Pardoners Guild
"Your sins cry to me from the depths of your Shadow. Yield to me, and I will grant you absolution and healing. If you resist, I will still aid you. It's just going to hurt a lot more."
The pardoners guild is a bastion of hope in the dark battle against ones shadow. Without the arts of Castigate, the shadows power would run unchecked. Castigate is a power that is built around controlling, rebuking and otherwise affecting ones own shadow as well as the shadows of others. The methods of castigation differ with each individual pardoner, using anything from physical force, psychological force, meditations, sermons, rituals, drums, taunts, or any number of interaction methods. It is said that the number of ways of using the arts of castigate are as numerous as the pardoners themselves. Dealing exclusively with the darker aspects of the mind is a dangerous task, and pardoners who become careless often meet dire fates
The Pardoners guild is in some ways more a cult than a structured guild, as pardoners look on their work with an almost religious zeal. Many of their number pattern themselves after the religions of the day, and will often describe their work in very religious or spiritual terms. Pardoners are generally compassionate, and chose their work to aid and give relief to those who are troubled in this new existence. The guild workers identify themselves with iron lanterns, and finding a practicing pardoner is a very easy task thanks to the guild. Pardoners are indispensable in Stygian society and every wraith is encouraged to seek one out when the battle with their shadows become too much. Without them Stygia would have fallen to oblivion long ago.
In the same way that pardoners are vitally important for giving wraith strength and weapons in their battle against the shadow, so do they become equally dangerous should they themselves fall to darkness. Before a pardoner can learn to weaken a shadows grip on a psyche, he must learn what strengthens and feeds them. This knowledge when put to sinister use can have an opposite effect than intended and be used to draw out a wraiths shadow to be let loose upon the world. Because of this Pardoners watch their own with an appraising eye, and will not hesitate to intervene should one of their numbers start losing the battle themselves. Pardoners are also one of the few guilds that has a mandatory recruitment policy, because of the inherent dangers of leaving one skilled in their art left un-regulated. This recruitment is done so that wraith that find themselves with a natural affinity to Castigate can be trained on ways to control their skills, and more importantly on what not to do. These recruits need not become practicing pardoners, but their activities will always be monitored so that they do not end up helping the problems the guild is built to fight against. A pardoners fingers are stained black from continued manipulation of shadows and prolonged exposure to that darkness.
The arts of Castigate include the powers of sense shadow, shadow coax, and shadow control. A pardoner is a councilor, priest and confidant to a circle of wraiths. While their power set may not see much use in regular play, that a circle has someone who is devoted to their psychological well being is vitally important. Someone needs make it their business to keep an eye on everyones shadow and ensure that nobody is lost to oblivion without a fight.
Some Methods of Castigation[edit]
Confessors[edit]
Of the factions that make up the Pardoners, this is the largest. Confessor-type Pardoners use religious imagery and themes in channeling Castigate.
Psychists[edit]
The Pardoners here are almost like psychologists in their practice of Castigate. They tend to analyze and understand Shadows rather than outright rejecting them.
Scourges[edit]
The Scourges are almost the opposite of Confessors, using the threat of death by forge or absorption to bully the shadow. Mental, verbal, and physical attacks may also be used to frighten a Shadow into submission. While one would think very few wraiths would use a Scourge, some have found no other means of keeping their Shadows under control.
