Random story/stories idea

     The city of Ammadhur is a huge commercial shipping hub, and is largely run by mercantile concerns. But the city extracts taxes and tariffs, and struggles to prevent smuggling and piracy. To that end, customs police and customs inspectors would b a huge power.

     I know this is extremely tropey, but: The customs police types have a team made up of former smugglers and pirates, caught and given powerful motivation one way or the other to work for the Tyrant and the city government. They also, for all intents and purposes, and the Tyrant's secret police. at least as to policing the merchant houses. Could form the basis for a series of short stories.  Having them run afoul of a Skinwalker who had integrated himself into a merchant house could be a good introduction to the Blessed.

Race: The Lotho

Giants, eight to ten feet tall, heavily built, with long fur that they wear in elaborate braids. The Lotho are  based on a creature that is the local equivalent of prehistoric giant ground sloths.

Most believe that the Aelth are the first race, though in fact they are not. The Lotho came first, but were considered a failure by the gods that created them, and were abandoned.  They lived alone in an isolated area for years, with no contact with the other races until well after the death of the gods.

Thr Lotho were made to be simple - near mindless - warriors. Instead, the giants became philosophers and deep thinkers, with deep a connection to nature, and little or no interest in warfare or gods. The Lotho are herbalists and thinkers, Druidic in nature, and are generally pacifistic. They are not at all defenseless however, and if they or their love ones are attacked, they can transform into powerful and terrifying beserkers.

Huge and powerful, with a deep natural wisdom. They have an incredible understanding of and communion with nature, are skilled herbalists and alchemists,  and their natural magic is as powerful as that of the Aelth, though more focused on healing and protection then that of the Aelth, which is more aimed at stealth and the savagery of nature.

It is exceedingly rare for Lotho to embrace corruption, but the very few that do are terrifying creatures to behold. Defilers are huge beastial savages that warp nature around them into twisted and diseased living weapons.

Blessed: Rothounds

Generic term for undead animals, which gather in packs whatever their original animal. Hunters whose howl can paralyze and whose bite putrifies flesh.

Blessed: Warchildren

Mindless, as far as anyone can tell. The rotting body of a child (fetus through pre-pubescent) floats in the air, in fetal position, surrounded by a semi-translucent spherical shell of crystallized Blood. They instinctively draw the life force from nearby creatures.  It is possible to magically bind yourself to a Warchild and draw off some of the power that it draws from the living around it, and use that power. Some Blessed and Blooded mages use them as pets, guards or attack dogs, sometimes fixing them in place in their lairs to draw out the life force of invaders and kill them, or  sometimes they will have the Child floating over their heads, and use them as a weapon.

Found normally, they drift over the landscape, seemingly at random, attacking any people, animals or even plants if there is nothing else available, that they happen to come near, drawing out their life energy to sustain themselves. They live essentially like a jellyfish or man o'war.

Extremely resilient, their Blood shells take a tremendous amount of force to shatter, which is the only way to destroy them.  Note that when the shell shatters, it returns to liquid Blood, and could spray those around it. Touching the solid shell will not open one to corruption, but it will increase the rate at which the Warchild draws out your life. Shattering their shell and destroying them however is obviously extremely dangerous.

Blessed: The Bound

Undead Shar. Females are stark white and silent, and control groups of undead males, who are deep black and make a constant high pitched keening sound that disorients the living, causing hallucinations and euphoria. Males are semi-incorporeal, fading in and out of materiality seemingly at random. At rest, they cling to the much larger females and feed off their blood , but they prefer the blood and flesh of the living, and bring the brains and organs to their female mates for them to feed. Females are silent, but possess powerful magic. Males are bound to the female, and will vanish into nothingness if she dies.

Blessed: Shadekin

Undead Kin. Like the Kin, but more so.  They are composed partially of shadow, and can disappear into shadows and teleport from one shadow to another.  Almost always come in groups, that are in constant telepathic contact, and coordinate their actions perfectly. See the entry for the Kin for more.

Blessed: Wraiths

Incorporeal creatures of unnatural cold and pain.  Any sentient being whose body is destroyed or utterly unmade by the corruption of the Blood has a chance of coming back as a wraith.

