Mystic Martial Rituals

The brutal and highly physical ball game was played on a large I-shaped court between individual and rival teams of warriors, sometimes to the death. Its purpose was to toughen, strengthen and create battlefield awareness and coordination in the warriors.

The ball was made from hardened rubber and it impacted like a hammer blow causing excruciating pain on raw skin. The players had to be highly agile and quick, diving head first on the stone floor of the court, to ensure the ball made contact with some part of their anatomy without touching the ground. If that wasn't difficult enough, opposing players could attack them, trying to distract their rivals by any means possible. Anything went in the ball game with the players throwing punches and kicks, trying to pin and incapacitate, body block tackle and sweep their opponents of their feet.

In fact it wasn't an uncommon sight for half the team to be trying to handle the ball, while the other half tried to protect their team mates from the rival team's antics to win ball possession and gain territory on the field.

Sometimes a defeated foe's decapitated head was used to play this game instead of the hardened rubber ball.

The ball game also developed the warrior’s mystical potential. Unknown to most modern scholars, the ball court was marked out by using remnants of Nazca line magic. Once activated the game was not only played on the mortal plane, but also on the much larger arena of the astral plane.

Successful and experienced players learned to shift their spirit and body wholly into the astral plane. One of the rules of the game stated that the hands (sometimes even feet) couldn’t be used to touch the ball. Another rule of this martial ritual was that the ball had to always stay in the air otherwise the territory the ball touched the ground on the ball court was lost to the rival team.

The ball games objective was twofold, take the opposing side's territory and to slot the ball through the hoops stationed high up on the sides and the end “temple” zones of the I shaped ball court. It was a necessity for the warriors to find a way to handle and keep the ball airborne at all times without touching it physically with their hands. This task was made easier once the warriors were in the astral planes. There the mystical nature of the ball court enabled the release of the player’s psychic potential.

It is known that a related martial arts skill existed in the east and especially in the Indian Subcontinent. In Central Asia, warriors not only created ectoplasmic upper limbs but they were also able to add an ectoplasmic animal body and quadruped limbs. Some believe that this is the origin of the centaur and other chimerical human creature myths. This ability allowed warriors to traverse great distances at speed on the open plains and carry greater loads without the need for beasts of burden.

This is a mystic ritual, as old as man’s memory and found throughout the ancient world. This is the key mystic martial ritual that all Eagle and Jaguar Knights need to master as it plays a significant part in many of the other martial rituals. The knight needs to be ready to sacrifice himself before the gods will accept him as their chosen champion.

Lesser – The offering of one’s own blood. The knight cuts his own ears or other body parts. In the past this was mistakenly thought to be a bowl full (roughly one pint of blood).

The character is able to perform this ritual in advance or even during combat. In advance the character will have more of an idea of what abilities he wants and when he would like them to be activated. More importantly the warrior knows the full extent of his sacrifice, and to plan contingencies for those sacrifices.

If this is performed during combat the ability received will be more random, and not necessarily what the character had in mind. The power given will get the job done but not in the way the character envisioned (For Game Purposes – GM call on what powers/abilities player receives and at what cost).

It also requires character to be able to reach body part he would like to cut. This is reckless and an almost impossible task to perform in the heat of battle if the warrior is wearing full EBA armor. The knight needs to divert his attention and attacks to safely cut desired area of his body when his concentration should be focused on his opponents.

On successful performance of this ritual the character will be imbued with temporary power in exchange for his life force (blood). The three powers chosen by character could be psionics, or magic spells. These will be cast as a natural ability and there is no PPE or ISP cost to the knight.

The character loses 10% of his SDC each time he performs this ritual. Then for each Hit Point (HP) he chooses to give up, he gains X4 PPE/ISP to spend on any three psionics/spell ability combination.

The warrior can choose from any magic/psychic category, as long as he gives up the requisite amount of HP (rounded up) needed for the highest PPE/ISP cost ability he has chosen.

Example the knight wants to perform a psionic that costs 10 ISP, a spell that costs 40 PPE and a water elemental spell that costs 80 PPE. In this case he would give up 20HP for all three of these abilities. The knight can choose to have them activated immediately, or delay activating them till he needs to use them. He can delay their use for 24 hours, after that they must be used or go to waste.

