Swgrclan

This seems derivative of the Dark Ancestrals that dwell the Ancestral Realms. Does this lore have any bearing to the Inferis, whom were poised to be "the" antagonists of the Ancestrals over all?

The will of the Creator is imperceptible. I'd say Aengudaemons are as lacking in that field as mortals are.

By no means is the Void a natural presence in the world or the cosmos in general. It is a volatile, chaotic, indiscernable infinite presence beyond the veil of existence and the fact that Druids exist to oppose the fundamentals of magic, particularly Void magic, in general bids some justification to this kind of detail. You're not going to see a lot of tolerance from a power that exists to enforce worldly naturality regarding those who borrow things from a realm defined to be unnatural when its presence manifests in the same natural world.

The Old Ones [Descended Daemons of Yore] "And behold a moonlit sky; whence the Oak, the Blood, the Sword, the Serpent, the Siren and the Poison fell from, long ago." In ancient times, when Men roamed free as one with no curses to shackle them, the world in which they dwelled endured still the throes of existential development. The Gods, known as Aenguls and Daemons, toiled and machinated to set upon the mortal realms their own creations and designs. Some Gods pitied Men, seeing their inherent mortality as an affliction. Some envied Men, regarding their mortality as a mercy to all things in the cosm of Creation. Many remained in their primordial skies, knowing full well the darkness that would fall upon them should they take shape in the corporeal plane. There were some among their kind who would see themselves come closer to Men, as to bridge the gap between mortal and immortal, and among them there were six. They all fell from the heavens, one by one, under moonlit skies. Men of yore named them 'Old Ones' in ancient testaments of Xion, and they perceived them wrongly as dwellers of the Void, gifted souls by the Creator so that they may shape the world into what it came to be. Three were known by godless Men, but three were not. The Named Widukind The Oak Deemed "the roots of the world" by Weirhents of Xionism, and given the name Widukind by the same folk, the Oak is among the six descended Daemons to take shape as Old Ones. The Oak was once the Daemon of Insight, and sought to rival Dragur in his mastery of all knowledge before he succumbed to descent and took shape as an elderly tree. It is said Widukind's roots span across the known world, and a great deal of that claim is tree -- sites discerned as unearthing grounds show grand roots which go on for miles, even through the deepest of desert sands and amidst the thickest of forests. Some roots even take shape as trees, which the Oak is said to perceive the world from; allowing him to have the 'insight' their once-coveted mantle promised. Feldamfir The Serpent Another godless legend, the Serpent was known as Feldamfir in ancient times, and was ordained an Old One after the proclamation that their terrible hunger allegedly shaped the caverns within the earth. Feldamfir descended to take form as a massive, mindless worm, wrongly perceived as a snake from both the length of their form and the hunger it was cursed with. The Serpent was afflicted with the mortal aspect of yearning and craving upon taking shape, and is responsible for the more recent cataclysm of Athera, where a majority of the land was contorted and devoured by Feldamfir's depthless maw. It was once the Daemon of Want, and only came to know what their flawed mantle meant once true mortal yearning was beheld. Dresdrasil The Siren The last of the Xionist Old Ones, the Siren was named Dresdrasil and proclaimed Mother of the Sea. From her womb came the life which teems the oceans and the evil that lurks the sightless deep, meaning entities of most grand, terrible form such as the Devourer are likely a descendent of the Siren herself, whom remains hidden somewhere in the drowned abyss. As a deity, the Siren existed as the Daemon of Abundance, and expressed this as an Old One with the occupation of the endless murk. The Unnamed The Sword As one of the nameless three Old Ones, the Sword descended not as a corporeal creature, but as a mere thought in the minds of uncursed Men. It came early, when Men still stacked the stones of their most ancient of walls; planted within the mind of a single mortal of old craft. Through the efforts of this nameless smith, the Sword took corporeal shape as, quite literally, a sword; and came to be the very first armament used to strike another mortal down. The Sword was once the Daemon of Innovation, and this was portrayed through the grim realization of the first blade's design. The Blood Like the Sword before him, the Blood descended as a more obscure design. The Blood did not descend as one being, but as an essence; the stuff of life which granted it a title. In yore, the Blood descended upon the lands as an incorrigible red rain, and soaked into the lands east of Aegis where ancient Men, untouched yet by curses, still roamed. Before the passing of the Thirty Year War, a united band of proto-Orcs, Elves, Humans and Dwarves happened upon a crevasse in which sanguine pooled at the bottom as if water. Lured by the malignant presence of the Blood, these elders descendants were lulled into the cursed ravine by the seduction of an ethereal song and a scent which invaded their nostrils, darkening their mind. The archaic mortals tipped into the tear of earth, and drowned in Daemonblood. From it, years later and after the Cursing of Men, came the same few who lost themselves to the allure of