The Runecarvers of Aetolia

While the ways of the Shaman espouse a deep and unparalleled reverence for life, nature, as always, strives for a balance, an opposite, and it is through this duality that the Shaman's twin - the Runecarver - exists. Commanding Runecarving, Sporulation, and Malediction, these priests of death instill terrible curses and cultivate rapacious fungi, drawing on the dark heart of nature to espouse the ways of rot, decay, and the inevitable end of all that lives.

Runecarver Skills

Malediction Sporulation Runecarving

Malediction

By tapping into the stray energies generated by the grand process of life and death known as the Cycle, a Runecarver is capable of enacting ritual curses and maladious hexes to plague their foes. Originally regarded as a Jalajan practice, it was adapted for Sapient use during the year 508 MA.

Unlike wasteful displays of arcane power or sorcerous fury, wielders of Malediction exert subtle influence over the body, mind, and fate of their victims to all but guarantee their own victory. A Runecarver manifests these ominous jinxes through reserved physical gestures, alongside guttural chants or sacred invocations.

Though these curses are formidable on their own, Runecarvers are known to forge pacts with Dia'ruian spirits to imbue a curse with a sliver of unfathomable power. Such gifts come with a price, however, for life and blood are the currency of these cosmic beings, and they will extract their due from the very flesh of a devoted ritualist without a second thought.

Ascendance is not only confined to corporeal prowess, however, but represents a greater bond with Rewh'va, the Plane of Spirit. Temporary bodies are a mere shell for the Akkari's ascended consciousness, the profound empathy with Spirit granting a variety of miraculous feats unknown to lesser mortality. The mission of the light is never ending, and so it must be with the Akkari; even in death, Ascendants shed their physical forms and manifest as raw, ascended conscious, calling upon the light to grant them a new body, that they may fight on eternal.

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Malediction

Sporulation

A blend of Jalajan mysticism and Sapient foundational knowledge, Sporulation is a branch of mycological magic wielded by the dreaded Runecarvers. Disparate orisons and primal charms form the basis of its use, allowing a user to nurture a living morass of magical spores that will assist them in combat.

Wielders of this art are capable of propagating a living morass of spores, which serves as the focus for much of the rest of its rot and fungal spells. Sporulation's myriad magics involve delicate direction of ambient elements or energies related to life and death, linking its usage to the Cycle and the natural world's dark places.

Many and varied are the unique strains of wild fungi available to a Runecarver, granting them a deadly advantage in battle within the heart of their festering demesne.

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Sporulation

Your morass can propagate the following strains

Runecarving

The ancient art of Runecarving utilises a secretive runic alphabet preserved by the Karnagh, with its most notable application serving as the bridge between the Prime Material and isolated sections of Dendara, the Plane of Life Forsaken. Following the birth of Dia'ruis, the collective of druids and shamans sought a similar renewal in purpose.

By empowering these sketched symbols with primal mana and Dia'ruian essence, a Runecarver beseeches blessings from the wilds, sets up deceptive illusions, captures spell energy, or even forestalls dire harm. Many of these runes possess the power to influence the bodies and minds of those unfortunate enough to gaze upon them without proper protection, and rumour has it that experienced runelorists are capable of enlivening a dreaded crystal aegis.

Runecarving is considered a shamanic counterpart to the practices of Arcanism, Sorcery, and Esoterica. The latter three focus on regimented schools of thought and fundamental manipulation of energy, producing wizards, sorcerers, and learned mages, whereas Runecarving is a primal, instinctual art with a near-spiritual focus. Runic symbology sets itself apart by invoking natural sources of power and only ambient core elements, as well as a complete lack of incantations.

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Runecarving

You can sketch the following runes

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Roleplaying a Runecarver

Identified by their symbiotic blend of far flung mysticism and Sapient shamanism, Runecarvers serve as fervent priests of life and death. Like unto a Shaman, these sagacious ritualists claim the wild places as their home, communing with primordial spirits and upholding the natural order that is the ever-turning Cycle. Runecarvers are at home in the dark corners of nature's heart, for their power comes from the less than savoury aspects of the wild world. Mortality, decay, and rot are their domains, for without Death, there can be no Life.

What is Dia'ruis?

Dia'ruis is a Lirathyar, a - or rather the - Plane of Life, a fledgling plane born from the efforts of Duiran in the Year 504. Its forerunner, Dendara, served as the chief focus of Duiran for countless years as it decayed, overrun and slowly dying by shadow's rapacious consumption. In a daring ritual led by Esrytesh Sibatti Dur Naya, the Council, aided and abetted by the Hunter and the Underking, wrenched the moon from the sky, allowing Varian, the Celestine a brief reprieve from His perpetual duel with the Albedi Eschaton to trim away the healthy parts of Dendara and create a new Plane free of rot and corruption.

Thus was Dia'ruis born, and thus does life go on within this primordial land of unending dawn and eternal dusk. From this font of life come the spirits of all beasts, fauna, and fowl alike, awaiting their birth into the Cycle. At the heart of the plane stands a burgeoning World Tree, its nascent eaves stretching forth into the twilit heavens. It is a wild and untamed place, unmarred by civilisation or the tread of industry; nature in all its glory flourishes therein, from the gentle babbling of freshwater streams to the predators lurking in the dark hunting for prey.

Who are the Guardians?

Amidst the cornucopia of life inhabiting and flourishing within Dia'ruis lurk the Guardians. These primordial beings are among the most ancient of spirits, having inhabited Dendara for thousands of years and existing now within Dia'ruis. In simple terms, the Guardians represent various aspects of the wilds, from the wrathful ire of nature to the nurturing wisdom and defence of the forests.

