Here’s a whole chapter to tide you over. I figured the best teaser was an actual sample that tells you enough that you get what’s going on. Reading this, you’ll be pretty aware of what Amaranthine are, why, and all the basics. You’ll be ready to make your first immortal (almost like I planned it that way…) Sorry if the layout isn’t perfect in this format.

Remember to check out our Kickstarter campaign.

The Amaranthine

Let’s get a few facts out of the way.

We know The Amaranthine reincarnate. Each time they die, they are born anew. It’s almost impossible to stop their cycle of reincarnation. We know that they’re in command of eldritch sorceries, the sources of which they cannot recall. So many unknowns surround their existences, and as time passes, they sometimes see glimpses of the truths of the universe. This is what it means to be Amaranthine.

Origins

Anyone, at any time, could theoretically become Amaranthine. It’s not an exact science. A few factors play into the chance that a given person may become one of the forever dying.

The person must have been touched by The Eclipse in some way. More often than not, the character is not aware of the contact. Sometimes, The Eclipse speaks out to the potential immortal, offering boons and power. Usually, the touch is more indirect, like a run-in with a possessed entity, or being influenced by immortal magics.

Fate must have touched the person. Average people do not become The Amaranthine. Most immortals have been part of some lasting event or another. This fact favors those with political influence, and usually those with indirect power.

People that sacrifice themselves for a greater cause are more likely to fall into the cycle of reincarnation. For those aware of this correlation, it’s often seen as a sign the would-be immortal is possessed of a strong Legacy.

People that do atrocious things are also often reincarnated. Ultimately, this is a function of The Eclipse, as those prone to doing terrible things are typically more likely to repeat them in future lives. The Eclipse wants to see destruction, so it locks some of these types into the potential to continue their paths.

People with a strong tie to life are sometimes subject to returning. This is particularly true when multiple people are tied together. A cabal of conspirators or a couple in a complicated, tragic romance may end up reincarnated, if the other variables are sufficient.

Rare sorcery allows an Amaranthine to directly affect the creation of another. This is a risky endeavor, and draws much attention from The Eclipse. It’s also of sufficient power that most Amaranthine won’t achieve that degree of mastery in a given lifetime.

Even if these things all line up, a person isn’t guaranteed reincarnation. Each increases the possibility, but there’s no certainty.

Also, with few exceptions, Amaranthine are not aware of their fates during their first incarnations. Unless immortality was offered directly through The Eclipse, a rare thing, the immortal won’t become consciously aware until well into the second life, after a number of flashbacks.

Immortality

Immortality is almost guaranteed once the first reincarnation occurs. Whether The Amaranthine wants it or not, they are reborn some time after the end of each life. It’s almost never an immediate rebirth.

There’s usually a span of a few years between death and birth. Geographical constraints mean little to this process; a person dying in Moscow might see their next life in Peru. Fate will pull the person back to those he knew in past lives, through chance and opportunity.

That said, some anomalies exist in the process. Some immortals are exclusively reborn within their family lines. Some might be their own grandparents. Some are reborn in the same region each time. While there are many variations on the form, the vast majority of immortals appear to have no rhyme or reason to their rebirths.

Dominion

“Damnit Morin, why won’t you stay dead?” Alex hissed and reloaded his clip, heart pounding. He could hear Morin moving on the other side of the warehouse, somewhere hidden behind a half dozen broken shipping containers away. There was just no way anyone could still be alive after all of those bullets.

“I’m here for the orphans, Alex. I’ll find them, and stop you. There aren’t enough bullets in the world to stop me. I’ll just keep coming at you, forever, until I have what I want.” The gravity to the oath Morin swore in that moment echoed out along the web of fate. In that moment, it became inevitable, because Morin willed it so.

Immortals are intrinsically tied to fate, their souls forever bound to coincidence and happenstance. With time and experience, that tie becomes a palpable thing. The common term is Dominion, reflecting an immortal’s command over her own soul and those strands of fate.

Dominion presents itself in a number of ways. First, immortals are survivors par excellence. Things that would kill most humans are often far less fatal to immortals. This isn’t a direct resilience, as much as fate twisting to help the situation. Bullets never strike hearts. Falls end in the softest places possible. They’ll find potable water in the desert when tripping over a rock. Are they unkillable? No. However, to the outside observer, it would appear that they always get the lucky shake, that every wound could have killed but for some reason did not.

