Shattering of the Veil

This spell is a part of the Loss of Self spell chain and can be found in the Loss of Self rune stone.

There is a boundary between the living world and what lies beyond it. While many may theorize about it and myths may hint at it, most living things will never know it exists. They move through their entire lives on this side of it, aware only dimly and at their worst moments that something waits beyond the edge of everything they know. Some, in their final moments, catch a glimpse. In Serenity's Arrival, the target was shown that glimpse deliberately and briefly and even then could not comprehend what they saw. The Veil held. It always holds. It was made to hold.

Until the necromancer asks Serenity to shatter it.

This is not a spell that is cast lightly. The necromancer does not reach for this power the way they reach for other spells, with intention and direction and a clear target in mind. They reach for it the way one reaches for something that was never meant to be touched, with full understanding of what they are doing and full acceptance of the silence that follows. They ask Serenity to do the one thing it is most capable of and least willing to do without reason. The necromancer asks Serenity to remove, however briefly, the boundary that keeps the living world from the truth of what lies just beyond it.

Serenity considers this request. And then it agrees.

The Veil does not crack. It does not tear slowly or give way under pressure. It shatters instantly, completely, the boundary between this world and the next simply ceasing to exist for one terrible and absolute moment. What pours through is not darkness or light or any force that can be named. It is simply the truth of what is on the other side, present and total and utterly incomprehensible to anything that has not already made its peace with death.

Those of the death element, be they friend or foe, ally or enemy, necromancer or the darkest adversary standing across the battlefield, are untouched. The Veil knows them. They have been in conversation with what lies beyond it their entire lives. It passes through them like a familiar wind, recognized and harmless, Serenity acknowledging in its silent way that these ones have already done the work of understanding. Everyone else is not so fortunate.

Allies of other elements are struck by the reality of what has just occurred. They are not struck with the full force of what the Veil held back, for Serenity holds no verdict against them, but the sheer incomprehensibility of witnessing the boundary between life and death cease to exist. They are Dazed for 1d4 rounds, their minds struggling to reassemble a coherent understanding of the world they are standing in.

Enemies of other elements receive no such mercy. They are exposed to the full and unfiltered truth of what the Veil was protecting them from. Each must make a Hard -2 Mental Balance check. Those who fail do not survive the exposure. They are simply finished, Serenity's truth reaching into them and completing what it always completes, instant death as quiet and absolute as everything Serenity does. Those who somehow succeed in their check are not spared consequence. They receive 6d20 magical damage as the truth tears through them, and are left with Depression and Loss of Self for the remainder of the battle, carrying the weight of what they now know and cannot forget and cannot share with anyone who was not standing there.

When it is done Serenity closes the Veil again. The boundary returns. The world resumes. Nothing visible marks that it happened except the bodies and the dazed silence of those who witnessed it and survived. The necromancer stands in the center of all of it, untouched and unhurried, the same quiet expression they always wear. They have known what lies beyond the Veil for a long time. It has never frightened them. That, more than anything else, is what makes them what they are.