Sith Geomancy

[Darth Nyrys]

Geomancy

 

Sith Geomancers are masters of the craft of remaking nature to suit their own terrible purposes. Similar to fulgurmancers in the use of tools to enhance their sorcerous powers, but instead of ruthless science, the geomancers believe that the emotional and moral alignment of tools are of vital importance. Geomancers call this alignment process the Actualization, and believe that if they can remake key points in the galaxy they can seize control of the natural order and rewrite it as they see fit, an agenda that they call the Great Work. Geomancers seek apotheosis, and are the epitome of better to rule in hell than serve in heaven. And if they have to make the entire galaxy hell to secure their rule, then so be it.

 

Actualization isn’t just some esoteric ritual with occult symbols and forgotten languages, it’s the process of torturing people and then binding them to inanimate objects and places to imbue them with the awareness of pain and suffering. In the temples of the geomancers, the walls are truly screaming.

 

Geomancers also possess a strange fascination with statuary and renditions of faces in various  states of emotional expression such as suffering, regret, hatred, and terror. Many geomancers adorn their robes with amulets of these sculpted faces and use them in their rituals. Geomancers also have a tendency to use sculpted faces displaying extreme emotion as masks, as opposed to the faceless masks that Sith often employ.

 

The bleeding of kyber crystals is believed by many to be the origin of this school of sorcery, or at least the seed that eventually inspired sorcerers to attempt the same process on a galactic scale. Crystals are another major aspect of geomantic sorcery, acting as lenses that distort the energies in ways that suit the needs of the sorcerer. Many geomancers are particularly interested in the crafting of holocrons, and the geomancers have a prophecy that when one of their number succeeds in the Great Work that they will use the holocrons of the greatest sorcerers to restore them to life eternal in the new galactic order.

 

Alchemy is a favored pastime of geomancers, and considered a more small-scale expression of the Great Work. They will often offer consultation and tutoring to Sith warriors who seek better understanding of alchemy for the crafting of arms and armor. Geomancers often use rock hammers as ritual tools and symbols of office.

 

Geomancy doesn’t have sects like most of the other sorcerous disparities, since everyone is united by a common goal. Instead, the geomancers tend towards gathering into cults of personality, exalting the most talented and powerful amongst their numbers in the hopes that their chosen horse will cross the finish line first and that they will ascend at their side.

 

Geomancy Spells

 

Crushing Glare: The geomancer presses upon an individual with all of their hate and will, attempting to pulverize the target with the Dark Side. Apprentices who use this spell require both considerable time and focus to make this spell reach its lethal conclusion, and have trouble overcoming the resistance of sturdy armor. Lords have greater fine control over the spell, allowing them to target specific limbs with increased pressure(The head has inherent greater resistance and most geomancers don’t even bother outside of the most simple and weakminded targets), and can compromise the structure of hard armor quicker. Masters can rend armor and incorporate it into the attack, and their victims feel heavily burdened by the power of the spell, leadening their limbs and slowing their movements.

 

Distillation: The ritualistic act of reducing a victim to their base emotions, and then collecting the negative ones for use in the Great Work. There are two methods to achieve this, the collection of the victim in a Sith victory crystal, which preserves the identity of the victim to varying degrees and is such a destructive act that the body explodes with terrible kinetic force, and pulverization of the victim, where the body is ground down like herbs in a mortar and pestle. This latter method produces the more pure results, but in their own ways Sith are creatures of sentiment, so the choice between an everlasting trophy and a perfect reagent is rarely an easy one following a difficult and hard fought battle. This is a post duel victory power.

 

Gaol of Aeons: Geomancers are not the most easy people to be around, and so sometimes they resort to their powers for companionship. Using a variation of the process used to create holocrons, the Sith captures a “snapshot” of a person, and creates a simulacrum that has a level of awareness and sapience that allows it to converse. Only people attuned to the stone or crystal that the simulacrum is trapped in can hear them, causing this to be one of many reasons that bystanders doubt the sanity of geomancers. The simulacrum is unable to be manipulated by the Force, and has no physical body to torture, so Sith who use this power to obtain information usually end up destroying the cage out of frustration rather quickly. Older and more experienced Sith use this power to discuss matters of philosophy and reason with a literally captive audience while they wait for their reagents to complete the Actualization process. 

