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Geists are a little-documented classification of Ordial Afflicted who have existed in a variety of incarnations spanning different cultures and times in Aloria’s history. The semi-mortal servants of Death itself in the living world, Geists are conceived as enforcers and harbingers of the will of whatever created them: be that a particularly talented Ordial summoner, a great cult of Bintaar or the designs of an Ordial entity itself, though claims of such are entirely mythologized and have no factual basis in what little history exists of these beings in Aloria. That history tells of a caste of warriors created by those with necromantic power to serve the Death-worshippers of the Asha, Eronidas, and Allorn peoples within their secretive Ordial cults. In times more modern, Geists still number plenty among the Sefakhem and aid in guarding their great necropolis and can also be found serving Eronidas mystics as revered spirit-warriors. Some individual Geists work as operatives of the clandestine Unionists who hold particular faith in the land of the dead, and some even claim that ancient Geists from the time of the Allorn Empire still abide by the will of their makers, the Children of Kruphos, and safeguard the secrets laid to rest inside of the grand Temple of Ammu-Loa. Even the Bone King himself hosts a number of Geists among the higher ranks of his army.
The nature of a Geist is that of a living person who has had a Shade from Bintaar ritually infused with their own soul by coming into possession of a weapon that has been imbued as the resting place of that Shade through a dangerous, precise process that remarkably few throughout the scarce history of Ordial cultism have been able to properly master. The Shade’s symbiotic attachment to their living host results in a mutual development of strength, with the living person gaining access to untapped spectral power and the Shade gaining something of a second life without the potentially torturous existence as an Undead. The Shade, being a blank and memoryless spirit when it is fused with the living host, also starts to develop a distinct persona while attached that bases itself upon the host soul: it becomes emblematic of an abstraction or emotion, such as ‘rage’ or ‘love’ or ‘heroism’, and this dominating trait also bleeds over into the host’s behavior with increasing severity based on how much control or influence they personally afford the Shade.
This representative trait is at its most prominent when the Geist accesses their individual Eidolon Form, temporarily granting their Shade near-full control of themselves. They become a creature of Bintaar itself, varying visually depending on their own personal identity: great beings composed of iron, bone and other Ordial ghostly things, fashioned to perform the task they were created for.
Becoming a Geist
Playing a Geist in Regalia
Geistdom is not explicitly illegal by any measure, as Geists are not Undead nor outright infected by any extraplanar taint. The official Imperial recognition of Bintaar as being an existent place of Death puts Geists into an odd gray category of legality. Those who are opposed to the powers of Bintaar and the Dead find them repugnant, but those who are aligned toward those same powers can find allies and friendships with them as being living representatives of their venerable Dead realm. Geists above all else want to further the cause of whatever Ordial Entity they find themselves aligned with and act accordingly.
The Binding
To be made a Geist usually does not come with the same flippant happenstance as catching the Sanguine or Shattered Curses, as it typically requires one to purposefully seek out a Geist-infused weapon and claim it as theirs. There are, however, notable instances of people accidentally retrieving these weapons from ruins and secret places without knowing their true potential, and having their souls bonded regardless. To make these weapons, a strong necromancer must work with a skilled blacksmith to produce the weapon in question, and during its creation they must plunge through Bintaar’s depths and select a Shade that has become mostly ‘blank’ over the duration of its time and supplant the weapon with the thanhic soul essence of the conjured Shade. This makes the weapon extremely volatile and reactive, causing the next living and un-Afflicted person to hold it to have their soul combined with the Shade, the two becoming one semi-seamless entity and making them into a Geist. There are a multitude of ways to become a Geist as a character through a process called ‘the Binding’:
- The most direct way in-character is to request that a sufficiently powerful necromancer on-server (like Xaella Mailaan) grant a weapon to them through a ritual at the Ordial Temple. The process requires the necromancer and a blacksmith to work in conjunction and make a weapon before it is bestowed upon the character. The ritual does not work if they are already Afflicted, and also cleanses them of any Void or Exist Essence that is still lingering in them, especially Magic Point Buy Abilities, which are no longer usable.
- Additionally, existing Geists can have a weapon forged and come to an Ordial Temple with a prospective one and engage in the same ritual with them.
- Another way is to off-screen the acquisition of a Geist weapon, either by way of another powerful necromancer in the world abroad (like the Bone King or Ghōl’an Volkon) giving the weapon to the character because they were a former servant or the character finding one in an old Ordial ruin or temple.
- Ordial Entities can sometimes give a weapon to a particularly adept and devout follower of theirs, but this is not broadly available for backstories. If you would like to backstory a Geist weapon like this, please make a Roleplay Community Discord Ticket to discuss the circumstances. Be forewarned, there is no guarantee this request will be approved, because it depends on a lot of factors. It is also possible to have this done in Roleplay, but Ordial Entities are very nebulous and difficult to encounter and most likely cannot be trusted.
Exceptions
- Silven, Kathar, Yanar, Slizzar, and Urlan cannot become Geists.
