Necromancy/GoldenCat

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Onyx Circle

Mask of {Monarch}
Labyrinth Circle Spell
Cost: 40 motes.

The Dual Monarchs stand at the heart of Stygia - and indeed of all the Underworld. The Monarchs are idea more than creature, four archetypes that are given with a mask and whose role and life are taken by ghost after ghost with the passing of the previous one. Ideas so powerful they transcend lives. With this Charm the Necromancer rises this idea from the very fabric of the Underworld and creates a mask of perfect Alabaster or Obsidian for her face, donning the legend but not the identity of the Monarch for the remainder of the moment this Charm is used until the moment the Calendar of Setesh marks dawn in the Underworld. This is in fact four different Spells, each of which follows the legend of a Monarch...

• Eset The Female Aspect of the White Monarch, Eset is the strangest of them. Some believe that she was the first, that she crawled from the Abyss and was taken up by a ghost, the senseless whispers of Oblivion given a mind and a voice. The Underworld depends on her to control the nephwracks and their servants. It is she that calms the great storms that, let lose, call the mortwights from the Labyrinth. While in the role of Eset the Necromancer receives the benefits of the Eclipse Caste Diplomatic Immunity towards all beings that draw power or worship Oblivion: Nephwracks, Spectres, Hekatonkires, Deathlords and others. All those must also spend 1 willpower to deny her every command. She can calm any weather condition in the Underworld - even those created by external forces - with a single success in an Essence roll (or an Essence contest with the creators of deliberate effects.) All of her Virtue dice come as automatic successes when channeling Temperance. The Necromancer receives the Nature Visionary in addition to her own.

• Usine The Male Aspect of the White Monarch, Usine is the stone fist of the Monarchy. He holds the key that controls the golem army of Stygia. In the past, he traveled outside Stygia, and his bright panoply gave the stagnant ghosts of the Underworld the strength to continue clinging to existence. While in the role of Usine he steels all ghosts who follow him or to whom he gives his favor to always suceed in Valor rolls and ignore all the effects of fear, doubt, and Lethe. A number of Automaton equal to his Essence rating come to him, all of which having the same statistics as Denandsor's guardians and will follow all of his commands - they walk into the shadows of the Underworld at the end of the Spell. All of his Virtue dice come as automatic successes when channeling Valor. The Necromancer receives the Nature Paragon in addition to his own.

• Setesh is the Monarch of Efficacious Prayers, and he oversees the propitiatory rituals and rites that insure the stability of the Underworld. His is the office that ghosts petition when they seek to place a mausoleum in Stygia, allowing them to gain Essence from the gathered prayers the dead offer to the dead. Setesh also maintains the Great Calendar of the Underworld, without which the cycle of rites would fall into catastrophic disarray. Mastery of the Calendar gives Setesh the talent of prophecy, at least as it bears on the future of the Underworld.

• Nebthys Nebthys has always been the ruler most interested in the living world. She hears the last whispers of the dying, and many secrets have found their way into her dark mind. She has never been generous with her knowledge. She may whisper a single word into the proper ear or direct the Silver Observances to pass a quiet message into the living world, but she does not make proclamations or revelations. While in the role of Nebthys the Necromancer hears the dying words of all within ten times her Essence in miles as well as their meaning and situation in detail. She rolls Essence when meeting a ghost and knows that many of his secrets. All of her Virtue dice come as automatic successes when channeling Compassion. The Necromancer receives the Nature Explorer in addition to her own.

Obsidian Circle

Ebony Illumination
Void Circle Spell
Cost: 60 motes.

Apotheosis to the unliving. Within the Underworld there are wonders - the single living flower that blooms in an immense bone garden in the Labyrinth; the remains of a prophet consumed by his own void-wrought prophecies; the manifested true face of a ghost before he was born; the tears of Pluto, the Incarna forever locked away; a masterpiece crafted by the Dual Monarchy. In those there are the myriad possibilities even the shadow of Creation possesses. Within the Underworld there are great Spirits of elsewhere whose light has been changed to the monochrome wonder of Netheos. The Necromancer takes both of those and brings a ghost to become Illuminated!

The Ghost's heart is ripped apart and replaced with the Underworld Wonder that begins to consume his very soul as he walks in a sacred circle drawn in painstaking detail accross a mile and filled with bones and incense. In this circle the ghost fights the Spirit in a duel that always lasts from dusk until dawn - the Spirit can be weakened by the Necromancer, but if it defeats the Ghost it receives the right to go free and the ghost is consumed by the grandeur of the Underworld Wonder as it burns both to nothingness. Neither Ghost nor wonder will recompose - they are lost forever. If the Ghost wins he and the Spirit become one in glorious fires of apotheosis! For one hour the ghost burns to be reborn as an illuminated being.

Illuminated Ghosts become proficient at the use of Essence. That grants them the ability to...

• ... make Combos as Exalted. Arcanoi have the same Combo rules as Attribute Charms, almost without restriction.
• ... add dice with Charms up to their their highest Passion+Essence.
• ... attain the Bulb of the Perfected Lotus the manner of the Dragon-Blooded.
• ... learn Shadowlands and Labyrinth Circle Necromancy.
• ... their Essence in Spirit Charms of types once possessed by the Spirit whose power is now theirs'.
• ... receive Magical Material Bonus from artifacts by forcing attunement. Their 'natural' material comprises all Grave Goods. A Grave Good attuned to a Illuminated can enter Creation without becoming dust at sunlight if the Ghost commits twice the required motes to it.
• ... two Illuminations. Those are akin to Hearthstone abilities of level four that fit the theme of the Illuminated's Wonder and Spirit. Hearthstones whose power include their breaking are powers that take one month to recharge. Hearthstones that affect the items they are socketed in instead affect all items attunned to the Ghost. Those Hearthstones tend to be Underworld ones but do not have to be - they may be of any Aspect (even Celestial ones warped with the effects of the Underworld.)

The Illumination cannot be broken by Countermagic. The Ghost remains a Ghost to all effects that would target him - with the exception of effects that would utterly break his being with little or no resistance: those can be denied with the expenditure of 1 dot of Permanent Willpower.

(Relentless Revenant Spirit, the Abyssal Charm that enhances the Abyssal's Ghost after his death now grants all those abilities, plus access to natural attunement of Soulsteel and access to Labyrinth Circle Necromancy. All that on top of doubling its number of starting Arcanoi. It is already bad enough for an Abyssal to lose all of his Charms, flexibility, and access to the higher circles.)

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