Faith is a thing that all living humans have access to. They don’t need to do anything to create this resource as it is passively generated. The Corrupted are unable to wield faith in its pure form, they are able to use it when they have altered it. Acts of Faith such as Ceremonies return the power generated to the Spirit sphere. It does not send it to a God.
Generating Faith
At the start of every event each player will get one faith token. These tokens will have their player ID printed upon.
A character generates one faith for the event (unless they have a skill that increases this). They are able to use any faith that they have collected from other characters by performing the Dedicate ceremony. There may be ways to get more faith within the world of Menhirs Fate.
When a character dies any faith they had is immediately lost. The power is sent to the sphere of Spirit.
Devotion
No XP cost. All players who take the Conviction skill have access to this Ceremony. Inform a ref when you start this Ceremony
The character calls out to their God and through their will and devotion they form a brief link to them. While not sufficient for direct two-way communication, this link can be used to channel the faith into their God’s direct presence instead of to the sphere of spirit in general. At the ceremony’s conclusion the character may hand any amount of faith tokens to the ref.
At the referee’s discretion, this Ceremony may have additional effects.
Dedicate
No XP cost. All players who take the Conviction skill have access to this Ceremony. This Ceremony allows a character to dedicate another to their God. As part of the Ceremony the target must give at least 1 faith to the person dedicating them. The target becomes ‘Dedicated’ for the remainder of the event and feels strongly attuned to the God they have been dedicated to. This can be expressed in any roleplay direction the player feels appropriate.
The dedicating player must specify the God that the target is being dedicated to and the target must be willing and happy to be dedicated. The target may choose to end the Ceremony at any point. A character who has been Dedicated cannot have this Ceremony used on them in the same event unless they have been Excommunicated.
Please remember if you have been dedicated to a God. There may be in-character things that happen relevant on God
Petition
No XP cost. All players who take conviction skill have access to this ability. Characters may perform this Ceremony to commune with their dedicated god and discover the Handsel that is the “price” of a Entreaty. This Ceremony has a duration of 10 Minutes. This requires 1 Spirit Essence. The characters performing this Ceremony will need to complete the Weaving form and take it to a member of Weaving team (Guardians of the Menhir) with the Essence requirement The Weaving team will provide a response containing the effects, costs in Faith or any other requirements and any other information about the Entreaty created through this Ceremony.
Entreaty
No XP cost. All players who take the Conviction skill have access to this Ceremony.
People with Conviction may spend faith at the Menhir to perform an Entreaty with their Gods and ask for a Boon.
Player must visit the Guardians and book a time slot as per any Weaving.
All participants of the Entreaty must be devoted to the God the ceremony is dedicated to. Anyone who participates that is not, must inform the Guardian before the Entreaty begins.
The characters may now do an Entreaty to their God to ask for a boon. The first step is to complete a Petition (described in the section above this).
In this ceremony they may spend as much faith as they feel appropriate. They should give the relevant amount of faith tokens to the Guardian before they begin. In the Entreaty, the character must state which God they are doing the Entreaty to and what they want from their God. They may not use Menhir to simply devote faith without asking for a boon as this is a ceremony already and is a waste of Menhir’s time.
Either in the ceremony or up to 24 hrs later, that God will visit those characters and they can then negotiate with the God. Success of the Entreaty and the following interaction with their God will be varying, depending on the following factors:
- How Much Faith they have Devoted
- What Boon they have asked for.
- Which God they have sought help from
- How powerful that God is.
The Entreaty may vary in success anywhere from exceptional success to catastrophic failure as per the Weaving results.
Faith Skills
Conviction
3xp – This gives the character access to the use of Faith abilities. The Devotion, Dedicate and Entreaty Ceremonies are acquired as part of this skill.
(This skill is needed before taking any other on this list)
When you select the Conviction skill you must choose a God to be Devoted to. (You are assumed to be Devoted to the God in relation to the Devote skill)
- The Jester
- The Hearth
- The Muse
- The Smith
- The Reaper
- The Warrior
- The Guardian
- The Scholar
- The Shadow
- The Traveller
- The Justicar
- The Celebrant
Following
2xp – and plus 1xp after each buy. (E.g. 2xp for first additional faith, 3xp for the second additional, etc)
This skill allows a character to start the event with +1 faith each time they take it
Advanced Faith abilities (Each of these cost 1xp)
Excommunicate
Cost: 1 Faith
Target: Other
Type: Ceremony – 1 min
Range: 1 meter
Effect: This Ceremony deprives, suspends, or limits the target Characters connection to the Pantheon. A character affected by this ceremony reduces their death count by 30 seconds, if dedicated they lose the link to their dedicated God and removes any boon they have received from The Pantheon immediately.
Spiritual reading
Cost: 1 Faith
Target: Other
Type: 30 second Ceremony
Range: Touch
Effect: This Ceremony allows the Devoted to sense the aura of a target. It can be more easily felt, smelt, or otherwise discerned by the caster’s mundane senses. This will give information on the nature of the target’s spirit. It will also identify especially powerful spiritual creatures.
