Grave
Contents
The Origins
Grave is a relatively new magic, created some time before the advent of the Dunash, around the year 4500. Forged by Y'shendra, it was created as an offering to her most ardent followers, a tool through which they could both spite the Living Gods and supplement her will. Like Sigilic Pyromancy, both Grave and its Ascension were originally confined to the boundaries of a Holy Order, though with time the magic bled out into the cracks of Atharen and Icheron, becoming appropriated by magi like those in the Daravinic Entente. Now, Grave is an uncommon but well-documented magic, and an essential weapon in the artillery of both clerics and those who wish to wield the might of the undead.
Concepts
Nightorch: The Nightorch is the conduit through which most Engraving is done, acting as a secondary and essential component to perform the magic's many feats, alongside ether. As is established in Druidism, the majority of healing done on Atharen requires a transference of life from one entity to another. While Druidism largely relies on siphoning the life of plants, Grave utilizes a taboo source of energy: mortal souls. Early on in the magic, the Engraver learns to harness souls from the recently dead, siphoning them into their lantern: the Nightorch. This lantern, one with a regulating lid that allows for the transference of souls and energy in-and-out, is the Engraver's most fundamental tool.
Vitescence: While many Engravers rely on the Nightorch as their source of vitality for both healing and reanimating corpses, the most enthralled of practitioners tend to source from a tertiary component known as Vitescence. Vitescence is one's own vitality, though with little risk of death through its overuse. Instead, Vitescence is often referred to as the 'vibrance' and 'liveliness' of one's body, and its consumption to perform abilities rarely results in lethal consequences, but instead a temporary, withering decay of one's health. As one utilizes more and more Vitescence, they begin to appear more corpse-like and shriveled, their skin greying, their features becoming more bony as their skin deepens into their face. They become physically weaker and more frail, though many would argue the usage of Vitescence is worth it.
Vitescence, while not mandatory to use, allows for one to exceed their limitations in both healing and resurrecting the dead, augmenting one's capabilities without expending much in the way of additional ether. When one's supply of souls is depleted from the Nightorch, or they are suffering from the jaws of Overstepping, Vitescence presents itself as an attractive tool to continue to push the Engraver towards their limits.
Initiation
To become an Engraver, the new initiate must allow their master to bind a small fragment of their soul to a Nightorch. The result of even this minuscule facet of their soul being sealed within the lantern is immediate, reality receding around the initiate and becoming replaced by a world of blackness and decay. In order to survive the initiation, the initiate must follow what sounds almost like the distant sound of church bells, wading through the pitch black darkness with their lantern as the only source of light. Even those with exceptional darkvision will only be illuminated by their lantern, and all who endure this initiation will become slow, weak and skittish, harrowed by the process as their body becomes more gaunt, almost as if they were to overuse their Vitescence. Most of the time, the journey towards the ringing bells takes around three hours to complete, and the path there is often tumultuous; it is an unfamiliar landscape, with slopes, thicket and riverbeds that require the finding of a bridge to cross. The source of the sound looms far in the distance, and appears to be an effigy of Y'shendra, the bell-like sound emanating from a gold-glowing, beating heart within the effigy's chest. Touching the effigy will end the initiation, spelling the mage's success.
As the mage endures their initiation, they must be careful not to run or lose their lantern, as physically disconnecting from it at any point will result in them failing the initiation. Those who fail will forever lose the fragment of their soul instilled into the Nightorch. Considering the soul is an organ that holds back the dangerous excesses of magic, creating a pore within it will allow for the Raw Ether of the initiation to leak into the initiate's body, immediately placing them into Severe Mageblight.
If the initiate succeeds, their soul will return to its normal state, only with the addendum of the Mark of Grave: an onyx-colored, gothic cross, often appearing between the mage's clavicles. In addition, the Nightorch the initiate held in their vision-like state will materialize with them in the mortal plane, and can be both dematerialized and conjured within their grasp at will.
