Ilanna

The Bonder

• What is a Bonder?

  Bonders are a sub-species of humans with an affinity towards magic distinct to the region of Deleros where the ability to manifest and produce magical powers is entirely dependent on a bond created between two beings, one gifted with an innate affinity to magic and one who is not. Through this union, only one acquires the means to utilize the power where the other pays the price for it. While no one knows how the first bonder came to be, legends speak of the First being a devire and that each being in which that devire had used for mana, became affected by their sorcery. Should that individual reproduce, the likeliness of producing a bonder child was increase exponentially.
  
  The bond between a mageborn, as they are called, and their bonded companion is known as the tethering, which is a ritual where the mageborn forms a spiritual connection with another, represented by a near transparent ethereal thread. This tether not only links the two in essence, but makes them vulnerable to one another on a much more intimate and personal level where they can comprehend or even feel one another’s deepest emotions. While tethered, the gifted of this relationship becomes the conduit for the potential power they wield whereas the other sacrifices aspects of their being to fuel this power.
  
  There are two types of bonders, a devire/ active (male) and a dius/ passive (female). The more common of the two, the devire, are the spell weavers and beneficiary of this bond. They siphon the necessary resources to fuel the spells from their companion, the donor, with little to no personal harm to themselves. The other type of bonder is known as a dius, in which plays a more supportive role in comparison to their counterpart. Instead of being the beneficiaries and weavers of magic, a dius is the donor and source of that power. By tethering themselves onto another, particularly someone without any innate magical gifts, the dius grants them newfound abilities they would otherwise not possess.
  
  There are four different types of magic pertaining to bonders and these types are referred to as wells. They are body, mind, spirit, and blood, each requiring a specific price while affecting the beneficiary in a different way. Each dius only has access to just one well while a devire has access to all four and can choose which resource (mana) to drain from their donor freely.

• The Dius

  Dius are a rarity among bonders, but are now more prominent than devires since the Ascension War, and are also being hunted by the Emperor in order to keep his enemies powerless. Most Dius have learned to keep their abilities hidden since Emperor Macaro's claim to the throne, but remain to be captured or killed to this day.
  
  Dius differ from Devires in the sense that they are ones to pay the price of power in the tethering, not their bonded companion. What this means is that unlike Devires who can draw a limitless supply from a number of different beings, a Sponsor can only offer what is in their own mana pool, and depending on the type of bonder they are, could never regain what they lost. Another huge difference between a dius and a devire is that the act of tethering is more sacred to the dius.
  
  A devire is the beneficiary of their tether, the caster of spells, the avatar of the power they wield. They learn early how to master their powers through experience and thus, have no real reason to be attached to anyone in particular while tethering. A dius cannot wield the power that comes from their sacrifice. They must rely on someone else to be the outlet for their power. Thus, dius often choose to stay with only one person and one person only. This can extend a bond beyond magical means and create a more intimate and personal relationship between the dius and the beneficiary. If the beneficiary were to die, the lost may be so great to the dius that they may never want to tether to another being again
  
  Another difference between bonders is the manner of spellcasting. While devires have the ability to freecast, conjuring spells at will and weaving them around without much cause for concern, a dius' spells are contained inside arcane runes of their creation. To harness a spell, the dius would have had to preemptively thought up the spells effects pertaining to their distinct well and assign it to its own runic design. The rune is then taught to their beneficiary, who must draw the rune in order to manifest the spell's effects. The manner of spellweaving varies based on the well (i.e. blood runes must be drawn in the dius' blood, body runes must be etched into someone's flesh, particularly the beneficiary, mind runes are drawn in thin air, and soul runes are drawn on the objects being animated). The spells themselves must be held to memory however, for if they are forgotten by the dius, then the rune cannot be tapped even if mana was paid as the price. Thus, most dius tend to keep record of all spells they create and store it in a spellbook. If the spellbook is lost, they have to recreate each spell from the beginning. The power or effects of the spell judges the amount of mana needed to be paid in order to activate the rune. In some cases, more than one rune can be activated to unleash a chain of events that has the potential to be as destructive as a devire's freecast spell.
  