 

The size and intricacy of these prisons determine how complex of a personality they can contain, with the greatest minds requiring structures worthy of being temples in their own right. Attempting to store a mind in a device of insufficient capacity results in the destruction of the prison. Gaols are like the slabs of marble that a sculptor will carve down into a statue, and are a stepping stone to creating golems.

 

Screaming Maul: A two handed ritual hammer with an enraged expression crafted on the face. The geomancer uses the implement to channel concussive attacks ranging from rending terrible gouts into the earth to smashing great breaches into walls. Geomancers are terrible at close quarters fighting, but if they somehow manage to hit someone with this ridiculously large tool, that person is going to have a very bad time, regardless of armor.

 

Pick of Suffering: Another ritual tool, this time in the shape of a small mining pick. This occult implement is used to conjure curses that warp and expand bone inside the bodies of enemies, causing extreme agony from within. Apprentice sorcerers can cause internal barbs of bone to sprout, lords can attempt to twist and malform a victim’s skeletal structure, and masters can try to skewer opponents with great spikes from within. These spells require a great deal of concentration, and interruptions force the sorcerer to start over from the beginning. Wounds inflicted with the pick can cause spontaneous uncontrolled bone growths. Mechanically speaking, this curse requires a set up post of full concentration that the opponent can attempt to break before the curse coming into effect in the following post.

 

Juggernaut: Geomancers believe that they will craft the new galactic order, and so they practice for when the reins of creation will be in their hands. Juggernauts are animated constructs of actualized stone and crystal that are provided a simple level of sentience and the rage of thousands of lives distilled into pure hatred. While not particularly complex, juggernauts serve as a stepping stone towards crafting more intricate housings for minds. Most geomancers make juggernauts ranging from the size of a gorilla to an elephant, but in times of war geomancer cabals can construct massive assault golems with warshines inside of them that can trample cities. Juggernauts are too stupid to understand any kind of weapon outside of big and smashy, and generally discard bladed weapons given to them in favor of something that can be used as a club.

 

Gargoyle: A more advanced form of golem that contains an animal’s mind, gargoyles are often used as animated sentries perched upon Sith temples. While gargoyles possess predatory cunning, like the juggernauts the use of weapons and tools eludes them. Geomancers will often use the minds of their favored pets to make gargoyles, and these constructs are often treated better than most of the slaves and servants.

 

Clockwork Valet: A golem designed to function as a servant and assistant that over time becomes obsessively possessive and protective of their master, often going so far as to murder people that they perceive to be inconveniences or distractions to their makers. Valets are almost entirely sourced from the minds of loyal slaves. Many geomancers both abuse their valets and depend upon them to perform basic and vital tasks of upkeep and wellbeing. There is rumored to be at least one case of a valet putting their master into a coma to keep them safe while the golem sees to the master’s affairs. 

 

Marble Idyll: A carefully crafted golem that houses the mind imprint of someone that the geomancer values as an advisor, confidante, or conversationalist. Alternatively, a golem for someone that the geomancer is preserving to offer a place in the new galactic order. Idylls have elaborately decorated shells and meticulously crafted features of stone, and inevitably develop issues with vanity and self importance. If an idyll feels like their creator is in some way underwhelming or undeserving of their intellect, they will abandon them for a greater master. This behavior has led some Idylls to form cults seeking prophesied chosen ones that read like the protagonists of badly written fanfiction.

 

Idylls have a propensity for bringing out the worst convictions in their masters, and enthusiastically push for anything that would bring about the Great Work. Despite their great intellects, the idylls are the truest and deepest believers in the philosophy of the Great Work, to the point of possessing carefully masked zealous radicalism. To these extremists, no price is too steep to pay for the creation of paradise.

 

Amaranthine Heart: It was inevitable that geomancers would turn their attention to that most basic and binding of emotions, love. The Amaranthine Heart is a ritual that is meant to bring about the geomancers’ sick and twisted idea of love, and involves the replacement of a victim’s heart with a Sith amulet similar in nature to a holocron, encoded with the Sith’s insane beliefs of what the perfect lover would be like. Upon implantation, the victim has one of two nightmare scenarios to look forward to.