The power level of these received abilities will be the same as the character’s level.

The SDC and Hit Points lost due to this mystic ritual can only be recovered at a natural rate for the character’s species. No form of mystical, paranormal, medical, technological healing would recover the losses received by character for performing the autosacrifice ritual.

For Game Purposes: Irrespective of the character’s natural healing rate it will take a minimum of 24 hours before the SDC and Hit Points lost via autosacrifice ritual will be recovered.

The character needs to save versus pain every time he cuts his himself. A failed role means the character suffers an extra 1D6 SDC. The more the character sacrifices the more he debilitates himself.

In Rifts the character can prepare before hand by taking some kind of anesthetic to numb the pain, but this may leave him vulnerable in a combat situation.

Though the warrior suffers a mystical drain on his blood, the cost to his person is very real because each time this ritual is performed a knight in effect loses one pint of his blood, and when a character is down to 15% of their Hit points they are in a critical situation, suffering from internal bleeding. They will require immediate emergency healing/medical treatment and are suffering from pain constantly.

After performing this ritual the warrior still needs to stop his blood loss. This may require simple self administered first aid skills, such as applying salves and plasters or several hours of recovery and emergency healing/medical treatment from professional doctors and herbalists. It will depend on how much blood loss occurred and how many times he performed the autosacrifice ritual in quick succession (before recovering from a previous performed autosacrifice). A human warrior is only able to perform about 4 (FOUR) autosacrifice rituals in quick succession (equivalent to sacrificing four or more pints of his blood before it had a chance to recover). This is why lesser autosacrifice should be performed with medical attendees and other helpers nearby.

The character will suffer penalties as per normal depletion of SDC/Hit Points and blood loss. See Rifts Conversion book 1 and Rifts Vampire Kingdoms for penalties suffered due to blood loss, and the level of healing/medical treatment required.

These self inflicted wounds are intended to be minimal and as such they tend to heal up quickly, especially if the warrior species has a natural healing ability BUT during this ritual the blood can’t stop flowing.

The warrior will constantly need to cut himself to ensure the blood keeps flowing for the necessary blood loss. If a wound heals, then the ritual needs to begin anew. The warrior can cut himself, continuing fighting and the ritual isn’t interrupted but if the blood flow stops before ritual is completed then the ritual is ended. The warrior will need to begin his ritual anew, but still loses the intended auto sacrifice SDC/HP even though the ritual went uncompleted.

Greater – This is a mystic ritual where a warrior makes a permanent sacrifice, usually permanently gives up a body part. The power received in exchange lasts for a greater duration and in most cases the knight is imbued with a permanent power.

Records from antiquity show that the oracles at Delphi used to give up their sight (eyes) in exchange for true future visions by performing a greater autosacrifice ritual. There are a few recorded instances where an oracle of Delphi regained her sight once she retired and gave up the gift she received by performing a greater autosacrifice ritual, but these are extremely rare examples.

For the sacrifice body part or ability to be returned, it first requires the knight to have sacrificed something in a greater autosacrifice ritual that can be restored. Some greater autosacrifices just can’t be undone.

Other examples of greater autosacrifice from history include giving up one's hearing in exchange for clarity of vision. The character gained the ability to see across the whole electromagnetic spectrum, and to see into other worlds, dimensions and planes, as well as see the invisible.

There have been a few rare cases where parents have autosacrificed on behalf of an unborn child or their children (less than 14 years of age). For example the new born child will be born deaf, but have a genius level ability in music or chess.

In a greater autosacrifice ritual the knight chooses to give up something permanently, for example a limb, hand, arm, leg, foot, eye, eyes, ear, ears, kidney, lung, voice, sight, knowledge. The sacrifice literally can be anything that the knight can’t do without and is precious to him.

In exchange the participant receives some kind of permanent power. This could be anything affecting the character, the land, the character’s enemies or friends. However nothing will compensate the character for the loss he has suffered. There is no way to restore the sacrifice once it has been made. A sacrificed limb or body organ can't be replaced by a prosthetic limb or organ, whether these things be gene cloned in the lab, cybernetic, technowizard or created by biowizards. They simply don't attach successfully and the warrior is going through undue trauma.

