Hallow

A person who embodies the 12 holy virtues, a hallow gains different powers depending on how they embody each virtue. Hallows make a conscious decision to live their lives according to the virtues, picking out specific virtues to embody or trying their best to fit one or all of them. Their conscious choice and their knowing devotion is what gives them power.

Virtues

The twelve virtues are fundamental to the faith of the Shepherdess's followers:

• Charity: generosity, sharing with others, self-sacrificing in giving to others, altruism.
• Constance: dependability, reliability, diligence and hard work, trustworthiness, honesty.
• Humility: being humble, being innocent, being earnest.
• Kindness: choosing the gentler option, being helpful, being supportive.
• Mercy: forgiving, alleviating pain, choosing to help instead of hurt.
• Patience: waiting for what is deserved or needed without complaint.
• Piety: faith, devotion, diligence in practice of faith.
• Prudence: cautiousness, judiciousness, wisdom, knowing when to act, knowing how to save for adversity.
• Resilience: getting back up, defiance of oppression, strength inner and outer, healing and protecting.
• Sanctuary: protection of others, protection of those in need, being a protector and provider.
• Service: serving others, doing for others not oneself, being useful.
• Sincerity: honesty, being true to oneself and others, truth, a lack of manipulation or masks.

Virtuous Living

To live virtuously is to live the virtues. One may live just one virtue, or multiple virtues, or all of them. The latter is very difficult to do with the level of consistency required to gain power from it, but many bear multiple virtues. Each virtue gives its own set of powers (see below).

Multiple Virtues

To embody multiple virtues is a difficult task, but many do succeed, especially those who choose closely related virtues. They gain the powers of multiple virtues, however. Those who achieve embodiment of all twelve virtues become awliya, those sanctified by the Divine to do special tasks. These are extremely rare.

Embodiments

Embodying a virtue means living it as closely as possible.

• Charity: to embody charity, one must give if there is a need, no matter what, even if it hurts themself. The only exception is if it would harm others to an unreasonable degree.
• Constance: to embody constance, one must keep their promises, always do their work, and be dependable to the point that it is assumed they would do something without even asking sometimes.
• Humility: to embody humility, one must refuse reward or recognition in favor of acknowledging others. One must avoid self-promotion or aggrandizement, but also one must avoid the feelings of self-importance. One must simply do because it need be done.
• Kindness: to embody kindness, one must always choose the gentle answer, the kinder word, the nicer alternative to violence, rudeness, or selfishness. This does not mean being easily controlled, but rather, it means facing confrontation or obstacle without malice, anger, or disregard.
• Mercy: to embody mercy, one must forgive those who have harmed them. They must choose, actively, to not seek vengeance or harm to others, and one must seek to alleviate suffering in all its forms, actively.
• Patience: to embody patience, one must be good at waiting, no matter what. They must not seek to rush things, not seek to force things, but wait and do things in their own time.
• Piety: to embody piety, one must perform every religious practice, rite, sacrament, prayer, and so on with genuine devotion to their Divine.
• Prudence: to embody prudence, one must choose the safer and surer way. One must think ahead and prepare. One must be wise and provide advice.
• Resilience: to embody resilience, one must not let setbacks defeat them. They must fight through suffering and continue to do what needs to be done.
• Sanctuary: to embody sanctuary, one must be a safe place for others. This means not only fighting their foes and giving them space, but not being an antagonist oneself.
• Service: to embody service, one must serve those who are also virtuous.
• Sincerity: to embody sincerity, one must be truth in word and deed and persona.

Faith

Though holy virtue is the foundation of the faith of Ba'kal, it can be found in other faiths as well. Ba'kal's words call for her followers to live these 12 virtues as best they can, and they give advice on how to do this. Thus, her faith is the commonest found among hallows. Within that faith, in all its variations, they are revered, and everyone is invited to try to be one, though few are expected to succeed.

Powers

Each virtue provides a different set of powers:

Charity

Those who embody charity are rewarded with the means to continue their charity. They find they always have something they can give. If they choose, for instance, to give some time to someone to help them, in spite of a need to be on time elsewhere, they will find either forgiveness or circumstances such that suddenly the time does not matter. If they give away their last coin, they will find another when they need to share with someone else. If they provide for others, they will find themselves provided for. Charitable hallows also gain PRS bonuses, Eventully, they gain the ability to summon resources as needed.

Constance

Those who embody constance are rewarded with the WIL to keep going. They are given STR when necessary to complete tasks they are relied upon for, and they find those around them gain what is needed to be depended upon as well. Their unwillingness to break a promise or fail to meet a responsibility might sometimes conflict with their lives in other ways, but their reward often grants them clemency when they find themselves in such conflicts. Eventually, they gain the ability to anticipate the needs of others and the power to make promises a potent bond between them.

Humility

Those who embody humility are rewarded with greatness, so long as they never acknowledge it. Protection from harm, power to repel evil, and the grace of holiness are commonly found among the humble. They also find themselves revered and respected by those around them, though they never require or ask it of anyone. They usually find themselves with PRS bonuses among the underclasses and antipathy from ruling classes, and they usually gain WIL bonuses as well.

Kindness

Those who embody kindness are rewarded with major PRS bonuses, as well as the ability to always meet the needs of kindness. That is, if they must help someone, they will usually find the means to do so. Eventually, they will gain healing powers and the ability to boost others' stats, but usually, their powers are focused on simply addressing the needs of those around them.

