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A Gift From The Skies: Muun’Trivazja Introduction: This lore piece has a companion! While you may be a rebel who doesn’t play by the rules, it would be best if you read The Moon and the Maker first. It details Metztli, and fleshes out the Daemon of Time further. This lore, A Gift From the Skies, goes into the mechanics of the magic gifted to followers of Metztli. While the magic will remain a predominantly Kharajyr-controlled magic, any who follow the path of the Moon-Mother are given the opportunity to learn it. Think of it like Runebinding, or Shamanism. Muun’Trivazja is the magic gifted to the priesthood of Metztli. The goddess granted her most devout limited control over her divine energy, Muun’. With this power, the priesthood has been capable of great feats, though they come at a cost. Blindness and premature aging are common amongst members of the priesthood as a result with meddling with divine powers. The original Sages, who first received Metztli’s blessing, wielded Muun’ similar to the casters of other orders. However, in their arrogance, they rose too high and spited the goddess. To humble them, Metztli cursed the order with the burden of the Moonpool, a well of divine energy where casters of the order must bathe to refill their stores of Muun’. Muun’Trivazja is composed of three faucets; Moonbinding, Moongazing and Cronoshaping. These arts must be taught individually, alongside how to store Muun’. As a practitioner of the art becomes more adept as storing Muun’, they become able to delve further and further into the other aspects of the magic. States of Muun’: There are two basic types of Muun’ utilized in casting, Waking and Sleeping. Sleeping Muun’ energy with no purpose. It is passive energy that the priests are able to store inside themselves and carry with them. However, Muun’ is not an energy natural to the priests and it will seek escape by any means possible. Priests are trained to hold the energy inside of them while they go about life, and once they can hold the energy without fear of leaking, they can begin to expand their capacity. A coalition of priests, traditionally known as a pride, is able to pool their Muun’ in order to accomplish greater feats of magic, with each priest fueling the spell from their own reserves. Once a priest activates the Muun’ inside them it becomes Waking Muun’. Waking Muun’ is the visible aspect of Muun’Trivazja. It is energy in action, power with a purpose. Once a priest casts a spell, a portion of their Sleeping Muun’ is transformed into Waking Muun’ and escapes from them, given a purpose. Muun’Trivazja: “The Moon-Mother granted us a chance at redemption. After the first of the Sages fled, taking their hearsay with them, Metztli gifted to the new Priesthood a power unmatched by any of the new land; The power to grind mountains to dust and see what cannot be seen. The power to fight against Absyyl and its servants. The power of the Moon, Muun’Trivazja. ~The Dead-Sky Scrolls | A New Order The first skill an acolyte of the priesthood learns is the art of storing Muun’. Due to the arrogance of their predecessors, priests of Metztli do not naturally regenerate their divine energy. They must instead fill their stores at Moonpools, wells of energy fueled by a portion of Metztli’s Daemonic energy. Attunement to the goddess simply grants a priest the ability to hold this energy inside themselves. Muun’Trivazja is the baseline progression for a practitioner of the magic Each art must be trained individually, but they are useless if a priest is unable to muster the energy to maintain them. Essentially, a priest cannot cast spells with energy they do not have, therefore they cannot increase their tier in one of the other arts without first attaining that tier in Muun’Trivazja. Moonbinding (Teltica): “They adorned themselves with the same blue stones that decorated the temple. It hung from necklaces, bracelets, they even pierced their ears and lips with the stuff. The things seem unstable though. I saw one of the earring-wearers slam into a wall, and lose half their face in the resulting explosion.” ~Tales of the Kharajyr Moonbinding is the art of charging a piece of specially prepared lapis-lazuli with Muun’, granting it mystical power. To begin, a Moonbinder must select a block of lapis, the holy stone of Metztli, and carve it to shape. The stone must then be engraved with images and prayers in Kharahatla. These help to focus the mind of the enchanter towards the task at hand. The stone is then filled with Muun’ from the crafter, a process known as Attuning. This transforms the lapis into a piece of Charged Lapis, giving the Muun’ inside of it a task to accomplish when it is activated. Once a Moonbound relic is Attuned, the Muun’ inside of it is Living and cannot be harnessed or redefined. The object may be refilled with Muun’ from another source, a priest may even allow the relic to draw from their own reserves of Sleeping energy instead of its own, but once it runs out, the Charged Lapis violently explodes, spraying shards of stone in all directions. The purpose of the stone is left up to