Religious skills

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Every religious skill requires a dose of liao to use. Liao is provided to everyone who ministers to a congregation, which is a personal resource. A starting congregation resource produces five doses of liao per event.

The majority of the religious skills involve the creation or removal of auras. These are roleplaying effects only; they can affect a person, an item or an area but they have no mandated rules outcome. A player is always free to choose how their character responds to a roleplaying effect based on what they believe is appropriate for their characterization.

Religious skills do not require touch, but do require you to be close enough to touch the target. If there are multiple participants, they must be close enough to touch the target or another participant. You must complete at least 10 seconds of appropriate roleplaying to use a religious skill.

Dedication

• You must purchase dedication before you can take any other religious skills

A character may use this skill to mark the soul of another human, excluding themselves, with a dedication that matches the current dedication of their own soul. A character who has purchased this skill during character creation is entitled to choose to begin play devoted to one of Imperial virtues.

A dedication soul mark may be removed with exorcism or by replacing it with a more powerful mark. Several priests may co-operate with a dedication ceremony to make it harder to remove, or stronger than the one it is replacing.

Any character who has purchased this skill is able to act as a guide when someone consumes True Liao. A character who consumes True Liao can choose to have a single character with the dedicate skill act as a guide. Although that character does not experience a past-life vision of their own, they do share the past-life vision of the character who has consumed the Liao.

Anointing

A priest may use this skill to perform a ceremony over an individual. This creates a roleplaying effect that directly affects the recipient of the anointing. The roleplaying effect is themed by the dedication of the priest leading the ceremony. Priests who share the lead priest’s dedication, or undedicated priests with this skill, may participate in the ceremony making it stronger. Stronger anointings replace weaker ones or one can be removed by an exorcism of equal or greater strength.

Consecration

A priest may use this skill to perform a ceremony over an area. This creates a roleplaying effect that affects that area. The roleplaying effect is themed by the dedication of the priest leading the ceremony. Priests who share the lead priest’s dedication, or undedicated priests with this skill, may participate in the ceremony making it stronger. Stronger consecrations replace weaker consecrations, or one can be removed by an exorcism of equal or greater strength.

Excommunication

This skill can be used to excommunicate a character. A character who has been excommunicated cannot make use of liao or use any skill that requires liao. The more priests that participate in an excommunication the harder the excommunication soul mark is to remove; this applies irrespective of any dedication or any absence thereof meaning that any priest with this skill can co-operate. The soul mark of excommunication can only be removed via a sufficiently powerful exorcism.

Exorcism

This skill can be used to remove soul marks and auras from a target person, object or area. Whilst some auras can be replaced with a stronger aura, others, such as testimonies, excommunication and possessions, can only be exorcised. The more priests that participate in the exorcism the more likely to be able to take down the effect; this applies irrespective of any dedication or any absence thereof meaning that any priest with this skill can co-operate with another. An exorcism need only equal the strength of the aura to remove it.

Hallow

A Hallow allows you to create a roleplaying effect attached to an item. The aura affects anyone who is bonded to the item. The more priests who participate in the ceremony, the more difficult the aura is to remove.

Insight

This skill allows you to examine the target’s soul. You can can sense if they are dedicated to one of the seven virtues, read any testimonies that have marked the soul and see any auras that are affecting them.

Testimony

By performing a testimony, you can place an indelible mark on the target’s soul. You can choose a keyword to describe the mark; e.g. “Oathbreaker”, “Bold Warrior”, “Wise Leader”. Testimonies can be perceived by any character who uses the Insight skill or an equivalent ability to examine the victim’s soul. The more priests who participate in the ceremony, the more difficult the mark is to remove.