Blessed: The Fallen

Powerful undead Duer who seek to  bring their former family and clanmates into the blood. They resemble pale, drawn duer with red, wet sunken eyes, usually wrapped in heavy robes. They are usually silent except for a sad and mocking laughter which causes suicidal despair in those that hear it.

Blessed: Souleaters

Undead geb.  The look like geb that have been horribly burned to death, and they glow with an inner fire. Their skin is blackened and flaking, showing wet red muscle beneath.  Inside their mouths is a burning hot white vortex of energy, which can actually project outward and snake out like a burning white-hot tentacle to constrict and stab its victims, burn them and draw out their life force.

Blessed: Skinwalkers

Skeletal undead, highly intelligent, they kill and skin their victims, eat their brains and wear the skin, and masquerade as them. They can preserve the dead flesh for a period of weeks or months before it begins to rot and they must move on to a new victim. When they eat a victim's brain, they gain its knowledge, and can mimic them nearly perfectly.

Only humans can become skinwalkers.

Blessed: Revenants

Revenants look like ragged and emaciated members of their base race, with skin that has a faint golden sheen and eyes that glow faintly.  They can fly, and their gaze will fascinate and hypnotize the living, off of whom they then feed.  Revenants are referred to by many as "the blessed", al though technically that is a generic term for all intelligent undead. Also called "angels" by some.

Blessed: The Weeping.

Weeping are blessed formed from Aelth who fell to the Blood.  They are thin, with hard alabaster white skin which is covered in deep slashes and rents which constantly trickle blood. They are eyeless, and their empty eye sockets also constantly weep venomous blood.

Like the blood of the gods, a Weeping's blood can grant great magical power to those who taste it. Unlike the gods' blood, the Weepings' tears have seemingly been purified of the corruption, and will not destroy or transform those who partake of it. However, those who do taste a Weeping's blood are forever subject to the will of that Weeping. They partake in some of its power, but knowingly or unknowingly, they are subject to its mental influence.

The Weeping are very smart, and very powerful. They speak in riddles and have been known to deal and bargain with people for power. They can feed mortals some of their blood and grant them power, but they will always exert a subtle influence over that person from then on. Usually found alone in the wastelands, but they usually have vast webs of telepathic influence over people - especially mages hungry for power without the risk of corruption - all over the world. Their actual goals are usually long reaching and opaque.

Note that Aelth will stalk a Weeping endlessly.  Aelth who learn of the whereabouts of a Weeping will do anything and everything in their power to destroy it. They will never admit why they are doing it, and will even claim not to see the creature they are fighting, to deny even that they are fighting anything, while they battle it to the death.

I haven't decided what happens to its slaves when a Weeping is destroyed. Either they are renderd suddenly powerless, or the blood that they tasted reverts to the blood of the gods, and renders them corrupt.

Blessed: Lich

Lich in BoaDG are Fallen magi who voluntarily extend their lives to gain greater power, continue their studies or further their private goals. Non race specific, lich can only come about by the conscious choice of a very knowledgable and powerful Mage.

The Blessed

The corrupted power which fell to earth after the death of gods caused a huge plague of undead.  Some are mindless or nearly so, zombies and skeletons, shells of bodies animated by pure corruption. Some however are not.

When one who touches the Blood embraces its potential, knowingly uses the corrupt power it can provide, and properly prepares oneself for the changes that are to come, it is possible to survive the corruption by enduring a tremendous transformation, and becoming one of the intelligent undead, called "blessed" because of their connection to the blood of the dead gods.

There are some common patterns to the blessed, physical types that members of specific races tend to fall into, but some blessed are unique, the result of a particularly focussed will and drive. For example:

 Wenner Farmass was a mercenary and duelist, and recognized by many as one of the finest swordsmen in the region. Bipolar in nature, he was constantly alternating between drunken depression and a manic obsession with testing himself against every swordsman in the land.  When he touched the Blood, and realized what had happened, his manic focus on becoming the greatest swordsman of his age turned him into what he is now, the Bloodblade.

