>[!infobox|right] >![[StoneIcon.png]] >
“It does not speak. It does not move. But it is never gone.”
🜁 Dominion Profile: Stone
TypeElemental Essence
ThemesStillness, Memory, Permanence
Spirit BehaviorSlow, resolute, unforgiving
Favored OfferingsBlood etched into stone, oaths carved into walls, heirlooms buried or sealed
Resonant SitesMountains, ancient ruins, crypts, forgotten mines
Weakened ByUpheaval, erosion, transient chaos, mocking of permanence
Common MotifsStone masks, runes, cairns, fossils, petrified remains
Corruption SignsCracked stone, hollow echo, weight without anchor, crumbling statues that scream
Common Passive AbilitiesStoneform, Echoing Memory
Common Active AbilitiesAnchor, Seismic Pulse, Graven Oath
Common Spirit FormsCairn-giants, rune-beasts, stone-faced watchers, serpents of obsidian
_Stillness • Memory • Permanence_ > _“You walk upon its body. You die within its arms. You leave your mark, and it remembers.”_ > —Old dwarven proverb, carved into a forgotten well ### **Theme** Stone is not lifeless. It is merely patient. It does not blaze with passion or weep with loss. But it **records**. It **endures**. It is the body of the world and the memory of everything buried. To call upon a Stone-spirit is to invoke a witness—one that cannot be fooled, one that remembers what came before and cares nothing for the haste of mortals. Stone **resists change**, but once changed, it holds that change forever. In this, it is paradox: the most enduring, and the slowest to forgive. Stone does not punish. It **waits**. > And when it answers, it does so with the weight of centuries. ## Resonance Stone awakens not to passion, but to **persistence**. What stirs it is not drama, but **weight**—the heaviness of memory, legacy, duty. Stone spirits are moved by that which **lasts**, that which **settles**, that which **leaves a mark**. They are slow to rise, but once stirred, their attention lingers for **centuries**. ### **What Strengthens Stone** |**Action**|**Effect**| |---|---| |**Etch a memory into stone** (oath, name, date, symbol)|Grants +1 **Resonance Point (RP)** to a local Stone-spirit. If the memory is sacred, grant +2 RP.| |**Build a cairn, monument, or tomb**|Adds 1–3 RP depending on scale and purpose. Permanence honors Stone.| |**Recite a lineage, law, or ancient tale aloud in a sacred place**|Grants 1 RP and draws the spirit’s attention. The longer or older the story, the deeper the mark.| |**Fulfill an old vow or duty**|Grants 2 RP; the Stone-spirit may offer **insight, protection, or reinforcement**.| ### **What Weakens Stone** | **Action / Environment** | **Effect** | | ------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Constant change, chaos, or destruction of sacred architecture | Reduces spirit’s **MD limit by 1** for the scene (min. 1). | | Breaking an oath near a sacred site | Inflicts a **Corruption Die** on the transgressor. | | Desecration of old names or graves | Causes Stone to **withdraw** or become hostile—may awaken a bound guardian or guardian fragment. | >[!hint] **GM Note:** > A Stone-spirit’s Resonance rises **not with spectacle, but with sincerity**. If a player carves their fallen comrade’s name into the wall of a ruined keep, reward them. If they return the bones of an ancient hero to rest, let the spirit offer **echoed memories** or **earthbound gifts**. > > Consider using **Resonance Bleed** when a Stone spirit is heavily stirred—walls may whisper truths, the ground may remember old footsteps, or buried ruins may rise through the soil to speak. ## **Stoking the Dominion** ### **Rite of Stillbearing** - **Time:** 10 minutes of silence and stillness - **Roll:** Focus + Rituals (DC = spirit’s PR) - **Materials:** A stone marked by age or memory—e.g., grave marker, ancestral seal, fossil, crumbled foundation stone - **Effect:** If successful, the Stone-spirit gains 1 **Resonance Point** and answers with a **truth buried