The wizard’s death curse is a common superstition, used as a bogeyman by parents in the city and in the country, to teach children not to get on the wrong side of a mage. There are plenty of good reasons not to do that, but the death curse is not limited to wizards. Anyone, without any magical knowledge at all, can cast a death curse. It can be done once and only once, at a great cost.
Death curses have a main effect and a side effect. The side effect is always the same. It destroys your legacy. Within a few days of your death your loved ones forget who you were. After some months any book that mentioned you or your works mysteriously burns or disappears. In a few years anything you built or accomplished falls into ruin, in one way or another. Your children become wanderers with no knowledge of you. And after a new generation is born, any evidence you ever existed is erased.
Nobody knows if this is the work of a devil, a particularly strong spirit, or an immutable law of the cosmos. The phenomenon is rare, and not well understood by anyone except wizards. None of the gods have fessed up to knowing anything about it. But it is known. Upon your death, you have a choice; let your death stand, or willingly erase your entire legacy to bring about one final, potent act on the person who wronged you most.
This is the main effect. The curse is more powerful the more of a legacy you would have had. A peasant’s curse is not comparable to that of an emperor. But then again, the emperor has less reason to cast it. Such a hex is rare not only because it is difficult to cast, but because it is difficult to earn it. Even the most vile crimes are not expected to be repaid with a death curse. You’re already dead. It would cost you all you had left to cast it. The person who earns a death curse, no matter how horrible the consequences may be, is not a sympathetic figure.
Appropriately, the curse most often involves the target’s legacy as well. Sometimes the effects are duplicated, so the target watches as everyone forgets him, and anything he ever did comes to nothing. Another favorite is the ruin of the target’s bloodline, cursing them to be monsters or pariahs.
Death curses have a main effect and a side effect. The side effect is always the same. It destroys your legacy. Within a few days of your death your loved ones forget who you were. After some months any book that mentioned you or your works mysteriously burns or disappears. In a few years anything you built or accomplished falls into ruin, in one way or another. Your children become wanderers with no knowledge of you. And after a new generation is born, any evidence you ever existed is erased.
Nobody knows if this is the work of a devil, a particularly strong spirit, or an immutable law of the cosmos. The phenomenon is rare, and not well understood by anyone except wizards. None of the gods have fessed up to knowing anything about it. But it is known. Upon your death, you have a choice; let your death stand, or willingly erase your entire legacy to bring about one final, potent act on the person who wronged you most.
This is the main effect. The curse is more powerful the more of a legacy you would have had. A peasant’s curse is not comparable to that of an emperor. But then again, the emperor has less reason to cast it. Such a hex is rare not only because it is difficult to cast, but because it is difficult to earn it. Even the most vile crimes are not expected to be repaid with a death curse. You’re already dead. It would cost you all you had left to cast it. The person who earns a death curse, no matter how horrible the consequences may be, is not a sympathetic figure.
Appropriately, the curse most often involves the target’s legacy as well. Sometimes the effects are duplicated, so the target watches as everyone forgets him, and anything he ever did comes to nothing. Another favorite is the ruin of the target’s bloodline, cursing them to be monsters or pariahs.
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