Courageous Missive

Performing the Ceremony

Performing this Ceremony takes at least 2 minutes of roleplaying. This Ceremony requires a missive of a single page, which must be written before the Ceremony can begin.

The missive must be signed, may only be signed by a single character, and does not need to be the priest casting the Ceremony. The writer should be present for the casting, but are not required.

Effects

The message is magically sent to the Arcadian Herald of your choice, so long as you have properly addressed it. There is no guarantee that you will receive a response, but you will receive guidance on your missive through positive or negative effects at the following Summit. This will take the form of a mechanical effect (plain text) and a roleplay effect (italics) that will last until the end of that Summit unless otherwise specified.

Attempting to contact a Arcadian Eternal through this method will result in the Crystal Mana being consumed, the message being destroyed, and no further effect.

This table will be updated as results from Heralds become known to the priests of the Concord.

Known Missive Results

Herald	Approval	Disapproval
The Gauntlet
The Ruby Duellist
The Bloody Handed
The Silent Savant
The Spheric Zealot
The Lifter of Towns
The Striking Serpent
The Timid Husk	You are Immune to Fear and Stun. Each day, a number of times equal to your maximum base Energy, you may perform 10 Seconds of appropriate roleplay and expend 1 Energy to allow one ally to call “Resist” the next time they would be affected by Fear or Stun. If unused, they lose this effect at the end of the day. You are confident in the choices you make, and it is difficult, but not impossible, for others to sway you once you have made up your mind. To do nothing is to waste seeds of potential, so you must always act.
The Striking Palm

Description

To reach out to the powerful and the unknown is an act of courage. Will the letter arrive? Will the recipient even choose to read it? Even if they do, will they be moved to respond? Once the letter leaves your hands, taken by an unknown magical force, this is all out of the control of the sender.

While a useful and powerful Ceremony where required, it is rare for anyone to get a response from the Heralds, let alone from an Eternal - particularly if they were not directly instructed to initiate the contact. Some wealthier aspirants will directly send their Blights and Failings directly to an Eternal as part of their contrition, but these practically never get a response, and when they do it tends to be extremely dramatic.

Following a simultaneous declaration by Heralds across Esterra in the winter season of 226 AE, this Ceremony can no longer be used to send messages to Eternals, and Heralds will provide their approval or disapproval on the content of messages through effects given to the writer.

Performing the Ceremony

For some Arcadian priests, this is a moment of communion with their patron Eternals and Heralds, a personal moment of connection. Many believe that the force which takes the letter from their hands either represents or literally is the hands of the being into which they entrust their message.

To receive a reply is, of course, a great honor - to be paraded around with confidence in one’s importance.