Swgrclan

They're precursors in spirit and vaguely in form, as both Ents and Giants are massive, both hold an attunement to nature, and both are born from the will of the Aspects. The Giants were merely just a failed prototype of their more woodly brethren, who preform much better as guardians of nature. They also have flesh and bones, yes. Event creatures.

Art, primarily. I couldn't find good art for regular Giants.

The Old Race of Giants Precursors of Ents In the beginning, Man came, Dragons were conceived, and then, far from the center of the world, the Giants rose. Willed into existence in those ancient times by the once-incongruous and meddlesome Aspects, not yet aware of the true consequences of greater deeds, the Giants started as seeds -- endless sums of seeds, planted innumerous across the expanse of a craggy isle set in the middle of an ocean far from Aegis’ waters. From the soils of this gray place rose titanous oaks, taller than any tower Man could forge and rivaling the mountains in their stature. After this grand, sprawling wood flourished, the Aspects set fire upon it, and suffocated the lands in soot. From the ashes of fallen Elder Trees rose the Giants, the elder sons of the Aspects, whom would come to embody the very cycle that the Keepers of Balance covet so dearly. Forged with the flesh of warm life, the ashes of trees and the souls of Men, the Giants came to quickly inhabit the once-wooded land of Alghaast. Alghaast, the land of ashes and fallen elder trees, was abandoned by Aspects soon after the Giants converged upon its expanse, for they recognized the destruction needed to procure the Giants, and thus left their children in fear of the havoc that would ensue should more of them come to rise. The towering Giants felt this abandonment deep within themselves, and both mourned the loss of their beloved Mother and Father the Aspects and spited them, for they knew that they were not needed to achieve greatness. Isolated upon Alghaast, the Giants were forced to contend with harsh conditions, for their homeland was still contorted by the ash that blanketed upon it. Nonetheless they strived -- not by constructing walls to obstruct invaders, or discovering some innate ancient power, but by the struggle for progress; yearning to prove that the Aspects were wrong in their decision to depart, that they were wrong to doubt their firstborn children. Thus the Giants enjoyed an age of peace and prosperity, for they were deeply intune with the earth they were born upon, and had not yet truly conceived the concept of conflict yet. The Giants, in the beginning, were not warsome and violent; they were wise and they were knowing, and gave unto Balance what Balance gave them. On Alghaast, they acted as both the apex predators and the caretakers of nature. When ash-choked winters came, and threatened their tribes with insufferable cold, they hunted greatwolves for furs, and innumerous elk for meats; but when clear-skied summers came, they gifted these beasts with mercy, and allowed them to repopulate. When the rare time came that another tree would sprout from ashen soils, the Giants would celebrate and covet it dearly, for they could not find it within themselves to forgive the sin of being born from the ashes of such glorious, towering titans of stillness and silent peace. The greatest discovery of the Giants was flame. The catalyst for their birth, fire kept their primitive domains lit in the darkest of nights, warded off the most ravenous of beasts from their young, and brought them warmth and comfort. Though they hated their means of origin, the Giants could not deny the role of flame in the greater cycle of Balance, and thus coveted it much like one would a god. With fire, they endured suffering and prolonged their prosperity. This was right and this was good. But from the north came the stirring of the high winds and roars that cut through the clouds; signs of a storm that would batter the mountains, a harbinger of dark times to come. It was not a maelstrom that converged upon Alghaast, Land of Giants, but Dragons -- wayward Dragons, whom after being jarred by the malformation of Aegis into the Abyss, fled toward the vastness of the sea that surrounded the realm of ashes and fallen trees. Bestial in nature, they brought to the peaceful Giants a savage plight of antagonism where the towering Men were forced, in their bewilderment, to compete for their blood right as the true inheritors of Alghaast. For over two hundred years, the Giants and Dragons waged a terrible war. Spurned by conflict, the Giants became militarized and savage in their hatred for the children of Dragur, and from their coveted flame they discovered the art of smithing. Amid this war, they became masters of it despite having little to work with; and thus blades wrought of the raw iron of Alghaast were gifted only to the greatest of their kind. With the flame of Dragons incessantly bathing the land of ash, it was as if the origins of Giants was retold, for black soot and smoke came to ensnare the isle once more. But the fire of Dragons was powerful and searing, and thus the crags were forever blackened and the skies, plagued by smog and fumes, were darkened - stealing from the Giants the blessing of sunlight eternally. Desperate during this age of dark, the Giants spun a prophecy that when a true lord among them rose with the power of fire, the sky would be restored, and the demons above would be expunged. But they could not find this flame upon their dying land -- it was beyond they had to search, far away where the rest of the world resided. Thus, fashioned from the flesh and bones of slain Dragonkin, swathes of Giants departed from Alghaast while the rest of their kindred remained to protect their birthright. Only one returned. Bearing a peculiar attunement to the element of fire, claimed by this surveyor of the unknown beyond as a gift given by a godless, wise entity amidst an undying flame, he took the wrought-iron crown of his kind and rose as the King of Giants. With fire, he struck the Dragons from the heavens and cast them into the Valley of Effluvium, a plane of black soot and decay where no life lingers, only