Amaranth Eclipse (3.5e Martial Discipline)

Summary::An orc martial adept was renowned for his terrible strength and even more for his repulsive visage. On a pilgrimage from his tribe, he thought of putting the two together. Combined with the endurance bequeathed upon him by his orc heritage, the nameless master was able to completely disregard defense in any battle, his opponent’s attacks broken from sheer terror. The end result, born through years of trial and error, was the Amaranth Eclipse discipline. Many who fought against this wandering harbinger of bloodshed were impressed by his ability to cow their forces into submission, and thus began to copy his techniques.

It would be giving its creator too much credit to say that the use of the Amaranth Eclipse discipline requires any measure of skill. While it is true that most of its users have finely honed their bodies to extraordinary strength and fortitude, this is more out of necessity in order to ensure the survival of the user and close the gap created by their near-complete disregard of defensive ideology.

Not surprisingly given the heritage of its progenitor, the maneuvers of the Amaranth Eclipse discipline strongly resemble the combat style of a barbarian, using unadulterated rage and savagery to create the most fearsome image possible. The users of the Amaranth Eclipse are usually brutes who give little thought to strategy or defense, absorbing and dealing damage with incredible strength and endurance. Their fierce countenance strikes terror into the hearts of their opponents, and even allows them to hypnotize themselves into a state of bloodthirsty mania.

The Amaranth Eclipse is used for up close and brutal melee combat and is fit for little else. As such most of its weapons are those used for cleaving foes in twain. The greatsword, fullblade, greataxe, scythe, and halberd are all associated with the Amaranth Eclipse. The discipline's key skill is Intimidate.

Learning Maneuvers from the Discipline
The original creator of the Amaranth Eclipse wasn't one to give lessons; many who learned his techniques did so through painful experience. Some were crazed enough to intentionally seek him out, coaxing one maneuver from him at a time. As a result, every maneuver from the current Amaranth Eclipse is purely imitational, taught by the survivors of those encounters. Even the discipline's very name originated from a copycat, who described his assault as "a red storm that blocked out the sun". The name stuck, despite the disagreements of some practitioners.

Because of the scarcity of maneuvers and the questionable intelligence of those who would teach it, the Amaranth Eclipse requires more dedication to master than most, since quality training is hard to come by. The techniques were dismissed by the Temple of the Nine Swords, who were unwilling to accept the ravings of a few suicidal lunatics as a discipline. Even so, those who endeavor to learn the secrets of the Amaranth Eclipse may still do so, replacing one of their normal disciplines (usually Devoted Spirit) with the Amaranth Eclipse.

Maneuvers of the Amaranth Eclipse Discipline

 * To see the full, expanded description of every maneuver, click here.

Feats
Nightmare Fuel SMW::offSMW::on

Miscellaneous
Practitioners of the Amaranth Eclipse discipline are highly advised to take the Hulking Brute trait or any other ability that allows the use of the adept's Strength modifier for Intimidate checks.