Paladins to Dark Forces Utter the Prayer of Disintegration

Magic is everywhere in the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons. It fuels and powers the homes and economies of these fantastic settings as electricity and science does in our world.

When a Game Master is building their world for the next game of Dungeons and Dragons, they have to ask themselves some very frank questions about the fundamentals of magic. It's easy to just say that magic exists and it perfectly matches the last chapters of the Player's Handbook. It's more fun and rewarding to unpack that mechanic, and to see what counts as truly magical in the earliest forms of your setting, to see where all that magic truly comes from.

Once you do that, you can have so much fun with the details of it to make your own world unique. It's a common trope in current fantasy fiction to see that magic is on its way out of the world. The Elves are sailing west, the last of the dragons are extinct. The phrase 'magic is dying' is a common one in current fantasy fiction. If you had a reason to explain why the magic is leaving your setting, thus influencing the low magic nature of your world, then you could make for some truly interesting stories. If your world is teeming with strange beasts and geysers shooting multi coloured magical plasma to the outer planes, then explaining where that magical energy came from is fascinating and can lead to different but equally interesting stories.

As I was drafting this post, it was simply going to be an in depth look at the spell I had created, Prayer of Disintegration. As I was writing it, the thoughts of the origins of magic in Dungeons and Dragons settings made for an interesting debate in my mind. It all came from the rough origin of this spell in my mind, and the question: where do spells actually come from?

The Craft of a Spell

The phrase 'Spell Craft' is ubiquitous in our world, in the witch and wicca communities, as well as in fantasy fiction. The phrase itself really made me think. The act of crafting a magical ritual that can be repeated by other mages is such an interesting idea that I sort of sat thinking.

Much as a great philosopher once asked: are we human or are we dancer; or am I a person or am I a brand; I had to ask myself are spells invented or discovered?

My efforts to find an answer about discovered and invented magic - Frantic Research by Mitchell Malloy

Of course we are wondering about the metaphysics about a fantastical world that we collectively create when sitting around in a circle with friends, but it's a question that one should ask themselves more just to make the worlds and stories all the more real.

So in the case of Prayer of Disintegration, as you'll read in a little moment, the knowledge of this spell was given to a sect of clerics. This however doesn't really clear up the question. Was the spell discovered or invented? If it was handed down to these priests by the dark god, they discovered it. Or perhaps the dark god invented it. It's all very ambiguous, but in storytelling that's something I deeply like as it allows the reader to make the choice to apply what they like to the story.

It makes us wonder, are spells discovered or invented? Is the combination of magic words, gestures, and the reactions inside a focus or with material components an effect that will always happen when channelled by the will of a spell caster, or is it something that said spell caster has iterated and worked on constantly to be able to create through practice and care.

In our world, the balance of what's discovered and what's invented by science is a usual balance that gets deeper and more strange the further advanced things get in science. Obviously at the service level, every device and tool used to do science (and in our case, magic implement to do spell craft) was invented. Every natural force like gravity and electromagnetism (and the raw mana that flows through ley lines and in the blood of dragons was discovered). But in physics, the deeper down the rabbit hole of quantum physics, the elementary particles were created to fit the standard model of theoretical physics. Their findings have since been proven to be accurate and correct. Those particles were both invented and discovered. Some elements of magic may yet be the same?

In any case, the origin of specific spells, how a mage can twist the fabric of nature to pull rabbits from hats or set entire castles on fire has to come from somewhere. Did they discover this magic, or did they bring it into existence with their own will power? The choice is yours.

Prayer of Disintegration

Time for the main event!

Anyone who knows me knows I have a long history of playing Magic the Gathering. The iconic board clearing spell Merciless Eviction, during play testing, was called Prayer of Disintegration. That name has always stuck with me simply because I think it's both cool, and a better name than Merciless Eviction. This name did not get its justice in Magic the Gathering so it's only right it gets its time in the sun with me.

As we talked in the earlier stage of the article, there's an interesting debate about whether spells are discovered or invented. In the case of Prayer of Disintegration, it's hard to tell.

In ancient times, when the gods strode about the world, a sect of clerics worshipped a god of deep darkness, one known for spreading ill will and curses to many mortals that lead to painful death. This very same entity was defeated by a glade of druids which lead to the creation of the Sword of Feast and Famine.

The first efforts to create the prayer of disintegration - Cabal Ritual by Kieran Yanner

These penitent believers all look to this dark god for their guidance and ideals. The worship of painful, merciless death is a paradoxical one, and it leads to these priests being spreaders of the deep curse that the god pervades, while seeking new and gruesome ways to punish life and spread death.

In a grand circle, the priests began to join in chanting, seeking to spread pain and misfortune to those as far as they could sense. The prisoners they kept looked on from their chains in horror as the thrumming noises their chants made their blood boil and their skin bubble. Their forms turned to a thick ashy powder, as their forms slowly drifted away.

The decades after lead these clerics into deep practice. Their words harmonised and were chanted over and over, until finally the right string of invocations were found. Each word was an solemn prayer. On command, the priests knew of a spell that could turn someone of a weak disposition to turn to dust.

The casting of this spell was refined down over time by these priests until finally one person can pray to this god of cursed afflictions and gain the unblessing of affliction. It's a potent spell that saps the life from nearly anything as long as the prayer continues uninterrupted.

Prayer of Disintegration Stats Generated with Homebrewery

This spell has been taught by the orders of clerics to their champions. Paladins of undeath, dread knights who seek to employ chaos and discord in the memory of this cursed god are taught this prayer from a very early time, with the intention of this spell being their main form of bringing judgment down onto the enemies of their faith.

As time flows on and the god of accursed life was defeated and forgotten to myth and legend, its loyal followers persisted on across the material world, spreading the venomous dogma that built the religion. As other faiths absorbed the original one as gods that were there at the formation of the world since died and gave way to newer deities, those rituals were absorbed and co-opted, including the Prayer of Disintegration. The use of the prayer is heavily frowned upon in use among holy communes, while arcane casting societies, like wizard schools, look on at this spell with a great deal of curiosity and uncertainty as to how prayers can undo the structure of a living being.

The Prayer of Disintegration is an ancient and deadly spell that has an ancient heritage and spreads great death and misery to those who hear it.

Now we want to hear from you. Which nefarious holy orders would bring down a prayer of disintegration to their enemies? What thought and logic did you give to the magic in your setting? Let us know in our discord server or in the comments below.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com, they write all kinds of gaming press, while they write news about the League of Legends Card Game on RuneterraCCG. On Youtube, they can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes, or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere. Find where they dwell by climbing their Linktree.