Grym:

  Grym is the base unit by which any being uses magic. It is essentially stamina, or life, and is tied directly to physicality. Someone who constantly works out, never gets sick, and does their best to have a strong stamina would easily be able to cast more (though not necessarily high quality) spells than someone who lazes around or someone who has a cold. There's a standard limit to the grym that a body will allow to be used for magic; however, that line can be crossed if the caster is willing to endanger their body (potentially permanently). This can be evidenced by Flyte passing out when he casts after passing his limit, or Ander's internal bleeding upon summoning Glow. The grym that supports the body (ie. beyond that standard limit) is called "life grym", whereas grym used to cast spells does not have a special name.

  Spells:

  Spells in Riftgard are used by saying a word of power in a way that it's effect might work, applying grym to accomplish this. A fire spell may be said heatedly while a slowing spell will be said slowly. This allows for the addition of spell facets, which use tones that may have metaphorical significance for the word. An example of a facet could be aggression for light, which could call to light piercing through darkness, or the sun unrelentingly rising each day to break the night. As a result, the light spell turns into a solid, piercing attack, or a lightspear.

  Forslo-fire

  Wishlor-freeze

  Elgro-healing

  Foulos-lightning

  Helis-nature/plants

  Iras-slow

  Sari-fast

  Vepril-wind

  Nelar-light

  Erdkar-matter manipulation

  Iyuva-darkness

  Nodes:

  Nodes are a tool through which people can channel their grym to accomplish some task through magic, and they fall under the Annih system of magic (which bears no resemblance to the Aliranic system). Each node is made up of two similar, regular geometric shapes connected by lines, which must be carved by grym into inanimate solids, such as stone or bone. The manner in which There are three types of nodes: creation nodes, destruction nodes, and transport nodes. The amount of vertices a node has determines how much grym can be channeled through it, rather than how efficient it is. Nodes can only be used by when they are in physical contact with the caster, though multiple people can use a single node simultaneously. The method in which grym is cycled through a node determines how they are used, making the Annih system one of logic while the Aliranic system remains one of passion.

  Creation Nodes:

  Creation nodes are created by connecting the inner shape's sides to the outer shape's vertices. They bring matter from a random location extremely far from the cast, based on what it is the user is trying to "create". It's used for most magics, especially offensive ones, but the matter it brings cannot displace solid matter upon arrival.

  Destruction Nodes:

  Destruction nodes are created by connecting the inner sides vertices to the outer shape's sides. They send matter from the location of the caster to a random location extremely far from the cast, based on what the user is trying to "destroy". For a skilled caster, these make for viable defenses, as objects can be removed upon reaching the node. Living creatures or parts of them cannot be taken.

  Transport Nodes:

  Transport, or movement, nodes are created by connecting the inner and outer shape's sides. They change the position of matter to locations in a specified manner. Transport nodes can be used for repair, healing (tp an extremely minor degree), and cheap offence/defense. Similar to destruction nodes, these cannot be used on living matter. Old casters of nodes theorized that the spirit inside a body does not let the body get changed purely by grym.

  Enchanting:

  To enchant a weapon or item a mage has to kill someone with the thing they want to enchant and then concentrate on putting the person's soul in it.

  An elf or half-elf can put pieces of their magic inside of items to enchant it. When these items break the magic is reabsorbed by the elf or half-elf, unless they are dead. If the enchanter is dead the pieces of the broken item each hold a smaller power. This type of enchanting can also be replicated by honorsouls and honorbound.

  Dwarves can put runes on an item using the emotions they are feeling. These runes may be long lasting, or shorter spell effects. Runes made by a non-dwarf humanoid are exceptions, such as summoning runes and the seal of Nareal. This type of enchanting can also be replicated by honorsouls and paladins.

  Racial Magics:

  There are certain magics, or just methods of casting magic, that are barred by the caster's genetics, and non-Aliranic magics are barred from honorsouls unless they fit those genetic requirements. Listed below are each type.

  Enchanting:

  Elves (and half elves) are the only race implicitly capable of runeless enchanting, and only dwarves can enchant by using runes.

  The Azials' Dominance Over Plants:

  Azials are able to shape greenery using their will and grym, allowing them to make plants grow larger, faster, or anything in between without casting a nature spell. Because their bodies are made of flesh and plant matter, they can apply this to themselves (mostly justusing it to restore their body part, as it is a somewhat painful process). Of azials, only full azials can "bloom". Blooming is when an azial embraces an Aliranic spell type enough that their own bodies change to be more suited for its application. For example, if an azial were to bloom with lightning, their body would demonstrate that in some way, and their plant shaping would allow them to throw or create patches of lightning from the plants they control.

