Icy Maw Devours the Spark of Essence

Rules

Performing the Ritual

Performing this ritual takes at least 10 minutes of roleplaying. During the ritual the casters must be in a strong Winter regio.

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

Effects

This ritual targets a region. It must be performed at a regio in that region, or at the regio in Anvil if it is targeting a region that is part of the Empire.

The region is scoured with unpleasent weather, and magicians in the area begin to feel increasingly uncomfortable. In some cases they become depressed and lethargic, in others short tempered and aggressive.

All mana sites in the region provide only half as many mana crystals as they would otherwise produce in the coming season. The ritual may also damage weak regio, as well as encouraging some magical beasts to either become lethargic or dangerously aggressive.

Description

The power of this ritual encourages bad weather across the region, but also brings with it a malaise that seeps into the spirits of magicians - while their personal mana reserves are not effected, they often become either lethargic and depressed or short-tempeted and aggressive if they spend an extended period in the region.

The ritual also effects supernatural creatures, either encouraging them to become lethargic and docile or aggressive and ill-tempered. Used against the barbarians, it is most likely to penalise the Thule and the Druj rather than the Jotun or the Grendel.

The ritual has been invoked once in the last hundred years by Imperial citizens on an Imperial territory; during a dispute between a Freeborn covens based in Siroc and several troupes in Sarvos, the ritual was used by the Freeborn to drain the mana sites of theCity of Jewels. In this case, the Freeborn coven were exonnerated by the Imperial Conclave who deemed the matter to be resolved internally without the intervention of magistrates. The ritual is not deemed to involve theft - the mana is simply depleted, not stolen.

A few scholars are concerned about where the mana is going if it is not forming mana crystals; suspicious types suggest it is being stolen by or channeled into the Winter Realm in some way.

Common Elements

The ritual releases a malign, oppressive force into a region. Grim, throbbing musical rhythms, slow threatening movement and invocations of dread and hunger are all used to raise and direct this malign power. It is common to evoke the rune Naeve or Kyrop with this ritual. Some WIntermark covens attempt to channel or mitigate it's effects with Hirmok, or to channel the depleted mana towards their own man site but they do not report much success.