master. Only necromancers may directly draw upon pure and unadulterated lifeforce.

 

Stagnant Lifeforce

When lifeforce is forcibly pulled from its deep and eternal cycle, it is no longer able to flow to the Banks and thus becomes "stagnant". Unable to pass from death nor grant life, the blasphemed lifeforce creates a peculiar limbo in which the land becomes sick and stifled, and the world is choked by the grasp of the undying. Necromancers have learned to tear fissures similar to these, dubbed by the men of Rh’thor as Heith-Hedran – a fabled and malformed darkness where the curtain of life has been pulled back, and the banks are made raw within the mortal realm. 

 

These fissures, once opened, expel unprecedented surges of raw and unruly lifeforce, warping the world around them into a dark and desolate wasteland. Where the expanse lies, the fields grow barren, and the skies shriek with anomalous storms of black lightning and roaring thunder, shadowing the land in an unnatural twilight. Cysts and festering tumors grow upon living things, and the pungent aroma of rot poisons the water and the air. No manner of rest can be mustered here, and various maladies, both physical and mental, will begin to afflict those who enter the embrace of stagnated land, worsening the longer they remain. To those who are keen to the voice of the land, the earth does not scream out in agony but is plunged into eerie silence, retaining only a sickened heartbeat – like a wounded animal merely pleading to be put down. 

 

Creatures particularly susceptible to corruption will find themselves to be physically and mentally impaired within the reach of stagnation their health degrading until they are eventually overcome. 

 

Key Points:

• Lifeforce is made stagnant and raw only when forcibly torn from its cycle, most commonly by feats of necromancy. Stagnant lifeforce entails lifeforce which ‘animates’, but no longer flows in and out between life and death, thus giving way to rot and perpetual decay without release of death. Sickness runs rampant, and disease is commonplace. Nothing new can grow nor be born where the stagnation lingers; trees will wither away and yet remain, leaving gnarled and decrepit husks where great oaks once stood; and the heartbeat will slowly dwindle up until the brink of death, but will never be allowed to cease. 
• Stagnant land is not a ‘spreading’ corruption in and of itself. The extent to which land stagnates is based on the size of the originating wound, typically being a necromantic rift. The greater the wounds become, the more its stagnating influence expands. 
• Creatures susceptible to blight will find their lifeforce stagnated more quickly than that of regular mortals, corrupting as described in their respective lores. 

 

Mending the Wound

While stagnant land itself can easily be purged, the festering corruption is merely the symptom of an even greater disease, and any attempt to banish it without removing its source will simply result in the land twisting itself again after a short while. To truly banish the spoilage of the earth and allow lifeforce to flow once more, the heart of the stagnation must first be located and sealed before attempting to heal the land. Upon locating the heart of the blight, a group of competent Farseers or Druids may gather to repair the tear in the Banks, ‘grabbing’ the metaphysical fringes of the rift before weaving their magics to bind it shut like suture over a wound.

 

Yet even a full assembly of shamans or a council of druids would struggle to repair the same wound that only a handful of necromancers were able to rupture – depending on the scale of the rift and the extent to which it has twisted the land. Should the rift be sealed, the flow of life would once more be made possible, but the scar wrought upon the land would still take time to fully mend; for just as the stagnation was not immediate in its arrival, so too will its expulsion be a lengthy process. Trees might finally be allowed to fall and die, but new ones will still take decades to grow; stagnated rivers would flow again, but the rot would need time to wash away from its banks.

 

Though not consumed by agony as before, those attuned to both spirits and nature would hear the earth issue a languishing cry as they nurse her wounds, one which does not subside until the once-stagnant land has been fully suitable for grass to grow, trees to sprout, and flowers to bloom. 

 

Key Points:

• Healing stagnated land without healing its source will cause the stagnancy to return.
• Wounds in the Banks may be sealed by Druidic Blighthealing, or a Farseer’s blessing of Scorthuz. The number of individuals and the level of skill is roughly determined by the size and influence of the wound, the mechanics for which are described in the Necromancy lore. 
• While adjacent land may be allowed to heal following a rift's sealing, the process will take an incredibly long time – anywhere from years to decades if left to heal on its own. Even with the aid of druidic magic, this process may at best be shortened to several years. 

 

---

 

Spoiler

 

Purpose

The purpose of this piece is to solidify the baseline rules of lifeforce, its natural presence in the world, and how it ultimately achieves the corrupting effects which magics such as necromancy employ. These concepts already exist in practice, but since there is no accepted lore for it outside of a few brief and scattered mentions across various lore pieces, I thought it fitting to consolidate that knowledge within a single piece for ease of access, while also not overstepping the mechanics of other lores — hence the lack of practical mechanics in this submission. While the base effects are outlined here, the in-depth effects, effect ranges, means of creation, usage in rites, and modes of removal are still outlined in the respective lore pieces, with this piece serving only to canonize the nature of the concepts which many of them draw from. 

 

Citations

Exegesis of Lifeforce

Rh’thorean Necromancy

Blight Healing

Shamanic Fareseers

 

 

[Johann 1494]

 

 

+1

 

 

[Valannor 6352]

finally 

 

FINALLY

 

WE CAN SEAL THE ANAL TEARS

[Melpomenne 1563]

sweet ecstasy 

[Hephaestus 1317]

cringe lore (lol). who is sorcerio and why is he such a wretched c**t (lol).

[Benjikhei 696]

 

YES. 

[Security_ 1075]

New cum lore? :o

[Lhindir_ 3445]

cum?

[The King Of The Moon 5412]

Olive oil

[Nozgoth 2991]

[King_Kunuk 890]

Life force is white like pee

[squakhawk 8452]

This Lore has been accepted. Moved to Implemented Lore, it will be sorted to it's appropriate category soon. Please note that if this is playable lore, such as a magic or CA, you will need to write a guide for this piece. You will be contacted regarding the guide (or implementation if it isn’t needed) shortly.