  Inherent Archaic Magic:

  Archaics' grym naturally flow out of them a few years after they are born, making unquenchable shadows appear on the ground and consume anything within reach. Because their own grym is being used, they are in danger of passing out unless they wear their characteristic masks. Because of this, they were a mostly burrowing people before they learned to make these masks, hiding from any who would seek to harm them as they spent the rare few hours awake.

  Altruin Bloodlines:

  All Altruins have the abilities to summon gates, but there are some differences between different Altruin bloodlines. To avoid spoilers, the only one we can go over is the Dark Walker bloodline, which we see in Hieday. Dark Walkers are able to travel through gates without summoning them (basically just teleporting) and they can cloak their form innately. Cloaking, which a Dark Walker can only do when they are out of sight, makes the Dark Walker invisible as well as muffling any sound that comes from their person. To dive deeper into gates, they use grym to create a portal from one location to another. The amount of grym used is dependent upon the size of the gates, the amount of time the gates remain open, the number of gates, and the distance between each two paired gates. The expenditure of grym based on time is consistent, as though the other factors make up the amount spent per second, with the time tracked by seconds. Each gate pair increases the expenditure per second by a rate determined by the other two variables, with each gate pair costing an equivalent amount. Gate size has a directly correlated link to the expenditure per second, though each gate's expenditure is calculated with the largest gate's value in mind. Finally, the distance between two paired gates is also directly correlated to the cost, with the largest distance between two gates acting as the cost definer for each gate pair.

  If Aliranic magic is used while these gates are open, the cost is raised exponentially (probably just squared), as the Aliranic magic system is entirely different from the system innately used by Altruins (that system has no name, as it was not defined by a veran's will)

  Incorporeal beings:

  Spirits:

  Basic Introduction:

  Spirits are 3rd Plane entities produced upon the death of a humanoid with rifter blood. Due to their links with the 1st Place (corporeal world), they may join in contracts with the living based on their race of spirit, the grym offered, and the effort involved. There are eleven races of spirits, each covering the ten Aliranic magics, speed manipulation being split between speeding and slowing.

  The Flow of Grym

  Spirits gather grym passively, similar to mortals though slower, but by participating in spellworks, they may boost this progress. Stronger spirits appear when better cast spells are enounced, as these spells require less effort on their parts (weaker spells take the caster more energy, as it takes more reach into the 3rd Plane to find a willing spirit). These spells are cast such that the caster's word takes some of the slack off the spirit in terms of effort, while the spirit molds the spell into the shape agreed upon. So, a bad enough spell would yield no spirit, while an incredibly good spell would not cost the spirit any real effort. The grym given is typically constant, but the grym expended by the caster is based on the effort required to connect to a spirit in the 3rd Plane.

  Spirit Contracts Introduction:

  The reason excellent are more potent as opposed to quicker than lesser spells is because spirits have a subtle multiplicative effect on the results on a spell based on their own strength, which is part of the effort they expend as they mold a spell. This is why contracts made with weak spirits have little effect despite having a higher cost in grym.

  Spirit Contracts In-depth:

  To put it into words, the spirit contract contains three phases. 1) Calling out to spirits, which will always cost the caster some grym unless they cast their spell perfectly. The call phase also is where the instructions for the spirit contract are finalized, even when the caster doesn't know what their spell will do. 2) The Spirit's acceptance. This phase exacts the same cost in grym from the caster regardless of the spirit connected, though this grym cost is close to unnoticeable for mortals. The cost cannot be lowered or otherwise changed by the caster by any means, and the spirit cannot return it. The grym is received by the spirit the moment they accept the call, which is when they are made obligated to mold the spell by the contract. 3) The result/molding phase. The spirit molds the caster's effect to whatever state is desired, though it could be above or below expectation depending on the spirit's ability. The spirit's own effort is used during this phase, with more effort required for weaker casts, and less for stronger ones. The spirit's effort doesn't consume their grym, rather it consumes their ability to answer another call. The reason more effort is taken for a weaker cast is due to the rigidity of the soul's produced power, like clay that hasn't been warmed up.

