Chronicles of The Omniverse Archived The Order of the White

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Órd an Geal
The Order of the White​

The Order of the White (referred to variously as the White Order, the Caretakers or the Soulcallers) is a small sect of animancers that operates within Lutetia City. Founded close to six hundred years ago, approximately a century after the Night of Black Tears, their roots lie both in the traditional necromancy of Lutetia, and in druidic influences from Iveria. The Order was founded by a woman named Verena Auclair, the daughter of a Lutetian necromancer father, and an Iverian druid mother. The story of those two lovers is practically a fairy tail in some parts of Lutetia.

Growing up, Verena was exposed to the conflict that these two systems of religion and philosophy held, and though she herself chose the path of a druid initially, she sought a way to reconcile them. To find common ground. It was through this quest that she discovered animancy - or perhaps more accurately, animancy discovered her. Animancy was not unheard of in Lutetia prior to this, but it was often misunderstood and mislabelled as simply a form of necromancy. Though the two arts overlap and share many similarities, they are distinct both in practice and in philosophy.

Animancers of the Order believe fully that their magic deals in sapient souls - those belonging to living beings, or the departed. As such, they hold a great reverence for them in all they do. They therefore see the defiling of a corpse as a heinous act, for even in death spirits may linger near their final resting place, and raising their body (without first consulting that spirit for permission) is grossly disrespectful.

Despite their differences with necromancers, however, their relationship with them is not hostile. Though they disapprove of and condemn what they perceive as 'frivolous' animation of the dead, they acknowledge and respect necromancers who treat the dead with the same reverence that they do. In turn, some necromancers often consider Animancers of the White to be stuck-up and ridiculous in equal measure, and find the similarities their order's structure shares with the Church to be tantamount to insulting.

Within the Order, members are held to strict standards of practice - tenets of honor for the dead, care for the living and vigilance against corruption. It mirrors aspects of the Evequec Church in the way it trains new members, providing an education both on matters related not only to arcana, but also academia and - importantly - conduct. Its members seek to present themselves as proud and unabashed defenders of the sanctity of both life and death, every bit the force for good that a paladin is.

There is naturally friction between the Order and the Church, given the latter's attitudes towards animancy and its dealings with the soul, however they are generally looked on more favourably than necromancers due to their differing philosophies aligning more closely with those of the church itself.

Members:

The hierarchy of the Order of the White is relatively simple. There are not separate divisions of it as there are within the church, instead each animancer has full freedom within the bounds of the order to operate as he or she pleases.

Students of the Order are inducted into the Geal Academae usually between the ages of 10 and 12, at which time they are required to live within its halls and devote themselves to their studies full time (albeit with more freedom than proselytes of the Church). For their first six to eight years of study, they are considered to be Initiates, and are permitted to practice animancy only within the grounds of the Academae or in the company of a full member of the Order.

Upon reaching adulthood and graduating their exams, they are named Adepts, and pick a field in which to specialise. These fields are highly varied, ranging from focus on specific aspects of their abilities - such as soul reading, communion or animation - to more academic and research-based focuses. In either case, after another three to four years (or six in the case of healing) an Adept submits a final set of exams and papers, and graduates to a fully fledged animancer. Adepts are permitted to act with near full autonomy, including the usage of their abilities outside the academy.

Within the Order, graduated animancers are known by their specialty, or simply as 'Animancer'. The current titles are Warden, Channeler, Binder, Exorcist and Seer. An Animancer has total autonomy and can choose to remain with the Academae for research and teaching, or strike out on their own to take up work or travel. Those that remain with the Order may advance further, to the rank of Master. Master Animancers are the most distinguished and powerful members of the order and each play a part in its operation as a whole.

The Order's leader goes by the title of the Lord or Lady of the White. He or she often acts as a headmaster of the academy, as well as manages relations with other organisations and enacts edicts and laws for within the Order. The Lord/Lady of the White is chosen by their predecessor, or can be replaced with an 80% majority vote within the ranks of the Masters.

Practices:

The Order of the White practises animancy in many and varied ways, but these are some of the most common.

• Soul Reading - a skilled animancer is able to interact not only with the souls of the dead, but also those of the living. Performing a soul reading gives an animancer insight into the spiritual wellbeing of the subject, as well as their emotional state. This has applications in diagnosing some mental disorders such as depression, or in helping provide therapy and guidance to those who need it.
  
  
• Spirit Binding - animancers focus much of their studies on the practice of communing with and utilising spirits to aid them. Whether lingering ghosts or souls temporarily retrieved from an afterlife, the Order teaches that their members should not force these spirits into servitude, but instead make requests of them. The applications of these spirits are numerous should they cooperate, including but not limited to spying, possession, object animation and energy sources.
  
