Zûn

Drāgyr Zûn

Zûn practices deal with the drawing down of Arcane Magic from external sources. Often regarded as the most potent of the drāgyr, the price of power is believed to come at an awesome price. On several recorded occasions, powerful magicians have inexplicably self-destructed, vanishing without trace. The hierarchy within the Circle seems erratic and ever-changing. Those that are not destroyed often were driven mad, or horribly altered.

The Zûn affiliation with “dark” powers is not unknown, nor do magicians of the Circle deny such relations. This is not to say that Zûn magicians admit to such relations, only that nothing is denied. The goals of the Drāgyr Zûn are ambiguous to onlookers, if not non-existent. Some believe that some great agenda is being followed at the cost of innocent souls. it has been suggested that the Circle of Zûn was created in antiquity to orchestrate a single act of vengeance, a plot orchestrated over the span of centuries. If some greater plan is the focus of their activities, it is not believed to have been realized before the Dekàlas downfall.

All Zûn mages were not known to be “evil”, but those that are not often are desperate characters seeking magic at the ignorance or denial of cost. In the final times of Dekàlas, the Circle of Zûn became a favored pawn of the Empire elite.

Their sign was a black circle, or more often (in later renditions), an eclipse.

Concentrations

  • Ælàmra
  • Ilûm
  • Inkàðura
  • Kadàktrū
  • Or Dnur
  • Phlōgòstrū
  • Vorbid

Members

The Circle of Zûn wears black robes and long hair. An apparent Zûn custom is to make a hair-bead from the bone of a victim, killed in a specific fashion. Some forms of status within the drāgyr can be judged by the number and quality of these beads.

The Drāgyr Zûn are not picky about who joins its harrowed ranks, but seem content instead that more fresh bodies are present to absorb the toll of the groups activities. Although members of the drāgyr may enjoy more freedom than those of other Circles, there are instances of “Calling” where all local members are required to take part in the ceremonies and ritual of higher members.

Zûn characters should not travel far from their Circle without explicit permission from that group.

Locations

  • Ildûn
  • Oð

Spells

Few “outsiders” can guess at the dark powers that the Zûn summon to power their magics. The Draga Zûn is different from other magics in ways that are noticeable and feared by other magicians. The most noticeable difference is the Warping and shuddering effects that Zûn casting causes in the surrounding Skein.

Perhaps the most famous scholar to study the Drāgyr Zûn, was Kar Ōmad, an Æzàlar magician who lived in a place where the drāgyr had its greatest following. Kar Ōmad wrote that the Zûn magicians did not connect to the Skein in the usual fashion, but rather channeled their power through other more distant sources. Furthermore, he noted that the Zûn process of magic more similarly resembled priest magic (i.e., Spirit Magic) than that of Arcane magicians; the difference being that Drāgyr Zûn magic did not have divine roots (rf. Spirit Magic). Kar Ōmad made his life study to learn more about Drāgyr Zûn, in the hopes of revealing the Circle’s terrible secrets to the Circles and having the group outlawed and hunted to extinction.

Kar Ōmad’s most famous observations were done while working with Jzar the Mad, a magician “respected” by the Drāgyr Zûn. Jzar had prepared a series of elaborate designs in the basement of an old tavern somewhere in the Vast Untamed. Following an equally elaborate series of Weavings, the magician was consumed by a horrible presence that spoke at length in a tongue (i.e., Neðàric) reported by Kar Ōmad that was “unworldly”. At the end of this “conversation”, Jzar looked at Kar Ōmad (his assistant) and announced that he would murder the intruder. Kar Ōmad fled the building and according to popular history, was able to compose the final pages to his observations before he disappeared. A small package with the enclosed pages were found centuries later in an Æzàlar bazaar.

So what is the nature of Drāgyr Zûn? Suffice to say, no one outside the Circle knows for sure. Within the drāgyr, the “Source” is referred to in many ways, most commonly as “The Unspeakable”. All Zûn magicians are Channelers, summoning large amounts of power from distant and vast reservoirs. Kar Ōmad’s writings hint that those reservoirs might be sentient, though no supporting evidence for his theories survive. Whatever the source, it is known that Zûn magicians call upon forces that wreak an awful toll physically and mentally.

  • Call of the Living Flame (krēádra Phlōgòstrū)
  • Cazùrul’s Eyes (endàrtra Kadàktrū)
  • The Consuming Blade (krēádra Phlōgòstrū)
  • Mask of Fright (endàrtra Kadàktrū)
  • Mindfire (krēádra Kadàktrū)
  • Nadam’s Pocket (mūátra Teréðrū)
  • Phantoms of Nolghvi (endàrtra Kadàktrū)

Nomenclature: Zuun Dekàlic: Zûn (circle), Zûni (pertaining to), Zûnyn (member), Zûnyr (members), Zûnic (cant)