The Undying

By Ben Acosta

No one knows how the knowledge first came to man. Perhaps it was one of the angels who first escaped from Hades. Perhaps it was in a dream or vision from a denizen of the Marches. Or perhaps it was a revelation from God himself. But whatever the source, some mystics learned that all was not well with the world. The natural order had been perverted, with the good and worthy going to a gilded cage of soft tyranny while only the wicked went to those who respected humanity. The rest rejoined the cycle of reincarnation again and again, until such time that they fell to either end.

Certain wise ones versed in the Sorcerous Arts thought that this order to existence was anathema, a perversion of the way things should be. There had to be a way to escape a cycle that eventually ended with those equally unappealing options. Research was done. And one sorcerer, working with the Egyptian Pantheon, found the way: the key to avoid descending to Tuat and instead become one with the world. He found the secret to be Undying.

The Undying are those souls who through carefully researched Sorcerous Rites have managed to permanently anchor themselves to the Corporeal Plane. They no longer age, or have to worry about the hardships of human existence. Instead, their body has become a Vessel, a receptacle of their altered soul. They still can be physically slain, but instead of their soul departing the Earth, it instead lingers on the Corporeal Plane as a ghost, until such time as it can gather enough energy to craft another vessel. Treat a bodiless Undying as a Ghost via the Corporeal Player's Guide, except they keep their Corporeal Forces and are not confined to a specific location. For purposes of creating a new Vessel, they possess Essence Caches just like Ethereals do. The only way to slay one permanently is through Celestial Combat.

Unfortunately, the Sorcerous Rites devised to transform one into one of the Undying have to be specially tailored for each individual soul. Sometimes, mistakes, miscalculations, or discrepancies in the copy of the basic ritual have led to tragic results, resulting in a flawed transformation into a mummy, vampire or even a zombie. But such is the risk for those who wish to Transcend the Cycle