Uwabizoke

A user of hegnh who crafts shells, soap, houses, or even whole towns and imbues their work with the power. The uwabikoze started in the nations of central Taggarus amongst the abarinzi, who would creating protective charms for their homes. This evolved into a broader use of crafting and more complex protections.

Homes

One's home may be anything from a mat on the ground to a sprawling town. One must identify it as their home subconsciously. Whether this is yearning to be there when times are hard, feeling safe there, or simply wanting to be there when you sleep, it is home. Any home can generate hegnh, but the most potent hegnh is generated when the four qualities of home that are met:

• Sanctuary: a home may not be truly safe, but one must feel safer there than elsewhere.
• Comfort: a home must bring one comfort when one is there.
• Identity: a home must feel part of oneself. This can be as simple as an association with one's personal space or as much as a part of the person's culture or personal self-identification.
• Control: a home must be at least in part under one's control. This could be as simple as their ability to choose where to lie their head or in what decor to use or as much as full ownership.

Homelessness

If one has lost their home, because of eviction, foreclosure, or violence, because of a pogrom or because of running away, or even if they have a "home" but it is unsafe, out of their control, or otherwise not connected to them, they may take a token of one or all four of the above-mentioned qualities to a new place to rebuild.

Reclamation

If someone is cast out of their home or made unsafe or uncomfortable within their home, they can use crafts they have made to reclaim the home. This is especially effective at driving out abusers, rejecting landlords, and dispelling hauntings.

Crafting

Once a place is created where hegnh can develop, the hegnh can be invoked and grown by the crafting of objects that connect the home to the crafter. If the crafting is done within the home or in close proximity, it will work better, but so long as the objects are eventually stored within the home, they will draw the hegnh to them.

Materials

Crafts can be made of anything that has an association with the home of the crafter, but some materials innately contain hegnh and thus can be more potent:

• Steel
• Quickiron: liquid hegnhic metal
• Snakestone
• Soapstone
• Ieriora: hegnhic sapphires, very rare
• Pigeon feathers
• Snail shells
• 'Elepaio feathers
• Dracaena wood
• Inzu y'ibiti wood: massive dracaena trees used by abarinzi for homes
• Shield bug chitin
• Nurse shark teeth

Protections

Crafting and displaying objects in the home will provide different protections to the home:

• Protection from disasters: a horseshoe of finely crafted steel or quickiron hung above the doorframe will keep out misfortune (and unwanted fey).
• Protection from attack: an ornament of pigeon or 'elepaio feathers, usually a wooden ring adorned with them, will make the walls stronger and resistant to attacks that seek to damage the structure of the home, if hung on the windows.
• Protection from fire: a dracaena or inzu y'ibiti wood doll hung over the hearth will protect the house from catching on fire.
• Protection from internal violence: a collection of shells of any kind, sorted into a pattern significant to the owner, will protect the home from domestic violence, rejecting those who engage in it and shielding those subject to it.
• Protection from disease or infestation: a homemade poultice made of local moss or grass, dirt, and well water smeared upon the baseboards of the home will help keep out disease or vermin.
• Protection from pollution: a coat of paint made with taupe paint and applied with a (pigeon or 'elepaio) feather brush will help keep out smog, toxic water, mold, or other pollutants.
• Protection from invasion: the tooth of a beast of local significance, or a nurse shark, nailed into the kitchen floor of the home will prevent home invasions of any kind.
• Protection from theft: a steel or quickiron nail wedged into the door to the master bedroom will prevent thefts or burglaries within the home.
• Protection from eviction: a snakestone amulet kept in a special safe or box within the home will keep the tenants from being evicted.
• Protection from msawhat: a soapstone ring carved with water will keep the undead and corrupting energies out of the home, including any form of msawhat, if the placing of the ring is preceded by a cleansing ritual.
• Protection from infernum: a soapstone dagger carved with fire will keep all forms of infernum and demons out of the home, if the placing of the dagger is preceded by a cleansing ritual.
• Protection from arnum: a soapstone mask carved with flint will keep all forms of arnum and abominations out of the home, if the placing of the mask is preceded by a cleansing ritual.
• Protection from rending: a soapstone shield carved with wind will keep rending energies and destroyers out of the home, if the placing of the shield is preceded by a cleansing ritual.
• Protection from void: a soapstone staff carved with steel will keep void energies and formless ones out of the home, if the placing of the staff is preceded by a cleansing ritual.
• Protection from entropy: a soapstone plate carved with dracaena wood will keep entropy and Abyssal beings out of the home, if the placing of the plate is preceded by a cleansing ritual.
• Protection from feirua: a soapstone heart carved with light will keep feirua and froemmlers and bigotry out of the home, if the placing of the heart is preceded by a cleansing ritual.

If a home does not have an abovementioned feature (windows, doors, hearths, etc.), any equivalent, similar, or convenient feature can be used.

