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

The territory is scoured with terrible thunderstorms; torrential rain; frozen hail or dreadful blizzards as appropriate to the area and the season.

The income from all farms and businesses in the territory is halved over the coming season.

This will have a significant effect on a foreign or barbarian territory, damaging their agriculture and industry and reducing their capacity to field troops and feed their people.

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.

The ritual has been invoked thrice in the last hundred years by Imperial citizens 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. It was cast most recently at the Summer Solstice 384YE during a conjunction which saw it affect the entire Empire.

Common Elements

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, and 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.

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 making it worse.

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.