Somatomancer

Wielding dark magics capable of twisting their bodies into grotesque weapons, somatomancers practice one of the only kinds of arcane paths determined as illegal by the Arcane Hand. These dark mages spread their practice in secret, leading the Priests of Shifting Flesh in their desire to spread the Cyclops' twisted legacy.

Career

Qualifications

Somatomancers are, at the end of the day, mages. Thus, they must have some form of magical training as well as an innate magical ability. Many somatomancers were students of the Arcane Academy who were drawn to the potential powers of the forbidden arcane paths. Other somatomancers may have been travelling magic practitioners that became intrigued and drawn in by the Priests of Shifting Flesh. Lastly, the Priests may also recruit destitute children who are magically gifted.

Career Progression

Somatomancers undergo an extremely risky process when learning their twisted skills. The only form of magic they can learn at first is the ability to subdue festerplains tissue introduced to their bloodstream. This is an integral aspect of their training, since if this goes wrong the initiate will transform into a manikin. However, if done successfully, the somatomancer initiate will now have achieved a form of harmony with the mutant cells within themself.
The next step is equally as dangerous as the first. A somatomancer must learn and use magic that commands the dormant mutant cells within themself. If done correctly, this manifests as "flesh sculpting", the basis of somatomancy. With greater mastery over flesh sculpting, a somatomancer can become incredibly dangerous by forming complex weapons, changing forms, and regenerating from what would normally be mortal wounds. At any point, if a somatomancer loses control over their body while flesh sculpting, they may mutate into a carnite. They lose any semblance of humanity as their minds become twisted and overtaken by alien desires, becoming a deadly and bloodthirsty monstrosity.

Perception

Purpose

Somatomancers are illegal, and therefore they do not make themselves known to the greater populace. Their directive is to lead the Priests of Shifting Flesh in their goal of spreading somatomancy far and wide across Legere.

Social Status

Being practitioners of forbidden magical arts, somatomancers are regarded as criminals. However, this extends wholly towards the Priests of Shifting Flesh because of their strange nature. It should be noted that not all members of the Priests of Shifting Flesh are somatomancers, and therefore they are treated as normal people. In fact, majority of commoners are unaware of somatomancy, instead seeing the Priests of Shifting Flesh as a bizarre religious group.

History

Somatomancy was discovered shortly after the Demon Wars, making it one of the more recent arcane pathways on legere. A group of arcane scholars had travelled North to the Dawn Wastelands in order to study the Festerplains. When one of the scholars was infected by the Festerplains and had become a manikin, the group realized that the fleshy ground of this place was too dangerous to be in. The group's healer, Melvin Arcblant also suffered a wounds by the hands of the manikin, but attempted to use his magic to cure the infection. Somehow, he successfully calmed the mutagenic tissue within his body, and soon after he discovered his could magically morph his flesh using magic.
Arcblant and his surviving scholars took samples and returned to their home in Phovezila to study the possible new type of magic they had discovered. They began to teach this magic to other students, but as the number of practitioners increased, so did the number of incidents where people turned into manikins. Eventually the Arcane Hand outlawed the practice when a somatomancer attempting to morph his arm into an axe (in order to chop down a tree as a part of a demonstration) lost control and mutated into a terrifying 4-story aberration.
Somatomancy would be picked up and fostered by the Priests of Shifting Flesh a few years later. To this day, the Priests safeguard the findings of Arcblant and his fellow scholars, forever ensuring the spread and evolution of somatomancers everywhere.

Operations

Tools

Somatomancers carry the standard set of gear found on all members of the Priests of Shifting Flesh. A traditional beige cloth robe, polehammer and skull mask are all worn and carried by somatomancers as to make them indistinguishable from the nonmagical (and therefore innocent) members of their order.

Provided Services

Somatomancers are not bound to any professional restrictions by the Priests of Shifting Flesh. In fact, the group encourages somatomancers to diffuse across Legere and spread. Somatomancers are taught to exercise their powers whenever possible, so jobs like mercenary work, assassins and other such wretched vocations are the typical game for them.

Somatomancers are powerful, but not blind. They exercise caution in terms of who they choose to associate with or reveal their powers.

Somatomancers also serve the Priests of Shifting Flesh by manually shaping the skulls of manikins into a "uniform shape" that can then by harvested and worn by its members.

Dangers & Hazards

As somatomancers deal with the incredibly volatile cells from the Festerplains, there are risks in absolutely everything they do. The process of becoming a somatomancer involves the injection of mutant cells into the initiate, which, if unsuccessful, can turn them into a manikin. This can, in turn, spread and create a manikin outbreak capable of wiping out a village or potentially a city within a week.

Somatomancers also act as carriers of the manikin disease, meaning that their own flesh and blood can cause others to become infected.

Additionally, everytime a somatomancer wields their power, they risk losing control of their magical mutations and transforming into a carnite. This can most certainly bring untold destruction to a city, as some carnites have needed an entire army to be put down.

These above points are the primary reasons why somatomancy is forbidden under the Arcane Hand's laws. The risks of such a practice far outweigh the possible benefits, and even the most masterful somatomancers are prone to costly mistakes that end with hundreds of casualties.

Alternative Names

Flesh Sculptor

Type

Arcane

Legality

Illegal across Legere as determined by the Arcane Hand