By Ben Acosta

This mini-supplement for The Tattered Symphony provides details on The Undying, a new type of human character available as both PCs and NPCs. It is a compilation of material previously posted on the Tattered Mailing list, revised to take advantage of the comments made.

This state of affairs vexed Adam. He sought for a way for Man to escape the cycle that eventually ended with one of those two destinations. Using his knowledge of the Symphony, Adam sought for a way to mire a soul in the world, and thus transcend the Wheel of Destiny and Fate. And then one day he discovered it. He found the secret to become Undying

Unfortunately for him, the ritual of transformation was impractical to implement on humanity at large. It required a great deal of research time to customize the ritual for an individual soul, and enormous expenditures of Essence. Even with those two factors, the results were not guaranteed. Adam had to abandon his plans to elevate all of humanity to his new state of being.

Instead, he decided to use the ritual to create allies to aid him in his War against Lucifer. He carefully chose individuals whose ideals or ambitions he felt would eventually place them in opposition to the Host. They were from many backgrounds. Sages, warriors, artists, healers, and leaders. The one thing they had in common was a potential for greatness. Adam explained the current state of affairs in the afterlife and offered them immortality in exchange for doing his Will when he called upon them. The Nine who accepted his offer and successfully underwent the ritual became his first Undying Servants. He then turned them loose upon the world, to follow their own diverse plans and agendas. When he needed them, he'd be able to find them.

Of course, some of the Undying chose to share the secret, creating companions to spend eternity with, or giving the ritual to others for various reasons. Sometimes the ritual failed, due to errors in the customization calculations, or because the copy of the base ritual used had an error. From the results of these failures came the Undead, and rituals were derived to create them on purpose. And thus the art of Necromancy was born.

Today, the Undying and Undead walk the Earth, each with their own plans and agendas. Forever spared Heaven and Hades, they seek to advance their goals on the Corporeal Plane. Sometimes this brings them into conflict with celestials. And Adam smiles at this, for in doing so they promote Man's control of the world and prevent celestials from totally dominating humanity.

Physically, their bodies have become vessels, just like an angel's. They have all the advantages and disadvantages that such vessels have, such as lack of aging, no need to eat and drink, the need to breathe, and infertility. If they are still in their original body, the vessel level is equal to their Corporeal Forces. Otherwise, it depends on how much Essence they spent to create it.

Unlike Undead, they can sleep if they wish and go to the Marches, but they have forever lost their dreamscapes. They instead appear in location in the Marches, the same way as a Celestial does. However, there is a means for an Undying one to have a dreamscape. An Undying one who desires the comfort and pleasure that mortals naturally enjoy in their dreams has one option. He can steal them. It can use the Lucid Dreaming Skill to seize possession of another's and make it their own. The Undying one merely initiates a Contest between his Lucid Dreaming skill and the dreamer's Will. If he wins, the dreamscape is considered his in all aspects until he relinquishes it.

This means any bonuses for being the owner of the dreamscape will be applied to him. Once the Undying One has taken possession of a dreamscape, he can choose to either control it or just float along and see where his subconscious takes him, the same as any other Lucid Dreamer.

Should their vessel be slain while they are in the Marches, they will be immediately yanked back to its location, where they will appear in celestial form. If the Exorcise ritual is successfully used against them, they are forced from their vessel and lose it for a year. They must either stay in celestial form for that duration, or create a new vessel.

If they are slain physically, or exorcised from their vessel, they linger on the Corporeal Plane in celestial form until they create a new vessel. This is the state in which they are most vulnerable, since they now can be slain in celestial combat. There one small consolation is that they do not suffer the Trauma that comes from being forcibly translated to another plane. In this disembodied state, they are treated almost the same as ghosts (see the Corporeal Player's Guide, pages 80-82), except they are not limited by a corporeal anchor (or more accurately, the entire Corporeal Plane is their anchor). There are some differences. The Banish ritual will not work on them because the Corporeal Plane is their home. Exorcise Ghost and Summon Human Soul rituals will affect them as long as they are not in a vessel. This holds true for other sorcerous rituals that affect spirits as well.