Mercy

Those who embody mercy are often considered the most powerful of hallows. They gain the ability to sense the pain of others, a powerful form of empathy, and the power to alleviate all forms of pain. They also gain access to holy flames that they can use to repel evils that haunt or harm those they seek to bring mercy to, and they can offer mercy to the iniquitous with it as well. The merciful hallows often gain bonuses to ATH and AWA.

Patience

Those who embody patiene gain major WIL bonuses early on, allowing them to continue to embody their virtue well. They are rewarded with the inherent power to instill patience in others who wait with them, and they gain the ability to sense impatience and find ways to quell it. They also gain the ability to control their own thoughts and emotions such that they are immune to many temptations.

Piety

Those who embody piety rival the merciful in their reputation as being powerful hallows. They gain faith bonuses rapidly and can use their faith to invoke the Divine Will of their chosen Divinity. They become vessels of this Will and can understand the needs and wants of their Divine. They are some of the most powerful faithful in the world when they have achieved a certain depth of embodiment.

Prudence

Those who embody prudence gain insights into danger ahead of them. They can sense when something will be more difficult than it needs to be and take the right path to find the right result. They gain PRS bonuses to make them better advisers, and they gain strong empathic powers. They also gain the power to grant protection and insight to others.

Resilience

Those who embody resilience gain major STR bonuses quickly and minor WIL bonuses slowly. They also gain ATH bonuses sometimes. Their main powers are healing of themselves and others, empowerment via courage, and the ability to help others up after a major setback. They gain PRS bonuses and oratory skills as well.

Sanctuary

Those who embody sanctuary gain the skills and powers to maintain the defense of others. Choosing people to take wounds for is a standard power, and bonuses to STR, ATH, and PRO are common for warriors. AWA and WIL are sometimes also fortified. They gain the power to repel evil, the power to sense it, and the power to strengthen the walls of any place they are in. They may also create holy boundaries around them when no walls are present.

Service

Those who embody service gain the powers needed to serve. They gain insights into people's needs, often have resources to serve those needs when they do not expect it, and gain the inner strength to keep serving even when they have pushed themselves to the limits. They also gain the power to heal others, the power to grant them bonuses to stats, and the power to appear when they are needed.

Sincerity

Those who embody sincerity gain powers of truth. They gain the power to sense truth, to read people, and to understand their motivations when they speak other than the truth. And they gain the power to invoke the truth and demand it. They gain, eventually, the power to know truths.

Variations

The 12 True Virtues are those who embody one specific virtue to near perfection:

1. Devout: believers in Ba'kal who are nearly perfect in their devotion and piety.
2. Gentle: mother-witches or elders who never raise their voices, never say an unkind word, never raise their hands in violence save to protect another, embodying kindness.
3. Giver: those who have nothing but keep giving anyway, the embodiment of charity.
4. Menial: workers who embody constance; they take the term "menial" and reclaim it from its derogatory usage.
5. Merciful: maiden-witches who embody and wield mercy as a bright, colorful flame.
6. Probitor: messengers who embody sincerity so well they have never even considered an untruth.
7. Resilient: healers who instill resilience in others to heal them.
8. Sentinel: monks or nuns who embody patience through willful waiting.
9. Servant: those who live lives of service to other virtuous.
10. Shepherd(ess): considered the symbolic and literal embodiment of humility.
11. Shield: warriors who embody sanctuary by providing it and backing it up.
12. Vigilant: crone-witches or elders who embody prudence, keeping lookout for younger folks, planning and strategizing, and generally advising.

Some occupations who are known to embody certain virtues:

• Akhidh: in Mahad, there are givers who work as fences, using their criminal connections to sell goods stolen from the rich. They sell (or give away) at low prices and make sure people are provided for in their communitities.
• Dajichj Baa: in western Palhur, these warriors embody sanctuary and use their powers to protect their homelands from colonization, invasion, and other major threats.
• Jazaz: in Mahad, these sheepshearers gain the powers of a hallow of constance as they serve their communities not just as shearers of sheep and providers of wool, but as general supporters of those in need.
• Muadiy: a special performance artist in Mahad who performs acts of kindness as an art form.
• Mukhlis: a probitor of Mahad who speaks sincerely no matter what. They are servants of the community and never work for oppressors, but for elders of their national community
• Praise singer: a devout who sings their praises, found in many different cultures.
• Shaeir: a Mahadi bard and aqyn who embodies sincerity and gains the powers of a probitor.
• Shepherdess: the definitive hallow of humility whose powers bind them to the lands and chalk plains, making them protector of the region and a servant of the people there.
• Sikrifinar: a scribe whose embodiment of sincerity makes their words burn with truth.

Similar Occupations

Other occupations which wield holy virtues:

• Caliph: the leader of the faith of Ba'kal in some parts of Mahad who embodies piety.
• Dog Soldier: a warrior of western Palhur who embodies multiple virtues in defense of their homelands. They also use other celestial powers.
• Pucelle: a genderless, asexual warrior of Jesenya who embodies constance, prudence, mercy, humility, and other virtues, and uses other celestial powers.
• Washerwoman: a hallow of humility who uses their "low" station to spy on the powerful. They may also use conflueverant.

Persecution

All imperial, capialist, feudal, or slave-based societies oppress hallows. They are never explicitly forbidden, but if someone is suspected of being one, their powers are called out as "witchcraft" or "sorcery" or some other kind of denigrated outcast. Those who are part of some national culture face national oppression as well, usually, and religious persecution is extremely common.

Skills

Skills vary greatly by chosen virtue or by culture.

Stats

Modifiers from base of nation/species for low-ranking hallow:

PRO /
ATH /
STR /
AWA +1
WIL +2
STH -3
PRS +1