the shallow graves of fallen Giants and the charred remains of Dragonkin. The sky, still black from the war for Alghaast, cursed the craggy isle with an age of darkness even after the Dragons were defeated. But the Giant King, whom held a dominion of fire, dedicated a decade to the construction of ten massive braziers atop the highest peaks of Alghaast, before igniting within them flames said to never die. With these sacred braziers, known to the Giants as the Altars of Light, or the Ten Suns, the skies were brightened once more, banishing dark from Alghaast and returning to it warmth and light. Yet the Altars were no true suns; merely the false fabrications of a lord of flame. Tepid, drifting smoke kept the sun from ever shining upon the Land of Giants ever again. The Forms of Giants The Giantkin, born from the misjudgements of the Aspects in the ancient times, are towering beings that hold Superior Souls similarly to mortal descendents and higher Dragonkin. Standing at a height of between fifteen and twenty feet, Giants are lumbering and weighty creatures whose strength are unmatched by many sheerly on behalf of their natural forms. The Giants are strong, and they have wills of steel, and thus they are known in sparse legends mentioning them that their physical prowess easily surpasses that of normal men. Yet, unlike similar Giantlike races, Giants are not brawn-brained and foolish; they are wise and understanding beings, whose natural ties to the Aspects, and by extension the Balance, gives them a strong grasp on the world around them. Before the arrival of Dragons, Giants enjoyed an age of peace where they exercised their role as apex predator on Alghaast with mercy, for what they took from Alghaast they always gave back. As said in their histories, even the direwolves who seek to devour their young are given mercy; for it is unjust to bring death to an entire race of natural beings for their sole nature. The only exception to this rule of mercy is for Dragons, whom the Giants hate vehemently almost to a point to their spite being inherent. Their flesh is leathery and tough, and their features are brawny and defined. Very often do Giants accent their appearances with elaborate displays of facial hair, and with hair tied into braids to prevent deterrents when amid hunts or other duties amid the land. Peculiarly, the Giants have for a long time adopted the tradition of obscuring their faces on a daily basis -- masks and helmets are often worn by those who don’t prefer growing warming beards, and each cranial accoutrement is designed in a way to distinguish one Giant from another. They consider their masks and helmets as their “second faces”, and wear these obscuring apparatuses because they covet the tradition of remembering the shame of their origins. Bitter of the abandonment of their great Mother and Father, the Giants seek to hide who they are behind these masks, and thus hide what they truly are in spirit. In comparison, one may link Giants and the treelike race of Ents closely together. Though one takes after the visage of mortal Men and the other quite literally trees themselves, they are similar not only in form but in spirit, for the Giants were fashioned in the beginning to take the same role as the Ents later would. Though there lies no direct physical relation besides both being born of Elder Trees, Giants hold a connection to the Aspects just like Ents do, and thus are intune with nature to the point where they may “understand” what troubles it. Thus, just like Ents, Giants are prone to act as guardians of nature where it flourishes naturally. This innate gift is little understood by the race of Giants, however, and no attempts to evolve it into something akin to Druidism have been made. It is said that when Giants die, they become one with the ash they originally rose from. This is because the Aspects designed them with the intention to make them embodiments of the cycle of life; just as the first of their kind rose from the ashes of scorched Elder Trees, they slowly become ashes in the end, and from their remains scattering upon the earth life may flourish anew where they perished. Long have the Giants considered this process of petrification and ashen decay a means to “once more become one with the mountains and the trees”. Giants that somehow defy this natural cycle are feared among the Giantkind, for Giants whom die and then awaken into undeath return as mindless, savage creatures, where they spread death and rot bringing soot wherever they roam. The Giants call these creatures “Wrothkiin”, or Wrath-Ken in common, and keep vigil over the Valley of Effluvium, for that is where Wrothkiin solemnly wander from. They are especially feared because the Giants believe them to be akin to Drakes, whom also prowl the ashen valley, and thus become as they are because they were afflicted with the essence of Dragons. The Ten Altars keep the Wrothkiin away, and tucked in the shadows of the valley of death, for they despise light and the warmth of life. The Ways of Giants As those closely attuned to the natural way of things, Giants are creatures who carry with them a very calm and understanding perception of the world. They can be considered as “in the present”, for not often do they burden themselves with the agitations of the future, but rather put equal value in the past as they do the present. Much do they confide in the history of things, for it teaches them what is right and what is good. Though they were designated as the apex predators of Alghaast, Giants have long exercised mercy in their hunts, and thus have inherited it into their very beings. Though they may be reclusive and wary of others, Giants express kindness to others even in battle, for war and conflict are not in their nature. Very rarely do Giants slay their enemies like savages, though like in all things there lies an exception for Dragons. Giants are fond of purpose and drive, and this is exemplified through their peculiar mastery of smithing. Giant smiths that come to mortal domains in folklore are said to gift mortals with master-crafts in metalworking and sometimes even weapons. The only aspect to their practices