  Souls:

  Souls don't require their own section, as they are best compared to spirits. Souls are essentially a spirit within a mortal, regardless of whether they have rifter blood or not. Souls vary in strength, with stronger souls also being more effective for casting while sufficiently weak souls being unable to call spirits. Souls react to the caster's words to bring an effect out upon the first place, and allow for spirits to enact effort onto it, with the soul's power determining how malleable the effect is. Another important distinction between souls and spirits is that a soul is not required to limit itself to one type of spell, though one might be more efficient at some spells than others, and they even tend to be.

  Arch-spirits:

  There is something of a hierarchy when it comes to spirits. At the top are arch-spirits, which are simply spirits that have passed a certain threshold of power, enabling them to accomplish feats that weaker spirits cannot. There is a vast range of powers in this category, which can be noted by its inclusion of both Raloth and Honorious, though it isn't explicitly mentioned that Honorious is one. Though it is not a requirement, arch-spirits tend to have rare, or possibly unique, abilities that set them further apart from average spirits. These can be something like being exclusively able to mold specific honorsoul spell facets without help, or it could be something simpler, like Honorious being able to form wings for Elliot and control the winds simultaneously while in the corporeal world.

  On Normal Spirits:

  Below arch-spirits comes normal spirits. They also feature a fair spectrum of power, though it is less sizeable. There are vastly more normal spirits than arch-spirits, and they accomplish anything a normal mage could possibly handle.

  Spell Priority:

  Spirits of lower strength are given more priority to cast spells of lower quality and difficulty, with this pattern scaling, meaning that spirits of higher strength are given priority of higher quality and difficulty. That might seem odd, as it implies that stronger spirits retain more energy to perform the minority of spells, as spirits each have the same capacity to expend effort. This, however, is counterbalanced by the increasing complexities of stronger spells and the lower number of strong spirits. On complexity, the instructions of a cast may justify splitting the spell into two or more contracts, in which the spirit would multiply their effort to multiply their reward (which is why Ontin notes that Flyte splitting lightspears would quickly expend all of his grym). Casts may also be of a facet that requires more effort from a spirit. These facets tend to be the ones in reach of only honorbound, paladins, or honorsouls; are the defining point between arch-spirits and normal spirits; and may offer more grym depending on their difficulty. Combining these facts ensures that there isn't an overabundance of energy in stronger spirits to result in excess competition over casts. These boundaries are also free to be shifted as is needed. For example, if there were a facet that only one spirit could manage on its own, and that spirit were in the corporeal world, the grym reward offered would be sufficient for lesser spirits to split it and the contract's duties, thus accomplishing a spell above their priority. A spirit may also punch down if there aren't sufficient weaker spirits to handle a cast.

  Usage of Grym:

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  Seeing as how most of the contracting revolves around grym, it is reasonable to wonder why that might be. Spirits, on the whole, love to spend time in the corporeal realm as opposed to the 3rd plane, and grym gives them more opportunities to. With an immense expenditure of grym, a spirit may tear or break through to the corporeal world, like Ithilles did; however, this method gives them very little time to stay, as it constantly costs grym for them to remain in the corporeal realm with an incorporeal form. Given enough grym, a spirit can create its own corporeal body for itself to inhabit in the corporeal plane, though that method takes magnitudes more grym than breaking through does (and breaking through is by no means a cheap endeavor). A compatible body could be created by a mortal for a specific spirt to give them long-term option for their commute with a relatively low cost in grym would. The drawback here is that the spirit would need to know a mortal willing to create the body, and the body would have to be adequate for that specific spirit. Finally, for the cheapest method overall, runes can be created for spirits to pass though willingly. Because runes do not provide the spirit with a body, this method requires both grym and effort from the spirit for as long as they stay, and they do not get to enjoy the freedom to stray far from their rune.

  Upward Mobility:

  Beyond simply being bored of the 3rd plane, spirits also come to the corporeal world as a means to grow in strength. The longer they spend in the workings of the corporeal world, the stronger a spirit becomes. This does have diminishing returns, such as for Raloth, who can hardly grow stronger, and each spirit does have its own limits. Spirits with more strength tend to have more capability to roam the world in a way that makes them grow stronger, but weak spirits tend to grow more in proportion to their strength despite that. This strength gives them more freedom to exercise control over parts of the 3rd-plane and can spell the difference between being a regular spirit and an arch-spirit.