The GM and character should decide what the character gains and at what costs. Of course it should be noted that the greater the autosacrifice, the greater the power received. In game terms the character permanently loses body part, organ, natural ability or knowledge in exchange for a greater and permanent ability in another field.

This could be simple as the character having a psionic or spell as a permanent natural ability. In some cases it maybe receiving a minor or major super ability. In others a permanent miracle may have been performed, usually though it's receiving an ability/skill at the genius level.

The sacrifice the character makes is very real indeed and in the past it was mainly carried out by others, with the knight being sedated with drink and hallucinogenic drugs as they had their arm, leg amputated or their sight put out by a red hot poker.

In Rifts this process can be done in an advanced medical facility under anesthetic. Quetzalcoatl being more benign than many of the other gods on Rifts Earth will accept loss of limb in the heat of battle, as long as the warrior was able to dedicate it as a greater autosacrifice before it happened.

In practice this means the knight willing to risk life and limb to save another being, or to achieve an impossible task, relying on his autosacrifice to successfully complete the task. The knight character chooses to perform a greater autosacrifice, such as giving up a limb, to survive the impossible situation (death blow attack he received) or to save the persons life when it was beyond saving at the cost of his own hearing.

The situation should dictate what needed to be sacrificed. The GM/player should decide what would be a suitable outcome in a given situation and what would be the appropriate required sacrifice. For example it's more appropriate for the player character to give up their hand as an autosacrifice rather than their foot when they stuck their hand in a burning hot furnace to retrieve a lost artifact.

The more sadistic and evil deities may still require their followers to suffer the pain and agony before they accept their autosacrifice, and in the Rifts world reject any autosacrifice done using modern hospitals and pain medicines.

For Game Purposes: The player character can choose to have already performed their greater autosacrifice before they begin their gaming scenarios, or they may prefer to role play this aspect of their character’s life out. The greater autosacrifice should be performed by character by the time he reaches Level 2 (TWO).

Historically only one greater autosacrifice is accepted and rewarded by the chosen god with permanent power. However there have been a few cases, particularly of hermits and fakirs and other seekers, who've made many greater autosacrifices and had them rewarded with permanent rewards. This should be reserved for an interesting and strange NPC that the players encounter.

GM Option: Quetzalcoatl has gifted the Eagle and Jaguar knights with the ability to replace their autosacrficed limbs and organs with living cybernetic limbs and organs. This is an unforeseen side effect of Quetzalcoatl's use of his proto-deific powers to imbue the Eagle and Jaguar knights with the quintessence of his own divine dragongod blood.

These additional living cybernetics/bionics should be considered one of the rewards or powers the character received for when he performed his first greater autosacrifice ritual.

The Blood of Quetzalcoatl: If cut the blood of Quetzalcoatl flows slowly, and appears to be a fine clear sweet smelling liquid. Its an extremely hot liquid that thickens and hardens rapidly. The blood solidifies into black obsidian or green jade. There is no clear indication what conditions determine which of these two materials it will form. Alchemists believe if the blood of Quetzalcoatl was treated properly, it will unlock the secrets to the powers of the gods.

The trainee Knights throughout their schooling regularly practice the lesser autosacrifice ritual, learning slowly how to serve and make their offerings to their gods. They cut their bodies, this could be any part of their body, though usually they cut their ears or tongue, and bleed into a small bowl for as long as they are able to maintain the blood loss.

Sooner or later while practicing this ritual, may be the first time, may take years of training, the novice knight will see his dream vision through his own blood. In part of this vision he will see his cosmic twin, a swooping eagle framed by the midday sun, or the leaping jaguar shrouded by the midnight moon.

From this vision the young warriors understand their path is the same as their cosmic twin. The knights know from receiving this dream visions that they have been accepted by their gods as either an Eagle or Jaguar Knight, and they know at that moment that they have been given their first gift by their gods (Living Cyberarmor).