The Bloodblade is a tall thin humanoid, with mottled brown and red skin. His head lolls to the side, his eyes rolling, and he constantly hums, sings random snatches of song, mutters and drools.  His body however moves with incredible grace and speed. With a flick of either wrist, he can call a sword into being, drawing it out from the ever bleeding wounds on his hands. The sword is mottled black and red, appears somewhat crystalline, and the edge of it constantly bubbles, smokes and drips fluid.  Wounds from the sword fester and rot immediately.

Locations: Kheva Rhak - the Iron City

     A Geb city built into the side of Mount Riva, in the Khem's Horns range. The city sits astride one of the major passes though the range, and its outskirts dig deep into the mountain, winding trough the extensive iron mines that give it its name.

     The Geb miners have recently breached a mind bogglingly huge underground chamber, that once held an underground Duer city, with huge and extensive temples that may once have been the home of an actual god or gods.  The city is now drenched in gods blood, and overrun with seemingly endless undead. The Geb have been fighting the undead incursion ever since they breached the city wall, and have been collapsing tunnel after tunnel. Despite this, the undead are now starting to dig their way up into the mines and the city's lower reaches.

Locations: The City-state of Ammadhur, Republic Eternal (Part 2)

     Ammadhur is surrounded by farms and smaller towns that are loosely associated with the city-state. They pay taxes to the city, in exchange for being guarded by the Tyrant's troops. There are also a handful of large estates of rich and powerful folks that fall outside the city walls.  Most have their own troops to keep them safe, some even contract with one or more of the schools of magic - which operate as guilds on their own right - for magical protection.

     One of the biggest holidays celebrated in Ammadhur is the Day of the Falling of the Gods, usually just called The Falling or Falling Day.  It's a chaotic day that falls between the last day of one year an the first day of the next. Nobody works save the absolute necessities. By tradition it is a day associated with reversals of fortune. For 24 hours, servants rule over their masters, peasants command soldiers, and children command their parents. The Tyrant traditionally spends the day a a common laborer somewhere in the city.   The day ends with a "rain of blood", when thousands of gallons of red wine are sprayed over crowds of people all over the city.

Call for aid: items needed for Ammadhur

I could use people's help designing the following groups/societies/etc., for placement in Ammadur

- mercenary companies
- schools of magic
- travelers' societies
- guard companies
- merchant's guilds & shipping companies
- adventuring companies
- undead hunters
- thieves' guilds
- archaeological societies
- enchanters/alchemists' guilds

Locations: The City-state of Ammadhur, Republic Eternal (Part 1)

      Ammadhur was one of the first independent states formed after the Death of Gods. Refugees from all races came together in this sheltered coastal area and huddled for protection from the insanity raging across the world, and when things died down, they stayed, and built.  Ammadhur grew, and grew, and is now an immense urban sprawl, spread out over a stretch of coastline and a number of small islands - some natural and some artificial. It is positioned at a perfect natural harbor, in an area where a number of major ocean currents and major rivers happen to come together, and has thus become incredibly wealthy as a trade center and gateway to the interior of the continent.

Politically, Ammadhur is a representative republic. It is led by the Tyrant, almost always an elder merchant, head of one of the greater trading houses. The Tyrant is elected for life, via an incredibly complex system, designed to prevent favoritism or nepotism. Thirty members of the Great Council, chosen by lot, were reduced by lot to nine; the nine chose forty and the forty were reduced by lot to twelve, who chose twenty-five. The twenty-five were reduced by lot to nine and the nine elected forty-five. Then the forty-five were once more reduced by lot to eleven, and the eleven finally chose the forty-one who actually elect the Tyrant. While the system may seem impossibly burdensome, it has now been in use for almost 1000 years, and serves the city well.  The Tyrant has a fair degree of power in and of himself, but he is checked in many ways by both the Great Council and the League of Guilds, both of which groups are quite powerful in their own rights.

     The Tyrant is invariably shrewd, intelligent, and very very careful to keep the best interests of the City in mind. While he is elected for life, this comes with the loophole that a general vote of no confidence can result in his removal or execution at any time.  The traditional Tyrannical costume in fact comes with a noose which the Tyrant always wears, on the theory that it will keep him humble and in his place.

