Blawharag

"murdered by Orcs every time I take a Pilgrimage to the Orc Lands" Step one to showing your respect for Krug: Stop getting murdered. Might is right and strong is not wrong. If you are weak, you are failing at revering Krug. Step 2, as Sultan said, Krug is not a god, stop calling him one. He is revered as a mighty ancestor, but he is not a god, and we do not 'worship him'. The best way to revere Krug is to become an Orc and do as Orcs do. Live in a code of strength and honor.

I like how everyone expects magic users to be over-powered monsters that will just destroy enemies with their magic plug-in spells.

Instead of a pre-planned event for Kheshig Trials, I am instead going to hold open Kheshig Trials. That means if your character is interested in joining the Kheshig, send me a PM on the forums and we will arrange a time to hold your trials. For those of you unaware, the Kheshig were the elite guard and special task force for the Rex. In Asulon they were mostly wiped out and now they will be re-introduced. Only the strongest warriors of the War Uzg are permitted to join, and you must prove that you are cunning, loyal, and capable in order to join.

I spoke towards this in my response to your PM, but I'll repeat it here for everyone's benefit: Magic Users will not be able to cast effective magic until they have reached at least tier 1, everything prior to tier 1 is you still learning, and towards the later stages of your learning you might be able to "cast some magic" but it will all be useless or worse (imagine the mage apprentice that attempts to cast a fireball in the late stages of his learning, but before he has reached tier 1. Instead of a fireball, he ignites himself.) Now, as for your roleplay, it entirely depends on your character. Your character will not be able to actually bless him until he has reached at least tier 1, at which point you will know exactly how to RP out this situation, so I've no need to describe that process here. The rest you will learn through your teachings, I have no need to describe here when you can begin attempting (and failing) to cast magic prior to tier 1 or any of those details, because you will learn all this in your learning from your teacher (in Gaash's case, me).

Well, no I understood what you were saying in the story lol. Elphaba was taken away before she could face the scorpion, meaning she never faced the scorpion, which is against the Gorkil tradition. The point of the Scorpion trial is to cull the weak, by taking the weak one away before they could face the scorpion, you are defeating the purpose of the trial. Similarly, Alhera was poisoned, but her father had her healed. The child should not be healed. Either they kill the scorpion without being pricked, or they survive the poison on their own, getting them healed is cheating the test. You might as well squash the scorpion for you child, because if you prevent the scorpion's deadly tool from working its effect, then you essentially remove the most threatening part of the test. So, as I said, the actions of the twin's parents have stained the families honor. The Gorkils would see the parents as cheaters with no honor. The children are perceived as weaklings whose very existence offends the entire clan. They should have died, as far as the Gorkils would be concerned. Therefore, the Gorkils would not accept them as members of the War Uzg until they prove they are strong and burdens to society. Being a half-elf shouldn't really effect your roleplay, but rather the Gorkils distain for you as weaklings would. Once you are a member of the War Uzg, you are just considered an "Orc" and that's just that. Lex is a dwarf, the ancient enemies of the Orcs, but he is a member of the War Uzg and has even made it to the rank of Motsham, the greatest of the Shaman. He suffers no racism, because he is just considered "Orc" even though he is actually a dwarf. If someone RPs treating you poorly, it should be because you cheated your way through the test, not because you are a half-elf. Once you prove your strength and are accepted as whole members of the War Uzg, anyone who treats you poorly is a fool, and any true Orc would carve a hole in the insulter's face to prove that they had earned their spot in the War Uzg.

If you underwent the scorpion trial, then you are probably Gorkil by birth. And if you father saved you from death, than both he and you would probably be exiled from the Gorkil clan. The Gorkils would demand you redeem your honor for this atrocity before they ever accepted you back as a member of the War Uzg, regardless of which clan you tried to join.

