CHAKRA BINDS
SOULMELDS
CHAPTER 4
Chakras are divided into categories for ease of reference: least chakras (crown, feet, hands), lesser chakras (arms, brow, shoulders), greater chakras (throat and waist), and the powerful heart and soul chakras. These classifications only come into play when determining a meldshaper’s choice of chakra binds; the higher in the hierarchy the chakra is, the more potent its chakra bind effect. When you bind a soulmeld to a chakra, it usually fuses to your body in the location corresponding to that chakra. It prevents you from gaining any benefit from a magic item that occupies the corresponding body slot. (In many cases, it also prevents you from physically wearing such a magic item, as dictated by common sense and the description of the soulmeld in question.) For example, if you bind a crystal helm to your crown chakra, the helm settles snugly around your head. It physically prevents you from also wearing another helm (magic or mundane), as well as magically preventing you from gaining the benefit of a magic helm. Any visual differences between bound and unbound soulmelds are given in the description of a specific soulmeld. In general, you can only bind a soulmeld to the chakra it occupies. Since only one soulmeld can occupy any given chakra, you can usually only bind one soulmeld to any chakra. The Double Chakra feat allows you to break this rule: with that feat, you can have two soulmelds occupying or bound to the same chakra. The totemist’s totem chakra is unusual in several respects. It does not correspond to any body slot, so soulmelds cannot occupy the totem chakra. For this reason, the totem chakra appears in parentheses at the end of this entry for totemist melds. When a totemist wishes to bind a soulmeld to her totem chakra, she must choose a different chakra for that soulmeld to occupy. Regardless of the chakra occupied by the soulmeld, however, the totemist can bind it to her totem chakra. This is an exception to the normal rule that a soulmeld can only be bound to the chakra it occupies. At higher levels, totemists gain the ability to change which of their soulmelds are bound to their totem chakras. Although this might entail a significant change in the totemist’s appearance and abilities, no soulmelds actually change location on her body when she rebinds her melds.
Illus. by W. England
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Quarranal Rhiannavar is a 3rd-level duskling totemist. As a 3rd-level totemist, he has the ability to shape three soulmelds at a time (and his Constitution is 17, easily high enough to allow this). At the start of this day, he spends an hour selecting his soulmelds; he decides to shape sphinx claws, totem avatar, and blink shirt. His sphinx claws occupy his hands chakra and his blink shirt occupies his heart chakra. The totem avatar soulmeld can occupy the arms, feet, heart, or shoulders chakra. His blink shirt already occupies his heart chakra, so Quarranal chooses to place his totem avatar on his arms chakra. Quarranal has access to and can bind soulmelds to his totem chakra. When he shapes his soulmelds, he can choose to bind any one of them to his totem chakra. (None of them can occupy his totem chakra, however.) Since he has no
An azurin’s eyes hold pure incarnum
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