  Physically, the city is breathtaking. Immensely rich, the city is famed for its densely packed but beautiful architecture, between and among which flow thousands of canals, and nearly as many roads.  The city is also unusually multicultural, representatives of nearly every race and people can be found there, some keeping to their own neighborhoods and walled ghettos within the city, some intermingling. Peace is kept by a (typically for Ammadhur) complex system of watch forces, one answering to the Tyrant, one to the Counsel, one to the League, and smaller forces retained by the individual guilds and merchant houses.

     There actually remain several standing temples in Ammadhur. All are maintained by the city as museums, to remind the people of the death of gods, and it's effects on the world.  The names and faces of the gods have all been defaced from each temple.  The temple museums are all heavily guarded and protected by the enchanters' guilds and schools, as they are by their nature storehouses of powerful items of corrupted magic.

     Along with the merchant's guilds and various guard companies, the city is rife with other organizations vying for control. Competing thieve's guilds, mercenary companies, universities of magic, adventuring companies, etc.  Archaeological relic hunters undertake expeditions into the wild. Bounties on undead and on the gods' blood cults lead to professional hunters making hunting forays. Travelers' Societies work to keep the roads safe.

     Note that the various guard companies double as a standing army when necessary. On the rare occasion that Ammadhur has to go to war, the Tyrant takes overall control of all if the various guard companies, with the officers of those companies taking command roles in the resulting army. If necessary, the Tyrant may negotiate with the various mercenary companies that have their headquarters in the city.

     The wealthier sections of Amadhur have an alchemically powered commuter rail, streets lit by magic globes, high buildings with magically run elevators. The wealthiest have cars, electricity (for all intents and purposes), many or most of the modern conveniences. Middle class and higher have good medical care (some magical, some merely good care).

     The poorer sections of town of course have none of this, just a typical pre-enlightenment city. Little or no medical care, few conveniences, almost no available magical resources.

     The other side of the equation of course, is the danger inherent in the heavy magic use in the wealthier areas of town.  While all of the magical amenities and enchanted items are manufactured using the safesteans possible (which is in no small part why they are so imcredibly expensive), there have been problems in the past.   It was not all that long ago that the power in a simple light globe turned out to be ever so slightly corrupt, and slowly over the course of a few years caused several shopkeepers in the area to go mad, and ultimately die slowly and in horrible pain in the mage guilds' isolation cells, after each killed their loved ones.

Race: the Kin

Kin are short, wiry, and furry, with large slightly pointy ears and large sharp teeth.   They stand about 5 feet tall, with dark colored fur that ranges from gray to black to dark red or brown in varying patterns that are usually extremely subtle and faint, difficult to see unless one is very close.

Kin are extremely adaptable. They generally live in live in small troupes, and may be found in any and every possible environment, some in hidden enclaves in an around major cities. They are naturally stealthy and sneaky, with a fair amount of skill in magic.

Kin form close and intense relationships with groups of other Kin,  and they form what amounts to a simple telepathic or empathic connection with each other. This connection persists even when one Kin is corrupted by the Blood, and the changes expeienced by the corrupted Kin will actually pass through his bond to the others of his troupe. Thus, undead Kin almost always come in groups.  The bond itself does not appear to be magical in nature.

Note that undead Kin (Shadekin, to be discussed later) are almost indistinguishable from their living  brethren, save for being stronger both physically and magically, and with an uncanny ability to disappear into shadows and reappear elsewhere. Many Kin will in fact actively seek to fall to the blood purposely, and convert their troupe with them. The only physical difference between  a Kin and a Shadekin is that the patterns in their fur - which are subtle differences in fur color/shade and difficult to see under the best circumstance - will change so that they form mystical patterns and writing, which move and shift constantly.

It is assumed that the Kin have their own language, but if so it is a secret carefully kept from other races. Hence the fact that the race is named in the human tongue.

Race: the Sava

The Sava are a vaguely catlike people, and desert nomads.  They are long distance runners, hearty despite their thin and graceful builds, which is vaguely cheetah-like in basic form.