 

If the host rejects the heart, then they slowly find themself transforming into a golemic being that has been twisted into someone that would accept the heart. This process hollows out the victim, turning them into little more than a subservient echo of who they once were, as their body transmutes into precious materials. Finding the end result lacking, geomancers will generally discard or sequester these golems, or use them as expendable shields in battle.

 

If the host accepts the heart, they become attuned to the geomancer, acting as a battery and signal booster for the sorcerer’s power. Their eyes and bones begin to crystalize, and Dark Side mutations will begin rapidly manifesting. The victim will slowly develop an obsession with and dependency on the geomancer, eventually becoming utterly devoted to their new master or mistress.

 

Rarely, a geomancer will perform the ritual on an apprentice, either out of genuine lustful desire or the intent to use the process as a means of control, or alternatively the sorcerer might implant a heart into someone whose connection to the Force was unknown to them. In these situations, a battle of will ensues for control of the talisman, with failure resulting in one of the two above results. If the would-be victim succeeds in mastering the heart, it alters them permanently, but not in a way that makes them subservient to the one that performed the ritual. Instead, the amulet becomes a reservoir for emotion, a wellspring that the person can draw upon or project onto others. The person can no longer feel of their own accord, but they can collect the emotional energy of those around them, or attempt to drain it like a psychic vampire, and consciously choose their emotions. While the Amaranthine Heart is created in darkness, it aligns itself to the morality of the one that controls it. Cases of non Force users conquering the heart are extremely rare, but not impossible.     

 

Cherubic Fetch: Not all golems that the geomancer creates are meant for companions. Geomancy is built on the idea that the natural order can be subverted and controlled, but some geomancers either instinctively are drawn to the concept of creating a legacy and a lineage, or believe that children are another part of the natural order that they will change. Cherubic fetches are child sized golems that often resemble oversized dolls. Many times geomancers obsessed with crafting the perfect legacy will kidnap children that meet whatever insane qualifiers are in their heads and put them into golems as a completely mad form of rebirth and adoption. Another common cause comes about when geomancers accidentally murder their actual children in a fit of rage, and then desperately shove the pieces of their shattered minds into a fetch to try and preserve them until the completion of the Great Work where they might be resurrected by the Sith’s newfound powers. Some geomancers even intentionally murder their non Force sensitive children out of a twisted sense of love, believing that they will be able to remake them as Force users once the Great Work is achieved.

 

Cherubic fetches are smaller than standard golems, move considerably faster, and oscillate between feral violence and the performance of childlike innocence concealing considerable malevolence. Occasionally fetches will have moments of genuine curiosity or glee, but they are the minds of children put in murder robots, so those moments are rare, or inspired by sadistic impulses. Cherubic fetches, if given the opportunity, will gather and form packs, socializing and hunting in tandem with other fetches. Older fetches, driven by desires for attention and companionship, will often try to create brothers and sisters, or if they feel like they’re being neglected, a parent figure. These attempts often produce mixed results, but are always gruesome affairs. Places with considerable geomancer presence often suffer infestations of roaming packs of cherubic fetches that have outlived their makers. 

 

Dark Spirits: Not actually ghosts, but rather the use of distilled emotions and sensations to create Dark Side infused liquors. Often colloquially referred to as Sith poison by uncultured ingrates and people that have only been exposed to moonshine equivalent of these beverages, the art of creating these occult libations is heavily valued amongst the geomancers, who see a great many parallels between their sorceries and the alcohol making process. While rage inducing concoctions are the most known form of this process, distillers can instill a multitude of emotions in their craftings, and batches meant for recreational use are generally more subtle affairs. Speaking of affairs, passionate and lurid affair is an actual flavor and emotional note that they can put in the bottle.  

 

Sommeliers and distillers can make considerable bank selling quality bottles and serving as drinking advisors to wealthy Sith and nobles with a taste for the forbidden. The most successful have labels that they favor in general but also offer their services in locating or crafting bottles to satisfy the specific needs of clients. Much of the Great Work is funded by these Sith, who share a friendly(ish) rivalry with the vitae vintners of the biomancy disparity. There are also Sith from all paths of darkness that make their livings hunting down rare and exotic ingredients, which are oftentimes specific people.  