the Daemon, malformed by its binding to them. The Blood, obsessed with preserving the old visage of the one fabled race of “mankind”, forged them into superhuman folk, who remained as they were, yet became much different. Flesh paled, hair white, eyes a burning amber, and form almost Orcish in height and strength moreso, they rose as First Men, and reveled in the dark blood which remade them. The Blood was once the Daemon of Origin, and shadowed the beginnings of the curseless race of Men by mixing their blood with their immortal being. The Poison The last of the nameless Old Ones, the Poison descended as what their title implies; an affliction. Taking form as a disease, the Poison became a herald of end-times and the catalyst of the eventual ruin of kingdoms, for before the end of all societies there often comes a dire sickness. But only did the winds carry their toxic essence towards where disease would be beckoned -- in streets plagued by the starving and the dying, in farmlands where old crops decayed, in stables where cattle became the feast of flies, and upon thrones, where the minds of lords became gripped by madness. When the Poison came, their sickness could not be cured, for when a people is fated to fall they cannot skirt the inevitable. In the heavens, the Poison was known as the Daemon of Affliction. Their Nature When the Old Ones descended, they became so tightly woven into the fabrics of the mortal world that any notion of Daemonhood eventually faded away; and the only remnants of Old One Daemonhood resides still in the fabled First Men, who have yet to be discovered. They have taken the role of "corporeal Gods", or beings that linger among Men as physical aspects of the plane. And as such, they have lost all Aengudaemonic bindings. No longer may they transcend back to the heavens, for when they fell from moonlit skies, they could not find it within themselves to return to them. Every Old One has taken a singular "true shape", through some are more ambiguous than others. The Oak, the Siren and the Serpent had taken lifelike, organic forms that often adhere to the world itself, such as flora, the sea and caverns beneath the earth. But for the Sword, the Blood and the Poison, a true shape is only achieved by indirect methods. For example; in order for the Sword to take a controllable true shape, the ancient weapon it embodies must be taken by another mortal being so that they may be possessed by the power they hold in their hands. In order for the Blood to take a true shape, all but one of the First Men must be slain so that only one among them bears their living blood, and thus become possessable. The only nameless Old One without a plausible true shape is the Poison, who only arrives and takes shape as disease when a people is 'fated' for inevitable fall, erosion or destruction. One may perceive their true shape as the husk of the people left behind; their corpses, the ruins of their homelands, and their lost legacies. If there is any relation of higher power among the Old Ones, it is their uncanny ability to commune with mortals through dreams and visions. As beings woven into the fabrics of the corporeal world, they are able to pass on these dreams - nightmares, even - to those whom they choose. But as they stand higher than common Men, they know much more, and thus such forms of contact often lead to madness in the contacted. The term "madness is for the intelligent" acts as key here; for if the insight of the Old Ones is unfathomable enough to bring madness, being insane already prevents their contact from falling on deaf ears or being perceived as indiscernible messages. In each Old One exists the yearning to multiply. The nameless Old Ones, who seem to sit on more of a malevolent spectrum, had not gained the ability to achieve this as per their strange, unusual shapes. Whereas Widukind may multiply by the reach of their roots, or Feldamfir by the egg-laden nests of their abyss-like burrows, or Dresdrasil by her creation of vast life of the watery depths, the Sword, the Blood and the Poison cannot procreate with usual methods, and therefore must resort to grim means as to do so. Peculiarly, the Blood and the Posion share a similar method in which "surrogates" are chosen among mortal women. For the Blood, the chosen one must have imbibed the blood of First Men so that the presence of the Blood may form within her; so that a child may then be conceived by their will. For the Poison, a mortal woman must contract their disease before being gifted with a child. Tying in with their true shape, the soul possessed by the Sword must impregnate a mortal woman or be a mortal woman herself in order to be given the child of an Old One. In the event of such transpirations, childbirth is often not survived, and the infant Old One must be taken into obscurity so they may shape into something greater without deterrence. It is the malformed, madness-inducing children of the nameless Old Ones that seem to lack the grace and worldly adherence of the kin of Widukind's trees, Dresdrasil's fish and Feldamfir's similar hunger-enamored beasts, for they are described as alien at-best. They inherit an insight that breaks the minds of common Men, and a power reminiscent of old Daemons. [ This is my attempt at shaping a canon-friendly form of Lovecraftian entities which adhere to Aengudaemonic laws, as per their origin. These beings, and everything implied of them in this lore (including any “children” they make), are reserved to extensive eventlines and IC references that allow players to chase after them as to learn what kind of horrors truly linger the shadows of the world. ]

