Blood Hunter

A new human Blood Hunter observing the effects of the Hunters Bane ritual.

### Skills

Acrboatics, Arcana, Athletics, History, Insight, Investigation, Religion, Survival

## Class Magic

### Spellcasting?

No

A **Blood Hunter** is someone who has undergone a violent ritual that allows them to inherit the ability to use hemocraft - the ability to manipulate blood magically. Blood Hunters are typically orphans or people ostracized from their families, who have come to find comradarie in their order of fellow hunters. A Blood Hunter accepts dark magics and skills in order to hunt monsters and the evils that threaten society, stalking just on the outskirts of established civilization to take their marks down and protect the innocent.

## Culture

Blood hunters are organized into various different Orders, each unified by the ritual that turns an individual into a blood hunter, known as the Hunter's Bane. This ritual permits a Blood hunters to be able to use hemocraft, the magical ability to manipulate blood and implant blood curses on individuals. Following this, each Order also holds a different ritual related to their organization.

Blood hunters are sworn to defeat all likes of monstrosity and abberation that stalks the edges of society. While most cultures ostracize them, fearing their hemocraft abilities, blood hunters nonetheless act as the sworn defenders of the sentient races against the dangerous and monstrous beings that exist outside the walls of cities. They are commonly found in the wilderness or among villages in rural areas, hunting down whatever monsters they might be searching for.

### Orders

Among the blood hunters are four distinct Orders, each with their own inherent rituals that make their blood hunters stronger and allow them to hunt better.

#### The Order of the Ghostslayer

The first Order of blood hunters was the Order of the Ghostslayer. These hunters discovered the secrets of hemocraft, and refined them for combat against the plague of undead. This order undertakes the Rite of Dawn and adopts the skills and powers necessary to be able to hunt down necromancers and their undead subjects.

#### The Order of the Lycan

The Order of the Lycan originated in the Holy See, as the first offshoot of the Order of the Ghostslayer. During a period in which a plague of lycanthropy had overtaken the region, these blood hunters took up a ritual they call the Taming - a ritualistic application of a lycanthropic disease to the individual. This ritual requires the blood hunter to "tame" their new abilities, allowing them to control this disease and in turn use it to defeat other lycanthropes. This is a point of pride for many members of the Order of the Lycan, and being cured of their lycanthropy is a great shame. Depending on the geological location of the temple a Lycan blood hunter comes from, their exact lycanthropy can differ - for example, those from the Holy See are often werewolves or werebears, while those from Thorland may be wereweasels.

#### The Order of the Mutant

The Order of the Mutant takes upon the craft of creating forbidden alchemical reagants - known as mutagens - to increase their hunting abilities. These blood hunters undertake extreme forms of the Hunter's Bane, returning from this extremified version of the ritual more scarred than before, but having the ability to augment their abilities by intaking mutagens.

## Abilities

The staple ability of a blood hunter is known as hemocraft - an ancient magical art that manipulates the blood of other living (or unliving) things. This ability is unlocked through the Hunter's Bane, a ritual that can leave a blood hunter scarred for life - typically manifesting in strangely colored eyes, pale skin, or extremely prominent veins.

Hemocraft permits a blood hunter to cast blood curses, deadly magic that uses a target's blood to fuel its' dark abilities. As a result, hemocraft *only* works on creatures that have blood. Blood curses can vary in their effects, but they typically range from making a target feel anxious or scared to causing their blood to literally boil and burst from their bodies.