Unleash the Beasts Within

This ritual is part of Urizen lore rather than Imperial lore.

Interdiction
While Agramant is subject to the enmity of the Imperial Conclave, it is illegal to perform this ritual.

Rules

Urizen Lore

This ritual is part of Urizen lore rather than Imperial Lore. Any Urizen character with the appropriate lore can master or perform this ritual. A character from another nation who mastered the ritual before it became part of Urizen lore may still perform it, but does so under the usual rules for performing a ritual learned from a ritual text.

Performing the Ritual

Performing this ritual takes at least 2 minutes of roleplaying. This ritual targets a military unit. The character who controls the target personal resource must be present throughout. The performance requires the invocation of Agramant by at least three of his commonly-known names.

This ritual is an enchantment. A target may only be under one enchantment effect at a time.

Effects

The military unit gains a significant bonus to its effectiveness when it takes a campaigning action (usually meaning that it supports a campaign army). This temporary bonus increases the effective fighting force of the unit by 60, the equivalent of 3 normal upgrades.

As long as the military unit is under this enchantment, the character who controls the target resource experiences a roleplaying effect; You have a strong sense of your own entitlement; you should be free to do whatever you want in pursuit of your goals. Those who allow fear of the law, or the bonds of tradition, to prevent them from achieving their ambitions are fools. Those who actively try to prevent you realising your destiny should be destroyed utterly, and without mercy.

The effect lasts until the start of the next Profound Decisions Empire event. If the owner of the resource does not attend the next event, then the additional production provided by the resource is still added to that character's inventory.

Assurance

This ritual permanently loses power if every military unit in the Empire is ever disbanded.

Description

The warriors who are part of a warband enchanted with this ritual find it easy to inflict pain, and experience heightened aggression. The more bloodthirsty they are, the more the magic drawn from Agramant encourages them and strengthens them. It encourages the members of the warband to deal with problems directly, with violence, and their willingness to fight without any restraint - to "get stuck in" - will take many opponents by surprise. The effect of the magic is very clearly turned outwards; those affected will rarely mourn a comrade who dies fighting but they will not turn on each other. They are united in their desire to kill, to take what they deserve, and to fulfil their destiny at the expense of their enemies.

At the same time, however, they have a strong sense of the need to conceal the magic's effects. They know that others may be soft-hearted or weak and make it difficult for their to achieve their goals. Thus, they hide the full effect of the enchantment around those who might judge them for their cruel behaviour, making it easier for them to work alongside the disciplined soldiers of an Imperial army. Winter magic has little affinity for supporting warriors to campaign against their enemies, preferring more direct solutions, but the subtle influence of Agramant that suffuses this ritual just about makes it work. Even with the eternal's wicked assistance, however, this is by no means a simple enchantment to create.

Unleash the Beasts Within entered Urizen lore shortly before the Winter Solstice 384YE, as part of a book entitled Ceremonies of the Black Drop Society. The attendants of the Great Library were deeply uncomfortable with the rituals in that book and their presence among Urizen lore, more due to their illegal nature than any sentimental concerns about their origin. They were apparently all submitted at the same time as Treacher's Quill, but Phaleron itself intervened to delay their appearance in lore while it pondered how best to respond. In the end it decided to do the only reasonable thing; present the rituals to the Urizen as part of their lore as agreed when the lore was established. The Celestial Library does not enjoy causing trouble for its Urizeni allies, but the Gift of Knowledge is available to every Imperial citizen; it cannot pick and choose who can contribute rituals via the ritual.

Common Elements

The ritual fills a fighting force with both cruelty and bloodlust. Ritual performances often include the evocation of the rune of hunger or the constellation of The Claw. Blood is often shed during this ritual, often mixed with a cup or bowl of water or spirits and drunk by the targets. Sometimes the ritual involves the targets cutting themselves with a blade and swearing oaths to kill any who would stand in their way. There are often invocations of wolves or other predatory animals, especially dire beasts and occasionally manticores during the performance of Unleash the Beasts Within.

Further Reading

• Black Drop Society