Wow, it's been a while.
Two hundred years passes since the fall of democracy and modern society. Instead of having lots of technology and flying cars, humanity has been set back to the dark ages and the monarchy. Most of the populous has died and the rest carry on with life trying to make it better for themselves. A new order has been established and people have once again discovered magical essence’s within the world. New traditions are born as old ones die and a new age of mankind is born.
The new order consists of a ritual in which the main participant receives his power from the leader before him, usually taken from him just before death and stored in a “vessel” then extracted. The vessel usually dies. This power is both feared and desired by many and is only given to those that fit the prerequisites. This power can heal all those who are sick and dying and cause the most painful wounds to those in perfect health, at the cost of the health of the new leader. This side effect is what keeps the leaders from being corrupt and from being ruthless and killing helpless people.
In the most recent ascension to power, the vessel was the former leader’s right hand man. He willingly became a vessel and willingly gave the powers up, however, there was a disturbance of some kind that night and it wasn’t fully transferred. The remaining power went to a girl who was dying. No one knew until she turned 21. She started giving off strong vibrations to those who could feel it. The leader feigned his death and lured her to the new ceremony, usually only seen by men. He tries to “absorb” her so he can be more powerful, however, it backfires and she escapes. He finds later that when you absorb a naturally powerful female or a female with this power, the leader can become more powerful by not using his own life to use this power. (The female loses her life instead.)
She officially goes on the run from the monster, however, she has very little information about surviving on her own, especially in the wilderness and she meets a man that serves as a guide before hearing her story. When they encounter the creature later, she tells the whole story as far as she knows and they decide to try to defeat the creature themselves. They travel the world gathering information on the ascension ceremonies and this power that has been handed down for the last two hundred years.
She defeats the monster, however, she can never return as she was before her adventure started and cannot be with her husband anymore, either. She resides as a different person and starts a new life…
Disturbance: The girl is sick and is being taken care of by a priest that will be participating in the ascension ceremony soon. He feels so bad for her because she shows much improvement followed by a relapse into serious illness that during the ceremony he isn’t fully concentrating on the leader, he was unconsciously thinking of the girl instead which is where some of the power went. When the leader finds out that he was to blame, he killed him without finding out who else could or would have the rest of his power.
Prerequisites:
A. Must be male
B. Must be at least 21 years of age.
C. Must be a descendant of a former leader.
D. Must be ordained a priest of the local church.
E. Must possess knowledge of the “secret tongue” (takes years to learn and understand)
F. Must be a member of the Red Bones (Must be male, 30 years old (unless born into membership), and make a sacrificial offering to Thanatos.)
G. Must participate in the ceremony directly reporting to a priest of the ceremony at some point in lifetime.
H. Must have been training and honing the ability to use this new power from one who has such experience, I.e. the former leader while they still have the power, or from a priest who has witnessed the events brought on by the power. For this reason, the woman who possess part of the power cannot fully control it and feels it in waves that leave her helpless from not experiencing the power before and being prepared for it.
Absorbing: To absorb a female, one must bring to the brink of death in a sacrificial ceremony, however, instead of killing her, she is infused with a small portion of magic from the leader. This will regenerate itself after another long and boring ceremony and at that time, the leader can control the female and use her life to use magic instead of using his own. The female can regain her health back after a period of time, however, most get too power thirsty and kill her before long.
Ascension Ceremony: In this ceremony a chosen person is gifted with the powers of the previous leader. The chosen person is painted with ancient symbols as well as the vessel. There is an incantation that is repeated over and over again while the many priests use their small amount of power to extract the power from the vessel. Once it is extracted, the vessel dies and is considered a hero to the country. The power cannot be forced into the chosen leader. It must be slowly leaked into their soul creating an infusion of this power to their soul directly. If the leader is killed by unnatural means, there is a very limited amount of time before the magic dies and is gone forever. Usually the power will keep the host alive long enough for it to be extracted to a vessel. When the previous leader and the chosen new leader are in the same ceremony there is conflict and it takes exponentially longer to complete the ceremony. Once the power is completely fused with the new chosen leader, he is bedridden for a week to regain his strength and become used to the new surge of power. During this week, the new chosen leader acclimates to the surge and to the new senses that comes with it.
The priests can usurp the power from the host if needed, but it is difficult and usually requires a vessel of extreme strength to handle to sudden stress. Usually the power will not leave easily and it becomes dangerous for anyone involved very quickly. Normally only 10 priests are needed to give the power to the new chosen leader, but it could take as many as 200 and at least 50 to take it away.
kronokross Community Member 
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