Eyris Adalma

Voodoo

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  What is Voodoo?

  
  

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  Practitioners of voodoo are often known as bokors or witch doctors. Voodoo magic allows its practitioners to access supernatural forces to improve their daily lives to attain power or success ("luck") in many areas of life. As in many other spiritual and medical folk practices, extensive use is made of herbs, minerals, parts of animals' bodies, an individual's possessions and bodily fluids. The ancient peoples of the jungles were very spiritual. One of the largest and most well-known religions came to be known as Voodoo, and involved calling upon spirits or other gods through the use of rituals. Voodoo was just another way for people in the world to understand the universe and the cosmos. It wasn't considered to be evil, either, until some of its users started twisting it those purposes. Henceforth, the name 'Voodoo' became feared by all those who heard it uttered. Voodoo is seen as a form of 'black magic', magic that is drawn upon at night when the veil between worlds becomes thin. What makes it 'black' is the purpose it is used for, either selfish or evil. The kind of power that Voodoo allowed these dark practitioners to draw up in their perverted midnight rituals are the stuff of nightmares. Loved ones turning against one-another, unquenchable thirst for blood, zombification, and many other dark arts were at their disposal, all with the help of evil spirits and gods.

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• Purposes

  
  

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  As one such practitioner of voodoo magic, Eyris has a vast variety of ancient rituals. While some only require a small trade of herbs or things you can find in nature, others might require blood sacrifice, either of animals, or of humans. Such brutal displays can yield extremely powerful and profane magic which has allowed Eyris to become a particularly influential shaman. Very few have been allowed to bear witness to these articulate practices.

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  Alteration

  
  

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  Alteration allows physical manipulation of living bodies, sometimes on a cellular level. This includes but isn't limited to genetic alterations, physical distortions, or augmentations of biological functions. With the proper magic the shaman can induce diseases, alter appearances, manipulate pheromones, and even mess with physiological maturity.

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  Animation

  
  

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  Some rituals allow the power to animate inanimate objects or substances, giving life to them and allowing them to act and move on their own accord out of the user's control.

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  Shadowplay

  
  

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  Spells and rituals that allow the shaman to play with shadows and darkness. They can manipulate, create, or shape darkness and shadow for many different purposes, even animating them to act on their own.

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  Healing

  
  

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  Magic that covers any form of healing or bodily regeneration. Since it's magically-induced, healing by these means is usually more effective than many other means. These types are rituals are purely benign and often use herbal remedies and things that can be gathered in nature, but some more grievous wounds might require a little more.

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  Love Magic

  
  

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  Any rituals that manipulate love, such as sensing it, of themselves, people, animals, and other creatures. Increasing, decreasing, causing or channeling love, or even manifesting the emotional energy to physical level are all possible. This can be used for purposes both malicious and benign, as making any change to benefit two lovers would be beneficial, where-as making someone's wife hate her husband would be malicious, for example.

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  Mind Control

  
  

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  One of the most foul rituals to exist, a mind control ritual can bring the shaman full possession over one, or more individuals that they please. Often this is used to bring people under their service, to be rid of someone they dislike, or just for their own enjoyment. The more people that are brought under control of the shaman, the larger the sacrifice required, and distance has to be taken into account as well. It takes immense amounts of preparation and articulation to utilize such power on a large number of people.

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  Reanimation

  
  

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  The act of reanimation implicates a body that had been previously declared dead comes back to life. This isn't the same as resurrection, as the body that is brought back retains very little of its original humanity. The uses of such a spell are fairly limited, since the undead created by this heinous ritual are only meant for one purpose: to kill.

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  Resurrection

  
  

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  Resurrection rituals allow the shaman to bring a body back to life with its soul intact, or mostly intact. This is different from reanimation in that it is more strenuous, and requires a lot more time and preparation. This can also be physically taxing for the performing practitioner, as it involves quite a bit of skill to successfully complete.

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  Curses

  
  

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  There is a large variety of curses that can be used as well. These are always nefarious in nature. Some are annoying, while others can be potentially fatal. It just depends on what the practitioner wants to do. Curses are often very difficult to break as well, but there's usually some way to do so, however difficult. A voodoo practitioner can remove curses as well, just like they can apply them.

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  Summoning

  
  

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  The act of summoning creatures from the beyond is probably the simplest form of ritual you can perform. Summoning physical things, though, tends to be a little more difficult. This is more for the purpose of bringing spirits into the mortal realm. However, some twisted uses might be replacing or combining one soul with another inside a single body, such as giving an evil spirit a home inside of a human body. A purely evil act that can allot the shaman some special benefits for their 'assistance'.

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  Sex Magic

  
  

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  Forms of magic which inflict and utilize sex, lust, pleasure, etc. Sex magic can allow the use of different sexual practices to cast different kinds of spells, but this also includes a lot of other purposes as well; Fertility magic, gender transformation, inducing lust, pleasure, or passion, or toying with sexual instincts.

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  Dreamwalking

  
  

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  This ritual allows a shaman to walk in the dreamworld, either for a short period of time, or for several days or even weeks if needed. For this ritual to work, the shaman has to also enter a state of psuedo-sleep known as a trance. While in a trance, it leaves them completely vulnerable. Their bodily needs are ignored, but if they stay in this trance for too long they will eventually die due to weakness.

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  Divination

  
  

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  Divination is the practice of magical sight. It allows a shaman to see things they normally wouldn't, gain an answer to a question, or observe places that they aren't physically present in. They might decipher languages with the use of divination, too, as another example. Tarot cards, too. Divination covers a lot of different purposes, including reading thoughts, but normally it is not used for this purpose.

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  Necromancy

  
  

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  Calling to the dead, seeing the dead, speaking to the dead, and even summoning the dead are all possible with voodoo. Necromancy is meant to be used for contacting spirits or dabbling in the spirit world. Reanimation can be considered a form of necromancy, but only because of its association with death.

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  Zombification

  
  

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  A famous ritual which gave the practitioners of voodoo their feared reputation. Noone knows how it really works, but it's suggested that the soul of the person afflicted by this ritual becomes more of a passenger, losing control over their body as it blankly goes about its tasks. This allows the shaman to use the body in whatever way they need, as it will continue to live as though it is asleep. Zombified individuals may come home to their family and, though they may act somewhat like themselves, it is as though they're 'missing' from consciousness entirely.

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