This mystery empowers a philosopher to enter the arena with a priest during the annoucement phase of an arena battle to deliver a special curse at the opening of an Arena combat.

The philosopher gains the ability to deliver a CURSE during the introduction phase of an arena battle. It must be clear to all onlookers that the philosopher is delivering a CURSE. The CURSE takes effect on all warbands of both sides participating in the battle, and does not discriminate between friend and foe.

If the CURSE is not resisted, all characters participating in this arena battle who can regenerate, or who can resist black bead pulls for the loss of a permanent hit, lose that ability and function as normal mortals during the battle. If they are reduced to zero hits, they fall. If they pull a black bead (or a red one in the case of characters with no resilience) they die as would any other character.

It affects only a philosopher of the same nation as the performing philosophers. If unused, the ability to deliver a CURSE remains with the philosopher until the next sunrise or sunset, whichever comes first.

Performing this mystery requires around five minutes of ritual involving the philosophers, the mystery focus and the target priest.