the crafter, however seeing as the enchantment is fueled by Muun’, the relic is only able to accomplish a task that is possible with the magic in the first place. This means that a Moonbinder is unable to craft objects with enchantments that are impossible through Muun’Trivazja. Cronoshaping: “It is said the Sages of old could tear vast temples from the past. They would gather, a pride of priests circling the ruins, and begin their chant. The Moon-Mother’s gift would swirl around them until, block by block, the building would stand tall once more.” ~Upon the Altars of Old | Book II Cronoshaping is the most powerful of the priestly arts, as it allows a practitioner limited control over Metztli’s dominion, time. A Cronoshaper expels the Muun’ stored inside of them, and utilizes it to manipulate the way time flows in the area. The Muun’ manifests itself as a thick swirling fog, ranging from blue to a deep purple color. The mist itself is malleable, and may be shaped by a member of the priesthood into a number of forms. The most common are either domes or waves of Muun’ projected over the area the caster wishes to effect. Once an area is shrouded in a priest’s Muun’, they sever it from the natural flow of time and begin to move it in accordance to their will. While Cronoshaping allows the user to manipulate time, it still has its limits. Cronoshaping is incapable of effecting unwilling targets. This is because Cronoshaping depends on the priest being able to anticipate the actions within the section they have severed. If a Muun’Trivazja user attempts to Cronoshape a once-strong wall into a crumbling ruin, they are able to because they know that given time stone will inevitably fall to pieces. Once a variable enters into the equation, the Cronoshaper is unable to anticipate how they will move through the new flow of time. As a result, anything the variable interacts with will also become an unknown quantity in its own right. This accumulation of unknowns shatters the veil of Muun’, as the priest is no longer able to anticipate what happens along the timestream. This is known as a Variable Cascade, and will result in the spell shattering. Cronoshaping is also unable to rewind an object past the time of its creation. For example, a rusted sword could be rewound to a point where it was once usable, but it could not be taken past that point and turned into the raw iron that was used to forge the blade. A crumbling wall could be rewound to a point where it once stood proud, but could not be taken back to the mortar and stones used to build the wall. This is called the Law of Temporal Conservation. The magic, however, comes with a price. As a priest continues to manipulate time, they will grow hunched and wizened. Dipping into the flow of time will prematurely age a practitioner of the art. Cronoshapers tend to age half again as fast as is normal, leaving them weaker and frailer than they were. Moongazing: “Ja’Sutal burst into the palace, ranting and raving. He ran through the doors of the palace, yanking tapestries from walls and goblets from hands. The young priest screamed of things to come; An army of beasts, ships being sent out to sea, and watching over it all a great eye of fire. He was pronounced mad by the Sages, though now he is heralded as the first Moongazer.” ~Upon the Altars of Old | Book III Moongazing is the most respected art a member of the priesthood may master. When a priest turns their eyes towards the ebb and flow of time, they must learn to focus their Muun’ into a lense through which to see the world; Turning their eyes to the future or the past. When a Moongazer turns their eyes to the timestream they channel their Muun’ into a sort of lense, allowing them to see into various points in time. A Moongazer may turn their eyes to past events, but never past the point of Non-Remembering, where Ancient History meets the rest of time. No priest is able to pass that point, simply because their bodies cannot hold enough Muun’ to go that far back. A Moongazer is also unable to see events leading up to their death, attempting to do so shatters the vision as the mind is unable to comprehend its own death. When a priest Moongazes, their eyes light up with a radiant white light. They fall into a trance, seeing that which has been or will be. Gazing into the past is the simplest aspect of the art, requiring the least amount of Muun’ to maintain. As a priest turns their eyes to more recent events, the spell requires more and more Muun’ to maintain. Once a priest passes the present, the spell requires less Muun’ to maintain. Then as one passes the present and moves onto the future, the energy cost is lessened but the visions swiftly grow vague and imprecise. To begin, Moongazing the past is the simplest of arts. A priest simply focuses their Muun’, and turns their eyes to events long past. Gazing in this manner uses up the least amount of energy out of all the arts of Muun’Trivazja. A skilled practitioner is able to turn their eyes to events long past for hours at a time. One of the most respected aspects of Moongazing takes place while searching the past. Namecallers are Moongazers who