Misc Headcanon

Things players have made up that became things in the game. Most of these require mod approval, so put together a write-up and then ask!

This does not include places, monsters, or class headcanon, which require no mod approval and are to be added on their respective pages.

(Zenderean) Cigarettes
Zendereal in its pre-merge state did not have pre-rolled cigarettes. You buy tobacco and cigarette papers, and roll your own.

Pre-rolled cigarettes are being sold in Zenderael by whatever Earth stores carried it, but their inventories are probably not being restocked. IE. Pre-rolled cigs are still rare in Zen; most Zendereans are unaware such a thing is even being sold.

Dragonmail
Mail in Zenderael is delivered by faerie dragons. These dragons are about the size of a six-month-old kitten, and they travel through a combination of flight and warp magic.

Dragon post, as it is called, employs trained faerie dragons as post dragons. There are post offices in any town large enough to have one, maintained by mages who handle complaints, questions, and sales.

In order to send dragonmail, one simply needs to write a letter addressed to a specific person and affix a special dragon post stamp to it. These stamps, when used, will summon a post dragon to take the letter and deliver it.

If the recipient sits down to write a response immediately after receiving the letter, post dragons will wait and will deliver the response without any need for a stamp to be used. In this way, long chains of letters can be sent back and forth with only one stamp, though it is customary to tip the dragons every so many letters with a few coppers.

If the recipient is asleep or otherwise incapacitated, the dragons will deliver the letter instead to whatever place that person has mentally designated as their "home base." It is possible to register this location with the post office or to request that all letters be delivered to your physical location regardless of your conscious state.

All letters are automatically signed with the name of the sender UNLESS signed using a different name. (For example, "Marlene Reliace" would be automatically attached to all her letters if she didn't sign them, but if she signed a letter "Lena" then that's all it would say.)

Letters must be addressed using EITHER a full name, a unique alias, OR a first name/alias with some other identifying name.

"Marlene" would not work. "Marlene Reliace" would work. "Duncan" would not work. "Heimdall" would work, and "Duncan, player of Marlene Reliace" would also work. This is because faerie dragons locate people based on a combination of name and the person you have in mind when you're writing it.

You can register an alias with the post office. If you sign your letters with an alias often enough, it will stick after the alias is established as a name people know and recognize you by.

Mail cannot be delivered to deceased parties. Faerie dragons simply won't accept the letter.

Until May 8th, faerie dragons also wouldn't accept letters for people who'd been transferred from Zen to Earth. Now that dragonmail can travel between the dimensions, this is no longer the case.

Post dragons can carry items as well as letters, HOWEVER, this carries the following stipulations:


 * ONE item per trip
 * There is an extra fee on item deliveries, based on weight
 * The item must be of a size and weight such that the average adult human could carry it in one hand (without aid of any other body parts such as holding it against the body)
 * Bundled items, such as a sword inside its sheath, or a box full of trinkets, count as a single item for the purposes of dragonmail

Golems (Myf)
While golems are not unheard-of creatures in the world of Zenderael, anything greater than a simple sand golem is extremely rare. The majority of them, outside of a mad sorcerer's laboratory here and there, are located within the World Library. They are servants of the Asha, loyal to him or her. They effectively shut down upon the death of the Asha, requiring the active use of the god-organ to maintain consciousness, and the successor may then decide whether to destroy them or keep them. At times they may be improved upon, at times dumbed down, depending on the needs or desires of the one that uses them. They are the ones to see to the physical needs of the Library, reshelving and repairing books, clearing tables and litter off the floor, fetching requested books. They serve as a means of defense should anyone think to attack the Library and peacekeepers within it, as mages sometimes tend to be aggressively jealous and secretive sorts.

The current Asha, as many in the past, has taken it upon himself to experiment with the golems, even going so far as to see how closely he might mimic true life with them, and has created a small handful of extremely lifelike golems and sent them out into the world to varying degrees, giving even them the illusion of true life and total self-control. They may come and go as they please, do as they wish, but ultimately they are a bound creation that will come when he calls, unaware of their true nature until the call comes. In the meantime, they are casually observed now and then by the Asha and largely left alone, unmourned when they die and unpraised when they return. Upon death their "materials" are returned to the Asha and possibly remade into a new golem of varying quality.

Each of these advanced golems, being magical in their very nature, become strong mages. Their formation does not make them any physically stronger, however, and often it is the case that physical strength is sacrificed for greater magical power. Emotionally they are stunted, having been created straight into adulthood, and they are often unfeeling and react strangely to situations. Their lifespan greatly exceeds that of a human, and are supposedly immortal, though not invincible. They may die or be killed by any number of causes, as any other mortal creature. Only a small few know the connection between the Asha and their creations and what their fate is upon the Asha's death.