Like Ethereal Spirits, The Undying have an Essence Cache, where they can store Essence only for the purpose of vessel creation (See The Marches, 110-111). Unlike celestials and ethereals, they can not switch vessels at will. They are stuck in their current one until it is either slain or they are Exorcised from it. Many Undying create spare vessels in case they are slain or Exorcised, just so they won't have to wait around for a year, vulnerable to any passing spirit who wants to pick a fight.

Create Undying One (Conversio In Immortalem Veritas)

The process to make a human Undying is a complex and risky one. This is because of the variables involved. While the base ritual itself remains constant, the formula must be tailored to account for the unique nature of every individual's soul. This means before the ritual can even be enacted, time must be taken to study the soul of the subject, in order to gain the information needed to adjust the ritual in the required way.

The first thing that must be done is a careful study of how the intended subject relates to the Symphony. This is done by carefully scrutinizing his soul as he naturally gains Essence for a number of days equal to his Forces. To do this the observer must be in the presence of the subject when the natural Essence is gained, and roll against (Necromancy + Perception - the subject's Forces). Each day this roll is successful gives a +1 bonus to the next step in the process, and each failure gives a -1 penalty.

The character doing the observing does not have to be the one who will lead the performance of the ritual.

The next thing is to customize the base formula for the individual soul. A Necromancy + Intelligence - the subject's Forces roll is made, with bonus/penalty accrued from the initial research applied. At least one success had to be made in the initial research stage for the calculation stage to be successful. Otherwise, this step will automatically be a failure.

If the calculation stage is successful, then the ritual enacted will make the subject Undying if it is successful. If this step results in failure, then successfully performing the ritual will result in a Mummy. The CD of the roll will act as a bonus/penalty for all target numbers in the ritual's actual performance.

The character tailoring the ritual does not have to be the one who leads its performance.

In performing the actual ritual, the necromancer rolls against (Necromancy + Enchantment - the subject's Forces). Bonuses from a successful calculation or penalties from an unsuccessful one are applied. The base time requirement is 1 day for each Force, and the performer must expend Essence equal to 3 times the subject's Forces. The subject may expend his own Essence to contribute to this.

On a successful roll, the CD must exceed the subject's total Forces. If the Check Digit is high enough, the subject becomes Undying, with two new Forces added. If the CD is too low, then the soul is not able to be properly anchored, and one of those Forces is ripped away by the Corporeal Plane, and threatening to cause a tear in the subject's Forces configuration. The necromancer can attempt to patch the damage with the remaining Force before it permanently scars the soul. He must make an immediate roll against (Necromancy + Enchantment - the subject's total Forces), applying any bonus or penalty gained in the calculation process.

If successful, then the subject's soul manages to incorporate the new Force and he becomes a Mummy. If not, then the Force is lost and the subject's soul is damaged in the process. Failures with a CD result of 1-3 become Vampires, as the damage manifests itself as Discord. Failures with a CD of 4-6 are so severe the subject loses one of his own Forces as well, and becomes a Zombie.

Undying candidates tend to have 5 or 6 Forces. It's a risky and Essence expensive process, and those who know the ritual will not waste time and resources on anyone with less. And of course, those who try to self-administer the ritual always have at least 6 Forces.

Assuming the ritual is successful, the character gains two Forces, one of which must a Corporeal one, and 4 attribute points per each Force, to raise the corresponding characteristics of the realms they were assigned. They also gain 10 points with which to buy supernatural abilities. The Sorcery Attunement can be purchased if the character didn't have it, since sometimes the transformation induces a spontaneous Sorcerous Initiation.

Sometimes an Undying One accepts supernatural disadvantages in order to gain additional powers. Depending on the connections the character or the necromancer or cabal which induced his transformation has, he might be able to buy Essence generating Rites from ethereals or celestials at character creation, for a cost of 3 points each. After play begins, they'll have to roleplay the process of earning or bargaining to get them, as usual.