Geist

Template:Info afflictions To be a Geist is to stand in abject defiance against the foundational truth of Aloria: that it is a plane of life and its people are alive. Surrendering your body and soul to the external powers of the realm of Death is a nigh-unforgivable offense against the principles of life itself, yet to do so comes with the unabated and unmatched powers of Death and its unyielding march. Semi-mortal and interminable, all who cherish the breath they draw ought fear the chilling clutch of the Geist for they seek to steal it away only to momentarily curb their ceaseless hunger for life. Lesser known than their bloodsucking compatriots, Geists are no less dangerous or abominable, making graveyards and other dead places their homes and finding whatever service they can to the Dead Gods of the realm beyond in the hopes that one day it will swallow up Aloria and all it will know from henceforth is Death.

Core Concept

A Geist is a person who has had their body and soul tainted unnaturally through the presence of a particularly empowered Shade from Bintaar, transmitted to them by a cursed weapon or another Geist. This Shade is a forgotten and ‘blank’ one, with little to no memory of who they once were, and acts as a source of unlimited thanhic essence to tap into for the Geist. Bonded to their host in a bizarrely symbiotic manner, the Shade is allowed to grow and develop itself within the host’s body as a sort of accursed alter ego of the Geist, providing them with untapped power. A little-documented classification of Ordial Afflicted, Geists have nonetheless existed in servitude to many a talented Ordial summoner or Cult of Death throughout Aloria’s expansive history. The Regalian Empire has only recently chosen to acknowledge their and Bintaar’s existence, though in their short time in the public eye they have already found themselves an illegal enemy alongside the other Afflicted.

Playing a Geist

Playing a Geist does not have the same historical baggage of universal hatred that being a Vampire does, though there are still many that revile Geists and the powers of the realm they serve: they are natural enemies of Dragonkind and its soldiers, hated particularly by the Dwarves, and feared by the living altogether. This accursed existence does provide its own boons of power, though, and Geists are more than capable of defending themselves. To be a Geist is to live in Crookback or the Sewers, avoiding direct confrontation with the City Guard, and spend your time bolstering and aiding your fellow Geists and Ordial-aligned folk.

Geists in Regalia

Geists in Regalia are still relatively new as far as public knowledge goes, so many have still never heard of or encountered one: they are strictly illegal like any other planar Affliction, nonetheless, though they lack the same lengthy history of violence and conflict that Vampires do, but are quickly making up for it with their fixation on death. Geists’ history lies instead with the Eronidas and Songaskian peoples and also Evintarian Unionists, all of which have had cults of Death or the Undead play parts in their culture and faith, though Geists have mostly remained a hushed secret or radical weapon that many still disapprove of. To play a Geist in Regalia is to have many natural enemies in the form of Archon and Dragon Worshippers who seek to cure, imprison, or entirely eradicate you.

Mechanics

Mechanics are a set of rules that define how this Affliction operates. This section is very important to read, because it may include some functions that could be considered Specials, though all Abilities are recorded in the Variants section.

Becoming Afflicted

Becoming a Geist is deceptively simple. One must simply make contact with a latent Geist weapon that has had a blank Shade attached to it: this can happen either by accidentally stumbling upon it and picking it up unawares, or having the weapon bonded to you by another Geist or Ordial Greater Mage. Unlike the Vampiric blood plague, the metamorphosis into a Geist is almost instantaneous though the development of the Shade within them and its new persona is a gradual process.

• Conversion by ritual: Conversion by ritual is the most common method of becoming a Geist. This can either be done by another Geist or an Ordial Greater Mage, either of which must simply infuse a mundane weapon with a blank Shade they have drawn out from Bintaar and then ‘kill’ the person with it. This does not actually kill them, but instead puts them into a temporary state of limbo which allows the Shade to bond to their soul and make them into a Geist. Forcibly converting a person this way requires OOC consent.
• Conversion by infection: Conversion by infection occurs when a Geist is feeding upon a living person. During the time they are feeding, the Geist’s Shade makes contact with the victim’s soul and has a chance to leave behind a fragment of itself that will eventually develop into a full-fledged attached Shade if left untreated. The Geist will bond with their favored weapon when this happens.
• Conversion by accident: Conversion by accident is less common, but is as simple as an unfortunate and unawares person simply picking up a weapon that has had a blank Shade already inhabiting it. This often happens in old ruins, tombs or other similar dark and dead places.
• In any and all cases, anyone who is already Void or Exist Occult, whether through Magic or Theurgy, etc., cannot become a Geist. The latent conflicting essence prevents infection.