spirits have superior souls

If you're not already aware, there is a Japanese-esque culture/people already in place. They're called Yultharans, and their land resides to the east of Athera.

As I have with Aelesh, I must express my need to speak about some aspects of this lore, mostly in the description of souls and how the Soul Stream is regarded. I believe you have my Skype.

Much like Muyakelgs, I think these need a susceptibility to holy magic like every other malformed atrocity that other certain magics are capable of brewing up. Otherwise the concept seems neat.

Gotta have me a good lasaga.

aptly put by the everlasting orc king and bronze prince, peace be upon him

Hey, that's pretty good.

Blood Runes “Feel the innate power of Man, and clamor.” [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-If2r9ENQfA ] The runes of Blood Magic are an ancient art that incites differentiating function based on dialectic design. The runes found within the Archdragon’s Canon are bound to an “alphabet”, where every letter is likely capable of cooperating with the other upon the use of Genus and the involvement of magics related with said rune. There are laws to Blood Runes that prevent deviation from their proper use; rules bound to the letters, or else they are jumbled, their meaning nullified and senseless. The laws of the Blood Runes are as thus; i; The Runes of Primeval, Existential and Total power are reserved for the sole use in rituals. They cannot be engraved onto people or objects to imbue power in them, and attempts to do so will only lead to failure or violent, combustive result. ii; The Runes of Force are the only runes able to be placed upon a living individual with the intent of “bind” or “curse” them. As there only exists two Runes of Force, being the Runes of Draining and Binding, their use is limited but still have a role in the creation of thralls or the enslavement of beings pulled from other cosmic planes. iii; The Blood Runes must always be activated with Genus in order for them to function. This is why a Blood Mage who put Runes of Binding upon another individual cannot retain perpetual control over them, or why rituals enacted with these runes cannot last forever. There must be a sacrifice in order for power to be attained, and the flow of blood is the sacrifice demanded. These laws prevent Blood Runes from mimicking the nature of other established runic powers. With the Rune of Power being nullified, what it was once used for, like granting Dreadknights their strength and boosting the power of rituals, is now passed on to the practice of blood sacrifice to power ratios. The more blood is spilt, the higher the power of the ritual shall be. [ The purpose of this lore is to circumvent and clarify the exact use of Blood Runes, so stuff like Blood Rune enchantments and self-augmentation can be prevented. ]

I can't say this is bad lore, not at all. The necessity of equal exchange seems mostly fulfilled and the lore itself doesn't incite a greater change, like other Dragon-relative character-transformative pieces of canon.

I see this is derived from Hellfiazz and my concept for a new Orcish subrace proposed some time ago. Preferably, I would like to have seen you come to me before employing it so I can help out with it a little, but as it is it seems pretty good in design. Do you plan on allowing this to be an actual subrace for players to play, or just event-oriented?

Nothing would stop you from roleplaying Druidism in the ways you explained, it's just that the method that enables Thulean Druidism, ie Druidism with Blood Magic to work is passion and rage and fury. Druids can still do all of that, but the point of the Thulean Way is to use the fury within a Druid to convey the power of Genus as a method to "rile up" nature and empower Druidic abilities. As I cite from the lore, the Druid of Shadow's attempts to control nature by empowering Druidism with Blood Magic fell short because that methodology is empty and baseless and unnatural and cruel. So the only way to get Druidic powers to bind with Blood Magic, and for different aspects of nature to agree with this aforementioned use, is for feral passion to encompass the use of Blood Magic. That's why it says in the guidelines that Druidism and Blood Magic cannot mix otherwise. It depends on the method in which they're both employed, and the Thulean Way is that exact method. As for Druids already being able to achieve some of the things Thulean Druidism can, those were just examples - Thulean Druidism follows the Blood Magic rule of "if you add blood magic to something, it does what it does better". That means anything a Druid can do at their peak, the use of Blood Magic can surpass that, because that's the inherent design of Blood Magic itself -- it enhances other magic. It binds in order to improve. The approval of this would not disable stampedes from being led or big trees from being uprooted, it only means Druidism with Blood Magic can do those things much better, and much more violently. I never saw any druid use viridescent (green) fire to cleanse places of corruption, only gentle green mist, so there isn't much to go over there.