Quetzalcoatl quickly realized that most mortals on Rifts Earth needed an edge to survive the rigors of this increasingly hostile world. He knew the cyberknight's training had to mesh well with the ancient training of the Eagle and Jaguar Knights for it to produce effective protectors and sentinels of the weak and innocents.

The knights in Central America would have to rely on their own tenacity, wits and local resources in enemy territory. They wouldn't have the advanced technology and resources readily available to the traditional cyberknights operating in North America. Therefore Quetzalcoatl had to ensure their mystic martial rituals were answered by an arrogant pantheon.

To guarantee all this occurred as he reasoned it should, Quetzalcoatl used his immense proto-deific powers to allow a miniscule drop of his divine dragongod blood to infuse with the blood of worthy warriors from within these societies. Fighters who proved they were willing to sacrifice all in the service of others would receive this gift from him.

The drop of divine dragongod blood in the character solidifies into an extremely thin layer of living obsidian, forming an extra layer of skin beneath the subcutaneous tissue. It effectively forms a living suit of armor (mimics cyberarmor) always growing in power as the character advances in age and experience.

The Eagle and Jaguar Knights are unaware that they have divine dragongod blood fused to them, Even Xolotl is unaware that Quetzalcoatl has made this sacrifice to safeguard Rifts Earth. It's unclear whether Quetzalcoatl himself intended for a quintessence of his divine dragongod blood to be freely flowing in mortal champions.

His intention was to be discreet about his involvement on Rifts Earth, but if this secret was ever to get out, it would make the Eagle and Jaguar Knights a target for all his enemies and power hungry fools.

As part of the Proto-deific ritual Quetzalcoatl ensured that his divine dragongod blood would return to him once a knight had been killed or if the knight willingly gave up the gifts he had received for his services and sacrifices for his gods.

It will be extremely difficult to successfully extract the tiny amount of dragongod blood from a living knight or a recently deceased knight before it returns to Quetzalcoatl. However in the past mortals and immortals alike have spent several lifetimes and exhausted the treasures of the gods in the search and attainment of trace amounts of dragongod blood.

For Game Purposes: Quetzalcoatl's dragongod blood allows the character to mimic the effects of cybernetics and bionics. Replacing their limbs and organs with living cybernetics and bionics. A mortal knight with his obsidian cyberarmor will still take SDC and Hit point damage before the attack is stopped by the obsidian cyberarmor.

There is nothing so far that indicates that this process will end. If the knight lives long enough he may well be completely made out of living metal. Combine this thought with the abilities received by the Eagle and Jaguar Knights through their autosacrifice rituals, and it may lead some Wormwood experts to a startling realization, that the Holy Terrors found on Wormwood (See Wormwood book) could be the end result of an ever adapting long lived Eagle or Jaguar Knight.

This martial ritual is similar to the katas found in eastern martial arts. If a knight uses this ritual during combat then he is unable to deliver the killing strike to the opponent. The knight is trying to knockout, stun and incapacitate his foe.

The warrior has to declare he is using this ritual at start of melee during combat. The rival fighter will miraculously survive the first death strike. An honorable fighter will realize what happened, and will surrender to the victor. If either the knight continues attacking or his opponent continues the fight then this martial ritual will end immediately, and the next death blow will be successful.

During this kata the warrior is unable to deliver the killing attack. Doesn’t need to declare he is trying to knockout or stun opponent, all attacks automatically assumed to do this.

Traditionally opponents and armies agreed to perform this martial ritual together. On Rifts Earth most of the Eagle and Jaguars Knights opponents are unable to perform this ritual, and even if the Knight performs it on their behalf they are unlikely to agree to the Knight doing this.

If a warrior loses a fight using this martial ritual, then he becomes enslaved to the victor. The warrior is unable to leave the side of the victor and is compelled to be his prisoner willingly.

Those who activate or agree to a Flower War ritual must honor any rules they agreed to before engaging in this ritual. These rules include that they mustn't kill their foes who willingly surrender to the victor of the battle, and the loser of the fight accepting they are the prisoner of the champion.

