Nomendevis

Nomendevis is a form of ritual magic practiced by Aparnovosi magicians, particularly Lostekedes monks. Consisting of choirs of monks pooling their voices, focus, and willpower, these chants create and sustain a Lisenerth, which roughly translates to an invisible, collectively-produced magical aura surrounding a certain place or group of people. In the Aparnovosi tongue, the term Lisenerth bears the connotations of a willful agent, as if it is an entity brought into being from the resolve of the chanters, who enter a trance-like state in so doing. In manuscripts and illustrations, it is often depicted as an ethereal, cloaked and winged figure, often pointing to dispel "foul" magic or blowing a silver trumpet. This "aura," once created, will carry out the intentions of the choir. Some commonly recorded uses are to reactively counter spells cast against a location, inhibit the practice of certain types of magic, or affect the environment and nearby individuals. In the past, Nomendevis has been performed to help guide Aparnovosi fleets safely through storms by abating winds or lessening the fatigue of sailors, mitigate disease in cities and army camps, and defend a location by afflicting attackers with nausea or maladies.
A benefit of Nomendevis is that the strain of performing and sustaining magic is spread among a larger group of individuals, who can also be housed in a safe location such as a tower behind city walls. For prolonged rituals, practitioners are assigned scheduled rotations, with time to rest and recuperate before relieving a companion and rejoining the choir. The Lisenerth, drawing from the monk's combined skills and experience, can often react to changing circumstances or magical threats with superhuman speed and premonition across a large area. However, its most effective practice requires numerous individuals of great rhetorical skill, in whom must be invested years of training and monastic discipline. As such, after the Fall of Aparnovos, Nomendevis has become a substantially more rare form of magic.

History

The practice of Nomendevis can trace its roots to the earliest developments of Aparnovosi monastic traditions. Monasteries have long since held several key roles in [Aparnovosi religion] thought which have been tied both to the success of the polity and the spiritual health of the populace. They are valuable repositories for academic and arcane knowledge, practice, and records due to the monks' constant transcription of manuscripts, which are then distributed throughout various monasteries for safekeeping and redundancy. Monasteries are also mostly isolated from the politics of the city, being located either in the surrounding countryside or distant island and mountainous locations. Aparnovosi belief holds that pious individuals who are destined to serve both the gods and the temporal community are called to the monasteries by vocation. The education and training they receive at the monasteries equips them to carry out this spiritual duty with greater works and more powerful prayer than a layperson could achieve- and are bound by sacred oath to do so.
Aparnovos had seen the development of a philosophy which entrusted the material "health" or success of the polity to the state, and its spiritual health to the monasteries. The people, represented as the third group of agency, were obligated to assist each with their role, through taxes, holding office, and serving in the military or through prayer and devoutness, respectively. For its part, the state demonstrated it was "pulling its weight" in the contract, so to speak, through maintaining an effective administration and military while fostering and protecting trade. One way the monasteries demonstrated their efforts was through the creation of art and written texts for the spiritual instruction of the people at the shrines throughout Aparnovos and its holdings. In essence, this gave the monks a voice directly to the people despite their cloistered existence. Another method is the chants which would come to be so strongly associated with Aparnovosi monks. These were first developed as an audible, distinctive form of prayer which would carry on the wind and assure the laypeople that the monks were performing their duty, while thanking and supplicating the gods as necessary.
As the chants assumed more importance in the daily routines of monks, the techniques involved were also refined. Soon, the architecture of the monasteries evolved to suit this purpose , with monks and architects perfecting the acoustics of the towers and choral chambers of the monastery to project sound further. The magical field of Rhetoric grew in importance as it was tailored to amplify the chants and lend them distinctive sounds, and monks began to reach the conclusion that the chants themselves could also be a vector for magic. Experimentation was minor at first; some of the first types of Nomendevis were developed to increase the fertility of monastery gardens or keep the numerous candles of buildings and altars alight. As the combined efforts of generations of monks contributed to the evolution of Nomendevis, villages and towns coalesced around the less-remote monasteries. Inhabitants would praise the intercession of the monks, for greater shoals of fish seemed to frequent nearby waters, the soil of local fields grew richer, disease was rarer, and lifespans increased. But of equal importance was the coherence engendered in Aparnovosi society: Nomendevis and the growth of the monasteries as a whole helped vindicate the aforementioned ideas concerning the co-dependent triad of polity, people, and faith.
The first recorded use of Nomendevis in a martial capacity dates to the pre-Imperial era, in a period of intense raiding of Aparnovos' countryside by various Southwythian tribes and city-states. [Name], a monastery in the foothills of the mountains, reportedly was able to trigger an avalanche to sweep an attacking force from its' valley entrance. Once the potential of the chants were more widely recognized in both the monastic and secular communities, Aparnovosi lords and officials began to arrange contracts with monks, wherein monks would accompany ships or armies for certain periods before returning to the monasteries. The justification of this new practice warranted an evolution of the monk's vows; the brief departures from the cloister were reconciled along the lines that the monks would be carrying out godly work in saving lives and bringing conflicts to swifter conclusions.
Owing to the benefits of living near monastic communities and the defensive potential of Nomendevis, the Princes of Aparnovos bestowed numerous grants and charters to build spectacular monasteries within the city itself. These complexes, including towers, chapels, and gardens were spaced along the inside of the city's walls to distance them from busy markets and residential areas while ensuring their defensibility. During the fall of the city, the monasteries were among the areas which held out the longest due to this arrangement.
The destruction wrought to monastic communities during and after the fall of Aparnovos marked a sharp decline in the practice of Nomendevis. However, the rump states of Torelledir and Fosowbria are home to monasteries founded by surviving monks, who have worked energetically to maintain the connections between themselves and the scattered monasteries on the sea islands and in the surviving Dalghennas. The monks inhabiting the latter have in some cases turned their skills to diplomatic use, by allowing their rituals, scholarship, and crafts to benefit local authorities to help keep their Dalghennas in good standing. Among the Aparnovosi fleets which still serve either the rump states or Westwythe, Nomendevis is still sometimes carried out before and during major campaigns. Reportedly, the Aparnovosi among the Westwythian contingent during the recent conquest of Wanamekwa made use of it to guide the fleet through arcane traps set by the Sinopans.

Execution

In its most basic form, Nomendevis can be performed by a single person who has been trained to do so, although the effects of the chant and the abilities of the Lisenerth are proportionate to the number of individuals involved and is further eccentuated by the acoustic architecture of the monasteries. While chanting, the practicioner is capable of simple activities such as walking or bearing items such as icons and incense, although the amount of mental focus required for Nomendevis precludes more strenuous efforts including fighting and working. As such, in military situations monks are often found in secure locations or under heavy guard. Monks who specialize in Nomendevis are also known for their oratory prowess, and have been recorded as delivering both inspirational speeches and vicious tirades.