Treavery

From Mizahar Lore

Current revision as of 03:05, 11 February 2015

Treavery in its positive form is the power to travel in time through the use of water, as time shares many of water's traits. In its negative form, it is the loss of time and memories. Those who bear the positive mark are called Treavers.

Tanroa and The Mark

Tanroa rarely intervenes directly in the affairs of mortals. Her very presence and existence creates a powerful force. She feels that her constant influence of time and aging is invasive enough.

When Tanroa acts, it is subtle, but the ramifications of her actions either reach to the destiny of the world or are contained to a miniscule ripple. Only in dire or entirely inconsequential cases does she divert or stay her hand. She has no formal followers, as her power reaches beyond being incumbent on the faith of mortals. Her powers pervade whether believed or not. Tanroa takes interest in the affairs of men, but as a spectator. To her, the world and universe comprise a magnificent work of art, a sublime song, a loved story. She knows the beginning and end of things and exists in a beautiful limbo. Tanroa both exists in and above the moment. She is both the river of time and hovering above the current, knowing where it has been, will go and will end.

As a lover of the story of the world, Tanroa will occasionally insert herself to save it, or to add a brief line to beautify it. One of her methods of doing so is the gift of her gnosis. None can earn or beg a positive gnosis of Tanroa. She arrives and gives them when it suits her ends. Her moments of intervention start and end with the granting of her gnosis.

Former Mechanics and the Change

To be graced by the presence of a goddess as powerful as Tanroa is a dramatically life altering event yet to be marked by her reaches even further into one’s very soul. For untold centuries, less than the time taken up by a single breath in Tanroa’s eyes, she graced the worthy with her mark in a certain way. In the past, Tanroa would place her hands over the follower’s eyes and breathe a word that had no recognizable sound or distinction. It was a word of pure meaning, too full for the recipient to completely understand. Those who received positive marks analogized the experience to submerging in water but remaining dry. Those who had been marked negatively described it like a wind passing through them, taking something of themselves with it.

Negative gnosis activated and influenced the marked one with little warning. The negative marks obliterated memory upon being given, and would continue to rearrange the bearer's conception of time. If lucidity was recaptured, it came in the evening only to vanish come morning.

A positive gnosis was activated through rituals involving moving water. As a blessed one progressed, the rituals grew less complex and particular. This was because the physical objects were symbolic of what the marked ones had yet to understand. Literal acts gave the mind some foothold in the complicated realm of Tanroa's river. To a person observing the ritual, the marked one simply vanished, leaving their clothes behind.

Once the rituals were performed, the blessed one entered an allegory of time created by Tanroa. Since only Tanroa can see and know the true shape of time, the marked ones had to deal with this antechamber of sorts. Their actions within this allegory were given real weight by the goddess, though. Tanroa's antechamber seems a world in itself, but it is only a symbol of what mortals could not fathom.

It wasn’t until the Djed Storm of 512 AV that Tanroa chose to alter her own gnosis. Why she chose to do so is unknown to all including the rest of Mizahar’s Divine Pantheon. Rumors among some Treavers was that Ivak’s release caused a strange ripple in the river of time that may have influenced Tanroa’s decision to alter her mark though such rumors are just that, rumors. The changes however were great. The Antechamber of Tanroa, the divine construct that Treavers once used to access the river of time, was essentially closed. The rites and rituals used to enter the Antechamber no longer worked. While the Treavers at the time retained their mark, they could not activate its power. However, while the mark could not activate, the Treavers could still feel their patron’s presence through it. This all occurred the day of Ivak’s release. The next day, the mark’s power returned with a much different form.

Current Mechanics

With the antechamber now closed to them, the Treavers quickly discovered the new nature of their mark. Instead of a vast space with no known edges, shrouded in mist and dangerous which was the Antechamber, the power of Tanroa’s mark was more personalized and centered on the Treavers themselves. For some this was difficult to reconcile yet for others it made perfect sense. Tanroa’s intervention in the mortal realm was done through her Treavers so it made sense that her blessings would be focused through them.

In order to activate the power of their mark, a Treaver must enter a body of water of some significant size. This could be a pond, large stream, river, lake or even an ocean. While the size must be larger than your average creek, any larger than that has no effect on the end result.

