Horror marks and horror attacks

What a horror mark is, what makes one, how horrors come for marked units, and the spells and items that mark or call horrors.

verified 6.37updated 2026-10-02 · Jake4 min read

A horror mark is a lasting condition on a unit that draws horrors, the powerful astral beings of Blood magic and the late game. The manual’s account is short and deliberately vague about numbers, so this page collects what it says, where marks come from according to the Inspector’s data, and what we cannot tell you.

What a mark does

Each month, a marked unit risks a visit from a horror, though the manual calls the odds small. Repeat marking is possible and makes the risk bigger, yet the game gives the player no way to read how heavy a unit’s mark is. Some spells force a marked unit to be attacked. Once a battle starts, horrors go for marked units before anyone else, and heavier marks bring heavier horrors.

The manual’s turn order puts the horror visits at step 19, just after blood hunting and before assassinations. It does not say how the “small chance” is worked out, how many marks a unit can hold, or how strong a horror a given mark brings.

Marks are permanent. The manual separates them from afflictions: afflictions can be treated, but curses and horror marks cannot be removed. The one softening it gives is that a mark may be lessened by staying dead, and it does not say what that means in practice. The Inspector’s ability data carries a Horror marked entry in its affliction category.

What raises it

Sources the manual and the Inspector name:

• A strong Magic scale. A province with magic scale 4 or higher is a place where horrors thrive, and horror marks start to appear there (the manual’s province-scale table). See Province attributes.
• The Horror Mark spell. This Thaumaturgy spell needs Astral 2 (20 fatigue, range 50 in the manual’s table) and puts a mark on its target. The Inspector’s description calls it the only way to direct horrors and avoid disaster should one be summoned.
• Items. The Oath Rod of Kurgi casts Horror Mark. In the Inspector’s data the cursed Eye of the Oracle and Abominable Arms each carry a 5% horrormark chance, and the Shield of the Accursed carries a Horror Mark Attacker value of 5, which the manual’s table writes as “5 vs MR” without explaining the number. The manual names this kind of effect a strikeback, an answer to being attacked.
• Horror Seed. This Blood ritual sends a horror to possess an enemy far away; the Inspector’s text says it marks and curses soldiers in the province.
• Casting during a cataclysm. In a cataclysm game, rituals, forging and empowerment can each draw a horror to the mage, and more gems mean a greater chance of a strong one. The horror strikes after the activity is done, so a mage can be sacrificed to finish an expensive item. The Blood ritual Astral Corruption brings a like effect for any game that uses it. See Rituals and Magic gems.

Horror attacks

A horror attack is a visit by a horror, either the monthly one on a marked unit or one summoned or sent by a spell. The manual’s rules for them are thin:

• Horrors target marked units first in battle.
• Send Lesser Horror and Send Horror send a horror against a distant province. The Inspector says a sent Horror will annihilate any army not hiding in a fortress, and warns that the caster may attract unwanted attention.
• Call Lesser Horror and Call Horror summon one for the caster’s own battle. The manual lists the Gift of Kurgi as sending and calling a lesser horror, and the Horror Harmonica as calling a horror.
• Two artifacts, the Forbidden Light and the First Crown, show a “lesser horror attack chance” property in the Inspector (20 and 10). The manual does not explain it.

What the manual leaves out

• The monthly chance, the size of the change per mark, and how mark strength maps to horror strength are not given.
• It does not say how marking by a spell compares with marking by an item, or whether a mark can be resisted.
• It does not say what staying dead does beyond lessening a mark.