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Tales of Cross
Faith & power

Faith & power

The angelic gift, its cost, and who pays it.

Only the choir of Angels has spoken to humanity since 1787, and within it the order of the Hashmal, specialised in technical and mineralogical revelation. The other eight choirs are silent, and why is the great unanswered question of this world.

Contact has a price, and the price is the body of whoever serves as the channel. The Order buries 2,400 operatives a year to angelic wear — more than it loses in combat.

0,001% of the continent sustains the other 99.999%
4 a 6 years of working life for a White
1881 the year the deficit began

Who holds the world up

And that 0.001% is shrinking.

FunctionHow manySurvival
Function Clero paroquial — never purificou nada How many 450.000 Survival normal
Function Operational clergy How many 50.000 Survival desgaste
Function Purificadores — the bottleneck of everything How many 11.000 Survival years de tremor
Function Medium Whites How many 3.000 Survival 4 a 6 years
Function Illuminated clerics How many <400 Survival 3 a 7 years
Function O Um How many 1 Survival 9 years de average, and falling

The two roads, and there is no third

RoadHow it is obtainedWhat it charges
Road Angelic gift How it is obtained faith and discipline — asceticism, sacrament, vigil What it charges slow and costly. It consumes the channel’s body
Road Power of evil How it is obtained pact, possession, spilled blood What it charges a fast shortcut. Geometric collection afterwards
Road Shortcut through faith How it is obtained What it charges is caught by evil in disguise
Road Shortcut through evil How it is obtained What it charges one discovers the interest kills

A White’s span, year by year

Visible from outside. The last thing she loses is the word “I”.

YearWhat happens
Year 1 What happens nada
Year 2 What happens the echo — involuntary Hashmal Syntax in common speech
Year 3 What happens the pupil stops answering light. The veil is for pain, not for modesty
Year 4 What happens the hands — involuntary writing, which the Curia collects
Year 5-6 What happens loses the first person — and it is she who reports it, on the third
Go deeper

The full texts

The almanac gives you the figure. Here is the reason behind it — contradictions included, and everything the Curia would rather not explain.