Healing

 * Anything that is capable of healing naturally can be healed by a Cleric/Paladin. So if you've got a hangover, you can still heal it, Clerics! As long as it is possible for the cells involved to regenerate on their own, holy magic can heal it. Holy heals completely reverse damage.


 * Regen heals are just accelerated natural healing.


 * Potions are the same, but only do the accelerated healing for a certain amount of time.

Yes, this means that knocks to the head and permanent nerve damage require surgery and perhaps won't ever be healed. Yes, it does make the game harder. But the idea is that people in Zen had to live some sort of tangible, physics affected life while also responding to the coding within the computer, while—etc. This is the best compromise between what players want and what we think is simplistic for players to play by.

Magic Elements

 * Fire
 * Water
 * Ice
 * Earth
 * Plants
 * Air/Wind
 * Light (Electromagnetic spectrum)
 * Lightning
 * ex. illusions
 * Shadow
 * Primarily Assassins and Rogues (sans enchantments)
 * Holy
 * Clerics and Paladins only (sans enchantments)
 * Nature
 * Druids and Hunters only

Mana Burn (The Guindo, Myf)
In gameplay, when a character hits 0 MP, nothing really happens except they can't cast spells until they regen a bit.

In reality, it is possible to keep casting after hitting 0 MP, but the harder you push yourself, the more in danger you are of suffering mana burn.

Pushing past that point starts as a headache that grows in severity the harder you push. Go too far, and you'll pass out. Passing out at this point means moderate to severe mana burn; stopping at the severe headache stage means it will probably be mild to moderate.

The effects of mana burn can vary, but the most common symptoms are fatigue, fever, and temporary loss of magic ability. Severe mana burn can leave a person unconscious for days, mild mana burn might be nothing more than an especially long-lasting headache and a general fatigue.

The only cure for mana burn is time. Drinking a mana restorative is a bit like putting on armour after you've already been stabbed. It'll keep it from getting worse, but won't fix the problem that's already there. Recovery time varies based on the individual and the severity of the burn. Generally, any ability to cast spells is lost until the burn has faded. This is not a hard and fast rule, and some people may still be able to cast during mild or mostly-recovered mana burn, but even when possible it's still considered to be a bad idea.

Molavvas (Mini)
When a human eats a heart fresh from a vrylak, they become a "molavvas".

The concept of molavvas was created by Jordan for Alexander. It was not canon until What to Do About Vrylaks, a tie-in novel, was published.

There is something special about the blood of a vrylak. If a human on the verge of death consumes blood from a vrylak, they will live. If they consume the heart of a dying or freshly killed vrylak, they will obtain many attributes of a vrylak, some good, some bad. This is, of course, assuming they don't lose themselves to the beast, which many do. In the past, there were tribes that centered around this, but the clerics and paladins, who considered vrylaks evil and the consumption of their organs taboo, have wiped them out.

The following changes occur in a successful conversion:
 * increased strength & stamina
 * increased hearing & smell
 * increased life-span (their physical aging slows way the fuck down)
 * decreasing clarity
 * acquired taste for blood
 * acquired dietary adjustment of mainly meat (due to aforementioned taste for blood, often raw)
 * sharper canines
 * increased healing rate
 * Technical information: cells work in overtime, therefore the individual will need to consume more food to meet the energy demand.
 * "conditional immortality" (killed only by what kills a vrylak)
 * They must be completely incinerated, pierced through the heart with a holy item or eaten by one of their own to remain dead. They will regenerate otherwise. Wounds dealt with a holy item will take longer to heal. Their nutritional requirements increase when healing from major wounds. They can also die from starvation.
 * vulnerability to anything holy

"Conditional immortality" is somewhat misleading. The state of being a molavvas is not avoiding death, but prolonging the inevitable. Factors such as the physical health of the body at the time of conversion, mental stability, and a strong willpower will hold off the deterioration of clarity the longest.

ex. Alex's goal to resurrect Xumurdad and Alessia's goal to eradicate all molavvas have staved off deterioration for them both.

Molavvas are sensitive to each other. They can sense another molavvas' presence even if they may not be in sight. Molavvas are naturally aggressive towards each other. By instinct, the first thing a molavvas will feel in the presence of another is the need to dominate. They will be at each other's throats until a hierarchy is established. The level of aggression varies between individuals.

ex. Alex is naturally hot-headed, so he reacted violently towards Ales. Ales spent years hunting down molavvas, so she learned how to contain her aggression.

The Order of the Dark (Myf)
The Order of the Dark is a small sect of clerics dedicated to the final rites of a soul, one that cannot be brought back and must be laid to rest.