This power was known to be used by shamans and priests in Central America to predict future events. On Rifts Earth the warriors through their cyberknight training mixing with their dragongod blood have also learned to tap into this, but their focus is purely on themselves.

Instinctive Battle Response: The warrior views his entire existence as a battlefield, and by tapping into the Cosmicvision he has complete battlefield awareness. An overview of the cosmic ripples linked to him. The warrior can’t be surprised by any attack aimed at him. Whether this be a sneak attack from behind, sniper shot or a booby trap.

The warrior is aware of the past, present and future events related to him. Is unconsciously cognizant of what his opponents are about to do before they have done it, and is able to instinctively preempt combat.

GM Option: For Game Purposes the knight can announce he will perform a move or action further down the line during combat or situation. The knight will then try to perform combat in such a way that it will lead up to that moment and link effortlessly with his desired actions. If he does it correctly he will receive the additional bonuses listed.

The GM and Player should discuss what the planned future action will be (at least one melee after combat/situation started), and how the player will lead up to performing that action. The GM should ensure that the knight tries to fulfill the agreed criteria to ensure successful completion of move/action. If the lead up isn't fulfilled then additional bonuses don't apply, and in all likely hood the planned maneuver has gone drastically wrong.

Intuitive Battlefield Overview: Eagle and Jaguar knights say their cosmic twin watches over them, relaying to them what is unknown to them. The character knows what’s around him, even though his natural senses and skills have failed him (On Rifts Earth its like the unconscious half of the character's mind is "astral projected" and the conscious half of his mind is still in control of his body)

The warrior believes his cosmic twin provides the knight with a real time overview radar map of his surrounds, constantly updating it, allowing him to zoom in and out to get a better perspective and more detail. He is able to look everywhere, in the air, underwater or underground. The knight can look into buildings and vehicles, behind walls and inside sealed containers. Revealing to him the lay of the land, hidden traps and pathways. Unconsciously keeping him informed of the positions, buildings, vehicles, numbers and make up of friendly and enemy forces in his vicinity, their movements and change in attitude towards the character.

How much detail the character learns from this ability depends on how much knowledge he already knows.

For example the warrior may realize that within his sensing range there is an unknown presence. If he has never come across that presence before and has never learned about it from his teachers or books. Then he will just know that there is something standing 15 feet away from him. That is all he will know about it, until he has more information on it, such as when he sees the creature more clearly.

Of course if the character has already some information on the presence, even indirectly then the knight is able to discern more information about it by concentrating on learning more about this presence. Such as the extent of its abilities and their limitations, he will learn its strengths and weaknesses. The character is effectively learning in the present knowledge he gains in the future, but it comes to him in flashes of insight and from many different and changing perspectives.

He still needs to make sense of it. That is why it’s better for him to let his body react semi instinctively to the immediate threats, rather than for him to focus on all that information bombarding his mortal mind and plunging into madness.

The more time the character spends concentrating on this ability, the more he will learn but in the heat of combat this may affect his battle performance (GM's call) The GM may ask the character to make skill roles, such as Military Intelligence, Perception, Lore skills and use of other specialist equipment before he reveals the extent of the knowledge the character has gained from this ability.

Maquahuitl (Swordclub): Traditional rectangular or elliptical shaped wooden club with obsidian shards infused in grooves running along its sides. Roughly three inches wide, with the single handed weapon being approximately a meter in length. The double handed variety is slighter wider and about the same length as the warrior is tall.

One of the first tasks of the new recruits is to find a suitable piece of wood to make their maquahuitl. On Rifts Earth the Eagle and Jaguar knights prefer their maquahuitl to be made out of what they commonly refer to as the Vulture Tree. The Rifts Yucatan Peninsula exists in a magic rich dimension, and a great deal of dimensional flora and fauna is found there. The Vulture Tree is one such tree and it's slowly spreading throughout Central America,

Earth natives will mistake this tree to be a giant willow tree. This tree is an MDC structure and uses vines to entangle creatures that it slowly drains of energy (also known as the Hungry Wood). This ability of the Vulture Tree is similar to that of the Power Leech R.C.C from Rifts Psycape. There is a possibility that the Vulture Tree originates from the same world as the Power Leech R.C.C

It may have evolved to feed on the Power Leeches themselves. The Vulture tree absorbs all types of energy like a sponge from victim it ensnares, whether they be human, demon or robot.