that keep them from being matched with the skills of Dwarves is likely the fact that they have a knack for using more raw, rough materials, which they nonetheless fabricate grand crafts with. Coveting warmth and life, it is no wonder Giants hold an allure to flame. With fire, they enjoyed an age of peace, and by taking control of it, they defeated their prime enemies the Dragons, and returned light to their stoney domain. Smithing, a practice aligned with the use of flame, is considered among the Giants as a tradition that would have eventually come to them if it hadn’t when it did, as their creative applications of the blazing element of light and warmth lead to much intuition among their kind. Unlike mortal races, Giants do not value sprawling urbanization of their territories or the galore of grand, titanic walls. They believe such things impede upon the land which they live on, and instead of raising walls they act as walls themselves. Tribes of Giants that fail to secure their lands and protect it from the dangers of Alghaast are viewed distastefully by the rest of their kind, not because of a brutish take on weakness, but because they act as examples of how the bloodright of Giants being deemed “apex predators” can be incorrect. The Giants take their bloodrights very seriously. Though they are not warlike, their hatred for Dragonkin is everlasting, and they satiate this hatred by going on Dragon hunts in Alghaast once every decade. The practice of mercy in their hunts is only ever applied here because it gives the remaining Dragons of Alghaast time to repopulate, as to prevent them from becoming extinct. This may seem surprisingly malicious, as it suggests the Giants keep them alive only to hunt them, and likely so as a form of eternal punishment. Magic is a foreign concept to Giants, and though they are capable of using it, they have never discovered the means to utilize it. Only their Giant King, inheritor of fire, has been known to wield the element of flame at will, which only heightens the opinion of Giantkin of their leader - he who exists as the only one to wield flame, and thus the only one to practice the supernaturalism of magic. The Giant King His name unknown, the King of Giants is one among their kind that is said to have left Alghaast on a boat fashioned from the flesh and bones of Dragons to discover the “True Flame” that exists beyond his homeland. With this True Flame within him, he bore the ability to manipulate fire at will, and thus used this power to end the war for Alghaast and defeat the Dragons. This power of True Flame came from the Old Lord Dhurzumkal who exists still in the ruined land of Athera, for he embodies an undying fire and thus is able to impart a fragment of his being unto others. As the creator of the Altars of Light, the Giant King is praised as practically a god among his kind, for he alone returned with fire to banish darkness and Dragons from the Land of Giants. He rules from a throne carved into the last living Elder Tree in the isle, and presides over ten other Giant Lords who were selected by the sovereign himself to rule over and protect the Altars of Light as the Ten Sons of the Ten Suns. It is said when the Ten Sons are slain and the braziers are left unattended, the undying nature of their blaze shall dwindle, and they shall all fade to bring shadow to Alghaast once again. It is whispered among the Giantkin that the undying nature of the Ten Suns is actually a falsity, and that the Giant King feared the inherent nature of flame - that it eventually dies - enough to fabricate false prophecies regarding it. This is only reinforced by the fact that every Dragon hunt in Alghaast concludes with the sacrifice of ten Dragons to the eternal braziers, thus suggesting they are given satiation in order to burn furthermore. The Giant King has been known to be the one among his kinsmen to enforce mercy in these Dragon hunts, for little do others know that without Dragons to sacrifice to the flames, there will lie no other fuel besides the Ten Sons themselves - whom, by the order of their venerable monarch, are wholly willing to cast themselves into the ardor of their braziers in order to keep them alive and kindled. Giants & The World Beyond When a fraction of the Giantkin set out into the world beyond to search for the one True Flame, none of them returned besides the one that would come to be crowned as king. This is because a majority of them either perished in their search in the lands beyond, or merely came to settle in the lands that they found. Giants are known to have wills of steel, so for them to merely give up on discovering the prophesied True Flame would be unlike them. Thus, it may be assumed all Giants that still linger the lands beyond Alghaast had either discovered their “own” True Flame or still search for it, for the True Flame was never given actual definition -- it was merely foretold by Giant sages that it is what all Giants seek, and by finding it in whatever form that they may, they may find contentment and purpose. This is enough for some of them to abandon the mission of saving Alghaast, for these wayward Giants need nothing else other than their one True Flame. The Giant King merely retained the innate desire to protect his homeland and his people, so even before being gifted the power of fire by the Old Lord Dhurzumkal, he knew well his drive and purpose. An example of this is of a legend speaking of a companionship between a reclusive Giant and a delicate Yultharan woman who departed from her eastern homeland in search of a means to expunge the demonic scourge from her people’s godless domain. This Giant, enamored by the desire to protect this woman, had found his one True Flame within her; she gave him purpose and drive, and thus Alghaast no longer became a burden. Congregations of Giants beyond Alghaast are very rare, and individuals among them are more common than groups. Most wayward Giants, if they do not continuously trek still in search of the True Flame, unbeknownst that it had been already found, settle down as smiths or overseers of nature, closely mimicking the duties of their Entish brethren. Written by: Swgrclan