In their tongue, the word "Sava" means simply "family".  Sava as a rule are gregarious xenophiles who enjoy the company of other races, and famously will accept anyone into their families that can keep up with them, though of course very few actually can for any length of time.   They do not possess much technology, and have no magic at all, in part because they rarely hold still long enough to build much of anything, but mostly because the Sava are uniquely resistant to magic.

No Sava has ever been known to fall to the taint of the Blood, as far as anyone knows.  They actually seem to be oddly immune to the effects of the Blood, and in fact most forms of magic seem to just roll off of them. Especially strange is that members of other races who are welcomed into a Sava family seem to share some of the same resistance and immunity, at least for as long as they stay with their adopted family.  Even simply traveling with a group of Sava for a short time will convey at least some resistance to magic during that time. Note that the Sava resistance to magic is additive - the more Sava in the area, the greater their resistance, and it builds over time. A single Sava, with no family members in the area, will be somewhat resistant to magic, but much more vulnerable then she would be if surrounded by family.

Along with being gregarious, Sava are notoriously omnisexual, and possess no cultural sexual taboos. They usually do not form lasting sexual or romantic relationships, they are both culturally and biologically bisexual in nature, and they will generally happily seduce members of other races, of their own family members, or just whomever happens to be about.

Children are raised collectively by the family group, and form no particular attachment to their biological parents - they do not generally know who their biological parents are.

Sava family groups are named for a single individual who the family chooses based on factors that baffle outsiders, and seem at times to be an inside joke of some kind that outsiders will not get.

The Sava average between 5.5 and 6 feet, and are thin and wiry of build. Lightly furred, light earth tones in color with varying patterns. They will often dye wild and colorful patterns into their fur.

As unlikely a match as it may seem, the Sava and the Duer are very close allies.  The Sava insist that they taught the Duer to laugh and sing when they began to fall to their grief. The Duer differ, and say instead that the Sava were once more like them, but took the Duers' lessons in dealing with despair to ridiculous extremes.

Race: the Shar

Shar are a highly dimorphic lizardlike race. Females are large, tough warriors who enter battle with a stunning roar. Males are smaller and weaker, winged and snake-like, faster than the females, and possessing a venomous bite.

Most chieftains are female and most shaman are male, though this is not universal. Clannish and insular, these amphibious people live in semi-permanent villages that exist partly or mostly underwater, and can be moved to a new location if needed. They are not unskilled with magic, though without the sophisticated enchantments of humans and duer.

The Shar often revert to the worshipful ways of their ancestors, seek out the relics and blood of their old and dead gods, and as a result many fall to corruption of the Blood. Those that fall are highly dangerous creatures, but are secretly revered, even worshipped, by many Shar.

Females average about 5'6"', males about 4".  Females are heavily scaled over thick hide, males have fine scales over thinner skin.  Their necks are long and snake-like, with males resembling nothing so much as a winged snake with limbs. They have a wide range of colors and patterns, with males tending to be more brightly colored than females.

Race: the Duer

Unlike the other races, which were raised by the gods from baser animals, the Duer were made from the stone of mountains.  

Duer were close to their gods, closer than most races. They were made to be the guardians of their temples, they were ruled by a tremendous priest class, and as such they were badly decimated by the fall of the gods, and the rain of their Blood.  Today their numbers are small and their underground nations are plagued with both Blessed and the lesser undead. 

Duer are generally dour and mournful, in character. However, they have a surprising tradition of responding to overwhelming grief with song and laughter to raise themselves out of their depression.  Duer whose grief is so strong as to overcome their ability to laugh often find a deep pool of Blood and throw themselves into it, emerging as a powerful Blessed being of sadness and temptation. 

Duer are tinkerers, and originated much of the alchemical and enchanting magic now used in wealthy cities. 

They average five feet tall, have craggy features, are hairless, have stocky builds, with skin color ranging through all of the colors of stone. In fact, their skin is hard and stone-like, and will even grow moss or lichen if they allow it to.

Race: the Aelth

Forest nomads. Most believe tat they were the first raised, made by their gods from a strange animal call a thisp, a small tree dwelling predator that resembles a lightly furred snake, but which is actually a mammal and a colony of algae that live symbiotically.  "Aelthan" means "eldest" in their tongue, as the aelth were the first race created by the gods.  Stalkers, archers and masters of their own subtle natural magics.   