Thulean Druidism “Nature is unbridled; it is angry. It’s fury incites the cycle.” [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz3O0JftA5w ] Blood Magic is the control of mortalkind’s innate power. Genus is an essence of the blood which flows within all Men, dormant and sleeping - a power which was, by design, never intended to awaken, yet bore the capacity to. It is the Blood Mages of Asulonian Yore which had first mastered the timeless power in their veins, but after their fall into obscurity, the art which they honed and used in such macabre fashion faded. It did not arise until many years later. When it did rise again, it rose by the will of a Dragon. Given a form of dark sentience by Setherien while under his service, the Stone Serpent Malghourn had fallen to illness after the purging of his Drakehood. From the depths of Anthosian mountains, Malghourn called out in search of the worthy, only to be heard by one. The Druid of Shadow led a small covenant alongside the magus Caladrius upon detecting the presence of a great beast beneath the earth, and came to behold the form of Malghourn, who would come to grant the gathering the reformed designs of Blood Magic. His time as a Blood Magic became one of mastery, but of uncertainty. The atrocities committed beside Caladrius had waned his binding with the Aspects as the lure of Genus’ power had led him astray into the obscure of Dark Artistry. There was a nature within Blood Magic that the Druid was very much aware of; that it could be used for great good, and if he could forge a bond between it’s darkness and Druidism, countless ills could be erased. Alas, his path did not become anymore kind despite this hope of heart. The great decimation of Aesterwald by the hand of Caladrius and Brother Shadow, who operated under another name and a red-robed visage, had been an event that sent the Druid into a spiral of great regret and dismay. Before his very eyes, the earth had been undone and for but a moment he was the master of the land he stood on; it is a reality that horrified him. The Druid of Shadow cast himself into the obscure of the mortal world in self-exile, never admitting his sins to another mind for many years while he suffered isolation and sought to gain forgiveness from the Aspects for his dire transgressions. But when he returned, he did not leave Blood Magic behind. Instead, he compounded upon his hopes to bind Druidism and Blood Magic; he tirelessly studied, practiced, honed, experimented. He whispered to the trees as he cut his palm to conjure great power; he bound his Genus to Nature’s Control in order to make it vicious and unbound. These efforts were for not, for they all ended in disruption; the land would simply not accept Brother Shadow’s violently heightened capacities. It is only by an epiphany that the binding truly came. Force no longer became a standpoint, passion had. In the madness of his study, the Druid of Shadow conceived a form of Druidic philosophy which abandoned the notions of pacifism, and embraced the unrelenting nature of the cycle. “Walls are risen to be felled. Stone is carved from mountains to crumble away. Forests are hewn by fire for the ashes to bring renewal. Beasts prey upon the weak so the strong may make rise. Furious passion shatters calm, feasible logic. The cycle does not operate by peace, but by madness. Nature is unbridled; it is angry. It’s fury incites the cycle.” Deemed the “Thulean Way”, Brother Shadow applied his vicious philosophy to his practices. He found that Blood Magic must not be used to shackle nature and command it, but to channel the violent passion of life through the the use of blood, and to incite the feral nature embedded within the fabrics of the Cycle in order to empower it with Genus without detriment. It is by this method of binding that the powers of Druidism are not confangled by Blood Magic. The passion which Thulean Druids are taught to incite comes from their very core; it is a boundless, feral madness which abandons civility and embraces the animalistic virtues tied within both Men and beasts. Nature itself sings to this tune, it goes hand-in-hand with this form of natural madness, and thus adheres to the Druids which calls upon it with their magic. It is the teachings of Brother Shadow that suggest Thulean Druidism is a path which may lead to the deepest relationship mortals may share with nature, for at it’s core, nature is bloody, it is violent, it is passionate, and the habits of the civil are not welcomed within it. It is not known why exactly the chaotic tendencies of the Thulean Way enable Blood Magic to cooperate with Druidism on such a deep, existential level, yet the Druid of Shadow’s records state it is reminiscent of an old, nameless presence, that acted as the bedlamic idol of clandestine circles of yore... Thulean Enhancements Using Blood Magic with Druidism produces different kinds of enhancements across the spectrum of the Aspect’s gifts. They are listed here for the sake of clarity. Nature’s Communion Once entangled with Thulean power, Communion becomes less of a passive attention to nature around a Druid and moreso a nerve-wracking focus on the raw operation of nature that transpires miles around the practitioner’s vicinity. To empower Nature’s Communion with the Thulean Way isn’t as beneficial as much as it is damaging; in the worst of times, one may witness the sounds of countless horrible realities, and when great terrors are committed like the burning of forests and the imbalancing mass-hunt of beasts, the subjected Druid may be driven into a coma if they’re not experienced enough. If a Thulean Druid is honed enough to handle hearing thousands of voice crying out deafeningly at the same time, they could detect nature-affronting deeds from afar and then go to their source to confront them. If a Druid forces themselves to block out the intensified voices around them, they’re able to make contact with beasts in such a manner that would stir them into a feral rage. Thulean Druidism is capable of coaxing large packs into blind violence so they may be guided elsewhere to be released upon the unfortunate enemies of the Thulean Druid, instead of calmly bidding to these same beasts with the basic, request-oriented designs of Communion. Nature’s Control Following the philosophies of the Thulean Way, once empowered with Blood Magic, control about aspects of nature such as different forms of flora, and the ability to incite their growth, may become monumental. Thulean Druidism may uproot towering oaks and will them to fall upon cities; countless vines may be called upon to viciously wrap around one’s enemies, capable of breaking their bones; a storm of roots may be drawn up from the very earth to converge unrelenting upon the unprepared. It is through the Thulean Way that flora is not commanded to do these things, but to be riled into a great fervor. Blood Magic enables nature around a Druid to align with their Thulean powers like how many may come together to form an angry mob, and as a result, Nature’s Control become much more strong and broad. Herblore The capacity of a Thulean Druid’s herblore abilities become both emboldened and dangerous. Healing capabilities are made miraculous, to the point where a subject’s arm may be reattached, or their sight may be restored. However, to heal someone with Thulean Herblore would mean to put them into a deep coma that can span for even Elven weeks long. This is the cost for miracles of the Thulean variety. A Druid’s poisonous or toxic concoctions not only become deadlier with Blood Magic involvement, but dangerous to everyone around them. Toxin Herblore becomes as much as a danger to the Druid as it does the victims they would unleash their mixtures upon, for their Blood Magic would cause them to take volatile shape. Poisons would become gaseous, air-tainting, fragile, or acidic and flesh-searing, which makes what they’re contained in fragile and easily to break. Blight Healing Thulean Blight Healing is a much more gracious enhancement than the other forms of Genus-empowered Druidic subtypes. It simply does what it does, to greater capacity -- the most wretchedly malformed and tainted places are purged of all sickness, not with a gentle green mist, but with a viridescent fire that annihilates all forms of unnatural taint. Shapeshifting Shapeshifters who master the Thulean Way must be wary when binding Blood Magic with their more secretive powers, for the passion embedded in their philosophy ties with the beastial form they may take on a level deeper than any other Druidic subtype. Thulean Shapeshifters become embodiments of beasthood, and the shapes they take may become horned, clawed and fanged all at once. The feral ferocity absorbs their mind and drives them into an animalistic rage, where the fury of the Aspects is expressed in a way only a bloodthirsty animal could portray it. The strength of their forms are heightened and made more predatory, yet they lose all sight of mortal civility, and become both a danger to their foes as they do their allies. Thulean Ritualizations Blood Magic and Druidism is able to be used in Blood Rune-based rituals that fall in concordance only with the designs of Druidism, meaning no outer arcane presence may be included in them. Each player-made ritual must be designed following the rules of each subtype they include, and demand ample sacrifices of mortal blood and the presence of other Druidic practitioners so these rituals may properly be achieved as any other magical Blood Mage ritual would. Guidelines *Thulean Druidism isn’t another magic, only the method in which Blood Magic is allowed to be used alongside Druidism. *Blood Magic cannot be used with Druidism unless it is used with the Thulean Way. Malicious control and command cannot be forced onto the nature which Druids bend; it is the passion of feral life that must be communed with, embodied by the power within mortal blood, so that nature may be driven into a violent, natural fervor. Thulean Druidism must follow all guidelines of Blood Magic and Druidism. This is only an inclusion into the magical arts Blood Magic is able to be used with.

