Accretion - A farmer's boy. A sword of fable. A perilous quest. Death or glory.
A form of symbiosis between wielder and object, integrating shared experiences, mythic archetypes, accumulated legendry and personal craftsmanship. The result is a being greater than the sum of its parts, not a man wielding a sword but Arthur with Excalibur, the blade closer to his being than his own sword-arm. That deep conceptual weight, wearing a groove in reality's current, permits the slow unfurling of impossible feats as a product of that partnership.
The power of Accretion is rarely replicable and never easily defined. Its greatest masters turn the tides of battle simply by taking the field, their presence an inexpressible radiance, sharp light beyond sense or reason, that erodes the existential basis of those who would oppose them. You will find them at the crux of fate, the critical point of inflection; there does that power reach its apex, starshine become a blazing sun, light and fire and fury as to bring the world to its knees.
*A power that is somewhat agnostic to the strength of one's foes. Battle Magic will never deflect a supernova; a master of this art might, though they'd have near equal difficulty deflecting a tank shell.
*Operates on a level beyond physical causality. With few exceptions, does not enhance physical parameters at all.
*With time and many shared tribulations, some of a union's powers may become relatively consistent and explicable. For example, the hero wears a suit of dark grey plate, and nothing may slay him short of annihilating the armor entire.
*Forbidden Art: Abduction. The forceful seizing of another's armament, inconsistent in applicable and terribly risky, as aspects of the prior wielder may impose themselves upon you. The hero stole into the Tyrant's Catacomb and emerged bearing the sword of the Tyrant's progenitor. That blade now lies broken, and with it its wielder.
As Planned - Competence bonus to creating and adjusting schemes.
Crown - +.25 Astral Rank
Fierce Vigor - The terrible might of [the King Fish's] thrashing sinews, fit to part wave from shore. Gain one copy of [Echo of the Forebear], granting +Might and +Agility.
Feat - Age and Treachery. Gain +.25 Rank.
Feat: Apex - +.2 Astral Rank -
Who is King? Who else but he who suffers the Tyrant's Doom?
Feat - Knife. Adds .15 Rank, .2 with Uttermost.
Feat: Reckoner - Adds .15 Rank, 0.375 after bonuses.
Feat: Crown - Requires Be the Change. Unlocks the potential for
Feat: Saber and
Feat: Orb. You may find an opportunity to acquire this Feat again, but it is rare and dependent on circumstance...
If you survive, no power will be beyond you.
The Accursed had told him that. These three short weeks have felt like a lifetime, filled with harrowing challenge, foes and travails over every horizon. He has never worked so hard or so furiously in his life, even against the world-pervading crush of the Tyrant's presence. But the reward of discipline is power, and power has been attained at last. Power enough, in some ways, even to eclipse the Hero who stood against that Tyrant of yore, all those long months ago... power to triumph where he failed.
Now, child of Earth. How will you use that power?
At last attain the outcome that Hunger died for, what he set out to do before age and treachery taught him what may have been his final lesson, but for the intervention of the Accursed. Gain
+.25 Base Rank;
+.5 with modifiers. Rank gain may be reduced (with partial Arete refund) if reforms are not successful. This Feat would normally put you into pick debt, but Be the Change covers the difference.
King of Winter: Overwhelm - A surfeit of might overwhelming. Increases Health, Damage Resistance, Condition Resistance, Damage Dealt and Attack Speed by 25%. Modifiers from this source stack multiplicatively with those from other sources, such that this Title offers scaling benefits virtually regardless of how high your base parameters become. Combined, these effects improve the wielder's damage output and resilience to 156%; compared to his pre-Title self the wielder would be roughly 245% as potent in direct combat. Good synergy with Uttermost and Inherit the World; compounding multipliers will set up an especially powerful Refinement of Battle. Damage Dealt modifier applies to the Power of Ruin in
All circumstances. Uttermost already increased his Attribute-based damage scaling by a factor of seven, which this will improve to 8.75x, and Overwhelm will also improve his effective Power of Ruin multiplier from All-Defeating Stance to a fearsome 6.25x!