have dedicated their life to seeking out the names and histories of those fallen from Ilhuicatl. When a Kharajyr dies on the Isles of Endless Night, their name and deeds are wiped from memory. However, their past remains, open for Moongazers to search through. Namecallers spend their lives searching through ancient tomes and Gazing the past, searching for the names and legacies of those forgotten by the rest. Seeing the future is an imprecise art at the best of times. Specifics are withheld in favor of omens and symbolism. Some say this is because the future in itself is unknowable, other say the goddess does it intentionally to keep her priests from knowing more than is good for them. Whatever the reason, seeing into the future will never give a direct answer. It will always be shrouded in uncertainty. Some visions may never come to pass in the first place, the future being an unknowable and ever-changing place. Moongazing the present is the most difficult art a priest can learn. To see the future, one requires a totem that holds a strong link to the object to be scryed. The more direct the link, the stronger the vision will be. Distance also affects the strength of the link. The further something is from the Moongazer, the more difficult it is to envision them. Long distances may be offset by a better link, blood or bone being the strongest, and vice versa. Moongazing does have its limits however. Gazing into the present will only show things directly linked to the totem, and nothing else. A stone from a castle wall will show only the castle, and not the inhabitants moving about inside. A bloodstain will reveal the bearer of the blood, but not their surroundings. Extended Moongazing comes at a price, the eyesight of the Gazer. Moongazer will gradually lose their sight as they continue to peer into events beyond their ken; Their irises fade until their eyes and their vision are completely and totally blank. The Stone of Metztli: “The Stone was found floating above the waters of the Temple. It was jagged and sharp, a blade that hung in the air above the sacred pool. The Kha’ were drawn to it, like moths to a flame. They felt the pull of the Moon-Mother upon them and they could not turn back.” ~Upon the Altars of Old | Book IV When the first Kharajyr fled from the crumbling Khalenwyr Empire, they landed on the new land to start anew. The remaining Sages, humbled by the creation of the Moonpools, were reluctant to spread their art further. They fled from the fledgeling Empire, vanishing from Kharajyr society into the deep jungles of Anthos. Their shame drove them from their people, taking their gift with them. Metztli watched as one by one, the Sages succumbed to the dangers of the land. Without pity, she watched as those who had dared rise beyond their station fell and crumbled to dust. Satisfied that her people had once more been turned from the path of Absyyl, she granted her people one final boon. She traveled once more to the Well of Moonlight and picked up the knife that lay at the shores of the great lake. She hurled the lapis knife, dark with the dried blood of the goddess into the glowing water. It sank, falling through the crack into the Mortal Realm and manifesting itself above the waters of the temple. So the Stone of Metztli, and the Athosian Moonpool came into being. The Stone of Metztli granted the Kharajyr the ability to forge a connection with the Moon-Mother. The wisest and most devout were chosen to become the first of the new Priesthood. Guided by the goddess, these Kharajyr were granted visions of a ceremony they were to undertake in order to forge a connection to the Well of Moonlight like the Sages of old. They were taught through visions how to store Muun’ from the new Moonpool and utilize their new abilities to their fullest extent. These new practicioners of Muun’Trivazja created the first centralized Priesthood of Metztli, the order that continues to this day. Should the stone shatter, it will eventually reform itself. The magic that sustains the stone is a form of temporal Moonbinding far beyond the ability of any priest; It allows the stone to reform in a random location once it is shattered, turning back the clock on its own demise. Several times throughout history the Stone has been broken, and the Priesthood has always been able to track it through Moongazing due to their internal link with the stone. The Ritual of Attunement is the process used to connect prospective priests to the Well of Moonlight. It is a lengthy process known only to the oldest of the Priesthood, and is their best kept secret. All that is known is that the Ritual requires the Stone of Metztli to be properly executed. It is not always successful, and those that fail are cast, raving and clawing at their eyes from the order. The Ritual of Disconnection is a similar practice used to shatter the bond between a priest and the Well. Knowledge of this process is even rarer than that of the Ritual of Attunement, and is often reserved to the head of the current Priesthood. Much like the Ritual of Attunement, it requires the presence of the Stone of Metztli, though not much is known beyond that.