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| Pendant from Orathorn |
The Sorcery of
Orathorn
(Death, Darkness)
Mythos and History
Foremost amongst those who followed the Devil into the
world was he who commanded the forces
that ravaged Genert’s Garden, slaying the god himself. He fought Basko on the borders between the
steppes and the Eastern kingdoms. He
pretended that he held the Mistress of Light and Knowledge, and captured the
god of knowledge – her lover – in order to supplant him.
That coward-god escaped and fled, making vile alliances
to hide his cowardice.
When the Great Darkness came, Tien hunted for the missing
goddess. He found her, slew her, and
stole her power of Truth along with her head.
When Wakboth fell, Tien was pursued to Hell by a Storm beast, where he
in turn was beheaded, losing that power of Truth once more. He took the ,Darkness.
In the Dawn Age he provided power and inspiration to
those who took others’ powers through headhunting. While his severing had lessened his powers of
theistic magic, his ability to write knowledge became the heart of a new way of
power for one family that had survived the battle against Basko. The family of Orathorn adopted the magic of
Sorcery to venerate Tien.
When Atyar’s Skull became known, they attempted to find
sorcerous ways to gain that power also, but have never found a way to do so.
The Cult In The
World
Orathorn is both cult and family, with necromantic servants
‘recruited’ from slaves. They practise
headhunting as a way to garner knowledge, and meticulously note all that may be
recalled for storage in their library.
Funeral customs are non-existant, with family members staying around for
a very long time.
Nature of the Cult
Self-sustaining, the cult of the Dark Library of the
Bone-White Tower gathers more and more information, in an attempt to find the
way to re-unite the head and body of Tien.
Depiction
A robed male body with a Truth rune where the head would
be.
Particular Likes
and Dislikes
Friendly with Thanites, loathers of Storm cultists, and
neutral towards everybody else. They
particularly hate the Pentan Paths of the Storm.
Holy Places
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| A group of 're-used' Teshnans |
The tower itself.
Holy Days
None as such.
Grimoires
The Tome Of
Undying (Death)
This grimoire provides the ecology of Orathorn, and
provides for its defence. The standard
form in which it occurs is a hymnbook of a dozen leaves between lacquered
bamboo covers, each leaf holding a different hymn. The majority are simply praise to Tien, but
not all:
It provides the following spells:
Dirge of the
Dancing Bones (Death, Movement)
This
spell will animate a skeleton, with the physical skills they had before death, and permit them
to be commanded by any member of the Orathorn family.
Chant of the Fresh-Risen Corpse (Death, Movement)
This spell will animate a
corpse as a zombie, clumsy but with massive strength, and permit them to be
commanded by any member of the Orathorn family
Calling
the Mighty into Mortal Remains (Death,
Sorcery)
Summons
one of the cult’s essences to inhabit a fresh corpse, to act as
a Guardian for a Mage or a part of the Library.
Lay
of the Loquacious Relic (Death, Communication)
Allows
the caster to create a cult ‘Head’ from a prize she has taken. It
will respond honestly to any query from the caster.
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| Ebon Scroll on lead sheets |
The Ebon Scroll
(Darkness)
This grimoire counters the Solar powers of Kargzant, and
empowers the killer-collectors of the Library.
It is most frequently found as thin plates of inscribed lead or
tarnished silver.
It provides the following spells:
The Truelight and The Tracker (Darkness,
Truth)
This
spell will ignite Darklight, and permits the caster to see clearly by
it. The flame may expand to no more than
a bonfire in size.
The
Shade and The Summoning (Darkness, Mastery)
This
spell will conjure an elemental essence to animated pool of Darkness,
with a volume of no more than 3 cubic metres.
The
Guardian and The Gaeas (Darkness, Sorcery)
Summons
one of the cult’s essences to inhabit a statue or unintelligent
beast, to act as a Guardian for a Mage or a part of the Library.
The
Decapitator and The Dead (Darkness, Death)
This
spell enables a cultist who has used stealth to strike with a Garrotte and slay their prey
in an instant, sending their soul to Tien’s Hell.
The library holds a vast number of grimoires, books,
scrolls, tablets and scraps of payrus that can provide many spells. However, most are in foreign and, not
infrequently, extinct languages.
Apprentices
A member of the family becomes an apprentice from the age
of 12.
Adepts
Apprentices graduate at 17, becoming Adepts.
An Adept starts play with one of the Grimoires at 17,
knowing all of the spells therein. They
may pay for knowledge of the other Grimoire during character creation.
Mage
Once an Adept has reached 11Ш in one of the cult
Grimoires, they are accepted as a Mage.
Since the family wish to strengthen themselves, there is no barrier to
advancement.
Learning other spells from the library requires an
Essence Plane journey with a dangerous obstacle, and then taking a test of
knowledge of the source againsta Very High resistance.
The Mages administer the Library, the Tower, the
defences, the servants, or reaping expeditions, as their abilities and
preferences dictate.
The Dark Library
of the Bone-White Tower
This repository of stolen wisdom and knowledge is closed
to any but the Orathorn family, and is spread over three floors of the
Tower. The Tower is simply the heart of
a complex of workshops and residences, but it is the only place of learning
within the settlement.
