Conceived and penned by Bah-Nas, head scribe of the Museum of Antiquities, former Museum Council Seat

While the mysteries surrounding the existence of Aspects and their goals has been--and will, with all likelihood, continue to be--vigorously debated, there can be no doubt that the ris they have chosen to bestow upon us follows surprisingly fixed patterns. The question of whether this immutable nature is by design I will leave to theologians and their ilk. Instead, this treatise will discuss what is known, observable, and most importantly for any logician of a rational bent, provable.

To those aspiring young tyros who wish to know nothing more than the combative qualities associated with each type of ris, you can find that information enumerated at the very end of this scroll. However, a more robust understanding of that which you are relying on to survive in battle will certainly benefit you and the same holds true for any individual who wishes to cultivate their personal knowledge.

History

Many believe that what is commonly known now will remain that way in perpetuity, but if history and the keeping of it has taught us anything it is that information is a delicate commodity, easily misplaced, or even worse, lost. For that reason, while I shall endeavor to be concise, I will not make the mistake of assuming you possess the same awareness that we currently take for granted.

The name

Ris is the word given to the power that the divine Aspects give to those who sacrifice to them--power that takes the form of tattoos upon the flesh, the color and shape of which vary depending on the type of Aspect that has honored you. The beginnings of the term are unclear, but each major hub of civilization has laid claims to its origin. Perhaps if the aquaros unlocked their underwater vault of etched shells or the fairies brought their sacred branches down from on high we might better deduce who chose the term in truth, but since none are forthcoming with their aged evidence, we must rely upon our own Antiquities and the great store of scrolls it contains, beginning with Trials--a delicate document of crosshatched papyrus that details a keshe’s struggles to survive. In it, we learn of Dahms, who met a small being of Gold on the mountain where Lercel now stands and discovered that in exchange for the actual gold that could be exhumed from the rock, the creature would grant him power. Apparently at that time a type of ink dying was used for marriage called rin, and so Dahms called what the Aspect gave him ris, a marriage of the divine and the flesh, the s in place of the n for the shining stone that served as the catalyst.

The exchange

The essence of ris, the very way it is received, is based on a simple concept that civilization itself is built upon: the trading of resources. We give the Aspects what they wish, an object that resonates with their being, and for that they give us a portion of their power. So tied to the nature of Aspects are the things we sacrifice to them, their names are synonymous for the Aspect to which they refer:

* Tears for Tears, whether from sadness or joy.

* Blood for Blood, whether animal or the true races.

* Gold for Gold, the purer the better.

* Life for Life, such as seeds, or more powerful, the newly born.

* Death for Death, such as wilting vegetation or the freshly deceased.

These oblations used to be given by anyone at any time, but in Lercel at least, rules and restrictions were devised to ensure that a sacrifice given was one the bearer had rights to. Also, to avoid overmining, the oversaturation of the higher ranks, or an individual gaining power that is beyond them, one must be approved to earn any Seal, even the first.

The Seals

Though it is possible for a person to only have the barest amount of ris on their body, what most desire is to have a full Seal. This is because, while some benefits are available to the user without, the greatest are attained only with a seal, including the ability to see ris. And the same continues to be the case for the acquisition of additional seals. With all types of ris, from Gold to even Death, the proportion of ris on your body determines the number of seals you have:

* One Seal, the 1st Seal = 20% body coverage.

* Two Seals, the 2nd Seal = 40% body coverage.

* Three Seals, the 3rd Seal = 60% body coverage.

* Four Seals, the 4th Seal = 80% body coverage.

* Five Seals, the 5th Seal = 100% body coverage.

Seals appear along the spine of those who gain them, starting just below the nape of the neck and gradually forming downward. This is the case even if the person chooses to receive ris from different types of Aspects. In this way a ris user's back is akin to the cross section of a tree, telling you the history of what they have sacrificed.

