Netbook | Pre-godfight

[alphacraft]

This is Odile.

I have spoken with Beiwe, and regarding the sacrifices the wraiths demand:

It should indeed improve the weather to give the spirits offerings. They do not require living sacrifices. She believes they are attached primarily to emotion, but any offering should suffice. Prayer may also help, but that seems to be an observation on past customs on Beiwe's part.

We as a group have been specifically instructed not to sacrifice each other.

There are to be NO human, semi-human, humanoid, or sapient non-human sacrifices.

Comments

[ghostharasser]

Concerning you had to make that clarification, but on second thought, I know what we're like, so thank you for doing so.

Anyway, does that specifically mean no sacrificing an entire person/entity? Is it still acceptable to offer just straight up blood from a consenting individual?

[alphacraft]

One can never be too careful when there are people working under the assumption that death isn't permanent.

I believe the pertinent meaning is that there is no special value in sacrificing an individual to begin with. It isn't an emotion, and there are easier offerings to make with equal traditional backing.

[ghostharasser]

No, that's very true. Having been in multiple places where death is weird, I've seen what kind of recklessness it creates, ahaha.

Gotcha, so the intent is what really matters here, and the contents of the sacrifice is only important in it's meaning. Using blood as a medium for facilitating rituals is just kind of the norm where I was before- using my own, not taking someone elses, for the record- so I wanted to be sure my usual method wouldn't actually cause some kind of rebound.

[alphacraft]

That was the sense I got as well. She did mention that in the past villagers would gather winterberries and say prayers, which would seem to support that theory.

It's comforting to know that you aren't in the habit of offering blood that isn't yours.

[ghostharasser]

It's basically witchcraft 101. What you put out into the world is what you get back.

Listen, from both an ethical and practical standpoint stealing someone else's blood just isn't smart. I KNOW what magical properties my blood has and how to use it, so it just makes sense to use mine. Getting mystery blood from somewhere else opens you up to unforeseen variables, not to mention the act of taking someone else's blood opens you up to negative intent and will affect the ritual/magic.

[alphacraft]

Is that so? Do you know this from your home, or did you learn it somewhere else?

[ghostharasser]

It's more like accumulated knowledge of a couple of places! Magic exists back home for sure, and it's rules are pretty straight forward. For the most part, anyway. There are spells, rituals, and incantations that can all be done so long as you have the right material/knowhow to do them.

The blood magic stuff is all Trench, which is where I was before the Grove. I did a lot of independent study in their archives so I'm pretty familiar with how to use it! But a lot of it requires the use of specific blood. Sleeper blood! Which is what I and the rest of my family have.

Not to say that you don't use blood for other kinds of magic, but Trench Style Blood Magic is it's own contained thing requiring the magical properties of sleeper blood.

[alphacraft]

[ Weird. But interesting! ]

What is a 'sleeper', exactly? I hope that's not rude to ask.

[ghostharasser]

It isn't!

So, as close to a textbook definition as I can give, Sleepers are entities or lifeforms that have gone through a kind of reincarnation process through crawling out of the Pthumerian Ocean, generally as squids, that can then assume a more normal and familiar appearance. They are categorized as having unique blood types, usually one of five, and their physiology differs significantly from normal humans.

Differences include: We're a little sturdier than normal people, we don't get colds or other normal illnesses, and when we die, we come back, usually after a process where our bodies crystalize and break down until we're squids again. That isn't to say there's no downsides, obviously. We are susceptible to other stuff that's unique to us.

[alphacraft]

Why are they called 'sleepers'?

[ghostharasser]

That's because a good handful of people who wound up coming out of the ocean were originally trapped in a nightmare realm. We were called sleepers because we were essentially trapped in a dream "sleeping". That didn't apply to EVERYONE who came out of the ocean, but the term stuck.

To back up and give some context, the series of events went like this:

Astrally pulled into a Nightmare Realm created by a girl with cosmic, reality altering powers > Nightmare Realm starts to break down and fall apart > We are given the option to either fade away into nothing or walk through a door > walking through the door leads to us being reincarnated into the ocean.

[alphacraft]

...That's fascinating, and more than a little disturbing. I'm sorry that happened to you.

Does this mean that you were originally human?

[ghostharasser]

I wish I could tell you my life was uneventful before all that happened, but that would be a lie. Literally the day before turning up in the nightmare realm was a week long apocalypse where my dimension was almost ripped apart by a megalomaniac chaos god.

Yep! I look pretty normal usually, but my actual “true form” is a squid.

[alphacraft]

That's horrible. I should hope you got some rest after that?

1/2 cw: eye trauma mention

[ghostharasser]

[HAHAHAHAHA yeah. Sure. He totally didn’t go insane and take out his own eye two weeks later.]

2/2

[ghostharasser]

Sure.

Anyway I’m kind of used to things just being like this. When in Rome, right?

[alphacraft]

[ That is not a comforting response. ]

There is certainly that.