Word of God compilation

This page contains author's elaborations on some subjects outside of the novel's text.

## **Valkyries's Classes**

[At the time of F-Grade]

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> Generally they would all have the Warrior class, except for a few of the leaders who might have better versions of the same Class Archetype
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> But they also have access to skills through Calrin and the Repository, so they have been able to diverge somewhat
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## **Spirit Tool Strength**

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> in general spirit tools are roughly as strong as an item a grade higher
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> so an f-grade spirit tool is about as strong as an E-Grade item
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## **About Emily's Early Proficiency Buff Skill**

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> Emily can currently only buff one person at a time, with one axe at a time. But she can switch those axes pretty freely
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## **About Mechanics of Nexus Coins**

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> Nexus Coin transference is possible (like how Zac gave Ogras money the other chapter.), but robbing nexus coins is impossible. Being able to transfer nexus coins is a result of the Apostate of Order just like the contracts, as a means to provide payment for services rendered.
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> Transfer under duress is not possible, just as signing a Contract of Servitude under duress is impossible. If you kill someone after they give you money (like a business transaction), the transferred Nexus Coins will be voided.
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> Robbing Cosmos Sacks is entirely possible though.
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## **Skill Transference Between Zac's Classes**

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> The subject of skill transference between the two classes was a bit hazy since I hadn't actually considered the subject until it was brought up some time during the hunt. I will try to add a section about this in some future chapter but the gist of it is this;
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> In Zac's case he has 3 skills in both his classes; [Inquisitive Eye], [Book of Babel], and [Thousand Faces]. His human side has another 2 non-class skills: [Nature's Barrier] and [Mental Fortress].
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> The rule is that he needs to learn skills for both his classes (they don't transfer over because his whole pathways get changed when changing race). He has lots of copies of [Book of Babel] because it's one of the most common skills in the multiverse and Calrin can get his hands on crystals easily.
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> [Inquistive Eye] is also easily attained since there was a very simple method to powerlevel that skill from it's more basic counterpart. This brings us to the subject of ancillary skills. The two aforementioned skills, in addition to Thousand Faces are ancillary skills (neither defense/offence/class/craft). These are not as restrictive as most other skills, though a Scout class would obviously make better use of [Inquisitive Eye], and Zac has proven to have a bad match with [Thousand Faces].
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> That's why he can use [Thousand Faces], but not [Nature's Barrier] in his undead form.
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> This could in a sense be seen as a retroactive change, but it's to tighten the internal logic of the skill system. Hope this clears any confusion.
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## **On Yrial's Gender**

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> Actually, my original idea was for Yrial to be neither strictly man or woman, but cycle between the two continously as his main aspects cycled between fire and ice
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> Sometimes he would be referred to as a he and sometimes she
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## **Sapience of Born Undead**

> The [noble] purebloods are sapient from birth, normal undead need to reach E-Grade Race first
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> So most undead that are born rather than turned are born without sapience
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## **Frequency of Tower Floor Finishes in Zecia**

> 4th is a few times a week, 5th a few times a year
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> 6th once every decade or two
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> 7th once every couple millenia
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> 8th Eveningtide Asura
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> 9th unknown, but Ogras mentioned long time ago he didn't think anyone had ever reached it
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## **What "Unorthodox" Means in This Universe**

> Unorthodox has pretty much the same meaning as general Xianxia stories
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> People who utilize evil ways to become stronger, rather than the "set" path by the system
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> it's not something that the system decides
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> It's like the term Defier, it's not something that has a strict definition, but rather a "you know it when you see it" thing
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> Which means that it can just as well be political. Like the Allbright empire could call that whole unclaimed zone a den of unorthodox cultivators as a justification for invading
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## **Stat Bonuses for F-Grade Classes by Tier**

> 3-4 Common
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> 4-5 Uncommon
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> 5-6 Rare
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> 6-7 Epic
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> excluding [the base 2 free points]
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## **Intelligence and Wisdom's Effects**