The five truths

Whether one is considering the elegant geometrics of Gold ris or the razor thin, interwoven lines of Death, all ris has shared qualities. Over the years, various names have been given to these traits, and any conversation with record keepers of other tribes will quickly reveal that more exist, but knowing the nature of the subject is more important than the label by which the subject is referred. That said, the below categories are meant to be as easily associative as possible:

Vision - Much to the consternation of those without, the workings of ris can only be seen in their entirety and appreciated by those who possess at least one Seal. Additionally, that Seal must be of the type in use or the individual will be as blind as the rest, noticing only a faint shimmer in air, if that, when ris is expended near them. To those who wonder if having more ris allows one to perceive ris of that type with greater clarity, a few practitioners claim so, but most who have gone through the transition--myself included--say it is simply something unseen and then seen, similar to having one’s eyelids closed when living without a Seal and opened with.

Charge - All types of ris have a clear luster to them when at full strength. For example, blue Tears ris appears wet to the touch, and Gold shines enough to see one’s reflection in. The use of ris, however, diminishes this charge. At first, the tattoos will dull, then fade, and eventually, if enough ris is expended, disappear entirely from the practitioner's flesh. Resting the body, and even mind, will gradually replenish the lost ris. For this reason, proper meditation is an essential part of any warrior’s training. Though likely obvious, it is worth noting that techniques tied to ris cannot be used if there isn’t sufficient charge to generate them. Also, the more ris one has expended, the slower it recuperates, extending the vulnerability of those who do not carefully monitor their use.

Feel - Unlike the difficulties associated with seeing ris, all can feel the use of ris if it is expended close enough to them. Also, the more that is used, the easier it is to detect. The physical sensations associated with each are: Gold - a gentle coolness; Blood - warmth; Life - pinpricks; Tears - raising of hairs; Death - numbness. And, importantly, the same is true for the bearer of said ris. Importantly because this sensation can allow a skilled practitioner to know how much charge they have left simply from a brief analysis of how one’s body feels as opposed to actually looking at one’s flesh, which would be both time consuming and impractical when on the battlefield.

Bodily alteration - The final two universal traits that ris possess are those most often used by philosophers to argue that the Aspects wish to provide us not only tools of survival but also those that allow us to live better. Whether that is true or not, the utility of certain alterations are clear to see, enough so that pregnant mothers of means will often travel to Life to expedite their birth and influential members of other tribes who wish to improve their appearance come to Lercel. Each ris type grants the body the following: Gold - a pristine beauty and musical voice; Blood - resistance to infection and sickness; Life - greater fertility in form and function; Tears - more keenly felt emotions; Death - unknown.

Extra sense - Lastly, users of ris gain an additional perception of their surroundings, usually concerning people, but it can apply to any living thing. Some say this has had a discernible impact on culture, leading cyclops to be more calm and empathetic than their brute size would suggest, for example, or keshe to be more cutthroat in their dealings--and anyone who has visited the bazaar in Lercel during trade season will know the truth of the latter. Users of ris can detect: Gold - physical desires; Blood - injury; Life - birth; Tears - emotion; Death - unknown, but if the pattern follows, the deceased. For both this extra sense and internal alternation, the more ris the user has the more they can perceive and the more they change. However, this also means that a full Seal is not necessary to enjoy some benefit from either.

Usage in war

This section details the abilities that the Seals of different types of ris confer upon their users. Unfortunately, full information is not available about all ris--the tribe of Tears is quite secretive about such things and Death is notoriously hard to study in-depth. Hopefully, future addendums will remedy this. In addition, due to the myriad of possibilities that various combinations of ris create, besides a few mentions of certain pairings, the below will primarily concern itself with the five different Seals of each group.

Gold

1st - With this Seal, the user can move the force they generate from a kick or punch to a distant point. This strike will possess the shape of the action used to produce it, so in most cases a blunt one. The more Gold ris that is expended, the further the strike can travel, and additional ris can be used to amplify the power of the attack, making even a casual flick of the wrist deadly. Many types of attacks and striking styles have been conceived over the generations, and the heads of countless ris schools from the mids to the highs in Lercel will vehemently tell you that theirs is the best.

