Bloodline

At the Battle of Mount Deismaar, the old gods, Anduiras, Brenna, Basaïa, Masela, Reynir and Vorynn fought Azrai the Shadow. The old gods died at Deismaar, but divine essence is a tenacious thing and the power of the gods did not entirely pass from the world of Aebrynis when they died.

The warriors present at the battle, the human tribes being the Andu, the Brecht, the Basarji, the Rjuven, the Masetian, the Vos, elves, dwarves, goblins, the beast-men of Aduria and so on were bathed in the essence of the dying gods and this essence was absorbed, in varying degrees based on, scholars theorize; proximity, the degree to which the philosophy of the recipient matched that of the god whose essence they absorbed, the strength of will of the recipient, and the degree to which the recipient was already seen as a leader by their followers. Some scholars postulate that certain of Azrai's followers may have been granted minor bloodlines of the god prior to the battle, and that this would also influence the strength that they received.

The divine essence absorbed by those who survived the battle, its bloody aftermath, and the collapse of the land bridge which drowned all who did not flee the battle, was found to be inherited by the children of these survivors, and on rare occasions by others by the inheritance of power, typically via an investiture domain spell.

The power of the gods is measured in a number of ways, by bloodline derivation which refers to the specific old god from whom the power ultimately originated, by bloodline strength indicating the purity of the connection to the old god and therefore the strength of the powers potentially granted by the bloodline; and by bloodline score which indicates the actual amount of godly essence remaining in the scion and therefore the number of magical powers inherited from the old god, known as blood abilities possessed by a scion, as those whom the power of the old gods flows are known.

Bloodline derivation, strength, score and abilities are all, to a greater or lesser extent, inherited from the ancestor who was present at Mount Deismaar when the gods died and this inheritance is collectively known as the Bloodline of a family or individual. For example the Avan family that rule Avanil are noted for possessing a Bloodmark being a birth-mark shaped like a dragon on their left cheek and the ability to summon the wind. So closely tied are these powers to the Avan bloodline that any child born to the family who did not manifest them on reaching adulthood would likely be considered illegitimate.

Although a bloodline is inherited at conception, it lies dormant until the individual reaches maturity in most cases, although scions with a strong bloodline often manifest abilities a at a younger age. With the exception of a regent, whose bloodline can wax and wane depending on the success or failure of the way in which they rule their realm or domain, and the actions of those who would usurp the bloodline of another via bloodtheft, very little can influence the bloodline of a scion, although rumors say that a scion who lives in despair may find their bloodline weakens or fails to manifest and some say that certain magic's can also influence the bloodline of an individual.

Category: Game Mechanics | Glossary