Witchdoctors utilize the spirits in a chaotic fashion. They operate by channeling the raw will of the spirits, with minimal shaping. Witchdoctors are unique in that they don't necessarily align with a single spirit type, rather with the general ritualistic fashion of channeling any given spirit in general. Through their rituals they can channel blessings, hexes, or even create magical potions by channeling the spirit's raw will. The only problem is, being that they are channeling the raw will, they have minimal control over the outcome of the spells. A blessing will always be a blessing, a hex always a hex, but in the case of most Witchdoctor's, that blessing could literally be anything. It could be powerful and improve the target's strength, or it could be something relatively useless, like a Hex that causes someone to sneeze periodically for a day or two. It all depends on which given spirit ended up chiming in, and what they decided was the best course of action for the particular subject. Since there are so many different spirits and each with their own opinion on the matter at hand, it is next to impossible to predict what the outcome will be. Magical potion making is usually the most effective route. The first thing a Witchdoctor learns in regards to potion making is how to identify what potion he just made. He channels the raw will of the spirits into his concoction and the result is similar to blessing or hexing someone, only the effect is literally bottled up. The witchdoctor can, in this way, concoct an assortment of remedies, maladies, and general hosh-posh and carry them around to use as he/she sees fit. Less experienced Witchdoctors cannot even control whether their potions will be beneficial or harmful, but as they grow in experience they learn how to influence the "raw" spiritual will in bits and pieces. Different components can sometimes attract certain spirits over others and make the results more likely to reflect what the Witchdoctor desires. This is not, however, an exact science and increasing the probability of certain outcomes does not guarantee them. As for straight blessing and hexing, the Witchdoctor can also influence these outcomes more and more as he grows in experience. Utilizing implements such as voodoo dolls, the witchdoctor might pin-point target location's in someone's body to hex or bless. For instance, a Witchdoctor could use a voodoo doll to bless an Orc's broken arm, which might lessen pain, hasten healing, fix it out right, or do something less useful, like turn the stench of rotting flesh into the smell of daisies (which, incidently, would be about as pleasant to an Orc as the stench of rotting flesh).

Well, for the most part it's up to you to decide how difficult the situation is, but that doesn't mean you are going in blind and making it up as you go. There are a number of factors which make the task more or less difficult, and even then success is not black and white. There is also the question of which spirits are you speaking to? Contacting Immortal Spirits and Elementals is fairly straight forward, where contacting Ancestors has a few extra factors which tie into difficulty: Elementals: For the most part, just being closer to the element in question will help you. The less direct a line you have to the element, the more difficult the communication. Immortal Spirits: These are most commonly contacting through rituals. The better your ritual, the better your line of communication. Ancestors: This is best summarized by A]The ancestor's disposition towards you and B] the "closeness" of their spirit. The former explains itself, the latter is measured by what components you have about you to assist in your communicating with the ancestor: a blood descendant, the burial place of the ancestor, something of great value to the ancestor in life, ect. ect. In all cases, communication with the spirits is made easier by distancing oneself from their own mind's connection to the physical world and becoming more open and receptive (or "closer") to the spirits. This can be done through concentrated meditation, the use of euphoric drugs (such as smoking cactus green) or a technique invented by the Farseers in which one enters the "Spirit Realm". This essentially means your mind enters a "plane" on which all spirits can traverse and communicate far more easily (including your own). All three of these techniques can even be combined. Indeed, for most their first journey into the spirit realm requires the assistance of cactus green as well as inherently requiring meditation to begin with.

