An Arcadian Ceremony - Magnitude 10 - The Warheart
THIS CEREMONY IS CURRENTLY NOT ABLE TO BE PERFORMED
Performing the Ceremony
Performing this Ceremony takes at least 2 minutes of roleplaying. This Ceremony targets a character who must be present throughout, but need not be one of the priests performing the Ceremony. They become the Prophet as described in the rules about Curses.
This Ceremony is a Curse, and therefore interacts with anything that would remove or affect Curses.
Effects
Target character affected by this Curse loses all skills that grant them weapon, armor or shield proficiencies (noting that characters retain the ability to use light and medium armor, and wield basic weapons). If the character attends four confluxes, kills a foe at every conflux they attend, and allows the Curse to fade naturally, they gain one of the following skills for no cost: Archer, Armoured, Bladehand, Bulwark, Hand-And-A-Half, Weaponmaster.
This Curse lasts for the full remaining duration of the event where it was received, as well as the two full summits following it that the character attends.
While a target character is affected by this Curse, they may not benefit from any effect that would give them access to a weapon or shield proficiency from any source (Enchantment, Artifact, Band or Sect effect, etc.).
While a target character is affected by this Curse, they may not unlearn any abilities during downtime, even non-weapon related ones. This does not prevent them from spending experience on weapon or shield proficiencies, though they will be suppressed until the Curse is removed. If a character should have access to every possible skill that could be gained when the Curse fades naturally and they have completed the requirements, speak with an ST about possible other outcomes.
It is the task of the player to report on the outcomes of their Curse progress at the end of each event if they wish to gain the positive outcome. This can be done as a note in the character bag handed back at the end of the event or in your downtime submission.
Description
To take away the skills that bring confidence in a fight, or act to protect a martially skilled individual from the blows of their foes, and then to task them with charging forth to join the fight anyway - this is a fitting test of courage and skill for an Arcadian Ceremony. The target is cursed with a fog of the mind that removes their ability to remember how to fight with any but the simplest of weapons. Their dexterity and other combat basics are unaffected, but they simply forget how to skillfully wield practically every weapon, and their armor weighs unnaturally heavily on their body.
This curse has been the folly of many an aspirant, who has either taken on the curse intentionally, or has simply accepted the challenge when they have been cursed by someone else and gone into battle anyway. Such individuals, without support and expecting themselves to be far more capable than they actually are, die surprised as foes they once cut down with impunity get past their guards to deliver lethal blows.
Performing the Ceremony
This curse is drawn from The Warheart. As there are many people who choose to take this curse upon themselves, there are a few different ways that this Ceremony is performed, based on whether it is a malicious curse to be turned on a rival, or a self-imposed challenge to be overcome for glory and Grace. In the first instance, the Ceremony could involve cutting words and rhetoric that empowers the Prophet with the doom and fog that this curse imparts. Where the Prophet seeks to take on the curse themselves, this is a ritual Ceremony of respect and cautious optimism, involving the swearing of oaths and the teaching of warnings and cautionary tales.
In either case, shadows and smoke are used to great effect by some priests in the spectacle of this Ceremony, whether from incense burners or sticks, or from a fire or recently burning stick. These represent and enhance the smoke and fog of memory that are inflicted on the cursed individual, and in being used can help to focus the Grace of the ceremony to affect only that which is desired, as sometimes the scope of the memories affected can be greater than what was originally bargained for.
Notes
While this Curse naturally fades normally at the very end of a Summit (and thus thematically at some point during the break), it is fine to seek approval for it to end roughly an hour before the end of Summit as long as the player does not anticipate there being any reasonable likelihood that they will engage in combat after that point.
This is to allow the return of strength and skill to be roleplayed at the actual Summit itself, though the new skill can obviously only be obtained once the Summit has concluded and the downtime actions are available.