This will detect that the target has a Corrupted Spirit.
Plea of Refuge
Cost: 1 Faith
Target: Other
Type: Ceremony – ongoing
Range: 1 meter
Effect: This ceremony is an act of faith in desperate need, trusting that help will come if the character can only hold out for it. While chanting and calling for their God’s deliverance, the character can bind a target’s soul within their own body, preventing further separation for as long as the character maintains their faith that aid will come. The target’s critical state count pauses for as long as the ceremony chant continues. If the target is under the effects of any other effect (poison/curse etc) the effect is paused but will return at the end of the Ceremony.
Divine inspiration
Cost: 5 Faith
Target: Self
Type: Ceremony – 2 min
Range: Self
Effect: (Inform a ref when you start this Ceremony) This ceremony focuses a large amount of faith around a specific topic or question, before entrusting it to a God. By giving it over to the higher power, faith can create a mental void around the issue, preparing space in the characters mind for the God to later fill with insights and knowledge. The God will offer genuine guidance on the topic or question. The response may vary depending on how powerful the God is and the nature of the God in question. The question for this may be a sentence long.
OC note: You may be asked to shorten or restructure your question by the ref if it is too long. The OC practicalities of this skill will often involve communication over a radio.
Sanctified Strike
Cost: 1 Faith
Target: Self
Type: Ceremony 30 seconds
Range: Self
Effect: This Ceremony allows a character to channel their faith and bind it to a weapon. The blade will force a restoration of their God’s order, and in doing so annihilate any agent of corruption it next strikes. The character charges the Weapon or Foci (it must be a larp safe weapon) with divine power, causing the next strike to call Smite. This lasts until you use it, or until sunrise.
Martyr’s Gift
Cost: 2 Faith
Target: Other
Type: Ceremony 30 seconds
Range: 1 meter
Effect: This Ceremony allows a character to stoke that with faith, directing it into the target’s wounds so that they can continue to fight in their Gods name. The target is filled with righteous zeal and restores all their hit points.
Divine Light
Cost: 1 Faith
Target: Other
Type: Ceremony 30 seconds
Range: 5 metres
Effect: This Ceremony allows any character to turn this trust into divine light and repel those who would cause harm. After completing the ceremony, the character must hold up a vigil of their God (this can be a weapon or any other item with a symbol of their god). They may then call “Stagger” against 3 targets within 5 metres. The character is then unable to advance towards the targets for 10 seconds.
Cleanse Corruption
Cost: 1 Faith per corruption of the target
Target: Other
Type: Ceremony 2 minutes
Range: 10 meters
Effect: This ceremony gently projects waves of spiritual purity through the target, massaging them back into their original innocent state. So long as the faith spent is high enough to overpower their corruption, the character can provide a kind of spiritual atonement, cleansing the object or person of the Corruption tainting them. If the faith is insufficient to totally overpower it, the ceremony has no effect. You do not lose any Faith if this ceremony has no effect.
Soul’s Reflection
Cost: 1 Faith
Target: Other
Type: Ceremony 2 minutes
Range: 1 meter
Effect: (Inform a ref when you start this Ceremony) This Ceremony allows you to see the amount of Corruption points a target has. At the end of the ceremony, the character will discover how many corruption points the target has.
Banish
Cost: 2 Faith/ 4 Faith/ 6 Faith/ 8 Faith/ 10 Faith/ 12 Faith
Target: Other
Type: Ceremony 30 seconds for every 2 Faith used
Range: 10 metres
Effect: This Ceremony calls upon the characters total belief in their God’s absolute power. So long as their faith is of sufficient intensity, the ceremony is capable of banish almost any supernatural creature. Count the amount of faith used in the ceremony and call “By the power of [insert dedicated god] I banish you, Faith [X]” (X is the number of faith spent)
Ceremonies
Ceremonies are workings that allow mortals wield the power of the gods although these may look similar to the magical Rites. These are empowered by the faith of the people instead of Wyrd and for this reason they have no chance of failing and often focus on a person’s spiritual essence.
Ceremonies Step by Step
All Ceremonies are enacted by following the same simple process:
- Choose a ceremony the Character (or group) wish to cast.
- Perform the ceremony for the casting duration required, and choose any Faith you wish to spend. (handing the faith tokens to Menhirs Fate volunteer at the closest time)
- If the ceremony is successful, choose targets and call any effects.
Performing a Ceremony
To perform a Ceremony there are no set rules but as a general guide,
- Work together if you are in a team
- Reference the Ceremony name that you are performing
- Reference the specific God that you are calling upon
- Make the act of using Faith part of the ceremony. While the Faith token are an OC item representing an IC resource you can reference that you are using the Faith they represent
- Make sure your Ceremony lasts the specified duration
In Menhirs Fate we would like to encourage our players to make Ceremonies expressive and interesting works of Faith