Blood Magic

Blood magic is the forbidden and secret knowledge of how to drain a soul to power arcane and profane divine spells. To be able to use blood magic, a ritual must be performed, and the caster must agree to a pact with a patron that will supply them with the power to use blood to fuel their spells. Blood magic is more potent when the blood of an unwilling target is used, as the suffering and struggle add strength to the ritual.

Mechanics
Using blood magic taints you slowly, the more you use blood magic, the more your features turn sickly and pale. Victims used for blood magic are tainted as well when their blood is used; if used repeatedly, the blood magic loses its potency and the victim's blood is no longer as potent.

Draining blood of any kind as part of blood magic leaves a mark on the world and the people involved. This mark can be in the form of lingering sensations of burning heat or bitter cold at the site of blood magic, withering plants, animals shunning the area, deepening shadows in the area for a time, a lingering stench of metallic blood, etc. Blood magic leaves a lasting aura of evil for 48 hours in the area where the blood magic was carried out, which can be detected with a detect magic spell.

If blood magic is used to reduces a willing or unwilling target to 0 HP, the target does not fall unconscious, they die, having been drained completely of blood. The caster gains 1 extra spell level if a target is killed in this way. This level is able to be saved for later use and does not count against the caster's normal limit for their 'blood reserve'

Casters are unable to reduce their own HP to 0 if using their own blood for boosting their spells, kept alive by the will of their patron. It is possible for the patron to remove that protection at the very moment it is needed if they desire to harvest the soul, so most blood mages tend to be very careful with their own HP. Targets who are brought to 0 HP through means other than blood magic are unsuitable targets, as their souls are damaged until they are again returned to full health.

If a target is drained to 0 HP in this way, and has been the subject of divine healing to restore their HP since the last sunrise, the divine power whom granted the healing is instantly made aware. This means that blood draining clerics, paladins, and sometimes even bards and druids, can be a dangerous risk. Blood mages who draw attention this way are often hunted for their profane acts.

Patrons
Patrons who are willing to unlock the secrets of blood magic are usually dark powers who are most interested in harvesting souls – devils, demons and other unknown evils.

Pacts
The ritual pact agreed to, as part of the blood magic initiation, is that the caster owes his soul to the patron, until the caster can pay a satisfactory amount of souls to the patron through blood magic. Otherwise, the Patron agrees not to collect his soul until the caster dies. This does not mean the Patron cannot make the caster's life difficult, which they do regularly, now having claim to the caster's soul. If the caster defies the will of the Patron, the pact is considered broken and their soul is delivered straight to the Patron's possession.

Paying one's soul debt to a Patron can be done through blood magic only, and anyone reduced to 0 HP with a spell powered by blood magic in any way, has their soul committed to the caster's patron. The caster can also use their stored souls to pay the Patron's debt if they so choose.

Demands
Occasionally, a patron may make a demand of the blood mage to perform a particular task, or to provide a set number of souls in a short amount of time - whatever the Patron wants, but they only do this in rare cases when needed.

Returning
The patron also reserves the right to return the caster to his dead body if he so chooses, but this is rare, requiring an expenditure of a considerable amount of power. The wicked soul of a blood mage is more valuable than most, all the blood magic that they have used twists their soul into a source of evil power. If a blood mage has not yet reaped enough souls or become tainted enough, a patron may send them back to fulfill their purpose.

Most blood mage souls harvested in this way are converted to slaves in the form of demons, the more wicked the soul, the more powerful the demon, and the pact makes the soul utterly devoted to the Patron Lord for eternity. If the new demon slave is slain, their soul is obliterated. If the Patron Lord is slain, all souls of blood mages are obliterated.

Demonic
Demon Lords will strike blood pacts with casters in order to bolster their power in the abyss, harvested souls can be used to raise demons to higher ranks before battle with a rival Demon lord, or can be used to create new demon spawn. The HD of the soul harvested is equivalent the HD of demon that can be created, or total number of HD raised granted to existing demons.

Demonic Taint – ''Demons are unholy abominations that ascend through multiple levels of horrible disfigurements and mutations, and casters succumbing to blood magic through this pact show signs of corruption that may affect their The caster gains unholy physical corruptions the further into blood debt they progress, for each new level of blood debt reached, the caster must roll once on the table of corruptions. Some of these mutations can grant the caster powers, while others are simply obstacles.''

Fiendish
Archdevils are most eager to strike pacts with blood mages, and will actively send servants into the mortal realm to seek out power-hungry casters with which to form pacts. They are extremely strict and litigious regarding their pacts, but care much more for the dealings of the mortal realms than other patrons, meaning the caster may be returned to the mortal realm multiple times if draining themselves for power, to complete a Patron's objective.

Blood Slave ''– In accordance to the Patron's lawful alignment, the caster can impose their will onto their targets directly through the transfer of blood. A caster may issue a command to a target as a bonus action directly after draining them of at least 10 HP, as the 1stlevel spell command. Every 10HP after the first, increases the spell DC by two. Targets can still resist the command as the spell's description outlines, especially if the command is obviously dangerous to their well being. This power recharges after a long ''rest.

 

Umbran
Umbran Patrons are dark and ancient powers, often among the 'Great Old Ones' - beyond comprehension by mortal minds, drifting through the stars in places too distant or old to be remembered, and too dark to be seen. They desire souls to keep themselves sustained and fuel their awakenings after eons of slumber.