32: Smaller classes

Day 8 started quieter then normal. Everyone had noticed all the gems in the Main Hall ceiling, and lots of empty chairs last night.

The danger had finally been driven home, too late for many, but in time for many more.

Felinia looked over the crowd and told them all “Those who hunted seeking power as Deities were idiots. I have not even trained you in that yet! Others killed potential competitors, or enemies. Some just did it for laughs. Those who took things to use latter, congratulations: you actually showed intelligence!”

She waited a little bit and told them, “We will get one step closer to dealing with taking power from a Kill, and protecting yourself. We cover Power.

"You need to feel the power flowing through you. When you do so, you will be able to manipulate it, shift it to suite your own ends. Even infuse it into items often called holy relics Divine artifacts, among many other names.

“When you grant a prayer, you are using your power to make the prayer happen, either directly or via a Cleric using it like a spell. Instead on calling on the Magic of the world to power it, the power comes from you. When you kill some beings, their bodies may contain traces of power. If you then extend your power into their corpse, you can use that to siphon off their power. If they are awake and able to resist when you do this, they might be able to drain you. If they are in a coma or deep slumber and don’t resist, it can be useful, but just don’t wake them. However, you have to be careful because of their Essence. Essence can be a major danger if you don’t know how to handle it properly.

“Power can also be tainted to have stronger affinities some ways, so draining it may make you stronger there, or screw up what you have. For example, a Deity of Healing offing a Deity of sickness might be able to drain power from their kill, they could not use it very well as it would be focused mainly on spreading sickness, which is the opposite of what the Healer wants.

“If you try to absorb Power without dealing with the Essence of the Kill, the dead Deity might be able to come back by draining you to your destruction. Do not try this unless you want to take that risk.”

Some eager students had looks of disappointment on their apparent faces.

Felinia smiled at that. “The more power you have, the more you radiate it as part of your existence. You can store power in containers to use for latter, or to even help resurrect you. Not Essence so much, but Power. You can set up ways for other people to access the power if you can’t. For example, allowing a Cleric to be able to draw on the stored power in one to build up faith in your church again if you are killed, and to restore you. You can also use it for a boost yourself latter.

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“To make powerful servants, you may make followers or others living containers. Those followers of yours are called your Chosen. Just be careful because you can’t force them to return the power easily. These will be covered in more detail latter. It really sucks if you give someone this power, and they turn against you, turn to a rival, try for Godhood themselves, or get drained.

“These items can store a lot of power, and some of you will add traps on them to make them massive explosives. If you did not think of it before, you will now!

“Making power siphon traps is in theory possible, but I won’t tell you how.”

Some people shuddered.

Felinia chuckled on the inside.

“When you make a deal, you can imbue the deal with a trace of your power, making it binding. This is not limited to Deities; many beings can do it, even mortals who know how to use magic properly. The key word here being properly.

“Warlocks receive power from you as part of a deal. Well, mostly. They might just ask you to change them into something more powerful. We will be covering them latter.”

Seeming to think a bit she added like an afterthought “If a mortal or other kind of being gets some of your Divine power, it can be used to help them Ascend, so be careful of that.

“Any questions?”

There was stunned silence, but someone asked “What about power from sources other than worship and offerings?”

Felinia smiled. “Ah, that. You can store it easier than non-deities, if it from a source related to your Domain. For example, an Earth Deity would be able to draw power from Lay Lines. A Wind Deity may be able to draw on the force of a hurricane. Both would have trouble drawing from the other, if they could. I highly recommend having your Clerics learn the other ways to work for you.”

“Is there any place where out power can’t be used?”

“Null areas. No magic, Divine, sorcerous or Arcane can be used in them. They are magic dead areas. Deities should avoid them, because you are mostly helpless there, and much easier to kill. On the plus side, any killer can’t drain you while you are in there, and the power dissipates from your body quickly there.”

That was all the questions.

Just as she was about to leave, Felinia added, “For those who did take blood and other body parts from those killed yesterdays, the library has a large range of books on blood magic and other uses for body parts in rituals. You should have looked them up before the slaughter so you would have known what exactly to harvest!”

People shuddered as the implications sunk in, and a few people cursed themselves. They would not make the same mistake again!

Before people could leave, Gallen appeared and told them, “Will the three surviving psycho pomp candidates please join me. We can start your specialized lessons even without logistics being set up.”

Wait! Only three survived the slaughter? There was almost a dozen who were accepted!