Harbinger

Harbingers, sometimes also called berserker mages, are chosen by a greater Power/powerful Other to become their metaphorical weapon against the world. Harbingers aren't required to be awakened though it does offer more options. Their patron's power resides within them, with the harbinger paying a price every time they draw on it.

Oftentimes, Harbingers are mistaken for Hosts however the main difference is that Harbingers are bound to only one Other. Additionally Hosts have some control over their transformations whereas Harbingers are stuck with the forms they get.<ref name=":0">Pact Dice: Harbinger</ref>

Methodology

A Conflict and Price-oriented school.<ref>Harbinger
Chosen of a higher power/powerful other, who bears their strength & serves to clear the way, metaphorically. Tends to come with transformations, changes, costs in other forms, far more direct, and doesn't necessarily have (or rarely has) a direct line to the power. Practice includes ambient effects on surroundings & altered consequences to their actions (ie. fights happen around them), balancing act to restrain this or release it without too much casualties. Harbingers are rarely inducted willingly, but rather forced to become a harbinger by intervention of powerful other, by family, or by accident. - Pact Dice: The Practices - Wbow Version</ref> They usually get a subtle aura, a transformation into an appropriate Other, and some other abilities depending the mark and deal made. The nature of the deal, the mark, the means of binding and release and the power that they dealt with are all critically important. <ref name=":0">Pact Dice: Harbinger</ref>

The Power

The greater power that creates a Harbinger can be anything under the sun, really, with the power and flavor of practices varying as a result. They can include Elementals, Spirits, Ghosts, Goblins, Gods, facets of the abyss, ghosts in the machine, Oni, Fae, the lost, Heroic spirits, Incarnations, Zeitgeists and karmic representatives. So long as it is powerful, it is doable.

Two partial exceptions are Demons and Angels, which are rarely used to create Harbingers because they both tend to overwhelm and destroy or permanently transform the host.

The Deal

The nature of the deal influences the relationship, and tends to confer some benefits. Whatever the greater Power spent to hook the individual or establish the connection, it’s liable to keep those things in place. Some examples include:

• Being rescued from peril, in exchange for becoming forever indebted. Usually comes with some kind of defensive benefit.
• Having a wish granted in exchange for becoming forever indebted. Abilities gain a bonus depending on the wish.
• Using a treasure created the greater Power and becoming indebted. Comes with another powerful tool.
• Inherited the deal from their family. Usually comes with abilities granting bonuses to repeating patterns.
• Believers willingly wanting to become Harbingers, or sacrificing someone else to it. The greater Power gets more freedom in deciding how the power works.<ref name=":0">Pact Dice: Harbinger</ref>

The Mark

The Harbinger tends to bear an outward expression of the greater power’s influence on them. The fine details can differ, depending on the nature of the mark - for some powers, it may be more ragged, for others, it could be elegant. The mark is generally "unleashed" to transform the Harbinger by tearing it open, removing or reversing the bindings, magically growing to cover them etc.

Some examples are:

• A Branding - a burn, scar, glowing crack in skin, etc. Often modifies their transformation into one with more puissance or physical prowess.
• A Blemish - a small mutation or physical abnormality. Tends to offer a bit of flexibility or mobility to their transformation.
• A Token - a non-removable item. Often allows faster transformations and/or a physical augmentation.
• A Tattoo - a symbolic tattoo related to the power. Often offers more accuracy and awareness to their transformation and more aesthetically pleasing forms.
• A Window - a hole in their skin to somewhere else. Less prone to spreading, and tends to represent and grant magical knowledge.
• A Heart - engorged veins, maybe connected to an organ or tumor. Often results in hardiness and longer life, whether through efficient use of magical resources, durability in human or transformed form, resurrection powers etc.<ref name=":0">Pact Dice: Harbinger</ref>

Most Harbingers Bind their Mark to help deal with it. This may involve marking one's flesh in a pattern around the Mark, taking drugs or poisons to inhibit it, binding the affected part with chain, feeding the Mark to placate it, etc etc.<ref>The mark is generally bound.  This is typically up to the practitioner, and the means of binding can include burning one’s own flesh, injections of poison or other drugs, chains bound around the body, tattoos, cutting/stitching or feeding the mark.  These correspond roughly to their equivalents named above and are mostly flavor, though they may impact the transformation to some degree, as well as the parameters of any practice they perform that uses or relates to the mark. - Pact Dice: Harbinger</ref>

Notable Harbingers

• Unknown

References

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