Overstepping
The drawbacks listed below do not always come in pairs, and certainly not simultaneously. Some may come and others may not.
Lesser: Nausea, fatigue, headaches, muscle spasms, dehydration
Moderate: Bleeding through the nose, eyes and ears, intense cramps, seizure-like shocks and spasms, internal bleeding, vomiting and weakness
Severe
Containment: Containment can sometimes occur when an Engraver oversteps much too far. Their own soul will be vacuumed into their Nightorch, which will mistake it for a soul they must draw out as it escapes a body. This can result in the creation of a somewhat powerful relic, as this Nightorch may eventually begin to adopt features almost akin to mutations, like an artifact of Sundering. This usually results in what is effectively the death of the mage, though some mages have actually been brought back to life after being contained, given a body by a particularly enterprising Necromancer who may then demand from them either favors or fealty.
Mutations
Mutations for Grave are highly varied. They can lead to one becoming more altruistic and inclined towards healing; contrarily, they can also lead to one becoming deeply fascinated by the dead and souls. They may result in physical or material changes to one's body or even their soul itself, and they also might attract one to light almost like a moth. A common mutation of Grave is its practitioner becoming more death-like (such as developing greyer skin and losing their hunger) or becoming more drawn to the dead, with many Engravers frequenting cemeteries and morgues merely because they find them tranquil; a source of peace.
Abilities
Engulf: Novice. After being initiated into Grave, the Engraver becomes capable of viewing souls as they rise from the body. A soul appears as a semi-transparent, glowing pearl glob, often referred to as 'Ectoplasm' by Engravers. As it is rising from a recently deceased body, the Engraver is able to open their Nightorch and infuse it with ether to draw the soul in, engulfing it within the lantern to act as a source of vitality for healing and reanimating undead. Typically, souls completely depart from bodies within three hours of their death. Often, Engravers have a small bell on their Nightorch that can be rung to encourage the soul to leave the body earlier, at which point it may be retrieved as it flows upwards towards the atmosphere.
Engravers can retrieve both animal and mortal souls, with most animals providing significantly less vitality and energy to the Nightorch. The Nightorch has a maximum capacity that is determined by the Engraver's mastery, with its reserves easily determinable by how brightly it glows when primed to by a circular knob at the top. As one heals and animates more undead, its reserves will diminish, the Nightorch becoming dimmer and dimmer until it completely goes out.
Imbue: Novice. Tapping into the Nightorch, the Engraver will create a flowing white tether between the lantern and an intended person or corpse, drawing on its reserves to heal both deep and superficial wounds. Imbue can either restore an entity gradually or rapidly, with a brighter light cast between the Nightorch and the intended target with a more intense application. Imbue draws on both ether and ectoplasm, though given both components it is capable of dramatic healing. At Novice, it is largely only capable of healing one layer of injury at a time, and is mostly applied to superficial wounds. At Apprentice, it can heal multiple layers at a time. At Journeyman, it can heal wounds beneath the most superficial layers, such as mending broken bones beneath skin. At Expert, it can mend limbs or organs that are nearly completely destroyed. At Master, Imbue can mend limbs or organs that have been completely lost.
Agony: Novice. Agony requires the implantation of ether into a corpse, which can be done either through touch or through ethereal lines at Journeyman and above. What Agony does is excite the neurons of a corpse, hastily resurrecting them in a state of immense pain as their body reckons with its horrific state of imbalance; maggots crawling through their bowels, fragmented bones, torn skin. This hasty resurrection sends a throbbing recognition of this pain alight, forcing the husk into a state of fight-or-flight, angrily attempting to maul at whatever it can grasp. The Engraver is able to direct the rage of the tortured undead to whomever they desire, commanding them until the animated corpse runs dry of the energy used to excite its impulses. Depending on exertion, a husk may persist for as little as two hours, or can endure for up to three days at Master.