Its wood is surprisingly light, yet strong and durable. Under a powerful microscope the wood lattice is arranged similar to that of bird bones,

The Knights carve the wood into a crude maquahuitl shape, without hollowing the groove out into the sides. They then perform a lesser autosacrifice ritual, letting their blood fall and soak into the maquahuitl, and quickly fire hardened it in a furnace or MDC flame. They do this ritual to get the weapon blessed by the gods. They will repeat this process numerous times, until finally an uninterrupted hollow groove appears on all four sides of the wooden club.

The dead wood the maquahuitl is made from has come alive again (as it was on the living Vulture tree), and the knight's believe that the weapon has been blessed by the gods. On Rifts Earth the knights don't insert the obsidian blades into the wooden club to form the swordclub because they are able to summon them. The obsidian blades grow out of the self attuned maquahuitl when they try to summon a psi- weapon like ordinary cyberknights do.

These blades aren't psi-blades per say but they are created by the warrior's conviction that the weapon has been blessed by the gods and infused with this gift. These obsidian fragments are made out of the Eagle and Jaguar's own blood that was absorbed into the maquahuitl wood. Their coloration is usually black or green. It's unclear why this occurs, but it could be as a result of the dragongod blood flowing through the knight, or due to the natural energy leeching properties of the living Vulture Tree. It maybe a side effect of the weapon being blessed by the gods.

The mystic ritual to create this weapon is accepted by their gods, and as such a maquahuitl made like this is considered a holy weapon on Rifts Earth.

The fine nature of the Psi-Obsidian pieces inflicts incredible cutting damage, but those same extremely thin edges easily get damaged and break off when attacking an opponent or parrying their strikes.

Using Telekinesis Acceleration the warrior is able to Whirl the psi-obsidian blades around the hollow groove at high speeds, effectively turning the maquahuitl into a Telekinetic “chain sword/buzz saw”.

The Eagle and Jaguar Knights are trained to deflect projectiles with the maquahuitl, and with the psi-obsidian blades activated the maquahuitl can be used as a shield (W.P Shield) to block, parry and to knock aside incoming attacks.

The Maquahuitl due to the energy leeching powers of the Vulture tree absorbs energy into itself, whether this be weapon fire, psychic or magical energy. This means that ANY type of energy can be harmlessly absorbed by the Maquahuitl if the knight successfully parries/blocks it.

Therefore it effectively stops the psionic, magic and explosive energy from manifesting. It could be used to absorb the energy released by a grenade exploding, or stop a magic net from coming into being, or absorb a psi sword, meaning the psychic has to summon his psi-sword again.

Psi-Obsidian shards are harmful to living and non living things. They break off and embed into living flesh, armor, machines and other melee weapons. The psi-obsidian shrapnel penetrates into flesh or armor, and quickly gets to work.

Any bits stuck on the outside just cease to exist, and the target foolishly thinks that the impact damage is all the harm they will do.

Unfortunately this isn't the case, each flake of Psi-obsidian that gets though the skin or armor sucks the host dry of its energy, in living creatures it feeds on their life force, starting with ISP or PPE and then consuming their MDC or Hit points. Against technology, it just absorbs the energy, stopping the flow of energy around the robot or vehicle.

The effects are more drastic than leeching of energy, living things will suffer penalties as if they have been wounded, paralysis of limbs and organs may occur, depending on how far the psi-obsidian has burrowed into the body and how much of the life force energy it has drained.

Against Full EBA, robots, Power Armor and vehicles, it will cause disruption in the flow of energy to key systems, such as environmental, weapons and power supplies. This drain of energy will have an impact on all of the machines processes, slowing or shutting them down. This may result in the engine just stopping dead, limbs seizing up, power completely being cut off, force fields shut down, communications are jammed, interference caused in sensor readings, overheating and explosions resulting from energy build up in one area or weapon systems going offline due to lack of energy supply. Therefore a single shard that embeds into flesh or vehicle could destroy them.

