Elemental Seekers

Those who use elemental magic to investigate, hunt, or explore.

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Cautator

Type: Hunter

Cautatori are hunters of the undead who serve elemental death and Death Herself.

Death Herself is a deity who is the ultimate psychopomp, the gatherer of souls, and the force of death itself deified. Her followers view natural death as sacred and unnatural death as an affront to their goddess. Furthermore, they view those who avoid natural death by infernal means - especially the undead - as anathema. Thus, the cautatori devote themselves to finding and destroying the undead entirely, hunting them to extinction.

Undeath is a state of magical corruption that turns life and death into a mockery. The undead sustain themselves on the lifeforce of others. They steal souls, drink blood, or simply drain the elemental energy of life and corrupt it. Cautatori oppose them.

To become a cautatori requires years of study. They learn the religion of Death Herself, the science and mysticism of death, and the arts of hunting the undead. And in order to fully wield their power, they must face death, walk through the Beyond, and aid the souls of the deceased for a year and a day, before returning to the world of the living. Once they have completed this impossible journey, they are granted a white key that contains the powers of death and the afterlife.

This key allows them to open metaphysical gates into the Nether Realm and draw forth its power. This is extremely dangerous and potent, and they avoid it if they can - they prefer to fight the undead by every other means available, from invoking the many ways to kill them (a stake through the heart, for example) to breaking the curse on them (if they are an unwilling undead). But if they must, they will open a hole in reality and bring forth the power of elemental death to eradicate the undead.

Thus, they train in the lore of the undead. They train in the work of necromancers. They train to know the undead, to know how to destroy them, to know how to find them. They hunt them mercilessly. And they learn the arts of the Nether Realm’s power. Using their key, they can open invisible metaphysical gates by placing the key into an imaginary keyhole and opening, creating one of these effects:

• Gate of the Eye: soulsight, the cautator can see the souls of anyone within line-of-sight, gaining a +6 read people.
• Gate of the Moment: the cautator knows how someone died if their body or soul is within line-of-sight.
• The Locked Gate: if the cautator closes all gates in the area; no one may die within range of them (usually 44').
• Gate of the Shroud: the cautator’s body fades into the Nether Realm, making them partially in the Spirit Realm, but invisible to those there.
• Gate of the Banisher: all undead within 44' of the gate must roll against it or be destroyed.
• Gate of the Beyond: the cautator opens a gate into the Beyond or the Nether Realm, or a returning gate to the Spirit Realm.

Note: the world of Shem is in the Spirit Realm.

A cautator always wears white.

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

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Joelevaga

Type: Ferryman

A joelevaga is a ferryman who is attuned to running water.

The joelevagi are ferrymen who work in elemental communities and attune to the rivers there so they may help people move freely. They are so attuned to the rivers that they are able to move between rivers with deep currents magically.

To become a joelevagi, one must be trained in the lore of rivers, in the ancient magic of nature, and in the ways of sailing and boating. One must be a friend to nature, and one must know the feeling of running water as a deep feeling in their bones and soul. It takes years of engagement with rivers, streams, creeks, and other running water to know the feeling like it was an instinct. Most joelevagi are trained by elders and mentors in their communities.

Eventually, they are put to the test. They are sent out on a raft into the middle of a slow-moving and deep section of a river, and they are tasked with traversing it up river a mile, then back down river two miles. Their raft will have no oar nor pole or sail. They will have only their understanding of the river and its power to move their raft. They will be forced to commune with the rushing waters and convince them to flow the wrong direction to get the raft upstream, and they will be forced to give themselves unto the will of the currents as they go back downstream. Always, the end of the test is a series of rapids.

If they succeed in this, they will be carried again into the river by their fellow riverfolk and plunged beneath the water repeatedly. Seven times, each time facing a different direction, until they arise again fully drowned. If they have communed with the river, their lungs filled with water will become one with the flow and they will awaken with river magic. The other joelevagi will give them a pole to use as with their ferry. If they have not, their fellow riverfolk will revive them. Success means gaining several magical powers:

• Compel the rapids: in fast-moving water, they may compel the waters to move in the direction they choose if they are at least half submerged or if their pole is half-submerged.
• Against the flow: they may encourage the current of a river, stream, or creek to move in the opposite direction for a short time.
• Safe passage: for a price, they may ensure someone safe passage over a river - usually a gold coin, which they cast into the waters as tribute.
• Sounding the currents: they can place their pole into the waters and read the currents, picking up information from anywhere the currents touch.
• Ferryfinding: they always know where their ferry is, where the nearest ferry is, and where the best place to ford running water is.
• Waterbreathing: they can breathe underwater.
• Blue rush: they can make still water a rushing flow if they breathe onto it, though this leaves them briefly out of breath and effectively stunned.
• Riverbending: they can place their pole deep into running waters and draw upon the power of rivers, taking their ferry and anyone on it to another river they have been to or any other river within a certain range.

