Hollowing

All of those with the curse will slowly go hollow. The time varies greatly from person to person, as those with a stronger will can hold it off for much longer than those without. Dying will take a lot out of you, and you return to life, but not whole. The Curse affects your mind and your body in equal parts.

Your body slowly loses its vigor, sleep comes quicker, energy more limited.

Your skin will lose luster, and begin to become leathery and ruined as you get closer to being hollow.

Your mind is affected in similar ways; as your memory will become spotty, older memories beginning to disappear, faces melting into your subconscious.

You can still die via every normal method, and your character requires food and sleep as per normal rules.

### How the Curse is Viewed:

#### Crows

“It is no trivial thing… but it has its uses. We have time, you know. Valuable. With time we can reach any potential. Money. Information. Artifacts… those all have limits, but with *time*, you can do anything. The Crows rose from the dirt and soil and vines of Sanctus to rule what it is today.

“With time, you can achieve *power*. And the Curse gives us that time.

“... It’s also a rather convenient punishment for the obstinate.”

Selections from *The Trials: Wisdom from the Crow’s Head*

#### Cobras

“Hollowing? Bloody waste of time. Keeps you from fighting.”

“It’s a tangible end to life. It’s horrible, you don’t want it, but it gives the world order.”

“No, it’s about *entropy*! Hollowing drives us to our true end, but it’s ugly. We’re all ugly.”

“--*true end*? You idiot. Hollowing is the shadow to our candle. It’s--”

“Neither of you’d know a *true end* if it skewer--”

“--That’s the tack you want? I’ll show you a true ending, bastard!”

Overheard from a conversation among three Cobra. Wolves arrived later on the scene and confirmed that none of the three Hollowed after the altercation.

#### Lions

“It’s dishonor. It takes away from who you are. Hollowing is more than a curse or affliction, it is the *antithesis* of who we are. At all costs, you cannot Hollow. When you Hollow, you become less worthy of holding this title, of being in **this house**! The others don’t get it. But we do. There are only two constants in this world, and one is that Hollowing makes you a bloody shell, and the other is that *fighting Hollowing* is why we exist. It’s why we train--to fight it. To be better than it, to be better than ourselves--damnit, it’s why we’re the *peak*--curse it all, it’s why we’re the fucking Lions!”

*The ending of a speech among Lions.*

#### Wolves

“I am because we all are.”

***we all are***

“It is because we are that when we kill, we all kill.”

***we kill together***

“It is because we are that when we fight, we all fight.”

***we fight together***

“It is because we are that when we Hollow, we all hollow.”

***we hollow together***

“When one of us falls, we all fall.”

***we fall together***

“Hollowing makes one of us weak. We are all as strong as our weakest whelp.”

***we are all as strong as our strongest whelp***

“Those are truths. *That* is the truth. As Legion, we are only as strong as our weakest cohort. As Cohort, as strong as the weakest pack. As Pack, as strong as the weakest pack-mate. We are as strong as our weakest link. That’s what none of them get. The Crows have their coin and their power, the Lions have their pride and arms, the Cobra have their tongues and sense of self--but what we have is *ourselves*. We’re every hope and every dream and every kill that every one of us has ever claimed!”

***every one of us is what every one of us has claimed***

“You don’t fight for yourself. You don’t *survive* for yourself. Hollowing weakens the pack. You’re going to let something out there get you before you get it? What? You are?! Whelps, all of you! There are *monsters* out there, lurking in the fog and in the shadows, there are *monsters* hiding in the houses and the streets--get out there! Move it, dogs! Show the ones that can die that we’re happy to make them, and show the Cursed that they shouldn’t fear Hollowing, they should *fucking fear us driving them Hollow*! Show those bastards that if they’ll get in our way, we’ll drive them to the fog!”

A Wolf call-and-response, before a typical call to arms--this recorded before one Cohort rushed to the hunt around Cohor.