The Cult of Dedun

Kush may be long gone, but its legacy lives on within the Nubian Kingdoms. One such legacy is the Cult of Dedun, the god of priests and the guardian of the dead. Under the direction of this cult, the pyramids of Napata and Meroë were raised, the rocktombs built, and the fields of the dead tended. They were the virtual rulers of Kush; by controlling the dead they could control the living. Their power was eventually crushed when King Arqamani, with the assistance of the priests of Apedemak, attacked the sacerdotal stronghold at Napata, slew the priests, and took custody of the royal dead.

Few in Nubia today suspect that this cult

Characteristics: Cun –2, Per –2, Pre –5, Com –6, Str +10, Sta +3, Dex +1, Qik 0

Size: +5

Confidence Score: 1 (3)

Virtues and Flaws: Improved Characteristics, Ferocity (in shallow water), Tough; Greedy

Mundane Qualities: Aggressive, Aquatic, Large Teeth, Pursuit Predator, Thick Scales, Tough Hide

Personality Traits: Hungry +6 Reputations: Killer 2 (Local)

Combat:

Bite: Init 0, Attack +11, Defense +7, Damage +13

Soak: +10

Fatigue Levels: OK, 0/0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious

Wound Penalties: –1 (1–10), –3 (11–20), –5 (21–30), Incapacitated (31–40), Dead (41+)

Abilities: Awareness 2 (prey), Brawl 5 (teeth), Hunt 4 (large fish), Survival 3 (Red Sea), Swim 5 (deep water)

Powers:

Swallow Whole (non magical): The scorpaena can swallow whole any creature of Size 0 or smaller. The creature can struggle to escape, but the confining nature of the gullet permits only Brawl attacks. It is impossible to breathe inside the fish, requiring deprivation rolls (ArM5, page 180) even if the victim escapes the grapple. Three rounds after being swallowed, the victim reaches the stomach. The powerful acids inflict +9 damage every round, complete immersion quadruples this to +36 (ArM5, page 181). A character may be able to brace himself and avoid complete immersion: make a Strength + Athletics roll each round: Ease Factor 6 results in only half immersion (triple damage), Ease Factor 9 results in immersion of a limb (double damage), and Ease Factor 12 means just a splash (normal damage). The fish cannot swallow a second creature until the previous one has reached the stomach.

Appearance: A hideous fish over six paces long with a toad-like mouth filled with razorsharp teeth. Its body is red, and festooned with rough nodules and long spines.

Small specimens of the scorpion fish — two feet long or so — are occasionally caught in the nets of Red Sea fishermen, but these statistics are for a twenty foot long horror. This template can also be used for the giant sharks that live in the Red Sea; these should be given the Fast Swimmer Quality, giving them a +3 bonus to all rolls involving speed when swimming.

could still exist, since the very concept of dealing with the dead is abhorrent. Nevertheless, they still lurk in graveyards and forgotten tombs, and other places of decay. The modern form of the cult is less orientated toward the preservation of the dead and more toward amassing power from controlling the dead. This reversal in emphasis is due to the subtle influence of the Red (see Chapter 1); whether its members realize it or not, the Cult of Dedun has become a corruptive force serving oblivion.

The Cult of Dedun is a Mystery Cult. It is highly secretive in nature, and divided into informal districts who worship at a particular grave site under the leadership of a temple priest. The temple priests meet once every few years to discuss stratagem. While ostensibly a religion, most of the members beyond the rank of adherent see the cult as a route to magical power rather than a form of worship, and its Mysteries are aligned to the Magic realm rather than that of Faerie. This is not to say that there are no believers — indeed, some priests become fanatical in their devotion to Dedun — but they do not delude themselves as to the true nature of the cult: it is a way of achieving life eternal. In the past, immortality might have been offered posthumously by the cult through becoming an akh (see Chapter 4), but corruption by the Red has lead to a cult that reveres bodily immortality through dominance of their decayed flesh.

Adherent

Adherents are the typical members of the cult. They come from all walks of life, but seek the restoration of the temporal power of the Cult of Dedun. Some families have been loyal adherents for centuries, and bring trustworthy sons and daughters for Initiation when they come of age. Others are wooed by the promise of power by friends and colleagues who have achieved the rank of altar priest. Others still may come to the cult through their curiosity regarding the graves of ancient Kush, or research into the extension of life or necromancy. The only requirements of them are to attend ceremonies of worship to Dedun, which are held at night in the local temple, usually four times a year. Members of the same congregation usually show each other preferential treatment in their daily lives, relying on the cult's Prohibition (gained upon Initiation to the rank of adherent) to maintain secrecy. Occasionally, a temple priest may ask an adherent for assistance, which they freely give.