Anamnesis

“For a woman caught in a burning, ruined castle about to be crushed by rubble thanks to the bomb that’s going off in thirty seconds that neither of us can deactivate, you seem pretty calm.” Michael said to his companion.

“Sssshh…” She hissed at him. “I can hear the wind through the walls. Shit. I’ve, I’ve been here before. I can remember. Here, this stone, help me push on it, we have a way out!”

Anamnesis is the mastery of memory an immortal possesses over their past lives. Most immortals maintain only slight memories that appear over time, featuring the most iconic of events. However, those with a strong sense of Anamnesis can recall more trivial matters with clarity, using memory as an advantage in the now. In a battle, for example, one might recall the time she twisted a dagger into her nemesis back in the sixteenth century. This gives her the necessary knowledge to thrust a cooking knife into a robber’s torso for the maximum harm possible.

Anamnesis is strongest when the Amaranthine convene. When two met, they immediately recall one important moment in their shared pasts. Coincidence has the Amaranthine in perpetual cycles of re-introduction, so very few encounters amongst immortals are truly first chance meetings. The degree of Anamnesis determines the clarity of the shared memories. An immortal with a weak Anamnesis might remember the sound of hoof beats behind them, and the feel of the other character’s hand. An immortal with a stronger Anamnesis might remember the horses of crusaders behind them, shouting threats about their supposed heresies, while the two run through the city streets of Istanbul together, attempting to find sanctuary.

Approaches to Immortality

Every immortal has differing opinions on the nature of immortality. Over the eons, these philosophies have been filtered down to three major topics, each with two opposing viewpoints. While any given immortal might have a strong opinion on all three of these topics, most only subscribe to one or two hot button issues. Followers of these various philosophies approach their existences in different ways, and adherence to these Axioms afford certain advantages and disadvantages to their practitioners.

The Void

‘But Rory,’ the doubting voice in the back of the mayor’s head whisper, ‘there’s a faster way. You’ve pushed the committee before. They’ll bend again if you just draw on…’

“No.” he said out loud. He worked until three in the mornings some nights. The only one in city hall those nights. Which was handy for these sorts of rhetorical arguments. “What I felt that night was wrong. The place that power comes from must be the same place that inspires all this corruption– all this murder, to begin with. I won’t. Never again. And if it show’s its face around here again…” He trailed off, threatening the shadows. As he expected, they didn’t respond. Yet.

The Void is undeniably tied to the Amaranthine condition. The Amaranthine don’t understand how or why, but every single immortal has been touched by the Eclipse, and thus by the Void. However, signs of the Void suggest it’s a malevolent and destructive force. Those that harness the Void’s power – The Eclipse Walkers – point to detractors as simply hating it because they don’t understand it. The opposition – The Intemerate – posits that the Void cannot be understood, without allowing it to consume one’s mind. There’s some evidence, as suggested by fortune-telling sorceries, that the Void is bringing forth the end of existence. Most that follow the Void believe that it’s less an end, more a period of rebirth. Of course, if that’s true, the Amaranthine would find a new place in the reborn world.

Humanity

“It’s a large force for a mercenary contractor. Even for you, these numbers are a little staggering. 15,000 troops. Well trained troops. It would take a miracle. I just don’t know if it can be done.”

The General barely looked at the go between bargaining for the despot trying to purchase an army. “It cannot be done. Except by me.” A bowie knife was plucked from the desk top by faint, delicate hands. “There is no one who can command troops with the ease and in the numbers that I can. That is why your employer sent you to me. Enough games. Let’s talk money. It will cost.” The General slid the tip of the blade under a glassy finger nail to clean it and waited for the man to pick his jaw off the floor.

Amaranthine cannot exist in a vacuum. They’re tied heavily with all the people around them. They have powerful, fiery relationships with individuals, and they draw cadres of followers without even trying. Some immortals focus heavily on their individual relationships. These Amaranthine believe their calling in the world is to foster humanity to achieve greatness. Some see themselves as – The Muses – and patrons, some simply as the greatest lovers and rivals humanity could ever ask for. Regardless, they’re most at home when looking into one person’s eyes. On the other end of the spectrum, – The Palatine – believe their place is as rulers. They stand by the assertion that if they weren’t meant to lead the masses, the masses would not be drawn to their power.

