What you are reading here is a different version of the Weeping from what was there when Five Oaths began. We would like to briefly talk about the rationale for making these changes to the Weeping. The first version of the Weeping was one that was almost universally reviled, forced to the margins of society and only recently gaining acceptance. Characters in the Five Oaths world could be expected to start from a default position of not trusting the Weeping, although the choice was up to the individual player.
Although our original goal was to challenge racist narratives, as a team we have come to realise that by including the Weeping and the universal prejudices around them as they were in our story we were perpetuating racist narratives from the real world.
As such, rather than removing them entirely we are attempting to keep the core of what we feel is the reason some people have chosen to play Weeping, such as supernatural otherness, mystery, and dealing with other people’s preconceptions, in a different vein. With the new version below, we are attempting to make the Weeping more obviously strange and supernatural rather than simply being another species.
This update will require adjustments be made to the backstories of existing Weeping characters but we hope and expect that it will be possible to keep the core of each character and much of their experiences intact. We will facilitate rebuilding characters to accommodate the changes and any player who wishes to may choose to apply their current XP to a new character instead. The updates made to the Field Rules as a result of this change will be implemented on the Player Database over the coming days, and we will notify you all when they go live.
(Re)Meet the Weeping
“We are not truly our own people, we do not share a species, and yet all of us have something in common. Our bodies have died, and now live again. You weep for the person you have lost. We weep as well, for what we do not know.”
Who are the Weeping?
The Weeping are possibly the strangest and most unsettling people in the world. Every Weeping once began life like any other person, whether Creidhe, Krieger, Human, or something else. One day they died, and a short time later they became Weeping. The Weeping begin anew with no memory of who they were or how they died, with tears of blood streaming from their eyes.
If you are playing one of the Weeping, your life is one that stands out as extraordinary and is perhaps only understood by other Weeping. From the moment you woke up, the moment that Weeping generally call Atosú, you might have been regarded variously as a loved one returning miraculously from beyond the grave, as a criminal escaping just punishment, or simply as a stranger completely disconnected from the people around them.
The Weeping are found all over the Five Realms, often in roles where their personal history or lack thereof is not a hindrance. They are particularly common in Bruid where folk are most likely to judge someone on what they do in the present moment. Many join the gallóglaigh, where they can make their own story, and where by ancient decree they are always welcome.
Origins of the Weeping
How the Weeping came to be is the subject of debate across many spheres in Tirneach society. They have been known in Tirneach for at least as long as the Five Realms have been established, as it has been handed down that the First Réig decreed that the Weeping should be judged not by their origins but by their deeds, and that they should be allowed to swear the Five Oaths and become gallóglaigh.
None have speculated more widely or wildly about what makes the Weeping than the Weeping themselves. There are as many theories among the Weeping about their origins as there are Weeping, if not more. Some say that the Shaper has sent them back to fulfil a special purpose or that they were rejected by the Shaper upon death, others that the Weeping are born when a person dies with an enemy’s curse upon them. It is often the subject of fireside discussions, particularly when a new Weeping is introduced into a group.
Despite the way they come into being and the strange effect that they have on the rituals of the Shaper, the Weeping are neither undead nor Gwyllt, and in fact they have been proven to be as alive as anyone else by every Order of Cinnirí, particularly the Necromancers. They eat, they breathe, they sleep. They age, they change, they die. The root cause of what makes Weeping has never been discovered; people of all ages, all species, and all means of death have become Weeping over the ages. Those who have died of illness bear no traces of it as Weeping; those who died violently are healed when their eyes open again and begin to bleed. There is only one type of person known never to have returned as a Weeping: the gallóglaigh.
Perhaps because of the underlying power of the Five Oaths, swearing them and serving as a gallóglach is the only guarantee against a person becoming a Weeping after their death. Those who fear and distrust the Weeping say that everyone in Tirneach should simply swear the Five Oaths and have done with it, but the Réigs harshly condemn this attitude. The Five Oaths are not to be taken by those who are motivated by suspicion or hatred, but by those who pledge to strive valiantly and defend the Five Realms. Others point to the Weeping who have been known to arise in other lands far beyond Tirneach, and ask how these bigots intend to deal with them. Although there are many who view the Weeping as strange or mysterious, the Weeping are as much a part of life, and death, as everyone else.
Playing a Weeping
If you decide to play a Weeping, you will need to be prepared for the fact that your character will be more likely to get an odd or unsettled reception from NPCs in the setting, as well as some PCs to a degree. While there are definite downsides to playing a Weeping, we feel like this might be a rewarding option to explore for those that are interested in this style of play.