Joelevagi are often exploited by imperials, but they are commoner in elemental communities.

PRO / ATH +2 STR +2 AWA +2 WIL / PRS +1 STH / ESS +1

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Luminaire

Type: Guide

Luminaires are wielders of elemental light as a source of guidance. They use special lanterns and lamps to control this light.

Their lanterns and lamps are made from magical glass from a realm in the sky with a massive, magical mirror that directs all esoteric energies called the Lesedian Mirror . Those in the colonies usually only know of it from legend, but they have gained the lanterns, lamps, or glass by some remarkable means. Lamps are stationary, massive structures designed for use by whole communities. Their power is to direct the flow of elemental light and magical energies to maximize their powers and protect their location. Luminaires tend them and take elemental light from them. Lanterns are handheld, ranging in size from ones that fit in your hand to large, heavy boxes held by handles, sometimes carried by multiple people at once. Lanterns have special shutters made of elemental, shining metal called bjartharnum that can be opened and closed via a crank or by hand. Fine meshes and filters can be attached to each lens to alter the powers of elemental light flowing from it. It cannot be allowed to go out - if it does, the lantern dies and must be rebuilt.

The following aspects of the light may be adjusted on either lantern or lamp:

• Power: the intensity and power of a lamp or lantern affects how far it reaches and how strong it is when it is used against something. Settings for power are Soft (weak, cold light); Medium (moderate, warm light); Hard (strong, hot light); Luminous (wide, bright, cold); Full (vast area, bright, hot), and Mega (dangerously bright, varies in temperature).
• Type: the type of light is determined by filters on the lenses. Types include but are not limited to Diffuse, Softlight, Ambience, Flickering, Sparking, Flashing, Shine, Glow, Bold, Beam, Orb, Spread, Spotlight, Dazzle, and Focused:
  • Diffuse - soft, weak, cool, just illuminates.
  • Softlight - soft, weak, self-focused only.
  • Ambience - wide range, all-encompassing, but undirected and weak powered.
  • Glow - soft, weak, directed by not focused.
  • Flickering - soft bursts, weak effects, but fast and many.
  • Sparking - hard bursts, moderate effects, but fast and many.
  • Flashing - extended bursts, strong effects, moderate speed and many.
  • Shine - continuous illumination, moderate effects, decent range.
  • Bold - continuous illiminate, strong effects, long range.
  • Orb - very focused, controlled, unnatural in movement.
  • Spread - focused but not tight, moderate to strong.
  • Dazzle - rapid, strong flashing with strong effects.
  • Beam - wide, strong beam, long-distance, small area.
  • Focused - narrow, strong beam, long-distance but no area.
• Volume: the amount of light released is partly covered above, but largely determined by the number and kinds of shutters opened or closed.
• Wick: wick is the amount of fuel; the fuel is raw elemental light elemental magic, but it is often called wick by the luminaires. Wick is measured in candle-hours.

Luminaires spend much of their time oiling their lanterns with moth oil, a substance that attracts moths, who are good luck to luminaires, and keeps the glass and metal tarnish free.

Here are few of the effects lanterns can have:

• Illumination: like regular light, elemental light can be used for illuminating an area.
• Illuminated manuscripts: elemental light can be infused into writing to make it easier to read and understand.
• Brightfire: if elemental light is focused and hot, it can set things aflame and burn them physically and spiritually.
• Luminosity: elemental light can be infused into something to make it glow.
• Revelation: elemental light can be spread over and area to reveal that which is hidden within it.
• Light-walking: if elemental light is imbued into footwear or feet, it may, with a great deal of power, allow the person to walk on light itself.
• Shining aura: luminaires may bask themselves in elemental light to give themselves protective auras.
• Spiritual flow: elemental light can reveal spirits and let a luminaire communicate with them.
• Blinding: elemental light can blind people much as light can, though it hits on a metaphysical level as well.
• Confusion: flashing bright can cause people to lose track of where they are, who they are, or why they are.
• Brightwave: brightwave is taking the waveform of elemental light so one might pass through matter.
• Finding: elemental light may be used to reveal something specific, especially something lost.
• Inner light: elemental light may be used to unleash one's inner light, giving one insights into themself and their own abilities.
• Guidance: elemental light may guide a luminaire to where they wish or need to be.
• Light-self: powerful luminaires may risk becoming light, though they may not be able to return.
• Greater sight: elemental light can improve the vision of someone if used correctly, a softlight bath upon the eyes.
• Bright spark: bright spark is to elemental light as lightning is to light. It is the most potent, dangerous, destructive form of the energy, and only used by those who are in danger of attack.