Demons The Fiends Among Men In the beginning, Man was borne from the hand of the Creator, and was gifted with a soul to give him definition. The soul, otherwise known as the spirits of mortals, is an ethereal essence that hides in the bosom of all things, ranging from an innate power and potential of a dim glow to a brilliant shine. Mortals were given these Superior Souls, allowing them to function as they do to this day; giving them shape and distinction through an attunement to the blood, and allowing for connections to the eldritch and the beyond to be established and utilized. The mortal races, known as the descendents, were conceived in an image of variety, and thus their souls allow them to achieve endless, glorious things. The nature of disparity set upon the mortal world and its denizens allowed them everything and nothing. But with disparity comes many things. Through the ages of yore, the pure image of mortalkind has been subject to differing forms of change; Men and their souls have been known to be like clay to beings defined as deities, for by taking hold of their souls they may be shaped into whatever these deities desire. Even Men themselves have devised means to change their very base corporeal makeup; leading to the creation of Liches, Golems, and others in such a spectrum. The descendents, as agents of disparity, are thus wholly subject to change. But when change comes to them without a master, this nature of disparity runs amok. The fallout of Aengudaemonic wars, the taint of dark magics, the intrusions of the Void; all masterless forms of disparity, bringing great change upon those who come to dauntlessly behold it. These things can corrupt mortals; this is known true. Sickness and disease borne of these forces of chaos have been known to plague the world in epochs past. But to truly change Man into something else… such a horror is one that has been replicated in many forms. From these sources of disparity rose the Demons. These fiends are limitless in corporeal form and monstrous in both mind and body, for when they meddled with sources of raw chaotic power it scorched them to such a degree that their bodies, their minds and their very souls were twisted and malformed. These sources of disparity (having been defined before as places like Void-warped or dark art-warped locations; any place with an unguided, extremely hazardous fallout) give the race of Demons both an extreme, chaotic variation and a singular, defined identity: they are all relatable because they often do not relate. It is their malformations and twisted identities, alongside their savage and feral nature, that define them as Demons. But it is also their souls that define them as such -- demon souls are Superior Souls contorted into something else, something inherently wrong and pulled from the Creator’s design. Demons are robbed of their distinction and definition, and thus are unified through it. They may hail from many places -- they may crawl from the Abyss, where displaced Lifeforce clamors to occupy the living and imbue them with terrible cancers. They may drift from the Stratum Lands, where the Revenants reign free and the Void is one with the world. They may rise from the ashes of the Fallen One, twisted by his flame. Through this unification of disparity, Demons also follow a loose hierarchy -- it is vile and savage, alluding to the very base nature of life. Demonic Souls are robbed of the brilliant light of Superior Souls; if Superior Souls are embodied by a grand, ethereal light, then Demonic Souls are defined by a tumultuous, uncontrollable flame - exuding both a shadow and a radiance. Thus, regardless of their origin of disparity, Demons often relate with fire. Because of this, they have often been designated as “Daemons” in the past; leading to a confusion as to what they truly are. Lesser Demons Entities defined as Lesser Demons are demons in the infernal hierarchy that are otherwise known as “converts”; all Demons are first formed by mortal beings being vastly twisted into malformed creatures, and thus Lesser Demons are essentially determined as malformed mortals. They are limitless in form, savage like blooddrunk beasts, and bear not even the smallest remnants of their former selves; the formation of their Demonic Souls tucks away all humanity into the darkness of their inner flame of disparity. But Lesser Demons may also vary in power, for many entities that bear untainted Superior Souls may be subject to Demonic conversion. It is stated in legends that even dragonkin may be turned into Demons, though as only High Dragons, or Dragaar, hold untouched Superior Souls, it is unlikely for any dragonkin to suffer the malformations that mortals can be subject to. By becoming what they are, Lesser Demons are condemned to roam the world as harbingers of chaos, for where-ever they dwell they seek to kill and pillage and destroy without rhyme or reason. They do not search for something - they do not crave some form of satiation from mortal essence, or admire the alluring shine of mortal treasures. Lesser Demons insue chaos because it is their very nature as agents of disparity. When a Lesser Demon dies, their Demonic Souls follow the same path as all other souls, seeking the Soul Stream. But there lies a distant calling to all Lesser Demons that come to exist; a strange hithering and a need to adhere to it, like a child obeying the call of a father. From the Spiritual Realms, the eldritch Greater Spirits Ixli and Ikuras detect the presence of Demons whenever they are created. It is from their Spiritual Planes that they call to Lesser Demons and, in death, lure their souls toward their ethereal realms of the dead so that they may take these Demonic Souls as minions and servants. The natural process of souls is once again subverted by the machinations of the Spiritual Realms. Demonic Souls who do not adhere to the calling of Ixli and Ikuras embrace the Soul Stream only to become one with its desolation; they become what is known as Ragegeists, and are condemned to never pass on into afterlife. Greater Demons Once under the reign of the spirits Ixli and Ikuras, Demonic Souls become the unsettling blight known as “Dark Ancestral Spirits”; Demonic Souls are borne of Superior Souls, and because all Ancestral Spirits were borne of Superior Souls, a shadowed antithesis may be formed from Demonic Souls. Dark Ancestral Spirits carry with them the legacy of their tumultuous lifetimes, where they seek to undo all that is right and alive around them. Just as Demons are hated in life, they are hated in death, for the spiritual denizens of the Ancestral Realm fears them -- they quite literally roam to devour other Ancestral Spirits. By doing this, they are capable of erasing the very essence of ancestors from existence, and grow in power through absorption. This nature is viewed as heinous by those of the Ancestral Realms, for while it may be tolerated in other Spiritual Realms, it cannot be where they roam; Ancestral Spirits are singular and unique, and to devour them means to undo their very basest being. By growing in power, Demonic Souls that once belonged to Lesser Demons become “Greater”. After the ravenous consumption of Ancestral Spirits, the entities Ixli and Ikuras may “will” Dark Ancestral Spirits to manifest their avatars, roaming the mortal plane as corporeal creatures once more. Through this process, Greater Demons are borne and are conceived with prominent differings