  When choosing someone to bond with, a dius may rely on patience, caution, and trust before making their decision. They may shadow someone, observe how they act, what they do, how they treat others, and gauge their overall character before ever approaching them. That or the dius (if known) could be approached by others. When this happens, the act of tethering almost never happens immediately. The dius would sit down with the prospect and explain the process, the magic in which they are attuned with, how to wield this power and the strength and weakness that comes from it. They would ensure that the other understood the chemistry and importance of tethering as once the two bond, whatever control the Sponsor would have would potentially be lost.
  
  If they come to an agreement and the Sponsor is comfortable, he or she would initiate the tethering. This creates a thread of spiritual energy that a project from the dius’s chest and onto their prospect’s, joining them in magical union. While tethering is used to pass power and resource between the two, it also sheds whatever physical barriers that existed before hand. Both would have a heightened understanding of one another almost immediately and while they could not read one another’s thoughts, they could feel or even share their emotions on an empathic level. It is after this point in which the dius becomes vulnerable, as their essence and resource is fully exposed for their partner to absorb.
  
  The passing of energy becomes a balance of give or take; where the dius gradually projects the mana into their partner and the beneficially gradually extracts and pulls it from the host. If the dius pushes too much, they risk overwhelming the beneficiary or even depleting their own mana too fast. The same can happen in reverse if the benificiary happens to siphon too much. In order to have a strong union, both participants have to have a vast understanding of this process. But it is also very possible for the benefactor to deceive the dius, receive the tethering, and then use the dius for everything they have in order to achieve their own personal goals. That is, if their will is stronger than the dius’s.

• The Tethering

  The act of tethering is the foundation of bonding magic. Without it a bonder cannot harness their power nor acquire the resources to cast spells. But the tether represents far more than just a ritual to cast spells. It is a union between two people; one that sheds all physical barriers and promotes intimacy far greater than anything one would normally experience. Tethering does not make those who are bonded one in mind, but rather touches them emotionally. Through this process, one may experience what the other is feeling on a more personal manner and could even have their own emotions or thoughts swayed by that feeling. It’s a powerful ritual that can bring people closer together or make those affected by the tether more vulnerable.
  
  Tethering is always initiated by the bonder and cannot be forced or extracted by the recipient. In the beginning, to bonders who are untrained or who have not yet been exposed to their innate gifts, the act of tethering happens more on instinct in a time of crisis, great need, or heightened emotion. It is often seen where an untrained bonder might look to someone for assistance, feeling completely and utterly overwhelmed. And in that state of anxiety they’d unwittingly reach out, extending the spectral thread and latching onto that person they so desperately need. Later, bonders are taught either through experience or by more experienced bonders, how to control this process and tether to someone else at will. Despite this, a bonder is still vulnerable to tethering on instinct similar to how someone who is falling might reach out to anything to stop their descent.
  
  While dius cherish the importance of tethering, devires simply see it as a tool and, rather than latching onto others for longer periods of time, prefer to use the tether frequently across multiple people. This practice serves the devire by giving them a larger supply of resources but also enables them to resist the natural bonding that comes from tethering. Meanwhile, it’s not too uncommon for dius to form romantic or even familial relationships with those they bond.
  
  Lastly, it isn’t unheard of, but is rare, for a bonder to tether themselves to multiple people at the same time. devires could do this on a battlefield, drawing a large supply of resources from multiple hosts at a far quicker rate, or Sponsors could do this to empower a small squad of soldiers at the loss of a vast amount of their own resources.
  
  Note: While it does not pertain to the lore of the world I created for Ilanna, the tethering and the act of Ilanna paying the price with her life-force could be used to empower or augment magical powers another gifted character might have that does not pertain to bonding magic. Thus, Ilanna can be utilized much like a familiar in that she can replace the reagents a mage might require or even enhance that mage’s magic potential tenfold.

