The Bloodborn of Aetolia

The Bloodborn are Aetolia’s blood mages, a Shadow-tethered class in Bloodloch that wields Humourism (sorcery rooted in the four humours of the body), Esoterica (occult runic and ritual magic), and Hematurgy (specialised mastery of blood as a magical medium).
| At a glance | |
|---|---|
| Tether | Shadow |
| City | Bloodloch |
| Guild | Imperial Dominion (Patron: Chakrasul, the Dark Mother) |
| Skill sets | Humourism, Esoterica, Hematurgy |
| Mirror class | Ascendril (Spirit) |
| Sister class in guild | Praenomen |
| Signature mechanic | Humour-balance manipulation (yellow bile, phlegm, black bile, blood) |
| Best for | Players who want visceral, anatomical, slightly revolting magic |
The modern Bloodborn re-emerged in the year 508, when the Imperial Dominion rediscovered fragments of a bygone tradition and restored it to active practice. The class is unapologetically gross: burning bile, frigid spittle, blood-borne spellwork, and ritual scripts no one outside the guild can read.
If you want to play a sorcerer whose magic comes from the inside of bodies rather than from elements or planes, the Bloodborn is one of the most distinctive Shadow casters in the game.
Origin and lore
Bloodborn practice is older than its modern revival. Centuries ago, a small tradition of blood mages worked the edges of Aetolian scholarship before fading into footnote status. The Imperial Dominion of Bloodloch recovered those old texts and rituals in the year 508 and reconstructed the class around current Dominion theology.
The core idea is anatomical. Bloodborn theory holds that humanoid bodies are made from a precise balance of the six elements, with four of them (fire, water, air, spirit) regulated by the four humours: yellow bile, phlegm, black bile, and blood. Imbalance in this system explains states like vampirism, Ivolnite undeath, Duamvi symbiosis, and Akkari transfiguration. Where ordinary scholars study these cases as exceptions, the Bloodborn study them as recipes.
Their patron, Chakrasul, the Dark Mother, embodies decay and despair. Bloodborn work fits that frame. Their spellwork is visceral, their results are repulsive by design, and their guildmates in the Imperial Dominion include both the Praenomen (vampire signature class) and the wider Consanguine bloodline first ordered by Abhorash.
Skill sets
The Bloodborn skill sets are Humourism, Esoterica, and Hematurgy.
Humourism is the foundational sorcery. A Bloodborn taps the latent elements regulated by black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood, often expelling magic through their own mouth or pores. Burning acidic bile, frigid spittle, and viscous attacks are typical. Black bile manipulation extends the work outward, letting the caster disrupt the humour balance inside an enemy and inflict massive harm at distance.
Hematurgy narrows focus to blood alone. The skill is so deep that it accounts for nearly as much study as the other three humours combined. A Hematurgist works with a personal blood well, requires intimate knowledge of circulatory anatomy, and at high levels can produce effects that replicate a beating heart or a complete vascular system in miniature.
Esoterica rounds out the kit with occult ritual and arcane invocation. A Bloodborn uses Esoterica to empower runic script, fuel rituals, and ensorcell their crystal aegis. It is the cleanest of the three skills, in relative terms. Nothing about Bloodborn work is actually clean.
Skill abilities
Humourism
-
Align
DescriptionSyntax: ALIGN <YELLOW|PHLEGM|BLACK|BLOOD>
DIVEST <YELLOW|PHLEGM|BLACK|BLOOD>Additional syntax: ALIGNMENTS
In order to manipulate your humours or the humours of your foes, you must first align yourself to detecting them and their latent power. Once you are aligned, you will be able to manipulate those humours via your awareness of them in the bodies of your victims. You can divest yourself of your awareness of these crucial substances if you so wish. There is no cost to keeping them active.
-
Implement
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR EXTRACT FOCUS
EMBED FOCUS IN <weapon>Excise a focus from the Dominion's bloodstone while you are standing before it, and then embed it into either a staff, a dagger, or a sceptre.
Practitioners without access to the Dominion's bloodstone must take matters into their own hands, and may obtain a suitable surrogate by venturing to the Fractal Bloom, where they may CHIP a CRYSTAL from among those that grow there. This nascent chunk must then be RAISEd within the diminutive torture chamber of Fengard's Torturer, Naggamantex, before it can be properly embedded within your chosen weapon.
Should you be wielding such an object containing a focus crystal, you will be able to command the elements with greater ease. Your spells will no longer require both hands, only a single hand. Additionally, parrying an attack will charge your focus crystal with magical energy, restoring a portion of your mana instantly.
-
Prowess
DescriptionSyntax: PROWESS
Using this ability, you can simultaneously align yourself with all four humours.
- You may manipulate yellow bile in the following ways
-
Singe
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR SINGE <target>
This simple sorcery will cause their yellow bile to betray them, causing blisters and impairment to develop within their body.
-
Parch
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR PARCH
By evoking your own yellow bile's potential, you can evaporate the water within your location should it be unnaturally flooded.
-
Retch
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR RETCH
RETCH <adventurer>
RETCH <denizen> [<direction>]Using your yellow bile, summon forth a torrent of black fire into your throat for a limited time. Once prepared, you can then raise a cupped hand to funnel the black fire in a stream towards your target, either in your location or within line of sight, causing fire damage. You can only do this up to four times before the spell will lose its potency.
If they are an adventurer, your black fire will also set them ablaze.
Each time you retch black fire at someone, it will use the balance from one of your arms instead your equilibrium. As such, you will be able to retch black fire twice at the same time if you so choose.
You can also retch your black fire at denizens, however if you wish to strike a denizen in a particular direction you must include it in the syntax.
