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twiceborn

Twiceborn

Twiceborn is an Enchantment 4 death 22 ritual that allows the caster a second life as undead if they die. If the mage dies it will return in the province where the ritual was cast as a Wight Mage chassis though the specific chassis depends on what it was when it died. So long as the mage returns, any global enchantments they are holding are preserved. This spell also has the effect of forcefully relocating the caster's home province (where they receive their +1 morale bonus) to where the spell was cast.

Twiceborn costs 5deathgem per point of the caster's size. It would cost 5deathgem for a size 1 Svartalf to be twiceborn, whereas a size 4 Angakok would pay 20deathgem. Undead, demons and inanimates cannot cast or be affected the Twiceborn spell.

*It is possible to twiceborn a small chassis for 5 or 10deathgem, transform it into a larger chassis, and kill it for a correspondingly larger wight mage form. In particular, late age Vaettiheim's Vaetti Gygjas can undergo this process for a potential supercombatant chassis at (with luck) minimal cost, although there are too many transformation results for this to be reliable.

Twiceborn looks at "resource" size, not the actual listed size. In the vast majority of cases resource size is equal to the listed size. However, if a unit has large wings on a humanoid body or is Mounted they will usually have a resource size lower than their listed size. This means that the larger bless effect will not increase the twiceborn cost, as that only increases size and not resource size.

*Twiceborn can be copied for the unique cost as a function of size effect but it also resets the caster's home province and that effect can not be separated out. (things that Illwinter believes don't change the size or amount of armor needed for the body), they will use that instead of their listed size.


Mechanics


Conditions of Resurrection

  • The effect will fail if the unit's owner does not control the province where the ritual was cast. Note that there is no indication given of the twicebornee's original province (except for the morale bonus gained from being in their home province). If the ritual was cast in a fort, the inside of the fort must be controlled in order for the mage to return. Thus a mage will return if the fort is being sieged by enemies, but not if the ritual caster lost the fort and is besieging it in an attempt to take it back. This also remains true if a twiceborn mage is Charmed, except that its new owner will likely have no way to determine where the ritual was originally cast.
  • The effect will fail if the mage's living form was killed by any Soul Slaying effect.
    • This can found on spells like Soul Slay or items like an Ethereal Crossbow
    • If the mage fails to resist the Soul Slaying effect but somehow survives the attack, the affliction will remain and still prevent the Twiceborn effect from activating even if they die to a different attack
  • Twiceborn takes priority over Life after Death, meaning that a twiceborned mage will not turn into a soulless who keeps fighting. Instead they disappear from the battle "like usual" and become a wight mage in their home province.

Pretenders

If cast by a pretender, they will return as a Wight like any normal commander when their normal form dies. When the Wight dies, they die normally and must be recalled. Once they have been recalled as normal they will be their original form again. The exception to this are trinity pretenders: two parts of the trinity will not revert to the original form if recalled, but the third will.

Twiceborn Stealing

Any mercenary commander who casts the Twiceborn spell will become permanently owned by the player. This is due to the spell's effect of changing the caster's home province to wherever the spell was cast.1) This also means that the player is free to take any items or gems they might have. As it does not update the home provinces of troops under their command, the troops will still refuse to be moved to another commander, but they will not leave when their contract would have ended.

Immortal Home

When Twiceborn is cast by a commander with Immortality, it changes the location they revive from to the province where twiceborn was cast. This, like in the case with mercenaries, is because twiceborn changes the caster's home province.

Chance for Death Boost

When a twiceborn commander returns as a Wight Mage, it has a chance to gain an additional level in the Death magic path. Practical testing of approximately 20200 casts of twiceborn indicate this happens 20% of the time,2) but that it cannot boost the mage beyond death 44.3)


Twiceborn Chassis

Notable features of wight mages include:

  • They all have no upkeep.
  • They are undead units, giving them spirit sight and very high resistance to poison and cold damage as well as the poor amphibian ability. This also makes them vulnerable to anti-elite-undead items and magic, such as a Holy Scourge and Dust to Dust.
  • Chill aura 3.
  • 5-7 natural protection, 18 morale, high strength, moderately high attack and defense skill and 22 map move. Except size, their stats and abilities are unrelated to their previous living form (these stats may vary slightly based on different chassis sizes or certain special chassis types).
  • Significantly more hitpoints than most living chassis of equivalent size.

Note that, even though they are undead, wight mages do have a maximum age and are not immune to old age penalties. In extreme circumstances, a very old mage may twiceborn into a wight mage with worse stats than the base chassis would indicate.

A table of twiceborn forms is included below, organized by size. For units with more than one shape, the wight mage form considers only the size of the #firstshape instead of whatever shape the mage is currently in. 'Male' in the twicebornee column simply refers to the absence of the female tag; this includes animals which are not obviously male or female, as almost all animals lack the female tag. Exact requirements for each twiceborn result courtesy of Loggy's notes.4)

Image Name Twicebornee Description
Wight Mage Male size 1 nonflying chassis Size 1, stealthy
Wight Hag Female size 1 nonflying chassis Retains female, stealthy and forest survival
Wight Mage Default form for size 2 or 3 chassis Size 2
Wight Mage Size 2 flying chassis or Caelian birdfolk Wight form cannot fly
Wight Mage Size 1 flying chassis or Xibalban Zotz Wight form cannot fly, but keeps/gains stealthy and forest survival
Carrion Lady Any size 2 unit associated with Asphodel, such as Black Dryads and Dryad Hags Gains pierce resistant, magic being and inanimate. Retains recuperation and forest survival
Wight Mage Any size 2 unit that has both cold blooded and swamp survival Loses cold blooded and swamp survival
Wight Mage Shinuyama Bakemono Sorcerers only Retains mountain survival. Because all Bakemono Sorcerers have holy 11, the Bakemono Sorcerer will still be sacred when it becomes a wight.
Wight Shaman Enkidu chassis only
Carrion Lord Asphodel Panic Apostates only Gains sacred, pierce resistant, magic being and inanimate. Retains recuperation and forest survival
Wight Mage Male size 4 chassis Size 4, forest survival and snow move
Wight Mage Any amphibious or aquatic size 4+ chassis except Agarthan Ancient Ones and R'lyehan Aboleths. Includes Telkhines and Ryujin in addition to Angakoks as the sprite indicates Fully amphibious
Wight Hag Female size 4 chassis Female, fortune teller, forest survival and snow move
Wight Murmurer All Ashdod size 4+ units and commanders Retains wasteland survival
Necrodai Size 4 Aboleth chassis (Aboleth or Abodai) Fully amphibious, unlike their living forms
Wight Oracle All size 4 units associated with EA or MA Agartha Fully amphibious and a reanimator priest. Loses siege bonus
Wight Mage Size 5 and 6 female titans only Size 5, has fear. Does not retain female
Wight Mage Size 5 or 6 male chassis Size 6, has fear
Necrodai Size 6 Aboleth chassis (Mind Lord) Fully amphibious, unlike their living forms
1)
Internally, being a mercenary is denoted by having the special home province ID of -2. Taking permanent control of mercenaries by changing this when casting twiceborn is quite possibly an oversight on Illwinter's part.
4)
Can be found at misc under Twiceborn shape logic
twiceborn.txt · Last modified: 2023/02/20 22:57 by jonarbuckle