> Q: you said Zac is unusually fast for a tank/warrior but his skills don't allow him to express it as well as Dex based classes. How does high Int affect him
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> A: similarily
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> but multitasking is related to control as well, and Zac is shit there
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> like controlling a thousand wind blades forming some sort of array would definitely not just require int, but also wind affinity and Cosmic Energy Control
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> Q: so the higher your Int the finer your control or things that require high control also need high Int
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> A: i'd say that high Int would be the main path for multitask-classes, like array masters and people using weapon swarms
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> but it wouldn't be the only one
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> like how Billy got a speed-related heritage that is based on Strength rather than Dex
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> It is mentioned that while int doesn't make you a genius, it does improve your computing power
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> So administrator classes focuses on int for example
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> but it's mainly the mage attribute
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> wisdom is the soul attribute
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> mental defense, spiritual attacks
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> illusionists would main wis, or at least have a pretty even int/wis split
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> Q: do either affect the dao?
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> A: no
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> I initially planned for int to improve control over the Dao, but I decided against it in the end as that would be pretty weird for all non-spell classes
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## **Attribute Limit Increase Distribution**

> it's mentioned somewhere that that attribute limits are gradually increased as you improve your constitution
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> but more than half of the increase come from actually taking that last step
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## **Early Treasures' Value**

> This is kind of a mistake by me that would be hard to fix without pretty sweeping changes. But I kind of regret making many of the treasures we see early in the story D-Grade rather than E-Grade. It makes the general progression a bit messed up, but I've made some small clarifications in the past 100 chapters where I mention that these treasures (Amanita, Tree of Ascension etc) are **Early D-Grade Treasures**. This is kind of the same issue as there were with Nexus Crystals, who were kind of just nerfed mid-story. Sooner or later there will be a bigger info dump about rarities, but I will essentially make it so that these treasures that they've found is graded D more due to their scarcity and how useful they are, rather than the energy they contain. But such "value"-gradings can only be Low Grade in the end, as they are not "true" D-grade treasures
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## **Revenant Race**

> Revenant is simply the undead base race for those who have been turned
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> which is the race equivalent of a common class i guess
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> they can still stick with it though
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## **Some Title Mechanics**

> All titles have multiple versions. Only some progenitor titles are unique, whereas others are just better versions of public titles. Zac's Child of Dao is a better version of Ogras' Chosen of Dao for example. Same with Invasion Breaker and Planetary Aegis. This also goes for tiers. You can still get many of the titles you missed in F-Grade later, but the requirements would be more stringent and you'd probably be given a worse version. So you can always "catch up" to elites, but seldom completely, and not without huge effort. So chances are if you didn't get the titles in F-grade you likely won't get them later either unless something drastically change with your circumstances.
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## **Relation between Dao's Type and its Attributes**

> Q: will Dao upgrades in the same Dao always give the same attributes but weighted differently based on your insights or does even the type of attribute depend on your insight. For example Kenzie's Seed of Waves compared to Sap Trang's or Thea's seed of sharpness compared to Zac's @The First Defier
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> A: based on insight
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> type as well
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## **Attributes' Effect on Skills' Power; Attribute Balance**

> Q: can we get a little bit of clarification on attribute balance? Is it just to compete with higher attribute cultivators or does it impact the amount of an attribute that one can fully utilize?
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> A: Skills are scaled from attributes (and cultivation manuals/bloodlines/specialty cores etc).
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> Take **[Nature's Barrier]** for example. It scales from Endurance rather than intelligence etc, which is why Zac chose it in the first place.
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> Same goes with most skills. **[Deforestation]'s** first swing required 500 effective Strength to activate, but the power of the swing was far higher, right?
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> So attributes are the base and the skill adds a high multiplier.
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> The quality of the skill and the proficiency increases this multiplier. I wrote an author post about the earlier iteration of the "System" of DotF some time ago, where it was more gamified.
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> One difference then that I didn't broach was that skills actually would have expressed multipliers. Like **[Deforestation]** would literally say something like [Strength X 8] at early, then [Strength x 10] at mid etc.
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> I eventually discarded that since I feared battles would turn a bit into math equations like in Library of Heaven's Path or War Sovereign Soaring The Heavens.
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> The balance between Strength and Dexterity is there so that Zac doesn't get too slow for his skills to land. Like say he's fighting other Str-based charactes or mages etc. A higher dexterity will provide an advantage in both hitting them and dodging their attacks.
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> Zac is probably the fastest "tank" class around.
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> However, his skill kit doesn't scale from dex at all, especially not in his Draugr-form. He's all bulk.
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> That means Zac will ultimately be slower than a Dex based Class even if his Dexterity is higher. They scale from the attribute, he does not.
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## **Difference between One-Time and Reusable Items**