DetailsTarget Location Same location or line of sight
Damage Type Fire
Damage Source Arcane
Base Damage 150 + 7%
Base Damage (Denizen) 300
Fireburst Duration 120 seconds
Fireburst Stacks 4
Equilibrium Recovery 3.00 seconds
Arm Balance Recovery (Attacking) 2.00 seconds
RequirementsRequires balance and equilibrium.
Costs 80 mana to use.
Costs 20 willpower to use.
Requires both arms functional.
(Attacking) Requires equilibrium.
(Attacking) Costs 5 mana to use.
(Attacking) Costs 2 willpower to use.
(Attacking) Requires at least one arm functional.
RestrictionsConsidered an aggressive action.
Cannot be entangled, paralysed, or fallen.
(Attacking) Considered a basic attack against denizens.
-
Twist
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR TWIST <target>
This swift sorcery will awaken someone's yellow bile and curse it with a foul twist. Should they be the target of non-natural healing, the curse will activate and cause the veins in their legs to burst into infernal fire, crippling them so that they fall to the ground.
-
Brimstone
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR BRIMSTONE <target>
This sorcery brings forth a bodily emanation.
You may only cast this sorcery at a target in your location.Summon a column of bilious fire in your location that will periodically burn your chosen target with its heat. Should they be ablaze, it will draw the flames from them and burn even hotter, permanently dealing additional damage at an exponential rate based on the stacks it has. Once cast, the brimstone column will follow your target should they move from its current location and spread embers in its wake, however it can only travel three locations from its point of creation, otherwise it will lose strength and extinguish itself.
Striking the brimstone column with a fire-based attack will cause it explode with black fire, dealing fire damage to everyone in the location.
If you have already created a bodily emanation, then summoning this one will will cause the other to die out.
-
Disgorge
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR DISGORGE <target>
Cause an explosion of black fire, dealing fire damage to your target and shattering their courage.
If your bloody well is aspected with yellow bile, then it will set them ablaze.
-
Sulphur
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR SULPHUR
Conjure a malodorous cloud of sulphur from your humours, obscuring attempts that make use of their scent to obtain information about the surroundings.
-
Roil
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR ROIL
Incite the yellow bile in your body so that the next yellow bile sorcery you cast, the equilibrium recovery time is cut in half. There is a short delay after casting before this sorcery becomes effective.
-
Feverflare
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR FEVERFLARE <target 1> [target 2]
Form a lance of foul magic that will, after a delay, bathe an opponent whom recklessly attacks with abandon, dealing a burst of fire-based damage to them. If a given target has both balance and equilibrium when the lance falls, then they will step or roll out of the way and come away unharmed.
Protective shields and barriers will offer no respite from the malignant power of this sorcery.
-
Acidveins
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR ACIDVEINS <target>
Requires and consumes aspected yellow bile.A deadly sorcery wielded by the most vile of humourists in the land. By getting up close and personal to your opponent, you can release a torrent of yellow bile point-blank into their face. This will cause trauma to the head and will deal fire-based damage to them if they are not parrying their head.
Additionally, based on certain conditions, this sorcery will become more potent:
* They are on fire - This attack can no longer be parried.
* No arcane defence - Doubles the amount of damage dealt.
* They have blisters - Triples the amount of trauma dealt.
* Brimstone in room - This spell will also stun the opponent. -
Obliteration
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR OBLITERATION <target>
Requires and consumes aspected yellow bile.Weaponise your yellow bile into a catalysed destructive force that you can, after a short channel, release into a wave of all-consuming inky flames. This mix of liquid, flame, and sorcery will chew through your opponent, dealing a large amount of unblockable damage to them and will destroy all defences that help them resist damage.
After being bathed in flame, their consumed flesh will also smoulder for a little while afterwards, dealing periodic unblockable damage and reducing their maximum fire resistance to 20%.
Failing the channel will still result in your aspected yellow bile being consumed.
- You may manipulate phlegm in the following ways
-
Frostwrack
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR FROSTWRACK [target]
By manipulating the phlegm and ambient water all around you, you will plunge the surroundings into chaos, freezing all your enemies in the location by two levels. If you pick a target, they will be hit regardless if you have declared them an enemy or not.
-
Mist
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR MIST
With the aid of your body's reservoir of elemental water, you may coax moisture into the air and cause an obscuring mist to envelop the room. Those outside the mist will be unable to see into the location.
-
Flense
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR FLENSE <target>
Employ your phlegmatic prowess by conjuring a chilling, sorcerous spike at your target that causes cold-based damage.
Any enemies in the location will be additionally knocked off balance temporarily if they are shivering.
DetailsTarget Location Same location
Damage Type Cold
Damage Source Arcane
Base Damage 225 + 10%
Base Damage (Denizen) 900
Balance Upset 1.10 seconds
Equilibrium Recovery 3.00 seconds
RequirementsRequires balance and equilibrium.
Costs 60 mana to use.
Costs 20 willpower to use.
Requires both arms functional.
RestrictionsConsidered an aggressive action.
Considered a basic attack against denizens.
Cannot be entangled, paralysed, or fallen.
-
Uprising
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR UPRISING <target>
Launch a dangerous seed of phlegm at the feet of your target, that will explode into a torrent of chilling water, drenching the target and leaving them wet. The foul sorcery will also drain their mana, draining more depending on if they're shivering, frigid, and/or frozen.
-
Direfog
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR DIREFOG <target>
This sorcery conjures a bodily emanation.