2nd - This Seal creates a spherical barrier around the user, a few feet from their body. Both physical and ris attacks cannot pass through this shroud unless the user wishes it. Unlike the protective Seals of other ris, this Gold barrier is similar to one’s ability to see ris: it is either there or not. Some say this is Gold’s greatest strength and greatest weakness. Skilled users of the second Seal can feel things that come into contact with their shroud and can even redirect strikes sent at it.

3rd - Using this Seal allows the practitioner to create glyphs of Gold that will linger outside their body and activate under certain conditions. In most cases, these traps (for a better name) store force, and release that force, sometimes to deadly effect, upon those who trigger them. However, some store other things such as a loud noise for an alarm or even vocal messages for a specific recipient. Glyphs must normally be on a physical object, but masters of the Third Seal can place them upon the very air if they wish.

4th - The Fourth Seal grants the user greater control of their Second Seal, allowing them to alter the shape of their shroud. For example, portions of the barrier can be extended to manipulate things, like a second set--or even many sets--of limbs. So, in contrast to the First Seal which creates only a temporary burst of movement at a distant point, the Fourth Seal, though much more restricted in range, can create sustained effects, such as picking up something much heavier than the user could normally lift or, with deft mastery, choking an opponent who ventures too near.

5th - The final Seal of Gold, granted only to the Archon, is a second, much larger barrier. Its size allows the Archon to keep masses of people away from their person should they wish or hover in the air if it is expanded beneath them. They may also trap, or crush, people between their two barriers. One Archon was known for allowing their enemies within their outer barrier and then releasing the power of the First Seal from every pore of their body, obliterating all within. Finally, the manipulative power of the Fourth Seal allows the Archon to use the size of the Fifth Seal to control the gargant--a giant statue made of metal and gold.

Blood

1st - The First Seal of Blood allows the user to draw energy from anyone or anything living that they are in physical contact with. Such practitioners can use this thievery to knock out a healthy adversary in just a few moments. Thankfully, there are no known cases of this leeching touch killing their victim, at least not directly. It is said that these Blooders--as they are called--may also use the draw to take specific sensations or even emotions away from people, such as pain or sorrow, but this requires more study and documentation to verify. Having ris of any type provides some protection against the First Seal of Blood. This is because when a Blooder takes from someone, they will take the charge of ris first, giving the victim a chance to react. However, once that charge is lost, the Blooder can continue to pull at the ris, eventually taking it onto their own body if they are allowed to remain in contact long enough. For these reasons, it goes without saying that one should never let a Blooder in close, and the gifts of the Seals of Gold provide you with the precise tools to keep them out. Lastly, at higher levels the user can destroy the ris that they absorb.

2nd - Instead of a protective field, the Second Seal of Blood grants the user regenerative qualities. Wounds that would be fatal to a regular soldier can be shrugged off by a Blood user depending on the amount of Blood ris, charge, and control they have. It is a small consolation that these Blooders still feel the pain of the injuries that are inflicted upon them, but what truly matters is that any damage is momentarily sustained before it is healed. So, carefully placed strikes of Gold ris can slow an oncoming mass of Blood users while their broken legs and shattered ankles are repairing themselves. Despite the limits of their Second Seal, most Blood users refuse to wear traditional armor, preferring instead to leave much of their skin exposed to employ their First and Third Seals.