> Non-reusable items have always been stronger compared to reusable in the story imo
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> Lets say you can fit 1000 inscriptions on an array plate. You can either use those 1000 inscriptions to all focus on maximum carnage, or you can set aside 300 of them to create a power storage function and a power restoration function.
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> and whatever other inscriptions would be needed to make the items reusable
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> Fractal density is a matter of skill that has been touched upon while Kenzie worked on the arrays
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> Her knowledge is pretty good, but she is not a very skilled inscriptionist, so she needed to use the whole house rather than a simple plate
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> Zac also thought the same about her regarding the Nine Reincarnations Manual. Kenzie would likely be able to set it up, but not on a plate like the Undead Array Master did
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## **Arcane Classes' Creation**

> A creation is the complete fusion of Class, Daos, battle style, beliefs, encounters, etc. It's the "Build" you plan on following.
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> You can still get an arcane class sooner or later even if following a heritage, but creating something uniquely suited to you will only get harder if you started off cultivation by following others
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## **On the Nature and Form of Fractals**

> Fractals are the codified truths of the universe in DotF, kind of like the golden ratio and mathematical patterns such as Mandelbrot Sets. When arranged together in special ways, through things such as skills, they can form essentially anything. However, these repeating fractals are exremely small, so small that one's naked eye can't see them. So a fractal blade is pretty much an energy blade made up of innumerable small patterns.
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> In other words, a fractal blade does not look like this
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## **Heritage Definition**

> Heritages can be "used" an unlimited time
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> it is essentially a paket of all the knowledge neccessary to evolve along a certain path
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> A D-Grade heritage shows what someone needs to do in order to be able to gain the desired Class.
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> What skills are needed, what dao seeds (and what aspects of those seeds), what achievements, titles etc etc
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## **Difference Between Nexus Node and Nexus Hub**

> Q: is the big Nexus Node at the Incursion site the Nexus Hub that Catheya spoke about
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> A: yeah
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> Q: can they only be formed by Incursions or can normal Nexus Nodes or even stations be upgraded into them
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> A : there's a per-planet limit, with the ability to get one (not upgrade, it's a different thing from a Nexus Node) if you meet the requirements
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## **On Regular Revenants vs. Dead Zone Revenants**

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> Most Revenants in the Undead Empire [are] turned by Liches following whatever method they utilize However, it's not like Adriel has the time to turn a billion earthlings into Revenants, so he's simply leaving the corpses in the miasma which will result in a slow awakening
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## **Beautiful, but Not Overly So**

> Q: I still don't understand what beautiful but not overly so even means
> A: it's one of those classic *Hillary Swank, hot or not?*-scenarios
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## **Thea’s "Once-In-A-Millennium Genius" Characterisation**

> I'd say its within the context of the planet
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> so the most talented person that can be expected to appear within a thousand years
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> Which might not be all that impressive in the scope of the multiverse
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## **Linking Dao braiding and Dao arrays**

> You could say that Dao braiding is the precursor to Dao arrays
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## **A Part of the Timeline**

**Months**

36 Timeskip

1 Post-leandra

2 Trials + duplicity cooldown

2 Twilight Harbor

22 Twilight Ocean

1 Void

1 Orom Start + Soul breakthrough

4 Travel Orom World

12 Training Wilderness + saving Oblivion

1 Recovering, visiting Ubo, 3 Virtues, Kaldor, Pavina

1 Peak Armament Mastery

3 Middle E-grade Mastery

0.75 Overstaying his welcome at Pavina's

Went over the timeline earlier, figured some people might have lost track

## Armor vs. Weapons

Q: How come armor needs a hegemon core but weapons are like free ig

A: Because weapons are like wands in harry potter (focusing power and allowing you to unleash skills easier).

Armor is like a mobile set of arrays that need a power source

## **The list of Zac's Skills**

at the point of 10.09.2021 / Chapter 745

**Human**

General Skills

[E] Piercing Gaze - Proficiency: Early. Unravel their secrets. Upgradeable.

[E] Primal Polyglot - Proficiency: -. To comprehend the language of the Dao is to comprehend the universe.