to their lesser brethren. It is very much apparent that Greater Demons are born with both a heightened form and a heightened mind - no longer savage and contorted, but rather malicious and otherworldly, assuming forms easily identified as “not of this world”. With their minds freed of barbarism, Greater Demons may therefore experience a recollection of their past lives, but rather use it to their self-serving advantage than to pursue the fragments of their old existence in some melancholy tangent. Greater Demons are still indeed Demons - it is in their nature to undo all that exists around them with fury and flame, and the memories of the past are nothing to dissuade this. With clearer minds comes greater power. Demonic Souls are merely malformed Superior Souls, so Greater Demons are capable of practicing differing forms of sorceries. It is often destructive or malicious types of magic they seek to practice, like Pyromancy or Necromancy. The knowledge of such things are often gifted by Ixli, the Spirit of Forbidden Knowledge, before Greater Demons materialize once more, and without deterrence -- for Greater Demons have already lost their sanity long ago. The primary objective of Greater Demons is to cultivate more Ancestral Spirits, and by extension create more Demons from mortal Men. This act of cultivation is done merely by wrecking havoc; which means the focus of Greater Demons are not unlike their lesser brothers. They roam to destroy and kill so the souls of their victims may drift toward the Spirit Realm and become sustenance for other weaker Dark Ancestral Spirits, so that Ixli and Ikuras may build a more powerful force. For this reason, But this process isn’t so simple. Mighty indeed are Greater and Lesser Demons alike, but they are quite literally against the world; they are the “antithesis”, where they disregard all mortal alignments and simply exist to ensue disparity where there is order. Necromancers terrorize to heighten their arcane power, but often to act as wardens of the dead. Frost Witches devour men in the night, but only to satiate their terrible curse. Tyrants rule with iron fists, but only because they think it is the right thing to do. Demons disregard all of this - there lies no spectrum on either the good or evil side of things, for they embody chaos, and live to incite it. They are the all-enemy. Therefore, the longevity of Greater Demons is not what it would seem. By fighting all sides, the power of Greater Demons may easily wane under the assault of allied forces, meaning the duration of Greater Demons, under the reason and premise of their destructive, malicious nature, should not be too long. It’s even shorter for Lesser Demons; they are but aggressive animals and savages, and thus quickly dispatched if their inhumanity does not frighten all whom they oppose. Mortal Interaction Though the vast majority of contact with mortals has resulted in chaos and destruction, there are a fair, malevolent few who have managed to reach out to the Demons while they wreak havoc in the Ancestral Plane. The bulk of these ne’erdowells have been Dark Shamans, or their successor the Narfurals. They commune with the Demons in their home as a Lutauman would a normal Ancestral (and as such anyone attempting to contact a Demon through this method must be a Lutauman, or some form of it), though it is far more difficult due to the Demons’ erratic nature. Upon connection the Narfural drags the Demon’s avatar into the mortal realm, much like they do so when summoning spectral thralls. Upon a successful summon, a Lesser Demon will be completely beyond the control of the summoner, and will act as the feral beast they did in life, often attacking their summoner. In the case of Greater Demons, they may act with more intelligence and may choose to work with their summoner, though only as long as it allows them to better spread the chaos they crave. Results are unpredictable, for whatever malignant deals are made with Greater Demons (which consist mostly of pacts to prevent the deaths of the conjurers of these Greater Demons if not to gain something from them) often end in a grim betrayal or an overlooked, unexpected result. In the Spirit Realm itself, Demons will often attack any Lutaumen who's minds may be connecting to the Ancestral Plane. To be 'killed' by the Demons in their home is a terrible fate - the lack of consciousness in the realm means they become permanently trapped in a vegetative state. In the mortal realm, their eyes will stare but not see, and they will remain still for the rest of their likely short lives. However, Lutaumen are also the only beings both mortal and spiritual capable of permanently slaying a demon, and they may only do this in the Ancestral Plane. The process is relatively simple, though by no means easy. Likely with the help of mortal accomplices, the Demon must be restrained by a kind of spiritual net that the Lutauman may craft while in the Spirit Realm. Upon restraint, the Lutauman must make 'physical' contact with the Demon and utter a rather lengthy chant of banishment. If successful, the Demon will crumble into nothingness, the Ancestral souls it absorbed freed. Extraneous Indications *The age of Demons can be determined by their visage alone - as they relate closely to the chaos of flame, they bear some kind of attunement to its life process; through the ages, Demons gradually wane as their fury (their “inner-flame”), dwindles, leading to the degradation of their corporeal form much like the cumination of ashes amid a dying flame. Thus, to behold a Demon where ashes and soot crumble from them like dead flesh is to behold a Demon of yore. Few Demons ever rarely live that long, for longevity is not in their nature. *Greater Demons, Lesser Demons and Dark Ancestral Spirits are purely event tools; they are assets to be used in events and to shape events with. Players may sacrifice their characters to become Demons, and by extension play as them in events, but otherwise lose rights to their characters after they’ve been converted. *Demonic forms and origins are limitless. Only the “fallout of disparity”, or essentially an masterless mass of chaotic energies born from a power source great enough for said energies to remain, can create Demons. The Abyss, Stratum Lands or other lifeless, magically desolated places are all destinations where Demons may be formed as a result of their magical fallout. *Greater Demons, though they share a title, are not Greater Spirits. They are still technically lesser ancestral spirits, and so may only be seen in the in the ancestral plane and may not bestow some bizarre kind of blessing upon any Lutaumen who would be so foolish as to seek them out. *Upon the death of the remanifested Demons, two things may happen depending on whether they are Lesser or Greater. In the case of the lesser, they lose virtually all their invested power when slain, and so upon their consciousness’s return to the Ancestral Plane they find themselves nigh powerless. They are husks of their former spiritual being, and can barely consume the relatively weak souls of children in order to try regain what was lost. They are more likely, however, to be absorbed by another Demon or forever obliterated by a Lutauman. Greater Demons are not quite so crippled by their loss. While they are indeed considerably weakened, they are not likely to revert to Lesser status unless already on the threshold. Written by: Swgrclan & Hellfiazz