Curing Afflicted

Affliction curing in the provinces is practically impossible. The only real way Afflicted have reliability been cured in the world, is through Curing Chambers, which are very rare old Dragon Ruins with chambers that some doctors have discovered can cleanse a person of their Affliction. In order to cure an Afflicted, the Afflicted must be put into the Curing Chamber by someone who has the Affliction Wisdom Pack from the Scholarly Point Buy Category, after which this person may perform the ritual. How the ritual is done is up to player interpretation, but the Afflicted must remain in the Curing Chamber for 10 Minutes, while the Afflicted is unable to escape without outside help. If a Curing session is attacked by outsiders, for example other Afflicted trying to break the Afflicted out, the Curing only completes when all attackers have been defeated. Either way, if anyone attacks a Curing session, nobody may be imprisoned or killed during or after the fight, nor may Artifacts be stolen.

Mentality

Geistdom was not specifically engineered or created by any of the Dead Gods so the effects it has upon the mind are many-varied as the Geists themselves are but are still distillable into a few key traits:

• No Conscience: Geists don’t have a conscience, they never feel bad about feeding or attacking anyone or causing any amount of death.
• Unpredictable: Geists are constantly in a battle with the Shade that has bonded to their soul and the dark aspects of their own self that it has taken on. As the Shade grows, it develops exaggerations of the Geist’s negative traits and emotions, embodying and strengthening them. If the Geist is a person of little willpower, they will have an extremely hard time preventing these traits from overwhelming their psyche.
• Hallowed Death: Geists hold both the concrete and abstract concept of Death as sacred. This can manifest in many ways and is open to interpretation, but this does mean that Geists violently oppose the work of the Dragons and their followers, for they preserve Life in Aloria.
• Resist Curing: Geists will always resist and fight tooth and nail to prevent themselves from being cured. Acting snarky or comedic/aloof in the Curing Chamber is considered Fail-Rp.

Identification

While Geists’ telltale ghostly eyes are only visible while using their powers or feeding off of the lifeforce of another, they are typically not as clandestine or subversive as Vampires: very few Geists opt to lead double-lives or normal ones at all, dwelling in dark and gloomy places and fully embracing their deathly nature. Their irises only turn green when they feed on someone, or use Abilities or Specials specifically gained through Geist infection itself. This is the only true way to identify a Geist, with green eyes, when they are in their Geist Form, or to physically witness one feeding on another person.

Afflicted Form

Afflicted Form is an instant transformation that can be used by Afflicted to disguise their identity, or to look more monstrous than their normal body would be capable of. Afflicted Form can have any number of additional aspects added onto it, like additional limbs, eyes, horns, spikes, tails, wings, tendrils, and more. Afflicted Forms are purely aesthetic, and do not add combat functions or more limbs to wield extra weapons with. Afflicted Form cannot be used at the same time as any other Disguise Ability or Special. Afflicted Forms must look unnatural, but can also be used to imitate other Afflictions or Affinities (though never perfectly). For purposes of fairness however, an Afflicted Form is always immediately recognized as such, and cannot be mistaken to be something else. An Afflicted Form must also strictly be something differently unnatural from the default appearance of a Character, it cannot just be a normal person. Afflicted Form designs must always be specifically written on Character Applications under “Afflicted Form” in the Appearance section. Individual minor traits that designate group membership or loyalties may change on Afflicted Forms, but the general design must remain consistent indefinitely. Each Affliction also has a unique aspect about their Afflicted Form that sets them apart from other Afflictions:

• Geist Form, the Geist version of Afflicted Form, must be predominantly green or Ordial-themed. This can be anything ranging from green fabrics, to dark armor inhabited by ghostly light, or malformed bone and metal, so long as green or Ordial-themed aspects are predominant.

Geist Weapon

The weapon that the Geist is cursed through or becomes bonded to them is bound to their soul from the moment of their full infection, until the moment they die or are cured. This Geist Weapon becomes representative of them and is just as precious to them as their own life and Affliction, acting as a conduit for their power. Once bonded, the type of weapon itself can never change, but its appearance can through the Geist Armament special. Many Geists give names to their weapon, according to the importance it holds to them and their identity.