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3rd - The Third Seal of Blood lets the user attach to anything they touch with their skin or ris. This power may seem innocuous, particularly in comparison to the boons of Gold, but it actually has a myriad of uses. With the Third Seal, the user can scale any surface, even climbing upside down with bare feet and hands. They will never lose their grip should they choose to carry a weapon, and by attaching to their opponent, they can deny them any escape--only the Blooder’s mercy or a lack of charge ever separating the two. What’s more, once the initial contact has been achieved, the Blooder can pull away, yet keep the connection with a thread of Blood ris, which they call a tether. Blood users can interact with this tether as if it was a thread in truth, but a thread of iron that only other ris can cut. At advanced levels, the user can expand and contract the tether with a thought. Even worse, they can use their First Seal through a tether, draining your power--at a slower rate than touch to be sure, but the loss is still there. The Third Seal also allows Blooders to attach to ris that comes into contact with their body, making this Seal useful both offensively and defensively. This means that striking a Blood user from an angle that you will not be seen, or seen too late to react to, is advisable lest your strike give them the opening they need to attach to you. Lastly, a Blooder who has their Third Seal of Blood and also a Seal of Gold--or conceivably Death, or to a lesser degree Life--is a terrifying adversary. This is because they can strike from a distance with Gold ris and use that touch to establish a tether of Blood. At that point, they can use their physical or mental strength to pull you closer, or land additional strikes, each creating a new tether, which will accelerate how quickly their First Seal can strip you of ris, and transfer to them.

4th - While Blooders are formidable opponents in the field, their fourth Seal makes them considerably more dangerous and anathema to defensive fortifications. This Seal allows them to use their Blood ris to reinforce their body, giving their limbs great strength. With it, they can crush stone in their hands or launch themselves into the air--the same ris that empowered their jump supporting their legs when they land. They can easily scale even the highest of walls, leaping a large part of the distance and then climbing the rest of the way using their third Seal to adhere their flesh to the stone. Lastly, this skin-tight outer skeleton of ris can be used to force their bodies to move in ways that would otherwise be impossible, for example, twisting fully around or reaching an arm completely behind their back, their second Seal promptly healing the bones they would break to accomplish such a grotesque feat.

5th - A bizarre twist on Tear porting, the fifth Seal of Blood allows the user to move whoever strikes them, whether with flesh or ris, to another point touching their body. This means that if you were to try and employ the first Seal of Gold to attack from a distance, you could then instantly find yourself physically touching your target. And at this contact, due to the level of draw at their command with five Seals of Blood, you would quickly be stripped of charge, ris, and consciousness. It is unclear precisely how much control the user has over where their attacker ends up, but judging from multiple accounts during the Blood Raids it is assumed to be largely at their discretion. The effect is not as deadly as some other fifth Seals, nor does it seem as unbeatable as a few, but it can certainly lead to stalemate situations, and drawing out the fight always favors the Blood user.

Tears

1st - Much like tears build in us before release, so too can the user of this Seal build power in themselves, waiting to be unleashed. This delayed strike slowly increases in effectiveness as they burn through their ris charge. It can then be released with devastating effect all at once or in controlled bursts. While the thought of getting “one-touched” by such an adversary can be quite daunting, and is entirely possible, it should be noted that users of Tears have neither the ability to attack from a distance like Gold or even Life, nor the staying power of Blood. Instead, they’re forced to use hit and run tactics, waiting for the perfect opportunity to land a single charged blow, thus giving you multiple opportunities to strike them down before that. Despite how useful this Seal would be when mixed with any other type of ris, such individuals rarely exist for reasons detailed in the next Seal.

2nd - Users of Tears ris sacrifice durability for mobility. Their Second Seal, usually a Seal of protection, provides them no such thing, or if it can be construed to do so it is only by association. What it does grant them though is something of great utility: the power to vanish from one place and reappear in another, what the aquaros call in their squawking tongue porting. The distance traveled affects the amount of ris used, as does how much they are carrying, but this does not stop them from making great leaps, covering large stretches in hours that would take any other days, if not weeks, to match. There is no faster army than one of Tears. However, there is another weakness to this Seal: when porting, the ris appears in the air before the person, signaling their arrival. This is why Tears almost never share their ris with other tribes, since with just a single Seal of Tears you could see their warriors a moment before they arrive, making them extremely vulnerable. Finally, since the more ris one possesses the more of a shimmer you create for any with eyes to see and the more of a physical trail of sensation you leave, the most deadly fighters in Tears have only two Seals, making them very hard to detect.

