Arcana Sanguis
Stand face to face with your shadow.
"... What? Are you confused or is that disgust? I'm not proud of what I do.
You ask me 'Why do I do it' And 'What is it like?' as if I could explain such things. I could never put it into words... not really.
All I know is I will never stop, I can't. The feeling is just that good... Well most of it.
When the passion ends and I come to my senses I stare in horror. A realization hits me as I stand there... Wnee deep in carnage. I often ask myself in these moments of wonder: Is this what it was like when Jekyll met Hyde?"
Aracana Sanguis is an Arcane Genre practiced across the ages. Whether one finds themselves in mage towers at the time of Expedition Demeter or the prestigious cabals of The Web, there is no quicker way to silence a room and bring all attention to you than announcing yourself as a practitioner of blood magic.
A Strange Sacrament...
Part of the reaction comes from disgust. Blood, especially in the modern day, is a bio-hazard and the awareness of that fact leads many to stop in their tracks at the sight of it. Another part of this reaction is carnal fascination. The taboo of it brings more than disgust. It also brings curiosity.
The forbidden desire to lather the blood on your hands after a kill and savor the experience. To relish that metal tang on the tongue as you lick your busted lip in hunger at your enemy. If it weren't for instinct, it'd be hard to resist.
We, as all living things do, actively avoid blood. The sight of blood, especially our own, always indicates that something is quite wrong. Fainting and the sudden rush of adrenaline accompany the sight but what's most important to understand is its color.
The sanguine tint has a complex symbolism in almost every culture.
Red spells danger and can easily mark our last moments in this world, but in this context it also represents life. Our first moments are soaked in it just as well.
Blood means danger but keeps each and every one of us alive. This dichotomy cannot be overstated. It serves as a fundamental principle of the genre. These are not crazed killers driven by psychotic rage. They are not twisted or sick. They see beyond the disgust and forgo the taboo in order to experience something few ever do. This Scarlet Rapture, as they call it, is a spiritual awakening unlike any other.
It's brings on a mindset befitting all these meanings and more. Practitioners are dangerous, but not unfeeling. It is the color of love and more. It is the color of passion...and extremes.
The forbidden desire to lather the blood on your hands after a kill and savor the experience. To relish that metal tang on the tongue as you lick your busted lip in hunger at your enemy. If it weren't for instinct, it'd be hard to resist.
We, as all living things do, actively avoid blood. The sight of blood, especially our own, always indicates that something is quite wrong. Fainting and the sudden rush of adrenaline accompany the sight but what's most important to understand is its color.
The sanguine tint has a complex symbolism in almost every culture.
Red spells danger and can easily mark our last moments in this world, but in this context it also represents life. Our first moments are soaked in it just as well.
Blood means danger but keeps each and every one of us alive. This dichotomy cannot be overstated. It serves as a fundamental principle of the genre. These are not crazed killers driven by psychotic rage. They are not twisted or sick. They see beyond the disgust and forgo the taboo in order to experience something few ever do. This Scarlet Rapture, as they call it, is a spiritual awakening unlike any other.
It's brings on a mindset befitting all these meanings and more. Practitioners are dangerous, but not unfeeling. It is the color of love and more. It is the color of passion...and extremes.
"beautiful, yes? I love the color so much. It's fitting that blood is red like wine, it can be just as intoxicating..."
The Scarlet Rapture
The religious connotations in Arcana Sanguis are intentional. Its first practitioners were essentially a cult after all. As it grew, the theme stuck and even in the time of the web, those that practice the scarlet arts often do so as a religion of sorts.
The Scarlet Rapture is an event that occurs in the mind of a practitioner. Like most genres, a large part of learning blood magic comes from the psychological and spiritual side of the user.
This meditative state is designed for one purpose: to completely give to dark desires. To hell with taboos. The user loses themselves in the throes of their own passions. Practitioners of the genre are known for their empathy and are often quite sympathetic by nature for this reason. Obtaining the state is remarkably difficult as it requires the user to actively harm themselves without hesitation and fully embrace every sensation. The meditation puts one in a masochistic state of mind and such a thing takes time and practice as well as great understanding of pain. Their empathy comes from this pain. A blood mage no longer feels it the same as others do, but they remember it quite well. They abhor the sight of pain in others, and will always seek to correct it, or make it worse...
