Bellinos
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The Blessing of Vri
Vri is often reserved with his blessings. Most will see the Immortal of Death at least once in their lives and Vri isn't in any particular hurry to speed along that encounter. While having his own motivations and desires to remain close with mortals, to mark them is a sign of remarkable trust on behalf of the Immortal. Vri is a somber individual and rarely as boisterous or social as many of the other Immortals. Vri tends to get to know a prospective before marking them, seeing them as a unique soul in a long line of countless he's seen to over the Arcs.
Those who are marked of Vri consider it one of the highest honors and often take a somewhat detached view of mortality. To them, eventually they will meet the one who imbued them with power and find they only have reason to fear the pain before death, not the moments after.
Vri’s blessing appears on the hands of those marked, more specifically, their nails. Coated in a black paint, the nails appear claw like, growing sharper when the abilities are used. The black paint coating the nails slowly creep up the skin, turning it pitch black before fading into the flesh color of the marked.
Favored
| Ability Name | Ability Description |
|---|---|
| Final Moment | When working with a Pier & Pre-marked who is using their ability of the same name, the Bellinos can use this ability to work in tandem with the Gwelliph. Final Moment allows the Vri-marked to share and experience the death of an individual; the Gwelliph is able to ‘tune in’ to this and do the same. When working alone, this ability is as shown in the collapsible below.
Final Moment Ability
A Favored of Vri has the ability to experience the last few minutes of a corpse’s life. They experience the death as if it were happening to them and only come out of the trance when the experience has ended. This is always a jarring and emotionally devastating ability to use as one can never quite get ‘used’ to dying, but it can reveal remarkable clues and insights as to the wishes or circumstances behind a death. A body must be presented, mostly intact (Within a Cycle or two of age), for the ability to work. However, by working in unison, the Gwelliph and Bellinos are both able to see, feel and fully experience the death of the individual and can also see their past. The whole life is opened up before the blessed, who has access to all memories and emotions of the deceased. This can be incredibly overwhelming and requires high levels of Discipline or Meditation in order to withstand. If either the Gwelliph or the Bellinos are overwhelmed during this process, it is likely to cause medium to long term psychological problems; these might be things such as getting memories confused, losing one’s own memories for a time etc. |
| Death's Pallor | A Favored of Vri understands the nature of life and death better than any. This ability allows a user to suspend their bodily functions and fall into a death-like trance. Unless another marked of Vri is in attendance, this act is almost impossible to see through without a mastery in the medicinal or surgical field. When entering this suspension, the body effectively acts dead. Limbs stiffen, skin pales, and eyes become cloudy. Any wounds suffered by the marked will bleed coagulated blood. Some marked, after receiving a grievous wound, will leave instructions to fetch a doctor and suspend themselves in the state till help arrives. The marked must define how long they intend to stay in this state. At Favored, the time cannot exceed three trials. At Adored this time cannot exceed a single cycle. Likewise at Adored this ability can be transferred to another, although only one use of this power may remain active at a time. Supposedly there is no upper limit on how long an exalted or Champion can remain in this deathless trance, although none dare exit the world for too long. The body will not decay in this state, appearing freshly slain for the entirety of the duration. A marked can be killed in this state if irreparable harm is done to the body, in which case the state will become permanent upon the ending of the ability. |
| Deathkeeper's Skills I | The character is granted an extra three skill points which may be spent only on the following skills: Caregiving, Investigation, Meditation, Detection. Any skill points granted by this Mark can break the 250 (or 100 if fast track) point cap on skills. Within these skills, the points may be spent how the pc chooses. |
| Eidetic | Those marked by Vri aren’t able to forget anything they have been exposed to or seen within their lifetime. The marked can recall events, conversations, and picture moments with perfect clarity, no matter what time frame within their life they draw the memory from. |
| Genetic Memory (Minor) | As a domain, Remembrance is often overlooked by those who follow Vri. Although of vital importance, few pay it the proper homage it’s due. Most take it for granted. Those who follow Vri know differently, however. Memory is a record of the past and in that past, answers to current problems can be found. This ability relies on the creative powers of the player to help describe, but can be immensely valuable to the marked. Entering into a meditative trance, a marked of Vri can step ‘back’ two generations of their lineage seeking the answer to a problem. These answers come in the forms of visions, snatches of imagery and experience. Some with this ability spend many trials poring through the lives of their parents and their parents parents, hungry for experience and knowledge. This ability cannot be used on those who are already alive as they must have passed through Vri’s hands to be applicable. If one's father still draws breath, this ability cannot look into their lives. Only the dead may whisper their secrets through genetic experience. |
