Chosen ones are rather unpopular in fantasy right now so I decided to see if I could make a whole magic system and setting out of them. I also went for a very dualistic setting. Not sure if it worked.
The world of Emrir is, and has been since time immemorial, defined by a battle between two opposed forces. The exact name varies from society to society, light and dark, the rot and the life, the great rebel vs the illustrious Lord but the overall pattern is clear in every culture and nation.
The primary, indeed maybe only, way that these opposing forces interact with the word is by the means of Chosen (or Cursed) ones and the dreams of choosing.
We will begin by looking at the Chosen ones of the light since our understanding of them is much clearer. Any person in all of Emrir might, at any time, be Chosen. These individuals are invariably people of extremely high moral quality but otherwise no general rule can be made. There is a tendency for them to be in their teens or twenties but individuals as old as one hundred and as young as 6 have been Chosen. One who is Chosen will receive a dream in which they will be informed of their choosing by a being generally considered to be an inhabitant of the blessed realm (the beings themselves are generally cryptic about their origin). If they accept (it is not entirely clear if anyone ever rejects the offer, a few claim to have but other than empowerment there is no way to completely distinguish between an encounter with the one of the blessed people and a common dream) they will awaken one of the Chosen.
The Chosen have greatly improved health and strength, not obviously supernaturally so but they can easily achieve near peak performance for someone of their age and sex. Their aging will also slow down from this point on to about half that of a normal person so that those who were empowered at a young age have been known to approach and at times even pass 200 years. More significantly they will gain gifts which can lend them enormous power. The nature of these gifts varies enormously, indeed it is sometimes claimed that no two Chosen have exactly the same powers although many certainly have similar ones. Finally they will bear, somewhere on their body, an elaborate mark or pattern which will vary from person to person but will always contain within it the radiant glyph. From that day forward they are empowered to oppose evil and do good on the earth.
Almost nothing else can be said about all of the Chosen. Their powers, as mentioned, vary massively. There are those who gain the ability to manipulate certain elements, to heal, to fly, to read minds and alter emotions, to conceal or transform themselves, so sing in a sweet voice songs which restore hope to all who hear. Some receive only one gift, others many. There is a general pattern for the gifts to in some way match the personality or abilities of the individual before they were empowered but this does not seem to be universal or at least not obviously so. Sometimes a gift will be obviously of use for the immediate situation the Chosen finds themself in and sometimes not.
The final blessing that most of the Chosen receive is what is sometimes called their destiny This is the name given to the conversation they have with the people of the blessed realm. Sometimes they receive in this conversation a mission, sometimes a warning and sometimes a prophecy and sometimes something else. But while the gifts and long life they receive is of great value many among the Chosen have named this short conversation as the most valuable thing they received from the dwellers of the blessed realm.
There is much more debate about the Cursed for the obvious reason that they are much less likely to give accounts and much less trustworthy when they do. Nonetheless, the overall process seems to be similar. Like the Chosen they will receive a dream of choosing, although in this case nightmare might be a better term. In this dream they will meet a decaying one (the name comes from one of the more many forms they have been reported to take) who will inform them that they have been chosen by the darkness.
The behaviour of the decaying ones seems to vary greatly. In some cases they are reported to come in splendid forms congratulating the one Cursed on their ascension beyond the common herd of mankind and the pleasures and power that can now be theirs. In others they appear taunting and mocking the victim on his damnation and upbraiding him mockingly on the sins that have brought him to this point and the certainty of his future descent to still lower depths. A point of some debate is if they too ask or require the consent of the person to be empowered. Many accounts claim they do but there are others who have passionately insisted that they were given no choice.
Regardless, the result is very similar. The empowered will awaken with a mark somewhere on his body which contains within it the brand of pestilence (as it is called in some nations). And he or she will likewise be granted extended life, health and strength, and power to do the will of those who chose him on earth. And the one so Cursed will go forth and use these powers torturing and enslaving, killing and robbing. Perhaps, for a time if the curse suits this he will keep himself secret and do mischief that way. But given enough time he will likely be eventually exposed and, if he survives, will flee into the wilds joining some group of bandits or outlaws who will have him. Perhaps he will set himself up as their chief and grow rich preying on travelers or perhaps he will make his way to the Empire of the Abomination
A point that is not entirely clear is if the process of being empowered has any effect on the personality or morality of the recipient. A few have argued that it does but most who have studied the matter closely (including Chosen with gifts lending themselves to investigation of such matters) hold otherwise. Empowerment has no direct effect on the will of one empowered. Rather the Decaying ones and the Dwellers of the Blessed realm choose, with a judgement that almost never errs, those whose existing personality will lead them to choose of their own will the path desired by those that empower them. Evidence for this is sometimes given in the extremely rare cases where the judgement seemingly was in error and Cursed have been known to reform or never commit evil acts at all and Chosen turn to evil deeds. Admittedly, many of the Cursed argue otherwise, claiming that they have been seized by a temptation beyond all resisting.
As the Chosen and the Cursed stand above the common people, so do the Radiant Lord and the Abomination stand above them. They gain their status in the same manner as the rest of the empowered but at any one time there is only one of each. Neither age and any injury that does not utterly destroy them will quickly heal. Both have powers and gifts numbering in the hundreds that they can wield over hundreds or even thousands of miles. Each will have, or gain, wisdom and understanding equal to that of any scholar. And in our own epoch of the world both are also Kings with the throne of the Gamlan empire being given to whoever is the Radiant lord and the present Abomination having seized his own realm.