Spectate: Apprentice. Spectate allows the Engraver to tap into the senses of their husks, allowing them to see, feel and experience their surroundings, so long as those senses are physically available to the husk. For example, you cannot see through the eyes of a husk that has severely damaged ones. Spectate requires a low amount of ether to utilize, and no ectoplasm. For this reason, it is a useful and frequent scouting tool by Engravers. Spectate can be done within 500 meters at Apprentice, 2500 meters at Journeyman, 10000 meters at Expert, and across any distance at Master.
Hound: Apprentice. Utilizing a similar procedure to Agony, the Engraver stimulates remnant cognition and vestigial echoes of consciousness within a corpse to force them to reveal information. Hound requires physical contact between the Engraver and the corpse to be kept at a constant, as their mind needs to be continuously stimulated with a narrow stream of ether to excite their memories. The Engraver will shout inquisitions at the corpse in a deep, unnatural tone, their voice lowered and made more monstrous by magic, the specific pitch tuned to resonate with the corpse's decayed mind. The corpse will be forced to answer all questions truthfully to the best of their ability, and they may be interrogated amidst great pain for hours until the mage eventually runs low on ethereal reserves.
Winnow: Apprentice. Winnow is the only ability that allows the Engraver to draw Vitescence from another that is not themselves. They may only do so through touch, and the Vitescence drawn must immediately be transferred either into a healing spell or undead reanimation. As the Engraver touches the target, their hand will emanate a white glow with black, smoky flecks, the target slowly but noticeably appearing to weaken and decay throughout contact. This ability costs almost no ether to perform, but is ultimately more costly in ether than drawing from your own Vitescence.
Burnbright: Journeyman. Burnbright is similar to Imbue, and even follows the same rules of progression that Imbue does in regards to the depth in which it can heal. Burnbright differs in the number of targets healed; the Engraver will lift the Nightorch high, causing for it to gleam brightly as white tendrils of energy pour across the immediate area, tethering and connecting to numerous allies, living or dead. While this may expend more energy and ectoplasm, it allows the Engraver to heal a number of targets at once, whether over time or with rapid haste. The cost of this ability varies based on the number of targets healed, and the severity of their wounds.
Gloam: Journeyman. As Burnbright offers a more widespread variation to Imbue, so too does Gloam to Agony. Gloam is performed with the Engraver bringing down their hand from above, and with that motion will come a gust of dark wind descending vertically onto a pile of corpses within a twenty foot radius. Gloam follows the same rules as Agony, only the dark wind will reanimate all corpses that it touches, able to bring forth an entire pile of bodies to life and beneath the Engraver's control.
Unmold: Journeyman. While at least some remnants of the nervous system must remain for an Engraver to control a corpse, there is little else that is required. Vital organs, areas of tissue and entire limbs are often deemed to be a waste of potential; an inconvenience, mass that slows the husk down but without supplying them lethal tools. Unmold allows the Engraver to reshape unnecessary tissue, such as a husk's lungs, into virtually any organic structure they want of the same mass. They can turn vital organs into functional wings of meat and flesh, twist and contort bones, and so on. Unmold can be applied to any corpse, including a husk currently underneath the Engraver's control. It cannot be done to Dunash or the husk of another Engraver.
Repose: Expert. Repose applies what is almost an undead constitution to an ally, altering them so that their tissues and nerves respond to damaging and painful stimuli at a much slower rate. It allows the Engraver, their allies or husks to endure much more damage before succumbing to it, though in truth it only delays wounds, spreading their effects out over a longer duration of time. Rather than feeling all of the immediate sting and debilitation of a bullet, one may instead suffer its initial shock in short bursts over hours, deferring the total culmination of its effects until a later point in time. Despite this, too much damage can still culminate quickly enough to kill even one blessed with Repose, and some wounds (such as decapitation) will still anguish their victim with the immediate consequences of their effects.
