The Curse of Life

X Worldbuilders:

GM James R

The Curse of Life was a plague unleashed at the end of the Holy War in conjunction with the Gone but not Forgotten Curse. Unlike the GbnF Curse, which ensured that dragons stayed dead, the Curse of Life ensured that individuals of a specific shared bloodline stayed alive.

The curse ended in 11 PR with the events of The Griffon's Last Stand.

About

Both curses took effect at the end of the BR era, staying in effect into the new realm and into Realm War I. While it effected many races, genealogists would trace those of "living" blood back to a common ancestor who lived long before recorded time, some theologists suggest the ancestor is none other than the Raven Queen herself.

About 1.04 million "living" were estimated to have plagued the realm during this time, a number almost identical to the estimated forces of Tiamat in the previous Realm War.

Functionally, the curse worked by stealing the magic of anyone and everyone who tried to resurrect a Dragon. As the Holy War had just ended, countless mages (both Tiamat aligned or not) tried to bring back the dragons in the years that followed, and stealing the necromatic energies of all those wasted spells, Nerull directed it back into other Quelmar individuals, namely one of the oldest bloodlines of the realm's history. That meant for every time a terrible wizard tried to resurrect Tiamat, that magic instead resurrected dozens and dozens of recently-killed individuals of that bloodline, making everyone with that heritage immortal, for as long as they realm kept trying to bring back the dragons.

In 11 PR, after the curse was broken, all individuals who had already died and come back were restored to their natural dead state (essentially killing over 1 million people all over the realm at once) while "living" who had not yet died noticed no change---they would go on to die normally like everyone else.

The other result of the curse's end....Dragons could now be resurrected, and their return to the realm was inevitable.

List of Cursed

Livers (Human)

• Blit Liver
• Tasaday Liver
• Ladagan Liver
• Lily Prakseesin

Rhivir (Elven)

• Tuar Rhivir
• Fanadil Rhivir
• Orris

WaphMalrak (Dragonborn)

• Eve's Archenemy

Behind the Screen

Player Character Mechanics

During the OathWielders campaign, two players (Kaia and Orris) were Livers, and the mechanics used for playing with the curse can be found below.

The Curse of Life:

As his consort Nera fights with him in another plane, Nerull is being stripped of his divine powers. Nera is pulling his power away from him in the Shadowfell and bringing it to the material plane. If she succeeds the Dragons will no doubt return to destroy the realm. Your body and life has been on loan from Nerull ever since he brought you back to life, and now you must pay what’s due. Flee to the citadel, stop those protecting the essence of life that so rightfully belongs to Nerull.

• Curse of Life: You regain 1 HP at the start of every turn.
• Goalsight: You gain a form of tremorsense that reaches out 30 feet and also shows you a variety of paths you can travel unimpeded to reach Nerull's goal (the top of the citadel).
• Reckless: Under Nerull’s command, you have advantage on every attack. However, attacks against you have advantage.