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Chapter II: Ascendancy
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Ascendancy, or the “Blessing of Sharaghul”, is the state of being bound to an entity, or entities, of the Subdimensions. Subdimensional entities usually require a container of living flesh to exist in our realm, and a properly Blessed person or animal will generally serve as their host. Intelligent beings of our realm that have succumbed to the Blessing of the Great Old Ones are seen by those with the gift of Sight as transitioning in form into several common variations (although exceptions in form have been witnessed). Where applicable, they vaguely resemble their previous human forms in that they are usually bipedal, possessed of a head and four limbs analogous to arms and legs, and they usually walk upright, albeit often in a crouched or hunched manner. They are usually closer in size to humans. With a few notable exceptions, they are very sensitive to sunlight. It is thought that as the Subdimensional being travels more into our plane of existence, they replace more and more of the human with their own, true, terrible form. These hosts often appear to the Unseeing as the insane, the waste of addiction, the depraved, and the haunted.
In the event of the untimely death of the human host, the bond between host and Subdimensional entity is severed, and the Visitor disappears in a dissipating cloud of odorous vapor and dark slime, quickly leaving only the battered remnants of humanity, the wasted physiological aspects of the host that served to anchor the being in our realm.
PLATE 6 is a discussion of Ascendancy and displays bone fragments of the corpse of a nascently ascendant human.
Humans are often exposed to Ascendancy through the bite of numerous Subdimensional parasites or predators, which will be discussed at length in later chapters. They can also be natively ascendant when their human parents are infected during conception or gestation, or as in the case of Wilbur Whateley, when they are conceived by human confluence with a Supreme Subdimensional Entity.
Not all humans react identically to exposure to the Blessings of Ascendancy. Some devolve immediately into a writhing mass of congealed flesh and hunger. Some transition more slowly, becoming feral as their skeleton erupts gradually from their flesh, and vestiges of humanity are lost. Often family members, loath to cast their loved ones aside, will chain them in attics or basements, accommodating their increasing appetites first with food, then with scraps, until the nature of their cravings finally transcends their moral limitations, or until they accidentally come within reach of the chains, whichever is first. The specifics vary greatly depending on the moral outlook of the family.
Eventually, if left to starve, the being will inevitably either slip free of their chains, or break all but the very strongest of iron or silver chains, finally emerging as an Ascendant Being, usually something akin to a Ghoul or some other lesser being.
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Ascendant Human bone fragments
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