Before entering the body of water it is important for the Treaver to become familiar with the surrounding area. This could mean walking the banks of the river or stream for several yards on both sides or walking all the way around a pond or several yards in both directions around a lake, noting any major landmarks and taking in as much detail as possible. Picking up stones, touching trees and tracing the bark with a finger, breathing the air and tasting the water, basically becoming familiar with the immediate area is essential before activating the mark.

When the Treaver feels they are at least moderately familiar with the nearby area surrounding the body of water, they can walk and/or wade out into the center of the lake, stream, river, etc. Then, closing their eyes, they allow their thoughts to remember the various details of the area they just spent time familiarizing themselves with. As they recall these details, they will then imagine what those details may have looked like a season ago, then maybe two seasons ago followed by a year ago. Meditation is VERY important in the process as the Treaver must focus on one specific object or feature and then imagine what it may have looked like in the past starting with a short time before and progressing further back. Unlike Treaver before the Djed Storm of 512, Tanroa now only allows contact with the past since knowing the future has the potential of destroying the present even more so than knowing the past. While the future was once accessible through Treavery, the loss of the Antechamber restricts Treavers only to the past. Through knowledge of the past, Treavers can cause small changes to the present that may affect the future.

Negative marks given by Tanroa cause the cursed to become mentally lost in the past. The severity of the curse depends on the number of negative marks and begins with the individual mixing up things that they've experienced, seen or heard in the present with those things experienced in the past. With two negative marks, the individual will lose all sense of time; days slip away like seconds and seconds can feel like days. The individual will simply shutdown mentally for long periods of time. When they are aware again, days will have passed with the person remembering nothing of what transpired during that time. Three negative marks regresses the individual's mental capacity to that of a young child; any time that has passed since they were a child is forgotten. There are none known to have ever acquired 4 negative marks from Tanroa as three marks are sufficient to eliminate the individual as any sort of threat.

Time’s Anchor

Eventually, the focused meditation begins to blur as Treavery takes effect. To any who would be watching in the present, the Treaver is engulfed by an orb of water that rises up from whatever body it was a part of. This orb is known to Treavers as Time’s Anchor. The Treaver cannot be seen through the water flowing and waving throughout the surface of the Anchor. On the surface of the body of water where the Anchor is located, ripples consistently yet gently emanate from outward.

The anchor surrounds the Treaver yet leaves an arm’s width between the water and the Treaver. That space is empty. Looking to the inside surface of the anchor, the Treaver sees can only make out limited details depending on how many marks they possess. However, those things that they see, slowly at first then increasing in speed, began to age in reverse. The Treaver looking into the surrounding anchor will see a full-grown tree reverse age to a sapling and then a seed. They will see a corpse of a fish washed up on a river bank return to life and slip back into the water. With only a single mark, the Treaver will only see one or two details of their surroundings reverse age. However, as one marked by Tanroa, they have a supernatural sense of time which allows them to know exactly how far into the past they are seeing things. When they have witnessed the moment where the object or feature no longer exists in the physical area where the Treaver is located (line of physical sight), they lose touch of the subject. Treavery’s power however does not stop with viewing one or two features of their surroundings in reverse.

The first-marked Treaver, while surrounded by the anchor and in the grasp of their activated gnosis, is swept up in the river of time and carried up-stream. They are basically sent back into the past. Their sense of time tells them just how far back they’ve traveled and grants them the ability to stop anywhere within the limits their mark sets upon them. For example, a first-marked Treaver can travel up to 25 years into the past, a two-marked Treaver can travel 100 years into the past while a priest(ess) can travel 500 years into the past. The Champion of Tanroa can travel up to 1,000 years into the past.

While embraced by the anchor, the Treaver can catch blurry glimpses of the surroundings outside the anchor as they travel backward in time. If they choose to stop themselves in the “river’s flow” they simply will themselves to cease travel. The water of the anchor will simply fall away leaving the Treaver in the same place they were when they activated their mark yet some time in the past. If the body of water they started in does not exist in the past, they would appear standing on whatever ground existed then. Tanroa, realizing the potential for catastrophic consequences resulting from changing the past, restricts the ability of the Treavers to alter it.