- If a Geist uses Engineering, their Branch has to be Necrotech.
- Upon becoming Geists, Magic Point Buy is force-refunded.
- Geists can only take other Mystic Point Buy packs if they want Magic.
- As Geist status is a form of Ordial Occult, there are no powers that can cure it.
Mental Changes
Compared to other similar Afflictions of other sources, Geists experience relatively fewer changes to their thoughts and personality upon binding with the Shade in their weapon. For ease of reference, these are recorded in bullet points below:
- Geists have a mental relationship with their Shade as it develops a personality reflective of its host and an abstract trait representative of the host itself like ‘love’, ‘rage’, ‘heroism’, etc.
- This trait and the Shade itself can hold varying levels of influence over the living Geist, and it is entirely up to the player to decide how much they are dominated by it.
- The Shade can, if given enough control, evolve into an identity of its own reflective aspects of the Host with its own name and goals in alignment with an entity from Bintaar.
- Geists have a natural aversion to high, undiluted concentration of essences from the Void and Exist (like that found within demons, Void Gods, Arken, places where the Void and Exist have severely warped and affected the world) as they carry what is mostly a raw portion of Bintaar within themselves thanks to the weapon, provoking unease and sometimes even hostile reactions in them.
Geist Base Kit
Geists do not have any Abilities in their Base Kit. Instead, being a Geist allows a Character to Point-Buy Mystic Point Buy Abilities with Magic Proficiency Points. Geists are unique in that they get the Geist Weapon Pack from the Mystic Point Buy page for free, and they can also spend in the other sections. However, a Geist must purchase the relevant Weapon Pack that corresponds with their Geist Weapon. If a Character had any Proficiency Points invested in Magic Point Buy, these points are all refunded, and can be re-spent in Mystic Point Buy. (These Packs are not refunded if they are made Ordiall by a Racial Ability or Special.) Any points left or not spent on Mystic Point Buy may be re-spent on other Proficiencies. If the Character did not have any Magic Point buy Packs Prior, they may re-shuffle their Proficiencies once, to add any additional Mystic Point Buy they desire.
Specials
- Geist Body: The Geist’s appearance and body is changed by their nature, unable to be overridden or hidden by any mutations or abilities except ones that hide afflictions. Their aging is completely halted at the point of their being made a Geist and their hair becomes any shade between white and dark gray, with a distinct metallic sheen to it. Their irises are always a shade of Ordial green with a ghostly shimmer to them.
- Deathspeech: Geists are capable of speaking and understanding Death Speech or Shadetongue either when it is spoken by Ordial Entities, or 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. Additionally, it is also a language that has no defined alphabet and cannot be properly read, the runes and markings 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.
- Sight of the Dead: Geists are able to detect Undead, Ordial Mages or other Ordial Afflicted and Ordial Artifacts if they are present within Emote range. They are marked to them with a ghostly green aura around their image.
- Phantom Limb: Geists can make any of their extremities appear ethereal and phantasmal at-will.
- Eidolon Form: The Eidolon Form is a Geist fully embracing Bintaar’s gifts and the Shade in them, assuming a form reminiscent of the beings found in the Ordial realm itself. They enter a Special Transformation that is so distinct it can act as a Disguise itself. The player has creative liberty over its appearance and design and they can have a number of additional traits such as extra arms, eyes, wings, tails, spikes, tendrils, appendages, and more, but they should all be Ordial themed. Keep in mind that an Eidolon Form is purely aesthetic when it comes to Combat Roleplay, so for example extra arms cannot be used to wield extra weapons, though outside of Combat Roleplay they can be functional to perform non-hostile/competitive actions like pouring a drink or holding an item. Eidolon Forms have an additional set of rules that must be followed:
- Eidolon Forms may never imitate other Transformations of other Abilities or other Races. Additionally, elements of Ordial Themes must be prominent, but exactly where is up to the player.
- Players may design their own Eidolon Form, but the description must be placed on a Character Application under “Eidolon Form” somewhere in Abilities.
- Green is a dominant color, but ‘Undead Aesthetics’ are not necessarily required. Bintaar’s entities and their appearances and other related themes can all serve as inspiration.
- The Player may decide that their Eidolon Form is unrecognizable from their normal appearance, or has the same face. It functioning as a disguise is optional.
- Eidolon Forms are permanent. They may never change in Roleplay. Players may change it to look different on their app, but this is always a retcon backwards.
Trivia
- Old fables and dubious zealot scripture say the first Geists were created by the mythical First Necromancer as its servants, but any proof of this has long vanished into the depths of history.
- The Eidolon Forms of Geists are sometimes mistaken for Undead, though they tend to visibly appear much more bizarre and otherworldly than them.
- The most well known Geists are the Bone King’s Tychiménean Knights, an order of devout Thyemic Unionists who all take up their king’s blessings to form his elite vanguard. There are only six at any time, and if one perishes or is obliterated they are replaced by another who takes up the same name and mantle.
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