You may only cast this sorcery at a target that is within line of sight of you.Wheeze forth a gelid cone of icy phlegm, birthing a living emanation that will drift across the ground and freeze the earth underneath it, seeking out its given target. Once it reaches its target, it will pulse with a baleful chill, dealing cold damage and freezing the feet of everyone in the location a single time, then cease to drift.
If you have recently fled combat, then the amount of time their feet remain frozen is heavily reduced.
Should anyone in the location with the emanation be fallen excluding yourself, they will take passive cold damage until they stand up once more. Additionally, if they have used neither balance nor equilibrium, then the damage dealt is doubled.
Striking the direfog with cold-based damage will cause it to expand, dealing cold damage to everyone in the location.
If you have already created a bodily emanation, then summoning this one will will cause the other to die out.
-
Frostbite
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR FROSTBITE <target>
This maladious sorcery will begin to cause their phlegm to crystallise, freezing them by one level and afflicting them with budding frostbite.
Should they be knocked to the ground, the frostbite will spring to life and worsen, dealing cold damage and giving them the mindfog affliction.
-
Overflow
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR OVERFLOW
Draw upon your own precious phlegmatic essence and vomit forth a tide of watery bile to flood your surroundings.
This sorcery has no aspected effects.
-
Rimespear
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR RIMESPEAR <target>
Spit forth saturnine phlegm that will crystalise into three spears of rime, hovering in the air above you and follow you as you move. Periodically, a spear will be launched at your target aimed at their torso. Should the icy spear strike its target, it will deal trauma to the torso and cold damage.
-
Fragment
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR FRAGMENT
Once you have brought forth the Rimespear magic, you may cause the spears it launches to fragment into three smaller chunks of frigid phlegm for each spear left over. After a delay, the shards will spread in apart and fly at the original target all at once, shredding their arms and torso at random. While the attack is spread over multiple body parts, this will cause less cold damage than if the spears had remained whole.
Once a limb is broken, the chunks of phlegm will only be able to deal half the usual trauma to that limb if struck.
After fragmentation, the ice shards will become detatched from you and will linger behind if you move.
Please see AB HUMOURISM RIMESPEAR for more information about this ability.
-
Gelidbreath
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR GELIDBREATH <target>
Requires and consumes aspected phlegm.Heave forth a chilling breath of cold from your lungs, draining your opponent of their mana and potentially freezing them in a variety of ways.
Additionally, based on certain conditions, this spell will become more potent:
* No speed defence - This spell will encase them in ice.
* They are fallen - Recover equilibrium more quickly from this spell.
* They are frigid - They will become hobbled.
* Direfog in room - It will give them frozen feet.The mana drain of this ability will also be increased for each condition you meet.
-
Marrowchill
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR MARROWCHILL
Requires and consumes aspected phlegm.By channeling this sorcery for a brief period, you will cause fell magic to stir within the phlegm of your enemies nearby and seep a terrible, unwavering cold into their bones. While effected, their mana will be quickly depleted by the cold and will drain additional mana if those afflicted by this curse remain together in the same location.
Should a target run out of mana due to this effect, they will become not only frozen, but completely encased in ice, unable to act until they writhe free.
Failing the channel will still result in your aspected phlegm being consumed.
- You may manipulate black bile in the following ways
-
Befoul
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR BEFOUL <target 1> [target 2] [target 3]
With great expenditure of your own black bile, you can generate a terrible, perforating bolt of dark energy and launch it, striking all your given targets. This will destroy any magical shield in its way in the process.
If they are an adventurer and no shield is present, the befouling bolt will electrocute them as they are knocked to the ground, giving them whiplash in the process.
-
Revolt
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR REVOLT <target> <direction>
Send your target flying from your location in the direction of your choice with a manipulation of your own black bile. The density defense will prevent this.
-
Murkspark
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR MURKSPARK <target 1> [target 2]
Form a scattered shower of actualised black bile and rain it down upon two different targets, shocking them with powerful surge of electrical damage.
If a target is an adventurer, then it will also numb their body and give them paresis. If they already have paresis, then it will be immediately transformed into paralysis.
DetailsTarget Location Same location
Maximum Targets 2 targets
Damage Type Electric
Damage Source Arcane
Mana Cost Per Target 60
Willpower Cost Per Target 15
Damage Per Hit 300 + 14%
Damage Per Hit (Denizen) 1200
Equilibrium Recovery 4.00 seconds
RequirementsRequires balance and equilibrium.
Requires both arms functional.
RestrictionsConsidered an aggressive action.
Cannot be entangled, paralysed, or fallen.
-
Equilibrium
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR EQUILIBRIUM <target>
Upend their humoral equilibrium by displacing your victim's black bile, and striking them with vertigo and confusion.
If your bloody well is aspected with black bile, then it will give them laxity as well.
-
Bilesphere
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR BILESPHERE <target>
This sorcery conjures a bodily emanation.
You may cast this sorcery at a target in your location or adjacent.Conjure a ball of black, smoking bile that will hover toward your chosen target and chase after them if they leave, charging the field with unnerving static as it moves. Should the given target try and leave a location where the emanation is present with less than 75% health or mana, it will delay their ability to leave by a short amount and drain a small portion of mana.
If they are suffering from either shock or burnout, then it will prevent their escape entirely.
Striking the bilesphere with electric-based damage will cause it to release vile lightning, dealing electric damage to everyone in the location.
If you have already created a bodily emanation, then summoning this one will will cause the other to die out.
-
Stupor
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR STUPOR <target>
Engulf your foe with a cascade of catalysed black bile, battering them with dizziness and stupidity, and dealing some electric damage.
If they lack courage, then it will additionally afflict them with confusion.
-
Oppress
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR OPPRESS
Manifest a wave of concussive force from your melancholic biles, knocking down everyone in the skies or trees that are above in your location or adjacent.
