A Stallia Ceremony - Magnitude 90 - The Labyrinth
Performing the Ceremony
This ceremony may only be performed during a Summit where The Precipice alignment to Stallia is in effect. Its effective Magnitude is 74.
Performing this Ceremony takes at least 10 minutes of roleplaying. This Ceremony targets one territory, focused through a depiction of the vista and important places within that territory, which must have been created by a character who must be present throughout, but need not be one of the priests performing the Ceremony.
This Ceremony is an Curse, and therefore interacts with anything that would remove or affect curses. In place of creating a Prophet to pronounce the curse, the depiction of the territory will be consumed by the Spheres in order to affect the region with the curse.
Effects
Target territory cannot be entered or exited from by any force or sizable group of individuals in the 2 seasons following the current season as a mystical labyrinth twists the senses of any who approach its borders. If cast in Spring it affects the Summer and Autumn season, if cast in Autumn it affects the Winter and Spring season.
This is expected to have enormous negative effects on the civilian populace as caravans and supplies are also broadly prevented from leaving or entering the location, leaving the populace to survive for half a year only on the produce that can be made within the boundaries of the Labyrinth.
Description
The Labyrinth, descending in some infintessimal fraction of its being into the Mortal Sphere is as much a mental trap as it is a physical one. As the Ceremony comes into being, the air warps and light bends in strange ways around the borders of the territory, creating weird routes between places that shouldn't link. Alleyways that should face south end in west facing streets sometimes miles away. Trying to walk through forests or grasslands is an effort in futility, as commonly one footstep forward will leave a traveller three footsteps back, two to the left, and facing the other way, all without percieving that they have changed direction.
The weaving paths lead all but the very most determined completely trapped. Those desperate enough to try through trial and error to find the very rare paths that lead them out might sometimes find themselves incredibly lucky, but the ways out are always changing, and the ways in are even harder to find. Those inside are functionally cut off from the outside - what resources exist within are all the population has to use until the months long containment is over. Madness and claustrophobia begin to settle in to fringe elements of the population, even though there is no physical barrier and the open sky above continues to shine down on the earth.
Performing the Ceremony
Drawn, of course, from the Labyrinth, this ceremony typically involves the sketching and creation of new and unique variants of a labyrinth, each of which are incorporated in part into the greater schema that descends (so it is said). Beseeching the Labyrinth to call down its power through its own ties to mysteries and hidden information can help to build a connection with the Sphere of the Stars, allowing the full presence of the Labyrinth to be felt upon the Mortal Sphere.
It is important that the specific area is very clearly detailed, with exact instructions about how the border is to be percieved. If not, buildings or other manmade structures have been historically recorded to have served as an unintended entry or exit into the labyrinth if they are large enough. The ceremony seems to predominantly function in spaces that are inherently chaotic, and weakens in the presence of intended order, and so clear and precise instruction ensures that it operates as efficiently as possible.
Mechanics Errata
Enemy armies are considered to be located at the location displayed at the start of each Summit. This means this Ceremony cannot be cast on a province that an enemy army 'just invaded' in order to keep them out of that location. Any enemy force within a territory affected by this Ceremony, or forced to retreat into a provice being affected by this Ceremony will not be able to move, but will be able to act within its location during the next season.
An enemy force that remained stationary whose territory is targeted by this Ceremony cannot defend a second territories, but otherwise can act as normal. The effects of this Ceremony end by the start of the next Summit. As such, enemy forces cannot move into locations affected by this Ceremony before the Summit following this Ceremony's casting, but can select the territory as an additional target in their actions. Similarly, retreating armies are unaffectd by this Ceremony as the force will regroup in the territory at the start of the next Summit.
Concordian armies, moving as they do after orders given to them at Summit, are also considered to be where they are on the Warchamber map for the purposes of this Ceremony. That means that if it is cast where a Concordian army has orders to move to, they will move until they reach the border of the territory it is cast in and then stop, being unable to enter the territory. If this Ceremony is cast on a territory containing one or more Concordian forces, it will instead prevent them from leaving the territory, though they may still take actions within it as they wish.