  
• Exorcism - by merit of the fact that they can usually see ghosts and spirits at all times, as well as manipulate them, animancers make excellent exorcists (whether by banishment or merely guiding/helping a spirit to achieve what they must to find rest).
  
  
• Spirit Channelling - animancers often find themselves acting as mediums, performing their magic in order to allow people to communicate with deceased loved ones. Whilst this is an unglamorous path, it is one that many embrace for the peace of mind it can bring to people.
  
  
• Forensic Animancy - there is significant overlap between generalist Spirit Binding and forensic animancy, but there are some key differences. Forensic animancers are trained specifically in techniques to call spirits in a fully sapient form, so that they are able to answer questions that may advance police investigations. This increases in difficulty the longer the subject has been dead.

Disciplines: When an Animancer graduates from an adept, they are usually expected to choose a discipline to which they will belong. This is not always the case - those who forgo a discipline are referred to either as generalists, or as some other speciality of their own.

• Channelers - Channelers are those who specialise in Spirit Channeling. Many Channelers serve as mediums, but others find work in forensics in much the same capacity as necromancers - as a method by which the deceased can be spoken to.
  
• Exorcists - relatively few in number, Exorcists specialise in the banishment of lost or malicious spirits, and in warding against them.
  
• Binders - one of the larger disciplines, Binders are those that specialise in enlisting the aid of spirits directly, whether it be through object animation or vestiges.
  
• Seers - Seers specialise in honing their Soulsight, allowing them to read souls at a glance. They are often highly perceptive, as their enhancement of their supernatural sight bleeds into their normal senses.
  
• Wardens - Wardens are to the Order what Paladins are to the Church. They are trained to use animancy in battle - be it through animating/conjuring weapons, utilising vestiges to enhance their own skills, or the use of raw anima energy. Wardens, however, lack one key thing that paladins have: legal authority. As a result, they largely confine their efforts to offering their services to the Church and the Police as outside contractors - most often to hunt down Black Animancers.

Attire:

Initiates of the Order wear white uniforms in military dress-uniform style, simplistic and trimmed with grey.

Adepts wear more decorative white uniforms trimmed with silver, and clasps in the shape of the order’s symbol without its wings upon their collars to mark their status.

An Animancer may wear whatever they wish, but their ceremonial attire is similar to that of an Adept, but with the addition of a flowing white cloak and the replacement of their silver adornments with white-gold equivalents. Similarly, their clasp is replaced with a silver equivalent and now is completed with the cupped hands of the Order’s symbol. Different disciplines may alter this dress in varying ways.

Masters wear similar ceremonial garb to that of a graduated Animancer, with more decorations and the addition of an amulet of status. Their clasps are white-gold in material, but bear the same design as those of an Animancer.

The Lord/Lady of White can be distinguished by their flowing and feather-trimmed robes and distinctive white headdress.

Black Animancy:

The Order stringently opposes what it denotes as 'Black Animancy' - the usage of souls from living beings to fuel animantic or other magic. Foremost amongst these practises is the creation of Soul Gems - which requires trapping the soul of a victim moments after death. The Order pursues any who they believe to be utilising this art relentlessly, even going beyond the law to do so.

 

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Animancy​

A white robed woman steps cautiously through a long-forgotten tomb, her eyes alight. She tenderly brushes a layer of dust from the top of the ancient sarcophogus, and murmurs a reverent incantation before drawing on her power. A translucent wisp rises through the stone, slowly forming into the image of an aged man with a broken crown upon his head, his ghostly eyes blinking as though he were waking from a long slumber.

A young half-elf backs into an alleyway, a trio of burly aggressors brandishing weapons at him with confident sneers. Behind his back, he curls his hand in an arcane gesture and whispers a command. Around him, the detritus in the alley begins to clatter. A discarded broom, broken bottles and old bones begin to rise from the ground, shaking themselves as though conscious of the dirt upon them. Loose tiles detach from the rooftops to either side of the alleyway, until a small army of miscellania hovers between him and his now fearful attackers. He smirks, pointing a finger, and they surge forwards with an unmistakeable air of glee not oft found in inanimate objects.