These three have been Marked, and thus will be observed for a time before an approach is made.

There's a lot of terminology and "sectioning" (for lack of a better word) involving this magic. Instead of additions or short revisions, you and Treshure should probably just focus on rewriting the lore with the revised elements in mind. All of this terminology - Untempered, Tempered, Acaele, Orbs, the 1000 iterations of the Fi'-term extensions, etcetera -- it's very confusing. Circumventing all of this into a neat document or thread, in which there's just one base form of Fi' magic (no tempered nonsense) with the small branches handling different forms of magic, would be more appropriate. And readable. Otherwise, with what I can understand, I suppose this seems agreeable. But I don't like some aspects, like the 75% strength thing, though only because of how it was practiced in RP. As far as I know, Fi' users under the Golden Owl era just wore plate armor and used armanents in tandem with their draining powers. I could be wrong though, but if I didn't misinterpret what I witnessed and was told of a multitude of times, it can be easily be fixed with a guide.

Denied. (Will be moved to denied lore soon. If an explanation is desired, please PM an Lore Master.)

Denied. (Will be moved to denied lore soon. If an explanation is desired, please PM an Lore Master.)

Denied. (Will be moved to denied lore soon. If an explanation is desired, please PM an Lore Master.)

Denied. (Will be moved to denied lore soon. If an explanation is desired, please PM a Lore Master.)

Accepted. (Will be moved to implemented lore shortly.)

As per recent transpirations, this lore is now pending. A conclusion will be made shortly.

Accepted. (Will be moved to implemented lore shortly.)

Accepted. (Will be moved to implemented lore shortly.)

Email from: Glorious Godless Yippon Incorporated (Yulthar) Subject: please respond Attachment(s): The Most Ginger, would you be interested in establishing a relation between the Yultharans and the Chiyaki? As the article portrays, Yultharan Easterners originated farther east and migrated to their current lands, so it would be in the best interests of interconnectivity to convey an association. Thanks, Swgrclan

You are correct.

The Diversity of Blood Magic “The blood, it sings to me … It’s enough to make a man sick.” With the second coming of Blood Magic, the once-obscure art had been expanded immensely by it’s “Archdragon” forefather, the dragonkin Malghourn; a dragon of legends that had gained sentience through the powers of Setherien. It is in the blood of mortals that he discovered an essence he dubbed “Genus”, and upon this essence he produced a variety of theorems regarding it. Only one among them was factual - that if pulled from the blood, this Genus could be used to enhance all forms of magic that utilize mana. This meant opportunities were unbound, and that Blood Mages were not confined to a single trope; any power of theirs could be enhanced. It just took getting them. The studies of Genus had been passed down to the shadowed Blood Mage, Valgautr, who made an effort to preserve the collection works of himself and his draconian master before seemingly to disappear entirely from the mortal lands. Their works mostly focused on differing theorems regarding Genus; one spoke of how Genus was the catalyst of mana in the blood that actually allowed mana to be used, implying further that Genus is dormant and when manipulated it is “awakened”, therefore allowing greater magical aptitude. Another theory stated that some races held different ranges of Genus - High Elves had much innate Genus, whereas Dwarves had none, which led to the cultural anomaly of magical rarity within Dwarven society, and the taboo associated with it. Of course, all of these things were incorrect, though in the end Valgautr did make some accurate allusions. Throughout his mastery of Blood Magic, Valgautr had been making an effort to prove his thesis on “Genus Diversity”; the concept that Genus could be applied to the mana behind any form of magic, and by extension be able to empower any form of supernatural abilities that depended on mana as a base resource. All forms of magic utilize mana, so when he converged the essence of Blood Magic upon his strange powers of Druidism, there transpired the expected effect. However, something or another had been done in error, for Valgautr explained his more successful tests ending in “hazardous miscalculation”, speaking warily of the forces of nature he manipulated as if they sought to rebel against him. Whatever this miscalculation alluded to did not obscure the plain facts: all magics, even deific forms, can be heightened by Blood Magic. Furthermore, the old theorems regarding Genus are falsities in the fact that it is a catalyst, for it is merely a dormant form of latent mana and nothing more. By awakening this innate mana pool, one may sacrifice their blood (or that of others) for the sake of vastly enhancing magical power and as an alternative or extraneous mana pool. The science to explain Genus Diversity is this: if the objective ability is powered by mana, it may be enhanced by Blood Magic. Examples of this are limitless. Some can be easily portrayed. Valgautr’s meddling of Druid magic serves as a prime instance, as his focus was mostly reserved for Nature’s Communion and Nature Control. By calling upon these seperate powers and individually imbuing them with the innate mana that Blood Magic may draw upon, his abilities were heightened a great deal -- listening to the world around him was a constant buzz where every whisper of the trees were caught and every blade of grass could be heard swaying against the winds. His control of nature had also become empowered, with him being able to command the life around him as if he was a king among his subjects. Of course, this scales with the mastery of the art; he was allegedly a Druid of yore, and thus his skill was high, so these results were a maximum at best. A baseless, hypothetical example would be both the use of Cleric magic and Necromancy’s Lifeforce manipulation. With Blood Magic, a Cleric would be able to enhance their healing powers to the point where minor bodily assets could be completely regenerated -- ears, noses, eyes, all reformed by empowering the mana that guided their holy powers with the innate mortal energies of Genus. Necromancy would be a more underlying effect, as a Necromancer expends their mana to manipulate Lifeforce, which is then used for further abilities. As their mana is just used for this, it means the process of guiding Lifeforce would be quickened, keen and stronger in focus when empowered by Blood Magic, meaning reanimations could be stronger under the influence of Genus, and taint can be both conjured quicker and with a more aggressive behaviour. This portrays the objective nature Genus Diversity; Genus may empower the mana behind specific spells and abilities, and cannot be spread across general forms of magic. There must be form, purpose and design behind each spell; a Fire Evocationist can boost a fireball they can conjure, but they cannot enhance their casting times. An Enchanter may make their augments more volatile or effective, but he cannot make them last forever (but rather have shorter duration, as they expend more power). A Cleric may enhance their powers of healing or use Genus as an alternative source of mana to prevent exhaustion, but not to strengthen their connection to their deity - etcetera. Specificity is key with the laws of Genus. So, in conclusion, the purpose of this revision is this: Blood Magic can, without deter, empower all forms of magic, whether dark, arcane or deific. As the method of extracting Genus is only morally dark, and Genus is a natural substance, there would be no reason or detection of evil in its use; only that it is a greater power source. Also, Genus is now defined as just innate blood-mana.

