[✓][CArt] [29] [Dark Blasphemy]

[Johann 2498]

 

Name of the Artifact:

Dark Blasphemy

 

 

“ƬO YOU, FIRST MOTION OF ALL THINGS

THAT WHICH BINDS BECOMINGS TO DECAY.”

 

- ██████,

The Dark Tremors.

 

Artefact Description:

N/A this is not an item

 

Effects of the Artifact:

 

❉  Inversion  ❉

 

The holder of [Dark Blasphemy] is condemned by Reikenor, an ancient necromancer and wraith of Azuras from its distant antiquity hearkening a bygone age of mythologies and legends. Any holders of the Dark Blasphemy are subject to its latent chaos, for it is the common thread binding them to this Apostate’s pandemonium. 

 

Visually, the Dark Blasphemy takes the form of an abyssal-necromantic scar upon flesh, not originating from a weapon or curse-imbued miasma but the damning and corroding grip of a Hexwraith or the magic of their master, Reikenor. Veins of malignant crimson energies course through this ebony-hued trauma, inspiring discomfort, disquietude and dread to the eye of any beholder. 

 

Mental Effects

 

All holders of the Dark Blasphemy suffer frequent and distorted nightmares as the curse’s latent malice and bedlam lies embedded within the soul. Intrusive thoughts often brushed off become tangible figments, suggestions, and their alignment is nudged towards a more chaotic form of what it previously was, causing the curse to often be mistaken as a source of “evil” when it is rather, more accurately, “change.”  Order feels innately disorderly and the mind is prone to irrationalities and delusions that feed into unreachable ambitions.

 

⬢ The mental effects of the Dark Blasphemy are a persistent, nudging change towards the cursed persona which manifests in erratic bouts of uncharacteristic actions of a chaotic alignment that gradually shifts the persona in said direction. It is entirely at the discretion of the persona to roleplay the extent and severity of these effects but it should not be shrugged off.

 

⬢ The longer the Dark Blasphemy persists unopposed, the more frequent and insistent its whispers and chaotic impulses become. It may be roleplayed as initially manifesting seldom, then weekly, then daily as the soul’s resistance wanes after weeks and months. This progression slows only through active resistance (meditation, penance, etc.) or eventual Cleric cleansing.

 

⬢ Alchemical and magical remedies of the mind may act as a temporary panacea to the Dark Blasphemy, however the curse always and unconditionally resurfaces after [3] OOC days of alleviation should the remedying effect be longer than this duration. 

 

Magical Effects

 

The Dark Blasphemy is the Darksworn Reikenor’s animus towards divinity made manifest. To him it is only from the uproar and tumult of chaos that truth emerges and the nature of this belief is reflected in this entropic hex. All those in possession of this curse experience misfortune and dysfunction which follows them like a shadow - this functionally manifests as mundane objects being touched by the darkly Blasphemed malfunctioning and breaking before obsolescence, while lesser living things such as flora decay and wither. This is strictly aesthetic and non-combative, only manifesting occasionally at the persona’s OOC discretion.

 

⬢ The decaying and dysfunctioning effect of the Dark Blasphemy is strictly aesthetic and not combative by any means. It is effectively a form of imposed misfortune and entropy cursed upon the target which surfaces occasionally and may not be used as a means of intentionally griefing others. It is antithetical to the persona’s will, surfacing when the persona least desires it, and remaining dormant should they do. 

 

Against servants of the Aenguls, current and former, the Dark Blasphemy manifests its ire in full, loathing and contemptuous as its essence falls in direct conflict with its host. All deific magics below, if applicable, are indicted by a great difficulty in casting that manifests through either pain or mental distress - each connection becomes an inner conflict to be won as the nascent chaos you harbor subverts your light, compounding with every attempt made.

 

A greater consequence of this enigmatic curse lies in the holder's death, wherein one in possession of this curse is condemned not the afterlife promised by their patron, but rather the Ebrietaes; a final act of spite against the Gods and perhaps the grandest negation of their intents for mortalkind.

 

The following protracted effects manifest for each patron:

 

Spoiler

Druids:

 

Communion with nature is forceful rather than peaceful, your mediated commands through the Aspects are warped in translation and the effects of your spells behave akin to Blood Druidism where nature screams and writhes but bends to your will all the same. A tenebrous haze contaminates your druidic aura, causing flora and fauna you conjure and manipulate to appear pale, sickly and chaotically lash out.

 

Every communion with the Aspects reminds you of the futility of their patronage; you pray to the Aspects, yet they are forever silent, deferring their duties to the meddling, lesser Mani who exert their tyrannical will upon life indiscriminate. Why chain life to natural cycles when truly vitality is only born of unshackled ambition?

 

⬢ The withered appearance of conjured flora and fauna is strictly aesthetic and does not grant any form of further combative utility. 

⬢ Druids holding the Dark Blasphemy experience a twisted form of their Communion where the natural, harmonious cacophony they are often accustomed with is replaced by a cacophony in a more literal sense. A druid may invest additional effort in an attempt to “curb” this effect but it must be roleplayed as being prevalent and disquieting. 

 

Templars:

 

Malchediael’s furious flame is darkened, blackened and blighted by the same bands of crimson corruption which course through you. You feel empowered, belligerent, glimpsing what your patron could have been; the triumph of war over enlightenment, clouding your mind with this twisted promise. 

 

A writhing and ravaging bloodlust muddies the clear waters of Jophiael’s clarity you enter when activating [Touch of Jophiael]. Your acuity remains yet you become unable to distinguish friend from foe as if stoking the flames of an old curse long since lost - bloodshed guides you with uncanny clarity and conflict is all you desire.

