Saturday, December 19, 2015

[Mage: The Awakening] Legends of the Acamoth

 ((In Character Post (IC):
Chronicle: Mage: The Horsemen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening (Fallen World Chronicle)
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler))



The Legend of the Acamoth: 
Essay by Heliodromus, Summoner Mystagogue

Notes prepared by Lorekeeper of the Horsemen, Casstiel, originally compiled Spring 2012 soon after Nergal's first deal with a strange dream entity following the trip to the Aeonic Citadels that previous Yule (Winter 2011).

Well, we got the books from the Scholomance.  And let me tell you, the one bound in human skin is quite terrifying.  This excerpt comes from a reference in the other book I have right now, a reference that points to a Summoner named Heliodromus, a member of the Pentacle and an authority on summoning outerworldy entities.

Turns out I don’t really need to sleep; at least I was fine last night.  Between my three minds, two slept and rotated out with the one that was awake.  My body feels weak but my mind is fresh today.

“There was something awesome in the thought of the solitary mortal standing by the open window and summoning in from the gloom outside the spirits of the nether world.” – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I think I found it… Nergal… tell me if this sounds familiar:



The Dreaming Madness:

“The face of the Abyss most familiar to mages in the Fallen World, the Acamoth are those Void-born spirits that somehow became trapped within the material realm between the sundering of the Ladder to Heaven and modern times. Some of these entities have lingered in fitful slumber for millennia, while others found a way down from the Abyss (or were called from it) and got stranded. The most ancient of these beings might never have truly dwelt within the Void, at all, having become cut off from their “native” realm in the instant of its creation in the Fall.

The Acamoth constitute the overwhelming majority of the Abyss spirits with which mages interact, due to their relative nearness, if nothing else. Even while the Acamoth slumber, they influence the world around them, projecting their nightmares into minds and spirits, their very presence exuding a corruptive taint. Skilled investigators among the Awakened can often spot the clues that point to these earthbound monstrosities, following their trail as readily as a hound tracks an elusive scent. Certainly, some seek the Acamoth to destroy them, but the majority of seekers have much different goals in mind. Among all of the ephemeral entities found in the Fallen World, none are so amenable to pacts and other binding agreements as the Acamoth, and few have such interesting gifts to offer.
Summoning the Acamoth Severed from the realm that gives them their identity, the Acamoth spend most of their time in the Fallen World held fast in the slumber of spirits. Perhaps they have, over their long imprisonment, become so much like the denizens of the Shadow Realm that they are now bound by many of the same laws. Regardless of the reasons, however, deliberately making contact with an Acamoth is no simple feat.

A mage must overcome the inertia of sleep, passing through layers and layers of alien nightmares, just to get the entity to notice that someone is attempting to communicate with it; less forceful methods of contact are almost always simple dismissed by the spirit as one of an infinite number of odd details of an endless horrific dream and forgotten nearly the instant that the attempt ceases. Even repeated messages are often ignored as patterns that temporarily spring up within an individual Acamoth’s nightmares. Like a sleeping human who occasionally incorporates elements of half-sensed stimuli into her dreams, so, too, do the Acamoth sometimes dimly perceive that which transpires around them and experience the reflections of such in their slumber….”

(I have excerpted the parts about finding, contacting, and summoning Acamoth.  We are looking for similarities to Nergal’s spectral visitor)

Bargains with the Acamoth:

So, what, exactly, can a willworker get from dealing with the Acamoth? First of all, Acamoth, no matter their power, are capable of offering Investments to those willing to bargain with them. Even the feeblest such spirit is able to offer any mage one year’s respite from the ravages of time, for instance, in exchange for the freedom to use that mage’s Oneiros as a temporary gateway to the Abyss. It is only through long familiarity with the Fallen World that Abyssal beings gain the knowledge and understanding necessary to make this journey, making Investments unique to the Acamoth; though the Gulmoth are, quite often, stronger in terms of raw power, they lack the requisite conversance with the nature of the terrestrial realm to perform these particular manipulations of the human form and spirit.

Some Acamoth — those that were stranded in the Fallen World during the collapse of the Celestial Ladder — possess lore that dates back to the time of the Atlantean Diaspora and most are certainly willing to part with the information, provided that the price is right. One shred of occult knowledge is essentially as meaningless to the Acamoth as another, though most are aware that the Awakened highly prize particularly ancient secrets, so they bargain particularly dearly in such a case. Despite this, however, the occasional willworker even walks away feeling that what he gained was worth the steep cost of an Acamoth’s teachings.

Other Acamoth have accrued small stockpiles of treasure over the millennia: Artifacts and Enhanced and Imbued Items, as well as grimoires, spirit fetishes, and other enchanted relics. On top of this, some hold entirely more mundane objects of great value, such as the journals of Archmasters or tablets inscribed with lost dialects of the High Speech. Some, according to their natures, hoard wealth with which they might tempt the Awakened to service and gladly dole out gold, silver, and precious gems to those who submit to the will of the Acamoth. Indeed, whole cabals of Scelesti have financed their works throughout the ages solely upon the riches held in trust by a half-sleeping spirit of the Void.

Naturally, many of the Accursed worship or otherwise revere the Acamoth, making such entities a ready source of disreputable labor. Some Scelesti are so irresistibly conditioned by the monsters to which they kneel as to be virtually incapable of disobedience. A Scelestus’ soul is, of its very nature, a less desirable prize than that of a willworker not yet seduced into the service of the Abyss; thus, an Acamoth will venture its human resources in a calculated gambit to win the fealty of one not yet swayed to the thrall of the Void. For mages looking to have enemies wiped out, commodities stolen, or other shady activities undertaken for their benefit, an Acamoth can offer much, sending its Awakened soldiers forth to attend the will of the summoner.