Anything regarding timey-wimey stuff should also regard this, just as reference. Time is already a bit warped beyond the domains of descendants, so the stone could probably have relation to Midpoints.

Giving that much existential importance to a fragile, Daemon-borne stone is something I'm not willing to agree with; time is too vast and confounded a function of the cosmos to bind entirely to this one stone, which is bound to this one group. So I heavily suggest against the inclusion of that aspect of the lore, even if Metztli is the Daemon of Time. The manipulation of her domain is the most I can sit with. Otherwise, I think the revision is agreeable. It's good to see that it's been gotten around to, considering the outdated nature of the last draft was a stew of issues for the team at times. This fixes a lot of that.

Just to clarify, this process already technically exists. I think I have an irreparable condition where Dark Souls terminology automatically weaves into my writing, but if it was unclear, the Darkhollow is why Necromancers and necromantic undead races must gain Lifeforce in order to keep themselves stable.

This lore contains small bits of confidential canon, so I'm unsure if it would be appropriate to make it public. A lot of the assets here - Old Lords, Remnant Dead/Living, Aegisean ruins, etc - are for events, so I dunno. We should talk about it in Skype soon.

The Darkhollow & The Yoresigil The Vigil of Mortal Men & The Affliction of Necromancers and Undead In the beginning, Man was blessed with a mark upon his soul known as the Yoresigil. The Yoresigil acted as the monitor of mortal essences and the autonomous dominion over the bodily processing of Lifeforce, the dark quintessence of all life. Referenced as that which “kindles the flame of life”, the Yoresigil essentially exists to keep the flow of Lifeforce in the body in order and prevents the balance of Lifeforce within oneself to become erratic and therefore lead to the deaths of natural Men. Without the Yoresigil, mortalkind would be unable to flourish, for they would bear no means to keep their Lifeforces contained within their bosom. The Yoresigil “Bearer of the Yoresigil, know thy mark shall always keep vigil.” [ The Yoresigil, a soulbound mark that guides Lifeforce through the body. It’s representation of flame suggests relation to the philosophical flame of life, which burns bright and true to signify mortal health and balance.] The meddlings that came with the ages of Man proved to disturb the fabrics of the Yoresigil. With the first coming of the Daemon of Ruin, the world was afflicted with a curse in which all dead were fated to rise again, soulless. This was a result of Iblees’ latent power; an inadvertent blight upon the world, which came to know no master for it continued to rouse the fallen ages after the Fallen One’s imprisonment and epochs beyond. With the coming of this curse came the first case of the Yoresigil’s contortion; as a connection between the body and the soul, it acted as a means for the identity and the inner-machinations to apply to the designs of Lifeforce - to guide it and inspire developments within mortals, allowing all Men to grow unique but as per the nature of their blood. With death, the soul is lost, and without the soul the Yoresigil’s flame is destined to die. But with the rise of soulless, ghoulish undead, the Yoresigil is forced to survive as meagre embers instead of a flame, for in place of a soul lies accursed soul shadows - mimicries of souls which ghouls and spectrals and all mindless arisen dead hold. The purpose of the Yoresigil is contorted, and its light of life dimmed, for all it acts as under these conditions is merely a gateway of Lifeforce into the soul shadow. The soul shadow, the husk of a soul, is said to crave the Lifeforce of corporeal beings to keep them and in some cases sane; and thus the Yoresigil is revitalized for this purpose. Embracing darkness, it is malformed into the Darkhollow. The Darkhollow “Bearer of the Darkhollow, embrace the path thou hold fate to follow.” [ The dimmed Darkhollow, the malformed form of the enflamed Yoresigil. Much like how a soul shadow exists as a fragmented, false imitation of souls that pass from mortal bodies, the Darkhollow is merely a Yoresigil roused from the ashes of death, forced to function once more under gelid, unnatural conditions.] But the Darkhollow is not solely reserved for soulless undead; it’s nature is the same, whether or not the undead retains their spiritual essence, for the process is the same: the Yoresigil dies, and its flame embraces ash. By being awakened, it rouses darkened, and thus becomes shadowed and sullen. Greater, transcendent corporeal undead, or physical, corpse-like undead who bear souls, like Liches, Darkstalkers and the now-passed Wraiths suffer the mark of the Darkhollow; it is the nature of their being to crave Lifeforce. Their souls are warped by undeath, and cannot truly sustain an undying form, thus the Darkhollow demands tributes