Ability Name	Ability Type	Ability Range	Ability Description	Modifiers
Weapon Summon	Summon Power	Self	Grants the user Weapon Summon	Geist Modifier

Deathseer

Because of their affliction, Geists are uniquely attuned to Death and the resulting memories and emotions related to it. When they feed upon a living being and tap into their lifeforce to sustain themselves, they also become briefly connected to that being’s mind and emotions as they relate to Death. Over the course of the feeding, they perceive all of the victim’s memories and feelings surrounding Death, including any deaths they may have been witness to in their lives, lives they’ve taken, specific people they may feel particularly violent or murderous toward and their general fears surrounding the concept.

Why Geists are Hated

Geists are hated because of their abominable existence as an affront to nature and the existential threat they pose to life itself. Not only do Geists not ask for permission while draining lifeforce, or drain only as little as possible, the act of draining itself also causes the victim to become debilitatingly weakened or worse yet die. This draining must be done on Player Characters at least once every two weeks, and cannot be NPC'd except through specific mechanics. A Geist can go into hibernation for extended periods of time to stave this off. Geists are never created with benevolent purposes in mind, only to bolster the numbers of whatever deathly cult they serve or to be made as warriors and killers for the nefarious goals of their masters. Their existence is broadly anathemic to Aloria’s integrity, due to their powers’ origins in Bintaar and the realm’s overall desire to completely subsume the natural cycle of life and death. Dragon Worship distinctly opposes Geists and their ongoing existence because of this.

Geist-Sires

Unlike Vampires and Cahal, when Geists sire children they do not pass on any distinct or severe curses onto them. Instead, the children of Geists are born with a particular inclination and vulnerability to the thanhic essence of Bintaar, making them much more likely to become Ordial Mages or for Shades to inhabit their body through Theurgical means.

Variants

Within this Affliction, there are several Variants. Each Variant represents a different way to play this type of Affliction, each coming with their own Specials and Abilities. A Character can only ever be one Variant of any Affliction, with each having conditions that are mutually exclusive. Choose whichever Variant fits best to your character. Some Variants may also change over time, please read the individual variants for those rules.

Bound Geists

Bound Geists are the default type of Geist, making up the majority of them. Bound Geists can be solo or group-based, in which case they form so-called Legions. Bound Geists have a large range of choice freedom, and can also transition into Paragon or Entwined Geists if their conditions have been met at any later point in time.

• Afflicted Form: Bound Geists are able to make use of their Geist Form, an instant transformation. For Geist Form rules, consult the Mechanics section.
• Death’s Servant: Geists are not immortal, but can extend their life indefinitely while sustaining themselves on the lifeforce of others. Maximum age is 500, though there are Geists older than this that cannot be played by players.
• Deathseer: Bound Geists are able to use the Deathseer function when they have drained the lifeforce of a particular person. For Rules, consult the Mechanics section.
• Ghastly Sight: Bound Geists have ghostly green eyes when using their Specials, Abilities gained from Geistdom, Geist Form or Feeding. They can also see in the dark.
• Geist Control: When feeding, Geist victims are unable to move. They may also remove any memory of the feeding, or leading up to the feeding, from the victim.
• Geist Escape: Within 10 seconds after having successfully fed on someone, a Geist can use an instant Escape mechanic to flee to their Rental/Estate/Base.
• Geist Mindwall: Geists are immune to any Special that has mind-control, unless they choose to let it affect them. They can be mind controlled by Ordial Gods however.
• Geist Lifecurse: Those who have successfully been fed on by a Geist suffer from Lifecurse, giving -2 Constitution Stat and -1 Main Combat Stat for 72 hours after feeding.
• Geist Thralling: Geists are able to (with strict OOC consent) establish a mind-control curse after feeding on a victim that lasts until Exorcized. Thralls cannot be infected.
• Geist Events: During Calendar Events, Geists may use an NPC citizen Geist Glamor to join and cannot be detected by detection Mechanics, unless they attack.
• Geist Servant: Geists can summon a non-sapient Undead or ghostly servant. This familiar can carry items, but not partake in Combat.
• Geist Armaments: Geists can magically alter their armor and weapons, changing the appearance of them at-will: modifying shape, material and color, though never their actual function or effectiveness.
• Geist Power: Geists gain 3 Commutable Point Buy that can be spent in Artificer/Roguery/Spell/Curses, are lost on curing, and must be on the Character Application.
• Geist Physique: Geists do not need to drink or eat, though can drink alcohol and get drunk. They also no longer need to breathe air, or feel the cold or damage from it. Additionally, they can cause their extremities to look phantasmal and ethereal at will, and their hair can have a metallic sheen to it.
• Death Speech: Geists are capable of speaking and understanding Death Speech (Shadetongue) when it is spoken by others. Death Speech is a unique language because it cannot be learned the traditional way, only specific Races and Afflictions have access to it. It is has no defined alphabet and cannot be properly read, the runes varying between the cultures and Ordial cults that use it, though it is always identifiable as Deathspeech. It also defies being recorded, as the sound just becomes gibberish when any type of recording medium is used to try and replay it, even memory Abilities.