Exceptions and Violations

If the person who created the crafts violates the protections, the protections will break and fail.

Cleansing Rituals

A home will produce more hegnh and be better protected if it is cleansed ritually of unwelcome energies. There are various forms of cleansing rituals, ranging from burning white sage to literally cleaning the home, but the most potent is a combination of cleaning, blood letting (to expel bad feelings and thoughts), and repositioning of crafts.

Banishment Rituals

Sometimes the home is afflicted despite protections or before protections can be placed. In these cases, a ritual of banishment is necessary. Banishment is a much more potent form of a cleansing ritual, involving four steps:

1. Cleaning the home.
2. Crafting - making a new craft.
3. Sealing the target - symbolically locking a room or box or something else very tightly, or possibly burying something.
4. Releasing the target - naming the target aloud and demanding its departure.

This will often require a conflict of wills. If the ritual has been done correctly, the caster's will will receive significant bonuses.

Inventory

The commonest crafts made to protect a home include

• Soap: soap made can be used to actually clean the home, thus becoming embedded in the home permanently.
• Shell: using shells or making a shell out of materials
• Broom: a broom, mop, rake, or other domestic object made from the appropriate materials becomes a potent craft item and cleansing tool.
• Horseshoe: horseshoes are a common charm of protection for any home.
• Doll: special dolls carry sentimental value and can be passed down, and if carried by children will provide them personal protections.
• Nail: a nail can be used for practical purposes and become a permanent part of the home's protections.
• Dagger: daggers, knives, or other bladed tools commonly thrust into walls or doors or other parts of the home to provide powerful but temporary protections.
• Mask: ritual masks are often hung in a home or worn by a tenant to bring protections.
• Shield: the most potent form of protection is a shield used as decor. If used by a person, it will lose its power outside of the home and only be usable once, but it will give full invincibility for the duration of its only use.
• Staff: staves must be planted within the dirt beneath the home, but they will raw esoteric energies toward them.
• Dishes and Pots: useful and long-lasting, but not very powerful.
• Heart: a heart made of any hegnhic material will have an emotional impact as well.
• Mirror: mirrors reflect and repel esoteric energies.
• Candle: impermanent, but will repel esoteric energies.
• Mementos: any memento of a special time or place used in home decor will carry with it the positive associations and thus bring protections to the home.
• Emblem: every culture, family, community, or individual has objects or symbols that mean something to them. If they are crafted with the right materials, they will bring special and potent protections to the home. For example, if a clan's symbol is the dormouse, a dormouse made of snakestone will bring potent protections to the home. If the city's symbol is a flag with stars, a re-creation of that flag in an appropriate material will bring protections. And so on.

Tools

Certain tools can help in the crafting of protecting objects:

• Hammer: a hammer of steel or quickiron, for forging and carpentry.
• Adze: an adze honed with snakestone, for carving and cutting.
• Paint: taupe paint mixed with crushed shield bug chitin, for the walls.
• Brush: a brush made of pigeon feathers, for painting with.
• Knife: a knife made of quickiron or steel, for carving.

Variations

Variations from central Taggarus

• Abashaka: one who uses their knowledge of crafting to inspect homes and other communal buildings to determine their protection needs.
• Guta: one who crafts siege weapons to protect their home.
• Intiti: a scholar of the hegnhic crafts, one who teaches and records them.
• Intumwa: one who carries a crafted symbol of their home so that when they speak, they invoke its protection.
• Kugenda: a wanderer who has a craft that will always let them return home. They are always accompanied by an animal of their homeland.
• Umugore Wo Mu Rugo: a "housewitch", one who does domestic work for a home via crafts and witchcraft.
• Umukanishi: one who makes mechanic crafts.
• Umukinnyi: an athlete adorned with crafted objects for their protection whose performance brings pride to their community and thus protection.
• Umuririmbyi: one who sings the traditional songs of their home in order to invoke the crafts protecting it.
• Umurimyi: one who crafts things for their garden to protect it.
• Umusizi: a variation on an azmari who uses instruments crafted through hegnhic arts.
• Umutako: one who crafts things specifically for decorating and thus protecting their home.
• Umwubatsi: one who designs crafts and buildings with these crafts.

Other variations

• Ripti: sling-warriors from southern Ranu who craft their slings and bullets so that they are more powerful when used in protection of their homes.
• Therapeut: a doctor who uses crafted objects when they visit a home so they may protect it from disease.

Persecution

Uwabikoze are honored among the abarinzi and other cultures who value the safety of the vulnerable or the common folk, but in oppressive societies they are targeted as threats to power, usually characterized as forms of abuse themselves or as ridiculous superstitions to be scorned.

Skills

Common skills include

• Carpentry
• Masonry
• Smithing
• Cleaning
• Cooking
• Carving
• Home repair
• First aid
• Childcare

Stats

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