First Mark Details

The first-marked Treaver cannot be seen by anyone in the past they have traveled to. They cannot interact with any physical objects or structures (this means not being able to enter closed doors as they are closed; the Treaver is not ethereal). They are basically little more than observers of the past. They can only watch, listen and learn. Taste and touch do not exist. Their time spent in the past is also limited. They may only spend 6 hours in the past, an improvement upon Treavery’s previous form, yet still can’t interact with the realm around them. Also, the Treaver at this point cannot travel more than 1 mile from the point they entered the past.

Second Mark Details

The second-marked Treaver gains a greater grasp of time and can focus on more than one or two features aging outside the anchor. They can see the entire area within their line of sight age backwards until it no longer exists within that line of sight or up to the maximum travel backwards that Tanroa allows. This gives them a clear view of events taking place as they gaze upon the inside surface of the anchor although they can only see and hear their surroundings not smell, taste or feel them. When they arrive at the point in the past that they wish, they become a bit more than simple observers. They can be seen by the “natives” of that time period. They can manipulate inanimate objects; doors can be opened, curtains can be pulled aside and some senses other than sight and sound can experienced. Food can actually be tasted, scents can be smelled and the feeling of touch is there.

While the Treaver can interact with the past with greater ease, they find that any attempts to change time’s flow will fail. With only two marks, the Treaver still cannot physically interact with living and/or sentient beings. They can engage in conversation with the natives but attempts to make physical contact fail. All attempted physical contact results in the Treaver’s allotted time in the past being immediately reduced to the point that the Treaver only has enough remaining time to barely return to their anchor before becoming lost in the past. More indirect methods such as trying to deceive others into harming themselves or somehow leading someone into danger would also fail. The limits placed upon the Treaver by Tanroa ensure that Time will correct itself one way or another. For example, the native(s) the Treaver attempted to influence may simply forget what was said just moments before or the Treaver’s words may sound like complete incomprehensible gibberish. Also, attempts to use inanimate objects to harm a native will also reduce the Treaver’s time that they can remain in the past. The Treaver can remain in the past up to six days and can travel up to 50 miles from the point they entered the past.

Third Mark Details

The priest(ess) of Tanroa becomes intimately familiar with the concept of time as it relates to the past. While inside the anchor, they can focus on the entire area within their line of sight as the anchor takes them into the past but can also hone in on changes in smells, tastes and sounds. When they arrive at the point in the past that they wish, they are able to physically interact with more than just inanimate objects to include living and/or sentient beings. They can interact with their environment in every way they are normally capable of. Small changes to the past may be possible however to attempt drastic change in the past will result in the Treaver becoming caught in the undertow of the past and drown. Basically they would cease to exist. Thus interactions with the past must be limited to the kind that would not cause significant changes to the present. For example, harmless physical contact is possible however attempting to save someone from death or trying to kill someone will result in the Treaver vanishing from existence. While greater freedom is given to the priest(ess), the penalty for breaking Time’s rules is severe. The priest(ess) can interact with anything and everything (see previously mentioned limits) and can remain in the past for an entire season. They can travel up to 500 miles from the point they entered the past and can even bring small objects from the past back to the present. Only a single item, small enough for the Treaver to comfortably carry, can be brought back per journey to the past.

Fourth Mark Details

The champion of Tanroa can travel the river of time into the past with few barriers. They can interact with the past in ways that can actually change the course of history. While the champion could theoretically prevent things such as the Valterrian to happen, Tanroa still governs the use of her gnosis and would not allow such a thing as it would shatter the present reality in a way that even she could not repair. However, other, less significant changes to the past can be performed by the champion without repercussion. Such changes however are almost exclusively done in the name of setting right certain wrongs that for whatever reason, shouldn’t have occurred. The champion can travel up to 1,000 miles from the point they entered the past and can bring small objects back with them. Only a single item, small enough to comfortably carry, can be brought back.

Items Taken To or From the Past

When the Treaver chooses to travel into the past, they must do so without any of the trappings of the present. Clothing, weapons, tools, jewelry, items of any sort cannot be taken into the past; the Treaver travels naked. While this may bring about some awkward encounters in the past, it is another limit placed by Tanroa to ensure that the past is not overly affected by the Treaver’s presence.