As one practices, they get used to the pain. They hold the blade above their skin and notice their hands no longer shake. They notice that they stop holding their breath in anticipation of the pain. They feel the flesh part as the edge severs each layer slowly and then they realize that pain is not what follows...this...this is ecstasy. The dichotomy didn't end before. It's still present and just as practitioners enter a mindset of manic masochism, so too do they risk the onset of sadism. This crimson passion is a road of self discovery and can lead one to ache at the fact that so few understand it. It is not uncommon for those who achieve The Scarlet Rapture to wish the same upon others. They need to show you what it feels like because if you eliminate the pain, what's left is indescribable. It's impossible to even comprehend. This is called the passion, and every practitioner struggles with it.
The Scarlet Rapture is an event that occurs in the mind of a practitioner. Like most genres, a large part of learning blood magic comes from the psychological and spiritual side of the user.
This meditative state is designed for one purpose: to completely give to dark desires. To hell with taboos. The user loses themselves in the throes of their own passions. Practitioners of the genre are known for their empathy and are often quite sympathetic by nature for this reason. Obtaining the state is remarkably difficult as it requires the user to actively harm themselves without hesitation and fully embrace every sensation. The meditation puts one in a masochistic state of mind and such a thing takes time and practice as well as great understanding of pain. Their empathy comes from this pain. A blood mage no longer feels it the same as others do, but they remember it quite well. They abhor the sight of pain in others, and will always seek to correct it, or make it worse...
As one practices, they get used to the pain. They hold the blade above their skin and notice their hands no longer shake. They notice that they stop holding their breath in anticipation of the pain. They feel the flesh part as the edge severs each layer slowly and then they realize that pain is not what follows...this...this is ecstasy. The dichotomy didn't end before. It's still present and just as practitioners enter a mindset of manic masochism, so too do they risk the onset of sadism. This crimson passion is a road of self discovery and can lead one to ache at the fact that so few understand it. It is not uncommon for those who achieve The Scarlet Rapture to wish the same upon others. They need to show you what it feels like because if you eliminate the pain, what's left is indescribable. It's impossible to even comprehend. This is called the passion, and every practitioner struggles with it.
The Passion
It is the evolved form of The Scarlet Rapture. The Passion is what connects a blood mage to the blood surrounding her. It is what allows her to link her veins with her allies and her foes alike.
The Passion comes on a crashing wave as in a single moment the mage enters a state of temporary insanity.
They love every moment of it. This is where they get their power and this is how they perform their spells. They find that their devotion and masochism can heal and their sadistic need to show others what they have found can kill. They get to feel that experience as their blood is linked and feel without pain the joy of passing on into death... over... and over again.
Their feelings are clouded, however. Their victims are overcome with fear as the pain deadens and the soul is ripped from the body. The blood mage is aware of this, and their lives are often spent on edge as they walk a fine line between who they are and this otherness within them. Blood is addictive and every blood mage is an addict. On one side they have control on the other, they become a monster.
The Passion comes on a crashing wave as in a single moment the mage enters a state of temporary insanity.
They love every moment of it. This is where they get their power and this is how they perform their spells. They find that their devotion and masochism can heal and their sadistic need to show others what they have found can kill. They get to feel that experience as their blood is linked and feel without pain the joy of passing on into death... over... and over again.
Their feelings are clouded, however. Their victims are overcome with fear as the pain deadens and the soul is ripped from the body. The blood mage is aware of this, and their lives are often spent on edge as they walk a fine line between who they are and this otherness within them. Blood is addictive and every blood mage is an addict. On one side they have control on the other, they become a monster.
The Five Strains
The genre is divided in several "Strains" that act as guide lines and philosophical structures for those who practice the genre. They each detail ways to accumulate blood, what kind of blood to harvest and ways of using blood when you have it.
A Give and Take
Likely one of the most divisive concepts in the genre is how one harvests blood. Should it be a specific kind of blood? Must it always be red? Should you take this blood from others forcibly, or for ethical reasons only use blood freely given to you or in some cases, use no blood other than your own? The genre is a battlefield of ethics, and each strain teaches its own morals to those who wish to learn. Most blood mages use a combination of any or all the strains they learn, setting aside morality for the fix it gives or for dire situations.
by Steve Arygle
Religion and Blood Magic
Blood has always had a power, but it wasn't until The Wetworks formed that this power could manifest. This leads many to worship blood in its many forms. Some worship divine beings of blood, others simply worship the blood itself. This has lead to a massive amount of religious connotation in the genre that is upheld even by those who have no religious belief.
The domain is an island of black sand surrounded by an ocean of blood. The sky has no stars, and the beings that populate this place are powerful and horrific, but much like those who desire the powers of blood, they are sympathetic and love those who visit the domain... in their own special way.
