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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Voadam" data-source="post: 7407610" data-attributes="member: 2209">Spears of the Dawn<a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/110293/Spears-of-the-Dawn?affiliate_id=17596" target="_blank">Spears of the Dawn</a>Spears of the DawnEternal: The Eternal come in several different varieties depending on the nature of the rites used to animate them.Eternal may be created by humans, but the new-made immortal is under no obligation to obey their creator, and will likely despise them for their hateful liveliness.It was the Gods Below who taught the Eternal King the secrets of a twisted immortality, and even now they send dark dreams to their slaves in the living world.Two centuries ago the eastern land of Deshur, the Sixth Kingdom, was driven to the brink of destruction by the armies of Nyala. The empire’s legions were hurled back into the black deserts of the east and Deshur’s king was driven to take shelter beneath the stones of the mountains in temples long since lost to men. There he discovered new teachers and an old power, and with it he bought a damnable salvation for his people, a salvation that made them Eternal.The accursed creatures known as the Eternal are the result of a grim and forbidden lore. They are a product of the unholy rites dredged up by the pharaoh of Deshur in the face of his realm’s destruction, learned from serpentine teachers among the roots of the Weeping Mountains. Their existence is an abomination to the Sun and the spirits alike, but the satisfactions of their undying state still tempt many in the Three Lands.An Eternal is created from an intact human corpse, one lacking no major limb or organ. Through a series of rituals of greater or lesser complexity, the hold of death is broken upon the remains, and the subject rises up as they did in life. Their flesh is in the same condition as it was upon their death, whole or torn, but it has all the warmth, pliancy, and response of life. Indeed, the most perfectly-restored Eternal are indistinguishable in every way from a living human. The Eternal do not age, or breathe, or eat common food, or drink mortal wines. They do not sleep or dream, and they do not weary as mortal flesh wearies.The Gods Below are hideous things, their numberless names foul upon the lips and tainting to the soul. It was their whispers that taught the Eternal King the black secrets of immortality. Some men secretly worship them for the sorcery they teach, but their rites are invariably and unspeakably loathsome.The Nyalan empire is blamed for setting off the Long War with their invasion of the eastern kingdom of Deshur. The Black Land’s pharaoh was not a good man but he had done little to earn Nyala’s wrath. Still, Emperor Shangmay would not be content until he ruled the whole of the Three Lands, and his legions pushed the Deshrites up the banks of the Iteru into the foothills of the Weeping Mountains. They made their stand near their stony throne-city of Desheret, and the pharaoh went down into the forbidden temples in the mountains’ roots to make bargains with the servants of the Gods Below.The secrets he brought back transformed him and his people.Eternal Dreamer: The Eternal come in several different varieties depending on the nature of the rites used to animate them. Those who receive only the simplest and most cursory rituals rise as dreamers, men and women locked into a half-dreaming existence that leaves them only dimly aware of their surroundings.The rituals of their creation require at least 1,000 si worth of obscene icons and hideous ritual tools, but once these implements are at hand any number of dreamers may be created with only fifteen minutes’ work each by someone with at least Occult-1 skill and training in the rituals.Eternal Noble: The Eternal come in several different varieties depending on the nature of the rites used to animate them. Those who receive better rites become nobles, reborn with their full intellect and a clear understanding of their new estate.Creating a noble requires 10,000 si worth of expended ingredients.Very rarely, a ritual meant to create a lesser Eternal will somehow result in the creation of a greater variety, either through blind luck or the natural strength of will possessed by the victim.Eternal Lord: The Eternal come in several different varieties depending on the nature of the rites used to animate them. Those who receive the finest and most glorious rituals of translation will rise as lords, mighty beyond the dreams of ordinary men and gifted with great sorcerous powers.Creating a noble requires 10,000 si worth of expended ingredients, while the revivification of a lord demands ritual implements worth 25,000 si and ingredients worth 50,000 more.Very rarely, a ritual meant to create a lesser Eternal will somehow result in the creation of a greater variety, either through blind luck or the natural strength of will possessed by the victim.Ghost: Both spirit and undead, the ghost is the disembodied shade of some poor, ill-buried wretch, or a victim so tied to the world by grief or need that they cannot pass on to the land of the spirits.One of the most important functions provided by a priest is the conducting of funeral rites for the dead. While any family patriarch is familiar with the necessary rituals, the spiritual force of the priest is anxiously prized as a further guarantee against the deceased’s suffering in the afterlife. The people of the Three Lands believe that one who has just died is vulnerable and disoriented by their new condition, and must have help and guidance if they are to safely reach the spirit world. Those without this aid will often go astray, becoming tormented ghosts who share their suffering with their kinsmen. To die alone and unburied is a horrifying fate for any man.The most minimal rites involve washing the body, arranging its limbs neatly, and burying it with appropriate prayers for its peace and right guidance. Such a pauper’s burial is better than nothing, but still a cause for fear and anxiety. A proper funeral involves the entire community, with a great funeral meal, priestly rituals, and sacrifices to the gods for their aid and favor. The Sun Faithful replace the sacrifices with prayer, but they too share the anxieties of their neighbors over safe passage to the Burning Heavens of their god.Many peasants and common folk are too poor to afford such a grand funeral, and so instead place their reliance in secret societies of funerary adepts. These societies assure members of powerful magical rites to make up for the lack of material expenditure, and conduct elaborate secret rituals over their deceased members. While membership in these societies is common knowledge, the inner secrets of their practices are guarded jealously. Though a great comfort to the poor, they also sometimes form the nucleus of bands of rebels, dark cultists, and other malefactors meeting under the guise of innocent charity. Other societies restrict their membership to the community’s elite and count nobles, chieftains, and great priests among their number. They join not because they cannot afford the customary feasting, but because the society promises a still better place in the world to come for those worthies who aid it on earth. Sometimes that betterment extends to material concerns or the quiet advancement of their members in court society.The stronger and better the rites, the more aid is given to the spirit of the deceased. If a dead man or woman is courageous and clear-minded their soul can win through to the spirit world even without any aid. Lesser souls require more help, or they may lose their way between this world and the next and forever haunt the living. Their pain and confusion makes them dangerous to everyone, and ngangas or other spiritual adepts must be called in for exorcisms.Walking Corpse: Born of an unsanctified death, a walking corpse is an undead bodypossessed by its furious soul, one baffled in its attempts to reach the spirit world. Those who die without the help of proper funerary rites risk arising as a walking corpse, to haunt the living as a decaying abomination of noisome flesh.Spirit: Humanoid spirits are often the shades of restless humans who have returned from the spirit world for their own varied purpose, and qualify as undead for the purposes of certain spells and powers.</blockquote>

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