Auras of Vigilance

A man warned is half saved.

Marcher Proverb

Overview

An aura is a persistent spiritual effect on a person, location or item. The auras listed here are created by priests dedicated to the virtue of Vigilance who use the relevant ceremonial skill. A character who is dedicated to Vigilance must pick one of the following auras when they perform the relevant ceremony. A priest of the Way may also use the Dreams of Vigilance when they use the dedication ceremony to provide a pilgrim with a visionary dream.

The names used for each aura are simply the most common ones used in the Empire. For example, the Preparations of Vigilance may be called Gathering the Spears by a Navarr guide.

Study of these auras helped the founders of the Way to create the Path of Vigilance. Some lay persons assume that the Imperial Synod created these auras in some fashion to encourage adherence to orthodoxy, but according to theological scholars the situation is the other way around. The auras came first, then the tenets of the Path of Vigilance.

Anointing

Anointing involves a short ceremony to create a personal aura on a mortal being. Anointing always requires the consent of the subject.

The Demands of Vigilance

You feel an urge to probe the claims, motives, and actions of others. Refusal to cooperate inspires feelings of suspicion.

Description: This is an anointing favoured by inquisitors, Illuminates and other priests who desire to get to the truth behind deception and dissembling. It is less popular with citizens who have had their privacy invaded as a result, though the innocent have nothing to fear from the Vigilant. Priests of Vigilance have also used this to help citizens question assumptions, and whether individuals or groups are actually worthy of their loyalty.

The Price of Vigilance

You feel an urge to end the threat you named when you received this anointing. Morals and scruples feel like distractions that will prevent you from taking action.

Description: The threats that beset the Empire are wily and cunning, and few will ever provide absolute proof or solid evidence of their intentions before it is too late. Yet doubts about the consequences of acting, or feeling that there is insufficient information, can bedevil the pilgrims of Vigilance and discourage them from doing what must be done. Priests use this anointing to ready the virtuous and strengthen them to act with confidence and certainty. This anointing is popular in empowering priests and pilgrims to overcome other effects that cloud the mind, including malign auras.

The Merits of Vigilance

You feel driven seek the source of a threat. You feel an urge to work with those who share your certainty and bypass those who procrastinate.

Description: This aura encourages pilgrims to try to address the source of the dangers that threaten them, rather than directing their efforts against the most visible or immediate threat. The Vigilant understand the importance of rooting out a threat to ensure that it is completely destroyed. This aura is popular with some Urizen priests who draw parallels with the Net of the Heavens, arguing that the aura drives pilgrims to find the pivotal node, the most effective point to act against the danger.

The Preparations of Vigilance

You feel a need to prepare for the threats that are to come. You feel an urge to call out the complacency of those who are blind to the dangers.

Description: Many priests of the path of Vigilance use this anointing as a call to arms, especially for those who they feel have become complacent and are unready for the dangers that may come. Other Vigilant groups or sects may use this anointing more regularly to encourage regular drilling and practicing of skills.

You don't own it unless you can defend it.

Marcher Proverb

Consecration

Consecration is the ceremony used to create an aura on a clearly defined location. There is only one aura for each virtue, and all priests create the same one when they use this skill.

In Deepest Consequence

You feel a profound desire to protect the things you truly care for. You know your decisions are crucial to ensure their safety.

Description: This powerful aura of Vigilance fills those who experience it with a passion to protect the things they care most about. Although it can be an unsettling aura, it gives pilgrims an unshakable sense of the significance of their own role in averting danger. It is often used to create places of contemplation, a place for pilgrims to be reminded of the importance of Vigilance when making difficult judgements.

Dedication

Dedication is the ceremony used to link a pilgrim's soul to the virtue. It can also be used to create vivid oracular dreams.

Dreams of Vigilance

The next time you sleep you experience a vivid dream concerning known threats and likely dangers. The dream will often show ways in which you might take action to confront and defeat them. Sometimes the dream will show you a new threat, it appears ominous and foreboding in the vision even if you have not encountered it before. The dream will often include symbolic elements that seem to provide some hint of the source of the dangers that threaten you.

Hallow

Hallow is used to create an aura on an item, such as a weapon, implement, shield or suit of armour. It is not possible to use hallow to create an aura on large immobile objects. Hallows do not provide a source of supernatural strength, but are durable and can last for a year (or potentially forever in the case of an artefact hallowed with true liao).

Hallowing of the Torch

You feel an urge to root out and expose corruption among the powerful.

Hallowing of the Bell

You feel an urge to rouse others to deal with a threat or danger you have identified.

Hallowing of the Scale

You feel driven to uphold the law to ensure the innocent are protected.

Hallowing of the Scout

You feel driven to investigate danger to find the source of the threat.

Hallowing of the Archivist

You feel an urge to decipher secrets and unravel mysteries to identify hidden threats.

Hallowing of the Unconquered

You feel an urge to act decisively to eliminate potential dangers before they can threaten you.

Hallowing of the Arbiter

You feel an urge to simplify complex situations; ultimately everything significant is either a threat or something to protect.

Hallowing of the Sentinel

You feel an urge to take strategic actions to defend your homeland.

Commentary: Strategic actions often include things such as raising armies, building fortifications, creating large-scale enchantments and curses, hiring mercenaries, encouraging generals to remain wary for unexpected threats, and similar actions.