To build a little on some area's where Lex has already made responses Shaman has actually been removed as a Subrace in reality. In the past, the "Shaman" subrace was intended to refer to skinny, lankier Orcs that would be more inclined to a magical rather than a martial art. Since, however, this made little sense in respect to the Orcish lore in general, the idea was scrapped very, very early on in aegis, but the subrace option remains simply because it has not been removed. To become a Shaman you need only learn Shamanism, no different than any other magic. It is generally recommended that you learn from a teacher, but you can also self-teach Shamanism if you wish (though it will take you twice as long to learn in this case). Shaman generally act as spiritual leaders for Orcs, with Shamanism being the closest thing the Orcs have to a religious institution. Shaman, therefore, play a very important role in Orcish events. Farseers will often bless warparties before battles, Lutauman enforce ancestral traditions, Elementalists watch over the lands and Witchdoctors attempt to handle more practical aspects of Orcish lifestyle in a more direct way. Farseers in particular are an important aspect for most Orcs, as the Farseers are generally the most directly visable in their handling of the spirits as they bless Orcs before their all-too-frequent battles, oftentimes making the difference between victory and defeat (or so many Orcish warriors will claim). Becoming a Shaman is not exceedingly difficult. In certain cases of apprenticeship, some Elder Shaman are more strigent than others. Blawharag, for instance, used to require a series of tests to prove you are worthy of even being trained (though with the recent decline in Shamanism, Blawharag is abandoning this model at the request of the Ancestors). However, even beyond earning an apprenticeship, one CAN still self-teach Shamanism (I am more than willing to act as an OOC overseer, which is the requirement to self-teach, for anyone interested in self-teaching Shamanism). The magic is no more difficult to learn than any other (at least not IC, OOC depends on the individual player of course). Shamanism has a more heavy reliance on ritual than most other Subtypes. Many of the more advanced and complicated spells require an extensive ritual in order to perform. In Lutauman, for instance, almost every spell which manipulates souls still anchored in the physical realm by bodies requires some advanced ritual or another, as it is a far more difficult process than connecting with souls in the Ancestral Plane. Farseer blessings over war parties are usually less complicated rituals reflecting sermons or war dances, while many Witchdoctor spells can be highly barbaric and ritualistic on a primal level. That is not to say that it dominates every aspect of the Shaman's lifestyle, however. Many spells can be preformed without the presence of rituals, and a Shaman need not wake up every morning and do a voodoo dance around a fire. For the most part, ritualistic practices are reserved for spells and reverence towards the spirits. Due to the many things that the word "practice" can mean in your statement, I'll try to address them all. Existing Shaman can still practice their magic. Magic Apps are on hold, but magic is still usable. Those who were not accepted prior to the hold can practice the worship parts of Shamanism (you can still revere your Ancestors, as a religious institution). Finally we have the actual learning part of Shamanism. Unfortunately right now with the magic app hold, you cannot begin learning Shamanism as a magic until we re-release the new system. HOWEVER, due to various random and stupid delays, and the critical state that Shamanism is in, I will speak with my peers on the Magic Team about allowing me to start a learning process early, despite not have the new system released. I'll let you know how that boils over. There are three catagories of spirits that the Shaman evocate. Elemental Spirits, Immortal Spirits and Ancestral Spirits(or Souls). Without going into extreme detail, Elemental Spirits are spirits which make up the physical world around us, and are channeled by Elementalist Shaman (very closely related to the Aspects channeled by Druids). Ancestral Spirits (as mentioned, sometimes also referred to as Souls, particularly by non-Orcs) are spirits of people and living/once-living creatures and are channeled by Lutauman Shaman. Immortal Spirits are spirits which affect the way we live our lives, and are divided into two catagories, the Greater and the Lesser. The Greater spirits are spirits of Culture and affect grander schemes in the way we live our lives. There is a Spirit of War, Hunt, ect. These most closely reflect our modern day image of Gods, as each one of these Spirits is an actual "Being" that holds its own title. This is important because that means the title can be passed between one-another through various means (near the start of Asulon, the current Spirit of War overthrew the former Spirit of War). The Lesser spirits are spirits which affect people on more personal level, namely by causing shifts in our emotions. For the most part, these spirits are indistinguishable from the usual emotions one feels on a day to day basis, though usually when a spirit is the culprit, the emotions become significant enough to drive one person to alter the course of their actions. For example, an individual who just had their parents killed by