 

Amulet of Dark Resonance: A crystalline Sith amulet that allows the Sith to take the form of a person that onlookers most associate with a specific negative emotion. The glamour has an ethereal quality that makes it a poor disguise, but its purpose is more along the lines of eliciting emotions from people.

 

Amulet of Diffraction: A Sith amulet that is the Force equivalent to shooting rock salt out of a shotgun, but with greater spread. The beams range from painful to injurious, but are too diffused to be lethal.

 

Amulet of Focus: An amulet that allows the sorcerer to project a concentrated blast of Dark Side energy into an enemy. Apprentices are limited largely to more concussive force than actual penetrating power, while lords can imbue the blasts with intrinsic destructive force, and masters can effectively use the amulet as a death ray, boring holes into armor. Amulets of Focus are not hair trigger weapons, and require a few seconds from activation to concentrate their energies. 

 

Amulet of Ceaseless Crawling Torments: This amulet, both valued and hated by geomancers, disperses Dark Side energy in pulsing fractals and spiraling impossibilities in every direction. To be caught in the pull of this maelstrom has been described as feeling like finger sized worms are burrowing their way through the victim’s flesh and organs. It is a fantastic means for disrupting concentration. There’s just one problem, it effects everyone caught in range, including the geomancer. Many attempts have been made to make the effect directional, but none have succeeded, to the continued lament of the sorcerers.   

 

Lantern of Sundered Realities: Emotions and sensations aren’t the only things that geomancers can distill out of people. By carefully picking what victims they render down into their base mental elements, and filtering that distillation, the geomancers can refine pure madness into liquid form. Sorcerers can then use this liquid to fuel lanterns that temporarily warp the minds of whoever the lantern’s light falls upon. Some geomancers carry these lanterns into battle hooded so that they may direct their baleful glow on enemies, others use them in holding areas for prisoners to prime them for processing, or to break people so that they might serve the whims of the sorcerer. These are blunt instruments, the realm of madness is more the bailiwick of auramancers, but they remain useful nonetheless.

 

Lantern of Glorious Vision: Discovered through cordial collaboration with the biomancer vintners, this Sith artifact casts a light that shows anything that it touches in the context of the geomancer’s vision for paradise after the completion of the Great Work. If a person is fully in the light of the lantern, it shifts their perspective of everything around them, blanketed by the vision of the geomancer. For Dark Siders and people suffering temptation to the Dark, the lantern reveals an idyllic paradise of pleasure and beauty. For anyone who is neutral or standing with the Light, the lantern reveals a hellscape where the natural order has been destroyed and the power that usurped it has crumbled, unable to emulate the intricacies and balances of creation.

 

These lanterns are made through repeated blood drawings from the sorcerer, which are then used to alchemically treat the lantern’s glass. Particularly devout geomancers will use blood treated glass in the creation of all lighting in their temples and inner sanctums, or in mirrors to test potential apprentices and servants. 

 

Talisman of Pulverizing Unmaking: In order to get the most out of their victims, the geomancers will resort to a number of tools and curses to tenderize the meat, so to speak. One of them is a crystal eyed talisman, sometimes crafted as a scepter or amulet, other times worked into the sorcerer’s mask, that inundates those caught in the sight of the “eye” or “eyes” with debilitating shame, regret, and guilt. At close range, a master can use such a talisman to inflict crippling panic attacks on the weak willed and the mentally unprepared. 

 

It’s not uncommon for geomancers to use the talismans on slaves, either as part of the initial breaking process, or as a form of discipline for improper attitudes or failings real or imagined. Even slaves of other Sith whisper fearfully of stories of masters calling in geomancers to “re-educate” undisciplined or rebellious slaves. It’s a reputation that the geomancers have leveraged into a seal of “quality” for slaves that have been processed by them, allowing them to ask for significantly higher prices.  

 

There was a geomancer that covered her robes with eyes, but it was only a handful of battles before her fellow Sith murdered her in her sleep, having been caught in the crossfire accidentally too many times. The robes were torn asunder and now serve as both historic pieces and reminders that the Great Work will take many hands to complete.

 

Even aside from the cautionary tales of the past, these talismans are somewhat rare, as the crystals are actually formed from alchemically altered tears of the Sith that seeks to craft the talisman. 