There are aelth that taste the Blood and fall to corruption, but they are disavowed by others of their race, who will insist that those that fell are not of the Aelthan and never were, and that the Aelth race remains pure. The few (unacknowledged) Aelth who do fall to the blood can become beings of immense power.

Aelth look like exaggerated elves- long, narrow, pointed features, long pointed ears, very thin and long of limb. They average about 6.5 feet, but usually with a hunched posture due to a deeply curved and flexible spine, and by human standards they seem emaciated. Skin tones are mostly greens, ochres and browns.

Race: the Geb

Raised by the gods from a tough and tenacious mountain predator. Geb (both singular and plural)  are tribal hunters, with a peculiar sense of honor and fair play, and a fairly sinister sense of humor. Not overly known for their skill at arcane magic, but their shaman have their own rites seated in blood (lowercase b) and nature. Many Geb shaman do in fact utilize the  Blood and the power it can grant, but Geb shaman are tough and strong-willed, and can usually hold out against death or transformation for longer than most.   

Geb are proud, tough, vicious, and honorable in their own way.  They are humanoid, average 6.5 to 7 feet in height, and are powerfully built.Wide round eyes that see clearly in the dark, long pointed ears and a narrow strip of mane-like hair. They have underbites with upward-pointing tusks.  They have from 2 to 6 small horns, always an even number, symmetrically placed across their foreheads.  Skin tone ranges from pale white to deep black, through all of the shades of gray in between.

Game mechanic idea: corruption

Game mechanic idea: "Corruption" is a stat (0 - whatever) that measures the degree to which you have been affected by the blood of the gods. Corruption can be added to at least certain stat or skill checks, at the cost/risk of raising your Corruption. Once Corruption reaches a certain number, its addictive and self destructive nature begins to affect your mind, and you have to make a willpower check NOT to add it to all possible checks, and that willpower check gets harder as the Corruption score gets higher. Once it reaches a certain point, the character dies, or if certain preparations have been made, transforms

The nature of magic.

This is best described via a somewhat extended metaphor, so bear with me on this.

Think of magical power as a well, filled with a thick  liquid that settles and gets denser and heavier as you reach further down into its depths, thinner and lighter at the surface. The denser the liquid, the more powerful the magic.  Thus, the deeper you reach into the well, the denser the material you draw up, the more difficult to lift and hold it, and consequently the more powerful the magical effects you can create. While the heavier and denser magic is more difficult to handle in terms of the strength and willpower required to use it, using it is also faster and in some ways simpler than trying to create similar effects using the lighter power towards the top. The thinner stuff at the top must be hoarded slowly over time, drawn in and pulled together with rituals and tools, with great skill and patience, to create small effects.  The stuff at the bottom is the very essence of power: draw it up, frame a purpose in your mind, hurl it away, and you can level mountains.

But, the well has been poisoned.  Magic was inextricably tied up and tangled with the gods and their power, as they created it as a tool for their vassals to use. Thus the corrupt blood of the gods, when it was spilled, infected all magical power.

The corrupt blood, to continue the metaphor, is the deepest and densest power available. Thus, the bottom of the well - the strongest magic - is pure blood and corruption, and the corruption gets lighter and more sparse as one rises up to into the lighter and clearer power. However that corruption is not limited strictly to the bottom, some will always diffuse upwards.  Any use of magic has at least a small chance of touching on that corruption.

There are ways of doing magic that are very safe, if never perfectly safe.  Alchemy and enchantment, by working slowly and carefully, accumulate small amounts of power slowly, skimming the very top of the well over a long period of time, and minimizing the chance of corruption. Alchemists will say that their works are completely safe, but of course there is always some risk, however small. With great skill, and great patience, wonderful works may be created this way, with minimum risk, albeit slowly.

There are  pools and rains of Blood that are physical manifestations of the metaphysical bottom of that well of power.  That power is so great and so dense that it has an actual physical presence, manifesting in the physical world even when not being actively used. 

