The rarest of all spellcasters, Warlocks in The Lands Unbound are almost unheard of. To make a pact with a being of great power is absurdly, unbelievably dangerous. Every pact with a higher being could be a death sentence, either from the being itself, or from anyone else in power who finds out this happened. In most cases, warlocks are treated as vessels for their patrons to live through, and assert their will over the world. There are no nations in the world that accept warlocks, regardless of their patron. There are a few cults and underground societies that involve packs of warlocks. Besides that a warlock would have to keep themselves and their abilities completely hidden from the sights of society.
To become a warlock, a person must find a way to grab the patron's attention. There are many ways to do this, depending on the patron, but in one way or another, it involves extreme dedication to some ideals or actions. From there, the patron has to deem the person as a worthy vessel of their power. On top of that being extremely difficult, even worthy vessels often completely succumb to the power granted to them, and become mindless extensions of their patrons. This, of course, means that warlocks main draw back, besides being despised by the world, is their succeptibility to being corrupted by power.
Corruption:
Though there is no direct mechanical effect, certain things a warlock does can increase corruption within their body and soul. A warlock can choose to increase their power in some way, any way you can imagine( at DM's discretion, feel free to get creative). This, of course, comes at a great cost. Deciding to push your warlock powers further is deciding to permit your patron to extend their reach over your soul, allowing more of them to show in the world. This will always have some sort of negative effect, whether temporary or permanent. The stronger you stretch the abilities to be, the harsher the side effect. Total corruption of the body or soul could mean total loss of control, and therefore loss of character, so BEWARE. There are ways to reverse these effects, but they are scarce known outside of the most learned people in the world.
Patrons Demands:
Sometimes, when increasing their power in some way, whether by leveling up or asking for a temporary boost, the patron could decide the warlock must complete a task or make a sacrifice of some kind before the power is granted. This depends heavily on the patron whether or not (and how often) this will happen, and often depends on the ability of the warlock to uphold the patrons ideals.
Dark Gifts:
Some patrons will award talented and succesful warlocks with dark, powerful gifts. This can be a variety of things, from special magical armor, weapons, and items, to spells that would not otherwise be acceptable. This of course must be accepted with great caution, as the usage of these items often come with greater corruption, sometimes altering alignment or inflicting the user with a nasty personality flaw. If a gift is given by their patron, the warlock must tread very lightly with how they use it, and how often.
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