Church of the Sunless

Who can help us distinguish darkness from the soul?

Book of the Darklight 32:6

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Faction Overview

Perched on the roof of an old house, a blindfolded samurai sees what others don’t. Grabbing her sword, she jumps into a house where someone has just turned Darklight. She bravely stands before the creature, ready to end it’s misery.

A Shadar-kai stands in the middle of the forest, reaching his senses out for miles. Peering through a sea of white, he eventually discovers his target in a cave stretching deep underground. He and his partner, a blind Darkwrought, continue to track their quarry. Now that they’ve found it, nothing can stop them from succeeding in their hunt.

The Church of the Sunless stands for a strict, un-apologetic code of elimination. They abhor Darklights and have developed new ways to find and hunt them. Where other worlds would turn to gods for help, people of Shakai turn to the Church when a threat seems unbeatable to typical mortal forces. Their esoteric ways and zeal has turned into a religion, where people worship the order itself.

 

 

Beliefs

  1. Darklights are a festering problem.
  2. The best way to deal with Darklights is to hunt them.
  3. By eliminating Darklights and their influence, reality’s collapse can be stopped.

Goals

The Church of the Sunless has a goal to destroy all Darklights on Shakai. Although a Darklight doesn’t ‘die’ the same way as a mortal, they can be constrained or banished once killed. Some extreme members seek to destroy those who are not yet Darklight, but may be close. One thing they all agree on, is that Darklights are a threat too strong to leave unchecked and they must be eliminated.

Rank and Renown

Being a worshiper of the Church doesn’t grant rank. Rank is only granted by those who choose to deepen their ties to the cause of the Church, which includes a willingness to hunt Darklights in the world.

Although destroying any Darklight is considered a good deed to the Church, by being granted the blessing they provide it is expected to seek after those other Darklights that are more powerful and cause greater problems than the norm.

To join the Church, each person must go through a ‘baptism’ of shadow, which is to find your way through completely dark maze in the basement of their halls. At the end, the new member is handed a white trimmed, black blindfold. All members are expected to spend some time each day blindfolded. Some do so privately in meditation, while others try to go about portions of their day while blindfolded.

 

Seers & Assassins

The Church sends Sunless Assassins and Sunless Seers in pairs, as their abilities complement each other to hunt Darklights. They receive benefits of information and comfort as they travel and communicate with the clergy in their many Churches.

If a place you visit has a church, you can get the following benefits while staying there:

  • Your living expenses are covered at a Modest Lifestyle.
  • You may receive clues or information relevant for the area or its inhabitants.

Sunless Acolyte

Renown 1+

As an Acolyte, you receive necrium tattoos around your eyes. These magical tattoos work with your soul, so that when you die you retain all your memory.

To receive the tattoos, you must make an oath to take yourself to Sujin if you become too close to Darklight.

Sunless Assassin

After training blind, Sunless Assassins choose to give up their mundane eyesight in order to see the world through the lense of Spirit. To become a Sunless Assassin, you undergo a painful ritual where your eyes are replaced with swirling raw Anima. After the ritual, many Assassins choose to remain blindfolded for the length of their life, leaving a soft white glow shining through the fabric of the blindfold as the eery evidence of their ability.

See Without Eyes

Renown 7+

You are blinded, but you receive Blindsight 40ft. In this range, you see the world around you in soft shades of white, including some depth. Thus, you could read carvings, but not something written with ink on parchment.

[2nd part of this ability after session 1]

Renown 13+

Your Blindsight is now 90ft.

Sunless Perception

Renown 7+

1/Day, you may cast True Seeing without spell components.

Soul Mark

Renown 13+

2/Day, as a Bonus Action, you pick a creature that you can see to be Marked. You can always see the Marked creature, even if it is behind walls, barriers, or other mundane forms of concealment.

The marked creature cannot hide from you, and you see it as if with True Sight.

You know the distance and direction of the Marked creature. When you deal damage to the creature, add 1d8 radiant damage to one damage roll. A creature is marked until dawn.

Sunless Seer

Sunless Seers are known for being relentless, yet patient. Instead of taking their eyesight like their Assassin partners, they stretch their awareness of Anima to ‘see’ for miles.

Dark Meditation

Renown 7+

1/day, after at least 10 minutes of meditation, you sense the direction and distance of all Darklights within 10 miles of you. It lasts until you end your meditation.

While meditating, you are incapacitated and blinded. You may still communicate verbally.

Renown 13+

You may now use this ability 2/day.

Expanded Awareness

Renown 7+

1/day, as an action, you may peer deeper into the soul of a darklight that you see, have detected through Dark Meditation, or detected through a spell or other means.

You learn some truth or history of the darklight, which may include it’s recent doings, key moments of its life, or its motivations.

If the target creature is within line of sight, you may spend an action to compare a stat it has to yours, or learn any immunities or resistances it has. A creature is tracked this way until dawn.

Seek the Soul

Renown 13+

1/day, you can cast Scry without material components. If the target is a darklight within 10 miles, it is considered firsthand knowledge and as if you have a connected body part.

If you are a spellcaster, Scry is added to your list of spells known where it can be cast normally.

Lightblinder

Renown 20 and 14+ Levels

If you meet the prerequisites, your practice within the Church has taken you to break typical mortal limits. You add +2 to one Ability Score out of Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence. Your maximum for that Ability Score is also increased by 2.