Holy Land Infliction

Cost: 15m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, {Obvious}}, Shaping, Sorcerous
Duration: Until stopped
Prerequisite Charms: Transcendent Desert Creature

The Infernal's Yozi power grinds glowing sparks of Essence from his anima, each a microscopic portal into the Endless Desert that explodes on contact with the ground to spread her sands over the earth, covering an area of 10 square yards. Ground touched by this Charm is not simply covered in a fine layer of silver sand; the soil itself transmutes down to the bedrock and loses all fertility. Non-magical vegetation withers and dies after a day spent rooted in this terrain, with all biomass supernaturally decaying into more sand after a second day. All natural animals leave and shun the place unless specifically adapted for life in the desert. Structures remain intact, though heavy buildings may eventually sink into the sands. An uncapped demesne may eventually shrink, grow or shift aspects with enough time as normal for such a radical shift in geography. Used in the Wyld, the affected area becomes part of Creation. The Charm otherwise functions normally in all other realms of existence.

An area marked by this Charm is a place of physical desolation, but more than that, it is a literal beachhead of the Endless Desert's glory. All Holy Charms cost an additional mote to activate within the area. All prayers to Cecelyne or any Infernal who helped create the blight spoken from within the area benefit from a -1 target number (typically 6), provided the supplicant spills blood on the sand as a sacrifice to lower the difficulty. More importantly, the blight has the potential for growth if the supplicant ritually executes a god or Exalt as an offering in this way, with Dragon-Blooded/Terrestrial deities adding (the victim's Essence rating x 100) square yards or (Essence x 500) square yards for Celestial gods and Exalted. Gods killed as sacrifices this way die forever and do not reform. The sacrifice's spilled blood and shredded flesh convert into fountains of choking sand dotted with glowing shards of Essence-fused glass unlike any crystals found in Creation. These shards are worth Resources 5 as a collection. The blight also grows in response to any resident social units actively worshiping Cecelyne or the blight's creator from within its borders, adding 10 square yards per dot of the unit's Magnitude per day so long as all members spend at least five hours a day in prayer there.

If the blight intersects another area consecrated by this Charm, the two zones merge into one. Cecelyne cannot conceal her presence once the contiguous blight reaches 10 square miles. The area becomes a persistent Blasphemy, and Heaven will respond. The countermagic required to stop the spread is based on the Infernal's Essence rating, not the Charm's minimum Essence of 3, and must be cast from the exact center of the blight. However, countermagic only converts the area back into mundane desert. The spell Benediction of Archgenesis (from The Books of Sorcery, Vol. II—The White Treatise) completely counters and reverses all traces of this Charm's use within its area of effect.