Memory

Sahar slipped into the shattered mosque, the rubble that cluttered the floor reminded of her of the rubble that lined the floor of a temple that stood in the same place some incalculable point in the past. A hundred thousand prayers hovered in the air in this place from a hundred thousand years of worship. The titles and names for the Divine didn’t matter, not to her. No one truly appreciated the significance of the place. Not human, not Amaranthine. How many times had she come back to this place to worship? How many times had she come back to this spot to find the rubble of a house of worship.

“I might have known it would be you, again.” She turned, facing the Black Heretic and drew her scimitar. “How many times will you do this before you tire?”

“As many times as it takes for you to forget this place.”

“So. Never. Right than, draw your weapon.”

Amaranthine draw heavily on their past lives to accomplish great things. Some of the immortals, though, feel that past lives can be a crutch, more limiting than helping. – The Epicureans – believe that now is the only thing that’s important, and that living the best current life is most important. They focus on the extremes of existence, doing their best to make this life undoubtedly their best. On the other hand, some believe that the past is meant as a lesson, and only by learning and understanding it intimately, can one live powerful current and future lives. – The Raconteurs– make a point of researching and archiving their lives, and studying the contexts around them.

Immortal Magic

His most trusted man lay bloodied on the marble floor. His most capable warrior. His sweetest lover. Now dead thanks to the hands of his enemy, a servant of the Eclipse. But it wouldn’t remain so. Marco too knew the ancient spells, the forbidden ones. Soon, soon the dead man would be raised, filled with the black stuff of neverwhere, and sent on a course of bloody revenge. No one took away the things Marco loved and lived long to tell the tail. His magic was unmatched.

Immortals inherit various magics that while not always Earth-shattering, manage to give additional edges in their existences. Some believe immortal magic comes from the Eclipse. Some certainly touches it, but there’s no clear and concrete evidence of this philosophy. Most of this magic follows the trappings of an immortal’s earlier lives. However, due to the lack of geographical consistency for most, these magics are eclectic and diverse in their natures. A character might have skills as a Stregan witch, as well as some as a Nordic rune caster.

Immortal magic comes in four flavors, Legerdemain, Sorcery, Enchantment and Thaumaturgy. Legerdemain covers a series of ad hoc tricks, things that barely scrape against the fabric of reality. Sorcery has only an immediate effect, and can be used with little to no preparation. The effects of enchantments tend to linger, and often require more elaborate implements and rituals to enact. Lastly, thaumaturgy reflects magics of an epic scale, things beyond mundane game mechanics.

Legerdemain

He’d been seducing her for an hour now, even if she didn’t know it. The room warmed where she was, and the soft sounds of lovers entangled barely audible passed her ears and went directly into her mind. When Richard finally approached, he cloaked himself in the magical illusion of youth and vitality. He appeared to her, in that moment, as the culmination of every man she’d ever wanted. Really, her father, the senator, should have been more careful about letting her out alone.

Literally ‘light hands,’ Legerdemain focuses on minor spells that affect the immortal’s immediate environment, and rarely last for more than a few minutes. These spells are not as specific in nature as Sorceries or Enchantments, and are often made up as the situation arises. Instead of learning proper spells, practitioners of Legerdemain develop what they call Circles. These Circles govern a small range of focus, such as the ability to create illusions or the ability to influence emotions. While they don’t pack the same punch as other spell types, they’re adaptable, quick and often more subtle than other magics.

Sorcery

Doves broke across the sky and Julia sat on the bench at the cemetery, holding back tears. Her mother’s death had been too much, too soon, and the man responsible for all this suffering, a simple human, stood among the mourners as if he belonged there. A hundred lifetimes of lost mothers, generations and generations of mourning welled up inside her. When she released it, the clouds broke angry, sending violent sheets of rain to the ground all at once. There will be more violence yet, Julia looked up, watching the electricity build up in the storm clouds, and looked down at her father. She grinned.

Sorceries tear at the fabric of reality, causing harsh, immediate effects. While the effects are often dramatic, they rarely change things in any lasting fashion. Damage might be done, but the actual magic is fiery and temporary in nature. Such raw, unbridled manipulation of reality doesn’t last long. The immortal may call down lightning, or cause a car to snap its axle, but those are simply immediate effects. More importantly, they’re difficult to master. They’re very specific in nature; each spell is its own discipline, with varying degrees of proficiency.