| Durge's Stain | For the marked of Vri, Death becomes a tangible force. Those with this ability require but a few moments of concentration to know if death occurred in a building or locale around them. They will always know exactly how many have died and the area in which the body fell. Even if the death is ages old, a marked of Vri can find the exact spot they breathed their last. Without a body, the marked can determine little else but vague impressions in the nature of the death (Violence, age, sickness), but this ability has been used before to aid investigations on where the scene of a murder really happened and whether further investigation is warranted. The marked, when touching the spot of death, can determine the age, name (The name the deceased most identified with), and sex of the individual who passed. |
| Memento | Memory is tangible, it has a weight. All experiences have a power to them. A marked of Vri can designate objects as Memento’s, specially enchanted items that hold memories. Most small objects can hold, at most, a single uninterrupted memory. It is said that working with a master crafter, specialized memento’s can be created but at this level, only one memory can be stored per object. When the memory is stored the user has a choice, to share the memory completely and sever it from their own mind, or share an echo of it. The echo will be muted, not completely clear, as if experiencing things through a heavy curtain. Usually this will still be enough to communicate the experience, but to truly have the owner of a memento experience the memory, it must be cut away entirely from the mind of the one giving it. Once tasked, the Memento can impart this memory to anyone who holds the object next. At this level, the memory is limited. The first other person to touch the object will receive the memory, causing the Memento to once again be only an object. A marked can either task their own memories, or the willing memories of another. At Exalted level, a Grand Memento can be crafted which will always hold its memory, never relinquishing the charge when gifting it to another. Those who are Vri’s champions can create Echo Mementos, which can include every memory within a Champion’s life. Sometimes such rare objects are left as guides to new Champions, who can ask a facsimile personality created by the memories for guidance and wisdom. |
| Lament's Judge | Sorrow is the domain of Vri and his marked hold a special relationship with the emotion. Lament’s Judge is an ability which can only be used when sorrow has manifested. The marked contains the ability to reach out and pluck the sorrow from the heart of another, taking it into themselves instead. They can allay the sadness of the aggrieved by imbibing their emotions through touch and experiencing them firsthand. This ability can be dangerous for a marked as Sorrow is an endless chalice and to drink too deep of it is to invite madness. That said, the marked have been known to bring momentary relief to those stricken by despair. When a marked chooses to take sorrow, they remove the ability for the target to feel sorrow over a specific subject for the remainder of the Trial. Instead, the marked will bare the weight. They will grieve the dead as ardently as a lover, even if they never knew them. At the end of the Trial, the ability ends and the target can once again feel the emotions. The reverse of this ability allows a marked to conjure up deep sorrow from their own life and then pass it to a victim. This ability works the same way, one Trial of sorrow over a specific subject while the marked would feel calm and peace. |
| Love's Caress | Love is an important domain expressed by the Immortal and thus, is reflected within the abilities of those he marks. This ability is only found when a marked individual has acknowledged their true love and vise versa, allowing the two to telepathically connect to one another. This connection is soul binding, where the two may feel the emotions of the other, sometimes the physically touches of the other, or hear the thoughts of the other, depending on how focused the two are when attempting to communicate. No matter the distance, this connection will always provide communication between the two. However, this communication may be blocked or disrupted by certain magics and/or with meditation. |
Adored
| Ability Name | Ability Description |
|---|---|
| A Vision of Demise | This ability works in conjunction with the Gwelliph-granted ability of the same name. When working alone, this is fundamentally the same ability
However, if working together then the Bellinos and Gwelliph can now both extend this ability - the Blessed can initiate a trance in which the victim will experience any aspect or experience of one of the lives the Blessed has stored. So, should they initiate a trance with a slaver, for example, they might impart the arcs of slavery they have experienced from one of their victims. This can be resisted, to some extent, by Expert level Discipline or above - but it makes the emotional impact less, does not stop the experience. Vision of Demise Ability