Blood dripping from her palm as she draws it across the fresh wound, an elven woman smiles with sinister satisfaction. Baudy tavern songs can be heard muffled through the door as she raises her hand, ethereal light drifting out from the gash in the dead man’s chest. She draws the light up and across to her other hand, wherein she cups a dull crystal. The gem thrums as she guides the light into its core, trembling in her grip until the last of the light is gone from the air, reduced to a faint glow inside the now luminous stone. Cleaning her hand off with a flick of her wrist, she tucks the gem away into her pouch before slipping out of the dark chamber and back to the taproom below, leaving the man’s body lifeless on the bed.

Animancers are spellcasters who deal in the magic of the soul, an art seldom encountered and even more seldom accepted. Where wizards draw on the inherent magic permeating the cosmos, animancers derive their power from that which is constant in both life and death - the soul.

Animancers draw on the energy of souls to power their magic, and in doing so, they hold the potential for great evil. Many are the animancers who wrest unwilling spirits from their rest, consuming them for the sake of power. But this is not the case with all. Equally many are those animancers who take only what is freely given, beseeching the spirits of long-dead ancestors or selfless heroes for aid in fuelling their rituals. Others still have mastered the art of manipulating the energy of their own soul, carefully tapping their own life-force for strength. There are those who are discomforted by the nature of an animancer’s magic, regardless of the care they take in practising it. Many equate it to necromancy or even darker magics, or fear that by even speaking to an animancer they risk having their soul stolen from their breast.

Some are born with the gift of animancy, able to sense and touch the souls of others from a very young age. Others may come upon their soul’s awakening by some extraordinary event. This could be a near-death experience, wherein the animancer stood upon death’s doorstep and stared into the beyond, but was pulled back from the brink. A spirit of the departed might have taken an interest in them, and over time touched their soul enough to awaken it to the rest of its kind. There are orders dedicated to awakening the gift in others, but even with all the training in the world, not everyone has the potential. However they came by their gift, few animancers can ignore it. Some even view it as a curse.

Notable applications of Animancy:

Animancy is largely a ritualistic art, without the flash and directness of arcane magic. Animancers don’t fling fireballs around or shoot lightning out their eyes. Though animancy has applications in combat, it usually requires the animancer to have made preparations in advance, calling vestiges to their side or animating constructs to defend them.

• Soulsight - usually the first ability to manifest in an animancer, Soulsight refers to animancers’ ability to see spirits and ghosts even when they do not voluntarily reveal themselves. They are usually also able to see a spirit’s true form, regardless of what form it takes. The most powerful animancers are able to see the souls of living creatures as well as those of the dead, making it very difficult to be dishonest with them.
  
  
• Spirit Calling - the channelling of spirits of the dead, either summoned to an ethereal form and channelled through the animancer’s own body.
  
  
• Vestiges - the manipulation of soul fragments, whispers or echoes of spirits and souls, in order to enhance the animancer’s own capabilities and knowledge. Examples include vestiges employed to watch the animancer’s back, to focus their mind, to hide them in shadows, or even to ward away weapons. Vestiges are not ‘true’ souls, only reflections of them - or at least, that’s what modern theories conclude. They have limited personality and self-awareness, if any.
  
  
• Soul Bonds - forming spiritual links with other living creatures, to allow the two to share emotions and to always be aware of the other’s location and state of mind - though not exact thoughts.
  
  
• Object Animation - some animancers can direct vestiges into inanimate objects to make them animate, and then direct them as constructs with simple tasks. More complex animations can be performed with fully formed souls.
  
  
• Spiritual Manifestation - with sufficient focus and familiarity, an animancer can cause spiritual energy to coalesce into physical form. This allows for the conjuration of inanimate objects, or in rare cases, granting spirits some degree of a physical body (albeit usually insubstantial).
  
  
• Spiritual Energy - like most forms of magic, it is possible to direct the power of animancy into a raw energy form. In the majority of cases, however, soul energy used in animancy cannot cause direct physical harm. However, animancers are capable of using their power to strike at a creature's soul or inner life force, which can prove just as lethal. Mastery of this art is difficult at best, and generally far less efficient than the usage of weapons, except in the case of fighting foes immune or highly resilient against physical harm.

• Anima Enhancement - animancers can utilise their power in a manner similar to the way that monks utilise 'ki', to enhance their speed, strength, resilience and agility. This art is amongst the most difficult to master of animantic practices, and its users are extremely rare.
  
  
• Soul Gems - referred to by many as ‘black animancy’, the creation of Soul Gems is outlawed almost anywhere that animancy is common, and usually enforced by other animancers. Creating a Soul Gem requires killing living being and, in their dying moments, trapping their soul as it flees their body. Soul Gems can be used as sources of significant power, but in doing so, the soul contained within is consumed and destroyed permanently.