[E] Million Faces - Proficiency: -. When a simple change isn't enough, completely remold yourself. Upgradeable.

[F] Beauty Yrial's Great Transformation Skill - Proficiency: -. If only this skill could fix your face as well.

[E] Spiritual Anchor - Proficiency: Early. Engrave the origin, remain unblemished. Upgradeable.

[E] Conformation of Supremacy - Proficiency: Middle. Power through the wisdom of the ancients. Upgradeable.

[E] Surging Vitality - Proficiency: Late. Unending verve. Upgradeable

[E] Soul Guardian - Proficiency: Middle. Ward your Dao with an eternal protector.

[E] Innate Ward - Proficiency: Middle. Unbreakable flesh. Upgradeable

Class Skills

[F] Axe Mastery - Proficiency: Peak. The seed of Dao is planted. Upgradeable

[F] Hatchetman's Spirit - Proficiency: Peak. Oneness with nature

[E] Rapturous Divide - Proficiency: Middle. Between the Abyss and Arcadia is an endless chasm. Upgradeable.

[E] Arcadia's Judgement. - Proficiency: Early. Only judgement awaits those who encroach on the mandate of Arcadia. Upgradeable.

[E] Nature's Edge - Proficiency: Early. Nature is the most ruthless weapon. Upgradeable.

[E] Arcadian Crusade - Proficiency: Early. Nothing will deny the vengeance of Arcadia. Upgradeable.

[E] Forester's Constitution - Proficiency: Early. All living beings under the Heavens, one entity. Upgradeable.

[E] Earthstrider - Proficiency: Early. Traverse the boundless worlds, unrestrained and unfettered. Upgradeable.

**Draugr**

General Skills

[E] Cosmic Gaze - Proficiency: Early. See through the veil of the universe. Upgradeable.

[E] Primal Polyglot - Proficiency: -. To comprehend the language of the Dao is to comprehend the universe.

[E] Million Faces - Proficiency: -. When a simple change isn't enough, completely remold yourself. Upgradeable.

[F] Beauty Yrial's Great Transformation Skill - Proficiency: -. If only this skill could fix your face as well.

[E] Spiritual Anchor - Proficiency: Early. Engrave the origin, remain unblemished. Upgradeable.

[F] Unholy Strike - Proficiency: Peak. Strength through death.

[E] Abyssal Phase - Proficiency: Late. Become the Abyss. Bring them into your embrace. Upgradeable.

[E] Gorehew - Proficiency: Early. Rip and tear. Upgradeable.

[E] Undying Mark - Proficiency: Early. A brand of second chances. Upgradeable.

Class Skills

[F] Bulwark Mastery - Proficiency: Peak. Mastery is born through battle. Upgradeable.

[F] Vanguard of Undeath - Proficiency: Peak. Become the eye of the storm. The storm of the abyssal legions. Upgradeable.

[E] Blighted Cut - Proficiency: Middle. Corner. Seal. Devour. Upgradeable.

[E] Deathmark - Proficiency: Early. Join your foces in dance to death. Upgradeable.

[E] Fields of Despair - Proficiency: Early. A desolate haze, both entrapping and illuminating.

[E] Profane Exponents - Proficiency: Early. Fatewarded by the profane masters. Upgradeable.

[E] Indomitable - Proficiency: Middle. The will of the underworld is intractable, undeterred by the screams of the bound. Upgradeable.

REDACTED - Proficiency: REDACTED. REDACTED

## Notes

1. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/690241101281755377
2. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/691323745545224272
3. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/695536486564626474
4. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/697414865538515034
5. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/698469447240908852
6. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/684657544924233748
7. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/708748495917678733
8. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/724664302673592419
9. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/728889465367429132
10. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/731837614260355102
11. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/815170828617777183
12. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/737754097482203197
13. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/731051267798990898
14. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/739882284546654208
15. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/742110165284683877
16. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/746995148394594344
17. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/747905946986217804
18. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/748425059613540413
19. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/755140942054555808
20. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/758363944976515084
21. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593783254121971713/937056835775631372
22. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/642089665368948766
23. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/764535132971073566
24. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/768905728358088705
25. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/772559893253193759
26. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/737733960867643483
27. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/799037237969944607
28. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/928938736618700850
29. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/903009662541135922
30. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/593783253320597515/593789035584159765/885937897931431946