  Fear of The Scourge:

  As a final note on spirits, it is worth mentioning that they hold an immense fear of the scourge and their phantoms, due to the potential for their natures' to be corroded and twisted by such creatures. Because of this, spirits will flee from large forces of scourge might or magic, remaining far from those areas even in the 3rd-plane. The reason is discussed with slightly more context in the Introduction portion of the section on phantoms.

  Demons:

  Beginning of Life:

  The first important distinction between spirits and demons is that demons do not begin their lives in the corporeal world. They are born in moments of intense emotion based on the strength of the peoples of Riftgard, so if the people's souls overpower the demons in terms of total potency, a demon could be born due to a funeral, celebration, or anything in-between. The ancient peoples of Riftgard regarded demons as the passions of the world.

  Demon Plane Travel:

  Demons, because of their lacking connection to the corporeal world cannot accept spirit contracts; however, they do passively accrue grym at mortal rates. This brings the second important distinction to bear: the split between the 3rd plane and the corporeal world is less taxing for demons to cross.

  Standard Methods of Attaining a Body:

  Demons can cross over as demonborn, like Kayr, meaning that they create their own corporeal body. This method is the most taxing in grym, but will last until the body is destroyed. Demons may also enter the corporeal world through possession of objects or the living. Possession of an item requires that the item has demon summoning runes etched onto it, or that the item is away from where spirits wander. Possession of the living requires the living being to offer their body to the demon, typically in exchange for the demon's power, or for the soul to be too occupied by some other task to protect itself, which was the case for Lyllian (her work as an oracle meant that her soul didn't have the protections it needed).

  Eviscerators:

  They can also cross over as eviscerators, which are demon-possessed bodies create by combining discarded flesh from mortals. Eviscerators are manmade, and part of the process involves making a pact with the demon, or demons, involved. Demons value their freedoms and passions above all else, having been born through them, and so will not give them up, but when it comes to sparing their summoners, or other mortals, they are more open to complying. Corpse blights are another form of eviscerators, but they are not given manmade bodies. Rather, their flesh comes from places where many mortal bodies are, having not been warded against possession. This can include poor Cemetaries or harsh battlefields. Night stalkers are a form of corpse blights with multiple demons inhabiting one body. These are created after a corpse blight or eviscerator consumes a vast amount of bodies, or one or more of the corpses are corrupted by the power of Rave, a veran.

  Demon Summoning:

  Demons, in long times past, could also be summoned by mages to complete tasks. While their summons were not so binding as a spirit contract, the grym reward offer to a demon was large enough to persuade it to complete its tasks, and the chance that a demon might be called upon again was enough that they wouldn't get into too much trouble. Still, demons are creatures of passion and desire, and often complicated things enough that spirits quickly overtook their role, once they were discovered.

  Aliran's Effect on Demons:

  To speak on that, demons were the main flow of magic in Riftgard up until Aliran grew to adulthood. As a veran, and especially one of exceeding strength, Aliran's will was able to affect the world around him, and the history of demons cannot be fully explained without including some information on him. Aliran changed Riftgard to allow for mortals to cast spells through a contract, allowing them to use their own passions to replace the world's. Though he meant for the contracts to be with demons, Aliran's will created spirits, as the human soul cannot bring about the magic Aliran wished for alone. With spirits sharing the 3rd plane with demons, it began to be the case that the 3rd plane was not ever weak enough to necessitate the creation of a new demon, and their numbers began to stagnate. Thus, the only way for demons to increase their population was for demonborn to have children. This was lessened by relationships featuring non-demons and demonborn, as it could go either way for whether the child inherited a demon or a soul from its parents. Aliran had a deep love for demons, only increased by the fact that his own mother was a demonborn of light, and did not intend for the consequences of his will to be so harshly disadvantageous for them.

  The Stigma Against Demons:

  To make situations worse for the demons, the safety brought and intended by spirit contracts made mortals distaste demons, as demons often did what they wanted alongside what they were summoned for, which could be a drag on the summoner. This resentment led to many mages hating demonborn, even advocating for their deaths, so while some towns might have been accepting of demons, other were not. It is again safe to say that this was not Aliran's intent.

  Distinct Bodies:

  The bodies of demonborn make up the third and final main distinction between demons and spirits: demonborn bodies are specific to each demon, with the form unaltered by the demon in it. Spirits can create their own bodies too, but their bodies are based on how they form them, while demons have rather genetic bodies. This means that each demon has a set phenotype, while spirits do not. That may not seem important at first, but it allows for significant distinction between demonborn, most notably, differences based on the type of demon they are.