Altar Priest

The altar priests are the deputy members of the cult; they assist the Temple Priest in his sacred duties to Dedun, and are responsible for maintaining the temple and keeping discipline among the adherents. Should an adherent become a liability to the secrecy of the cult, it is the job of the altar priests to silence him permanently. Each temple may have one or more altar priests, but there are

Benefit: none Ease Factor: 6 Script Bonus: n/a

Script Details: The Initiate is brought to the temple for the first time on a bier, dressed in a shroud and blindfolded by a death-mask cast from her own face. She bears some symbolic death wound on her body. In the silence of the temple, she is sprinkled with oil and fumigated with myrrh. The temple priest helps her into a sitting position, and asks her to swear a fearful vow, with all the spirits of the underworld as witnesses, to never reveal the existence of the cult to outsiders. This vow is enforced by the Prohibition Flaw. He then removes her death-mask, to witness the silent congregation, all wearing their own masks. Screaming like demons, they tear off her shroud and clothe her in a new garments.

Violating the cult's Prohibition causes Dedun's Shadow to pass over the oathbreaker. This is resolved like an aging Crisis (ArM5, page 170). Even if the character survives she suffers an adverse consequence from the stroke; this usually manifests as a paralyzed limb (Lame), shaking hands (Palsied Hands), or blighted speech (Afflicted Tongue).

Initiation is a means by which characters can acquire new Virtues through the completion of a task or series of tasks. The Initiation is guided by a Mystagogue, who, once the tasks have been completed, generates an Initiation Total equal to his Presence + Organization Lore + Script Bonus. If the Ease Factor is equaled or exceeded, then the Initiate gains the sought-after power. If the Mystagogue does not personally know the power then the Ease Factor is increased by 3 (if the power is a Minor Virtue) or 9 (if the power is a Major Virtue).

Characters with The Gift have a few advantages when seeking Initiation. Gifted characters can receive a bonus to initiation for previous Ordeals, meaning they can often avoid an Ordeal. UnGifted characters have to take an Ordeal Flaw every time they are Initiated into a new mystery. However, a different Initiation Script is needed to take advantage of this benefit, and not all cults have alternatives available. A final benefit, which does not need a separate script, is that only Gifted characters can Initiate others with a Mystery that they do not know themselves. This means that only Gifted characters can self-initiate into a Mystery.

The Initiation Scripts listed here are all designed for characters without The Gift, although Gifted characters can still use them. It is possible that the Cult of Dedun has different Initiation Scripts for Gifted characters to use, or else the character may discover them written in the ancient Meroitic language on long-forgotten monuments, or even invent her own. Rules for this, and more information on Initiation in general, can be found in The Mysteries Revised Edition or Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults. Details about unGifted Initiations are in Hedge Magic Revised Edition.

rarely more than four, except in particularly large congregations. Altar priests are expected to have an Organization Lore: Cult of Dedun of 1 or more, and a Meroitic of at least 3 to perform the rites to Dedun.

Only those with magical powers can benefit from the ranks above adherent. Having proved their loyalty to the cult, altar priests are released from their Prohibition, replacing it with a Vow; this allows them to recruit new adherents.

Temple Priest

There is only one temple priest per district. He is responsible for leading a congregation in the worship of Dedun, and usually has one or more altar priests to assist him. To be considered for this rank, a character must have an Organization Lore: Cult of Dedun of at least 3, and knowledge of Meroitic at 4 or more.

Upon Initiation to this rank, a temple priest must locate a tomb to become the focus of a new cult center, and obtain his own congregation of adherents; these may be inherited or stolen from his prior temple. Due to the Mystery acquired during Initiation to this rank, temple priests derive power from their own Decrepitude. They usually abandon their families and any pretense at a normal life, and take up residence in their temple, living in squalor and eating whatever they can scrounge from within the temple and its immediate vicinity. Some temple priests even feed on the bodies they steal for their court (see later); others rely on their altar priests to bring them sustenance. This retreat hastens the onset of aging (represented by a –3 Living Conditions modifier) and contributes to their burgeoning power. They believe that this punishment of the flesh leads to a greater purity of purpose in Dedun's service.

