Ascendants (Shardmind rewrite)
Racial History Refluffing
Divine Constructs forged by the merging of a mortal soul with the soul of an angel into a ritually created and prepared statue.
Basic Racial History
Ascendants are created by rituals and rites that were originally mastered by adherents of the <god of service and mercy> in an attempt to preserve and empower the elders and powerful people within their ranks so that they may continue their service to the church and the people at large. However, a ritual like this was not bound to keep itself hidden. Many of the ranks who bore the secret process for creating Ascendants were captured and/or assassinated by minions of <god of strife>, who kept the secret for their own use, creating vile creatures to perpetuate and spread his will, while attempting to slaughter anyone else who knew of the rituals. Many Ascendants were created to wreak havoc upon the mortal world in <god of strife>'s name. Some people still bare an age old grudge against Ascendants for the poisoned creations that the servants of <god of strife> bore upon the world and the devastation that followed.
Following the defeat at the hands of adventurers of a cult of <god of strife> who were creating Ascendants for their vile purposes the rites became more publically available and the spread of their use became more relatively prevalent. Ascendants are not found in as great numbers as the warforged of Incombr are, but they can be found primarily in larger temples throughout the lands, and on rare occasion you can find one wandering randomly about the land in a single minded pursuit of their goals.
Ascendant Creation
The ultimate and original purpose of Ascendants is to allow the perpetuation of a mortal soul empowered by an angelic spirit so that the mortal's service and wisdom can be prolonged. Ascendants are created by a ritual that requires the merging of a mortal soul with the soul of an angel. The mortal soul cannot be weak otherwise it will be overwhelmed by the angel's soul creating a construct whose will and basic motivations will be controlled solely by an angelic force. Both spirits must be truly be willing for the merge, since if either soul is unwilling the result will be a corrupt and insane creation which will mindlessly destroy all that it comes in contact with, most likely meaning that its original creators will suffer its immediate wrath.
Physical Description
Ascendants are constructs infused with the soul of an angel and the soul of a mortal. The construct's form and presentation is great influenced by the type of angel that was used during the rites. Their basic skin an eye tone can vary all across the spectrum from metallic, golden, or silvery to white, yellow, and black. The physical make-up of Ascendants tends to be primarily metal and stone, with very little organic matter involved. Many of their base forms are carved to perfection in stone or are molded from that perfect cast, and then the process of investing the form with angelic power and the mortal soul leaches much of the strength of the materials and imbues a mortal form, weight, etc and countenance to it. The raw creation's base form first starts first with the statue and then it takes on an angelic form, and then it finally mutes to look in a significant way to be like the mortal whose soul was used in the process. How much control and influence the mortal soul has on the final creation generally directly affects how much the Ascendant resembles its mortal halfr. Ideally the Ascendant's image and resultant soul will take on at least 50% - 75% of the mortal's physique, mannerisms, mind, etc. An Ascendant looks in many ways like a metallic statue or sculpture given life, or a mortal given statue like qualities.
Various Angels in the Compendium
Protection
Battle
Valor
Sorrow
Winter
Vengeance
Secrets
Retrieval
Light
Prophesy
Thunder
Roleplaying
Mortals born again as Ascendants benefit greatly from the immortality bestowed upon them by their angelic roots giving them great power, longevity, and abilities. The Ascendant's angelic mindset is driven by a single-minded pursuit of their goals. Goals even as simple as serving the church as a guard, or counseling the lay priests in the creation of their sermons. They can serve years, decades and centuries without a complaint performing their duties as required.
If the ritual is successful and the mortal soul is strong then the mortal who sacrifices themselves to be born again as an Ascendant will have a new body and new life with which to serve their people. Their mind is not completely their own anymore, since the angel's soul has merged with their own too, but generally speaking their minds and memories are mostly intact. Sometimes some of the memories of the angel can merge into the memories of the mortal, or the mortal memories will be viewed from the filter of the world view of the angel which can change things, sometimes in very fundamental ways who the resultant creature is. When all is said and done the Ascendant is part mortal and part angel. The memories and thoughts will hopefully be primarily of the mortal and the physical form and countenance will mostly be angelic.
Their names change when they change to an Ascendant. A name just comes upon them at the moment of their waking. Usually the name is different than what their culture and society would normally use and no one knows why this phenomenon happens. They also instinctively know their legacy - who their mortal half was and who their angelic half was as well.
"I am Counselor Ost'kin, Ascendant born of the legacy of Adonin Tellantha, of the line of the prophets of Arphenion, and of Rullariel, Angel of Prophesy in service of Arphenion, the most merciful; 50 years Severed and searching for my way."
There is a phenomenon that has occurs with Ascendants call the Severing. At some random point they will break from their service and potentially leave to perform whatever else they choose to and is usually driven by either their angelic or mortal whims. This moment just happens and all who create Ascendants know that this moment will eventually come. The Severing in some way frees their mind from the service to which they were created for. Sometimes with this freedom the Ascendant chooses to continue serving in the same or different capacity, sometimes not, it just depends on the individual Ascendant and the mortal and angel within.
Other Reskinning Suggestions
Shard Swarm: Change the name of their racial power "Shard Swarm" to something like "Angelic Presence" with a description such as
"You call upon the divine presence and power of the angelic soul within you unleashing an aura of power that confuses and overwhelms those who mean you harm."
Crystalline Mind: Change the name of their racial power "Crystalline Mind" to something like "Angelic Mind".
Psionic Classes: Reflavor the Psionic classes to use the Divine power source and rename them something similar as follows:
Ardent (leader) - Angelic Prescient
Psion (controller) - Chorus Master
Battlemind (Defender) - Heavenly Protector
Monk (striker) - Angelic Dedicant
Boom... you have classes that, when their Divine powers are reflavored to be angelic or divine, can reflect the wielding of angelic power within instead of the Psionic power source.
I am sure you can come up with better names than I have…. I would love to hear them. I have also not looked closely at this either.
General Classifications of Ascendants
General classifications for types of Ascendants can be done based on their class role:
Counselor - controller
Marshal - leader
Wrath - striker
Ward - defender
A controller can be referred to by the title of Counselor <Name>, etc…
I am sure you can come up with better names than I have…. I would love to hear them. Marshal and Counselor I like, but the other two need work.