-
Traumatise
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR TRAUMATISE <target>
Send a surge of destructive black bile to rise into the mind of your target, causing a complete lapse in consciousness.
Providing they are below or equal to 30% of their maximum mana, the opponent will enter a state of unconsciousness for a period of time depending on how much mana they are missing. If they are suffering from the burnout affliction, then the duration is increased by 25%.
Be warned, casting this sorcery will restore your target's mana back to full.
Cooldown: 20 seconds
-
Impediment
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR IMPEDIMENT
Manipulate your humours to form fell magic around you that will, on the fifth casting of a black bile spell with a target, release a wave of nauseating energy that will disrupt your target. There is a slight delay before the magic will fully form, and then will eventually fade in due time.
Non-adventurer targets will not count towards the required total, nor set off its effect.
-
Synaptopathy
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR SYNAPTOPATHY <target> <FAST|SLOW>
Requires and consumes aspected black bile.Fry their synapses with this powerful spell, causing their bile within to crackle painfully and strike after a delay of either 4 or 8 seconds, depending on if you pick fast or slow.
After the delay, the pain will overpower them, striking them down and dealing blunt-type damage.
Additionally, based on certain conditions on strike, this spell can become more potent:
* Dizziness and vertigo - The bile will form delayed lightning and stun them.
* Stupidity and confusion - The harsh shock will leave them dazed.
* Have a broken torso - It will strip the speed defence.
* Bilesphere in room - It will bypass the shielded and barrier defences. -
Catastrophe
DescriptionSyntax: HUMOUR CATASTROPHE
Requires and consumes aspected black bile.After channelling this spell for a short amount of time, it will release a catastrophic wave of bilious energy upon the battlefield, perodically striking your enemies that linger in the location. The first target struck, the electrical damage will be somewhat weak, while each strike afterward will cause the damage from the spell to increase in power limitlessly.
Should any target either have the same or more health after being struck by this sorcery, or should die, then the catastrophe will end.
Failing the channel will still result in your aspected black bile being consumed.
Esoterica
-
Victimise
DescriptionUsage: UNLEASH VICTIMISE <target 1> [target 2] [target 3] [target 4]
Unleash a wave of energy upon your foes that can strike a given target or targets up to four times. You can choose a target for each wave, if you so like. For any remaining waves with no target, they will strike your last hit mark.
DetailsTarget Location Same location
Maximum Targets 4 targets
Damage Type Magic
Damage Source Arcane
Damage Per Hit 75 + 3.5%
Damage Per Hit (Denizen) 300
Equilibrium Recovery 4.00 seconds
RequirementsRequires balance and equilibrium.
Costs 30 willpower to use.
Requires both arms functional.
(Per wave) Costs 10 mana to use.
RestrictionsConsidered an aggressive action.
Cannot be entangled, paralysed, or fallen.
(Per wave) Considered a basic attack against denizens.
(Per wave) Does not bounce off magical shields.
-
Geminate
DescriptionUsage: UNLEASH GEMINATE [target]
Enact a ritual that summons a sanguine simulacrum as a reflection of a target. Each time you enact this ritual, the ability will consume a charge that will take time to recover. Only one charge may recover at a time. Once you use three charges, you will be unable to cast any further simulacrums.
Cooldown: 15 seconds per
-
Panoply
DescriptionUsage: UNLEASH PANOPLY
Free the ambient elements from their bonds and commandeer them to create a protective encasement around your body, helping you resist blunt and cutting damage.
-
Ascend
DescriptionSyntax: UNLEASH ASCEND
LANDUnleash a ritual invocation of flight, allowing you to ascend to the skies.
-
Besmirch
DescriptionUsage: UNLEASH BESMIRCH <target> <SKULL|ORB|SQUARE|TRIANGLE|STAR>
Mark someone as a ritual sacrifice, making them visible across the battlefield for some time. The target can then be targetted using the name of the symbol marking them. You can only have one marker in existence at a time.
-
Indulge
DescriptionUsage: UNLEASH INDULGE <10-1000>
Indulge in your mastery of occultic forces and arcane ritual, replenishing your mind at the cost of mental stability. This will deplete your willpower proportional to how much mana you choose to recover.
-
Forestall
DescriptionUsage: UNLEASH FORESTALL
Secure invisible arcane wards to your form, granting you a 2% chance to turn aside venoms used by your opponent. If you are channeling a skill or action, then this chance is increased to 20%.
-
Illusion
DescriptionSyntax: UNLEASH ILLUSION <illusion>
UNLEASH ILLUSION AT <target> <illusion>A mainstay of ritualists everywhere, simple illusions can astound your allies and confound your enemies.
Note: You can add a new line into your illusion by using the tag $nl within the text, however you may only do this once.
-
Proscribe
DescriptionSyntax: UNLEASH PROSCRIBE HERE
UNLEASH PROSCRIBE <aegis> <symbol>
UNLEASH PROSCRIBE <symbol>Undo the spellwork that has left any lingering effects in a location. This will not dispel symbols unless they are specifically targetted, and dispelling your own runes will not consume your equilibrium.
It will also dispel any bodily emanations that has been cast by you within the world at large.
You can also cast the dispel upon an aegis to remove the specified symbol from it, though the protective magic of the aegis will make this process take some time.
Note: a symbol is any glyph or rune.
-
Acumen
DescriptionSyntax: UNLEASH ACUMEN [target]
Enact a ritual that will imbue your boar tattoo with occultic energies, boosting its effects upon your health regeneration. You can additionally supply a target to give someone else this benefit.