• Bloodletters

  Bloodletters is the given title to those who are attuned to the blood well. Through manipulation of blood, either through consumption (devires), or the spilling of their own blood (dius), a bonder can create an assortment of spells that are often regarded as heinous or vile. A devire's ability lies in the actual manipulation and transfiguration of blood properties. They can form blood clots or neurological deficiencies, can change the property of blood, or even solidify and shape "free" blood to form weapons or constructs. A dius can bind others through blood pacts or blood seals, induce curses or blessing, track others via their blood (which can also identify other bonders), and even control the mortor functions of others through blood manipulation against their will.
  
  A unique and even rare trait for the dius revolves around the concentration of life-force within their own blood and using transfering it into an inanimate object or corpse and animating it. This is a particularly difficult skill to master as it not only requires a greater cost of mana, but also more complex runes to create. Bloodletters intent on learning this skill must first create a single rune to represent the transfer and giving of life to animate. As each line represents a single command or thought, most animation or reanimation runes require intricate details. Upon the creation of such a rune, another rune must be attached via a bar or line with a given command for the animated or reanimated construct. Such commands can be as simple as "grab things," in which the construct would immediately grab the nearest person or thing the moment it is activated. A more complex command would be "Fight as I fight, do as I do," which commands the construct to become a mirror to its creator, replicating every action until the life is depleted or the spell is refunded. More complicated commands require more intricate patterns and deeper thought and concentration to create the spell effectively. This also means that it is better to draw the runes preemptively since the act of doing so in the midst of combat or in intense situations takes concentration and time to manifest.
  
  The mana for bloodletters is, as everyone would expect, the dius' blood. But unlike devires who can drain the blood from their tethered donor without spilling it, a dius requires their blood to be "freed" in order for a spell to be activated. The dius' blood however, does not need to be the blood used to draw the rune, it just needs to be spilled to pay the cost. However, the deeper price to bloodletting is the life-force that is depleted each time a spell is cast by the dius' beneficiary. Each spell takes roughly a day off of the dius' total life span, which does not seem like much at first, but can add up fairly easy for those who are over dependent on the use of sorcery. Spells of animation origin take approximately one week off of their life while spells used to reanimate take a month of their life. This may vary too depending on the complexity and or duration of the spell.

• Spellbook

  Ilanna never had much experience with creating spells prior to entering a life of servitude. The handful of spells she was responsible for creating was lost when her new handlers discarded her spellbook. There is only one spell in which she has to memory; one she is sure she can never replicate even if she wants to:
  
  Ilanna's Curse: Originally created as a seal by Ilanna when she was just a child under the guidance of her father. The original intent for this spell was to hide her mel'korra, the essence of magic in the blood of devires and dius, presence and prevent her from being able to tether at all. After the spell was created and activated by her father, he had employed a mindwraith to wipe her memory of the event, convincing her that the rune was a blessing in disguise to keep her free of a devire's tether. After learning of her secret and fleeing her home and the empire, she eventually found sanctuary within the Silverheart Accord, a rebel faction intent on extracting dius from the empire safely. There, she became close with one of the rebels, Baelin Skye, who convinced her that he can teach how to alter the blood seal on her chest that would allow her to tether and use her powers. Having already fallen for the man, Ilanna agreed to the arrangement.
  
  By adding in an additional line and changing the angle of another, Baelin guided her to create a blood pact where Baelin will free her powers in exchange for becoming her tether. Having already given her heart to him, she eagerly created the rune, in which Baelin than used to alter the one on her chest. What Ilanna didn't know, however, was that Baelin had created another blood rune in secret with another dius, which translated to "Her heart bound by steel." Forging the two runes together, Baelin took away her control to tether and instead transferred that control to whomever was in possession of the dagger. This spell, once her protector, now enslaved her to the will of others all without ever having had the ability to bond freely. Though Ilanna calls the spell "Ilanna's curse," a variation of it was replicated and used to enslave other dius in a similar fashion where the dius could start being used to empower and strengthen the imperial army in preparation for global dominance.
  
  <Spells pending...>

• Bloodletting Experience

  Binding		Curse Inducement		Blessing Inducement
  Blood tracking		Blood Marionette		Animation
  Reanimation		Healing