Enchantment

“But what’s the cat for?” Nan rattled the cage and the cat hissed. “Don’t worry about the cat. The thing is, I got it figured out. The spell or whatever I’ve been dreaming about? Yeah, well, I think it’ll work on the engine too.” Both men looked over to the Firebird they had spent years rebuilding. Weeks of their lives had been invested in that car, and now, if Daren was right, this ritual would totally change the playing field. The car would be every bit as powerful, as marvelous as he was. That didn’t explain outright what the cat was for, but now, Nan wasn’t going to ask again. Daren’s expression was too grim. Too manic.

Enchantments are spells that take time to cast, and are rewarded with lasting effects. These types of spells often have required components, and have bits of ritual from the immortal’s past lives. These spells influence the world in often more subtle ways than Sorceries might, and can in some cases last forever. Like Sorceries, Enchantments are difficult to learn, and very specific in their natures. What they don’t have in versatility, they have in function.

Thaumaturgy

You can’t know the depths of my monstrosity, Anna. You can’t even begin to understand the things I have done. The Abyss was my playmate. My helpmate. There was no room for you, or your light. That, if nothing else, was my sin. Keeping you out. But I’ll see it right, beloved. When this spell reaches its apex I will do the first right thing I have done in a hundred thousand years. My life for yours, beloved. No. Not just that. My immortality for yours. Your light will shine forever. I’m glad to give it. Even the blackness of the Abyss will be brighter for it. I only hope I can see you shine from that terrible place beyond.

Thaumaturgy is remarkable. Not that other magic is tame, but Thaumaturgy is always epic in power and scope. Thaumaturgy spells bring forth natural disasters and multiple life-spanning curses. Thaumaturgy spells are the things legends are made of. Their casting is never taken lightly, as they require remarkable self-sacrifice on the behalf of the caster. Sometimes, this means a hand or an eye. Sometimes, it means her current life. While these spells aren’t inherently rare by their existences, they are rare in their executions for obvious reasons.

Society

Forever is boring. After a while, the Amaranthine realize their natures, and then wonder if others exist, like them. They find their familiar social circles. They find those people with which they’ve had histories. Then, most eventually find the various clandestine organizations of their people.

These organizations vary from place to place, region to region, but all fall under the auspices of regional and worldwide Courts. What this amounts to, is smaller cabals of immortals, meeting, exchanging data, vying for power amongst each other, with layers of power becoming progressively greater and geographically wider. Most importantly, the ranking Courts reserve the right to approve and disallow inferior Courts.

City Courts

A given city usually has between one and three main Courts. In a city with a single, sanctioned Court, it simply exists. It has a leader, it has rules, and often a constitution or charter, but it is generally accepted as just a Court. In cities with multiple sanctioned Courts, charters and definitions are more specific. In most cases, these Court definitions relate to one another.

Tampa has two Courts, the Court of the Brine and the Court of the Shore. The Court of the Shore believes in stability in governance and tradition, while the Court of the Brine believes in rapid progression and social evolution. The two are both governed by the Great Court of the Gulf Sovereign.

City Courts are considered the chief authorities over all those they survey. Unless judgment is overthrown by the presiding Great Court, decisions stand. City Courts are ruled by their stated terms, which must be approved by the Great Court. If those terms change, the Great Court must approve. Often, this is a formality. However, in the case of particularly powerful leaders, the Great Courts defend the status quo.

For example, Cancun is also under the Great Court of the Gulf Sovereign. Its local Court has long held that its rulership was by a lone king. Numerous times, that king had changed seats. Every generation, at least one or two would lay claim to the position. In recent years, a council of progressive minds overthrew the king’s regime, instead implanting a council of leaders. The Great Court of the Gulf Sovereign disapproved of the change. Instead of fighting the decision (which would have likely caused their destruction,) they placed one member of the council into the king’s seat as a figurehead, with the express intention of building his power and eventually petitioning for an official change.

Courts with clout (or with lackadaisical sovereign Courts,) sometimes become complex litanies of odd, often contradicting rules. Particularly in Europe and Asia, some Courts still have laws on the books that make absolutely no sense to modern sensibilities, but are used to argue against more relevant laws.