Geist Paragons

Geist Paragons are leading Geists who lead a Legion. At any time, if a Legion comes into existence in Roleplay, any number of leaders may be declared, and those leaders automatically become Geist Paragons. There is no minimum or maximum size for a Legion, as long as a Legion contains at least an active member and an active leader, it can be classified as a Legion, and it is up to the players to use common sense when a group needs a Legion Leader and when it is just just a small group. Geist Paragons can also transition into Bound Geists if their Legion collapses, or Entwined Geists if their variant conditions are met.

• Death’s Master: Geist Paragons have all the specials that Bound Geists have, and a set of unique ones that are lost as soon as they stop being a Geist Paragon.
• Legion Mender: Geist Paragons are able to use Ordial Magic to return lost limbs and restore wounds of Legion members inside their Clandestine Base, so long as it is not attacked.
• Legion Alerts: Geist Paragons can be OOC notified of an attack on their Clandestine Base, and they may ghost-teleport in so long as enemies are not inside yet.
• Legion Control: If a Geist Paragon’s Legion member is planned to be cured while caught, the Geist Paragon must be OOC notified of the time and place.
• Legion Hold: Geist Paragons cannot be conventionally cured. A Palace Inquisitor must be called to generate a specific curing mission for the State Metropolitan.
• Legion Lord: If a Geist Paragon is caught, their Legion members must be OOC notified of this and the place and time when they are planned to be cured.

Entwined Geists

Entwined Geists are 2 (or more) Geists whose Shades, despite their memories being faded, still recall being lovers while they lived. Entwined Geists generally refers to two lover Geists, but can also include more lovers if it concerns a polyamorous couple, however the relation must always be significant, it cannot be siblings or parents, only lovers. Entwined Geists can exist in a Legion, but they can never be Leaders (because they care more about their lover than the Legion). If their partner dies, is cured, or leaves them, Entwined Geists revert to Bound Geists.

• Death’s Kindred: Entwined Geists have all the specials that Bound Geists have, and a set of unique ones that are lost as soon as they stop being an Entwined Geist.
• Entwined Embrace: Entwined Geists, when in emote distance of their lover(s), gain +1Main combat Stat and Asha Speed while running towards each other only.
• Entwined Arrival: If an Entwined Geist is near knocked out/killed/cured, their lover(s) may be notified OOC and arrive by ghostly rift unless occupied in Combat elsewhere.

History

The origins of Geists as we know them in Aloria are completely undocumented and shrouded in layers of mystery, mythology and zealous retellings. It is understood there are two figures of early Ordial power in the history of the realm: Zenallăeia of Three Corpses, an Altalar mage from the Darkening period of their history that is often called ‘the First Necromancer’ by scholars, and Imeshret the Night-Gazer of the Dewamenet Empire, a mystic Asha who founded the secretive Sefakhem. Based upon what little recorded accounts exist from their eras, these two separately came to their own conclusions about the infusion of ‘raw’ Shades into weaponry and the utilization of this process to create empowered servants for their respective causes. Imeshret’s Geists commanded the tomb guard that he led, and Zenallăeia’s would go on to lead the Children of Kruphos that subsequently followed her throughout the Allorn era of history.

Any united history beyond this point is completely barren, and the existence of Geists is simply understood to always go hand-in-hand with the presence of the Ordial-aligned with a particular culture or organization. In modern times, many form the ranks of the Bone King’s army and plenty others serve certain structures of the Songaskian Masaya, while some can be found in the ranks of some of the more mystic and secretive Eronidas Polon.

Culture

Geists do not possess any sense of historical bloodlines or unity like Vampires do, but can instead sometimes draw common traits and purposes from the various known Death Cults and Ordial-aligned organizations that may have spawned them if they were created by a servant of that cult or came to serve them.