Other powers exist that are not listed here.

Anyone may pick up a magical lantern or crank a bright lamp, but one becomes a luminaire if and only if they can control the elemental light that comes forth. For this, one needs to face oneself in a fragment of glass from the Lesedian Mirror. There are different ways to do this. The most potent is to look upon it at high noon and somehow see past the blinding lights, but most novices cannot do this. Instead they try under the triple new moon and test themselves against faded distortions of themselves in order to gain a little control that they can build upon over time. True mastery only comes if one faces one's full self, however.

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

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Psychopomp

Type: Guide

A psychopomp is a guide of the dead. They show the souls of the dead where to go and how to get there after they die. They wield the elemental magic of death in order to nudge, coerce, or otherwise send these souls onward. If a soul lingers in the Spirit Realm longer than it should, they send them along as well. They hate the undead and will seek them out to destroy them. While most psychopomps are beings who exist for this purpose, many mortals, especially those who worship Death Herself also take up the work.

The Nether Realm is where the dead go after they die. They all must traverse its strange wildernesses, temples, cities, and unexplainable phenomena in order to get to their final repose or their next cycle. Psychopomps assist the souls of the dead through the Nether Realm. Those beings who exist for the purpose of being psychopomps simply dwell in or around the Nether Realm, but mortals who take up the craft must use a method called beyonding. If a living mortal enters the Nether Realm physically, they will die very quickly without very potent protections.

In order for a mortal to safely enter the Nether Realm, they must send their soul through a form of metaphysical projection called beyonding. To beyond for the first time, one must meditate upon one's own mortality for four straight days and nights, drinking nothing but water, eating nothing at all, and especially not killing anything. As they meditate, they will become conscious of their own soul, which will allow them to release it from its bonds and head, temporarily, into the Nether Realm. This is extremely difficult, only possible in special places, under guidance of an experienced psychopomp. Once someone is used to it, they can do it more easily. It is also very dangerous, for their body and their soul are exposed. As such, powerful protections are placed on the body. The soul must be trained to defend itself.

In the Nether Realms, grey mists leak in from the Grey Lands, the plane of the undead, consuming souls and turning them into the undead. It is the most dangerous thing in the Nether Realm. Special tools protect psychopomps from these mists, such as symbols of their faiths or magical elemental keys. The Nether Realm has also deep, dangerous forests, vast white deserts, and ancient mountain ranges full of strange beings. There are also vast seas, lakes, and rivers of nether waters that must be crossed. The waters will trap any soul that falls into them, and they can only be released if pure silver coins fall into their hands. Psychopomps often station themselves on ferries to help the souls of the dead to cross these bodies of waters. These ferrymen are very powerful and combine other magical arts with their work. They often charge silver to living psychopomps who wish to use their services, dropping the silver into the waters to release trapped souls.

Once a psychopomp is in the Nether Realm, they are free to go as they please. If they are part of a group, they will usually be given a territory to cover. They must search out wandering souls and offer them guidance. In order to do this, they must be able to sense souls, and they must know their way in the Nether Realm. This latter is attained through years and years of study.

The more souls they guide on to the next realm, the more poarta builds up within their souls. This gives them different powers as they gain the elemental magic of death:

• First soul: soul-speech - allows communication with any soul
• Fourth soul: soothe afterlife trauma - alleviates the pain of being dead and lost
• Eighth soul: veil-making - makes it easier to craft nether veils.
• Sixteenth soul: key-making - makes it easier to make mictlanium keys.
• 32nd soul: direction sense - only works within the Nether Realm.
• 64th soul: soul-shield mark - mark an ankh on the souls of the dead in order to give them protections from the Nether Realm's dangers.
• 128th soul: commune with ancient dead - allows user to speak to the dead even if they have gone to their afterlife
• 256th soul: rally souls - calls souls to the user.