Edited that just as you posted that, thankfully. I'm good at writing, I swear. They cannot learn magic, no. Not sure how you mean with the second point, but the creation of a Sorvian already involves praising Jevex during the ritual and bidding him to bless the subject after they speak an oath to the Spirit to bind them. Instead of learning blah, the oath itself could probably consist of a few lines of Blah which are passed down by those who learn it from the mentioned eventline. Not being able to know this oath could prevent the ritual from being initiated by those who know it.

I spoke with fooddude about the matter of Spirit involvement and actually proposed Enrohk initially, as the design was a combat-focused type of entity. But he suggested there wouldn't be a lot of depth playing a conflict-driven being only given personality by what they follow, so he suggested Jevex headed this kind of creature as the source of their design. Be as it may that this is related to Spirits and, by extension, Shamanism, I saw it fit better than Shamans don't have total reign over something intended to be so open-eneded. If I just pawned it off to Shamans, I'd expect the same thing to happen if I let other small groups have sole access to making something like this, which, as history suggests, only leads to small numbers of the entity in question and a general lack of their appearances. I want these beings to stretch beyond the Shaman-Spirit spectrum and to have a presence of their own, able to be ritualized into existence by those who learn the ritual, and considering how little beyond mortals they are in terms of physical capacity and power, it wouldn't be fair to say they're strong enough to confine them to a single form of magic in terms of source. I will, however, take your feedback regarding the use of Old Blah in mind, and will elaborate on the initial distribution of ritual knowledge, as in the very beginning a selective few amount of groups (not magic groups specifically, ideology is the focus for a reason) are to be gathered into an eventline which may lead to the ritual's learning.