At this rank, the character begins to gather a "court" of interred bodies. Some temple priests keep their court at their temple, either on display to their congregation or hidden from view, while other priests prefer to secret their court away in a separate location. These bodies are usually of noteworthy people, famous (or infamous) in life. Each member of a priest's court must be prepared according to her own individual rite, established during her Initiation into this rank. Individual variations include how a body is prepared before

Benefit: Dedun's Blessing. The character can align Magic auras toward the dead. The level of the aura is doubled when the activity matches the alignment; in this case, any spells or powers specifically affecting the dead, the Magic Resistance of any dead or undead supernatural creature, and so on. To align the aura the character must perform a ceremony to Dedun in the aura at least once a season for a year. The aura must be of the Magic realm, and cannot have a prior alignment. You may then make a roll of Intelligence + Magic Lore + stress die against an Ease Factor of (9+aura level). If the roll succeeds, then the aura is aligned. If the roll fails, you receive a cumulative bonus of +1 to the next roll, which can be attempted after another year of seasonal rites. If you botch, the character aligns the aura to an entirely different magical focus. Several individuals may cooperate to align the same aura; each roll is made

separately, but any bonus for previous attempts is added together and applied to the rolls of all individuals taking part. The effects of Dedun's Blessing are permanent unless the level of the aura changes, in which case the alignment is lost. See Realms of Power: Magic page 15 for more details on aligned auras.

Ease Factor: 15 (Minor Virtue) Script Bonus: +7

Script Details: The Initiate must spend a season in seclusion at the temple, learning Dedun's rites from his Mystagogue (+3); this counts as a season of Teaching in Organization Lore: Cult of Dedun, or Meroitic. He must procure rare and expensive incenses for the temple at his own expense (+1), and learn to prepare and apply them correctly. As part of the ceremony, the Initiate loses the Prohibition Flaw gained as an adherent, but swears a Vow (as per the Flaw) of secrecy instead (+3).

burial (embalmed, mummified, stripped of flesh), how it is arrayed (dressed, wrapped in a shroud, posed in a particular position), and how it is interred (buried in the soil, encased in a sarcophagus, hung upon ropes, entombed in glass). All members of a court have the priest's name written in the Meroitic script somewhere with their body: some priests write it on a tablet and place it in the corpse's mouth; others etch it into the bones; and so on. This ritual preparation of the dead is sufficiently unique that the corpse becomes a permanent Arcane Connection to the priest, and the addition of the priest's name adds a sympathetic bonus to any who can read it.

The bodies that constitute a priest's court can have a number of different sources. They could be centuries old, liberated from their original graves and then reburied according to the priest's own rite. They could be fresh, stolen prior to their initial burial. It is not unknown for temple priests to stoop to murder to assure a quality corpse for their court. Bodies may even be stolen from other temple priests, although this is discouraged. Those corpses that have received a burial according to the rites of a Divine religion are avoided, since the burial service leaves them less suited.

A temple priest's court is rated according to its strength. This strength comes from the fame that each corpse had during his or her life; the more significant that they were, the higher the value to the priest. Each member of the court contributes the highest Reputation that it had in life to the total strength of the court, with a minimum of 1. A king has a Reputation of at least 7, more if he was particularly famous. A sub-king or major noble has a Reputation of 5 or more. If the body was interred in a Divine burial rite, reduce the effective Reputation by 3, with a minimum Reputation of 0; such bodies are therefore only added to a court if they had a Reputation of 4 or more. There is no limit to the size or strength of a court, save for the difficulty of obtaining high status corpses.

A temple priest receives no immediate benefit from her court's strength, apart from as a symbol of rank among her fellow priests. However, the court's strength is vital for obtaining and maintaining her power in the final Mystery of the cult.

The Undying Ones

The rank of Undying One can only be attempted once the character's Organization Lore: Cult of Dedun has reached a score of 5. Furthermore, the sum of the character's Warping Score and Decrepitude Score must equal or exceed 7. The details of this Initiation Script are available at just one known location, hidden among the writings on the monuments at Meroë, a site patrolled by the Kassalan Mortuary Society (see earlier) that opposes the Cult of Dedun. The Initiate must sneak or force her way into the tomb and translate the ancient writing to find the Initiation Script. There is no known copy; obtaining the Script is the first stage of self-Initiation.

Only Gifted characters can succeed in this Initiation, but this requirement is not generally known and unGifted postulants may still attempt it with no chance of success. Succeeding in the rite strips the character of both her humanity and her mortality, converting her into a Magic Human, but in the process destroys the Initiate's Gift.

Undying Ones are bound by the same rules as other Magic Characters (Realms of Power: Magic, Chapter 4). While not actually dead, an Undying One counts as a dead thing for the purposes of magic; for example, they receive a bonus equal to twice the aura level to their Magic Resistance if it has been aligned by an altar priest (see earlier); but are also vulnerable to Kassalan Exorcism (see earlier).

The character's corpse-court, so essential for the Initiation Script to become an Undying One, is also important for maintaining that state, since it can be used to stave off Acclimation. The court substitutes for a Magic aura of a level equal to one tenth (or fraction) of the total strength. A court of strength 62 can therefore substitute for a Level 7 aura, enough to allow an Undying One of Might 10 to only spend half her time dwelling among the bodies in order to avoid Acclimation. Note that no aura is actually generated by the court. Undying Ones usually continue to expand their court in order to maximize this benefit.

