Oooh, can you say more about these?
Sure, and I'll do more than that. For those of you not in the know, the two canon Battle Altars are the Luminarks of Hysh and the Celestial Hurricanum, but we also know that Teclis granted all of the various Colleges Orbs of Sorcery what contain that Wind in extremely powerful levels. So these are non-canonical ones that I envision the Colleges making. I will also note that there are
very few Orbs of Sorcery. This is not TWW, you will not see a doomstack of Luminarks or any of the others.
Especially because the Light College decided to use every single one of their Orbs of Sorcery to help power the spell network safeguarding all of the horrific evil artefacts and what not that they couldn't destroy yet locked beneath the Light College. So any time you see a Luminark on the battlefield, one of the Hysh Orbs of Sorcery are missing from that crucial lattice of protection and binding. This is why a chunk of the Light College is staying behind, because, you know, kind of have to constantly be reinforcing that thing to make up for the missing Orbs.
And uh, you
really don't want the things the Light College are keeping up to get out. For real.
Anyhow, the Luminarks of Hysh have 3 notable things about them, well 4 if you include the obvious 'they are chariot-pulled by horses and run by a team of wizards' thing.
1. Granting a Ward Save to those nearby.
2. Get better dispelling going on.
3. Solheim's Bolt of Illumination: Aka, their attack. A big ol' laser beam of Hysh what 'scythes through enemy ranks with the power of a solar flare'. Very powerful laser beam blast. Magic artillery, effectively.
The Celestial Hurricanum, on the other hand, are something that was brought up in the story before when we were discussing Cloud Altars/Storm Spheres. They are sort of like those, but also somewhat different. A fully activated Cloud Altar with Storm Spheres placed within causes storms and things, and these are not purely directable, some collateral is possible. Then again that's all sorts of things in Warhammer.
Anyway, normally the Celestial College use their Orbs of Sorcery for helping make super accurate future predictions. But in times of extreme need, they can be used in battle. One of the most major methods of this is no longer tracking the orbits of comets, but actually reaching up and dragging them down to earth. The difficulty, of course, is making the right alignments of the orrey system to make the right effects.
So they can do:
1. Increase magic in the area for you.
2. Improve your accuracy in hitting stuff due to, you know, seeing/being affected by portents of the future.
3. Storm of Shemtek: Now, the issue of this one is the unpredictability. It rolls each time they try to align it. Really hard to be 100% accurate with it. Anyway, it can do a little rain, or a bit of icy shards, to a straight up tornado, to a powerful lighting strike, or even bring down a meteor onto the target.
With all that in mind, we have the other Battle Altars for the other Colleges.
The Amethyst Mortisiary
So this one is, pretty much, purely an offensive weapon. It doesn't buff your troops, it doesn't make them hit more accurately, it doesn't reduce or increase the Winds of Magic for you or the enemy. The Mortisiary is something that looks sort of like a ringed circle of stone coffins upon a large platform, within which the orb of sorcery sits in its own little edifice/obelisk while the wizards utilize it. It has two main ones. The first is where they focus all its dread might onto a single target, i.e. a monster or something, and cast forth a basically supercharged version of the Caress of Laniph battlefield spell. In this case, called the Gaze of Morr. Second one weakens enemies, Soulblight spell, The third one is pulling out the Purple Sun of Xereus.
1. Gaze of Morr, direct specific person/monster damage.
2. Soulblight tears strength and toughness from people, making them that much easier to kill.
3. Purple Sun of Xereus, big ol' vortex sphere of death that the Altar's people can move around.
Ignusarum of Aqshy
So this is a mixture machine. Despite the whole 'rare Orb of Sorcery' thing, this device was primarily created by Von Tarnus. Aka a former veteran Greatsword. So it's a huge honking mass of super thick metal on six big metal wheels, basically like a sorta big ol oven, almost, except heat inside is good for the Bright Wizards using it.
It does two things, pretty much, but the first one is 2 inside itself. It's a huge buff machine, in that it simulcasts Cascading Fire Cloak and Flaming Sword of Rhuin aka 'anyone touching you suffers fire damage and also your weapons now deal fire damage', and is meant to be closer to the front lines than, say, the Luminarks or what not. Preferably close enough, as well, that the second function can go off, powerful wave of fire spell which will wash over the enemy as a column of fire.
1. Glorious Conflagration: Garbs nearby allied units and their weapons in fire, burning the enemy in two ways at once. From daring to come close, and from suffering your allies attentions with their now-enchanted weaponry.
2. Sweeping Inferno: A massive wave of fire comes crashing into existence, scorching even bones to ashes and superheating metals, directed by the wizards within the Battle Altar.
Golden Metallus Altar
This Altar was made with the intention of vastly improving the capabilities of the troops around and in front of it, the better to protect it and kill the enemy. The Wind of Chamon it channels are pretty directly put towards aiding the troops. This takes the form of, similarly to the above, buffing weapons and armor of troops nearby, only it can be targeted more, expanded, compared to the Bright Altar which sort of just does it in a field around it. In terms of offensive capability, it does possess some measure of that, primarily in removing an enemy's arms and armor from the equation. This thing looks sort of like a fortified forge and bellows system stuck onto a cart, enveloped in a metal cage with grilles letting the wizards inside look without. Plus, you know, various magical glowing bits and bobs.
1. Metalshifted Magnification: Powerful Gold Magic envelops a group of allies weapons, making them infinitely stronger and sharper than before for a period of time, while also hardening and empowering the metal armor that they wear. Can be utilized more than once, meaning multiple groups can enhanced over the course of the battle.
2. Pandemic of Rust: Chamon bursts forth upon the enemy in a great wave, corroding metal armor and weapons into rust, leaving the enemy with little more than their fists and flesh against the might of the Altar's allies.
Arbus Vitaerus of Ghyran
So when Matriarch Hildegaard was envisioning this Altar, it was basically like, what if Throne of Vines, but better. Also, not particularly offensively inclined. So, this Altar carries a much larger than usual Lifebloom field i.e. the thing where Jade Wizards get to recover a bit whenever they cast a spell, or a friend nearby, because of lifegiving Ghyran. It additionally casts healing spells at wider ranges, i.e. more people at once. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this looks like someone took a massive thicket and hacked off a piece and stuck it on a platform and cart pulled by Warhorses.
1. Aura of Life: Anytime the Altar casts a healing spell, a secondary healing effect is spread to those nearby.
2. Bloom of Life: Essentially Regrowth, but cast over a wider range/net of people when cast.
----
And, as mentioned, the Amber and Grey Colleges took one look at this super powerful magic Orbs of Sorcery that Teclis gave them and then at what everyone else was doing, and went: 'Yeah, nah. We'll put these to good use though.'