Sorvians Embodiments of Ideology [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIwv3eh4Mq4 ] “It is not known what drives them to commit themselves to such unrelenting depth. The ones who come, desiccated and war-torn, operate with greater capacity than a soldier. The scars which line their kind are timeless, suggesting that those that carry such signs of damage should not walk and fight as they do. The ones who come, bearing the book of their ways, preach to masses with such persistence and unfaltering countenance that they’re capable of converting others to their customs purely by the passage of time alone; for they may stand upon thin ice where dissidents dwell and convince others for hours and days, With no sparse breath or impatience or will to give up. But when we found their core, when we sacrificed countless good Men who served for the sake of King and Kingdom, when we tore apart their idols and burned the books of their masters and executed the Men who led these things by an unseeable chain, what remained of them simply departed. They watched us ruin what they preached and fought for, and as if some mere second thought or realization in lapse of judgement, they abandoned the way which they followed, and did not persist in their heresies a moment longer.” - The account of a human soldier’s interactions with Sorvians. There has not been one conflict forged in this timeless world where differences were not present. It has always been the nature of Men to confide in ways which they are convinced to adhere; to spill blood and to die for these ways, to share these ways with their friends, their brothers, sons and strangers. It is hard to discern the term “way” as a singular thing, for it takes many forms. Sovereign nations have a way. They design themselves by the nature of their people and by the authority of their leaders. Culture follows a way. It is shaped by the world around those who herald culture, who learned that their way was the best way in the circumstances they faced. Faith follows a way. Their way is to say their way is true, that sometimes their way is the highest way, and that other ways are ways which lead one astray. Men are defined by ways. Without ways, they have no meaning, no guidance, and in a world without ways, Men are left to wander a plane with no mountain to follow or horizon to foresee. There are those who commune deeply with this truth. A soul known as Jevex, the Spirit of Order and Self-Sacrifice, confides with them more than Men themselves, for ways are abstract aspects of the mind which are not confined to the nature of mortals. One may say Jevex may have been present since the very dawn of time, for is it by a “way” that the Creator shaped the very cosm all things are hosted within. But instead he formed by the sheer presence of Men’s attunement to ways; Jevex was birthed by the fire within that mortals bore to persist in their ways, to form their ways, to know their ways. If anyone knew the nature of ways, it was Jevex. It was inspiring; to spread one's’ ways to thousands of others and for these same ways to guide them forth to carve their path through history is something no other form of being truly achieved. Even the Aengudaemons, who directly usher ways to Men by the design of divine missions, have never come close to such a feat. They may only mimic the creation of ways and perpetuate what they believe in by sharing it with duration-adhering souls that do not follow Immortal existence. Such a transaction, it is alien -- But in the end, it is the cultivation of ways. Jevex wanted to surpass what Men could achieve. He wanted the fervor and the belief of countless mortals bound to the soul of but individuals. What the fervor and belief and expression of these things was based around, Jevex did not care; it was not within his interest to inspire ways within Men, only to incite the conception of ways. In old times, he would come to create the very embodiment of ideology and the servitude put forth toward it. Jevex would conceive the Sorvians. Their Nature Sorvians are mortal beings which, by the power of a ritual designed by the Spirit of Order, are driven to “subsist” on the servitude of ideologies. Unlike normal mortals, they do not have free will and instead can be considered hollow and without basis until they unbiasedly find a “way” in which they are led to serve. This means, by becoming a Sorvian, one loses all sense of self; expression and personality decays to the very base level, independant thought becomes machinelike, race and differential corporeality is nullified, and they become a “canvas” for the ways of others to paint upon. This means a Sorvian is nothing without an idea to serve, but the idea must be concrete; the ideology must be persistent, it must have a name, a design, a spirit of its own. It must mean something in order for a Sorvian to recognize it as something to bend the knee to. Petty oaths are nothing; baseless, militant orders are flimsy; tasks are short-lived. Sorvians crave ideologies to make them whole, and thus they only serve what is prominent. Canonism, Aspectism, Xanism, Tahariaeism, Xionism -- these are ideologies which have depth, which have meaning, which have lasted ages, that were founded by those who matter and have achieved things that bring them up as greater truths. In an old age, those that witnessed the presence of Sorvians knew them as Truthbearers, for when Sorvians were seen serving their given ideologies, they did not relent in doing so. Unlike mortals, who have a gauge for questioning atrocities the occult may bring them to do, or being apprehensive in their loyalty to a cause, Sorvians are not subject to this. The only way they know in their strange, limboed existences is the ideology they are bound to, and thus they are driven to such unfaltering allegiance to something that to call them Truthbearers would be more than to express what they follow is as fact; it is to express how they do not even question what they serve, ever - not for the slightest moment. Despite their lack of individuality, Sorvians are molded by the ways which they are bound to follow, and when they align with an ideology long enough, their character reforms into something unique. The best way to describe them in this state is to say they’re zealots; zealots while, indeed, they are unquestionably loyal to their own cause, still carry with them a personality. The personality of a zealot is intertwined with the way they serve, and thus, they are defined by their way. Sorvians follow this nature like a creed, and soon become not so hollow like a resistless slave after all. One cannot become a Sorvian by force, after all - it must be agreed by the one subjected to it. They become a Sorvian, knowing that on the other side, they awaken as a loyalist of boundlessly more faith in their following than they had before. But while Sorvians are driven to serve ideologies unquestionably in their height, it’s all for naught when the ideology falters and fails. If not by common sense, Sorvians learn that to bind themselves to miniscule followings is to pledge themselves for frankly nothing at all, for when the cult they’d come to serve falls by the vicious persecution of a neighboring nation which thinks it heresy, Sorvians abandon the idea they aligned with because it simply no longer has standing. Sorvians cannot find it within themselves to retain loyalty to a cause without form, much unlike an old patriot who saw their kingdom fall, yet retains the ways it once formed. Their Design Sorvians are