Phantoms 101 – Warriors


Path of the Warrior Phantom

Phantoms reside in the depths of a Savants’ soul and with training, they can be raised, held to solid form and commanded. Some say they are the shadow side of the Savant, but they are also an embodiment of their will. Let’s be clear. They have a will of their own! Training does not always come easy.

How to Raise a Phantom

To raise their phantom, the savant must touching the earth, usually dropping to one or both knees. The phantom separates from the savant, travels through the ground and then rises in a blast of rock and dirt. There are five categories or classes of phantom on might raise – warrior, healer, ouster, caller, alter. Phantoms can also be a combination, for example, Samsen’s caller-alter. When it’s clear which class the savant belongs to, they are thereafter referred to simply as a warrior, or healer etc.

The Warrior Class

Warrior phantoms are most common in the realms of Sierrak, Northern Aturnia and Eastern Tangeen – very rare in Palrio, which is why Marcus’ phantom raised such a fuss. In appearance, warriors range in form from humanoid to animal/plant/rock and come in a range of sizes. Larger is not always better. The form always determines the style of fighting/attack/defense they are capable of.

Warior Phantom in action
Warrior King by yacrical

Capabilities

They are usually capable of hand-to-hand, wrestle or weapon combat and used for battle, guarding and strategy (to various extent as leopard, for example, would think differently from humanoid and have different ways of stalking, attacking, hunting or waiting in ambush). This phantom is the most likely to argue or push against its savant with a pure aggressive energy (healthy or unhealthy).

As with all phantoms, if it is ‘killed’ it goes to ground and must restore to some degree, in the depths of the savant, before it can be raised again. If the savant is fully ‘in’ phantom perspective when it dies, they die too. The only exception is ghost phantoms. We’ll talk about them later…

Savant and her warrior phantom
Savant in training with her warrior phantom – image from WallUp.

Developmental Stages

The most difficult to develop because they start out mega-raw and undisciplined. When first raised they are formless or move in and out of various physical shapes but never stick to one. Training cannot progress until they are held to solid form. It’s no spoiler that Marcus has this problem from the start.

Raise. Your. Phantom.

Even a small, untrained warrior of a blue-robe savant (novice level) is more powerful than a human, and as they progress, they become an absolutely devastating force in battle.


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