Code of the Clay King

Origin: Shinarian
Calling: Mastermind, Arbiter
Starting ability: ✪The Flesh Is Weak

Language: Shinarian
Literacy: Forms
Starting items: Code of the Clay King text

You’ve studied the Code of the Clay King, said to be written by Amurah, the insane ruler of the lost kingdom of Shinar. You’ve also become an adept on the nature of Shinarian Vessels.All Shinarians, even the illiterate, know something of the Clay King, whose stern, serene visage was seen everywhere in the kingdom. The Code is structured like a series of precepts or laws which direct readers to embrace the virtues of immortal clay bodies, both in theory and in practice. Those who fully embraced those precepts became Amurah’s closest lieutenants— his Arbiters, as they were known, who settled disputes in his name. Forms-Reader. You can read and write the abstract wedge-shaped markings in which the Code is written.Shinarian-Speaker. The Code’s symbols translate into an imposing Shinarian dialect with many You shall’s and You shall not’s.

The Code Text

If you start the game with this lore, you have a physical copy of the Code in the form of a heavy clay tablet—or, if you like, carved onto your body, if you're a Shinarian. Another hero who can read Forms can learn the Code lore by studying the text as an endeavor and gaining revelations from it. The Code also contains scattered references to other lore: Civilization, Crafting, Medicine, Path of Air, Politics, Stone, and Time. You or another hero can study the text to gain revelations for these types of lore, but only 1 revelation for each type.

Ask the Guide:

What was the function of this Shinarian building or object?
How can one overcome the weakness of flesh?
How can a soul transcend injustice?

Starting Ability

✪ The Flesh Is Weak

Starting ability

You know the following techniques:

Arbiter Adept If you’re an Arbiter, when you Soulgaze, add your core Awareness to the gaze-focus you generate. (This technique has no benefit for non-Arbiters.)
Create Form Requires access to clay and water. As an endeavor when you rest, Maneuver yourself with Compel advantage. The result is your clay tally.

If you or someone Helping you knows the Crafting lore, you can expend up to 2 crafting resources. Add +2 to your tally for each resource you expend.
You can build up your clay tally over multiple rests before spending it. Keep track of it on your hero sheet.

Spend your clay tallies to make a new clay body, as follows:

Strength. For every 3 tallies, the body has 1 core Strength (minimum Strength 2 for 6 tallies, maximum Strength 7 for 14 tallies)
Likeness. For every 2 tallies, gain a +1 bonus when you Transfer Soul into the body (maximum +4)

The body is soulless but has the ✪Clay Form ability of a Shinarian hero. It can also have the ✪Inscrutable ability if you wish. If the body has Strength 6 or 7, it is ✪Massive.
Graft Form Requires access to clay and water. As an endeavor when you rest, take -1 strength and -1 spirit and Brace yourself. On a 4 or higher, you gain 1 mark of strength.
Repair Form As an endeavor when you rest, Maneuver yourself with Compel advantage and add your core Awareness. The result is the amount you can heal among one or more damaged Shinarians (yourself included, if you’re Shinarian).
Sculpt Form Requires access to clay and water. As an endeavor when you rest, take -1 strength and -1 spirit and Maneuver yourself. On a 4 or higher, you gain 1 mark of grace.

Clay and water. The Guide determines whether sufficient clay and water are present. For example, creating a body on a skyship is likely impossible, unless its hold somehow contains stores of clay and extra water.

Transfer Soul Requires empty Clay Form and Tophet. You’ve learned the art of transferring your soul from your fleshly body to an empty clay form. You also know how to operate a tophet, a large magical kiln once common in Shinar that facilitates the soul-transfer. To transfer, you must fire the clay body in the tophet, alongside your own body. As your body is consumed in the fire, Compel yourself:

6 or higher: Your soul transfers to the body, which gains your core Spirit, your core Awareness, your memories, your calling, your ideals, your lore, and all your abilities.
5 or lower: Part of your soul transfers to the Vessel, which gains your Spirit, your calling, and your calling’s starting ability. Your core Awareness, however, becomes 1, and you forget all of your memories, lore, and other abilities. Your ideals are lost and replaced by Power and Justice.

The process takes about 10 minutes. You can’t transfer your soul with this ability if you’re a Shinarian or otherwise already inhabiting a clay body. The magic relies on smoke and ash produced from burning flesh. You can, however, use this ability to transfer another fleshly character’s soul into a clay body you create, consuming their body in the fire instead of your own. The character must be present with you during the transfer, though they need not be willing. Both you and the character must Compel yourselves; use the lower result.

Tophets. These large furnaces were ubiquitous in old Shinar. Any Shinarian ruin is likely to have one. Heroes might also find tophets deep within Kananite islands, since the Kananite civilization descended from the Shinarians.

Abilities to Learn

✪ Become Arbiter

Mark of AWARENESS

Requires ✪The Spirit Lies. You take up the Arbiter calling and gain its starting ability and starting spells.

✪ Royal Charisma

Mark of AWARENESS

Add 1 to the calculation that determines the size of your Compel Die.

✪ The Spirit Lies

Mark of AWARENESS

You've come to understand that souls, including your own, are incapable of avoiding calumny and injustice without a dominant structure to contain them. Fortunately, the Code of the Clay King provides just this structure, and you’ve learned to draw strength and wisdom from its precepts.

Your ideals become Power and Justice, if they’re not already.
When you engage in any of the endeavors from ✪The Flesh is Weak, you draw strength and support from the precepts of the Code and gain +1 overflow Strength, +1 overflow Awareness, and +2 overflow Life.
If you’re Shinarian or have transferred your soul into a Shinarian body, double these overflow bonuses.
Your max Spirit is reduced by 1 for as long as you know the Code of the Clay King lore.

← The Cloak ✧ Crafting →

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