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 must target a warband by name, and only targets a warband participating in the coming arena battle. When delivering the CURSE, the philosopher must announce that the target warband "will be cut from the weft of Fate" and otherwise declare that a great doom lies on them.

If the CURSE is not resisted, all members of the target warband who reach zero hits must take an additional bead pull for each special creature (definerd as any creature not eligible for the mortal laurels) among their number participating in the battle. Once the curse is pronounced, all creatures committed to the battle count even if they then withdraw.

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. This mystery is FOREIGN - it seems to have come from the uttermost east, and may not work precisely as described if the philosopher leading the casting is not suitably skilled.