Ranuri
From Mizahar Lore
| "She wore her chains like glittering jewelry, her eyes eager and willing. Every move calculated; every glance assessing. She was worth her weight in Mizas or more so, and every man in the room knew it. It was not because of her beauty, though she was pretty enough. It was because of Nikali’s Mark on her breast and the Ranuri it gave her. She would make anyone’s dream come true, assuming it as her own." - Ikoan Sikin, Slave Monger of Ravok |
| Gnosis | |
 I see your needs. I want to fulfill them. I need to fulfill them. | |
| Granted by | Nikali |
|---|---|
| Positive marks | Identification of pleasure and other needs |
| Negative marks | Inability to feel pleasure. |
| Pos. mark appearance | Scarlet of Wine Stain Usually in the Shape of a Chain |
| Neg. mark appearance | Grey or Sepia Chain Links |
| Mark location | Breast, Buttock, or near Pubic Area |
| First mark | Any Age after Puberty |
| Champion | None |
Ranuri is the gnosis that Nikali grants her followers (which are usually slaves, prostitutes, and companions) which allows them to easily identify and expand upon the needs or desires of those they serve. In exchange, those external needs become their own so that in identifying and providing what others require, the followers of Nikali in return receive the same pleasure they give out. The needs of others can encompass anything, because people and their pleasures are widely diverse. However, Nikali’s followers that are gifted with Ranuri often find themselves terribly addicted to providing for these needs and often have little or no control over the ability to say no. Ranuri is a dark and dangerous gift, one fraught with addiction and the mindless acceptance of other’s needs as ones own.
Because Nikali’s servants are incredibly skilled at being whatever their owners or customers want, they are highly sought after and prized. Selling for thousands of Mizas, when these people are slaves, they are given the best treatment, kept well fed, and often cherished by their owners and patrons.
The Breakdown
Nikali is the dark side of sensual pleasure and addiction. She is everything her twin sister Cheva (the goddess of love) is not. While not always about sex, Ranuri is easily and usually applied towards such uses. Ranuri (a word in the ancient tongue that means need, desire or addiction) offers those that are thusly marked an unusual insight into the needs and desires of others. If a person desires strong wine, a Nikali follower bearing her marks will be well able to identify this need and will feel compelled to provide the drink for the person. As they move up the ranks in terms of marks, they will be able to clearly identify what type, vintage, and amount that person will find the most pleasure in, even if the individual themselves has no idea exactly. Ranuri bearers make excellent body slaves – providing bathing, massages, and dressing services. They make particularly good companions for the interests and hobbies of those they are with often become their own.
Someone marked and gifted with Ranuri, when viewed by an outsider not interested in exploiting them, is often seen as horribly cursed. They were the stigma of the mark for all their life, because once Nikali marks someone, she rarely changes her mind.
There is a qualifier, however. Nikali is the Goddess of servants and slaves. So whenever a Ranuri bearer is owned or attached, their compulsion to serve becomes more narrowly focused and they loose the overwhelming desire to provide for everyone’s needs. Thus, bearing a Ranuri means that being a free agent that is completely unattached has a significant negative side in that the gnosis bearer will desire to please everyone around them no matter what their relationship to them is. It is also fairly hard to hide the fact one is marked by Nikali. Ranuri gifts also give the bearer of the marks certain allure and appeal. People tend to trust them, open up to them, and spill secrets far more easily than they normally would. For this reason, Nikali followers also make excellent spies and are easily planted (by opposing factions) into organizations or households that might contain sensitive information.
The Ranuri often find the word ‘No’ impossible. When they are under the influence of their mark or marks, there is no such thing as revulsion or distaste in their experience. They are who they are, and in the slave’s case, if they had not been marked by Nikali, their lives would have long been forfeit to Dira. Many men and women, especially those gifted in a multitude of skills or beauty, have been saved by Nikali playing her hand.
This compulsion at times can be controlled, but there are circumstances where the Ranuri will have no choice but to serve. This is due to the fact that the needs of those outside of the mark bearer become the needs of the mark bearer themselves. Thus, it by and large extremely important that a Ranuri be owned (though ownership can change frequently) or otherwise attached to someone, for their life as a free person will be extremely difficult as their mark or marks drive them to more and more addictive behavior. Such attachments can be anywhere from marriage, ownership, to even an oath of fidelity to a liege lord or another God/dess. This ownership, however, can put the owners at extreme risk for death if the Ranuri is discovered since they are often coveted and claimed for their extreme value.