In Birmingham, law from the fourteenth century allowed for trial by combat. By the grace of God, a culprit that won the trial was declared innocent of the crime. Not only this, but completely incapable of having committed, or potentially committing the crime in the future. Those souls that God chose to win the duels were clearly marked by his grace. Thomas Goodwin has been affixed to the Birmingham area for millennia. In the sixteenth century, he was tried for raping another man’s wife. He accepted trial by combat, and bested the husband, thus declaring him innocent. In 1986, Birmingham’s local leader, Magistrate Mason, walked in on our culprit raping another immortal with the power of his sorcery. The magistrate abducted him, and took him to trial. Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, the culprit invoked the previous law’s sovereignty and was declared innocent. Birmingham took steps to repeal the old law, but it allowed at least one crime to go unpunished.

The Great Courts (Regional Courts)

The Great Courts are recognized to hold authority over a number of city Courts, this jurisdiction sanctioned by The Grandest Court. Usually, a Great Court is also a city-level Court that happens to reign over a number of its neighbors. Functionally, this means that one city’s laws are effectively overlaying other’s, as a Great Court can at any time supersede its inferiors.

How do Great Courts come to be? Typically, a city becomes powerful, and its leader makes friends with The Grandest Court. Sometimes, the city is recognized without direct contact when it becomes particularly powerful, although this is far less common today with the ease of international travel. All in all, there are about thirty Great Courts in the world at a given time.

There is an existential war going on between two Great Courts, though there is no physical place where this war takes place. It’s everywhere, because the battle field is nowhere. One Court, one seeking an open and free exchange of information  with knowledge and preservation of art and science holds tight that there is so much worth on the Internet, it’s worth protecting. In opposition, another collective sees the potential for catastrophic miss information, cultural abuses and a sense of vicious humor that’s slowly filtering into society at a whole. But the fight isn’t going on strictly on message boards and social media. Rather, members of the courts fight to out one another and seek each other out in actual combat or political destruction. It’s serious business.

The Grandest Court (The Worldwide Court)

Every century, central governance amongst the immortals shifts. The Grandest Court, ruling over the Regional Courts, moves location about every hundred years, and has for every hundred years that anyone can remember. Currently, it resides in Milan. That’s set to change soon. A Grandest Court grooms a member at a time, one with no position of leadership, to take up the task of organizing a new Court when the current has outlived its welcome. That said, the entire idea of when the change occurs is abstract. The ruling council comes to the decision, and it is done. Rumors persist as to why the decision is made, but it always is.

During the change, the various Regional Courts have a tradition of sending ambassadors to the new Court with gifts and offers of service. Functionally, this helps to guarantee their continued sanctioning under the new leadership. This change is a big affair, and many Amaranthine make the trip, if only to network and bask in the Anamnesis potential for this and future lives. Every immortal met is a potential ally in later lives. Making a powerful friend in a current life means the higher likelihood of having a powerful friend in a later one.

Rogue Courts

Sometimes, a City Court isn’t sanctioned by its governing Great Court. This can happen for many reasons. The most common is simple politics; the Great Court’s presiding body dislikes those involved in the would-be City Court. Rogue Courts are not uncommon. Regional Courts rarely make moves against Rogue Courts, unless they’re of particular threat or instability. Even when a Regional Court decides to act against a Rogue Court, it’s hardly a clean sweep. Rogue Courts benefit from their lack of central organization, and are often difficult to find. Their leadership rarely advertises publicly.

One phenomenon that occurs with some frequency is that Rogue Courts perpetuate through time. Courts of human traffickers, pirates and the like tend to maintain Rogue status every time they’re restarted, regardless of their locations. Charismatic Amaranthine with clear anti-status quo mentalities will attract like-minded cults in each incarnation.

The Temple of Liars is a rogue court existing on the edges of polite society in New York City. Claiming religious observance to some Greece goddess of chaos, it really amounts to a collection of liars and conmen who buck the courtly system whenever possible in favor of elaborate practical jokes and cold blackmail. The problem is, they are very good at what they do, and most of their public display happens masked. (Rumor has it the masks are magical in nature. Enchanted to hide their identity despite the mask’s thin covering.) For the more formal city court, they are one part welcome distraction, eight parts dangerous threat, one part potentially fatal. And because they’re so good, and so wealthy, and hold so very many secrets, they basically can’t be put down outright.

Law and Punishment

Law is declared by the local Courts, who design the laws within the scope of an approved charter. Within these restrictions, the Court is within its rights to do as it pleases. In almost all approved charters, law is enforced with at least a token play at honor or justice. Most have tribunal, jury, judge or committee models of justice. In most, the Court’s leader holds supreme authority over the proceedings, even if it’s not exercised.