Whiteout - The avalanche strength that buries resistance; the howling swiftness of a winter storm. Increases Damage Dealt modifier to +125% and Attack Speed modifier to
+30%. 11.25x PoR with ADS...
Edeldross: This precursor component of findross embodies redemption, perfection, restoration and the renewal of cycles. It is the liminal gloss between real and ideal, whereby the purposeless matter of the corporeal world becomes the refined substrate of supernal augmentation. Blasts, voids and shields of solidified edeldross convey the principle of 'transference without harm,' allowing the character to re-position allies and scatter enemies with minimal possibility of collateral damage. Kinetic flight is possible through continuous burst releases, but its greatest benefits are found in augmentation. Pure edeldross is semi-corporeal and swiftly fades beneath the withering indifference of the real, but contained within a person's body it holistically augments all elements of the self, supernal excellence beyond the reach of the mundane.
Though mastery is a long and arduous process, precise configurations of Edeldross can be arranged so as to replicate nearly one-tenth of all Sorcerous Graces.
Hunger's Imaginary Element is determined by his
relationships. Gisena's art, shaped by Letrizia's language and technique, conferring Catherine's benevolence. +Gisena, +Letrizia, +Catherine (?)
Discounts
Total Eclipse by 1 Arete
-Solidified edeldross can be used as a form of damage-preventing energy blast, which, while unable to slay enemies on its own, can be actively spammed due to its negation of harm. Can ablate away to cancel equivalent quantities of Nullity, allowing for easy combat alongside Gisena with a bit of practice. Pacify a city undergoing a zombie apocalypse with a minimum of innocent life lost, scatter both sides in a pitched battle without slaying any of their number, etc.
-Beings within the radius of a release of pure edeldross receive a
20% bonus to all Attributes. The magnitude of this bonus can be improved over time. Take care not to buff your enemies as well. Pure edeldross is considerably more draining to use.
-By working with Gisena's mage-sight, Hunger may slowly over time develop specific Patterns of edeldross that can temporary replicate the effects of various Sorcerous Graces. Perhaps developments even further than this can be achieved in time...
[Edeldross Adept] - Conjunctional
[Ring of Power, Evening Sky] Through a surge of genius, Hunger vastly accelerates the growth of his proficiency with Edeldross.
*Substantially improves the effects of Hunger's Edeldross training session, increasing Magnitude to +30% and imparting significant bonuses to control. He can now consistently form barriers, blasts, and basic shapes (spear, sword, boxing glove) from Edeldross.
*Hunger can now maintain close to 100% uptime on basic self Edeldross enhancement.
*Unlocks
advanced Edeldross enhancement, a time-limited technique that increases his effective Magnitude by half again.
*Doubles the rate of pseudo-Grace creation in the future. This benefit is unique to the Advancement.
Inherit the World - The Worldkeeper's power, yielded to the Imprisoner's. Shattered in mind, whole in body, their spirit given over to the grasp of their successor.
Defining Advancement. You may only have three Defining Advancements.
*Acquire the Soul Evocation of the
Penitent, whose shadow is a thing of stained glass and light, and whose figure can absorb punishment unending yet burst forth with ceaseless might. Ignore wound penalties; the user's body is held together by its shadow and cannot be slain short of total annihilation.
*The Penitent may call forth his shadow in an expunging tide. Those fallen beneath are physically encased and magically suppressed, though some arts of power vastly greater than that of Soul Evocation as a whole are immune to this effect. Overuse may decrease the user's WITS, WISDOM and finally INT, but would require many years of continuous deployment; penalties imposed are reverted once the shadow is recalled.
*Outrageous destruction and sober atonement are writ into the Penitent's place within the cosmos. Halve the social penalty from, and double the effective forgiveness for, escalating to violence in otherwise inappropriate situations. This is bound into the fabric of reality and is treated as a 'natural' social phenomenon, the expected baseline.