The marked of Vri are connoisseurs of ends. With the first ability, Final Moment, the marked begins to collect the deaths experienced by those around him. A Vision of Demise is an evolution of Final Moment to a terrifying potential. Initiated by touch, a marked of Vri can initiate a trance in which the victim will experience a death that the marked has recorded. While mostly intended as instructive, this ability can be used to torture and end hostilities. While this ability is active, both the marked and the subject are locked in a trance and unable to do anything else. So long as contact is maintained, this ability cannot be escaped. Both the marked and the subject experience the full death before being released. |
| Death's Companion | Although relatively rare, there are spirits of Death. Natural entropic spirits that uphold the balance of all beings in their cycle. Since the intervention of the Immortals there have been fewer and fewer of these spirits active in the world of Idalos and nearly all serve Vri and his chosen. Only the Adored, his trusted, are awarded the company of one such spirit. The agreement is very simple, the spirit will aid the Adored without violently intervening in their lives. When manifesting, these spirits often take the shape of carrion birds, otherwise they tend to lurk invisibly around the marked. Those that can see spirits will note most death spirits tend to have the appearance of a glossy black, vaguely humanoid shape. Often the Adored will use these spirits to scout or lead them to sights of death. Unlike their Marked abilities, a Death spirit can sense death for miles. Presenting an item of the deceased to a Death spirit will allow that spirit to lead the Adored to the location of death, no matter the distance. Invested in the fate of their companion, these spirits will usually warn an Adored if they are being followed or are in any danger. The spirits tend to be very patient and sometimes almost annoyingly calm. |
| Deathkeeper's Skills II | The character is granted an extra six skill points which may be spent only on the following skills: Caregiving, Investigation, Meditation, Detection. Any skill points granted by this Mark can break the 250 (or 100 if fast track) point cap on skills. Within these skills, the points may be spent how the pc chooses. |
| Love's Embrace | Those marked by Vri have the potential to be true matchmakers of the heart. This ability allows those marked to delve into the heartstrings of those around them and read all past relationships of love and loss as well as determine if their current romantic interest is truly worth the effort or not. They are also able to determine if those romantic interests are ‘true loves’ or if they’ll fail miserably, as well as provide information to an individual as to whom their true love will be. The marked are not able to give actual names, though they may give personality traits, appearance traits, and possible directions. The marked are not able to use this ability on themselves. This ability, if used often, will slowly drain the marked of their own love, compassion, mercy, and kindness. |
| Muscle Memory (Minor) | What some tend to forget is that memory is not simply contained in the mind. Ones muscles and body is also an accurate repository of knowledge. Most of these memories are practical, the correct way to swing a sword, how to avoid crushing your own thumb with a hammer...these details tend to be small but vitally important to the physical skills that one masters during the lives. But as they are a form of Remembrance, Vri can access them as part of his domain. The Adored has the option to access these as well, allowing a way to share such skills between different individuals. This power, like many of Vri’s, operates on consent. When an Adored asks to share skills with another, the other must agree to allow this magic to work. While useless on matters of knowledge, the social and mental skills excluded, physical skills become shareable between two. This ability lasts only four breaks before needing to be initialized again. |
| Stolen Moments | Sometimes a Bellinos is not the kindest within the realm of memories. Stolen moments steals a memory being recalled from one mind and adds it to the Bellinos. So long as the Bellinos maintains eye contact, they can steal whatever memory is currently being actively recalled in the victim. Often, a Bellinos will do this to steal particularly damaging memory from one individual and deal with it themselves. |
| Untouched by Death | This ability is a passive one, granted in protection to the chosen of Vri. The dead that remain on Idalos and become Ghosts have a host of troublesome abilities and many have resentment toward those who would serve the Immortal of natural ends. This ability gives a marked natural protection from Ghosts and the abilities they employ. Ghosts will find they cannot harvest emotions or heat from a Bellinos, finding instead that their ectoplasm is torn and shredded around the Bellinos themselves. The touch of a Bellinos is dangerous to a manifested ghost who will find it immediately begins discorporating their spectral forms. A Bellinos can forcibly forgo this ability when focusing, but otherwise this protection remains with them perpetually. |