inheritors of Jevex’s admiration for mortal ways, so when it is stated they are “expressionless” and a “canvas”, that is to be taken both literally and figuratively. The ritual which Men go through in order to become these ideological thralls put them into a status best defined as a “stalling” -- everything within their very being, from the flesh to the very core of their soul, is put in a pause, or a limbo. Lifeforce stops its natural cycle, blood ceases to run, growth no longer transpires; organs do not function, but they do not function because they’re forced to stop, not because they die. The mind is sent into a spiral until it, too, becomes a blank slate, where the only directive is to find a worthy ideology, and, once found, to be molded by it. The race of the Sorvian just erodes away. In a matter of days, all definitions of their prior race dwindles away - Elven ears become shorter, “usual”, they lose their grace and their vanity; Orcs looks their tusks, their height, they become “normal-statured”; the lush beards of Dwarves and their stocky features fade into a form of assimilating Sorvian normalcy; even Humans lose the vague definition of their racial profile, for all mortal Men become a blank slate that robs even the slightest individualistic design. The faces of mortals, they lose definition - wrinkles and facial features and everything that makes a person recognizable as who they are, it all goes away, turning the newly-formed Sorvians into a grotesque slate. The maskless Sorvian, deplete of individuality. All they retain are their eyes for seeing, their nose for breathing, their mouth for speaking, their ears for hearing. Strikingly, the most ironic definitions of Sorvians is their immediate and tribal-like nature to adopt the use of masks. They wear dull masks of any kind of material on their face, and when the time comes that they bend a knee to a way which they are willed to serve, they paint their mask and design it in a way to reflect that which they follow. The desiccated form of an occult-following Sorvian, grim and grayed and scarred by their practices. The timelessness which their bodies are afflicted with is something which has its degrees of advantages and disadvantages. Mortals are defined by duration, but when put into a limbo, they simply cannot perish - to be timeless is to never have duration, by definition. So Sorvians are not foul, corrupted undead; they are merely beyond the passage of time and are not subject to its weathering. It is said of ancient Truthbearers that their visages were so contorted and scarred and battle-torn because of the nature of their ideology, not because of how much time their flesh weathered. Countless blades crossed their being to no detriment to them only to carve skin which cannot change except by force, and thus by fighting these battles, the Truthbearers were lined with old wounds that eventually sealed on their own. Corporeal deter is very unorthodox within Sorvians; time or decay or illness may not be able wear them down, but direct damage does. That is why so many of them look much like some old-age Orcish brute- the Truthbearers led so many battles against their God-fearing Human foes that the strikes upon them marked them like chalk-boards. A ranger-like Aspectist Sorvian. As a result, the wounds mortals may suffer are not suffered by Sorvians. While, in battle, their limboed coils wouldn’t be able to be hacked apart, the painful removal of extremities as bad as an arm would not incite bloodflow, nor infection, nor decay. It is the unique ability of Sorvians to, if they’re able to, collect their severed pieces and seek isolation so that, after settling torn flesh and bone and sinew in place, it may seal back upon them. This process is extremely painful for them, as is the process of being dismembered, but it keeps them together all the same. A dark-adorned Xanic Sorvian. Timelessness also means they cannot actually be destroyed. To be physically annihilated by another force would mean for their limboed souls to slowly reform them elsewhere, but only at a snail’s pace. The fact they don’t adhere to time, and are essentially immortal, means nothing -- Sorvians do not perceive their unending existence as something truly valuable, for immortality is only valuable to those who don’t lose anything in the process. To be immortal and to lose all sight of the self is nothing close to the dreams of endlessness so many mortal Men have. A Sorvian, serving a covenant of ailments. However, despite history indicating the ugly appearances Sorvians may have, it differs with those who serve different ideologies. Occultist Sorvians may be broken and scarred and war-torn, but Aengulite and civil-serving Sorvians may retain undeterred flesh and an ever-masked visage that almost looks entirely humane. It depends on those who they serve and the practices they ensue. Their Creation To create a Sorvian, one must first know the ritual to do it. In times of yore, the Spirit of Order Jevex had blessed more Spiritually-aligned tribes with the knowledge to create them, but they had all died off. The ritual is something that will be gifted to a small sum of individual characters after a series of prophetic events involving their interaction with Jevex, which may lead to the acclaimation of Sorvian creation understanding. The ritual may be spread at these few individuals’ behest to others, whom all will be kept on an approved list. In order to actually create a Sorvian with the ritual known, one must first have a consenting mortal subject. They must not be tainted or deviated in any fashion. Each defining sense of their being must be suffocated, all which can be done conventionally or with the creative utilization of herbs. The senses - seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling. These five senses must be dulled, and the subject’s face must be covered with a mask to symbolically absolve them of identity. One must then express gratitude to the Spirit of Order and portray to Jevex the desire to form the given subject into a Sorvian. The subject must then profess a vow to become an agent of ideology, and will fall into a deep trance after Jevex sets his attention upon the ritual and enact his influence. The mortal subject undergoes change after three Elven days of this trance, and cannot return to their prior status of a descendant. Their fate is sealed and they will be a Sorvian eternally. Their Likenesses The advantages and disadvantages of Sorvians will be listed in a more summarized manner here. Guidelines are also included. Advantages *Sorvians are capable of being the perfect soldier; while they can feel pain, their capacity to tolerate is higher even to the degrees of dismemberment, and to lose extremities such as limbs fails to incite death-bringing afflictions such as shock or bloodloss. At that point, pain and the general lack of limbs becomes the greatest deterrent. *Sorvians are highly resilient to the elements and the use of clandestine utilities such as poisons. As Sorvian bodies are timeless, temporal forces such as the elements have difficulty ensuing substantial degradation to their bodies, such as freezing whether inciting frostbite or flame marking them with extreme, debilitating burns. Poisons do not work because there is not a bloodflow to lead poisons to the heart. *Sorvians are unrelenting in what they believe and are incapable in faltering in this regard, much like machines and their directives. A Sorvian Canonist Priest can preach to the masses, word by word, for days upon days and