 

Glove of Dissonance: A talismanic glove that is used for torture, or meditation by the masochistic. This terrible device uses trembling palpitations in the body to disrupt the functions of the organs, impair vital functions, and otherwise toy with a person right up to the cusp of being lethal. Not much else to say here, just straight up torture.

 

The First Sin: One of the most unholy acts that geomancers can do is the one that started their entire disparity. Bleeding Kyber crystals and using alchemy to create unnatural lightsaber crystals are acts of profanity that are performed with the greatest of reverence. For each crystal bled or formulated, the sorcerer has brought their people one step closer to the completion of the Great Work. Geomancer robes are often adorned in some way as to denote the number of blasphemies that the wearer has brought upon the galaxy. 

 

Many Sith hold that geomancer bled or formulated crystals are the most powerful, trading gimmicks for sheer might and reliability. More so than other Dark Side crystals, these emit the smell of burnt ozone and possess a red color that makes no effort to hide its transgressive nature. While geomancers are just as hopeless with lightsabers as the next sorcerer, many of their rituals involve the use of lightsabers in ritual displays and katas.

 

Errata and Esoterica

 

Architects, no really, actually architects: It didn’t come up in the powers section, but for obvious reasons another vocational hobby common to geomancers is architecture. The design of temples, palaces, and mansions is considered a form of mental preparation for the completion of the Great Work, and conversing about architectural design is a common go to for geomancers. Civilian architects that show considerable talent are often consulted or abducted by geomancers, and in the latter case doomed to be imprisoned in crystal or transferred into a golem.

 

Saved by Timmy the retail assistant: Geomancer apprentices have to start small with who they capture in crystal, not having the skill, funding, or backing to create a gaol that can hold a more complex mind. Depending on how much the geomancer interacts with these early phantoms of thought, they may question the choices that they are making, and the path that they are on. Coupled with the fact that geomancy demands inhumanity early and often from its students, blatantly evil acts that might cause guilt or regret that can’t be voiced to other Sith, geomancers have some of the highest desertion rates out of all of the disparities. Senior geomancers consider it a culling of the weak and convictionless, and don’t hold any specific hatreds towards these dropouts. 

 

Touching Grass: Sometimes however, a master geomancer will experience clarity and either realize the critical failings of the Great Work, or see the natural order as the nobler endeavor. This is considered a wholly different matter than an errant apprentice, and a transgression against the entire disparity to have understood so much about the Great Work and then abandoned it. Even worse, these wayward masters understand the strategies and rituals needed to bring about the Great Work, making them a considerably greater threat to its completion. Geomancers will organize grand hunts and offer obscene bounties for the capture or murder of master apostates from their ranks. Apostates tend to seek out Jedi training in naturalism, and fight to stop the great work before it destroys the galaxy.

 

Nesters: A type of Sithspawn that occurs due to heavy exposure to geomantic energies, early symptoms manifest as anxiousness and hoarding of abandoned or broken pieces of Sith items and artifacts. The victim begins developing insistent intrusive thoughts that whisper that there is going to be a day of judgment, and that only by becoming worthy will they be allowed to enter heaven. As these thoughts intensify, victims begin to implant shards into their flesh, or cut off limbs and replace them with discarded golemic parts. They begin prowling at night, dragging lone strangers back to their home to be sacrificed as a show of devotion, desperately trying to convince their mysterious dark lord or lady that they are worthy. But no one is watching them, and the voices in their heads are nothing more than the ravings of a poisoned mind.

 

Alchemical Refuse: When distilling people, there is always a pulp left behind. Sometimes it’s used to fortify rations, sometimes it’s burned, sometimes it’s shoved to the side to make room for more processing. When left to its own devices, this mass of blood, viscera, and bone shards can develop a level of sentience. Driven only by the desire to consume and expand, these Sithspawn mockingly reflect the true nature of the geomancers. Incredibly hard to kill, and stubbornly immune to any form of command, even of the mystical sort, the Sith are trying to implement better methods for dealing with alchemical waste, but it is the Sith that we are talking about, so there will always be people looking to cut corners. The largest documented case of this type of Sithspawn grew to the size of a city block, and had to be incinerated by sustained orbital bombardment.