| Shadow of Demise | This ability marks the Death on any person or object, revealing them to the marked. The Bellinos is instantly aware if any object has brought death, is intended to bring death, or has been created to bring death. While weapons are obviously made to slay, this ability allows a Bellinos to instantly recognize poison or a disguised concealed weapon. Magical items designed to kill will also immediately reveal themselves beneath the Bellinos' perceptions. A Bellinos can sense the amount of life any person they look upon has taken, measuring the shadows behind them or the blood dripping from their hands that only they can see. This ability cannot be ignored or nullified. Some Bellinos see this as a curse, forced to look on the active agents of death in the world, while others see it as an advantage to know whom to avoid and what items may promise unexpected peril. |
| Thoughtweave (Minor) | Power over the past is not limited to recollection only of the dead but of other things long past. Items, objects of power the dead once held or those favored objects from the past can be plucked from the mind of an Adored and brought into the real world. For up to a trial, an object can be plucked from memory that is no longer in the possession of the user. Weapons, armor, even toys recalled in childhood long lost to the ages can be summoned. The item must be one that was mourned in some small way, that its loss in the Adored’s life meant something. This object can be summoned from a single memory at the cost of that memory. In spite of the Eidetic grasp of Vri’s servants, memories sacrificed to ThoughtWeave fade after the power has faded, only recoverable if someone else can return the memory to the Adored. At this level, objects summoned are usually small to moderate sized, no larger than a suit of armor.At least three such items can be maintained with this ability and can be held in existence for up to a Cycle (although only three such items can remain in existence at any given time. A new one cannot be summoned till an old one is dismissed). |
Exalted
| Ability Name | Ability Description |
|---|---|
| Interrupted Fate | Only the truly Exalted of Vri can hope to earn his favor for this ability. As the Exalted perishes, they may choose to enact this ability. When activated, the Exalted is protected from death for the remainder of the Trial. After which, any active effects contributing to the Exalted’s death (poison, wounds, water in the lungs, etc) are cleansed from the Exalted’s body. Only usable once an Arc, this ability comes with a staggeringly hefty price. One of the Exalted’s own must take the death meant for the marked. As Vri’s exalted, the marked is allowed to choose which loved one will perish but the requirement is that they must be someone incredibly dear to the Exalted. If no loved ones exist, the marked will perish instantly upon the next Trial. Truth be told, the inverse of this ability is also available. The Exalted can choose to visit this effect on a loved one at any range when their life would end, to trade the Exalted’s life for their own. Whether the loved one will become aware of this or not is up to the Exalted. It is said that Vri honors those who sacrifice themselves in this way and personally attends the Exalted’s final moments. It is said one can ask a favor of Vri then, a boon of protection for a loved one or a cause and that the Immortal will listen. |
| Death's Guardian | The Spirit companion of the Bellinos grows more capable at this level. Having developed its relationship with the Bellinos, the Spirit becomes capable of manifesting to attack the foes of the Bellinos. When fully manifested, Greater Death spirits like the one that follows the Exalted will be immense, wingspans each the length of a horse's body. They maintain their appearance as a carrion bird, albeit cut from shadow with bright shining white eyes. Their talons are wickedly sharp and impart a heavy sense of foreboding death to those cut, often destroying an opponent's morale. In addition, the wounds fester and rot. If the opponent is something like a necromancer's thralls, the talons of the Death Spirit will quickly reduce the undead into an ashy heap of decaying flesh. When damaged, the spirit will retreat to the Beneath, the world beyond the physical in order to heal. |
| Deathkeeper's Skills III | The character is granted an extra nine skill points which may be spent only on the following skills: Caregiving, Investigation, Meditation, Detection. Any skill points granted by this Mark can break the 250 (or 100 if fast track) point cap on skills. Within these skills, the points may be spent how the pc chooses. |
| Thoughtweave (Major) | The Exalted of Vri receive an Enlightenment to their ability of Thoughtweave. Rather than limited to the size of armor, much bigger items can be drawn from memory and kept. Up to the size of an actual ship can be drawn from the ether of a memory and given shape through this power. Additionally, at this stage of power the exalted of Vri can, with permission, access the memory of others with them and draw mourned or beloved items from the void of loss to be created. At least three such items can be maintained with this ability and can be held in existence for up to a Cycle (although only three such items can remain in existence at any given time. A new one cannot be summoned till an old one is dismissed). |
| Muscle Memory (Major) | At this level, the Exalted is able to share Muscle Memory between up to five people at once and maintain the connection for up to a Trial. Bellinos soldiers are strongly desired in armies precisely for this ability that can turn a novice fighting unit into a much more cohesive and dangerous force with but one skilled solider. |