 

Even in the light redemption, Malchediael will be forever bound to atonement and penance. The gray of courage forever harbors its darker shades, just as He shall forever bear the sins of his centurial servitude to the Fallen. 

 

⬢ Templars holding the Dark Blasphemy become more belligerent and war-like in nature; confrontational and generally more hard-headed as they glimpse the darker path not taken by their Patron. 

⬢ A Templar cursed by the Dark Blasphemy has their furious flame hue-shifted to dark gray, seething flames with an eerie outline of white.

⬢ The corrupted variation of the Touch of Jophiael does not grant the Templar any form of additional strength or acuity beyond a writhing bloodlust and desire for conflict against both friend and foe. Beyond this, it follows the same mechanics and functionalities as outlined in Templarism Lore.

 

Clerics:

 

Your purity feels forever blemished as the Blasphemy’s corruption enters perpetual conflict with your illuminated soul, inspiring zealot behaviors and overcompensations to remedy this taint. The pristine light of Tahariae which you command becomes flawed; its composition is shaded and grayed while the luminance of your spells falter and cast darker shadows. 

 

The voices remind you of the hypocrisy of the Staglord, the Bigot God - who is he to judge what purity is for the mortal world, and what weight does his laws truly weigh if He is self-exempt from it? If Tahariae wishes to be the brightest light, then how deep will the shadows be upon the world when His decree is truly enacted?

 

⬢ Clerics afflicted by the Dark Blasphemy experience a discomforting nagging of the soul as the two diametrically opposing forces of purity and impurity fall into a state of constant conflict. Their light is darkened and flawed and their demeanor shifts to ‘compensate’ for the stubborn impurity ailing their soul, be it through sorrowful guilt or greater zeal.

 

Paladins:

 

The Blasphemy feeds the Daemonic nature of the Scars of Order, causing them to involuntarily smoke and cinder in times of emotional extremity and strong convictions. 

 

You are often haunted by your failures to Order and Guardianship through recurring nightmares, and reminded that the scars you bear are inevitable serfdom to the Daemon who has now subsumed Xan. Order has fallen, your patron lies dead, and in His gaping absence dragons and darkness now thrive. 

 

⬢ The cindering and smoking effects of the Scars of Order only manifest in times of great distress and are comparable in nature to the Draan-bindings of Heralds. This effect only arises in times of great emotional distress or zeal and lacks any form of combative utility.

 

Ascended:

 

Any semblance of plight and self-pity you may have developed in the absence of your patron grows, mimicking Aeriel’s lost tears. At the peripheries of your vision you are often bedeviled by contrived glimpses of the Elysian and its unsaved souls. In times of solace you hear the wails of the damned and your defunct purpose weighs upon your consciousness as guilt, mirroring the centuries-long paranoia which has stricken Aeriel in the Golden City. 

 

The mercy of the Caretaker is a lie and the languishing of the Ebrietaes is its smoking gun. Peace can only truly be attained through the fires of chaos meting out the weak; survival of the fittest is the Soulstream’s sole solution.

 

⬢ Ascended experience a lesser, transient form of Vivification where they are occasionally haunted by sights of the Elysian and unsaved souls upon the peripheries of their vision. This does not grant them ANY abilities or passives innate to Vivification and is strictly visual.  

 

Only Reikenor and his Hexwraiths may apply the Dark Blasphemy, and as a curse weaved as a ploy against Tahariae, Clericism is its only cure. Perhaps in futile time the curse will wane, but so long as the Dark Tremors and its herald, Reikenor walk the Mortal Plane, the Dark Blasphemy remains as the Darksworn’s scourge against descendantkind.

 

 

General Redlines

 

⬢ Only entities bearing a greater soul may be granted the Dark Blasphemy. 

⬢ OOC consent is unnecessary for the granting this curse, which may only be given by the ET playing Reikenor, or any of his Hexwraiths. 

⬢ Dark Blasphemy may only be cleansed through Clericism, and may be voluntarily DROPPED upon the death of the Darksworn Reikenor who acts as the curse's nexus.  

⬢ Pain and mental discomfort upon deific connection caused by the Dark Blasphemy does not impede connection by any mechanical means, though repeated instances of such should be roleplayed as gradually becoming more and more debilitating as the curse strengthens.

⬢ Should the Dark Blasphemy not be purified upon death, the bearer, should they be connected to any of the patrons specified, will be condemned to the Ebrietaes instead of their deific afterlife. This mechanism is unknown to the bearer and should not be metagamed.

 

Explanation of the Effects:

The Darksworn Reikenor’s prime objective, inherited from the distant antiquity he hails long past and reinvigorated now at the hands of his new Patron, is both the subversion and provocation of the Staglord’s return. The Aenguls and the order they claim to espouse are the greatest subject of his ire and the Dark Blasphemy is this ire incarnate.

 

An unholy union of daemonic magic and necromancy, the Dark Blasphemy therefore manifests physically as an abyssal scar upon flesh, and metaphysically as a darkening blight upon the soul it afflicts, unobstructive, but meddling. Through this spiritual trauma the psyche of its victim is persuaded towards Reikenor’s guiding principle, pandemonium, while servants of Aenguls furthermore experience its greater, subversive effects. 
 

ET Responsible for this Artefact:

Jᴏʜᴀɴɴ, Pᴀʟʟᴏᴅɪᴜᴍ

 

[squakhawk 14038]

Approved.