Thunderous Deluge

Rules

Performing the Ritual

Performing this ritual takes at least 10 minutes of roleplaying. If the ritual is cast using the Imperial Regio it requires at least 5 minutes of roleplaying instead.

During the ritual the casters must be in a strong Spring regio. This ritual targets a territory, and must be performed at a regio in that territory. If the ritual is used to target an Imperial territory, it may instead be performed at the Imperial regio at Anvil.

This effect is a curse. A target may be under more than one curse at a time.

Effects

Over the coming season the territory is scoured with terrible thunderstorms, torrential rain, frozen hail, howling winds, or dreadful blizzards as appropriate to the area and the season.

The income from all farms and businesses in the territory is reduced by 72 rings.

The effects of the ritual are obvious to anyone living in or passing through the territory. As with any effect that targets an entire territory, there may be unanticipated consequences to this ritual. The nature of the area and the current situation there may prompt additional unpredictable effects, often resulting in an entry into the following seasons Winds of Fortune. The curse may cause flooding in marshy regions, coastal areas, and along the banks of rivers and lakes. It might lead to flash floods in mountains, landslides and mudslides in hilly areas, and damage to buildings in villages, towns, cities. It may also become more difficult to move around the area affected by the curse, and the inhabitants are likely to be encouraged to stay indoors wherever possible.

The effect lasts until the start of the next Profound Decisions Empire event.

Options

Any caster who has mastered the ritual may choose to substitute tempest jade for crystal mana when contributing to it. Every 2 ingots of tempest jade spent counts as 1 crystal mana when contributing to the ritual.

Description

The power of this ritual pounds the target territory with supernaturally bad weather. It directly attacks the economy of the area where it is invoked. The effect is wide-reaching, but as with most such effects a certain degree of protection can be gained from any enchantment that improves the production of a resource - the enchanted production is not impeded. In some cases, a well-timed use of this ritual has compounded natural conditions to give a strategic advantage to Imperial troops; as recently as the Jotun campaign of Empress Britta a well-timed and destructive blizzard created by a circle of Navarr magicians accompanying her army trapped a retreating barbarian force in an exposed position, allowing them to be easily mopped up.

Perhaps the most famous use of Thunderous Deluge took place in Summer 385YE, partially in response to the Great Drought of that year. A rare astronomantic conjunction of the Stallion and the Lock allowed the curse to be invoked on Casinea, and from there spread throughout the Empire. The rains relieved the drought, and in its wake fields and herb gardens flourished, but it also led to extensive property damage. and a slow expansion of marshland in many Imperial territories. Opinion was divided over the wisdom of using the curse in this way, but an effort to have the ritual interdicted was defeated, and the Urizen coven who worked the magic ultimately supported by the Imperial Conclave - to the chagrin of some Marchers and League citizens whose livelihoods were threatened by the encroaching flood waters.

That same conjunction reportedly empowered the catastrophic storms invoked by then Archmage of Spring Ser Fabienne De Miel in the Barrens. There is some speculation that the arcane projection used to flood the Saltmarsh was heavily inspired by this curse, although the magicians of Spiral Castle who provided it will not be drawn on the matter. Regardless, it should be noted that the dramatic changes worked by this curse on marshes and waterways are by no means typical; such changes are rarely durable without the added power provided by the unpredictable currents of the stars and the flows of mana.

Prior to this tumultuous display, the ritual had been invoked only twice on an Imperial territory. Once was during a dispute between two groups of Varushkan cabalists in Volodmartz that boiled over into a direct assault; the second involved the efforts of a circle of Suaq icewalkers who were trying to influence a Marcher vote in Upwold. In both of these cases, the covens involved were declared to be sorcerers by the Imperial Conclave and faced the full force of the law.

As with Foam and Spittle of the Furious Sea, which it somewhat resembles, the ritual is known to be favoured by by the eternal Siakha, and she is known to provide boons that empower it and encourage its performance. Among other things, she is known to occasionally provide a particularly favoured minion with a Stormglass Mask, a magical focus of tempest jade that make both rituals easier to cast. Such masks are said to bear a curse of their own, one that drives anyone who uses it to seek out more and more destructive uses for their magic.

Common Elements

Performances are often violent and dramatic, as is to be expected with a ritual that unleashes the force of the storm. Some ritualists are of the opinion that the 'best' time to perform the ritual is during naturally bad weather, with the intention of channelling the fury of the elements toward their target, and of making it worse. There are anecdotes that just casting this ritual when the weather is poor causes it to worsen in the area around the casters, but obviously it is hard to prove or disprove this theory. The weather is unpredictable at the best of times.

The ritual calls up an uncontrollable force of nature and sets it loose in a territory. Warhorns, drums, copper rods, and clashing cymbals are all used to rouse the Spring magic involved. It is not uncommon for a great bowl of water to play a central role, especially if the ritualists plan to use tempest jade in place of some or all of the crystalline mana, with the magical material being hurled into the water in such a way as to ensue splashing. A map or symbol of the target territory might also be employed, and where one is used it is customary to destroy or mar it at the climax of the ritual with water or mud.

It is common to evoke the rune Mawrig with this ritual, which represents the indiscriminate and most destructive forces of Spring. Some Wintermark covens attempt to channel or mitigate its effects with Hirmok, but they are rarely successful in doing so. The eternal Siakha can be evoked to draw power for this ritual, but this is rarely done in the Empire due to her status with the Imperial Conclave. A heraldic magician might call on the destructive power of the chimera, while a dramaaturgist may frame their ritual in the context of the Garden, which represents the primal powers of the natural world.