in time**—an echo of the past, a hidden structural flaw, or the name of someone long-forgotten. - **Failure:** The spirit remains dormant. If disrespected (e.g., loudness, haste, mockery), the earth may **shift slightly** underfoot, cracking a wall or opening a shallow grave. > _As the dusk settles on the ruin, the knight kneels before a broken arch and presses their hand to the weathered stone. “You held the line longer than we did,” she whispers. “Let that matter.” Silence answers. But then—the sound of distant boots on marble. Echoes of a war long past begin to stir beneath the foundation._ ## **Corruption** When **Stone is touched by the Void**, it loses all memory of weight, place, and truth. It does not shatter—it **forgets** why it should hold together at all. The land becomes brittle, not broken. Ancient halls stand pristine but echo with _nothing_. Gravestones lose their names. Foundations—of homes, cities, identities—remain cold and unyielding, but without purpose or origin. The corrupted Stone no longer holds. It **preserves nothing**. - **Tombs seal shut and devour their dead.** - **Echoes of memory distort, loop, or vanish entirely.** - **Unmoving monoliths hum with false permanence—unchanging, yet empty.** Its symbol is the **perfectly smooth stone**: featureless, frictionless, without mark or story. Such stones may appear where a truth was once buried but is now erased. To trust corrupted Stone is to build on lies so old they feel like truth. > _“I laid my father to rest beneath that cairn.”_ > _“There is no cairn here.”_ > _“…Then where have I been grieving all these years?”_ ## **Ability Menu** ### **Passive Abilities** | Name | PR | Effect | | ----------------------- | --- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Enduring Form** | 1+ | The spirit cannot be moved or shoved by mundane force. Immune to knockback, its form is rooted like a mountain. | | **Stone Remembers** | 2+ | The spirit can automatically recall events that occurred nearby—voices echo faintly, footsteps repeat. Mortals who sleep near it may dream fragments of the past. | | **Unyielding Presence** | 3+ | Allies within PR meters cannot be forcibly moved or frightened. Gain +1 die to resist panic or intimidation. | | **Echo in the Stone** | 4+ | Any object the spirit touches gains a subtle memory—a word, a face, a weight. The item will whisper this truth when held with reverence. | | **Living Monument** | 5+ | The spirit becomes impossible to forget or obscure. It marks the location with its aura—no illusion, veil, or lie can hide what it guards. Any attempts to change its appearance, hide it or change its form automatically fail. | | **Seismic Heart** | 6 | The spirit resonates with the bones of the world. It hears tremors, lies, and seismic shifts from miles away. The earth within PRx10m trembles at every step. Everyone has to succeed in a Agility+Athletics check or fall prone whenever the spirit moves. | --- ### **Active Abilities** #### **PR 1–2: Lesser** |Name|MD|Effect| |---|---|---| |**Grasp of Stone**|1|Roots the target's feet with spectral stone. They must succeed on Might + Agility (DC 2) or lose their next Move action.| |**Weigh the Word**|1|Forces a creature within 5m to repeat their last sentence. If it was a lie, they feel its weight as 1 Slight or 1 Fatigue.| |**Stone’s Patience**|1|Delay damage from a single attack for 1 round. It returns afterward, halved.| |**Memory Etching**|1|The spirit carves a single memory into a touched surface. Others who touch it later may relive the memory briefly.| --- #### **PR 3–4: Simple / Complex** |Name|MD|Effect| |---|---|---| |**Mantle of Stone**|1|Target becomes as unyielding as rock: gain +2 Armor for 1 scene, but suffers –1 die to movement-based actions.| |**Echoquake**|1|Sends a pulse through the ground in a 10m radius. Foes must test Agility + Athletics or fall prone.