My pain is a sacrament, through which I will ease the pain of the suffering…

“Flagellants”

To live is to sin.
The only way to cleanse thyself of sin is through pain.
Pain is a divine covenant between you and The Lord. Succumbing to pain is a sign of weakness of the flesh AND the soul.
Through the haze of agony you can feel God’s power enter you… sustain you.
You understand now that your flesh is weak, but by wounding your flesh, you are strengthening both it and your soul, and through this pain, you can ease the suffering of those who lack the moral strength that you do.

During the time when the Bubonic Plague was ravaging Europe, some monks and other devout people received “visions”. The Plague was meant to strike down the guilty. In order to purify their body’s and souls, these “monks” took to whipping themselves with barbed whips, hoping that the pain and blood they caused to themselves would cleanse them of the sin that condemned other people.

Religious visionaries who saw pain as a way of cleansing themselves are nothing new. Most religions have seen their fair share of them, and many assume that such a thing is a relic of the past. Rather, it would have been, had some of these Flagellants not stumbled upon a path to power from “God”.

The pain they cause themselves really DOES cleans them of sin, and the Magickal charges that they generate are in fact blessings from God… or so they believe. In fact, they seemed to have stumbled upon Epideromancy long before the Post-Modern era.

The central paradox is similar to that of Epideromancy. The Adept seeks to purify themselves, by destroying their bodies. However, most of the Formula spells for this path are based around helping others. The Adept also seek to help others by sacrificing their own bodies. Needless to say, Adepts on the path of the Flagellant often find themselves channeling The Martyr.

Within the Order of St. Cecil, there are those who take their devotion to The Lord a little… more seriously then the other members.

Random Effect: The Random Effects of Flagellants resemble biblical miracles. Water turns to blood, random flashes of golden light, shrubbery catching on fire… that kind of thing.

Blast Style: The target is burned with “The Light of God”. Really, the target takes damage as if touched with a red hot iron.

Minor Charge: Do at least 3 points of damage to yourself in a ritual fashion. (it is up to the player and GM to determine what this ritual entails)

Significant Charge: Wound yourself until you pass out from the pain. (You can not deliberately pass out, you must keep hurting yourself until your brain says “hell with this noise!” on it’s own.)

Major Charge: Permanently maim yourself in a ritual context. This is identical to the Epideromancer Major charge, except it must be done in a ritual fashion. Again, it is up to the GM and player to determine when it is a ritual situation.

Taboo: Missing any standard religious observances for the Adepts religion. Also, they must slavishly follow moral guidelines of that religion. Also, avoiding something because it would cause you pain would also cause you to loose your charges. (IE. Catholic Flagellants must attend church services every Sunday, and perhaps the daily Mass. They would probably have to take time out to visit the Confessional as well. Muslims would have to obey the 5 pillars. Failure to do so would cause a loss of charges.)

Flagellant Minor Formula Spells

Burn the Heretic
Cost: 1 minor charge
Effect: This is the Flagellant minor Blast. All you need to do is touch the target. The damage will resemble a 2nd degree burn in the shape of the casters hand. Combining this with hand-to-hand attack will only yield damage from the spell.

Healing Hand
Cost: 1 minor charge
Effect: When you cast this spell, the target gains back a number of wound points equal to a die roll. You can only use this to heal yourself of damage that you did not inflict upon yourself.

Faith of Steel, Body of Iron
Cost: 1 minor charge
Effect: You gain a Speed or Body shift of +10% until the next time you sleep. This will not give you more Wound points.

Unsleeping Servant of The Lord
Cost: 1 minor charge
Effect: This spell negates the need to sleep for one night. You feel perky and energetic for the next 16 hours. The following 8 hours you will feel normal.

Dominion over the Beasts of the Earth
Cost: 2 minor charges
Effect: After this is cast, you may command an animal to do something that it would understand. The command should be short, if only to avoid confusing the animal. A cat could “attack a man”, but a squirrel would not know how to “hot-wire that dune buggy”. Animals that don’t understand the first order will simply stare at the Flagellant until they are given an order they DO understand.

Wisdom of God
Cost: 3 minor charges
Effect: After Casting this spell, you may ask one question, and receive the correct answer.

Flagellant Significant Formula Spells

All Things Shall Pass… Through my Flesh
Cost: 1 significant charge
Effect: Your body becomes so resistant to damage, that it simply heals itself instantly. You only take damage equal to the numbers on the tens die. This spell starts the round it is cast, the moment it is cast. It lasts a total of 3 rounds.

Calming Aura
Cost: 1 significant charge
Effect: After casting this spell, no one around the caster may act violently. Everyone within a radius of feet equal to the casters Flagellant rating must make a soul check at –20% in order to physically attack anyone. This lasts for roughly half an hour. People with 10 hardened marks in Violence may ignore this. The Caster has no penalties to attack anyone. However, if they do, they loose their charges AND everyone in the radius must make a Soul check NOT to attack the caster.

The Flesh Becomes Pure
Cost: 1 significant charge
Effect: When you cast this, you permanently gain 3 wound points. You may no have more then 250 wound points. This also does not heal wounds, it only makes it less serious overall.

Strength of God/Speed of God
Cost: 1 significant charge
Effect: this spell can be used to increase the Speed or Body stat by 5%. You gain no wounds by getting a higher body. You cannot increase a score over 85%.

Fire of Heaven
Cost: 1 significant charge
Effect: Much like “Burn the Heretic”, only the damage is much, much worse, and the effect is much more… spectacular. The GM should use their imagination when describing this one.

Destroying the Flesh of the Heretic
Cost: 3 significant charges
Effect: After touching the target, you can reduce their Body or Speed by the total of the dice. (IE, rolling a 34 would cause them to lose 7 points from Body or Speed)

Strength through Purity
Cost: 5 Significant charges
Effect: you can increase your Body, Speed or Wounds by X, where X is the total of the dice you rolled to cast this. Using this, you can increase your Body or Speed above 85%, but your wounds still cap at 250. Also, raising Body does not increase wounds, and vice-versa.

Flagellant Major Effects
Raising people from the dead, causing food to appear, healing more permanent disabilities in people…

(So, I was thinking of the Flagellant monks of medieval Europe, and Epideromancy, and figured that these would make pretty disturbing agents for the Order of St. Cecil. What do you guys think? I copied most of the powers from Epideromancy, and switched out the ones dealing with changing appearance, since they seemed kind of OOC for these guys.)