Death

Portfolio
Death is a gruesome Arcana known since before the Lycian formalization of the magical system, but often avoided. It wasn't until the second revision of the Arcanis Codex that Death was added. Death deals with the spirits of the dead, rot, dead flesh and bone, cold, shadow and the weakening of life.

Few people have a Talent for Death in Ordona, which is usually seen as a blessing. Enturans, however have a strong tradition in Death.

Common Uses
Plebeians usally do not use Death. A few Talented ones have no choice but to hear the whisper of the restless dead, to sense the stench of recent death, witness the last moments of the death of a touched cadaver, lower the temperature around them, to kills small plants around them instantly (like grass). The ability to shape shadows, however, is considered harmless enough and sometimes used by performers. A few morticians use the ability to slightly change the features of a dead body to prepare the body of the deceased rich for a wake.

Civem, as a rule, avoid using Death. Some of them, however, are able to speak to the spirits of the dead, to force spirits to manifest, to touch the spirits of the dead, to keep the spirits of the dead away, to send away the spirit of the recently dead, to make a body unsuitable for reanimation, to create penumbra, to cause dead plant and animal matter to decay, to prevent dead plant and animal matter from decaying for a few days, to lower the temperature of a room and to turn water into ice, to turn light as bright as a campfire into one as weak as a candle, to drain life with a touch, to prevent life from draining from the living, to animate dead flesh like a puppeteer, to create a field that kills small insects instantly, to sense the undead in any form, to weaken living creatures, to harm natural recovery of living creatures. Civem may summon shades from personal objects or with personal information and a name or the body.

Patricians use Death more often than the usually admit. When they do, they use it to drain the spirit of the dead, to bind the imprint of a dead person, to conjure dead flesh and bone, to conjure blood, to force a spirit to do their bidding, to create inpenetrable darkness, to lower temperature into harmful code, to put living creatures in a trance of suspended animation, to create an area which is repellent to living creatures, to numb the limb of a living creature making useless, to sustain one's own life when by sheer force of will, to animate a dead body to act in a programmed manner or to act much like it was in life, to render blind with a touch, to instill an object with the essence of Death and make it harmful, to create a field that kills small vermin instantly. Patricians can summon shades from those that died in a location any time ago.

Vilicus use Death to create blocks of solid darkness, to create blocks of solid darkness that drain life on touch, to create blocks of solid darkness which corrupts inanimate matter on touch, to weaken matter with a touch, to sustain life with their sheer will, to create an area so cold that freezes warm-blooded creatures in seconds, to purge death (disease or poison) from a living creature, to numb the whole body of a living creature making it useless, to create an area where the living cannot enter, to rot the flesh off living creatures, to shatter the bones of a living creature, to stop the heart of a living creature, to attach a piece of dead flesh to a living creature and make it work as if part of the creature (most often used to reattach lost limbs), to create a channel of death energy inflicted on one creature into another creature.

Enchanters use Death to create wards to keep the dead at bay, to create vampiric blades, to create death instilling weapons, to create charms that prevent death, to create amulets that prevent a dying creature from dying for a time, to create boxes that preserve food, candles that keep insects away.

Some necromancers know a specific form of Infusion which they can use to bind spirits of the dead to flesh and create the undead. Coupled with the ability to reshape corpses, some of those undead can be gruesome, efficient and deadly. Enturi is largely sustained by the dead working the plantations of that nation.

Civilian Careers
Most people avoid the use of Death magic, a few careers, however, rely on it. Some plebeians become vermin exterminators using Death and a proper enhancer.

Civem with a Talent for Death are expected to attend to the needs of the dead and some wealthy Patricians opt to store their dead in crypts instead of burning them, which requires the proper rites that only the Death Arcana can provide. Shade and cold also can be of use in some cities of the south and a necromancer - often going by Shadow Mage in those areas - can earn a good living there using those abilities, more often than not, however, a slave will be trained with the proper sortileges instead.

Enturi is an exception to this rule, however. In that land, the dead do most of the job of laborers and soldiers and Necromancers are not only respected, but sought after. They raise the dead to work crops, keep the flesh of undead laborers from rotting and transform the bodies of the dead that will serve as soldiers into more efficient killing machines.

Military Careers
There are few reputable military careers that use Death. Moritician is one of them, scouring the battlefield to prevent the rising of undead. Otherwise, it is most often assassins - units no army's admits to using but that none go without - that receive training in the ways of Death.

Barbarians sometimes have Binders amond them and that kind of rogue combatant is as likely to use shades as any other spirit.