Dragonmarks

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“With my mark, you have become one of my brood. Carry out my will well, and you shall be rewarded with the knowledge of the ages and the power of the ancients.”

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The Dragonmarked are those who have taken up servitude to the dragons and thus granted incredible powers. The Dragonmarked are touched by the Elder Dragons, thus enlightening their Aurum to turn into something like that of a scaly protected egg. The marking of the dragon appears somewhere on the body where the Elder Dragon made contact with the mortal and made an intentional imprint upon their body. Like Shaman, Dragonmarked draw upon the natural elements in order to do their bidding. Unlike Shaman, Dragonmarked are not beholden to any lifestyle, the only constant is their dedication to their Elder Dragon.

Shakti

Shakti is the essence that sorcerers draw from the realm to cast their spells. Shakti, unlike mana does not come from another realm. Each rock, each fire, each breath of air, water, etc. constantly beats with Shakti which the Sorcerer may utilize. Another way that Shakti is dissimilar to mana is that Sorcerers do not expend Shakti. Instead they rearrange it in the area to cast their spells. This does take an extreme amount of effort however and will cause Sorcerers to run out of energy until they are able to peacefully meditate.

Elder Dragons

Sal'uun - Earth, Spirit, Light

Rohana - Fire, Plants, Gravity

Eldruedlar - Ice, Emotion, Water

Hurzava - Storms, Wind, Healing

Ezikia - Decay, Shadow, Sound

Domains

Fire

The ability to manipulate fire in its purest form.

Earth

The ability to manipulate dirt, stone, or metal in its purest form.

Water

The ability to manipulate water in its purest form.

Wind

The ability to manipulate wind in its purest form.

Plants

The ability to manipulate plant life.

Shadow

The ability to manipulate darkness.

Light

The ability to manipulate the light.

Emotion

The ability to manipulate the emotions of sentient things.

Healing

The ability to heal others.

Ice

The ability to manipulate ice or other frozen objects.

Sound

The ability to manipulate sound.

Spirit

The ability to manipulate the spirit of others. This is not the soul but rather one's entire essence.

Storms

The ability to manipulate storms, including hail, rain, tornadoes, lightning, thunder, etc. This does not include sandstorms or firestorms on its own.

Decay

The ability to manipulate toxins and diseases.

Gravity

The ability to manipulate the weight of objects.

The Mark

The dragonmarked is able to cast through the mark that they gain from their dragon that is passed down from the elder dragon itself to imbue with immense power. This mark serves as their catalyst. In order to cast this mark has to be exposed in some way shape or form, and if a direct strike is inflicted to the mark their casting is broken for two turns as their mark repairs itself with the powers from their dragon. To clarify this will not heal any wounds over the mark but rather the image of the mark in its entirety. Their mark is surrounded by dragonscales of their brood in a palm sized area, causing their mark to have the same durability/effects as the dragonscales of their broodtype. Should the dragonmarked's patron dragon die, they will not be allowed to cast as their aurum is temporarily disabled. In order to cast again and reactive their aurum, they must seek out their elder dragon to give them a new patron dragon or a new patron dragon directly, as the patron dragon is the source of their power, while the elder is the source of the patron's. They will keep their same level of progression even if they go to a new dragon, for example a paragon will still be a paragon even with a new patron dragon.

Gifts

First Gift

The first gift that the dragon bestows onto a person is a passive that is only active when their mark is shown or otherwise exposed. This first gift is unique to the type of their elder dragon.

• Sal’uun: Passively, the sorcerer can roll a dc 12 to avoid being blinded by any form of light unless it is aura in nature. Upon entering a stressful scenario, the sorcerer is engulfed in a 1x1 meter sandstorm that turns their form to appear spiritual within the storm. So long as they do not attack and are passive, all attacks on the sorcerer are lowered by a tier in severity.
• Rohana: Passively, the sorcerer has a resistance to mundane fire meaning it’s reduced by one tier when the sorcerer is subjected to it. Everytime that the sorcerer makes an attack on another the target's speed is lowered by one tier by vines or other plantlife appearing to enforce these attacks. This can stack though only to make it so that their speed is lowered by two tiers. Plantlife will essentially cover the target in order to make them sluggish, which can be burned off by fire. One degree of burns will return one tier of slowed speed. These plants will stick around for the entire stressful scenario or until burned off.
• Eldruedlar: Passively, the sorcerer is able to roll a DC 13 against mana and shakti-based mind manipulation. Should they fail this roll they must then roll the resist DC on the ability. They also have resistance to cold, such as but not limited to frostbite, however this does not grant them resistance to ice-based projectiles that cause damage other than frostbite.
• Hurzava: Passively, the sorcerer has feather falling from any height and their falls will always be cushioned safely. In addition all healing recovery times mundane or otherwise on the sorcerer are halved.
• Ezikia: Passively, the sorcerer has resistance to toxins/poisons, meaning that all toxins and poisons will take double the time normally to take effect on them. The sorcerer is also granted passive noise correction, making even the loudest of shouts normal conversational level, and whispers the same. This does not grant them immunity to concentration breaks that are based off sound.

