Barrow Hunting arose right after the
First Empire of Ader was Dissolved, when Szörnvodaz
Warders were repeatedly called to deal with vengeful
wraiths bound to
ancient tombs in
Lake Kadia. Steel and fire failed to purge them, for the spirits would vanish back into their graves only to rise again.
The warders discovered a harsher way: by offering a living lure, often a relative, descendant, or beloved of the wraith’s mortal life, they could draw it fully into the world of the living, vulnerable to destruction.
Method
A living being with ties to the wraith is bound and placed within the barrow. Preferably a guilty descendant, sometimes an innocent villager, sometimes a person personally despised by the spirit in life.
The
Kyth then desecrate or provke the barrow to awaken the spirit and use whatever means necessary to prevent it to go into hiding. While the spirits manfifests to strike the victim, they cut off the wraith off from retreat and by the blood taken from the victim, they use their psionic abilities to 'confuse' or weaken the wraith.
Legacy
Originally devised against wraiths, the method has been adapted against other incorporeal or vengeful beings: banshees, revenants, even certain shades of
Nyx.
Barrow Hunting is reviled by outsiders, who see it as cruel and sacrilegious, especially when innocents are used. Yet to the
Szörnvodaz, it is a necessary cruelty: “Better one life weighed than a hundred claimed in the dark”.
Comments