Nightshade: Expert. Nightshade allows the Engraver to forge what some hesitate to call a husk purely with ectoplasm. This creature, a ghost-like apparition, is called the Nightshade. The Nightshade, being a pure manifestation of ectoplasm, is translucent, faintly glowing as it moves about. It typically takes on a humanoid shape, and is known for several unique abilities. To begin with, it can move through both objects and people, gliding freely through obstructions. It can also become very difficult to see, as the longer it remains still, the more transparent it becomes. With Spectate, it can serve as an excellent spy. The Nightshade is also partially intangible; while it can be damaged, it appears to only partially interact with physical objects even when more materialized, making it difficult to fight with conventional weaponry. Nightshade can also fight if given a weapon of their own. While this leads them to becoming more vulnerable as their ectoplasm partially materializes, it allows them to serve as powerful, disorienting allies.
Ghast: Expert. Ghast allows the construction of a stitched together flesh golem, built of multiple parts to become a greater undead. It is not uncommon for an Engraver to animate a pile of corpses with Gloam, only to make them into a titanic juggernaut of meat by forging them into a Ghast. Ghast will physically create stitches between these corpses, rearranging them into a suitable shape. With Unmold, they can even share mass between them, collectively pooling organs and rearranging bones to create a more lethal and terrifying titan of flesh. All of these husks become what is effectively one organism, though the creative Engraver can spread its vital points across its body to make it incredibly difficult to kill.
Brightbane: Master. Brightbane is the Engraver's most powerful healing ability. Swinging the Nightorch side-by-side like a chime, the lantern will release a pulsating white light, one which rolls slowly over the area before it and continuously heals all allies tethered to it, the white lines forming at the Engraver's will. This ability allows for constant regeneration to those attached to the rolling light, which persists for around two minutes, healing up to fifteen allies at a time. In the hands of skilled warriors, this can make fifteen targets at once nearly invincible, impervious to long-term consequences from whatever damage they receive. Limbs will regrow nearly immediately, arrows will fall out of their bodies and will have the wounds left behind healed; husks are kept at top-shape, allowing them to rampage with abandon. Brightbane does not expend more ectoplasm or ether the more it heals, but instead inflicts an upfront cost. Even at Master it will empty nearly half of the Engraver's ectoplasm reserves, dimming the Nightorch and inflicting a heavy loss on their ether. Used correctly, though, Brightbane can change the tide of a conflict within moments.
Dark Knight: Master. A Dark Knight is a truly elite undead, reanimated by the Engraver to serve as a lieutenant of theirs in battle. When one is reanimated, it immediately becomes stronger and more durable, almost instantaneously regenerating all wounds for the duration of its animation, while receiving all of the skills and knowledge of the one who commands it. Engravers are often skilled warriors, and for the best of them, the Dark Knight acts as a source of motivation to improve. If an Engraver is a master with a blade, so too will all of their Dark Knights. If they can wield multiple weapons with great effectiveness, then their Dark Knights can as well. Dark Knights can form weapons seemingly out of some black-colored ectoplasm, able to shift their tools and realign their battle strategies with ease. They can also seemingly speak to and command other husks by shouting out with sickening, ghastly wails, acting as commandants for their Engraver. Dark Knights can be altered with Unmold, and appealingly to cross-practitioners, can be made much more threatening with Necromancy.
Effigy: Master. While Grave allows great variety in the form and capabilities of its undead, it does not offer them permanence. To the vast majority of Engravers, husks are merely tools to be used for a few hours, before their neurons inevitably burn out and they collapse into a shambling mess, twitching amidst their last moments of agonizing pain. Effigy changes that. Within the center of Y'shendra's body is a golden, radiating font of life known as the Umbral Heart, the same icon touched by the Engraver to first succeed in their initiation. The ability of Effigy allows the Engraver to construct a small facsimile of the Umbral Heart within an undead, with hours or sometimes even days worth of effort as one builds what is essentially the foundation for life within a lifeless body. When Effigy is complete, it will act as a permanent battery for the husk, allowing them to continue on indefinitely so long as their creator wishes that they continue serving them. Effigy makes temporary puppets of meat into permanent allies, but must be done carefully.