Second Gift

The second gift that the now Keeper would receive is that of a potent, but natural breath weapon. This is based on the primal element of the Elder Dragon they are subservient to. They are able to breathe this element for a total of 3 turns with a cast time of 2 turns, reaching a total cone of ten meters long and five meters at its widest. All Dragonmarked of the respective Elder Dragons are immune to the effects of these breath weapons. They can only use their breath weapon once per stressful scenario if they’re not in their third gift form. The dragonmarked cannot move whilst using this gift. Should any targets leave the breath, their effects will reset to the first turn of the breath weapon instead of stacking to the second turn, in order to have second turn of breath weapon effects apply to the target, they must be in it constantly without leaving it at any point. The breath weapons have the following effects:

• Sal’uun: The Keeper of Sal’uun is granted the ability to breathe sand. This obscures vision and will cause those in the area of effect to lose line of sight. Unprotected flesh will begin to rub away and reveal bone for those who remain in the breath weapon for all three turns. Armor of any kind protects against this wear, but gaps in helmets and other portions will devour flesh.
• Rohana: The Keeper of Rohana is granted the ability to breathe fire. This fire is able to heat metal and burn flesh. Those who remain in the breath weapon for all three turns will be burned to the third degree by these flames.
• Eldredlar: The Keeper of Eldredlar is granted the ability to breathe ice. This ice is able to root enemies for an equal number of turns that the targets were within the area of effect. Exposed areas will receive third degree frostbite.
• Hurzava: The Keeper of Hurzava is granted the ability to breathe lightning. This electricity is incredibly potent to those in armor and will stun them for the duration of the breath weapon, as well as stun armored targets within three meters of those within the breath weapon. Furthermore, internal damage is done to the targets affected by this electrocution.
• Ezikia: The Keeper of Ezikia is granted the ability to breathe an acidic smog. This smog gets into the lungs of those hit, causing them internal damage and blinding them. This smog will cause those within the area of effect to be unable to breathe.

Third Gift

The third gift granted by the Elder Dragons to the now Paragon is the ability to turn into a small dragon once per stressful scenario. It takes three turns to turn into a dragon, in which they can make no other actions. The marked can shift for a period of ten turns. When in this form, the marked is unable to cast, but is able to fly and use their breath weapon. They may use their breath weapon unlimitedly in this form, but it still lasts three turns and they must take a turn of pause between breath attacks where they do not make a breath attack. Furthermore, they grow to a height of around 8-10m with a similar wingspan, tail, etc and appear draconic as if a part of their Elder Dragon’s brood, though are much smaller than other dragons. Whilst in dragon form, mana spells that have a base cost of 3 or less do not effect the dragon due to their scales. Upon taking flight for the first turn, they must take their full movement to go forwards and take altitude.

Their stats are as follows:

• Strength: Tier Seven

• Walking Speed: Tier Four

• Flying Speed: Twenty Meters per turn

• Flying Speed whilst using the breath weapon: Ten Meters per turn

• Charge Flying Speed: Thirty Meters per turn

• Special: Paragon dragons may divebomb fly at a rate of Twenty-Five meters. This means they must be flying down.

A dragon may only charge fly for one turn then fly at normal speed for two turns before they can charge again.

It should be noted that gifts are not lost when one progresses further into Dragonmarks.

Progression

Sorcerer

The level of Sorcerer is the introduction to the Dragonmarked. This level is reached by making a bargain with an Elder Dragon or one of their subordinates. They are given a gift from the Elder Dragon’s stockpile and the ability to cast spells.

• Ten Shakti
• Ten Spells
• First Gift Received

Keeper

The level of Keeper is reached as the intermediary level of the Dragonmarked. This level is reached as a gift by the dragon they served for partaking in multiple tasks on behalf of the Elder Dragon and receiving more of their favor. It is at this tier they receive a primal breath weapon based on the main element of their Elder Dragon Lord. In order to reach keeper level, the marked must complete tasks and prove themselves to the Elder Dragon or their subordinate as well as have three months of confirmed activity.

• Fifteen Shakti
• Fifteen Spells
• Second Gift Received
• 3 months of confirmed activity minimum

Paragon

The level of Paragon is reached as the final level of the Dragonmarked. This level is reached for those who become an exemplar of the will of their Elder Dragon and thus having been given extreme power, and even the ability to change into a small Dragon. In order to reach keeper level, the marked must complete tasks and prove themselves to the Elder Dragon or their subordinate as well as have six months of confirmed activity.

• Twenty Shakti
• Twenty Spells
• Third Gift Received
• 6 months of confirmed activity minimum

Spells

Spells are what a Sorcerer casts and is a result of their bond to their Elder Dragon. As an OOC measure, Spells come largely at three different costs. Spells will cost anywhere between 1-3 Shakti. This is a measure of the strength of the spell mostly. Most spells will be a single Shakti, such as a small fireball, a stone fist, or a lightning bolt. 2 Shakti usually is just a change in size or the duration of a spell. Finally, 3 Shakti will be sweeping spells that are expensive and very powerful such as a large wall of flames or the summoning of a storm. Cast times for spells should mainly be between 2-3 turns with only a few being able to go to 1 turn or 4-5 turns depending on what it is. Spells can contain any of the domains their Sorcerer is capable of learning in any combination. A Sorcerer can learn the spells of another, even if they do not share spirits if they share the same domains for the spell. Abilities will always be either visibly seen or audibly heard casting unless otherwise specified in the spell.

The World of Aethius • The Multiverse of Aethier