| |**Stonebind Vow**|1|Binds a creature to a promise. Breaking it inflicts 2 Fatigue and gives the spirit one RP.| |**Witness of Ages**|1|Reveal a significant truth buried in stone—an old foundation, a forgotten name, a relic’s origin.| --- #### **PR 5–6: Greater / Arch** | Name | MD | Effect | | ------------------------ | --- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Petrify the Moment** | 2 | Freeze a creature or object in a suspended stasis for one round per PR. Only one target may be affected at a time. | | **Tectonic Wrath** | 2 | Causes a localized quake (20m radius). Structures crack, creatures fall, and earth rends. Each creature must test Agility + Focus or suffer 2 Injuries and fall prone. | | **Unmake the False** | 2 | Crumbles a building, idol, or monument if it was built on a lie (GM discretion). The spirit devours the memory of its purpose. | | **Cairn of Remembrance** | 2 | Create a stone monument that permanently holds one memory, vow, or soul. Can act as a tether for resurrection, haunting, or spirit summoning. | | **Monolith Walks** | 3 | Animate a nearby standing stone, statue, or structure. It walks under the spirit’s will as a simple enemy with a DR depending on the activation success for one scene. | ## **Ritual Offerings & Practices** Stone does not answer quickly. But it **remembers every gesture**. To earn a Stone-spirit’s favor, a mortal must act with care, patience, and _weight_. Rites are rarely flashy—most involve quiet endurance, structured repetition, or anchoring oneself to meaning through the body or land. > **“You do not move the mountain. You become part of it.”** > —Old oath from the Granite Priests of Gyrn --- ### **Common Offerings** |**Offering**|**Effect**| |---|---| |Burying a cherished item in stone or soil|Adds 1–2 RP depending on significance. The item must not be easily retrieved.| |Carving names or oaths into stone|Creates a permanent bond. Adds 1 RP and may allow the spirit to _witness_ the oath over time.| |Meditation in stillness for 1 hour+|Adds 1 RP if undisturbed. If done at a sacred site or cliff face, may trigger resonance bleed.| |Bleeding on unbroken stone|Adds 1 RP and marks the place. Spirits may later respond there without being summoned.| |Building a cairn or structure by hand|Adds 1–3 RP. The effort must be sincere, and the structure must have purpose or beauty.| --- ### **Mechanics of Stone Rites** - **Slow to grant, but difficult to lose**: Once a Stone spirit is resonant, its effects linger longer—passive auras may persist through rest scenes or even travel. - **Persistent RP**: In rare cases (GM discretion), RP from a major stone rite may not fade immediately and can be reawakened at the same site. - **Oathbound sites**: If a vow is made _into_ the stone (e.g. via carving or blood), it may become self-enforcing. Breaking the vow causes fatigue, injury, or corruption depending on PR of the spirit involved. ### **Regional Flavors of Stone Rituals** | **Region** | **Ritual Flavor** | **Unique Offerings** | | ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **The Reaches** | Rugged, wind-carved reverence. Stone is ancestor and judge. Cairns and stacked bones mark oaths and passing. | Stones taken from gravesites, blood mixed with ash and pressed into crevices, whispered names of the forgotten. | | **Temeria** | Precision and permanence. Stone is the base of empire—structured, lawful, and immortal. | Chiseled inscriptions into marble, laying foundation stones with formal invocations, oath-chains sealed in iron. | | **Annwyn** | Living hills, dreaming cliffs. Stone is slumbering spirit, ancient and warm. Offerings must be personal and poetic. | Songs sung into standing stones, hair or milk offered into dolmen cracks, carvings made blindfolded. | | **Al’Mahoun** | Shifting dunes meet stubborn stone. Stone is resilience—hidden, surviving. Rites are intimate, often solitary. | Burying water flasks in cracked earth, drawing sigils in