There are currently a dozen Undying Ones lairing along the Nile Valley.

Dedun's priesthood does not teach magic to its cultists in any systematic manner; the cult is not a magical tradition in its own right. Nevertheless, the Mystery Cult offers ways in which a wizard can gather power from decay and death, and it attracts all manner of unsavory magical practitioners to its ranks. Temple priests who are also sorcerers may take apprentices from among their congregation, usually Initiating them to the rank of altar priest when their apprenticeship ends. Dedun's cult is a way to power, and it attracts sorcerers and wizards who already have an interest in necromancy and dark forces. These individuals are

Benefit: Unnatural Vitality. A temple priest can draw magical power from her debilitation. She gains a bonus to all Casting Totals and Laboratory Totals equal to (3 x Decrepitude Score). In addition, if affected by a negative modifier to magical activities (from an aura, for example), you may reduce the penalty by up to (3 x Decrepitude), down to a minimum of zero penalty (this is in addition to the bonus to Totals mentioned earlier). Finally, she is less affected by the ravages of age: when her Decrepitude score exceeds 4 you do not need to make Crisis rolls for stressful activities, and she will not necessarily die of old age at a Decrepitude of 5. You receive a –3 bonus to your Crisis Total. Other consequences of Aging affect her normally.

Ease Factor: 21 (Major Virtue) Script Bonus: +15

Script Details: The Initiate must quest to find the first corpse to form the center of her new court; this individual must have had a Reputation of 5 or more during his life, and cannot have previously been exhumed since the initial burial (+6). The Mystagogue prepares the Initiate's body according to the Initiate's own instructions — the rite she will henceforth use for her court. Variations are permitted if the rite would normally be lethal to a living being, such as encasing in molten glass, but maintaining the symbolism is important. She must endure five days and nights as a corpse, a harrowing Ordeal that grants the Enfeebled Flaw (+9).

Benefit: Transformed Human. The character becomes a Magic Human, with a base Might of 0, aligned to the Corpus Form. You can raise this Might above the base using the total strength of the character's court, buying Might Score as if it were an Art. Therefore, a character with a court strength of 62 has a Might Score of 10. Once purchased, the character's Might score does not increase further even if the court strength subsequently increases. Like other Magic Humans she is now immune to Deprivation, Warping, and no longer ages, but she retains any effects of Warping and aging already accrued. The character loses her Warping Score, and retains her Decrepitude Score only for the effects of her Unnatural Vitality Mystery Virtue. She keeps all Virtues, Flaws, and Abilities she had in life. She acquires the Monstrous Appearance Magic Inferiority with no compensatory Qualities: she takes on a corpse-like appearance, either desiccated or rotting.

You have a number of points equal to her new Might score to spend on Magic Qualities and may take Magic Inferiorities to acquire more. You may take the Minor Virtue (Improved Characteristics) Magic Quality to buy back Characteristic points lost to aging, but this also reduces Decrepitude points by the same amount, and may reduce Decrepitude score.

Ease Factor: 21 (Major Virtue, –9 for previous Ordeal, +9 for self-initiation)

Script Bonus: +16

Script Details: The Initiation Script of Meroë requires that the character act as her own Mystagogue, and that she has undergone the previous initiation of temple priest and possesses the Ordeal Flaw of Enfeebled. The Script therefore only works for those who have The Gift. No variants are known that do not have these requirements. Finding the Script in the first place fulfills a minor quest (+1). The Initiation Script requires a year-long ritual, demanding that the character spends every waking hour chanting. Each organ and limb is blessed in turn: magically removed, cleansed, and replaced as part of the rite without harming the Initiate. Throughout this year, the character gains experience points for exposure only, and cannot miss a single day without having to start again (+4). This rite requires copious amounts of expensive incense (+1), and the burning of a pawn of vis every new moon (+1). As part of the cleansing process, the character suffers the Ordeal of losing The Gift (+9).

Losing The Gift

Undergoing this Initiation causes the character to lose her Gift. While this does not affect any magic that she already possesses, her ability to increase her magical power is curtailed. This has the following effects:

• She no longer has Favored Abilities or Arts, and cannot learn new Supernatural Abilities (ArM5, page 166).
• If her magical tradition uses spells or enchantments, she cannot invent new ones (including inventing under instruction from a Laboratory Text or tutor) unless she possesses the Supernatural Virtue for all Arts involved in the Lab Total.
• She can no longer use Initiation Scripts which do not have an Ordeal, or which rely on previous Ordeals.
• She loses all Hermetic Virtues and Flaws (these may only be possessed by Gifted characters).
• She cannot use certain Abilities that require The Gift, such as Parma Magica.