3rd - A user of this Seal can fashion reflections of themselves made of pure ris. For the unpracticed, they will be copies in form only, as blue as the Tears ris that made them. They can be much improved though, looking identical to the user when perfected. The number of copies and the length of time they can be sustained depend on the amount of ris used, and the same for the complexity of actions they are assigned. It should be kept in mind that for all their beauty they are little more than illusions, most dispersed with a single strike, especially if that strike is made of ris. However, before they are dispersed they can do damage with the ris that is their essence. In fact, it is even said that these copies can make use of any Seals the original user has, making a mixed practitioner with this Seal all the more formidable.

4th - Unknown. There is some conjecture about ris users with this Seal being able to attune to other ris users and swap positions with them, but there is not nearly enough proof to justify this claim. Firstly, this effect could seemingly be achieved with just the Second Seal, and perhaps that is what has been observed in the past. Secondly, due to the dangers of having more than two Seals when porting, very few Tears users have three Seals, let alone four.

5th - The Qichon of Tears can phase out of existence, becoming a shadowy ghost of their former self. In this state, it is impossible to strike them physically or with ris. If facing such a foe, one must be patient and wait for their charge of ris to exhaust, at which point they will be forced to return to the physical plane. Waiting is also preferable because in this phased state it is believed the user cannot attack others, just as they themselves cannot be touched. However, as of yet, this theory is unsubstantiated.

Life

1st - The First Seal grants the user the ability to summon a weapon of pure ris. Its size and shape can be controlled by the user, and since it does not have the weight of a physical object it can take unexpected forms and reach much longer than would normally be possible. Every moment this ris-crafted weapon is out, charge is lost--not a great deal, but enough that there are some schools within Life that specialize in using their First Seal only at the moment of impact. At higher masteries, the weapon, particularly if it is edged, can cut through ris, making it exceedingly useful at dispelling both their enemy’s attacks and defenses.

2nd - This Seal is very similar to Gold’s Second Seal in that it protectively encases the user in ris. However, it is inferior because unlike Gold’s bubble-like shield that retains full effectiveness until broken, the Second Seal of Life grants its users sectioned armor that can be weakened in parts or even destroyed. This means that one must carefully track where they felt the ris crack when fighting against an opponent of Life so that they may strike the vulnerable area again, something that is quite challenging to do on the tiny bodies of fairies. A skilled adversary will also be intimately aware of this information and present only the parts of their body that are still covered in sufficiently strong ris plating.

3rd - The Third Seal of Life is one of gifting, or more specifically, the passing of ris to someone else. It can be done from a distance, so is usually used by supportive troops to repair broken ris armor on their best fighters or ensure that those same warriors don’t run out of charge, but it can also be used to cheat the normal Seal limit. That is, through gifting, more than one person can have the Fifth Seal of Life. In this way, Life can create a near unkillable army, at least for a short period of time. Life Tribe ris users who focus on perfecting the third Seal are known as “repositories,” and though their services are deemed highly useful, they are never given as much respect as masters of the First and Second Seals, or even “sacrifices,” who become revenants for a period of time before expiring. Life Tribe fighters of middling skill are invariably forced to become the latter--an effective yet rather draconian practice that is only sustainable due to their overlarge population. Lastly, it is worth noting that gifted ris burns up faster than standard ris and, interestingly, can be used to replenish the charge of any ris type, making these users a valuable ally.

4th - Life’s Fourth Seal lets the user store more than their usual amount of charge by investing the extra energy into their ris blade and armor. Not only does this let the user employ their various abilities for a longer period of time, but it can grant their first and second Seals additional traits. For example, an imbued blade of ris will cut through any substance with ease, and imbued armor is very difficult to destroy, requiring nearly twice the effort of its regular counterpart.

5th - The Fifth Seal is one of rebirth, or perhaps more accurately ever living. When the bearer of this Seal would normally die, they are resurrected into a revenant that possesses luminescent emerald eyes and a body that heals itself faster than the most adept of Blood ris practitioners. These revenants retain the memories of their living form but will die in truth when their ris depletes, which it gradually does in this state. Being gifted ris by others using the Third Seal of Life can extend their presence, which is usually done until the enemy is defeated. When that happens these revenants then sacrifice themselves to Life Aspects so that no ris is lost. The leader of the Life Tribe, their first Chon, is actually a revenant who is over eight hundred years old and given continuous Life ris by a cadre of rotating repositories.