For those with enough marks to bring items to the present from the past, said items must not be larger than the Treaver can comfortably carry. Keep in mind that the Treaver must return to their anchor which is almost always in a body of water. Heavy items would cause them to sink. Also, magically charged items such as those crafted from Malediction, Magecraft or other form of magical enchantment can become potentially unstable during the journey. The greater the enchantments the more unstable the item becomes. For this reason, only objects possessing L1 or L2 enchantments can be brought back to the present. Item acquisition must still follow the same rules as any other.

Sandmen

Treavers with one or two marks must return to the exact point that they entered the past before the limit on their time spent in the past is reached. A priest(ess) or the champion may find another body of water to use for their return to the present as long as it exists within their area of influence.

If a Treaver outstays their allotted time in the past, Sandmen appear. Sandmen are beings created from Treavers who have abused their marks in order to bring great change to the past. When a Treaver is unable or unwilling to return to their anchor before their allotted time runs out, a Sandman appears nearby and will forcibly and painfully rip the Treaver back to the present. The Sandman is considered ethereal to everything in the past thus they cannot harm or affect anything there. They cannot be sensed in any way by the natives of the past. Only the offending Treaver can see the Sandman and interact with it. The Sandman is a merciless, mindless being that can’t be harmed by the Treaver. Running and hiding from a Sandman also doesn’t work since there is no obstacle that can deter or detain it.

While pursuing the Treaver, they may be temporarily outrun, but they cannot be fought or injured. To be touched by a Sandman is to be dragged to the nearest body of water and drowned. Some Treavers survive the drowning and awaken in their original time, weakened and warned. Others awaken in Lhex's waiting room.

Appearance

To see the flow of time.

The positive gnosis is unique in its location and appearance. It is a faint circle that rings the iris in a starry blue that flares when activated, the circle deepens and flourishes with every progression. Creatures without pupils have a star like point of blue light recessed into their eyes. The gnosis is not easy to spot, it is usually caught when one turns a certain way into the light.

Tanroa's negative gnosis can be a blessing or curse. For those with a painful past, it can bring new lightness and peace, but those who would rather recall the years before and the hours at hand it is a hollowing thing. When Tanroa bestows the mark, the recipient begins to weep white tears and their eyes and hair begin to lose color.

Final Notes

Becoming a Treaver is not an easy thing. Tanroa does not grant her gnosis to those who possess the intent to do harm to the past in order to shape the present. While Tanroa has removed the Treaver's ability to travel to the future, she is of course not restricted. If one were to become marked and then attempt to do harm to the past, Tanroa is already aware of it and would ensure that they fail. Thus, while those who may otherwise be considered as having questionable morals may become marked by Tanroa, it is usually because she sees what knowledge of the past may do to change the person's outlook. This is normally done if Tanroa has seen some greater potential in the person.

Tanroa allows Treavers to travel into the past primarily as observers. The idea is that the Treavers can use the knowledge they gain in the past to keep the River of Time flowing smoothly into the present and future. Knowledge itself, is not Tanroa's domain thus what a Treaver does with what they learn in the past is up to the Treaver. A wise Treaver will however use their knowledge in a way that fits with Tanroa's wishes.

Attempting to contact one's own family or even one's self in the past can cause terrible results. Time normally allows for only one instance of any particular person, place or thing at any given point. For two of the same things to exist in the same place at the same time, the risk of a Sandman appearing is increased a hundred-fold. Yet another way Tanroa keeps Time flowing smoothly.

It is a divinely rare occurrence that a deity of Tanroa's rank (Rank 1) grants a gnosis to lesser beings. There is a part of her that sees this gnosis as a blessing beyond blessings. She views abuse of this blessing as an insult. Insulting a Rank 1 Deity carries consequences that no being can ever comprehend on any level.

Mark Progression

Out of character note: This is an incredibly rare gnosis, not to be granted in a starting package or just because a PC shows interest. Treavery is a gnosis that ought to be granted to experienced players who will not abuse the privilege.

Mark acquisition threads

First mark
	A Window To The Past	First mark acquisition for Malia.
	Tick Tock, Tick Tock	First mark acquisition for Matthew.