Being Marked
Nikali will almost never mark someone who is free and happy. She is notorious for picking out individuals in the direst of circumstances and then granting them her gnosis in order to elevate them up to a higher status. She seems to only favor those with extreme personality traits or those that have physical characteristics that are all but flawless. Nikali rarely if ever grants more than two gnosis marks. Times would have to be extraordinary and disastrous in order for Nikali to grant a third or fourth gnosis. It is said that leaders directly after the Valterrian were often marked with third gnosis marks from Nikali in order to aid society in surviving. These granted Ranuri allowed certain leaders to see the broader picture and the whole of their followers needs in order to smooth over the transition from decadent to survival living; saving hundreds of lives and paving the way for society to go underground and find new ways to see to their day to day needs.
She never grants marks to those that appeal to her asking for this honor. And she never, ever, marks children or those with meek or feeble minds. Without exception, those Nikali favors with Ranuri are adults, normally highly intelligent, and most especially otherwise gifted.
Mark Progression
| Marked [Cursed] - 1 Gnosis Mark | |
| A person marked by Nikali is granted the first level of Ranuri. It gives them a unique appeal that people (of either sex) are drawn to inexplicably. They tend to be trusted more easily than others would be. People find them good listeners, while they have the ability to pick out the actual ‘trouble’ when someone confides a problem to them.
A Ranuri who is marked is restricted to providing for the needs of one individual at a time. Their gift, Ranuri, allows them to have a sense what the other person needs are regardless of what sort of need it is. This can be something as simple as a few hours of helping an elderly woman plant her spring flowers to knowing exactly what a partner’s preference is in a physical relationship. Ranuri have a knack for being excellent salesmen because they tend to know immediately upon a handshake what a customer is looking for (whether the customer knows it or not). And they have a knack for making mutually profitable trades and arrangements of all kinds. At this level, Ranuri only works when the mark bearer is in direct contact with the person who’s needs they seek to know. Casual contact, such as being brushed accidentally in a crowded market can be agony to a Ranuri. Cursed Ranuri find no pleasure in fulfilling the wishes of others. | |
| Favored [Despised] - 2 Gnosis Marks | |
| Favored Ranuri have taken their instinctual knowledge to a new level. They no longer need to touch the person to understand their needs. If they identify, for example, someone’s need for chocolate – not only can they tell what type of chocolate, what form, and in what quantity their patron or owner will require – but they assume that need for themselves as well. They are compelled heavily to provide that chocolate for the other person, and desire it for themselves as well. At this level, the Ranuri starts to loose their sense of ‘self’ and start to grow confused as to what their own core needs are because the needs of their owners, partners, etc have begin to eclipse their own.
The Ranuri who are favored are still restricted to serving small groups at a time. They can sometimes turn off this ability to feel the needs of others, but not for longer than a few hours at a time. Dispised Ranuri have a hard time finding pleasure in life at all. Food might nourish them but will never taste satisfying. Water will keep them alive, but their thirst will never be quenched. They tend to need the inexplicable with a fierceness that causes deep and profound suffering within them. | |
| Priest/Priestess [Adversary] - 3 Gnosis Marks | |
| At this level, the Ranuri has definitely become a priest or priestess of Nikali. And accordingly, their gnosis ability has broadened out. They begin to expand their views, making their Ranuri well able to start identifying the needs of things that are less associated with individuals and more associated with groups. Still focused around pleasure and servitude, at these higher levels, Ranuri can begin to unravel the needs of the whole of a group. For example, a Ranuri can easily move into a market area and clearly see the best way to arrange the booths so that crowds and traffic flow move far more smoothly and comfortable through the market. They can, for example, peer into the kitchen of a busy tavern and study the cooks and helpers for a few minutes and can easily recommend changes to make their jobs easier both physically and mentally – perhaps by rearranging workstations, counter heights, or floor surfaces where people stand long periods of time and get sore feet.
The Ranuri, at this level, are able to control their need to serve to a far greater extent. They can more actively turn it off and on for upwards of a day or so, though they still have a hard time defining their needs over the needs of others. Ranuri are still interested in individuals, but their gifts at this stage are far more expansive. And much like at fewer marks, priests and priestesses of Nikali are compelled to serve larger and larger groups. It is for this reason that there are very few third marked individuals. If one was to achieve this status, they would most likely be serving as a high advisor or city planner. There are no Adversaries of Nikali. People thusly marked have long since found release from their suffering through death. | |
| Champion [Nemesis] - 4 Gnosis Marks | |
| Forth marked Champions of Nikali are truly impressive individuals. They are unrivaled in their ability to identify both individual and group needs.
(More to come)
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