The Order is an in-game group with a few subquests. They are treated with a sort of fearful respect and are, by and large, left alone, though they go about their tasks as any other citizen of Bastan. People think they hide away, but in reality it is simply that there are only a handful of them at any given time, and to see only one or two simply means the others are busy at work or at rest. It is also not necessarily true that they are dark, brooding types themselves. In fact, they are probably some of the most understanding, caring, and gentle people in the service of Xumurdad, being those that deal with the grief of others in their darkest hours, and dealing with the spirits that must be put to their final rest.

Resurrection (Yoiko, The Guindo)
Resurrection is something only high-level clerics are capable of. It is a quest skill that becomes available at level 100. In real-world terms, this translates to needing a high level of trust within the guild and needing to perform some task at the Vahishta's bidding before being taught the skill. It is a closely guarded guild secret.

The monetary cost of a resurrection is high. Components for the spell are costly, and petitioning the clerics to resurrect somebody is very expensive. If you cannot pay the asking price, you will be turned away. Because of this, resurrection is rare.

Resurrection can be performed without any components or with fewer components than is normally required, but this is Very Dangerous and very few clerics are willing to attempt it. The components act as a proxy for the cleric to search through the Dark to find and retrieve a person's soul. Without the components, a cleric must dive into the Dark with their own mind, completely unprotected, and retrieve the soul manually. There is a significant risk of becoming lost in the Dark and being unable to return to their own body.

Clerics who suffer this fate will still be technically alive, but completely catatonic, unable to respond to stimuli, with no mental activity whatsoever. This condition is unrecoverable. Even killing them and attempting a resurrection will not work--there will be no way to locate the lost soul because its tie to the body has already been thoroughly severed.

Because of this, clerics will almost always refuse to attempt a resurrection if they are missing even one component. With a full set of components, it's perfectly safe and there's absolutely no risk. With each missing component, the risk increases.

Being resurrected does not come without consequences for the resurrectee. Many people end up severed from their guild. Some lose memories or have their personalities altered. Some seem to suffer no ill effect whatsoever. The repercussions of being resurrected are unpredictable and random, and with resurrection being rare as it is, this side-effect of it is largely unknown.

Players of resurrected characters may decide what cost their character will pay. If they cannot think of a cost, one may be Hand of Modded to them.

Examples of possible costs: forgetting your family, forgetting yourself, losing the ability to sympathize with people, becoming unable to read facial expressions, losing an important memory, forgetting the names of everyone you've met, losing a sense (like taste, or the ability to understand where your body is in relation to itself), having a type of word wipe itself from your vocabulary, etc etc. Go wild with these, it's erratic and unpredictable. The only limitation is that their body will be intact, so losing limbs or organs isn't a possible consequence of the resurrection itself.

All resurrection needs to be cleared with the mods first.

Warhound Blood (Tex)
Mezzron's warhounds have a potent blood that can be used as a combat drug. Acher Ostendramm was the first to do this and bled several captured warhounds dry, to provide it to soldiers underneath his command. This has given him a stockpile of vials. It has a dark red color and is usually contained in a thin, heavy glass vial. The blood has a slight dark blue shimmer like oil, with little particles of blue light visible in it. When someone drinks it, they gain enhanced abilities as detailed below.

Warhound blood is addictive. Once a person consumes it several times over a few days (with the exact amount and exact time period varying per individual, but usually about four times in one week), they will form an addiction. At this point, they need to drink roughly one vial of the stuff a week to not start going into withdrawal. Withdrawal symptoms are essentially flu-like, with a heightened rage.

Once consumed, warhound blood makes an individual sense a new pool of energy with themselves, akin to but separate from mana. Tapping this energy source allows an individual to enhance their strength, endurance, speed, and magical capabilities with a thought. They can access more of it to increase their strength, but after burning through the energy, they need to consume another vial. Multiple vials have diminishing returns.
 * With a slow burn of warhound's blood, an affected individual can generally enhance their attributes like a good long duration buff. They seem to be slightly stronger, faster, and tougher than the human normal. This can last up to thirty minutes (and will be reduced by successive bursts of usage).
 * A small burst of power can allow for some outright supernatural effects: briefly running as fast as a galloping horse, cutting through solid steel, or making a spell double in size and effect. They can do this about five or six times before entirely exhausting their energy stores.
 * A large burst of power increases the effects accordingly. A soldier might thrust a spear through a car's engine block; someone could outrun a galloping horse; a fireball could quadruple.
 * Burning through the entire charge at once allows for really insane feats. The danger is that they have no power left; a soldier might be able to knock a house down wth a swing of his sword, but he won't have any enhanced power to deal with whoever is inside.
 * At a slow burn, natural healing and pain resistance are heightened. Small wounds recover faster, while being stabbed does not hurt. However, wounds can be healed rapidly by burning through the blood, but this is costly. While a person might shrug off being stabbed clean through the chest once, they couldn't manage to do that twice.