crushed ochre, sitting motionless through sandstorms. | | **Kyourin** | Stone is the spine of stillness. Meditation atop cliffside pillars, weight carried as penance. | Binding stone weights to the body during rites, tattooing names of the dead in grey ink, silence held for days. | | **Pharos (corrupted)** | Once sacred, now shattered. The stone remembers what was lost. Rites are salvaged fragments—desperate, elegiac. | Broken tablets offered in mourning, weeping into cracked foundations, tracing lost glyphs with soot-covered hands. | ## **Tradition Touchpoints** |**Tradition**|**Stone-Spirit Interaction**| |---|---| |**Spirit Binding**|Bound into **etched monoliths, petrified hearts, or carved soul-rings**, Stone-spirits resist until convinced the Binder will endure the ages.| |**Pact Magic**|Pact terms are slow and solemn: _“Stand vigil over this grave,” “Guard my bloodline,” “Hold fast until I return.”_ The spirit does **not** forget.| |**Melded Souls**|Hosts grow cold, methodical, and immovable. **They gain resilience** but may begin forgetting how to change, weep, or yield.| |**Cthonism**|Deeply reverent—Stone is the **ear of the ancestors**. Prayers are carved, not spoken. Spirits answer through tremors and dreams of buried bones.| |**The Hollowed**|Stone fills the soul’s hollow like **weighty silence**. These mages become patient or inert—miracles slow but enduring.| |**Alchemy**|Stone spirits transmute essence over time. Powdered geodes, **cracked fossils**, and **oaths spoken over bedrock** draw their attention.| |**Soulforging**|A sacred partnership: the **anvil listens**. These spirits temper more than metal—they test resolve.| |**Blood Sorcery**|Offerings must be **carved into stone with bone**, or bled across shale runes. The stone remembers every drop—and may use them to whisper back.| |**Veiling / Spirit Soothing**|Stone is calmed by **stillness, repetition, and silence**. Rocking rhythms and low chants are best.| |**Voidcalling**|Stone becomes **obsidian veined with forgetfulness**. It **crumbles memory and identity**, swallowing time into itself.| |**Common Folk Rites**|Folk carve names into boundary stones, bury secrets under cairns, or stack pebbles atop graves. These rites tie souls to places—and **to the Stone.**| ## **GM Guidance: Stone in the Scene** > Stone is not silent—it simply waits to be heard. ### **Tension Triggers** A Stone-spirit's presence does not raise the volume in a scene—it lowers it. Its pressure is weight, expectation, stillness. Use it to: - Make characters feel **the weight of history**—a reminder of legacy, oaths, or ancestral presence. - Create moments where **movement feels wrong**: the room grows cold, dust doesn’t settle, even speech slows. - Let silence stretch. Force players to fill it—or respect it. ### **Ritual Hooks** Players may interact through: - **Placing heirlooms or bones** into cracks or cairns. - **Repeating old vows aloud**, seeking to awaken or earn the spirit’s attention. - **Marking a stone with their name or blood**, symbolically binding themselves to a place or cause. These acts may: - Grant a **Resonance Point (RP)** - Call a Stone-spirit to witness or judge - Bind a promise into the land itself (with mechanical or narrative weight) ### **Environmental Impact** Stone does not act quickly—but when it does, the world remembers. - Stones **shift subtly**—sealing passages, revealing glyphs, forming ancient faces in rock walls. - Earth **reclaims** what was left behind: unworthy tools rust, careless steps echo too loudly. - Spirits in resonance might **fortify structures**, or render lies inert within sacred grounds. ### **Corruption Warning** Stone rarely corrupts suddenly—it **fractures**. First in memory, then in presence. - Spirits begin to **misremember**, assigning blame or twisting lineage. - Foundations they bless **crack beneath righteous feet**. - History becomes stone tombs with **false