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By Benjami
05/11/2024 - 08:42:07

Type: Captain
Rating: 15 (Good)
Tags: gaprop

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Description

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Once the challenge is completed, the power of the ritual is granted to the soul, allowing the xocal to harness their new ability. While the use of these powers falls under the Mysian Principle, as the xocals use their own souls as fuel for their ritual abilities, the practice of Soul Rites is actually a form of mass Patronic Principle. Each soul of a xocal is connected in a unique way so that whenever one soul completes a ritual challenge, all the other souls instantly and automatically validate the feat and redistribute a drop of their shared power to the soul as a reward.

Such a species-wide Patronic connection is typically only seen between gods and their chosen peoples. Xocals, however, have over time developed one organically, and mostly unintentionally. The Herbs xocals used back before Xocal?Inac was founded are not the same ones that xocals use today; they have been selectively bred for mutations that more keenly connect xocals with each other. This search for unity has had many effects on the species as a whole, such as establishing a genetic loyalty to the institution of the Queendom, as well as over generations building a network of souls, both of the living and the dead, that serves to strengthen each individual.

This network of souls is sometimes referred to as the Unoo?o, a remnant of the old keild language meaning ?gestalt soul?. But while Unoo?o may have developed naturally, the Soul Rites themselves didn?t. It has typically been the work of communers, xocals who undergo a Soul Rite that allows communion with the Unoo?o, to create new rituals to be shared with other xocals. The tricky part is that rituals are not created from one?s whims, they need to have a precedent in the Unoo?o. In each xocal soul, there exists a record of all the deeds one has made. It is these records the communers search for feats that may serve as a base for new Soul Rites.

Once a suitable feat has been found, it is proposed to the Unoo?o, where the collective network of souls evaluates it based on multiple parameters such as the cost, benefit and worth. The more Soul Rites and knights who have completed them there are, the more diluted the reserves of the Unoo?o become, so the decision is not made lightly. If the proposal is accepted, the communer will be allowed to transcribe it and share it with their Court or Order.

The power that is granted by the ritual is determined by the Unoo?o, usually matching the feat upon which the ritual is based, as well as the personal might of the knight that originally performed it. For example, the one who originally withstood a lightning strike was but a common knight, but the lesson of the usefulness of electricity was approved by the Unoo?o, and thus the Rite of Ionisation came to be. Feats of the greater knights make for powerful and challenging rituals, as such power can?t be given to the undeserving. Stories say that feats of the original Band of Xoc have been immortalised as legendary Soul Rites, with only very few ever managing to complete their challenges.

The inner workings of the Unoo?o are mostly a mystery to all but the communers, who only pass the Soul Rites of their trade to the whelps they choose to inherit them. To the rest, one?s relationship to the Unoo?o varies greatly from knight to knight. To some, it might as well not exist, only serving as the source of the power they gain from rituals. To others, it may be more personal, like a presence watching over them and providing guidance.

It is a common belief that when a xocal dies, their soul becomes a permanent part of the Unoo?o, forever providing strength to future knights, thus eternally serving the Code of Xocal. However, should a knight break the code, they might be cast out of the Unoo?o, becoming an errant spirit, perhaps the greatest dishonour a xocal could suffer.

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