These shards are very hard to remove because natural healing abilities can't expel the shard from the body. The greater the creature's natural healing factor the less likely it is that their regenerative powers will help them to recuperate from the injuries sustained. The same principle applies when the psi-obsidian infects a machines, nano-robots and other methods that require the use of energy to destroy these shards just won't work. The reason for this is simple, because the more energy that is directed towards a piece of psi-obsidian, the more it feeds and the more powerful it becomes and the quicker it will drain you of energy.

You have to physically remove the psi-obsidian blade embedded in you or your vehicle to stop it feeding on you. Major surgery and mechanical operations need to be carried out as soon as possible to remove them. The shards will cease to exist as soon as they are exposed to the air and removed away from the targeted energy source. Unfortunately this causes problems in extracting them, because the bit of shard exposed to the air disintegrates immediately and disappears but leaves the unexposed part still inside.

The surgeon or mechanic has to be really careful and try to remove the obsidian fragments all in one go, or they make sure they have scanned and system checked for broken bits of shards, otherwise the person or vehicle will slowly die irrespective of how small the remaining obsidian splinter inside is.

Atlatl (Dart/Spear Thrower): An ancient weapon, essentially a short wooden stick around 2 feet in length, with a handle on one end and a dart holder on the other. The Atlatl improves the accuracy and distance achieved by the thrown dart or spear.

On Rifts Earth the Eagle and Jaguar Knights make this weapon using a similar process as used by them in their creation of the Maquahuitl. The weapon is ready when the socket and groove for the dart appears in the Atlatl's Vulture tree wood. At the same time at the midsection of the Atlatl, the wood slightly bulges outwards forming a tiny lump of weight. This improves the accuracy of the weapon as well as silencing the hi-frequency noise generated by the weapon as the dart is released. In game terms the Atlatl is a silent weapon.

On Rifts Earth the knights summon Psi-Obsidian darts to appear on the Atlatl, which they hurl towards their enemy. Psi-Obsidian Darts are small shards (around 1 (ONE) foot in length and a couple centimeters in diameter). The Psi-Obsidian spears are just larger shard projectiles (about 3ft long and around an inch in diameter).

The Psi-Obsidian dart/spear appears on the Atlatl as the Knight launches the attack. The knights are able to use both Psi-obsidian darts and spears in the same melee, but they will have to spend the requisite amount of ISP for each. The Atlatl Vulture Tree Wood and Psi-Obsidian fragments have the same energy absorbing and energy draining properties as mentioned already for the Maquahuitl Vulture Tree Wood and Psi-Obsidian blades.

The Atlatl can be used as a melee weapon to strike at an enemy or parry any attacks directed at the knight. In these circumstances it will be used like a baton.

Gladiatorial Battle Training

In the distance past, the knights were trained by being tethered to a peg in the center of 5 concentric Nazca line circles by a 15ft long rope. The outer circle was 15ft radius in diameter from the central peg, and each subsequent inner circle was 3ft less in radius. Therefore the inner most circle had only a diameter of 6ft.

The area covered by the Nazca Line drawn circles was territory that the tethered knight had to defend at all cost from attacking warriors. Not only was his movement hindered by being bound to the central peg, but also he may have inferior weapons or no weapons at all. Sometimes he would face one opponent, at other times he would face multiple foes equipped with the finest equipment. The novice fighter could be blindfolded or have his hands tied in other instances.

The defender had to safeguard his territory from the attacks of the challengers without retreating. If he stepped into one of the inner circles he would forfeit the territory of the outer circle he had stepped out of. The warrior wasn't allowed to step into that zone again but still couldn't take a step back without conceding more ground. This process would go on until the defender lost, defeated his attackers or held his ground for the allocated time period.

Sometimes the bound knight had to start from the inner circle and gain the territory of the outer circles, but again he wasn't allowed to retreat without losing the battle. He could only go forward.

The inexperienced knights greatly hindered regularly took severe beatings during this training, faced as they were with so many well armed and versatile opponents.