names**, **rewritten truths**, or **erased heirs**. When Stone falls to the Void, **legacy becomes prison**. The land forgets its own shape. And every monument becomes a lie. ## **Example Spirits** ### **Pebblekin Muser** ![[Pasted image 20250805214050.png|hsmall right]] A wandering fragment of memory and moss, the Pebblekin Muser hums softly in forgotten trails and between ancient standing stones. It listens more than it speaks, and its presence soothes restless minds. Small offerings of carved stones or whispered stories make it glow faintly with contentment. ```statblock layout: Vaelora Spirit name: Pebblekin Muser pr: 1 language: "Low echoes and harmonics; empathic resonance" size: "Tiny" skills: - name: Empathy desc: 2 - name: History desc: 2 - name: Meditation desc: 1 dominion_power: 1 dominions: - name: Stone attributes: - name: Might desc: 0 - name: Agility desc: 1 - name: Fortitude desc: 1 - name: Wit desc: 2 - name: Focus desc: 2 - name: Presence desc: 2 - name: Spirit desc: 2 - name: Cunning desc: 1 abilities: - name: "Still Mind Aura (passive, PR1)" desc: "Within 1m, anxiety fades. Characters regain 1 Fatigue after 10 minutes of calm reflection near the spirit." token: Pasted image 20250805214127.png ``` ### **Gravetender’s Witness** ![[Pasted image 20250805214546.png|hsmall left]] Dwelling in stone-marked tombs and war memorials, this spirit speaks only when ancient wrongs must be remembered. Its touch conjures fragments of truth long buried. Veterans and mourners often leave small bones or etched runes to honor it—and to invite its judgment. ```statblock layout: Vaelora Spirit name: Gravetender’s Witness pr: 2 language: "Chiseled rune-echoes; answers grave prayers" size: "Small" skills: - name: History (Ancestry) desc: 3 - name: Intimidate desc: 2 - name: Melee desc: 2 dominion_power: 2 dominions: - name: Stone attributes: - name: Might desc: 1 - name: Agility desc: 0 - name: Fortitude desc: 3 - name: Wit desc: 2 - name: Focus desc: 3 - name: Presence desc: 2 - name: Spirit desc: 3 - name: Cunning desc: 1 abilities: - name: "Enduring Presence (passive, PR2)" desc: "Cannot be moved or banished by force. Acts as anchor for ritual zones or memory rites." - name: "Stone Echo (active, 1 MD)" desc: "Reveal a vision of a person who died here, or recall a single historic moment carved into the stone." token: Pasted image 20250805214558.png ``` ### **Bastion Shardkin** ![[Pasted image 20250805215148.png|hsmall right]] Forged during a siege and fed on oaths never broken, the Bastion Shardkin embodies the unwavering edge of defense. It appears as a humanoid mass of broken bulwark and banner-cloth, defending sites or causes with fanatical resolve. Pact-binders call it to **guard**, not to judge. ```statblock layout: Vaelora Spirit name: Bastion Shardkin pr: 3 language: "Guttural oath-chant, like grinding rock" size: "Medium" skills: - name: Intimidation desc: 3 - name: Tactics desc: 3 - name: Melee desc: 4 dominion_power: 3 dominions: - name: Stone attributes: - name: Might desc: 4 - name: Agility desc: 1 - name: Fortitude desc: 4 - name: Wit desc: 2 - name: Focus desc: 3 - name: Presence desc: 2 - name: Spirit desc: 2 - name: Cunning desc: 1 abilities: - name: "Oathbound Shell (passive, PR3)" desc: "While protecting a declared charge, gains +1 die to all defensive actions and cannot be pushed or knocked prone." - name: "Stone Ward (active, 1 MD)" desc: "Imposes a magical ward in 5m radius. Allies gain +1 die to resist movement or fear for 1 scene." token: Pasted image 20250805215210.png ``` ### **Pillar of the Buried Crown** ![[Pasted image 20250805215448.png|hmed left]] Once part of a mountain palace lost to landslide and silence, this spirit remembers the fall of rulers and the weight of forgotten laws. Its body is a ruinous obelisk ringed in gold filigree and moss. When invoked, it judges from a place of immutable authority—neither moved by plea nor