of Lifeforce. Without Lifeforce, the Darkhollow dims moreso, and the soul cracks and falters, leading to the insanity of transcendents and their possible deaths. Spectral beings, both soulless and soulbearing, are free of the Darkhollow’s curse, and rather are attuned to its nature. With no insatiable body to feed, they are instead unshackled by the Darkhollow’s presence, allowing them indefinite existence after death. The distortion of the Yoresigil is known by some as a great disturbance, while others consider it merely the embracing of darkness; it is something that can exist in both mortals and undead. Necromancy, the eldritch power predating many other forms of magic, is known for its ability to use Lifeforce to rouse the dead and warp Necromancers into sullen beings as a result of its use, but this is merely an allusion to the Darkhollow’s formation. By draining and expending Lifeforce, the natural Yoresigils of mortal Necromancers are twisted and imbalanced, leading to the erratic nature of their life essences. Necromancers constantly struggle to retain a balance within themselves, for by expending Lifeforce it causes a “cork” to release from them; this is a simplistic reference to the nature of the Darkhollow. By using Necromancy, the flame of their Yoresigils dim, and their soul clamors as their bodies yearn for the essences that drift from them. Thus, Necromancers encroach upon a state of being much like the solemn dead that their powers permit the rising of. Even their very beings reflect a relation to the undead - without Lifeforce, their mind and body deteriorates as their Darkhollows draw upon their quintessence in order to keep their form from falling apart. The only difference between living Darkhollow bearers and undead ones is that mortals may succumb to this affliction through death; it quite literally rots them out from within. But masters of Necromancy consider the Darkhollow something to covet, for it both links mortalkind to the undead and allows for their reign over Lifeforce - a power which many occult philosophies proclaim an “innate power of Man alone”. It is not known if the Yoresigil and Darkhollow are directly linked to the manipulation of Lifeforce, whether vaguely or by being its source of power, but there lies a definite connection. For mortals, the Darkhollow is able to be cured. By committing to prolonged practices of self-restraint, meditation and the preservation of Lifeforce within oneself through abandoning the seductive powers of life essence manipulation, the Darkhollow may mend and become kindled once more until the subject’s flame of life is restored from contortion, allowing the Yoresigil to return to its natural form. For corporeal undead, both soulless and soulbearing, the Darkhollow cannot be cured. It is because they are what they are - walking corpses. Long have the practitioners of Necromancy struggled to determine how to discard the deathliness of undeath and allow the undead to embrace the warmth of life without mortal limitations, but the means to do so eludes them. Such a theorem is innately flawed in the first place, for even if an undead returns to some form of natural, enfleshed life, it does not assure the restoration of the Yoresigil; merely that these revitalized undead would retain the shadowed mark upon their soul as a burden and that they would suffer as Necromancers do, having to resort to the powers that allowed the absorption of Lifeforce. Such is the burdensome nature of undeath, but if life is returned once more to them, would that not mean the restoration of their living, enflamed mark is possible? In truth, it is not known if a Yoresigil really needs a soul to exist as it does. The studies of one known as the Ashkeeper Abdiel, whom heralds a gray covenant of sanguine shroud-bearing undead, take after the old meddlings of ancient undead Necromancers known as the Old Lords. These Old Lords sought to devise a means to revitalize soulless undead, and thus bring them back to life - revitalizing their Yoresigils, and thus living eternally without the suffering of the ancient curses. Such a thing has not been devised yet, and the Ashkeeper’s Undead Sodality seeks the possibility of one such method to this day. Only in these days, epochs after the days whence the occult once strived, shall the eldritch nature of the Darkhollow be realized. A new generation of Necromancers and undead shall come to rise, embracing the disparity of their stygian mark. The light of flame is not for them. ~:;:~ I wrote this lore for the purpose of putting an interpretive layer of depth over Necromancy and the undead races that currently exist. A majority of this canon - bar the actual Darkhollows and Yoresigils that to which it is dedicated to - isn’t to be taken literally, as I just want a solid aesthetic to take shape. I guess that means, whether or not this lore is accepted, it’ll be referred to IC anyway, as the knowledge of these two soul marks are based on the knowledge of the ancient occult.