In almost all Great Courts, the right is reserved to overturn a city Court’s decisions. On the surface, this often sounds like a rather fair, appellate system. In practice, it was a way for favoritism to protect the friends of those in power. In some jurisdictions, appeals are allowed after strict review, it’s almost never considered a universal right.

Punishments

Punishments vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, so these are only generalizations about punishments. For most crimes, payment in kind with an additional payment commensurate to the offense is common punishment. For violent crimes, most Courts enforce ‘eye for an eye’ style judgments; some maintain a holding cell for offenders. Not surprisingly, capital punishment is doled out far more liberally than amongst humans. Murder is usually met with execution amongst The Amaranthine.

In some cities, mundane crimes are allowed to be passed to mortal authorities. If no sorcery is involved, and there’s clear evidence, sentencing can involve being handed over to the police or other bodies.
For only the most serious offenses, and only with allowance of a Great Court, can a crime be punished with Unmaking. Generally, these crimes involve egregious and blatant attempts to call forth eldritch entities from The Eclipse.

Language and Letters

In the grips of passion, the woman with her hungry eyes and her silky red dress pushed Kitty into the wall of the old abandoned home they had snuck into. At the time, it had seemed like a great idea. Their hurried fumbling with clothes seemed as much like the start of a fight as it did love making. But that wasn’t new for Kitty. Kitty took the upper hand, rolling the woman in red along the wall, pushing her back hard enough into it that some of the thin, paisley-print parchment wallpaper came unglued and curled downward. Behind it, newsprint. Scrawled along the bottom of the print, Kitty recognized her own hand writing on a paper from the twenties. ‘Don’t trust her,’ her handwriting instructed. Kitty stepped back, pulling her tank down to cover her breasts. “Who are you, anyway?”

Language leads to culture. Culture leads to cities. Cities lead to the Amaranthine. In this way, they are creatures of language and inexorably tied to it. With an investment of Dominion, an Amaranthine can reach out to their future selves, and leave written messages that they will find many life times later when they need the message the most. Since it became plausible to do so, they have been frequent letter writers, and often keep in touch with each other in this way even as they keep in touch with themselves through their control over potentiality.

Understanding Oneself

“But I was supposed to be Etruscan when I wrote this.” The man beside him nodded to Antion as he brought forward the strange tablet.  A few of his ‘companions’ leaned forward to look, than shook their heads, not understanding a word of it.

“Then why can I understand every word now?” The man merely smiled at him and repeated the price he wanted for the tablet.

The age or place of the writing in these magnificent letters doesn’t matter. Even the medium hardly matters. No matter what language the Amaranthine writes to herself, even if it’s no language at all, she will understand it when she receives the message later. It is for her, and while others may be able to understand the words if it’s in a human language, the meaning is for the Amaranthine, and the Amaranthine alone.

Sycophants

Confident, capable people draw followers. Amaranthine are no exception. In fact, Amaranthine are notoriously good at drawing sycophants. Many Amaranthine spend more than a wanted amount of time avoiding attention from admirers and hangers-on. Some relish crowds of devotees, and foster cults of personality.

This sort of admiration often leads to Amaranthine with bloated egos. Some see themselves as shepherds of humanity. They’ll cling to power, and act as advisors, campaign managers, lobbyists, and similar positions. Actual Amaranthine politicians are slightly rarer, as their lives tend toward limited schedules and higher profiles than they wish; adding a public office to such a life is a recipe for disaster.

Enthrallment

“But, but there are just so many of you.” Franklin cried, looking around the room at Antoin’s lovers. “I thought I was… important to him. Special. Different.”

A man with tawny skin and a crooked smile shook his head and lead the younger man through the doorway. “You are special, baby. And you’ll be different for the rest of your life. Trust us.” Scattered chuckles. “You’ll see. You’ll just grow to accept it. Wait until you talk to Antoin again. You’ll understand everything better than.”

Witchery, the trance, captivation, ‘the come-hither’, glamour, the charm. Amaranthine have many names for this inherent phenomenon of their condition. With a small infusion of their Dominion, Amaranthine enchant otherwise neutral people and influence a stronger sense of devotion and loyalty. A stranger on the street can become a firm supporter. A friend can become a love-stricken apostle.