-
Ensorcell
DescriptionUsage: UNLEASH ENSORCELL <aegis>
An aegis typically needs to be attuned to the land so that it can draw upon the mana it needs to operate its defences - but a mage has ways around this. By giving it a constant supply of mana from your own reserves, you can have the aegis' defences work wherever you happen to be holding it. This is a channeled operation and most other actions will interrupt the process.
-
Embellish
DescriptionSyntax: UNLEASH ILLUSION [AT <target>] COLOUR:<colour> <text>
Add some flair to your ritualism with illusions presented in vivid colour. There is an increase in equilibrium cost for this effect.
-
Alluvion
DescriptionUsage: UNLEASH ALLUVION <direction>
You may impel droplets of blood to create a river of force from a rift, intermittently pulsing with power. It will constantly push everyone present, up to five rooms away, in a line after an initial delay in the chosen direction.
The push of this spell is negated by the density defense, though the presence of one of your clarity glyphs in the target's room will give it a 1 in 20 chance to bypass this each pulse.
The effect will end after a short duration, or if the rift it creates is destroyed by being attacked.
Cooldown: 10 seconds
-
Sozedeti
DescriptionSyntax: UNLEASH GEMINATE [3-10 seconds]
This ability adds the extra functionality of having a geminated reflection appear after a delay to the Geminate skill.
Please see AB ESOTERICA GEMINATE for more information on this skill.
-
Egress
DescriptionSyntax: UNLEASH EGRESS <dir>
A refined version of an amateur ritual, you can position yourself to fly in a direction of your choice, taking you into the skies above the room in your targeted direction.
-
Mania
DescriptionSyntax: UNLEASH MANIA <illusion>
UNLEASH MANIA ON AEGIS <illusion>Manifest mass hysteria by unleashing a ritual of unsettling energy. Anyone who enters a room with such delusions attached to it will see the illusion upon entry. Only a single illusion may reign in the room, and subsequent casts will overwrite the previous.
Such delusions can also be attached to an attuned crystal aegis, where it will persist forever or until dispelled. It will only be shown to targets of the aegis in this situation.
Spells like Proscribe and Dispel can be used to clear the illusion prematurely.
-
Shadebind
DescriptionUsage: UNLEASH SHADEBIND <target 1> <target 2> <target 3>
Unleash a living tendrils of shade to wrap around the head and obscure their eyesight. The shade will make it difficult to see, lowering their physical accuracy by 15% for a short duration.
You must target exactly three people with this spell, no more or less.
-
Blear
DescriptionSyntax: UNLEASH BLEAR
Unleash the power of a blearing ritual that will mask the presence of all in your location. Such an illusion will not prevent anyone from attacking others should they know they are there. Abilities like Dispel or Proscribe can remove effects like this.
-
Attunement
DescriptionSyntax: ATTUNE AEGIS HERE
DAMPEN AEGIS
CEDE AEGIS <org>In an impressive feat of spellcraft, you can attach a crystal aegis to the land around you. By attuning it to the leylines that course all throughout the continent, you can keep the aegis permanently supplied with the energy it needs to keep its defences activated. Such an act takes a considerable length of time, and requires your utmost concentration. Once attuned in place, the aegis cannot be moved. You cannot attune an aegis to a room if there is another attuned aegis already placed within a two-room distance.
An attuned aegis will only have four of its glyphs activated when set up in this state. Within a city, the help of its pylon can further increase it to all six. During a period of stable activity of the leylines however, an attuned aegis will become dormant due to a lack of energy. Please see AB REFINING FLUXATIONS for more information.
To remove an aegis, you can focus on dampening its connection to the leylines. This act will take a much shorter time than attuning, but your utmost concentration is still required. As a mage, you can perform this feat significantly faster than the Survival skill equivalent. Once completed, the crystal aegis will shatter into pieces, destroying it completely.
You can also cede ownership of an aegis to any organisation, so long as the aegis has been attuned upon a location that belongs to that organisation. Cities, however, can hold ownership of up to five aegises beyond their home territory. Once the ownership has been ceded, the aegis will instead attack enemies of that organisation, instead of your personal enemies.
- You can sketch the following runes
-
Observation
DescriptionSyntax: SKETCH OBSERVATION
SKETCH OBSERVATION ONTO <aegis>Required dust: 1 topaz
Type: TriggeredThe observation rune will alert you when it is triggered, informing you of the location and who did it.
If sketched onto an attuned aegis, this rune will alert the owner of the aegis when a caravan passes through its location (HELP PRODUCTION).
If sketched onto an attuned aegis that also has its ownership set to an organisation, the observation rune will instead make an alert over that organisation's channel.
-
Runes
DescriptionRunes are eldritch symbols sketched through the air with gem dust and infused with mana. Each rune has a different effect depending on the runic script sketched and the gem dust used to create it.
There are currently two types of runes: persistent runes, and triggered runes. Persistent runes will last for a short duration and impose a constant effect upon their location, until they fade from their magic being depleted. Triggered runes will hang in the air until an enemy of yours enters the location, at which point their effect will trigger and the rune will dissipate as its magic depletes. The clarity defence will protect an enemy from being affected by most triggered runes.
Each room can only contain two runes, for any more than that would cause the magics to disrupt each other. Both runes must be different.
Runes can additionally be sketched onto the facet of a crystal aegis, instead of in the air. When upon an aegis, runes will be permanently powered and no longer fade. Some runes may have a different effect when upon an aegis. An aegis can exist alongside runes sketched in the room.
-
Portal
DescriptionSyntax: SKETCH PORTAL <target>
SKETCH PORTAL ONTO <aegis>Required dust: 1 topaz
Type: Persistent (room), Triggered (aegis)Sketch the outline of a portal and it will open soon after, leading between you and your target.