The present Abomination has powers to twist all the land around him, trees, beasts and even rocks and water and fill them with his hate and malice. He has used these powers to conquer for himself an empire which he rules over as a terrible tyrant and has done so for near a millenium. At the heart of this empire is the Accursed realm that he himself has twisted into a mirror of his own black heart. Even the most powerful of the Chosen are wary when venturing into this realm. But many of the Cursed make their way there for in the land all others are slaves and the Cursed reign over a land of nightmares.
This land is the culmination of the will of the decayed ones and what perhaps they would make the whole world if they could. Here the Cursed rule absolutely over a people of ignorance and misery. The doctrine of this land is that only by joining the Cursed can one hope for any relief from endless torment and the slaves are encouraged to outdo each other in wickedness in the hope that they will receive this dark elevation. Yet even here there are some who hold fast to their integrity enough to be Chosen and to struggle against the abomination. But they rarely live long. Sometimes the Cursed venture out to seize more captives or to conduct secret deals with some who are willing to work for them. They seek to expand their empire. But the present Radiant Lord has halted the expansion of the Abominations Lands and his armies have conquered much of it. It is hoped that he will one day destroy it utterly even the Accursed realm But even were it so destroyed, as it might be for such places have been destroyed before, and even if its king were slain a new Abomination would soon come to trouble the world again unless something can be done to alter the nature of Enrir itself.
The treatment of the cursed.
One of the great debates around the Cursed has been how society should react to individuals Cursed before they have committed any crime. In many nations, historically most, merely bearing the dark mark meant a sentence of death. Sometimes this was justified on the grounds that such a one must have consented to receiving it (regardless of the fact that this is a contested point) but most have justified it by the simple fact that almost without exception the Cursed go on to commit countless atrocities if not killed and thus keeping them alive and free could not be justified.
Nonetheless, there have always been some, including some Chosen, who have argued that at least part of the reason the Cursed behave as they do is that they're often immediately utterly excluded from any society other than those of other Cursed. Thus whatever evil inclinations that led them to this place are encouraged and given a chance to grow while any better instincts wither away. They point out that at least some of the Cursed before their empowerment seemed decent folk proving that they were at least capable of living civilly. Perhaps they could do so again if given the chance.
This theory aside, the actual behaviour of almost all actual Cursed was horrifying enough to make this an unpopular point of view and until relatively recent times there it was never seriously attempted within the present cycle of the world. It was the Gamlan Empire who first began a project to test this theory and, with the permission of the Radiant Lord, set up a project to alter the way in which the Cursed were dealt with.
As part of this project the Cursed would be allowed to continue in their normal life or, if their local community absolutely rejected them, be relocated to colonies set aside for this purpose. They would also be provided with spiritual guidance and help for whatever vices or other issues had led them to this point. Those who had proven themselves were given opportunities to use their powers in ways that would both enrich them as well as help, or at least not harm, larger society. Many other incentives and guides were put into place to give them aid and otherwise assist them in their way
The results were, at first glance, a complete failure. Almost without exception the Cursed chose the path of evil. Some simply fled and set up as criminals or bandit kings as they were wont to before the change in policy. Some made a show of volunteering the fact of their choosing and seeking help only to turn traitor at the worst possible moment. The colonies became centres of corruption, rebellion and treason together with a nasty slave trading ring that made contact with the Abomination and sold him a large number of victims. Many seemed to take delight in murdering and torturing the very people who offered them help, Of the several thousand individuals who took part in the program perhaps a dozen seem to have been a success and even in their case many were inclined to offer the qualifier 'thus far' to this assessment.
The whole program was finally abolished after the slave trading ring was discovered although those few who had taken part and had not yet turned traitor were allowed to continue in order to preserve the credit of the empire. Yet later a strange pattern was noted. Whilst almost no success had been observed in dissuading those Cursed from their road to ruin the total number of new Cursed had fallen to about two thirds of its previous number. This led to a great deal of debate over possible causes and eventually the following theory was put forth.
The decayed ones choose only those whom they foresee will act in accordance with their black will if Cursed and they foresee, it seems, almost always correctly. Thus, no matter what, almost all of those Cursed will fall to the dark. But nonetheless many of those Cursed in a society that treats the mark as a death sentence are driven to their fall by this fact and thus would not fall in a society where it was not a death sentence. Thus in such a society they are not Cursed in the first place. The appreciation of this fact has resulted in the revival of several programs in order to reduce the number of people who will be driven to the darkness by persecution. These programs are controversial since their visible result is invariably failure yet they have succeeded in greatly reducing the numbers of the Cursed and many give them credit for the recent successes against the Empire of the Abomination.
This results in a strange paradox. Societies that offer mercy and understanding to the Cursed will invariably have their mercy wasted and betrayed. Societies that do not will see many individuals who might have benefited from said mercy. Both will thus be able to find good evidence that they are doing the wrong thing.
I have had this world, or perhaps better said this magic system, in my head for a long time. I came to think of it as a magic system composed entirely of chosen ones. In retrospect I am not sure if that quite works as it is somewhat difficult to distinguish a world of chosen ones from a bog standard superhero world but I tried to make it feel a little different.
