Potions

Creation

Potions are created by harvesting from creatures or cruxes powerful in their associated trait. Three potions of complementary types must be combined, at which point they animate. Placed on some orifice or wound, the compound enters and draws out the elements needed to create more of the dominant potion back into its container, at which point they separate like oil and water and can be returned to their individual containers. This process inflicts serious harm on the source - as such the process is only carried out on corpses, or those bound or willing participants. The caster may also be the source, and most potions available through legitimate channels are created this way.

Uses

Potions grant a temporary surge of power to the imbiber. In addition, magic item creation relies on potions. There are general qualities shared by the six potion types:

  • Sanguine potions are deep, ruddy red, and as they increase in level grow brighter, purer red and sluice about on their own accord.

Wraith

The most common form of the incorporeal undead, a wraith is a ghost suffused with ether which takes on a wispy humanoid form which trails off into mist below the waist. If it perceives any living creature, its face opens in a silent howl as it thrashes, fraying the blood and flesh apart.

Banshee

Incorporeal undead, banshees attack the living through the ether, casting mad visions and excruciating headaches to those caught in their presence.

Revenant

Revenants are unstable, crippled husks, either starved zombies or the result of cancerous self-replication. The most basic necromancy also creates short-lived revenants.

Ghoul

Whereas a zombie is content for food to wander past, ghouls have a predatory and feral edge, and will go on the hunt. A single ghoul mines the memories of its former life for a place where the weak may congregate, while several will form a pack which subjugates even this base tactic for the fleeting thrill of a bloody hunt.

Haunt

Under rare circumstances, the final gasp of a powerful magi is imposed on the powers which suffuse his body, and the colony arises as a haunt to fulfill his deathwish before dispersing... or becoming a wraith.

Undead

Undead share many traits with golems, and the magic used to animate them is similar. However, the physical structure of an undead is already there, and designed to move in a way the creator is familiar with. Depending on the state of the brain, there are already some good existing patterns to reuse. The creator combines these resources with a framework and set of commands stored in an ethereal cloud known as a ghost.

A ghost embedded back into a physical body produces a decay-inhibiting system. The undead do need to eat, but if they go too long without food they merely fall into torpor wherein they wait for food to wander by. In torpor they've only vague visions and scents to alert them to passing prey, and if they remain in this state too long they risk being locked in, released from their own whispers only after years or decades have slowly drained the last wisps of vitality from their shells.

Incorporeal undead are ghosts given greater volumes of ether and activated.

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