an Orc is prone to attracting a spirit of Rage or Vengeance. This spirit will than drive the character's emotions towards acting out or devoting their life towards hunting down Orcs. In both cases, Farseer is the Shaman Subtype responsible for channeling the Immortal Spirits, both Greater and Lesser (generally a Farseer focuses on one or the other). I am not sure what is meant by "mess with information" but I'll try my best guess. When a Shaman consults the spirits for information, it is literally like asking someone what they know. Lutauman and Farseers will act as our examples today. A Farseer can (and generally does) ask the Immortal spirits (usually the Greater variety) about the future. The spirits will then literally give their best guess, no better than what you or I might guess. The Spirits generally have better guesses than you or I, because they sometimes have access to information we do not, but in the end it is still just a guess. A Lutauman can ask the Ancestors for information, but that is limited two fold, by what the Ancestors know, and whether or not they care enough to tell him. An Orc Ancestor would be more than willing to tell a Lutauman all about the secret entrance to a base, but the Orc Ancestor probably does know about the secret entrance (else it would not be very secret, now would it?). An Elf ancestor might know about the Secret Entrance, but he is not likely to share that information to a Lutauman trying to lead a War Party of Orcs in to slaughter all of his decendants. Possessions? Like what you might find in a bad horror flick by a demon? Or possessed by a ghost sort of thing? Is there any form of lore anywhere where that is actually ever thought of as having pros? On a more serious note, possession (at least by the spirits) is not generally something which just "happens". Your body is built to anchor one spirit into the Physical realm, that being your soul. Another spirit cannot physically co-exist with your soul, you body is simply incapable of holding them both here. Like trying to pour more water into an already full glass, it just won't work. If your soul were to be removed, then TECHNICALLY another spirit could then be harboured in your body (assuming it was put in before your body died and was then incapable of acting as an anchor) but that is not necessarily possible on a practical level. Depending on mitigating circumstances, for the most part it ends up taking too much Mana energy to preform without being an Aengul or Daemon of some sort. One can, however, channel the influence of a spirit to varying degrees to the point where it very much resembles possession but all of this really kind of depends on which kind of spirit we are talking about, and what you are looking for in your "possession". You need to be more specific about what you are picturing in your head before I can really be able to help you. Like other casters, Shaman inevitably end up losing their martial prowess in exchange for magical ability. The longer you spend learning Shamanism, the more your martial ability suffers for it. At day's end, it means the Shaman is better off relying on their magic in battle over themselves. There are two "exceptions" to this rule. First being the Farseers. Farseers still suffer from the atrophy that afflicts other casters, but their magic is centered around "buffing" large groups of individuals. These "buffs" are not concentrated blessings (to compensate for the fact that they can bless entire parties) and a blessing of strength may not be a notable benefit for any individual Orc, but for the party as a whole it makes a difference. The Farseer is, however, affected by their own buff and will gain the same amount of strength (however small on the individual level) as the rest of the war party for the duration of the buff. The second exception is a more notable exception, that being Lutauman. Lutauman do not have the ranged casting ability of other magic schools, nor the support ability held by Farseers, Clerics and the like. Here is the in-depth explanation in the spoiler of how they work. Now here is all that translated into mechanics, as that might make it easier to understand: imagine back when we had the skill plug-in. If a warrior of 3 elven months of experience had 50 skill in Swordsmanship, a Lutauman of the same experience would have 25 Swordsmanship, and "melee magic". He could use his "melee magic" spells until he ran out of mana, which should last him about long enough to beat one 50-swords person in a one-on-one fight if he is using all the "melee magic" at his disposal and goes all out. Once he is out of mana though, he is just a 25 swords warrior, and that's pretty damn pathetic and useless. Yes, technically. To build off of what Lex said, spirits that have been dead for long periods of time slowly begin to grow "distent" from the physical realm, as they have less and less ties to it (their old cave collapses, their tomb becomes lost in a sand dune, their favorite axe is destroyed, their decendants slowly possess less and less of his blood, ect.) They will never become totally unreachable, but spirits like Gorkil are at the point where a powerful Lutauman might be able to ask him some questions, but don't expect any lengthy conversations, and don't expect the answers to always be clear (they may come in the form of vague visions and the like). Contact me and we'll talk about your situation (forum PM would probably be the best place to start)

