SHADOWS UNLEASHED
Dark Spirit Magicks for the Nephandi


Brother Michael watched as Master Joreau drew a crimson circle that carefully intersected the four corners of the ceremonial cloth upon which he lay. The stories of demonic sacrifice began to swirl through his head again, and he grew afraid. Perhaps Joreau meant to render him up to the darker forces in exchange for some dark payment Michael (known as as Michel within the Circle) could not even comprehend, though the price seemed eerily obvious.

The master intoned the phrases that called for the Lords of the Four Quarters to take their positions of protection, yet Brother Michel's thin grasp of the lore at least let him hear the subtle differences; the patrons of the four directions in this ritual did not come out of any sense of duty, and they hungered for payment. He paused for a moment when he saw them take sudden shape out of the heavy incense smoke before he realized that indeed these were but cultist thugs, likely complete buffoons, taking symbolic part in the ritual.

Each of them grasped a corner of the black shroud of sackcloth upon which he rested. The smoke swirled and gnarled hands cast strange glistening globs in his direction. Great slimy pieces of some sort of fleshy substance began to gather around him in the bowl-like depression formed by the protectors of the compass points holding up the shroud upon which he rested. Cold gelatinous fluid began to cling to Michael's naked flesh, and as he realized that he seemed to be on the way to being buried in nothing less than dead afterbirth, Michael screamed.

The four corners swept across the sky and he was engulfed in wet, meaty darkness. The cold afterbirth stifled his breathing and he began to drown. Vaguely, chanting still pierced his consciousness. And then a thick white explosion of pain racked his entire frame as a blow akin to some vicious kick struck him. Brother Michael was roused from the oddly comforting complacency that had just begun to creep into his being as he swallowed plasmic fluid. He struggled for freedom. Time seemed to pass forever, and he thought for a moment he thought he saw his life pass before his eyes. Just before he tore through the shroud he realized that something dark and sinister fought for freedom even as he did. Something powerful seemed to be tearing its way out of the shroud even as he fought to do so. Just as the flickering light of the torches set around the smoky circle broke through his vision, Michael saw for a brief moment that his rebirth from a dead womb created by dark magic had born more than just a newfound cultist like himself, indeed something had come out with him, within him, and it was a part of him.

"Greetings, Brother," he heard. But the voice was only in deep in his skull. "I am the guardian spirit about whom your brethren spoke to you. Trust in me, for I am of you, and we shall ascend to the heights of power. The world is your oyster now, and I am your hammer." I suppose this is the second ascension I have heard so much about, thought Michael. I guess this is lucky; nobody else gets two guides down the road. I guess I really have been thinking that this was all bullshit and that the Master was just personifying my essence in a different way. But, no, there really are two of them. "Who you gonna listen to, Michael, some strange figment of your imagination or your good old survival instinct? Remember me, remember when I told you to run that time in Paris? Remember that other time I told you it would be better if you brought the knife, just in case. Came in handy, didn't it?"

Awakening the Shadow

What Brother Michael has so recently experienced is one of the secrets of the dreaded power of the Circle of Red and a few other dark magi, the power of the shadow within. Using sinister magicks to foster an awakening of the dark half of us that normally remains dormant until it is unleashed by the passing of the human spirit into the Shadowlands, the circle discovers a potent force perhaps as great even as their avatars.

The power to perform this ritual is not insignificant. It requires an effect using Mind 4, Spirit 3 and Prime 2. In essence the Master is infusing the dark portions of the initiate's mind with Prime energies to intensify them to an enchanted state and simultaneously rousing the shadow and arranging the mind into its separate parts. Though it may be possible to enforce this upon an unwilling victim, it is far more effective to awaken the shadow of someone who is at least willing to embrace the dark power it represents.

In game terms, for those familiar with Wraith, the still living Mage must roll his Willpower, target number 6, and for each success he gains one point of Angst. If he achieves no successes, then the ritual fails or the Master must somehow help him dig deeper. This is one of the reasons that some willingness is helpful, for the active will of the psyche greatly aids the ritual's power.

In return for his troubles, the newly shadowed mage gains a shadow with all of its horrors and boons. For the Nephandi fanatic, Oblivion is an ultimate goal anyway, so the resultant relationship with their shadows is likely to be more akin to that of a spectre than a typical wraith. The incredible benefit of this is that the Shadowed mage can gain shadow dice from 1 to 5 in number to aid any action. These dice are given solely at the discretion of the shadow, but again, given the dark nature of the Nephandi their shadows are often very cooperative. While this does not increase the mage's actual understanding and enlightenment, and thus does not allow use of spheres above his current knowledge, it does provide for whispered secrets of how to use the power he already possesses. Thus the dice may even be added to Arete rolls.

It must be stressed that the Nephandi has doomed himself. His shadow will eventually take over his soul causing either his death or the subsuming of his will to that of Oblivion. The true Nephandi fanatic seeks to overcome his natural fear of this and enjoys the temporal power that comes in the meantime.

The Shadowguide

Some Nephandi cannot endure the unwillingness of their shadow to cooperate sometimes and thus will force the shadow to aid them. With the use of Mind 1 (after all it is their own mind they are controlling) and Entropy 2, the Nephandi can force the shadow to render 1 die per success up to a maximum of 5 in aid. Obviously this requires at least the preparation time to perform the magic, so in a sudden situation it may not be reliable.

The Power of Angst

Further studies showed that the spiritual angst carried by the mage's shadow is essentially a form of twisted quintessence, even as the blood of a vampire is a twisted form of quintessence or the pathos of a wraith. By tapping into his own dark soul, the Nephandi can draw upon power similar to that of his avatar but more dangerous. Using Mind 1, Prime 1 and Spirit 2, the Nephandi draws one temporary point of angst from his shadow per success, obviously with a limitation of the current amount available and can spend them as though they were quintessence. However, the resonance of this angst is terrible indeed, for it is derived from the most passionate dark deeds of the Nephandus. Thus the magic for which it is used must be similarly dark. Usually this is not a problem for Circle members.

Final Note: I thought perhaps I was going too far making up this sort of magic, but the other day when I was rereading the Risen I saw some incredible support for it. Conduits can serve a similar function if they survive the death of their risen partner. Indeed now I am thinking it is likely that perhaps the Circle of Red had the opportunity to study a conduit at some point in their history.

Copyright © Conrad Hubbard

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