If sketched onto an aegis, the portal rune will attack the limbs of your enemy, randomly leaving one crippled.
-
Destruction
DescriptionSyntax: SKETCH DESTRUCTION
SKETCH DESTRUCTION ONTO <aegis>Required dust: 1 ruby
Type: TriggeredThe destruction rune will attack the physical form of your enemy with spears of terrible energy, damaging their health.
-
Vainglory
DescriptionSyntax: TRACE VAINGLORY
TRACE VAINGLORY ONTO <aegis>Required dust: 2 topaz
Type: TriggeredThe vainglory glyph will cause a surge of grandiosity in your enemy, afflicting them with hubris.
-
Addling
DescriptionSyntax: SKETCH ADDLING
SKETCH ADDLING ONTO <aegis>Required dust: 1 topaz, 1 emerald
Type: TriggeredThe addling rune will corrupt the mind of your enemy, afflicting them with dementia. This rune will work regardless of the clarity defence, and will strip the defence from your target.
If sketched onto an aegis, the addling rune will always be the first rune to fire.
-
Entrapment
DescriptionSyntax: SKETCH ENTRAPMENT
SKETCH ENTRAPMENT ONTO <aegis>Required dust: 2 ruby
Type: TriggeredThe entrapment rune will send magical ropes to entangle your enemy.
-
Slumber
DescriptionSyntax: SKETCH SLUMBER
SKETCH SLUMBER ONTO <aegis>Required dust: 1 diamond
Type: TriggeredThe slumber rune will instill a lulling drowsiness into your enemy as it attempts to put them into a deep sleep.
If sketched onto an aegis, the slumber rune will always be the last rune to fire.
-
Arrogance
DescriptionSyntax: SKETCH ARROGANCE
SKETCH ARROGANCE ONTO <aegis>Required dust: 1 emerald, 1 ruby
Type: TriggeredThe rune of arrogance will bolster your own pride, giving you the egocentrism affliction.
-
Leaching
DescriptionSyntax: SKETCH LEACHING
SKETCH LEACHING ONTO <aegis>Required dust: 2 emerald, 1 ruby
Type: TriggeredThis powerful glyph will draw upon the mental strength of your enemies, draining mana from them.
-
Gravity
DescriptionSyntax: SKETCH GRAVITY
SKETCH GRAVITY ONTO <aegis>Required dust: 1 topaz, 2 emerald
Type: TriggeredThe rune of gravity will pull anybody above the ground elevation back to earth after a short delay. This affects everybody into the room, regardless of enemy status.
After a period of time, the rune will fade on its own if not sketched on an aegis.
-
Clarity
DescriptionSyntax: SKETCH CLARITY
SKETCH CLARITY ONTO <aegis>Required dust: 1 topaz, 1 diamond
Type: PersistentThis powerful glyph will empower your spells while you stand in its presence, concentrating unrefined magic into a deadlier form. Your arcane-sourced spells will do 15% more damage, while ALL mana costs will be increased by 25%. Only the creator of this glyph will be affected by it.
After a period of time, the glyph will fade on its own if not sketched on an aegis.
Hematurgy
-
Well
DescriptionSyntax: WELL DRAW
WELL STATUSDraw upon the power of blood to summon forth a blood well, a source of power capable of bringing about numerous debilitating effects.
Your blood well will be constructed within your body, suffused within your own veins. As such, where you go, it will go.
-
Forewarn
DescriptionSyntax: WELL FOREWARN <ON|OFF>
Your mastery of blood will allow you to detect ripples across your well's surface, alerting you whenever anyone enters its location with this ability active. The effect is temporary and will eventually end on its own in due time.
-
Submerge
DescriptionSyntax: WELL SUBMERGE <item>
WELL RETRIEVE <item>
WELL PROBEStore up to five items within the depths of your blood well; protected by blood as they are, these items will decay at half the normal rate. It is impossible to force you to store or retrieve any items in this manner.
-
Aspects
DescriptionThis ability is passive.
Should you have a blood well with you, you are now able to use it to draw in latent humours that fuel your sorcery. Casting two Humourism spells in a row from the same humour will cause your well to become aspected with it.
Once fully aspected with a humour, some Humourism spells require it in order to be cast. Please see the AB help files in Humourism to find out if it is a requirement to cast.
Any aspected humour within your well will eventually lose its efficacy if it isn't used shortly.
-
Suffusion
DescriptionSyntax: WELL SUFFUSION
Requires your blood well to be free of your veins.Draw your extended blood well back into your body at the cost of your equilibrium, providing it is in the same location as you.
-
Varicose
DescriptionSyntax: WELL VARICOSE
Extend your blood well from your veins to encompass the physical space of your current location as a bloodied haze. This grants you access to certain abilities that require it. Not all abilities require you to expand your blood well, but more powerful abilities will.
In addition, when you expand it, the following will happen once after a delay:
All enemies still in the same location will take a pulse of damage, and then become afflicted with the etherflux affliction. The type of damage dealt depends on your aspected humour, otherwise it is physical damage.This skill does not cost balance nor equilibrium to use.
-
Vein
DescriptionSyntax: WELL VEIN
Your mastery of blood allows you to exchange your tainted and afflicted blood for the pure and clean blood of your well, relieving yourself of two afflictions in the process. Should you have paresis or paralysis, then you will cure that first and nothing else. You will be unable to use this ability again for a short period afterwards.
Cooldown: 20 seconds
-
Resurface
DescriptionSyntax: WELL RESURFACE <target>
Requires your blood well to be free of your veins.Shift your extended blood well to the location of another in your local area. There is a short channel for this effect that is apparent to your target, and movement will disrupt it.