  Types of Demons:

  There are ten types of demons, each over one magic in the Karronic system (Aliranic with speed and slow being the same type). Each type of demon holds its own type of demonborn. These can have drastic differences, from some that are impish to some that seem made of solid stone. Even male and female demons of the same type may be extremely different, such as the shadow demonborn, whose females are like pale blue elvish women with deep purple, petal-like appendages and spiraling horns, while the males are tall and gangly, with huge hands and exposed bones, all connected by onyx black flesh. For these demons, the only real tell that they are both shadow demons are their matching horns. That being noted, demonborn may also share many physical features, such as in the male and female fire demonborn, whose main difference, beside the human differences between the two genders, is that males grow much more body hair, whereas none grow on the females' scales.

  Demonborn Communities:

  These physical forms introduced more tight-knit communities between demonborn kings, though it is far from uncommon for different types of demonborn to live within the same community. Rather, these demonborn tend to unite together (again, moreso among types) with the idea that they will protect each other when scorned by the mortals around them. Sadly, it is likely helpful for both mortals and demonborn to live like this, as demons are much more understanding of their chaotic natures than any others are.

  Demonborn Children:

  Demonborn children have an exact half chance to turn out more like one parent than the other. For example, if two different types of demonborn have a child, the child's type will match only parent's, though their physical traits might be a mix of both. For the children of a demonborn and a mortal, the child may have a demon's soul or a mortal soul, regardless of the mixture of physical traits.

  Demonborn Death:

  The relevance of this is that when a demonborn dies, they return to the 3rd place as a demon (unless their incorporeal form is destroyed) to recover, losing none of their memories from their precious life. This is why they are distinguished from mortals, whose souls become spirits and lose some of their mortal memories (this is slowed down for stronger spirits, but they all eventually lose their mortal identity). This is to say that demonborn deaths, while bringing demons to a long slumber, are more temporary.

  Reaction to The Scourge:

  It is worth mentioning that demons have an innate, controlling hatred for the scourge. While spirits flee from stronger scourge beings, demons will cling closer to mortals, offering their assistance freely. Demonborn will stand their grounds instinctually, laying their lives on the line. Ligh demonborn (Avin) even have control over a special light that is especially deadly to scourgefolk. In this too are demons the passions of Riftgard.

  Phantoms:

  Brief Introduction:

  Phantoms are 2nd plane (the Abyss, which includes Dark Haven) entities, create upon the corruption of a soul or spirit. They harbor only a few types, with one of those facilitating the scourge magics. (Less can be mentioned of phantoms as of now, for spoiler reasons).

  Phantom Plane Travel:

  Phantoms do not require grym to enter the corporeal world, rather they can enter freely, but only near the confines of the Rift, Rush, or other significant scourgefolk. The strength of an emerging phantom is dependent on its proximity to the source it enters from, and they may not go too far from this source. The strength of this source determines how far a phantom might go, the strength of emerging phantoms, and the number of phantoms that may be brought. This is why the Rift's expansion causes problems and requires intense regulation. Phantoms, in entering the corporeal world, can only inhabit scourge forms matching their strength and type. There is a manner of mortal possession for phantoms, though it is a little different from spirit and demon possession, so it will be discussed in detail in a later section. Phantoms cannot create their own scourge forms, at least not by their lonesome. They must be constructed by the Rift (rift monsters), created by a shadebringer (shades), in a transitory state from mortal to scourgefolk (mostly the strongest scourgefolk we've seen so far), or produced through Rush or his consort's magic (any scourge). Rush may facilitate how this might be, within limits, and even delegate this power to other scourgefolk.

  Phantoms Bound to the Abyss:

  Some phantoms, such as Eternium, are so thoroughly attached to the 2nd plane that they cannot leave it. These phantoms are the ones that uphold the scourge system of magic, such as shade summoning. Of these, Eternium is unique in that its power is scaled to the level of whatever challenges it.

  Pledge:

  Phantoms cannot possess anyone who is unwilling, unless they are right on the precipice of death, or utterly surrounded by scourge magic. The result of possession by a phantom is absolutely irreversible. The body is twisted, as is the soul. Three manners of possession exist when dealing with phantoms. The first may be referred to as a pledge. This occurs any time a mortal volunteers themselves, but can happen otherwise, if the soul's resistance is wholly insufficient. It is during this type of possession that a new phantom is created, though its sanity is variable.