*Combined with high Charisma, the above effect is exceptionally useful for those possessing the Doom of the Tyrant. Mechanically it's represented as halving/doubling; in-universe the difference in actual sentiment can be an order of magnitude or greater. Still, a dangerous power to possess - and not to be used lightly, lest one be tempted to abuse it.
*+50% to the value of Might +s.
*+50% the value of Protection +s.
*+400% Health.
*+20% to the value of future Rank +s;
you may train Rank manually.
*+++Mental Contamination. The wielder disdains cowardice, has little patience for torturers, and easily flies into a violent rage against those he considers morally repugnant. Willpower + alternate Mental Contamination to resist.
[X] The Classical Form - The hand outstretched. Runes of blue like a sudden parapet, quill-strokes carved into reality's unresisting face. Multitudinous are the manifestations of the Praxis, yet the classical form is most commonly encountered. From its sigils of impossible elegance flow the culmination of all powers and things, for the scope of the Work is without limit, and so too must be its Art.
*A wall of runes is homologous to a succession of strokes, tip of the sword as fitting a tool as the will-sharpened mind.
Refinement of Quickness - When this rune is executed, temporarily elevate the practitioner's speed one step along the Infinite Singularity Husk. Duration depends on your skill in the Art, but is comparatively brief. Highly draining.
Artful Thorn - When this rune is executed, briefly afterwards the practitioner's attack is guaranteed to cause a truly meaningful wound if it lands, no matter the scale of the enemy or the inapplicability of his weapon. Even a beast the size of a multiverse will be equivalently impaired to a human's losing of an eye or hand. At this level, only works on coherent enemies (can target the Rotbeast, but not "all Rotspawn"). Increasingly draining.
Empyreal Signs
First Sign: Fleet Advance - Like swift-footed Hermes he outpaces the sunbeam, racing to the furthermost reaches of sky. Where the heavens touch, there is the King of Winter, and none subject to the turning of seasons may hope to forestall his advance.
Nightmare Flight [Evening Sky] - As sudden and total as the onset of night.
Casting time: Fifteen minutes to charge
Duration: Once charged, persists up to 24 hours or until used
Cooldown: Until Next Evening
The caster and up to four additional individuals immediately teleport to any location under the same sky. The location must be familiar to the caster. Can pierce wards created by lesser magics. The Empyreal Signs sit only modestly below the Royal Praxis in potential power, though such is difficult to realize...
Can act as perfect defense against attacks of insufficient range / area or spatial penetration, should the caster react in time. Allows the traversal of far greater distances in the Voyaging Realm than the
Noonday version of this sign.
S
econd Sign: Bastion of Myth [Evening Sky] - Ineluctable and unconquerable as a neutron star; merely to approach is to be bent into his sway. Hostile gravitation finds little purchase against such deeper might.
Synergy:
Hero-Defeating Stance - Doubles the effects of Hero-Defeating Stance in all parameters. Hostile Rank greater than the caster's has its respective difference halved, then halved again. Increases Rank by a total of +0.4 (does not stack with Once and Future). Discounts Once and Future by 2 instead of 1. Grants additional commensurate Might, Agility, and Wisdom.
Casting Time: Instant Upon Acquisition
Duration: Permanent
Third Sign: Supreme Enclosure [Evening Sky] - The Luna Conquerer extends his reach, and within his grasp finds clutched a minion or servitor from beyond the arc of the physical.
Casting time: 1 hour
Duration: 1 Lunar month or until dispelled
Cooldown: 1 day after dispellation
Summons an Astral Entity of Rank no greater than the caster's own, minimum 7. The entity is incapable of directly harming the caster but is otherwise free to act, unless binding negotiations are entered into. If so, then both caster and entity will be bound to said conditions by the power of this sign; the summoned entity is by default unaware of this, but sufficiently powerful or capable entities may have means of making themselves aware. Entities can be dispelled by slaying them, or by waiting out the duration of this spell.
The summoned entity will tend to be useful for the caster's current short- and medium-term purposes, but this is not always the case. Their powers, tendencies and skills can vary wildly. Take care that you do not call forth what you cannot put down.