Death

1st - This Seal allows the user to place a mark on any living target within their line of sight. Marking someone lets the Death user know where they are, and keeping a mark active requires very little ris, making even the lowest tier of Death troops excellent trackers. It is said that, much like other types of ris, with greater skill, more things can be learned from the mark. This includes the amount of ris and charge the target has, how the target’s muscles are being used which can indicate where they will move next, and even the target’s personal history. This last is known as delving and usually requires physical contact. All of these other abilities require more ris to be used than a standard mark.

2nd - Through the consent of another party--which is not fully understood--a bond is created between the Death practitioner and that person. With this bond, any injury that is sustained by the Death user will transfer to the bondee, whether it is a simple cut or a killing blow. This is why spidra warriors so often surround themselves with human Death troops--mere grunts used to siphon off any damage the spidra sustains, leaving the spidra none the worse for wear. While one bondee would make a Death user of the second Seal hard enough to kill, there are some who believe that there is no limit to the number of bonds a user can have. Thankfully, such unkillable adversaries have not come forward in the skirmishes Death has offered the nation of Lercel, leaving one to infer that either there is a limit to the number of bondees one can have, or that it takes a truly charismatic individual to convince so many people to lay down their lives for their own.

3rd - What Death is known and hated for: its ability to destroy the ris upon your body. Similar to Blood, this stripping power of Death will first erase the ris charge a person has and then the ris itself. Unlike Blood though, this can be done to anyone they have marked, making Death users a danger as soon as they are within view. A small benefit to those who fight against them is that the stripping of ris depletes their own ris charge as well, and most importantly, their charge is consumed faster than their target’s. This means that if a ris user of Gold and Death went against one another, if they have similar ris levels, the Gold user would have little to fear. This is because the third Seal of Death would deplete the Death user’s ris well before the Gold user’s. This is why Death users almost always travel in packs, so they can use their combined powers to strip a troublesome adversary of their ris. In fact, it is even said that the third Seal can destroy life energy, not just ris charge, so with enough Death practitioners they can kill with this Seal, and are said to do so when hunting their prey.

4th - Unknown, though conjectures abound. Warriors of Death are known for continuing to fight even after suffering grievous injury. Not because their wounds heal as they would with Blood ris but because they do not seem to notice them. However, this lack of reaction to being wounded could be due to the bodily change that Death ris works upon them if in fact that change is numbness--wounds that are not felt are certainly easier to disregard. Armies of Death are also known to function in eerily coordinated patterns, but perhaps they are just marking each other with the First Seal so they know how their counterparts will move, thus giving the false impression of a larger will controlling all of their actions.

5th - Also unknown. Few Death Chons have revealed themselves, and when they do, they invariably lead from the rear. Assassins have been sent against such opponents of course, but none have returned, or succeeded. So, what this final Seal of Death grants is currently beyond our ken despite the efforts of many to discover the truth since it may hold our salvation to the ever increasing advance of Death.

In conclusion

The astute observer will notice that there are many overlaps among the types of ris and their Seals. The First Seal is usually a way to attack and the Second one of protection, but not always. In some ways Life and Death appear opposites, as would seem natural, particularly with the Third Seal of Life granting ris, while Death at that stage strips it away. But what then is the opposite of Gold? Surely not Tears or Blood in nature or gifted traits. Perhaps we search for rationale too deeply--simply because consistency exists among the Seals that is no guarantee of a connection. Or perhaps there are other types of ris in existence that, if known, would allow us to see and understand the greater whole.

It is a blessed thing that the sharing of knowledge does not need to express all truths in order to contain some within it, and surely this treatise has many to be gleaned. Time is the ally of the patient, and with it and what has been collected here, that which is hidden from us shrinks with every pen stroke of the learned. If the next comes not from my hand, perhaps it shall be from yours.

~~ Bah-Nas ~~