The Red Maiden and Wetworks
The Wetworks act as The Red Maidens domain. She is the virgin mother of all blood magic. All blood magic comes from The Wetworks. A practitioner may know nothing of the domain or the patroness who grants them their gift and it would still be so. A practitioner may receive the gift from another divinity and it would still be so.The domain is an island of black sand surrounded by an ocean of blood. The sky has no stars, and the beings that populate this place are powerful and horrific, but much like those who desire the powers of blood, they are sympathetic and love those who visit the domain... in their own special way.
The Red Mantle
The red mantle is the most powerful gift of blood magic and comes directly from The Red Maiden herself. Few have ever possessed it going as far back to the dawn of time. The Red Mantle allows one to become one with the maiden on the physical plane. You are yourself but you are also an avatar of her. She ravages you as her impossible shapes fold from your body in countless arms, flowing rivers of red, and endless weaves of scarlet locks.
Type
Metaphysical, Arcane
A Preference For The Feminine
Being a woman grants an advantage to a practitioner of blood magic. The art comes more naturally to women. Another advantageous trait to have is red hair. The Red Maiden prefers these traits and as such, blood magic is more potant and doubly so for one who possesses both.
The Shadow
There is a certain otherness to the person you become when in the throes of passion. Many describe it as a complete loss of control. Its like meeting your shadow face to face. Every dark part of who you are emerges as every forbidden desire comes within reach. It is unclear how or why this occurs. The psychological element of blood magic is deeply rooted in the minds of those who practice it. This is not to say that they become someone else.
They do not have multiple personalities or any other mental illness. Their filters get switched off and all social and cultural restraints they may have had disappear. This shadow is effectively who they are at their most basic level without any kind of outside influence.
They do not have multiple personalities or any other mental illness. Their filters get switched off and all social and cultural restraints they may have had disappear. This shadow is effectively who they are at their most basic level without any kind of outside influence.
The Crimson Scripture
All blood mages share another unique talent. While mostly associated with The Strain of The Sacred Rites, Crimson Scripture is a method of scrying that allows a blood mage to divine information from bloodstains, pools, and any other source of blood. They can determine emotional states, positioning, whether the owner of the blood is alive or dead, and can even track them with some limitations. If the wound is healed completely, tracking becomes much more difficult and even more so if the person is dead. When the heart beats, the pulse can be felt, allowing the mage to follow. This skill has even more effects to those who understand the sanctity of blood. Some sources of blood can be used for other forms of divination. These sources may also be used to call forth the ghost of the owner, find people related to the owner of the blood, or should the owner be alive, summon the owner to the mages location.
October "Cicada" Brooks
October Brooks is a character in The Web who is a highly skilled Sanguimancer. October routinely phases in and out of reality, venturing into The Wetworks for 17 years before resurfacing.
When she does, she leaves a trail of bodies in her wake. She is one of the main reasons Arcana Sanguis still exists in the modern day, many speculate that she is much older than she appears and must kill and bathe in the blood of her victims to remain alive.
This however is completely false. Her habits started to get attention and the media gave her a nickname: Cicada. She wears it like a badge of honor. During her visit in 1943, she started to leave sketches of cicadas at every crime scene.
When she does, she leaves a trail of bodies in her wake. She is one of the main reasons Arcana Sanguis still exists in the modern day, many speculate that she is much older than she appears and must kill and bathe in the blood of her victims to remain alive.
This however is completely false. Her habits started to get attention and the media gave her a nickname: Cicada. She wears it like a badge of honor. During her visit in 1943, she started to leave sketches of cicadas at every crime scene.
by Mira Ners
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Very creepy! All that red slickery blood all over the place! Quick question, is there only one Red Maiden or is there a Red Maiden at every Temple of Blood?
Lol that's one to find a typo. There should be an appostrophe. There is only one Red Maiden. It states that quite clearly in the side bar in her section even without the apostrophe though. My bad. I don't recall mentioning any temples either... or a bunch of slickery blood. Slickery blood was not my intention, as the real focus of this article is the emotion and psychological elements that are required to practice blood magic. Would you specify these things for me so i can go back and fix?
Slickery blood is an overall impression I get from the image and the continual mention of blood. You are most correct that you did not mention temples. I was asking is this magic preformed can be performed anywhere? Where is it taught? If not a temple, perhaps a school, in brightly lit tea rooms? You get the idea. Nothing to "fix" really. Your work just made wonder more about how the blood magic was propagated, etc. Great job!
Ohhhh! My bad man. I completely misunderstood. If a mage access to blood and the knowledge for the genre. they can practice it anywhere There were temples tho so your not wrong in mentioning them, they just had nothing to do with blood. her religion is focused on passion and extremes, blood is just a facet of it. Thanks for the comment regardless. It cleared a little bit up for me on how to approach the strains in the genre