Dedication

Overview

The dedication ceremony forms the basis of all religious skill use. It teaches how to employ liao to gain the right meditative state to access spiritual power to influence their own soul or the souls of others. It also provides the minimum knowledge required to use spiritual bonded items including icons, priestly vestments and musical instruments.

The ceremony itself allows you to create a spiritual connection between yourself and another character. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the strength of the connection causes a permanent change to the recipients soul - marking them with the same virtue that you are dedicated to.

It is common for a priest who is dedicated to refer to themselves as a "priest of" the virtue they are dedicated to. Not every priest is dedicated - dedication both enhances the abilities of a priest (allowing them to create virtuous auras) and restricts them (making it difficult for them to cooperate). Some priests eschew dedication, especially if they wish to explore the Way in it's entirety - they are usually known specifically as Priests of the Way.

It is possible to dedicate someone who is not a priest, but the benefits are tenuous at best. A few magic items rely on dedication (such as the Pilgrim's Shield), and some lay people view being dedicated as a more persistent way to demonstrate their devotion to a virtue than a transitory anointing.

Dedication is not to be undertaken lightly; it does not fade over time and cannot be simply renounced as it creates a persistent spiritual connection between someone and a potent spiritual concept. Indeed, it is commonly believed that even death does not remove dedication. Dedication can be "over-written" by a ceremony of equal strength, or removed by a ceremony lead by a priest who is not dedicated to a virtue.

There are other methods for achieving the right meditative state, but they are significantly more expensive, time consuming, and less reliable than the use of liao.

Performance

• Requires a dose of liao and at least ten seconds appropriate roleplaying
• Requires the presence and assistance of a referee
• Requires a willing target who understands what is happening

Dedicating a character uses a dose of liao. Performing the ceremony requires at least ten seconds of appropriate roleplaying and target must be close enough to touch throughout. The target must be willing. If they are unwilling or unaware of the virtue to which they are being dedicated, the ceremony fails.

You can only dedicate someone to the virtue to which you yourself are dedicated. No known magic item allows one to circumvent this restriction (the musical instruments do not allow one to dedicate someone to a different virtue).

Effects

• The ceremony dedicates the target to your virtue
• Being dedicated allows a priest to create roleplaying effect auras of the virtue they are dedicated to
• Being dedicated determines which Synod assembly a character is part of
• A character can only be dedicated to a single virtue at any one time
• May be used to replace or remove an existing dedication
• The insight ceremony will reveal details of dedication
• Orcs cannot be dedicated

Dedicating a character creates a permanent spiritual link between their soul and your virtue. They become dedicated to the same Virtue that you are dedicated to. This link can be seen by anyone who use the insight skill on the target.

Dedication determines which spiritual auras a character can create using anointing, consecration and hallow. A character cannot create a Virtue aura unless they are dedicated to the Virtue. The strength of a dedication determines how hard it is to remove or replace.

Dedication is also crucial to the political structure of the Synod. The Synod is split into eight assemblies, one for each Virtue and one for the Way for those priests who are not dedicated to a Virtue. A character who owns a congregation may vote in various assemblies of the Synod, including the relevant assembly for their Virtue. Anyone who changes dedication at an event should inform the civil service of the change so that they can update their records.

Although orcs are subject to the effects of auras created using liao - they cannot be dedicated to the virtues by a human using liao.

Removal

• Dedication is permanent until removed or replaced.
• A new dedication will supplant an existing dedication if it has equal or higher strength.
• The dedication skill can be used to remove an existing dedication.

Dedicating a character that is currently dedicated to a different Virtue will replace that dedication, provided the strength of the new dedication at least equals the strength of the old one.

Any character with the dedication skill (including one who is not dedicated to a Virtue) may attempt to remove an existing dedication rather than replacing it with a new one. In the case of a durable dedication, the ceremony must still have a strength at least equal to that of the existing dedication.

True Liao

• True liao can be used in place of liao to perform the dedication ceremony.
• Dedication is required to serve as a guide priest during a true liao vision

You can use true liao in place of normal liao to perform a dedication ceremony. In this case, the dedication is still permanent, but it cannot be removed or replaced by another dedication using a ceremony that does not also include a dose of true liao. it is exceptionally rare - almost unheard of - for true liao to be used in fashion.

In addition, anyone who knows how to perform the dedication ceremony can act as a guide when someone consumes true liao. A guide priest perceives and to a degree experiences the vision, but does not exist within it. Their purpose is to help offer guidance to the person actually experiencing the vision.

Further Reading

• Ceremonial Skills
  • Anointing
  • Consecration
  • Dedication
  • Excommunication
  • Exorcism
  • Hallow
  • Insight
  • Testimony
• Additional Information
  • Auras
  • The Way
  • Imperial Synod