Each Guardian is immensely powerful in their own right, and while there are more than those listed here, Runecarvers uphold a unique relationship with some foreign to Sapience yet native to Dia'ruis all the same. Beyond their pacts forged with the six chiefly known by the realm, they also call upon Nivios, a bloodthirsty icewyrm known as the Unslaked; Asheira, a colossal phoenix known as the Wildfire; Taulrik, an ever-enduring haatun known as the Wanderer; Lopaia, a clever jackal known as the Scavenger; Aelwen, a graceful deer spirit known as the Witness; Fornax, a cantankerous basilisk known as the Sentinel; K'y'lee'nn, an ancient Guardian associated with redwood trees; and Z'krell the Festering, a Guardian linked to rot, decay, fungi, and the mysterious myconids of Albedos.

What is the Cycle?

The Cycle, also known as the Rhythm, refers to the cycle of Renewal created by Varian and the three Gods of the Triumvirate (Haern, Dhar, and Lleis) when much of the world was young and life existed as but a fledgling spark in the darkness. At its heart, the Cycle embodies the concept that all things must die so the new may live. It is death that nourishes the Plane of Life, allowing Dia'ruis - formerly Dendara - to continue its inexorable charge of rebirth and revivification. As such, Life and Death are of equal importance to the Cycle; the latter begets the former, and when the two are in balance, nature thrives, recycling the old to make way for the fresh.

How are the powers of the class accessed?

By attuning themselves to the subtle turn of the Cycle, a Runecarver is capable of utilising stray energies of both life and death to ensure that not a single shred of Dia'ruian essence goes to waste. An accomplished practitioner of Malediction influences their victims with the help of this power, allowing them to weave terrible curses that plague their foes with illness and insanity. To further empower these dreaded hexes, pacts can be formed with individual Dia'ruian guardians closely associated with the ritual in question.

Sporulation's foundations were established within Duirani society during the destruction of the temple of Ati and improved upon by the guidance of Jalajan mysticism, allowing a Runecarver to cultivate a morass of living spores that serves as a focal point for fungal shamanism. All members of the class are capable of coaxing growth via control of the natural elements, allowing them to provide the proper amount of heat, moisture, and darkness to ensure life flourishes within these teeming clouds. This practice is entirely divorced from more arcane studies similar to Elemancy or Sciomancy, working purely on instinct and ensuring elemental equilibrium is given the highest priority as per the mandate of Dia'ruis.

Safeguarded by disparate circles like the Karnagh and dedicated hunters such as Runecarver Rhydderch, runic magic rounds out a Runecarver's arsenal in their quest to protect the sanctity of the wilds. By drawing power from one's surroundings to enliven primitive symbols known as 'runes', one can call upon utilitarian magic such as illusions, protective shields, and obscuring fog. Magic of this nature is, like Sporulation, entirely different from the practices of civilised sorcery, its roots dating back centuries upon centuries to the times of the tribal Ithmia.

Visual style of the class

Runecarvers are not prone to grand displays of arcane power. As wielders of a form of shamanism closely associated with life and death, much of their abilities are represented by more subtle energies or visible signs of unease by their victims. They adhere to ritual motions and ancient invocations, redirect ambient elemental energies, and carve mystic script to evoke primordial magic.

The dark parts of nature, those things just as vital to its workings as ones of beauty, heed their call, fungi and foetid rot manifesting at their command. Ritual tension and primal fear clutch the air wheresoever they walk, the attention of ancient spirits forever a mere sacrifice away. A Runecarver is an envoy of life and death, growth and regrowth, of nature's inevitable finality and beautiful inevitability, and thus often garb themselves in ceremonial raiments, pelts, and other ritual garb.

Side effects of use

As one who sees the subtle workings of life and death, a Runecarver is oft prone to visions and instinctual living. The constant monitoring of the Cycle necessary to work Malediction draws someone closer to the Rhythm and the natural simplicity of living moment to moment. Associated as they are with foul omen and bad luck, some become more superstitious and perceptive of things that could be interpreted by a method of divination as time goes on. A Runecarver's magic is one of primal ritual and spiritual communion, which often carries into their daily life when they beseech guidance from the spirits and carry out elaborate displays of reverence.

A close association with fungi means that a Runecarver is no stranger to the wild places of the world. Many Runecarvers often indulge in hallucinogenic mushrooms cultivated by their own magics, especially initiates attempting to increase their understanding of Sporulation as a practice. Some elder Runecarvers will even develop fungal growths upon their own body - especially those of the Arborean race, whose outer layer of bark provides the perfect place to grow in colonies of varying size.

Myconids

Myconids are mysterious fungal beings native to Albedos and are closely related to Z'krell the Festering. In their home environments, they often kill and eat Albedi adventurers and thus assimilate parts of a decomposed traveller's appearance. When customising your myconid, you can reflect this curiosity by exhibiting vague features of races common to the continent.

Roleplaying the class

A Runecarver's roleplay possibilities are as boundless as Dia'ruis, based on the way an individual wishes to express their interest in its arts. Some are terrible witches, cursing their foes and wishing ill will upon those that cross them, while others act as wise shamans attuned to the cosmic forces of life and death. Others will profess a deep affinity for regrowth and nature itself, represented in the way they tend wild colonies of mushrooms or expand the reach of their morass. As one aligned with higher forces, a Runecarver could serve as a seer or bonecaster, enacting the will of immensely powerful spirits.

Many traditional Runecarvers are marked by their professed support of the Cycle, championing the natural order as ordained by Varian, Haern, Dhar, and Lleis. Attuned to life and death as they are, a Runecarver is likely to view death in a very different way than most people in Sapience. Instead of something to be feared, a Runecarver finds joy and inevitability in the end of a life, for Death nourishes Dia'ruis and begets yet more Life as per the eternal course of the Cycle.