155 - Avatar Relics

Unnatural Phenomenon: Avatar Relics

Despite a common religious belief in the dualistic nature of the body and the soul as two distinct aspects of a person, veneration of human remains as sacred objects is by no means rare. Ancient Greek hero cults, the remains of Christian and Islamic saints, even the Buddha was divided into eight pieces on his death and his remains enshrined in specially built stupas wherever his faith spread. Much like how the remains of our loved ones hold symbolic place for the people who are no longer with us, those of important traditions hold an unconscious association with that spiritual power. This isn’t restricted to religion, the mausoleums of Mao Zedong and Vladmir Lenin both serve as secular proxies in their displays of the remains of those prominent communists.

With this concept firmly rooted in the collective unconscious it is little wonder that the remains of powerful avatars are imbued with a degree of supernatural power and are hotly contested objects. If one with access to at least the third tier of channels dies while using their abilities in a symbolically powerful way it grants their remains a certain gravitas in becoming sacred objects. The appropriate veneration required to awaken this potential is an objective - local for third channel avatars, weighty for fourth channel avatars and cosmic for godwalkers. Predictably people willing to go through all that effort are usually loath to part with the fruits of their labours. Each avatar is only good for one relic, so no pulling an Osiris.

It is notable that, much like the differences between adept and avatar powers, relics tend to have subtle effects. None of them generate conspicuous unnatural phenomena (there’s a man in Burma who believes the fossilized heart of a warrior avatar he wears around his neck makes him bulletproof, he’s just been exceptionally lucky). Instead they apply a static +10/20/30% shift (for third/forth channel and godwalker relics) to rituals and gutter magick they are incorporated into. More compellingly they act as blessings on relevant objectives, priming them as petty local, intense local/petty weight and intense weighty/petty cosmic milestones respectively. Cabals in possession of avatar relics should be wary of acting against their path as contrary objectives find their first milestones negated to the same degree.

There is one notable exception. As with the Hand or Eye (and to a lesser extent, Head) of Vecna of D&D fame, avatar relics provide shortcuts to power for greedy mystics willing to abuse them. Replacing a body part with a charged relic grants an automatic improvement roll on an avatar identity (+10 for fourth channel relics or an automatic upgrade to the next channel level (or 98% for those already in the last channel) for godwalker relics). It should be noted that incorruptibility is not a feature of avatar relics, they rot and wither just like normal human remains unless embalmed. The complications that can arise from attaching a withered hand to the stump of your arm are too often overlooked in the pursuit of power.