The point of this exercise was to get the raw recruit to deal with multiple enemies attacking him at once, and not to rely on his equipment or allies. In enemy lands, he may have to fight on his own and with no resources. The knight had to learn how to evade and block the attackers as best as he could, and to learn to use whatever he could muster to hand effectively, irrespective of the condition it was in.

The young trainee quickly learned to disarm his opponents and use their weapons, as well as parrying and dodging multiple opponents. He learned that close quarter fighting was more effective in enclosed spaces than melee weapons, which would hinder the warrior when he was up close and personal with his foe.

He trains to be sharper, learning to maximize the use of his evading moves and attacks. The warrior learned to call on the gods to bless his endeavors using a lesser autosacrifice ritual before he began this ordeal and gain their favor. The warrior would make a vow not to take a backward step regardless of the number of foes arrayed against him as he performed the lesser autosacrifice ritual

Academics mistakenly thought that the Eagle and Jaguar Knights used to soak their armor in Salted water to toughen it. On Rifts Earth, they perform a lesser autosacrifice ritual and let their blood soak into the armor and ask the gods to bless it.

This ritual turns SDC armor into MDC armor. When worn the armor is weightless and therefore has no prowl/movement penalties.

This ritual triples the MDC of MDC armors. When worn the armor is weightless and therefore has no prowl/movement penalties.

Eagle and Jaguar Knights are able to forge amour from the magical, supernatural and naturally MDC materials found in their surrounds, such as the Vulture Trees and other alien plant life, as well as using animal skins and bones. (For Game Purposes these will be similar to the weapons and armors found in Rifts Dinosaur Swamp book).

Similar martial rituals to this were found across the world, and survived to the modern era in some form or another in many countries.

In Central America shamans used the nearly forgotten Nazca line magic, to cause a cylindrical pole made up of a Nazca line to rise vertically high up into the sky.

On Rifts Earth the first part of the ritual involves the warriors to climb up this sheer vertical mystic pole using their bare hands and feet. The pole will grow taller as the knights manage to master the set heights.

The second part of the ritual involved an ectoplasmic tendril growing out of the pole, and winding around the pole till it reached the top. The top end of the tendril melded with the knight at the top. The knight would then jump of the pole, circling the pole at speed as the ectoplasmic tendril unfurled as he fell towards the ground. The warrior hoping the ectoplasmic tendril didn’t break.

The ectoplasmic tendril acted like a bungee rope, if the novice warrior failed to slow his fall down enough, the ectoplasmic tendril would slow him just enough for him to sustain serious injury, but the warrior would survive and wouldn’t suffer any permanent debilitation due to his inexperience.

The more the knights practice falling, the better they get at climbing up the pole and slowing down their fall using telekinesis and ectoplasm. Mastery of these basic skills, allows them to practice their combat acrobatics and gymnastics skills. They learn to keep on fighting as they are being disorientated by the circling and falling quickly towards a hard impact with the ground below them.

Other warriors climb up the poles, and stand on ectoplasmic ledges that grow out from the pole and attack the falling knight. Some warriors attack them from the ground. This teaches the knights how to fight opponents from all directions, from the sides as well as from above and below.

The warrior has to master maneuvering his body as he is disorientated, learn to stay in control and still take the fight to his enemies. They learn to land on their feet when they fall or jump, and how to soften the blow from falling impact.

The knights eat a piece of bread soaked with their own blood. The bread is made by the knight having performed a lesser autosacrifice ritual on it. The knights shape the bread into a small effigy of their cosmic twin. They eat this bread before they begin their Climbing and Falling mystic martial rituals.

They do this because they want to free their Cosmic Twin to aid them. They believe by eating this bread they gain the abilities of their cosmic twins. The strength and power of the climbing Jaguar, as well as the speed and agility of the diving eagle.

For Game Purposes use "Light Body Climbing" ability from Mystic China book as the equivalent for the warriors using nano hairs of ectoplasm to stick to sheer surfaces, making it easier for them to climb vertical heights.

For Game Purposes Use "Falling Technique" ability from Ninjas and Superspies book as the equivalent for the knights using Telekinesis to slow their fall, allowing them to fall great distances without suffering any major injuries.