Overview
The Hollow Pact
AX.GHW.08.05
The compact didn't create the Marked's capacity for Force power. It created a channel.
The Hollow entity made a deliberate transfer of something into a bloodline — not a grant, not a gift, but a seeding. Cold. Purposeful. The entity placed something of its nature in the bloodline's blood, and what it placed was intended to develop over time, to become more useful, to eventually return something worth the original investment. The power is not the practitioner's in any straightforward sense: it was placed in them, for purposes the Hollow entity defined, with terms that the bloodline has been carrying since before the current practitioner was born. The Hollow Pact is what happens when a Shadow-Bound Marked decides to use that power with skill and intention rather than reacting to it when it surfaces in moments of stress.
Shadow-Bound practitioners describe the tradition as drawing on what was seeded — the cold is there, the Hollow entity authorized its use by the terms of the compact, and the Marked are spending what was invested in their blood. The compact doesn't require them to file a request before each use. It tracks the total. When a practitioner uses the Hollow Pact, they are not performing power from nothing. They are being what the compact made them, on purpose.
The tradition has three characteristic expressions. Consuming Dark is the combat application — directed shadow energy, cold and damaging, specific in its effectiveness against targets that resist mundane means but find shadow deeply disagreeable. Binding is the compact's logic applied to the physical world, constraints that operate not through force but through the principle that agreements, once made, have weight. Invoke is the deepest draw: reaching into the compact's established relationship with the Hollow entity for effects that go beyond what the bloodline alone can sustain.
Most Shadow-Bound Marked who develop the Hollow Pact use Consuming Dark primarily, because it is immediately and obviously useful. Practitioners who develop Binding tend to be the ones who have thought carefully about what the compact actually is. Practitioners who develop Invoke have either developed significant understanding of their relationship with the Hollow entity, or have decided the risk is worth whatever they need.
System Integration
The Hollow Pact as an Odd Talent
The Hollow Pact functions as an Odd Talent per AX.C.04. Standard rules apply:
- The roll is: Governing Attribute + Hollow Pact (+ Focus if applicable)
- Hollow Pact dice are purchased from the Talent budget at character creation, or improved through Advancement at standard cost (Governing Attribute × 2 XP for a new Tradition at 1D; current value × 2 XP to improve)
- Maximum Tradition rating: 5D. Maximum Focus rating: 3D
- All three Expressions draw on the same Odd Talent pool
- The Hollow Pact is not available through Independent Study. It requires an active compact with a Hollow entity. A character without the Marked (Shadow-Bound) lineage cannot access this tradition.
Governing Attribute
The governing Attribute is chosen at character creation and is permanent.
| Expression | Common Choice | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Consuming Dark | Wit (default) | Directed shadow energy requires precision and intent |
| Binding | Wit or Body | Wit for the compact's logic; Body for physical constraint expression |
| Invoke | Wit | Drawing on the Hollow entity's channel requires focused attention |
Access
Marked (Shadow-Bound) Lineage: Shadow-Bound Marked who receive Profession access to the Hollow Pact begin play with 1D at no Talent generation cost. The compact is already active; the channel is already open.
Mechanics Summary
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Tradition Category | Force, directed shadow energy, physical causation, binding through compact logic |
| Default Attribute | Wit |
| Action Type | Primary Action (most effects); Free Action (minor Consuming Dark applications) |
| Signature Feel | The cold is real. The terms are also real. Both of these things are always true at once. |
| Lineage Affinity | Marked (Shadow-Bound) only; not available through Independent Study |
| Signature Focus | The Mark |
| Expressions | Consuming Dark, Binding, Invoke |
Threshold Scale:
| Threshold | Scale of Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Minor; brief; Touch to Close range; a demonstration or small effect |
| 2 | Standard; single target at Near range; scene-relevant damage or constraint |
| 3 | Significant; extended effect or resistant target; multiple targets or range extension |
| 4 | Major; persistent binding or significant area effect; lasts until Long Rest |
| 5+ | Profound; permanent or extended compact-level effect; direct entity channel |
Access and Cross-Lineage Notes
Marked (Shadow-Bound) practitioners: This tradition is specific to the compact. There is no path to the Hollow Pact that does not run through an active compact with a Hollow entity. Practitioners develop the tradition in the context of the relationship they are already in — everything they do with it is visible to that relationship.
Practitioners who want organizational context for that development typically work through the Sovereign Circle (AX.GHW.07.14). The Circle's institutional knowledge — what the Hollow entity is likely to notice, which applications carry more weight in the compact's accounting, how to read the Strained state as a signal rather than a warning to stop — represents the accumulated practice of Shadow-Bound Marked who have been working this tradition deliberately for a long time. Practitioners who develop the Hollow Pact without that context are not at a disadvantage mechanically; they tend to learn the same things eventually, through experience that the Circle's practitioners have already catalogued.
Marked (Light-Bound) practitioners: The compacts of the Hollow and the covenants of the Illuminated are different structures with different sources. A Light-Bound Marked cannot access the Hollow Pact. They have their own Force tradition (Sacred Fire, AX.GHW.08.05). Cross-tradition access between Shadow-Bound and Light-Bound Marked would require a second contract of the other type — an occurrence with implications significant enough to constitute a campaign-level event.
Creditor Involvement: GMs should establish what the Hollow entity actually wants from the bloodline and how actively they monitor Tradition use. The Veil Strain Strained state is the mechanical representation of the entity's attention — what they do with that attention, including the five involvement levels and a menu of what Hollow entities typically want, is covered in AX.GHW.14.03 (Creditor Framework).