Clearly, this influence inspires mixed opinions amongst the Amaranthine. Some believe it’s unethical. The counter-argument is that enthrallment simply enhances already-existent potentials. It cuts the foreplay. Enthrallment never causes a person to do what they might otherwise. At least, not directly.

The Void

Nobody knows what the Void is. Everybody has an opinion.

…

is the most important thing to know about the Void. Understanding the Void, yet maintaining a healthy fear of it is essential to the life of an immortal.

The Eclipse

The Eclipse keeps the Void and the Material separate. It’s the womb that keeps filth out of the amniotic fluid. With very few exceptions, the Eclipse guarantees that the oddities of the Void cannot wreck havoc on humanity, and that humanity cannot wander into the depths of the Void.

The Eclipse exists everywhere, as we would have it. The Void is a separate plane of existence; the Eclipse is simply the membrane that keeps it separate. Humans don’t experience the Eclipse directly, and remain largely ignorant of its existence. Amaranthine are subtly aware of its presence. When they do things that are beyond the ordinary, they feel it more acutely.

To those that touch it, the Eclipse feels cool and resistant. There’s an elasticity that snaps back at every push, and a faint hint of the alien truths of the Void. If one’s connection is strong enough, they can wrap themselves in that very membrane. Those types describe it as confidence-building and reassuring. The Eclipse refuses those that skirt it. Those that embrace it are held with warmth.

Amaranthine and the Eclipse

The biggest exception is the Amaranthine. Their very existence is somehow tied to the Void. This means that every single immortal has some degree of connection to the Eclipse. As Amaranthine learn or remember magic, and as they do phenomenal things fueled by their pasts, the Eclipse is bent and battered. Many Amaranthine actively fight against this fact, punishing others that would risk the Void. Others walk the line, wielding the Eclipse like a tool or weapon. These Amaranthine tend to view the Void as their birthright.

Psychic Phenomenon

Three generations back, they said, the women in Mark’s family line just knew things. Born under the veil, they said. He didn’t know much about that. He just knew when he walked in the room, his mother’s eyes snapped up and focused on him. “You’ve been up to evil.” She narrowed her eyes and looked at him like she didn’t see her son anymore.

The taint of his brush with the Abyss hovered around him, maybe, and maybe that’s what she felt. He backed out of the room in a hurry.

The Eclipse keeps physical entities from crossing, however, those sensitive can ‘hear’ across it. However, the word ‘hearing’ is a misnomer, as there’s no real sound. It’s closer to simply knowing something that you didn’t think of. Amaranthine hear these things. Sometimes, people in dreams get flashes through the Eclipse. Often, ‘psychics’ are sufficiently sensitive to catch concepts from across the membrane. These are many times mistaken as the words of the dead, or others’ thoughts. These thoughts are almost never in a language the recipient can understand. However, the listener’s mind frames these concepts in more familiar terms. This means that these thoughts from the Void are even more dangerous, as they’re filtered to the point where their original intent is lost.

Verges

“What do the locals say?” Kitty asked the Dirae contact she’d made there in Libya.

“Not much. Just that the women all became pregnant at once. Considering all the men off at war…”

“…One really luck local, or we’ve got a Wet-Verg.” Kitty drew on knowledge of the past, and when she spoke, it was with power and authority she wasn’t entirely comfortable with. Her contact nodded solemnly. “Okay. We move fast. Call the Witch in Cairo. Tell her to bring the cleansing stones.”

In some places, the Eclipse runs thin. Here, creatures of the Void bleed through. So-called haunted houses, places of historical significance, odd, and wild places might be subject to a thinner Eclipse. Amaranthine refer to these places as Verges. More often than not, they’re tame. The Eclipse is only slightly thinner. Humans are somewhat more susceptible to the voices from the Void. However in some cases, the Eclipse is all but nonexistent, and creatures of the Void can slip through. When they’re found, these locations are quarantined and defended by wise Amaranthine, or secured and used by the foolhardy.

Sometimes, when an Amaranthine spell goes awry, a Verge generates as result. This leads to a more conservative approach to magic by many. Amaranthine invested in the Void can sometimes create Verges of their own accord, often as a method of repayment to creatures offering power.

Throughout history, a few notable humans have found Verges, and learned enough of their natures to put themselves and all of existence in danger. Any story of a sorcerer summoning demons, protected by a magic circle could be the story of an overconfident human able to tap a hint of the Void. Because of their decided lack of understanding, these types of humans are particularly dangerous.