| Genetic Memory (Major) | This level of ability allows a Bellinos to step back almost to the beginning of their family line seeking answers. While it cannot be directly controlled and reliving the past lives of ones ancestors is not the purpose of the mark, this ability allows a Bellinos to seek connection to their ancestors in order to confront unique problems in their own life. This ability does not allow one to go all the way back to the first of their line, but they can step at least eight generations into the past by direct line to seek their ancestors. |
| Doldrum | One of the capstone abilities of Bellinos is to release a torrent of unmitigated sorrow around the marked in a sixty yard radius. This cascade of depression overwhelms Empath manipulation and most other mark abilities to bolster emotion, filling the minds with those around the marked with an apathetic or loathing sorrow. Most overcome with this ability cannot continue with the task they were before and only those of immense discipline or meditation can find themselves with some semblance of choice in the madness. Even those who are usually incapable of feeling emotion will have the sorrow overwhelm their heart and soul. The Bellinos is unable to take offensive reaction against others during this time, else immediately dispel the effect and it lasts for a single break. The Bellinos can extend this for an additional break, but after the ability ends they will grapple with their own dark sorrow, and no ability normally granted to allay that sorrow will soothe them. Once the Bellinos leaves or this ability ends, a victim is naturally able to get past the sorrow, but in the heart of the power it is impossible to stop. |
Champion
| Ability Name | Ability Description |
|---|---|
| Deathless | This ability is granted to Vri’s champion when they are named. Vri himself speaks the ancient spell that changes the nature of the one he marks as his true champion. Such a being will die if and when Vri feels their service is complete. Barring that, age and time will not touch them nor result in the end of their life. The marked ceases to age and is, in fact, frozen in time at the point of them being marked. Some have suggested Vri has an agreement with Ralaith and takes some of the incantation from that Immortal’s domain, but among the gifts Vri can offer, this is the most immense. Unfortunately, this gift does not deliver the Champion from pain or injury. They are, however, immune to every form of disease and poison, as a result of their timelessness. |
| Remembered Dead | While Vri holds dominion over death, that somber silence all must face eventually, he does not command the Souls that animate mortals with sentience and choice in the realm. While he is incapable of bringing back the dead, there is another kind of magic that he is capable of and that he grants only to his champion. Requiring the intonation of an Ancient Word, the champion of Vri is able to reach into their own minds and delve into the memories of those who have passed. They must locate a possession that once belonged to that person, or locate their final resting place, or else a part of their remains. Just one of these things is needed. Once they've acquired it, they can delve into their memories fully, at any point in their life.
While doing this they will find themselves in an unassailable trance, they can delve into the lifetime of that person, as if they were that person with all the blessings they currently possess, reliving any point in their life through eidetic memory and other abilities. These trance-like experiences can be quite vivid as a result, and insightful. As such, any thread where the Champion engages in this ability, they can retain knowledge of any skill the deceased person possessed with greater mental acuity, resulting in a potential of three extra knowledges per thread in addition to those they are entitled to. Any point, from birth up to the moment of death can be relived in this way. (If, in the case of PCs, one tries to delve into their memories, they must acquire OOC permission for them to do so. These threads must also be written in the format of a memory thread.) |
The Curse of Vri
Vri rarely curses. For the Immortal of Death, there are few reasons to ever mark someone negatively that will not eventually be solved by time. Vri has complete trust in Pier and Pre to render fair judgement and often recuses himself emotionally from the proceedings. While not without emotion, Vri is uniquely outside the usual games the Immortals play. When Vri marks another cursed, he does so as an object lesson. The Curse of Bellinos takes the form of black tarry lines that cross the chest and spatter the back. While appearing to actually be wet tar of some kind, these marks cannot be wiped away or cleaned. They always run, they always feel cold to the touch.
Condemned
Vri rarely gives out his curse, as he normally leaves the judgement of mortals to Pier and Pre. So it follows that his curse seems to resemble one of the effects of their heavier powers, which is Rebirth. The condemned of Vri loses all memory of who they are and were. While they may retain their skills and magics they had, they will no longer be recognized as the person they had been.
Similarly, nobody who knew them will recognize them going forward, although they retain memories of who they were.
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