-
Bloodcry
DescriptionSyntax: WELL BLOODCRY <person> <message>
Your mastery over blood allows you to communicate across vast distances, carrying the message on dark whispers that only the recipient can hear. By drawing your blood well into your body, you can use it to deliver a message to another who is in the realm, regardless of their location.
-
Reel
DescriptionSyntax: WELL REEL
Requires your blood well to be free of your veins.With intense concentration, you can remotely draw your extended blood well back into your body from anywhere in the world. This action requires you to remain within the same location you began this sorcery or it will fail.
-
Overlap
DescriptionSyntax: WELL OVERLAP
Cause your blood well to overflow, its spilled fluids draining small amounts of health from all enemies in its location that it touches, transferring that vitality to you for a limited duration.
-
Severance
DescriptionSyntax: WELL SEVERANCE <ON|OFF>
Your blood well will passively emit powerful waves of dark sorcery that will attempt to sever the connection between body and soul of your enemies, afflicting them with various hidden maladies.
Severance will cause one of the following hidden afflictions:
Misery, recklessness, masochism, stupidity, or impatience. -
Descry
DescriptionSyntax: WELL DESCRY <target>
Requires your blood well to be free of your veins.Channel the power of blood through your well to divine the state of any who stand in its presence. Your descrying will reveal their health and mana levels, as well as any afflictions currently affecting them.
There is no balance or equilibrium cost associated with this ability, though it requires a significant amount of mana.
-
Disparity
DescriptionSyntax: WELL DISPARITY <ON|OFF>
Your blood well can now cause a dangerous disparity of humours in your enemies that reside in the same location as it. This imbalance first consumes their arcane defence, stripping it from them. If they do not restore the defence, their own imbalanced humours will then turn against them, dealing damage from all three primary humours - yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm - as fire, cold and electric damage.
-
Primacy
DescriptionThis ability is passive.
Providing that you have your blood well with you, you can assert the primacy of blood over the other humours. After you have cast an emanation, you can morph its makeup by striking it with a damaging spell from Humourism.
Using yellow bile sorceries will turn it into a Brimstone inferno.
Using phlegm sorceries will turn it into Direfog.
Using black bile sorceries will turn it into a Bilesphere.Any states or conditions associated with the emanation will be carried over should you transform it back into that form.
Please see AB HUMOURISM <emanation> for more information on the various emanations and what they do.
-
Atrophy
DescriptionSyntax: WELL ATROPHY <ON|OFF>
Requires your blood well to be free of your veins.This powerful ability will cause the blood of your enemies to atrophy when they leave the presence of your blood well. This will cause them to take periodic shadow damage for a short while.
This effect can stack with itself if triggered multiple times by the same person.
-
Surfeit
DescriptionSyntax: WELL SURFEIT <target> <CHOLERIC|PHLEGM|MELANCHOLIC>
Requires and consumes aspected humour of the matching type.Create an excess of one of three humours within your target by utilising the stored aspect held within your blood well. The humours you can choose from are choleric, phlegm, and melancholic, each offering different effects.
Choleric (Yellow bile):
A choleric excess will cause your further manipulations of the target's yellow bile to burn even hotter. Each time you strike an opponent affected by this excess using fire damage from a Humourism spell, the intense heat will afflict them with clumsiness. If they are already clumsy, they will develop weariness.Phlegm (Phlegm):
The chilling nature of excess phlegm will periodically chill your opponent, applying one level of chill to them. Should they become frozen, they will develop hypothermia.Melancholic (Black bile)
A melancholic excess will interfere with their pill balance recovery by lengthening the duration before they can eat another. It will also cause Focusing to drain health equal to the initial mana cost on use.Each excess can stack with the others and will last for a limited time before fading.
-
Contaminate
DescriptionSyntax: WELL CONTAMINATE <YELLOW|PHLEGM|BLACK>
WELL PURIFYBy sheer force of bodily will you may contaminate your blood well with black bile, phlegm, or yellow bile, aspecting its power to the humour chosen.
Cooldown: 30 seconds
-
Thrombose
DescriptionSyntax: WELL THROMBOSE <ON|OFF>
Requires your blood well to be free of your veins.Your blood well will cause clots to form in the blood of everyone in its vicinity, including yourself. This will cause sipping either a health or mana elixir to shift its healing properties, restoring health or mana over time rather than immediately.
-
Circulate
DescriptionThis ability is passive.
Your mastery of blood magic has deepened, allowing you to maintain a constant circulation between yourself and your blood well. As such, you can now control your extended blood well from a distance with little more than a thought.
This affects the following abilities:
Resurface, Descry, Imbrue, Profane, Suffocate.A cube sigil placed in the same location as your blood well will interfere with your ability to command it remotely.
-
Immerge
DescriptionSyntax: WELL IMMERGE
Requires your blood well to be free of your veins.In times of grave danger, you may sink into blood well, temporarily shifting your physical form into its sanguine depths and making yourself untargetable briefly.
Cooldown: 25 seconds
-
Actualise
DescriptionSyntax: WELL ACTUALISE <target> <CHOLERIC|PHLEGM|MELANCHOLIC>
Should you have caused an excess of humours within your target, you can draw upon these excessive humours to instantly bring forth a burst of sorcerous power related to that humour, and relieve their excess in the process. Excess choleric will bring fire damage, excess phlegm will bring cold damage, and excess melancholic will bring electric damage.
If the opponent has the etherflux affliction, the excess fluids will be drawn into your blood well, giving it an aspect of the associated humour.
This ability requires equilibrium and balance to use, but does not consume either.
