~ Fiend ~

I've only skimmed because I'm so consumed in all this POWERful forum drama but the ties into Druidism need to be examined, they already have shapeshifting and what I saw of this doesn't seem like it sits quite right and would need a bit of tweaking to make sense with druid lore. You can look into it yourself or message me some time and I'll see what I can suggest.

Kinda why I'd want to screen people who did it. Also, they have to touch, so it'd be a bit more obvious. ..edited.

There are still no dwarven women......

What Jaden said. THEY CANNOT BE KILLED. Passive healing I suppose. --- Though I talked to Kalamoot and things might change.

Well from my experience it creates a lot of interesting RP, from being the shame of the family to attempts at research. It's like playing minecraft with a thirst mod, something that's constantly a bother so you'll pretty much have to do something about it. I might be totally wrong about shade lore and I concede that. The druids were fine with it and the clerics was just a passing thought as to what might happen if the two connected, all open for correction.

How so? If it needs tweaking I'm happy to, but I'll need more than "sketchy".

Summary People only speak of it in whispers, many wishing it untrue to the point of lying to themselves, and even others. For as long as man has had magic, he has wished that it did not corrupt the mind and body as it does. Sadly, this has never been the case. The void’s influence is known to wither muscle and eat at a user’s mind, taking the caster’s health in exchange for power. If it eats at the body so, then what happens to a magess’s child should she conceive one? That, too, has long been a subject of contention. So many wish that it has no effect that they hold it to be truth. They cite people they may know, normal children born to mages, without any problems. Even so, while it is quite possible to have such fortune, and far more common than any tragedies that can occur, in this world there are still void-kissed children born. To stew in energies of the void withers a full grown adult, after all. It’s hardly so kind to the unborn. How It Works No one’s really sure why these people are the way they are, especially since most people who even meet one cursed child will only meet that one. People have theorized that they have holes in their soul, making it unable to hold in mana. Perhaps it’s genetic, then? Some say they’re not connected to the void, and thus not part of the web of life, so it tries to kill them. Some have even said that they’re constructs of necromancers that have managed to wander away. ((At the end of the day, while I have my ideas about how it works, it’s been said time and time again that the lore for souls is intentionally vague, so that’s all this will ever have to be, as it’s “some indiscernible, incurable defect of the soul”.)) The Cursed In simple terms, these are people who do not produce their own mana. Or.. life force. People can’t seem to figure out which it is. Either way, there is some energy they need, that they don’t naturally produce, and have to obtain from outside sources, i.e. other people. The easiest way for them to do this, and the only reason any of them make it to an age where they can even speak, is that this disability comes with a second facet; a passive draining of mana from any person they touch. When they’re very young the mother holding them might not even notice given her pool of mana being larger, as a mage. As they reach childhood, though, it would be hard to hold one’s hand long enough to walk them through the park if they weren’t actively and properly trained to control it, the resources and information for which is severely lacking. An older cursed would be much more aware of their mana pool. They can sort of feel it, the way some people just know how their blood sugar is doing given how they feel. It’s possible for them to feel and live relatively normally, if there are enough mages and people around to “feed” them. When they’re low on mana, they’d be tired, fatigued, even slightly incoherent depending on the severity. They wouldn’t suffer any catastrophic physical breakdown, just a slow build of lethargy until they finally fall asleep and die. The effects on mana donors are identical to casting fatigue. They would feel tired, worn out, like they’d just done a lot of magic. The less magically inclined would describe the feeling as ‘tiredness’. They have a visible aura when they’re “overcharged”. For the most part it won’t show, but if people are supplying the cursed well enough that they have spare energy, they have to work to suppress this aura. It manifests as thin white wisps around them, seeming to bend to a contour of a person-shaped bubble around their skin. They are able, with very little effort or training, to move and shape this misty aura, as it’s just an extension of them. Any learning of magic is, in theory, off the table. It’s stifling in most social aspects of life. It’s hardly something someone would want to have. The Good Both parents must be relatively skilled mages, and even then it’s not even common, so this curse is incredibly rare. They have a passive mana draining effect. This is very weak, though it can be made stronger with practice and focus- the drawback being that this can also make them do it a bit faster by default, making it difficult to be