What is the Calling?

[Tobias Blackburn]

My game is hitting a patch that will involve the Guardians for the foreseeable future, and I decided that I needed to get a better definition of The Calling. For material, I'm using the Tapestry of Dark Souls novel, and the Champions of the Mists acessory.

As you know, The Calling is that strange, unexplained feeling that draws the Guardians towards their Sanctuaries. It seems to allow them to bypass wards placed on the area that would make others walk away, and it seems to pull them towards the item. It's a way of telling if someone has the potential to be a Guardian, or that's what the Order seems to use it as.

What causes the Calling? If you wanted to prevent an object from being found, a ward that draws people towards and pass it seems like a bad idea, and you would probably want to recruit people you knew you could trust, not just random people that wandered in off the street. Because of this, I feel that the Calling is not created by the Guardians themselves, but is a side-effect of their actions.

I feel that the Calling is caused by locking away items of power for too long. Perhaps the items begin to emit some sort of resonence into the ethereal when entrapped by the Guardian's wards, a resonence that only certain people are sensitive too. It calls out to minds that would use it to further their own ends, those that could be tempted by it's power.

Fortunately, the Guardians keep far enough away from large populations that the visitors they get are rare. Most are either turned away or see the object for the damage it can do and join the Guardians in their vigils, but one or two may try to claim the item as their own. The Guardians can usually deal with these individuals (the exact nature of how depending on what the particular Order is like), but the item continues to Call. All it needs is for one person to get past it's jailors and it will be out once again. All it needs is for one Guardian to be filled with enough doubt that he decides to give up the order. The search for a means to destroy these items can be long and hard, spanning generations in many cases. All the item needs to do is wait.

[Jasper]

I would make the calling effect people on a allmost genetic level. Those who feel the calling to a specific atrifact have at least one ancestor who have had direct contact with the item and servived. The contact could be as varied as having created the item, fought it in battle, be effected by the artifacts power etc:

The decendents bloodline is now "known" to the item and those with it can feel the pull to the item like a magnet to iron.

[Tobias Blackburn]

I would make the calling effect people on a allmost genetic level. Those who feel the calling to a specific atrifact have at least one ancestor who have had direct contact with the item and servived. The contact could be as varied as having created the item, fought it in battle, be effected by the artifacts power etc:

The decendents bloodline is now "known" to the item and those with it can feel the pull to the item like a magnet to iron.

I like the idea but I don't know if it really works. If the item can only call those that have had direct contact it in the past then it would be impossible to explain why the outlander woman from the first half of ToDS had the Calling, since the Tapestry was created in Nova Vaasa from material harvested in the Nightmare Lands. Especially since the item had a habit of devouring anyone who encountered it for any length of time.

This would also mean that Guardians wouldn't be able to cross between groups very easily, since they wouldn't be able to bypass the wards of other groups without the item calling for them.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

If the item can only call those that have had direct contact it in the past then it would be impossible to explain why the outlander woman from the first half of ToDS had the Calling, since the Tapestry was created in Nova Vaasa from material harvested in the Nightmare Lands. Especially since the item had a habit of devouring anyone who encountered it for any length of time.

Maybe she's the one whose nightmares Morpheus was toying with, at the time his land-shifting powers created the silkworms used to make the Tapestry? The Nightmare Court sometimes preys on dreams from worlds other than Ravenloft, IIRC. Or one of her ancestors could have been the source of the dream-energy involved, if the tapestry's older than she is and you don't care for such cross-time Mistnappings IYC.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

wow, it's been so long since I read Tapestry, I'd forgotten all about this effect. I've been using the guardians in my campaign a lot and haven't used the calling at all. Do you have page numbers handy for the description of it?