Supernatural Power Data Files: Curse Magic

Supernatural Power Data Files: Curse Magic

Power Details: Unfortunately, most of what we know about curse magic is merely conjecture based upon rumours and stories, as well as the creations left behind. Though some ‘curses’ remained possible until the late seventeenth century, the truly terrible curses – vampirism, lycanthropy, killing curses – have not been possible since the eighth.

            Normal curses are simply that – curses as one would expect them to be. Souring the milk of a cow, inflicting bad luck upon someone, altering people’s feelings, making someone go bald. Simple curses that only afflict one person and have no strange affects. Despite their relative simplicity, casting such a curse required much expertise even in the heyday of curse magic.

            The stronger versions of these curses – death, famine, plagues (seemingly caused by weakening the immune systems of those to be afflicted) and other terrible things – were only possible between roughly five hundred B.C. through to eight hundred A.D. Though their effects were far greater, they were scarcely different in construction or activity than the others.

            Persistent curses – those that plagued families through multiple generations – were the only major type of curses for a long time. These curses inflicted similar effects (though except in rare circumstance, only minor ones) to not only one individual, but also their children and sometimes other members of their family. Notably, lack of evidence means that most or all of these curses could merely have been inherited genetic disorders or diseases. Conversely, it has been suggested that some of these diseases and disorders were created by curses.

            The curse-smiths (a historical group examined in greater detail in the following History and Theories section) were the only group known to perform the other major forms of curses – those causing vampirism, lycanthropy, and other terrible states. They explored the possibilities of curse magic and, it seems, found them to be almost limitless.

History and Theories: Although a lot of hearsay exists, we have been unable to find any evidence of the curse-smiths (and even most curses) beyond stories passed down through the supernatural community. These stories do, at least, seem to match up with historical record.

            In the middle of the ‘strong’ curse period, at around two hundred A.D. the curse-smiths emerged. This group (likely a clan or tribe, given the era, though possibly drawing on those with great mastery of curses from all over Afro-Eurasia) experimented with curses in ways never thought of before, and with skill never seen before or since. Their aim, it is said, was to gain immortality.

            Their first experiments led to the Ayn’Sca’Raer – a broken curse that afflicts random individuals all over the world. This curse was the first designed to alter human beings, with the intent to make the curse-smiths, and their descendants, immortal. It was a failure.

            This failure led the curse-smiths in darker directions. After early experiments led to great transformations and terrible creatures, they began to work on creating both immortal, powerful creatures for themselves to become and on servants, to serve them eternally.

            Some of their experiments exist today – beast and imp vampires, as well as lycanthropes. Their twin successes – ordinary and aristocrat vampires, the servants and the masters – also exist. How curse magic could be weaved so finely, and create such terrible beings, is unknown.

            We are also unsure of what happened to the curse-smiths. Most likely, those that survived the purges carried out by the holy orders turned themselves into aristocrats and were later slain – severing the direct link to those times that would have fully explained their art. It is also possible that some creation – or curse – gone wrong wiped them out entirely.

            Since those times, only minor curses have been performed, and only one or two of those have been successful after the seventeenth century. Strangely, rumours of successful curses – often performed by neo-pagan groups – have begun circulating since the mid-twentieth century. Unfortunately, we have not been able to confirm any of these claims (though only a handful have been investigated). The return of curses to the world, while potentially troublesome, would only become problematic should a new group of curse-smiths rise.

            Beyond the curse-smiths, only small groups who work with curses – often called witches by the holy orders – have ever existed. Only a few of these groups likely understood their abilities, and fewer still did much beyond the simplest of curses.

            Our best theory about the source of curse magic is that it (along with holy magic, and possibly our own abilities) comes from the ‘life’ within human beings. This is supported by the interaction between curse magic and necromancy (if our suspicions about necromancy are correct). Necromantic energy fights with curses, and if it is powerful enough, is able to kill cursed entities. This destruction cannot, however, raise the body of the cursed being – it seems to empty them of all life completely instead. This means that the necromantic energy needed to raise a cursed being is greater than that required to ‘raise’ something that has never actually been alive.