Anathem

Warriors who wield every form of msawhat. They are devoted to the corruption of all life and the world. They become everything they once weren't.

Corruption of the Name

To become an anathem, a warrior must commit acts of corruption that taint every aspect of their being. Usually, anathem were either warriors who served an ideal or had good intentions who became corrupted by the system, becoming a part of it. The corruption is more than taking bribes; it is acts of violence and violation. It is the temptation of the system's horrors against the personal credo of the warrior. The complete corruption of an anathem means the corruption of the four aspects of their True Name:

• Body: corruption of the body means acts of physical violation of others or oneself, such as sexual violence, poisoning, and so on.
• Heart: corruption of the heart means acts of emotional violation of others or oneself, such as giving in to desires, letting rage or anger release, and so on.
• Mind: corruption of the mind means acts of mental violation of others or oneself, such as reading forbidden knowledge, learning and accepting things that go against one's methods, and so on.
• Soul: corruptionof the soul means actrs of metaphysical violation of others or oneself, such as breaking oaths, committing major sins, and so on.

Recruitment

Anathem often seek to corrupt potential warriors, always choosing ones enmeshed in a class society's power structures. These warriors are always melee fighters, military, or heavy warriors who are either not users of any esoteric energy or uses one of the eight forms of msawhat. Some are more subtle than others in their corrupting influence. Once a warrior is in such a state of corruption, other anathem will sense them and seek to recruit them if they are skilled enough warriors to merit it. They tempt them with power and luxury until they submit, then submit them to eight rituals.

Eight Rituals

The eight rituals are designed to imbue the warrior with the eight forms of msawhat. The potential anathem performs each ritual after proving themself to their mentor(s) by committing heinous quests for them:

• Ritual of Vile Blood: the first ritual is to drink poison in a profane circle and replace one's blood with pestilence.
• Ritual of Cobalt Heart: the second ritual is to kill one's good heart and replace one's emotions with despair.
• Ritual of Foul Water: the third ritual is to befoul waters and wash in them, tainting one's flesh with black film.
• Ritual of Golden Temptation: the fourth ritual is to steal something and sell it, ritually using the gold taken to replace one's mind.
• Ritual of Six Woes: the fifth ritual is to invoke calamity and act not to save others from it, ritually replacing one's narrative with one of disaster.
• Ritual of Young Life: the sixth ritual is to murder a child in a fell ritual, replacing one's morality with depravity.
• Ritual of Grey Soul: the seventh ritual is to walk into the grey mists of corruption wholly and completely, replacing one's soul with phantasmal energy.
• Ritual of False Self: the eighth ritual is to replace the true self with a false one by walking into a broken mirror.

Once the eight rituals are done, the anathem is reborn as a half-living warrior of pure evil power, serving the powers that be.

Quests

Each ritual is preceded by a quest, always designed to emphasize the power they seek. These can be a quest to poison an political enemy of the mentor-anathems, for example, or a quest to murder the pregnant mistress of the mentor, or a quest to deceive a town full of people into thinking the anathem is a hero.

Reputation

Like paladins, anathem have good reputations. They are usually perceived to be the kind of warrior they were before conversion, or sometimes confused with paladins. Unlike paladins, anathems have a past of good behavior to rely upon.

Redemption

If an anathem changes their heart or mind and seeks redemption, they will begin to rot and turn into an undead monster. Their only chance for true redemption is to perform an act so selfless and heroic that it invokes a celestial essence that destroys them before they become undead. As soon as they even begin to consider redemption, their powers begin to wane.

Powers

Anathem have 16 powers, each gained from the rituals:

• Poisonous blood: when wounded, their blood fills the air with poisonous fumes.
• Sickening breath: their breath carries a deadly lung disease.
• Heartdraining hand: their hands can drain the positive emotions of victims and turn them into energy for the sorrowing flame.
• Sorrowing flame: a bright blue fire that is directed by their hands that causes intense sorrow in anyone it touches.
• Foulflesh touch: the touch of their flesh spreads befouling film.
• Smogform: eight times per year, they can take the form of a cloud of toxic fog.
• Goldbright: if they have any gold on them, they can convert it to light that instills targets with greed.
• Diamond wave: a psionic wave that alters the priorities of targets such that they temporarily do as the anathem wants.
• Calamitous aura: a close aura of green light that turns on randomly around them and causes calamities to those near them.
• Sixth chance: every sixth 6 rolled causes catastrophic problems to the target of the roll; if the roll is self-directed, the anathem suffers the consequences.
• Sterilizing gaze: the anathem's gaze will remove the virility of target.
• Youngsense: the anathem can sense juveniles nearby of any animal or mortal species.
• Phantasmal form: anathem can take insubstantial form as if a phantasmal undead.
• Greyflame weapons: msawhat-flame wraps around weapons and corrupts victims unto undeath.
• False form: the anathem can take on different appearances eight times per year, for up to eight hours.
• Illusory shield: the anathem's shield is visually displaced so opponents think they aren't hitting it.

Inventory

Anathem use the weapons of their former occupation, adapted to their new powers. They do gain a handful of objects from their rituals:

• Aurum ring: a ring made of aurum that absorbs the greed of those who see it and releases it as a shock to those the anathem touches with it.
• Eaqiq amulet: an amulet set with an eaqiq jewel that can store msawhat and unleash it when broken to create a wave of corrupting flame.
• Foulbutter cream: corpse-butter cream that is applied to wounds to make them close in rotting flesh.
• Ink of amaranth: a pink fluid that always writes convincing lies.
• Malfortune card: a playing card of any kind (or suit or number) that, when played, brings bad luck to opponents, but requires a roll. If a six is rolled on any die, the user faces the bad luck.
• Sallow bottle: a bottle that poisons anything put in it.
• Suicide mantle: a mantle made from the leaves of a suicide tree that conveys the wearer protection from traumatizing sights.
• Wicked eye: the eyeball of a child that allows the user to see innocence.

Variations

The only variations of an anathem are based on what they used to be before:

• Affettatrice: when the anathem was once a affettatrice, they gain defense against fate, fortune, or doom.
• Grey Knight: when the anathem was once a grey knight, they gain a minor phantasm as their attendant.
• Pseflep: when the anathem was once a pseflep, they gain a major bonus to STH or PRS and an illusory attendant.
• Soldato: when the anathem was once a soldato, they gain a major bonus to PRS and freedom from their former master.
• Thekkrug: when the anathem was once a thekkrug, they gain a major bonus to STR and greater bonuses from eating mortal flesh.
• Uteropotator: when the anathem was once a uteropotator, they gain major bonuses to intimidation and the ability to breathe underwater if they don't already have it.
• Vile Soldier: when teh anathem was once a vile soldier, they gain major bonuses to poison and disease resistance and ATH.
• Winchestrian Soldier: when the anathem was once a Winchestrian soldier, they gain major bonuses to poison and disease resistance and skill with machines.

Societal Role

Anathems play a major role in the class societies they are part of. They are elite warriors who are always favored by the ruling class because of their superior skills and powers. They are enforcers of the will of the powerful and often members of the powerful themselves. They are outlawed in socialist socieites and hated by those in classless societies.

Skills

Skills vary by former occupation, but some common new ones include

• Corrupting
• Ritualism
• Politics

Stats

Modifiers to base for nation/species:

PRO +8
ATH +4
STR +7
AWA +3
WIL +3
STH +2
PRS -5