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| Species | Ard Gear |
| Order | Femmes Mortes |
| Classification | Undead |
| Dominion | Fellwood |
| Sphere | Cacophony |
| Origin | A woman guilty of nine betrayals |
| Lifespan | Inmortal |
| Habitat | Hill lands |
| Food | Pain |
| Description | An ard gear appears to be a mortal woman in the distance, faintly perceived, with a voice that is both haunting and painful to hear. |
| Corruption | The story of the ard gear is that of a woman doomed to an afterlife wandering the hills, bemoaning the sins of her lifetime, most often a series of betrayals of those she loved. The principle story tells of a woman who was guilty of nine treacheries: she betrayed her sibling as a child, letting him fall into a flooded creek to die; she betrayed her father as a young teen, telling a lie to get him killed by another man, suggesting he had slept with that man's wife; she betrayed that same woman (her godmother) with the same lie, to get her children taken from her and drive her to suicide; she betrayed her first love as a teeanger, breaking his heart and letting him die of it; she betrayed her mother as a young adult, telling her of the lie that killed her father, sending her mother into a despair; she betrayed her husband soon after, sleeping with his brother, leading him to kill that same brother, for which he was executied; she betrayed that brother with the same lie; she betrayed her child (son of the brother) by letting him be lost to disease without trying to heal him; finally she betrayed her elderly grandmother, who had stuck by her til then, killing her for her fortune. This last brought down on her the vengeance of an angry cousin, who locked her away in a tomb in the hills, alive and screaming. She died, then, screaming until she could scream no more. Though not every ard gear has this exact story, they are always women who have committed acts of treachery that leave them alone, abandoned, avenged, screaming in pain in their deaths. |
| Esoterica | Ard gear are beings of cacophony and msawhat. They keep some of the powers they had in life, corrupted and distorted, but none that are the gates, qi, or heavenly essences. In death, they sometimes take up other esoteric arts, including those of doom, misfortune, parasitic energy, some forms of aether, self-denial, hunger, sin, thorn energy, gossamer light, desperation, uafas, Damaskian powers, spirits, and kor. |
| Special Powers | Ard gear cause unease in those who see them. Their voices cause pain in those who hear it; those who hear it never forget it. If someone tries to get close to the ard gear, they never seem to be able to. An ard gear can be heard for at least a mile. Those who have the voice in their minds are drawn to go out seeking the ard gear, until they come to her tomb, where her screams have never stopped, and the noise and pain kills them. Every betrayal they committed in life gives them a power in undeath. |
| Necromancy | A user of cacophony (and sometimes also msawhat) can lure a woman guilty of at least one betrayal into a place where they can seal her in and torment her constantly until she dies in pain. To ensure she becomes an ard gear, they must etch special sigils (17) on the vessel she is in to capture and seal her voice in it. To control an ard gear, one must place a special sigil on their tomb (or other resting place). To summon one, one must speak her name into a broken mirror nine times. To capture an ard gear, one must capture part of her voice in a jar of cooking oil. If lit on fire in the sealed jar, the user may draw on the ard gear's power. Mediums can channel an ard gear with great difficulty, as the cacophonic energies cause pain and disconnection. It is a constant battle of wills, and the ard gear will not be able to communicate. |
| Sending | Destroying her tomb and releasing her voice will send an ard gear. |
| Weaknesses | Euphony is especially effective against an ard gear; other heavenly essences, qi, and the gates will also send them. |
| Behavior | Ard gear wander the hills around where their tomb is, using their powers to haunt and disturb people until they are lured in to their deaths. |
| Dominion Culture | Ard gear are part of the ruling class of the Fellwood Dominion, a powerful ard gear queen being one of the rulers of the Dominion. Ard gear within the Dominion are all powerful esotericists and among the most feared in the deep woods. |
| Other Dominions | Ard gear are much lower ranked in other Dominions. Most use them as guardians of certain territories, a low-ranking part of the warrior class. In Phatahuan, their voices are more painful. In Godless, they are often traitors to their former faiths. In Durosian, their voices also cause sorrow, and in Srisian, their crimes are usually against their own countries. In the Raesian Dominion, their unease powers are greater, and in Stillborn, they have betrayed their children or mothers. They are rare in Qhanuum. |
| Mortal Interactions | Ard gear lure mortals to their deaths with their powerful voices. |
| Afterlife | Because they committed so many betrayals in life, ard gear rarely move on to a happier afterlife. Most end up, even if purified, spending millennia in the in-between before going on to the Hells, Grey Lands, or Broken Obelisk. |
| Notables | Fiadh Guth, Ard Gear Manifest, Nine Times Betrayer; Saraid Yorath, First of the Tres Hermanas Muertas, Queen of Fellwood |
| Special Classes | Cacosinger, Necromancer, Spy |
| Sample Stats | PRO 11 ATH 11 STR 9 AWA 11 WIL 15 ROG 14 Unease Presence 13 Voice 20 Betrayal Powers 15 |
GrandGuignol
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