near people without hurting them. They are normal people, psychologically. Sure, having this can mess you up, but it doesn’t make you default to some crazy murder spree. They have no upper limit to how much mana their body can hold. That said, the more they have, the faster they absorb it, and the more their body learns to expect for next time- so, like a medication, they can build a resistance if they try and use this too much. The Bad They do not produce their own mana. For it to be viable in combat they’d need to be able to hug the person they were fighting. They cannot “absorb” cast spells, only raw mana/life force from the source. That said, they do absorb a small part of healing spells cast on them, making them marginally harder to heal, especially if you try to touch them. Keeping their aura hidden requires active focus. The mana they are able to move is just that, raw mana. It has no effect on the world, and can do little more than relieve mild casting fatigue if pushed into people. Stopping themselves from draining mana requires active focus. If, for example, you fell asleep in bed with one that didn’t have some magical charm, you would die in your sleep. The Ugly Running out of mana completely means death. Running low means a host of symptoms ranging from fatigue to dizziness to soreness. (All the symptoms of an underactive thyroid or low blood sugar.) There is no cure, no magic fix. They can be stabilized in a few ways but they will never not be what they were born as, and there will always be some small signs, they cannot be completely normal. A female cursed cannot have children, their passive drain would kill the fetus. Male cursed can still father children, though it would be difficult. (Keep it classy, but know your character. Can they stay focused and not kill their partner?) Successfully connecting to the void results in instant death as all their mana is sucked out. It is impossible for an cursed to even begin to learn how to connect to the void. Interaction with magics They cannot, under any circumstances, self-teach magic. Ever. Learning void magics is incredibly risky and involved. They would need a teacher to guide them through it, as well as a steady source of mana to practice with. It is possible for them to grasp magic, but even then they’d only be able to cast when they had excess mana on hand, and casting too much would kill them, rather than, like a normal mage, just needing some bread and a nap. So, while it’s possible, the odds of a cursed person having such flagrant disregard for their own mortality is a bit slimmer than in the average population, and they can and will die trying. Deity magics are where it gets interesting. They can be attuned to the various deities and become druids, clerics, Ascended, shades, etc. I don’t think I’ll be able to write up a full list, so here’s a rundown of generally how it works and I can touch it up if roleplay leads down that path, because for the most part it doesn’t change. Once connected to a deity, their normal channels for taking in energy instead leak out the deity’s magic. They could still drain mana if they really tried, but most would have no need for this. Druidism - (Admittedly the one I put the most thought into, as Pebble ended up on this path.) Attuned to the Aspects, the cursed becomes a channel of energy not inward, but outward. Where their focus was once stopping themselves from taking in energy, now they have to stop themselves from leaking it out. Without focus, plants will grow over the druid rather enthusiastically to drink from their aura, animals will all but attack them in an effort to express affection, and they will slowly, passively heal and greenify the area around them. Their ‘leak’ of natural energy is mostly harmless unless they fall asleep outside, so they’re best to learn some communion or control immediately after attunement to help them escape the plants that will be growing over them nigh-constantly. While they can learn all the druidism skills, their control over the energy they channel will never be as good as a normal druid. To use the old system as an example (knowing I do not condone tiers) if they were tier five in power, they would only be tier three in control at a maximum. Sure they can harness more energy than most, but their ability to direct it will just never be as strong as someone with a normal soul, and there’s always that risk when you have no choice but to blindly throw magical energy at something and hope it sticks. Their wispy aura, now a constant as they’re charged with natural energy, turns green, as well. Clerical - If you read the above, it’s not hard to guess. They become a passive healing stick, and depending on their breed of healing get a gold or a silver aura. They heal anything they touch, but would burn unholy things slightly without effort. To use an analogy I’ll use again, if you fell asleep next to a clerical cursed, you might wake up healed if you went to sleep with a gashed arm as they passively channel energy. Shade - I'll figure it out if it ever matters, talk to some shades or w/e.

((Along the same vein as Space, I'd get rid of younglings. Why would any wise old self-respecting hermit run around doing chores for another hermit? It seems like it'd be better off as a system of equals if especially it's really just for companionship/adventure.))

Call it sonomancy. :)