For every Effigy, a slight drain is incurred on the Engraver. This can be somewhat inconsequential at one or two Effigies, but at six, it will drain them as quickly as their soul can filter and manage ether, meaning any ability they perform will put them into a permanent deficit unless they discard one or more of those Effigies. Any more than six and they are placing themselves on the path towards progressive, worsening Overstepping within days or even hours, and eventually death. For this reason, most Engravers do not ever permit themselves to maintain more than three Effigies, and these three are generally their arsenal's very best.
Blacksworn Abilities
Forsaken: When one becomes a Blacksworn, it is almost like becoming a force of nature, only that rather than mastering and wielding the tides, or the winds of a hurricane, one manifests the potential of an undead storm; a vortex that can roll over a field of battle and blur the lines between life and death. Forsaken, in effect, does just that. Forsaken begins with a howling, rolling wind, one with traces of black streaks that parallel the white lines of Imbue in appearance. These streaks will begin to find their way into corpses all across the field, animating them one by one, and then in tens, and then in hundreds, until every single corpse within miles is suddenly standing again, alert and upright. Forsaken allows the Blacksworn the ability to bring back thousands or even tens of thousands of undead, unleashing them at their command. These undead will persist until they rot or can no longer endure the effects of weather and weariness upon their muscles and bones, sometimes persisting for days or even weeks in the right conditions. What Forsaken allows is the construction of a rapid horde for the Blacksworn, who can harness calamity and loss as their most useful tool.
Trespasser: Trespasser is a Blacksworn assassin's greatest asset. It is like Dark Knight, only much more deadly. Trespasser allows the Blacksworn to project their own consciousness into any corpse in the same plane, so long as they can either see it (such as through Spectate) or can recall where it is. It allows them to control this corpse nearly indefinitely until they either sever the connection or it is destroyed, and while commanding this corpse they project all of their skills and knowledge onto it, including even the ability to use their magics. For this reason, Trespasser is truly horrifying to the enemies of any Blacksworn, as it allows them to meet an opponent at nearly full strength from anywhere in the world, without facing significant consequences if the corpse they're piloting is to die. Trespasser does, however, consume a very large amount of ether to initially perform, and while the corpse's death cannot truly harm the Blacksworn, any Overstepping it experiences due to their overuse of magic while controlling it will reverberate back onto them, afflicting them immediately.
Novice
Once the Engraver is initiated, they learn to capture souls into their Nightorch through Engulf, and additionally learn the two foundational abilities that will provide the core to the remainder of the magic: Imbue and Agony. Imbue is Grave's most basic healing ability, a white tether that draws on ectoplasm and ether to restore wounds, improving as one expands in skill. Agony is the quick reanimation of a corpse (called a 'husk'), one that brings them great pain as they are hastily fired back into being. At this level, the Engraver can perform a decent array of abilities, though most Novice Engravers use this period to train and perfect the basics of the art.
Apprentice
Apprentice Grave largely focuses on the utility of Grave, offering a few unique abilities to allow for information gathering and interrogation. Spectate allows the Engraver to experience the senses (such as sight, smell, hearing, and so on) of a husk they control, while Hound allows them to interrogate the dead until they can glean the answers they seek. Winnow allows them to siphon Vitescence from another, applying that either to a healing or reanimation ability if the mage does not wish to expend their own Vitesecence, or ectoplasm.
Journeyman
Journeyman expands upon Agony and Imbue by offering area of effect versions of these abilities. Burnbright allows the Engraver to heal multiple allies at once by lifting their Nightorch and connecting its light to multiple others through tethers, while Gloam sweeps down on an area of corpses up to twenty feet in radius with a dark-colored gust, one which animates all of the corpses within that area to fight. Unmold allows the Engraver to alter a corpse by converting mass and tissue into something of their choice, such as changing a pair of lungs into functional wings of meat.