with no deterrent or tire; for their will to serve their aligned way cannot be broken. This coincides with the will of soldiers as well. *Sorvians bear a greater supernatural presence within their souls known as Higher-Neutrality. It prevents their timeless bodies and limboed souls from being “corrupted”, and therefore subject to the powers of Aengudaemons, as Sorvians are just as capable of serving Orders aligned with Gods as they are darker forces. If Sorvians were susceptible to these powers, that would mean Jevex’s designs for a unbiased agent of ideology were flawed, which detracts from their core design to embody any kind of mortal following. *Their tolerance for physical duress is high, much like their threshold for physical pain. These two bodily aspects go hand in hand, as their timelessness prevents their muscles from suffering from exhaustion that many mortals eventually feel while traveling or upon the battlefield. Disadvantages *Sorvians are robbed of the “self”, meaning literally everything that defined them in mortal life is erased from their facial features to the very design of their race. They become “unbiased”, and cannot form a new personality without being dependant on the ideologies they crave to serve. *As timeless beings, Sorvians lose a majority of usual mortal functions that correlate to the basic organic design of their bodies. They can no longer “enjoy” life, reproduce, or confide in mortal virtues. They become a blank slate, a machine, an agent, and are no longer in need of these basic mortal aspects. *While they are resistant to natural temporal forces, Sorvians do not react well at all to arcane-based ones. They react almost viciously to powers summoned from the Void, because powers summon from the Void do not adhere to the passage of time, much like Sorvians, meaning these powers and the Sorvians are put on the same “existential level”. This disparages their corporeal form in ways comparable to an undead reacting to gold or holy magic; Voidal fire easily catches upon their unchanging flesh, Voidal ice incites almost immediate frostbite, and Voidal arcane power’s kinetic forces are enough to tear them apart. *They must always depend on an ideology to follow, because if they are not apart of one, Sorvians are reduced to bizarre nomadic entities where they cannot fight, speak or bring themselves to do something for the sake of something else unless it involves them becoming aligned with an ideology. In this same fact, they are unbiased in this strange astray state, and do not have preferences toward either dark or light or good or evil ideologies. The design of them does not matter; it is the fact they are there and may be served that does. *Both their violent reaction to Voidal powers and the “pause” upon their soul prevents any kind of magical connections from being formed, even in the darkest spectrum. This means Sorvians must always depend on martial skill for matters involving combat, as they are completely unable to use magic. *Because all Sorvians are locked into the same physical profile, their strength is limited in a way their endurance and pain profiles are not. While they are capable of being strong - as strong as a lithe soldier, at most - they are not strong enough to heft heavy armor and greater weaponry, especially not all at the same time. The most a Sorvian can wield is a heavy longsword or a two-handed battle axe or a fighting staff, and leather armor or chainmail, but never heavier weapons such as greatswords or protections such as plate mail or higher. Guidelines *Because Sorvians are both spiritually and physically forced into a status of a “blank canvas”, not only do they lose all racial identity, but the Curse of Iblees upon them is effectively broken. It becomes much like a dull stain upon a wall which is little detriment to the wall itself; it cannot function, because a Sorvian is no longer Human, Orc, Elf or Dwarf. For all intents and purposes their Curse of Iblees remains, but the race that enables it simply vanishes. *Sorvians are not effected by gold or holy magic because they’re not inherently unholy or godless beings. They’re designed to accommodate all ideologies, and because of this even their very origin is neutral. It comes from a ritual shaped by a Spirit, where the character must agree to being changed before the ritual makes any effect, meaning any suggestion that Sorvians are trapped or deliberately tortured souls is falsehoods; for the ability to regret what they are isn’t even something they can comprehend once in their limboed status.This expresses their machinelike nature very well. *Higher-Neutrality is a force implemented into the design of Sorvians by Jevex that prevents anything like dark or Aengudaemonic impurities from tainting the limboed soul of Sorvians, which allows for them to serve any Order without being spiritually or physically affected in long-term. *Because their Lifeforce is forced to remain inside them via their limboed state in order to eternally preserve them, they cannot be drained nor can it be manipulated within them. This means a Sorvian corpse is no corpse at all - it’s just a discombobulated Sorvian that had fallen into a trance of deep inactivity in react to it’s damages which will eventually reform elsewhere. This also applies for the abilities of Blood Mages, who cannot extract Sorvian Genus because Sorvian Genus is forced to remain within the blood that is stilled within them. *A Sorvian’s only form of expression is a mask they are extremely inclined to wear upon creation. All Sorvians have different kinds of masks, and they are stylized further once they aligned with ideologies. Past markings upon their masks give incite to what ways they served before. *All remnants of their past lives are broken up into tiny, miniscule fragments and barely take shape into anything definable. This is why Sorvians are just known as a blank slate; whatever is left from before isn’t enough to break through the bleakness that they are now. *The first individuals to gain knowledge of Sorvian creation will be picked depending on their ideological relevance in the world. *Sorvians get the Necrolyte race with an overlaying Sorvian race, but are not defined as undead entities. *Sorvians are for both player and ET use.

Old Gods are higher beings of the mortal plane that I've neglected posting the actual lore for, even if it's accepted. If anyone has worries that it's some dumb hidden lore, it's not - I've just forgotten to put it onto the public forums for the longest time. My fault! Jovians have more weight than usual creatures put in creature lore. I thought how they came to exist, and what powers they carry as a result of their supernatural origin, deserved its own cohesive thread. Wicked Jovians aren't stronger than Kind Jovians, they're just able to express their range of powers, which are based on causing ruin and suffering, in a more flashy and destructive manner. You could say their ability to keep curses on people miles away from their vincinity is a statement to being "more" powerful than Kind Jovians, but Wicked ones also don't have the capacity to literally turn into something like their Kind brethren. That's their kind of extreme power parallel. Considering how broad this lore is, there are limitless applications for Jovian Oaks. I myself already have an eventline in mind, which, of course, I won't be professing publicly. Damn it, there's not even the slightest relation to Dark Souls trees here. Those don't even have a parallel to Jovian designs and variety, smh.