To play one of the Weeping, you must phys rep crying blood from your eyes constantly. How you portray this is up to you though a suggested method of representing this would be to use black eyeshadow or face paint around the eyelids for dried and caked blood, with streaks of red face paint or stage/fake blood running down the face. You will need to apply this phys-rep in addition to the phys-rep requirements of your species.
As they frequently find themselves having to make it on their own, most Weeping will dress for function over fashion. Warm and waterproof cloaks and hard wearing clothes are common. Some Weeping will deliberately choose clothes that are unlike those worn by others of their species or homeland, while others who have had more positive experiences following their Atosú may seek to fit in more with their forebears.
In terms of gameplay, players will pick a species at character creation, which is the species of the person their character once was. The Weeping are not a species so there is no Species Feat associated with being a Weeping. Instead, Weeping are allowed to choose a Species Feat and Realm Feat which best fit their character as they are now and is not strictly based on the person their character once was. It should be noted this is a player choice rather than a character choice, to the Weeping the special ability of this Species Feat feels as innate to them as any other character’s Species Feat would. A Weeping character can have the normal Species Feat of the species they have chosen, or they can choose something completely different.
There is also a mechanical downside to being a Weeping: they seem to have a different energy to other mortals, perhaps because of their unusual way of coming into being. Even skilled ritualist leaders who are not Weeping find that it is more difficult to harness the energy of a ritual involving Weeping, while on the other hand if a ritual circle consists only of Weeping the energies seem to converge more successfully. This translates into a -1 to ritual score for each Weeping in a ritual circle where the ritual is led by a non-Weeping, but if a ritual circle is led by a Weeping and consists only of Weeping then it results in a +1 to the ritual score for each Weeping in the circle. Weeping are also unable to take Way of the Ritualist feats with the Quiescent keyword, which at this time includes the Quicken the Inevitable Solace and Make Peace Before War rituals. In addition, all Weeping are able to preternaturally sense nearby Weeping, and can cast the spell Detect Weeping for 0 Vigour.
Some Weeping You Might One Day Meet…
Maoithneasa
Maoithneasa is well known as a Weeping Rider and close friend of the former Réig Maeláine Uí Chonchobhar. She holds Díonrua in Uasa, a Riding long rumoured to be cursed after a general of the original Réig murdered the highest ranking generals of Siabhal while they were guests under his roof.
A former gallóglach, Maoithneassa was awarded a Riding after her feats of bravery at the Siege of Lobhan. She and her brother Declan are fairly unique among Weeping as a brother and sister who died young of an illness that swept Siabhal at the time, and who both returned as Weeping and were accepted and raised by their parents. She is aware that some of her citizens regard it as unlucky to have a Weeping Rider, but she is also aware that any who accept her open invitation to challenge her rule by force of arms will soon be silenced.
A slayer of Metzger Dubh
Perhaps the most infamous Weeping of the last twenty years, Metzger Dubh is often invoked by those who think the Weeping are somehow corrupted by their return. She was a Weeping Krieger who gathered a band of outlaws around her from the Great Forest and the gutters of Zahnhafen. Her gang butchered hundreds of people and wiped out entire settlements, turning the walls red with gore, before taking to the Great Forest and thereby evading capture. She is even rumoured to have eaten many of those she killed, using the power of their souls to empower dark rituals to make pacts with the Gwyllt.
Even while Metzer Dubh rampaged across Bruid, the survivors of Metzger Dubh’s rampages began to speak of masked Weeping bearing an insignia of a watchful bleeding eye, like the Eye of Bruid, who arrived in the night asking questions about Metzger and her band, and left money and supplies to help the survivors start anew. After three long months, her threat was finally ended in a quick and bloody battle, though few know the fact that it was a band of Weeping gallóglaigh who took it upon themselves to hunt her down.
Aonghus Rua
Reborn in the highlands of Baol in a body that had once been a Drakeblood warrior, Aonghus could never get used to the biting winds and scornful looks there and left as soon as he could. His wandering footsteps must have followed the leylines, for he ended up at the Arcane College in Crag Oscionn. His magical aptitude, mostly hedge magic that he had taught himself on his long journey, was recognised and nurtured there, and he now has a place as one of the only non-Vartach on the faculty of the Arcane College.
His research has delved further than most into the origins of the Weeping, and he insists to any who will listen that he is close to a breakthrough. He has been close to a breakthrough for more than a decade now, however, so it may be possible that some secrets are not meant to be known, even by as great a mage as Aonghus Rua.
As always, if you have any questions you can email info@fiveoaths.com or reach us via our Contact Form.