Other powers may be gained through other means of building up the elemental magic of death:

• Soul-kill - permanently kills a soul.
• Nether-flame - a flame made from gates energy that can harm souls and things of the Nether Realm.
• Nether-lightning - a bolt of gates energy that can harm souls and things of the Nether Realm and can kill the living
• Soul dance - a communal dance with the dead within a many miles wide radius that calls them to the user and allows the user to wield their power
• Reaping - the power to be there at the moment of death and carry a soul Nether Realm, the power to kill with a touch of your blade, the power to command souls
• Soul sensing - to sense the souls of the dead within the Nether Realm, psychopomps use special veils made of nether cloth, which is cloth made from fibers from within the Nether Realm. These veils must be worn on their actual bodies, and thus will appear on their souls. Through these veils, they can see souls as if they give off a form of heat. Veils are made from nether cloth, made into a fine gauze, crafted by the psychopomps themselves. They do not let anyone else touch it once they have started making the veil, as it connects to their souls.
• Talismans - many psychopomps wear or carry talismans which are powerful symbols of protection against esoteric energies.
• White garb - all psychopomps wear white while they are working, for it is a powerful color of protection in the Nether Realm. It is known to distract the great nether worms that devour lost souls.
• Death masks - in the Nether Realm, the beings that dwell there have very good memories. If they remember your face, they will assume you are one of the lost dead, and they will prey upon you. If they do not recognize your face, they will be more likely to believe you are alive. One must change masks frequently in order to not be recognized. Masks and veils can be combined.
• White keys - psychopomps carry large, white keys made of mictlanium metal. These keys allow them to open special gates in thin air that will draw the dead through to closer to their destinations. In the mortal realm, these keys will open portals to the Nether Realm that will act as blackholes, sucking in the souls of the dead and any undead.
• Servitor-talking - servitors (invisible servants of the DIvine) are commonly found in the Nether Realm and are often helpful or at least sympathetic. Psychopomps develop the skill of speaking their language in order to be better guides.
• Sending - any psychopomp will destroy any undead they come across, but some psychopomps specialize in hunting the undead. They have the power to send the undead. This is the act of driving the undead into the afterlife. It is usually done by directing the elemental magic of death at them or opening portals with keys. To direct this magic, a psychopomp must have a special weapon, such as a bow or crossbow made of ash wood, a dagger of silver, a flail made of mictlanium, a hammer to drive in stakes, reaping scythes, or annointed whips.

In the mortal realm, psychopomps often spend time in graveyards in order to make sure the dead are moving on from them. Graveyards and all burial grounds are sacred to them, and they will fight to the death to protect them from desecration. Pyramids and other great tombs are especially potent. If a psychopomp attends a funeral, they will perform a ceremony in order to make sure the soul moves on. Their own funerals are complex and often obscure due to the rituals they request ot protect their souls.

When a mortal psychopomp dies, their death is attended by Death Herself in order to make sure the enemies they made in life do not seek to harm them after death. Thus, a psychopomp may seek to defeat an undead enemy of great power by killing themself. This is, however, a last resort, and it does not always work - sometimes Death Herself will not deign to involve herself in the conflict, merely sending the soul on. Life is sacred to psychopomps, as it is what defines the souls they protect.

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

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Ravenkeeper

Type: Messenger

Ravenkeepers bond with ravens in order to have them deliver messages for them.

Like many others who connect with animals via elemental magic, ravenkeepers must spend time with ravens in the wild. They do not use domesticated or feral ravens, only wild ones. They spend a long time with them, learning their behaviors, gaining their trust, becoming one of them. They spend a year and a day among the ravens, then if they feel their bond is strong enough, and if they are a friend to ravens, animals, and nature, they may perform a magical dance with the ravens that bonds them together.

It takes a long time to understand an animal and their behavior well enough to bond with them, and it usually involves training in the magic, science, and lore of animals from other ravenkeepers. All those who bond with animals run the risk of going wild, becoming convinced they are an animal, so ravenkeepers take care to check their reflection every day and affirm their non-ravenhood. If they forget, they take low die on resisting the wildness.