Expert
On top of improving upon existing abilities, Expert offers the Engraver Repose, which allows them to extend the duration of wounds over a longer period of time, suffering their effects over a lengthier duration as to allow for greater endurance in the face of trauma and injury. It also allows them to learn Ghast, an ability that allows them to stitch many corpses together, turning them into one large golem of glesh, skin and sinew, one that acts as one larger organism upon being forged. Finally, Expert allows the Engraver to learn Nightshade, a ghost-like apparition formed entirely from ether and ectoplasm, one with unique capabilities not shared by other husks.
Master
Master Grave, like the other tiers, comes with three new abilities. Brightbane is a slow, rolling light with a duration of two minutes, one that tethers to up to fifteen targets at once, connecting to them and rapidly healing their wounds as to make them nearly impervious while it persists. Dark Knight allows for the creation of a husk with all of the Engraver's knowledge and skills, making what is possibly a very effective warrior serve their will, one that regenerates all but the most lethal of wounds almost instantaneously. Effigy allows, finally, for the creation of permanent undead, by instilling them with a much less novel version of the Umbral Heart, crafted within their body with ether and through time. Effigy consumes ether slowly for each husk it is imbued within, meaning the mage must be careful not to carry too many permanent undead with them at once.
Ascension: The Blacksworn
Most people know Y'shendra as the Great Necromancer, though much of her feats in the creation and altering of unlife is not done by her, but by her two hands. At any given time, there are ten Blacksworn alive on Atharen, the Goddess' ten commandants and ten fingers, sworn to serve her will in the battle to bridge life and death to a state of balance between. Like the Kohrun and Dunash, the Blacksworn are Living Dead, though they are the greatest of their kind. The Blacksworn can reanimate entire armies, alter and reform their husks at will, and can even project what is very nearly their full might into individual husks. They can communicate with one another, and even Y'shendra at times, through Effigies. Y'shendra's greatest Knights, they are reforged through her will into the physical apex: difficult to kill, with titanic strength and unnatural alacrity, and like Dark Knights, they regenerate nearly all wounds.
Blacksworn vary greatly between one to the next. Like Dunash, there are those who prefer to keep a human-like appearance, while others prefer to wade deeper towards something akin to what is coined morbid undead, becoming more like a Ghast; a lethal, retch-provoking glob of finely devised flesh, superior at killing. Some Blacksworn are nearly impossible to distinguish from other mortals, though all of them have a black lantern tattooed onto their dominant palm, as well as black edges to their sclera, which become visible at the very fringes of their open eyes. Considering Blacksworn can alter and experiment upon themselves almost freely, and can twist and rearrange their forms with Necromancy, there are no other commonly held characteristics, as each tends to be quite physically distinctive from the other.
Grave becomes much more natural to the Blacksworn, and they can use it with greater ease, particularly in relation to undead. Healing all undead (including Dunash, Kohrun, Husks and themselves) becomes much more cost-effective in terms of ether, and animating undead is much the same. Effigy can be maintained at twice the capacity, and basic undead reanimated by the Blacksworn tend to last days or weeks, rather than hours or days. The Blacksworn can no longer run out of ectoplasm, as Y'shendra gifts them a constant supply through the lantern brand present at the back of their hand, one which lights up a radiant white as they utilize abilities that consume said essence.
Blacksworn are, predictably, ageless, and while few people know much about them, they are hated across continental Atharen and the still unconquered lands of Icheron for what change they appear to inevitably bring.
Notes
- For more information on Husks, please refer to Domination in Necromancy: Alterations.
- In that vein, Necromancy and Grave can be used together for the best possible results. A corpsemolder who utilizes both Engraving and Necromancy is one capable of far greater manipulation and variance, and with further longevity.