Nerrgashi

The Nerrgashi are the collected shamans of the Eronidas people who follow the word of the death goddess Da’amu. Practicing their own forms of spiritualism and necromancy, they often enter trances to venture into the land of the dead and commune with the deceased spirits that dwell there. Though none of the Nerrgashi themselves are Geists, they are no strangers to making some Eronidas who come to them seeking more strength in battle into them and keeping them around as guardians of their sacred sites. The Nerrgashi are spread out among the various Polon and families of the Eronidas people, dwelling wherever they do, Regalia or their homeland otherwise. It is reckoned by some that Nam’kuz, their current chosen leader, might rival the power that Zenallăeia had at her height.

The Tychiménean Knights

The Bone King’s armies are composed of a vast array of religious warriors, resurrected Undead and Geists, all unified beneath his banner. There exists a cadre of particularly elite Geists in the army known as The Tychiménean Knights. They are made up of hand-selected Evintarian Unionist knights who prove themselves in the Bone King’s service and are elevated to a higher, sanctified status. While they are not recognized as a true Knightly order in the Empire, they have some notoriety among Ordial followers and Evintarians in particular. The greatest of them take on inherited names and titles, while the rest just wear heraldic armor and represent the interests of the Bone King and Evintarian Unionism. Low-ranking Tychiménean Knights are often dispatched into lands outside of the Bone King's jurisdiction in order to defend members of the Evintarian clergy or to crusade in the Bone King's name.

The Sefakhem

Founded by Imeshret the Night-Gazer, the Sefakhem are a secretive and highly devout subsect of the Asha Death Cult that maintain and guard the great Vault of the Dead where countless Asha since time immemorial have been buried and sealed away. Many among their number are elevated to the status of Geist in order to be more capable guardians of the Vault, while some are sent to the world abroad in order to serve as collectors of Asha who die in places outside of their homeland. All Sefakhem ritualistically blind themselves so that they may not look upon the sacred interior of the Vault, for it is a place reserved for the Dead.

Waste-Wanderers

Among the Bene Rexit Isldar, there are some particularly devoted servants of their great Glacial that choose to dedicate themselves to the pursuit of defending their peoples’ territory and fulfilling their God’s great mission of accelerating the creep of Death. These Waste-Wanderers take up the powers of a Geist in order to fight and kill and aid the Ordial cause in every better way conceivable. Many create epithets and titles for themselves, considering their task a holy one. Most notable of them all is Vallethar the Rime-king, who has fostered a particularly vicious brigade of murderous Isldar Geists that leave naught but frozen corpses and freshly resurrected Undead in their wake. With the advent of war with the Dragon-worshippers on the horizon, a great deal of Waste-Wandering Isldar Geists have flocked to Regalia to seek out more bloodshed and scourging so that they might feed the Glacial and her wretched master.

The Children of Kruphos

During the height of the Allorn Empire, the Children of Kruphos dwelled just below the surface as a cult of death-obsessed Altalar who followed in the teachings of their predecessor Zenallăeia of Three Corpses and developed their own radical idea that Bintaar housed a mirrored version of the Allorn deity Estel, called Kruphos, and that it was their sacred mission to bring about Kruphos’ emergence into Aloria. While the Children have long since collapsed and faded away into antiquity, their general practices of death magic and Geist-creation still reign on, and many literary and scholarly sources about the subject that are still read today originate from them. Many modern day Geists can trace the creation of their weapons or the origins of their Legions to the days of the Children of Kruphos and pay homage to them with their defense of sacred Ordial sites like graveyards and Temples, and aid Ordial mages with their death-magic pursuits.

Trivia

• A great many Geists, while in their Geist Form, are mistaken for various types of Undead or Ordial abominations of other origin.
• There are some Geists who become so overwhelmed by the presence of the Shade in them that they entirely lose scope of who they are, the lines blurred between their own mind and the Shade’s, becoming known colloquially as Eidolon and sometimes utilized as the most powerful but difficult to control of their kind.
• It is entirely unknown how old the oldest living Geist may be, but by estimations there could be some as old as the Dewamenet Empire itself, though if they do exist the Sefakhem keep their identity and whereabouts under tight lock and key.

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Writers Finlaggan Processors birdsfoot_violet	Last Editor Finlaggan on 12/10/2022.

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