You are backwards. They are adults (the age of sexual maturity) at 8 years, and at this time are roughly human sized. They continue to grow until they reach their maximum height later, reasonably 10 years.

Blawharag learns of this plague through word of mouth and laughs silently to himself. "Har, mushhedz. Me blah'd lat nub pizz uff da Kakti. Diz wut lat get fur nub rezpektun dem."

((For the convenience of others, the Kheshig Trials will be adjusted to a different time. Currently I plan to hold the first session on sunday, preferably around mid-day EST. I will have a specific time once I have my schedule for next week.)) EDIT: ((Time on Sunday will be 5pm EST)) Double Edit: ((Time pushed back to 6:30pm EST due to RL interference))

Blawharag meditates silently atop a mountain overlooking the desert which formerly made up the Orcish lands. He had just sent his latest batch of child-rearing candidates off to find the Orcish Warship that would take them to the new lands. He felt pride at the Ancestor's approval of his attempts to return the Whitewash to the ways of the War Uzg, though Blawharag seriously doubted any among them would survive his training. As he meditated, the Ancestors spoke to him once more of the Kheshig. Naroflsul Blawharag argued once more, but the Ancestor's would not hear it this time. Alag latnarblah. Stargush urdanog. Lutauman mardanog. There was no convincing them, the Ancestors demanded it. Blawharag did not understand why, for the Ancestors knew things he would never know, no matter how much meditation he did. If the Ancestors demanded that he train new Kheshig, it was Blawharag's duty to obey. Dabu. Tug fukisham. Nar lul gijak-ishi Kheshig-ishi. Blawharag blah fukisham. To that much, at least, the Ancestors agreed. With that, Blawharag set off to the Warship. There wasn't much time before the trials began and he had much preparation to do. Silently, he wondered whether the Orcs would stand up to the Trials of the Kheshig, or whether they would all come up short. Blawharag was not usually a betting man, but he felt sure that they would all fail. Maybe, if the Ancestors were merciful, at least one wouldn't prove to be entirely useless, though Blawharag doubted it. As he arrived at the new lands he sent out runners to all the clans. "Kheshig Triulz suun. Send latz bezt." A short and simple message, but the Wargoth's would understand its significance. "Ledz peep wut da War Uzg haz tu offur..." ((The Kheshig Trials will be held Sunday, 5:00pm EST. Any Orc of the War Uzg may participate, but there is no garauntee anyone will pass. Rules will be strict harsh, to reflect the discipline and resolve required to be a Kheshig. ~Blawharag is the rules. All rules are defined by Blawharag. If Blawharag says the rules say something, the rules say that. It doesn't matter what you read after this point, if Blawharag says something to the contrary, then you read the rules wrong and will suffer for it. ~The first person to "drop out" of any Kheshig Trial is not aloud to come back unless they, at some point, earn the title "Wargoth" or "Rex" (They need not keep the title, only earn it at some point to prove they have overcome their weakness). ~The first day does not end until someone has dropped out. ~"Dropping Out" means either A] ICly giving up, failing a task you were meant to succeed in, acting dishonorably, disobeying an order, or otherwise making Blawharag not like you and kick you out. B] Leaving the Private TS channel where the trials will be held for any reason (exception: if you D/C, not an exception: A friend or someone pulled you out). ~Due to the pace of things, and depending on attendance rates, Blawharag may end up using Teamspeak to distribute IC commands. If this is the case, all participants will be informed at the beginning of the Trials. ~Trials will be held over three sessions. The time and place of the second and third sessions will be shared in the session preceeding. ~Blawharag wins. Blawharag always wins. Additional rules may be added, subtracted, changed, invalidated or otherwise corrupted on Blawharag's whim. Deal with it.))

MCName: Brevias Character Name: Brevias Punishment: Warning Reason: A magic inquiry was submitted to Blawharag concerning a player who was RPing as Human in a Lur wolf body. The Player claimed that Shaman Brevias had preformed a ritual to transfer him into the body of a Lur wolf. When asked, Brevias admitted to the action. He was informed that this is the realm of the Lutauman subtype, not the Witchdocter subtype and that such a procedure would require roughly 3 experienced and powerful shaman to preform via an in depth ritual. Evidence: http://imgur.com/Qiwub,cBnAt,XJ7ak#2 Three screen shots involving the human turned lur wolf http://gyazo.com/2ce6cef013e5a46ce384518303170c10 Brevias confirming his part in the ritual.

I know my popo well.