Once they have formed a bond with a raven or small flock thereof, they are able to speak to them. They then must spend more time with them to gain greater magic. Eventually, they gain some of the following abilities:

• Birdspeech: ravenkeepers can speak to any kind of bird. Required.
• Raven’s honk: ravenkeepers can train their ravens to communicate by honking at them as a raven, allowing the raven to speak back as a mortal. This is how they get them to deliver messages. Required.
• Avian ancestor: the ravenkeeper can call upon a raven ancestor once per year to ask one great question.
• Dark hunter: the ravenkeeper may train one of their ravens as a hunter of small animals, but this will make the raven unfit for messenger service.
• Mocking voice: the ravenkeeper can instill the mockery of ravens in their voice to taunt someone.
• Flying memory: the ravenkeeper may store some memories in some of their ravens in order to keep them clearer and safer.
• Psionic consultation: the ravenkeeper may clarify their own thoughts or have a conversation psionically with their ravens once per day.
• Death’s guide: the ravenkeeper may send up to four ravens to guide the souls of the recent dead if no other being is present to do so.
• Spadebeak: the ravenkeeper may ask one of his ravens to dig a grave, but it will exhaust the raven for a fortnight.
• Restorative debauch: ravenkeepers may take their ravens out drinking once per year, and during this time, drink, fuck, and make merry, partially restoring ravens and keeper and up to one ally per raven to health if they are sick, injured, or otherwise harmed.
• Expurgating expectoration: ravenkeepers can spit in a circle to alleviate any minor sins against nature they have committed once per year.
• Know the soulbearer: ravenkeepers know when a raven is a raven and when it is the returned soul of someone recently murdered.
• Gizzard: ravenkeepers’ stomachs sometimes transform into gizzards, allowing them to eat what ravens eat, like carrion.
• Flapping fortune: the flap of the raven’s wing may alter the luck of those in its shadow.
• Listening to the world: ravens and their keepers can sometimes hear what greater elementals wish to say.

Players will have no more than six ravens to start.

Ravenkeepers work in elemental communities and help them stay in contact with one another. They are sometimes exploited in imperial lands, but they often resentful of this and rebel quietly.

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

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Urlator

Type: Hunter

The elemental hunt is the hunt of animals. Of beasts. Of the primal. Of predator and prey. It is the instinctual hunt. Urlatori embody this, living among predator animals and learning their ways.

To become an urlator, one must be a friend to nature, to beasts, and to predator animals especially. They must live among a specific predator for a year and a day, and they must survive. They must gain their trust, not get eaten, and not take food from their mouths. If they are still alive after a year and a day of this, they go on a hunt with the predator. During the hunt, they must be one with the animal’s intents and behaviors, acting as they do, being indistinguishable. Once they catch their prey, they let the animal(s) eat first, and then they take a bite. They continue this pattern until the entire prey is eaten.

Once they have done this, they must go under the dark of night and the full moon to perform a blood sacrifice, spilling their blood upon the marked territory of the predator they have hunted with. If they are accepted, the predator will not have killed them come dawn. If they fail, they are eaten.

Once they are accepted, they must live another year and a day among the predators before leaving. If they leave, they may not hunt the prey of their animal companions without permission (for fear of taking from them) and they may never hurt the predator they have bonded with. They gain certain abilities from this:

• Animal instincts: they can draw upon the instincts of any predator animal to increase their hunting ability.
• Blood hunting: if they mark themselves or their prey with blood, they gain bonuses.
• Honoring the prey: once they kill prey, they honor it by devouring some internal part of it, gaining a bit of its magic.
• Running the trail: they gain bonuses to hunt within specific ranges.

They also gain a special ability from the kind of predator they have bonded with:

• Brown bear: bear hug attack
• Gray wolf, Dhole, Red fox, Golden jackal: pack sense
• [European] wildcat, [Eurasian] lynx, Cave lion, Leopard: pounce attack
• Orca: leaping attack
• Cave hyena: intimidating laugh
• Wolverine, [European] pine marten, Beech marten, other mustelids: increased toughness
• Ringed seal, [Mediterranean] monk seal: loud call
• Wolf spider: trapping bonus
• Ensign wasp, [European] hornet: higher stun
• Peregrine falcon, [Eurasian] hobby, Merlin, Black kite, Red kite: speed increase
• Golden eagle, Eastern imperial eagle, [Pallas’s] fish-eagle, Greater spotted eagle: better vision
• Hen harrier, Northern goshawk, [Eurasian] sparrowhawk: flight
• Osprey: fishing bonus
• Boreal owl, Snowy owl, Western barn owl: night vision
• Elopteryx: increased ATH
• [European] ratsnake, predatory but non-venomous snakes: bonus against rodents
• Meadow viper, [European] horned viper, venomous snakes: venomous bite
• Angelshark, Nursehound, Spiny dogfish, predatory fish: waterbreathing

Other predators native to Eastern Europe may work as well. Consult the GM for what ability they would give.

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