A Stallia Ceremony - Magnitude 30 - Machine
Performing the Ceremony
Performing this Ceremony takes at least 10 minutes of roleplaying. This Ceremony targets the essence of an individual who has departed from the mortal sphere within the last year.
Effects
This ceremony summons a spirit of the ‘recently dead’. A dangerous ceremony - if not performed properly it may open the casters up to danger. If you intend to cast this ceremony, please inform a Church storyteller significantly ahead of time.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, the spirit will arise within the Sanctified Square. It needs to be led to an appropriately prepared space where it can quietly reside. This space needs to be clearly marked as a square space using appropriately spheric items, with a maximum size of 4m per edge. It should be in a quiet and sombre location - too much noise and commotion will cause the spirit to depart.
The spirit will remain for up to half an hour, or until it chooses to depart on its own.
Additional Cost
This Ceremony can be further empowered to increase the time the spirit remains for. For an increase of 5 Magnitude, the duration can be increased to an hour.
Description
Whilst many arguments have arisen about the specifics of how this Ceremony actually functions, it has broadly been proven through both conversations with Heralds, and investigations of the magical natures of the outcome that what is created is a hollow imitation of the departed individual, and does not have any tie to the departed soul. The ceremony draws the power of the divine to remember what was, and creates an echo that knows what the individual knew when they died, but cannot learn new information nor change in any way.
These white spectral apparitions act and sound like the departed, but cannot interact with physical material at all - they cannot touch items, interact with food or drink, or be harmed in any way.
Performing the Ceremony
The spirits that are created tend to be more subdued for some reason than their original entities, and seem to seek solace in quiet places where possible. Many priests build this tradition into the Ceremony that they use to cast it, quietly calling on people who were close to the individual being embodied to speak of their memories with them, present items of relevance to share with those gathered, and to speak on what they meant to the community. This can be a time of reflection, of grief, and of pain, so words spoken in quiet condolence are often just as frequently spoken as words of power and invocation.
Additional Information
Due to the logistical difficulties of ensuring that any particular NPC or PC is available, this Ceremony can only be conducted if one of the following is true:
- The NPC you are trying to contact died at this specific summit, and an hour's notice or more has been provided to a Church ST
- A full summit's notice has been provided that you intend to cast this ceremony on a specific NPC so that it can be arranged
- The target was a player character who has died within the last year, whose player is present at the game, and has consented to be contacted in this way
It is important to keep in mind the logistics of the availability for the target of this Ceremony. You will be given time availabilities and will need to strictly keep to them if you are targeting a deceased NPC or any spirit played by a member of the Concord Team.