  Knighting:

  The second type of possession can be called "knighting". It occurs when a phantom possesses a dying person, or a mortal's soul is entirely separated from the 3rd plane's forces and is instead surrounded by scourge magic. To be knighted instead of forming a pledge, the mortal's soul has to resist possession in a meaningful way, so that the invading phantom cannot get a good grip on it. The result is a knight of the Ether (the same kind of creature that attacked Flyte as he entered Ithiles the first time), a scourge with its soul and mind intact. Though it retains its mind and soul, the knight's body is rent, turned to shadows, and its will is potentially dominated by the invading phantom. The knights of the Ether are distinguished from each other by their masks (similar to archaic masks) and the metal bonded to them (they each have a certain amount of metal attached to them, though they may change its shape, placement, and number of separate pieces).

  Short Explanation of Elliot's Possession:

  Elliot's possession was a slow process, starting when he bit a shade in Ithiles. It was technically an invitation for a phantom, but his soul and mind both rejected this change, making the process long and arduous. As Elliot relied on his phantom's power, its hold grew, getting to the point that his soul, though strong, could not contain it alone.

  Shades:

  Shades would constitute the third type of possession. Similar to knights of Ether, shades do not own their original bodies. This is because a shade is created using a spirit of one who is recently (rather than a living soul), as well as slain by the shadebringer involved. The phantom, supplied grym by a shadebringer, snares the spirit during its transition to the 3rd plane, locking it withing the Abyss (specifically Dark Haven). From there, the spirit's effort is constrained, such that it creates a grym body in its living form, which is entirely under the shadebringer's control.

  Freeing Spirits From Dark Haven:

  In contesting shades's control over spirits, a mage must use runes to travel to the 2nd plane, bringing an item owned by a captured spirit, as the spirit's bond to the item will lead it, and those in similar positions, from the 2nd plane. Eternium must be slain in the same action, else the spirits would simply remain locked away, unable to follow. Eternium, fueled by the phantoms who retrieve spirits, fights with power relatively around the might of its contender's soul. These spirits make their ways back in confusion, often lacking a knowledge of their own rune. Flyte's use of light magic alleviated these troubles and gave the shades a few more moments of their mortality to live.

  The Scourge's Affect on the Incorporeal:

  The presence of Rush is enough to turn nearby spirits into phantoms. Because of this, spirits are largely unfindable within certain distances from Rush or his stronger minions. On a more positive note, demons cannot be corrupted by any amount of scourge presence. Along with that note, demonborn cannot be possessed by phantoms. Even if they pledged to a phantom, the demon within them would revile the phantom so vehemently that it could not count as voluntary, and the phantom would be rebuffed.

  Scourge Magic:

  Scourge spells are similar to a twisting of Aliranic magic, or rather, the Aliranic magic system is akin to a revision upon the scourge magic system, as Rush predates Aliran. The scourge spells specifically wear down another's mind or grym, while the Aliranic system does not make efforts to affect the same uninvitedly. Aliranic magic requires no corruption of the soul (meaning that Elliot was only affected in mind and body as he fought in the Rift), and is mutually beneficial to both man and spirit.

  Scourge Types:

  There are six distinct general groupings of phantom types, excluding more unique cases, such as Eternium. For now, only three will be discussed, so as to avoid spoilers.

  Shadows:

  The first type is shadows. They take a massive portion of the scourge, and include each of the rift monsters, shades, and knights of Ether. The majority of these serve as mindless fodder, though the knights do not.

  Lesser Scourge:

  Next comes lesser scourge. They mostly come from the inside of Atula's Scar. This category includes scourge dragons, arch-knights (the faceless, chitin covered fiends, such as in Telin's test), and shredders (the hairy monsters with mouths on their stomachs). While they are still relatively weak, they serve at a higher position in Rush's army and may use scourge magic.

  Abominations

  The third are abominations, another sizeable chunk of the scourge. Pledged mortals are the best examples of these, but so long as a creature is unnaturally twisted by phantoms, it can be considered an abomination. These overlap with lesser scourge, with many lower ranking, but some stronger than them. The presence of abominations gives demons an easier time crossing over to the corporeal world.

  Phantom Death:

  Depending on whether Rush interferes, a phantom slain in the corporeal world may remain dead forever, and those that don't take a significant amount of time to recover. Their rate of recovery is inversely related to their strength, with some scourgefolk taking centuries if they are sufficiently strong.