-
Suffocate
DescriptionSyntax: WELL SUFFOCATE
Requires your blood well to be free of your veins.By drawing upon the essence of black bile, you unleash a terrible miasma from your blood well. This noxious cloud will envelope the location of your blood well, draining mana from all caught within, stripping them of three random defences, and leaving the air charged with a static, melancholic energy.
Due to the potent nature of this ability, there is a short delay before it can be used again.
Cooldown Congealment (on room): 30 seconds
-
Imbrue
DescriptionSyntax: WELL IMBRUE
Requires your blood well to be free of your veins.By channeling the essence of phlegm through your blood well, you unleash a devastating deluge of tainted blood that floods your location and surroundings. This torrent will carry away everyone around you in a random direction from your blood well.
Adventurers will be pushed in the chosen direction until there is nowhere left to go, potentially moving them through multiple locations. The flood will also push anyone else standing in its path. Every location affected by this spell will be left flooded.
Due to the potent nature of this ability, there is a short delay before it can be used again.
Cooldown Congealment (on room): 30 seconds
-
Profane
DescriptionSyntax: WELL PROFANE
Requires your blood well to be free of your veins.Channel the essence of yellow bile through your blood well, creating a profane conflagration that will engulf your surroundings.
Once cast, your blood well will release waves of searing, bile-infused blood five times, burning everyone in the same location as your blood well and adjacent to it. Each wave will grow in intensity, becoming more powerful, and will spread embers in the affected locations.
Performing this ability will require your complete focus. If you attempt any other action during its channel, the profane energies will dissipate, bringing it to an early end.
Cooldown Congealment (on room): 30 seconds
-
Permeate
DescriptionSyntax: WELL PERMEATE <target>
This gruesome act will allow you to draw your target deep into the depths of your blood well to meet a grisly fate. Your intended victim must be prone, and you may perform no other actions while the well seeks to permeate every pore of their body with an overabundance of viscous lifeblood.
Success will destroy your blood well in the process, however failure will only purge it of its humour aspects.
If your enemy is affected by an excess of humours associated with your well's current aspected humour, the prone requirement is waived and the permeation will be hastened.
Visual style and identity
The life of a Bloodborn is messy by design. Burning bile erupts from their mouth, floods of frigid spittle crash in their wake, and at their command, blood splatters across whatever surface is available. Eldritch invocation and unknowable script are part of standard practice. Ornate staves, daggers, and sceptres show up in the hands of experienced humourists, often as expressions of arrogance as much as power.
Bloodborn do not wear armour. They protect themselves through magic, and they garb themselves in materials that wash out easily.
Side effects of the work
Mastery of blood and humours leaves a Bloodborn unusually sensitive. They register heartbeats, circulatory rhythms, and the scent of blood at a level mortal peers do not. They detect imbalance and illness in others and in themselves, sometimes as a useful signal, sometimes as a relentless distraction novitiates struggle to work through.
Mortal Bloodborn pay a physical price too. Repeated bile-expelling produces blisters and burns. Skin scars from the inside out. Many mortal practitioners eventually accept undeath or vampirism, partly to end that suffering. Consanguine Bloodborn trade the burns for a different problem: low blood states hit them harder, mixing the rage of hunger with feelings of profound emptiness.
Who plays this class
The Bloodborn attracts players who want a magic kit that reads as occult, scholarly, and slightly horrifying. The class fits arrogant intellectuals, visceral ritualists, and Dominion loyalists with a taste for the gross. Either flavour works inside the guild.
Mechanically, Bloodborn favour mid-range pressure. Humourism gives you anatomical attacks. Hematurgy adds a deep blood-control layer. Esoterica brings ritual utility, including the crystal aegis. The class rewards players who enjoy resource management and the strategic application of debilitating effects.
City and guild
The Bloodborn home is the Imperial Dominion of Bloodloch, the Shadow Tether’s city of undeath. Patron: Chakrasul, the Dark Mother. The Dominion houses both the Bloodborn class and its sister class, the Praenomen, Aetolia’s vampire signature class.
Joining the Dominion as a Bloodborn means committing to Shadow. You cannot actively hold Spirit-aligned classes alongside it, though you can multiclass into other Shadow classes or any of the seven untethered classes. Race choice is independent of class, so you can play a Bloodborn of any Aetolia race.
The Bloodborn mirror is the Ascendril, Enorian’s Spirit-element mages. Both are scholar-sorcerer classes, but their philosophies are opposed. Ascendril channel the dynamic elements through a fulcrum and study Spirit as the driving force of life. Bloodborn study the body itself, treat life as anatomy, and work the residue most mages would refuse to touch.
Frequently asked questions
Other classes to consider
Three classes worth a look if you like the Bloodborn profile. Or see the complete class roster for the rest of the roster.
Praenomen
Bloodborn’s sister class inside the Imperial Dominion. Vampires who command body, mind, and blood through Corpus, Mentis, and Sanguis. Pick Praenomen if you want the Dominion guild and Shadow alignment but prefer playing a full vampire with the ability to Sire others.
Ascendril
The Bloodborn’s mirror across the Spirit-Shadow divide. Light mages who channel Fire, Spirit, Water, and Air through a fulcrum. Pick Ascendril if you like the scholar-mage frame but want to fight for the Light rather than dissect bodies for the Dark Mother.
Alchemist
Spinesreach’s chemistry-and-experimentation class. Alchemy, Experimentation, Botany. Pick Alchemist if you like the scientific-magic angle of Bloodborn but want a colder, lab-coated frame instead of visceral body magic.
Back to all 32 Aetolia classes | Aetolia beginner’s guide | Create your Bloodborn and play free