No matter what a mage requests, however, the Acamoth almost always asks for its customary price: the freedom to use the mage’s soul for an Astral journey, through the Oneiros and the Temenos, and, from there, into past the furthest reaches of the Astral Realm and into the Abyss, itself, there to drag just a tiny measure of the Void back to the Fallen World. Unless a mage can offer something vastly preferable to this all-consuming drive, no Acamoth will settle for anything less, and most are decidedly less than pleased to be roused by a willworker who doesn’t even understand how the process works. Certainly, mages have been died for less.''



Investments:

In addition to the Acamoth Investments, the Acamoth are capable of granting certain other gifts to those who dare to carve the glyphs of old and speak the words of power. These Investments are, in some cases, rarer than those more commonly known to mages (inasmuch as anything can be said to be “commonly known” about the Acamoth, anyway). All of these powers go outside of the known boundaries of Awakened magic, even if only in subtle ways, but therein lies a good deal of their attraction.

Legendary Investments: (From the essay)

“Stories circulate among the Awakened — typically, through the least reputable circles of mage society — regarding particularly powerful Investments offered by the rarest and most potent of Acamoth. Those who tell such tales speak of bargains to have a particular Sleeper’s soul carried on an Astral journey in the hopes of inspiring an Awakening, granting immunity from Paradox (whether for a set period of time or for a lifetime), and even restoring life to the dead. As fanciful as they are, these stories persist from generation to generation and some willworkers are compelled to wonder whether any shred of truth exists, at all, among these sorts of accounts. Those who dig a little deeper, however, invariably discover darker, uglier details to the myths. A Sleeper Awakens… perhaps… but returns from her sojourn with a strange, unnatural fire in her eyes and wielding terribly destructive magics that stink of the Abyss. The lash of Paradox avoids the bargaining will-worker, but seems to rain down its fury upon all those closest to her, Awakened or not. A lost loved one sits back up, all of his wounds mended, but speaking in hollow tones and the spark of his human spirit replaced by something else. Those mages who barter with the Void for even small services invariably end up cheated in the deal. So much worse off are those who negotiate for terms that challenge the rules of the cosmos in far more ambitious ways.”

Soul Disintegration:

After the first two or three times that a mage grants an Acamoth the power to use her soul as a bridge to the Void, why doesn’t she do it all the time? After all, repetition of almost any heinous act eventually anesthetizes a person to the moral consequences and repugnance of such deeds. The answer to this question is known to many of those who fancy themselves scholars of the Abyss and its ways a “soul disintegration”; literally, a process by which the Awakened spirit becomes metaphysically riddled with small tears that render it increasingly unusable by an Acamoth for the purposes of a journey through the Astral Realm and back to the Abyss.

Each year, a willworker can allow an Acamoth to “ride” her soul up through the Astral Realms a number of times equal to her soul’s power and supernal understanding without other deleterious consequences (other than the simple act of bargaining with an Abyssal entity, anyway). This represents the overall wear and tear on the Awakened spirit inherent to the Acamoth’s misuse of the mage’s soul. For each time thereafter within a single 12 month period that the willworker permits an Acamoth to use her soul as a conduit back to the Void, she incurs a cumulative wounds in her soul which inflict penalty to acts pertaining to magic, whether rote or improvised. A exercising tremendous will it is possible to stave off additional injury for additional trips.  When the mage can take no more injury, through that of weakened will or damage to the soul, an Acamoth can no longer use her as a conduit to the Abyss (and will, therefore, almost certainly refuse her its services, unless she has something better to offer).

Each year (counting as every 12 months, to the day, from the time of her first bargain with an Acamoth), provided the willworker has not exceeded her Investment tolerance completely, the begins to heal slowly. 

Other Awakened who glimpse a mage currently suffering from spellcasting penalties as a result of too-frequent Investment bargains with Acamoth with the Death sight “Soul Marks” spell note a feeling of raw, ragged wounds of uncertain origin upon her spirit. Those who look upon her with the Prime Unveiling Sight “Supernal Vision” see fraying at the edges of her aura; the greater spellcasting penalty, the greater the apparent damage. If the soul becomes full unusable, it is no more powerful than a sleeper.

So here is my theory.  When Nergal took some of that Abyssal dragon’s blood into his soul for a short period of time, some of the traces of the abyss were left behind (the paradox I sensed in his Onerious).  That pure unholy taint must have pierced the mad slumbering mind of a nearby Acamoth and so “Light at the End of the Tunnel” as he calls himself, started deceiving Nergal into making dealing.  Since it is bound to honor any pact it makes it HAD to reward you for the one thing it wanted.  It didn’t lie about traveling into the abyss either.  It only lied about what it truly was.  Dangerous when these things deceive without breaking their word.

So, it stands to reason that Nergal can just turn this bastard down and hopefully the Acamoth will leave him alone.  No pact, no Abyss, no benefit.  Or, it may choose to push it’s nightmares into your dreams in which case I need to find a more potent way to shield your Onerious, he just bowled through the ward last time.

This also means a very important fact.  I do not know what the telepathic scope and reach of a typical Acamoth is… but it stands to reason one is sleeping nearby.  Somewhere barren in Beulah or even as far as Bismarck or even farther, this thing is calling out from its slumberin  g prison.  Where ever it is, it will be completely isolated from sleepers, things will be tainted and corrupted around it, and usually completely barren or devoid of life.  It could be in an underground well or inside a hill… anyone’s guess.  There are ways to track it with the right spells… but it will be a lot stronger if we go to it directly and try to fight it physically.  Perhaps the battle is better fought in your head where we control the battle ground.

Thoughts?  It’s just a theory that the being Nergal is communicating with is an Acamoth… but the description seems pretty dead fucking on…






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