It is technically possible to be a classical D&D style sorcerer, without touching the blood. But it requires tremendous skill and not a little luck.  One must be deft in drawing power from the well, knowing how deep one may reach and avoiding the wisps of corruption that reach upwards.  Some succeed and attain power without risk.  However most such practitioners eventually pay for their daring.  It is difficult to sense the Blood if you have not already been corrupted, and thus it is very difficult to avoid those thin wisps of Blood that rise up through the well for very long.

The metaphor of the well is so widespread that those who fall to the blood have long been said to have "drawn too deep". The phrase has been generalized over time, and now anyone who does something foolish and dangerous or self-destructive is said to be "drawing too deeply", "diving" or "swimming in it".

I want one thing to be completely clear:  once one touches the Blood, even the tiniest amount for the briefest time, corruption is inevitable.  That person is, in one sense or another, doomed, without any recourse and without any hope of redemption.  The corruption can, with skill and willpower, be held back and repressed for a time, the process slowed, but it cannot be entirely stopped. The most one can do is hope to die by other means before the corruption kills them, as any other death they may have will surely be a kindness compared to the end that the Blood will give them.  The effects of the Blood cannot be cured or undone.

Of course, the mage who finds that she has touched the Blood, be it accidentally or deliberately, with their hands or even just with their minds, does in fact have  a choice as to how to face the consequences.  She can fight the corruption, or she can embrace it.

The Mage who chooses to fight the inevitable will die, disfigured and mad, and in horrible pain. All she can do is delay the inevitable.  She can try and ignore it completely, or try to fight the corruption, and either way she will descend - quickly or slowly, but inevitably - into madness and eventual death.  Ignore it or fight it, the result will be the same in the end, though with willpower and self control, the descent may be slowed. 

On the other hand, she may bow to the inevitable, embrace the corruption, use it consciously and deliberately, and she will transform eventually into one of the intelligent undead, the "Blessed".

The blood of the gods.

The grand fight between good and evil already happened, and nobody won. The gods were so evenly matched when they went to war that they utterly unmade each other.

However, the nature of gods being what it was, eternal in their power, while the gods themselves are dead and gone, their power is not. It's just changed, corrupted.  Even the names of the gods are forgotten by most, though a few races hold on to their names, and some even continue to worship in secret, in the hope that they someday return.

The power and blood of the gods was irredeemably corrupted in their destruction and death.  The final blow that destroyed all of the gods was a seed of corruption, essentially a magical virus of unbelievable power, that turned their own power and blood into poison and corruption that unmade them all. As a result, the pools and remnants of their power that remain are impure and corrupt to this day. There are those who use it, but they inevitably become a reflection of that corruption.

Each and every one of the intelligent races on this world were originally created by one or another of the gods to use as tools to expand their wars upon each other. Thus, until the gods died and the war ended, the races were all slaves, who knew nothing but war.  All of the arts of man, aelth, duer, etc. are thus either of recent invention (recent being a relative term, or course) or are derived from the tools of war given them by the gods.  The Aelth were the first such race created, and thus have the longest history, albeit most of it is of servitude to the gods.   Similarly, the oldest ruins, dungeons and suchlike, are forgotten things from the age of war and god-death.

The World of Maeleff

The gods, who hated each other with a force and passion beyond our understanding, came to a world filled with life, and saw that it had tools to their liking.  It's life was varied and strong, it's stone and trees filled with power.  Thus they came here to make war.

The gods each made tools in their own image. The Aelth were raised from small, fierce and strange predators, their nature half plant and half animal. The Shar were made from the great lizards of the swamps, venomous and deadly. The Sava from desert cats, the Men from plains apes, the Geb from the hunters of the mountain slopes, the Kin from the skulking beasts that fed off the leavings of others. Each was made as a weapon to be used against the others.  The Duer were different, made from the living stone itself, and kept close by their gods, their tool makers and the guardians of their secret places.  For eons, the gods fought, and their creations fought, sometimes at the gods' side, sometimes on their own. The plains ran with blood, an the sky shook with power.

And then the gods died. In a final act of desperate hatred, they destroyed each other with a poison of corruption so vile and powerful that it destroyed them all, and spilled their poisoned blood out into the earth.  They left behind only the poison that spelled their deaths, and the lost creations that were once the tools of their wars.