(APOTHEOSIS - “TO MAKE A GOD OF”)
“IF THE WORLD IS A GAME WHOSE RULES ARE WRITTEN BY THE GODHEAD,
AND SORCERERS ARE THOSE WHO CHEAT AND CHEAT,
THEN WHO HAS WRITTEN THE RULES OF SORCERY?”
Hymnal-Saint Apotheon: Saint of Sorcery, Eagles, and Prophetic Visions.
Aliases: Aspect of Garuda, Master of Idolum, the Immaculate One, the Yellow Sage Chrysofteros.
Symbols: Yellow cloaks, eagles, gold wings, thaumaturgy wounds, flesh-ligatured words.
Worship: Seek the hidden truth in all things, allow nothing to escape you; mind the past to understand the future; become godlike through your collected experience.
Dwelling: The Houses of Wisdom in Ansium, Marathas.
Equivalents: Garuda (Marathan/Mazzaroth), Chrysofteros (Ansium).
The Hymnal-Saint Apotheon is unique among the Hymnaries for his undeniably ancient origins. Although the Orthian Concord would never admit it, records of the sage in yellow date back to the earliest days of the Marathan Empire. The schoolmen of Ansium claim to have discovered Apotheon in tablets salvaged from the razing of Ensas, who referred to a dual-natured god of poetry who embodied both whimsy and wisdom. He is worshipped in Marathas to this day as a human incarnation of Garuda—known as Chrysofteros, or the Gold-winged—who mentors Kutuhali and the legions of man. In Lagain, the image of Chrysofteros was introduced to the Gailian tribes from trade along the Kingsroad, a prominent Marathan trade route, who integrated him into their shamanistic pantheons. When the Orthian Concord set about revising history, Chrysofteros became the Hymnal-Saint Apotheon: immaculately conceived son of two Exalts, Patefact and Amino, born through means only gods understand.
Apotheon, as Chrysofteros, still holds significant sway within the Marathan heartlands and Ansium. In the Houses of Wisdom—Ansium’s greatest academic institutions—he is entreated for inspiration and insights by an order of schoolmen known as the Yellow Mages. These sorcerers have committed to expanding the reach of their school across the globe through an advanced spy network, and they regularly collaborate with cults in order to undermine the other schools and prevent what they see as the misuse of magic for selfish means; a mission they have held since the fall of the Marathan Empire.
Despite seeming like an obvious contradiction to their stated goal, a large number of Thaumaturgists work alongside the Yellow Mage Theurgists. Despite reinterpretation across cultures, his depiction remains remarkably consistent: a stern elderly man swaddled in robes of resplendent gold, cradling the sun in hands festooned by ribbons and bangles. Some believe this to be symbolic of wounds taken through the practice of Thaumaturgy, and so he is looked to as an example among some sorcerers tracing the history of self-deification throughout the ages.
Acts of Favor
- A collection of jumbled notes, unorganized thoughts, journals (1 Favor)
- A novella, a book of poetry, or a song transcribed (3 Favor)
- A tome of Bulk (1) or higher, containing valuable insights (5 Favor)
- An original literary work, thesis, or treatise signed by the author (10 Favor)
Invocations
Ex Hypothesi Complexity: 1 Favor: 1 Range: Touch Duration: Persist (1) AP: 1 Effect: You open a target’s mind to grander insights, allowing them to use your Willpower score in place of their own if they would roll for a Skill which you possess.
Immunitas Complexity: 2 Favor: (#) Range: Paces (5) Duration: Persist (1) AP: 2 Effect: Spells with a Mana or Favor cost equal to or lower than the Favor (#) expended cannot affect the target for the duration.
Ars Notoria Complexity: 3 Favor: 8 Range: Touch Duration: Until next rest AP: 3 Effect: You may cast this spell as part of the Triage a wound rest action. When you do so, you may create a temporary Scar by engraving sigils onto a target. When you do so, pick one sigil from the Sigil Table. A target cannot have more than one sigil at a time, and the Scar fades completely after resting.
| Sigil | Boons |
|---|---|
| Sigil of Zvan | Gain +1 Dexterity. |
| Sigil of Varasha | Gain +1 Strength. |
| Sigil of Garuda | Gain +1 Willpower. |
| Sigil of Sundra | Gain +1 DR to all damage types. |
| Sigil of Ista | Gain +1 Maximum AP. |
Causa Verior Complexity: 4 Favor: (#) Range: Paces (5) Duration: Persist (1) AP: 3 Effect: For the duration, all spells cast within range cost (#) less Mana or Favor, to a maximum of half their minimum cost. This does not affect additional casts of Causa Verior.
Dénouement Complexity: 5 Favor: 20 Range: Self Duration: 1 week AP: 5 Effect: Visions haunt you in your waking hours, pursuing you into sleep. You gain the Night Terrors flaw for the duration; if you already had it, you only recover a quarter of your Fatigue when resting. These visions grant you supernatural insights into ongoing world events, although not all of them will be relevant or comprehensible to you.