threat. Its resonance anchors both oath and history. ```statblock layout: Vaelora Spirit name: Pillar of the Buried Crown pr: 4 language: "Resonant proclamations; speaks in historical edict" size: "Large" skills: - name: Command desc: 4 - name: History desc: 3 - name: Empathy desc: 2 dominion_power: 4 dominions: - name: Stone - name: Memory attributes: - name: Might desc: 2 - name: Agility desc: 1 - name: Fortitude desc: 5 - name: Wit desc: 3 - name: Focus desc: 4 - name: Presence desc: 4 - name: Spirit desc: 3 - name: Cunning desc: 2 abilities: - name: "Ash-Marked Path (passive, PR4)" desc: "Those who swear an oath in its presence are bound by it—breaking it incurs a spiritual wound (1 Slight) unless ritually severed." - name: "Weight of Law (active, 1 MD)" desc: "Impose a stillness on one target within 10m. They must pass a Focus + Discipline check or become unable to move or speak for 1 round." token: Pasted image 20250805215521.png ``` ### **Cradle-Deep Behemoth** ![[Pasted image 20250805220001.png|hmed left]] A rare giant among spirits, the Cradle-Deep Behemoth slumbers beneath the tectonic lines of Vaelora. Its dreams shape the stability of land itself. Only during great shifts—earthquakes, epochal grief, or stone-carved miracles—does it stir, its body a slow-moving faultline of obsidian flesh and rune-etched bone. It does not war—it **endures**. ```statblock layout: Vaelora Spirit name: Cradle-Deep Behemoth pr: 5 language: "Seismic groans; can speak to mountains" size: "Vast" skills: - name: Melee desc: 4 - name: Ward desc: 4 - name: Masonry desc: 4 dominion_power: 5 dominions: - name: Stone - name: Time attributes: - name: Might desc: 6 - name: Agility desc: 1 - name: Fortitude desc: 6 - name: Wit desc: 2 - name: Focus desc: 4 - name: Presence desc: 3 - name: Spirit desc: 4 - name: Cunning desc: 1 abilities: - name: "Living Stone (passive, PR5)" desc: "Immune to mundane harm, partially incorporeal in stone-rich environments. Can sink into stone and become untargetable for 1 round per scene." - name: "Tectonic Pulse (active, 2 MD)" desc: "Create a shockwave in 15m radius. All non-anchored creatures must pass Might + Athletics or fall prone, taking 2 Injury if near crumbling terrain." token: Pasted image 20250805220017.png ``` ### **Veythar, the Last Engraving** ![[Pasted image 20250805220237.png|hmed left]] Veythar is not summoned—it is discovered. Etched into the fossilized bones of a dead god, buried in a mountain whose name was lost to time, it awakens only when the **story of the world itself is endangered**. It speaks through fracture-lines in granite, its body a cathedral of glyphs. When it walks, the land writes its path behind it in a script no mortal can erase. ```statblock layout: Vaelora Spirit name: Veythar, the Last Engraving pr: 6 language: "Runes that carve themselves into minds, not ears" size: "Immense" skills: - name: History (Creation) desc: 6 - name: Command desc: 5 - name: Attune desc: 5 - name: Meditation desc: 4 dominion_power: 6 dominions: - name: Stone - name: Legacy attributes: - name: Might desc: 3 - name: Agility desc: 2 - name: Fortitude desc: 6 - name: Wit desc: 5 - name: Focus desc: 6 - name: Presence desc: 6 - name: Spirit desc: 6 - name: Cunning desc: 5 abilities: - name: "Script of Being (passive, PR6)" desc: "Everything in a 20m radius begins to display glyphs from the spirit’s will—armor, trees, even breath. Mortals who read too long gain visions or trauma (1 Slight)." - name: "Engrave the Real (active, 3 MD)" desc: "Choose a sentence or truth. It becomes real in a symbolic but potent way (GM fiat). The engraving lasts for the rest of the scene and affects all who witness it." - name: "Seal the Forgetting (active, 4 MD)" desc: "Choose a name, idea, or bloodline. Lock it into stone. It can no longer be destroyed, forgotten, or changed except by another PR6 spirit or Void event." token: Pasted image 20250805220259.png ```