"Rolling along the land of Kerethad, an amethyst fog whispers through bough and hedge. In hushed nooks where daylight spills but spare, this ghostly balm grows so dense and gathered, brilliant pollen loosed beneath the sky."
This chapter describes the various supernatural disciplines practiced by the people of kerethad. It explains the ecology, sources of magic, cults, and spells.
In Kerethad, magic is different from how one traditionally thinks of supernatural energy. There are no sorcerers with a staff conjuring great fireballs from thin air. While there are simpler displays of magic that are somewhat common, the binding of magics into a powerful form requires major effort.
Each culture has their own name for this substance, but it is ubiquitously known as the Veil. It is a form of power unique to this world which flows from the oceans down along the lands of Kerethad, and through force of will and complex manipulation of the Veil it can bend reality.
These magical energies recover slowly, requiring practitioners to hoard their resources carefully and no expend them frivolously. Often times, magic is ritualized, making rapid casting rarer.
Whilst these circumstances may appear to significantly weaken the power of those who study magic, the learned more than make up for this temporal loss with cunning and careful preparation. As a result, experienced mages are feared for their powers and knowledge, considered supernatural and at times ostracized for society.
There are three distinct ways in which the Veil has been observed to be manipulated. Each of these disciplines has a page describing in detail how it works, and what abilities are available utilizing it.
Each discipline provides a unique an interesting style, has strengths and weakness, but are not balanced with one another.
Witchery is the most prolific of the veilaan arts, as it is the most simple. Often these are simple cantrips that can offer limited magical effects, and are rarely looked at with discerning eyes. This form of magic is taught by communities both civilized or otherwise, but it is usually associated with hedge mages and witches.
Magery is not just more powerful but it is the study of the underlying laws that govern the mysterious Veil. This academic perspective is a mixture of mathematical, psychological, existential, and supernatural principals that allow the Mage to bend the veil to their will.
Their nearness and capability to manipulate the Veil with metaphysical equations means that mages are often viewed with suspicion, and at times even fear and hatred. While the study of veilaan arts academically does not preclude veneration of deities, it is not uncommon for mages to develop a certain degree of arrogance and disdain for those who kneel and pray.
Through worship and devotion, a theist can touch power of divinity and channel power in the form of diluted miracles. This ability is tied irrevocably to the deity they venerate, and their nature dictates what effects they can produce. The strength of devotion to their patron has a direct impact on the power, and maintaining a cordial relationship with the deity is necessary to receive its power.
Although people may be born with the capacity to work magic to greater or lesser degrees, the actual skill of using it is normally taught and cultivated via some kind of social organization; In civilized society such as the Relleus Empire this would be legally taught at Purple and White Companies, though outside of the strict laws of the empire, it is taught as a cult or through a mentor. These are known collectively as traditions. For example, the Cult of the Crimson Thread and the Cult of Oneiric Sisters are both traditions based upon religious organizations, but worship different gods and teach their priesthoods different miracles.
Some traditions are not limited to providing a single discipline of magic, but can combine two or more. A Purple Company could offer both Witchery and Magery to its members; the former providing petty cantrips to lower ranking apprentices, whilst adepts and above are taught more potent spells of the higher art.
It should also be noted that membership of a tradition need not necessarily grant access to magic. One could be a faithful worshipper of Kennen, and hold the rank of lay member in his cult, yet still have no ability to cast theistic magic.
Companies are professional and legal bodies that represent and guard members of that occupation. Organizations that are legally allowed to study and practice veilaan arts are represented by two types of companies, Purple and White.
Purple Companies are schools and guilds that are founded based on the teachings of a particular master of the veilaan arts. Often, their founder still yet lives acting as the head of the organization if only as a figurehead. Most Purple Companies have a particular market of magic that they focus on, and often provide their members training in direct use and relevance to that profession.
White Companies are organized sects who venerate a particular god or pantheon. They are legally recognized cults, that have a more formal membership who teach their traditions and magics to higher ranked members of their organization.
While White Companies represent a legal organization, cults exist all over Kerethad. They are organized sects who venerate a religion, a philosophy or an individua. By and large cults only teach magic to their members, and are likely to restrict certain types or magic and spells to those who attain higher ranks within the cult.
The wandering hedge mages are usually specialists in one form of magic, and may even be an established part of a community, training the young adults in those magical powers they will need to continue contributing to society, or making their way in the world. Primitive and nomadic cultures often rely on this form of patronage, lacking the population numbers and organization to support more formalized magical tutoring
Some Magery spells are far beyond the ken of a single mind. These complex workings require intricate sigils, harmonic gestures, or layered invocations strain the limits of mortal precision. Attempting to cast such magic in haste is perilous; a single mispronounced syllable or misplaced rune can unravel the weave, resulting in backlash, failure, or worse.
By casting a spell as a ritual across hours rather than rounds you can move the spell one level easier in difficulty.
Coordination of mages enable casting more potent magic. Such gestalt methods are called Orchestration, merely requiring that all the participants gather together in the same place to perform the ritual. Each additional caster add a bonus to the primary casters skill by 1%. Orchestral casting increases the requirement of casting the spell by 1 Magic Point per person added.
Veil Resonance allows for gathering magic within the local Veil. The longer the casting continues, the more energy the ritual draws from the area. Ritual Casting a spell reduces its cost by a Magic Point for every day it takes to cast.
Every character has an attribute known as Magic Points, derived from their characteristic POW. It represents their capacity to utilize the Veil, and mechanically how much Veil they carry with them.
The Veil provides a consistent source of power through nearly all of Kerethad. It is not only found swirling through the grass underfoot, but permeates through every creature as well. While it is seemingly unending, it does take time to settle back once utilized.
Generally, creatures do not use the Veil that settles in their body, but there are special circumstances.
Rarely is there enough Veil to cast highly complex incantations in the air around a character, so most practitioners carry a container called a Kresh to store excess veil with them. The most common design is two squat spheres sealed at the top with a stopper. A complex of vents allow Veil to seep into a Kresh over the course of a day without allowing it to escape. Casting from a Kresh requires unsealing it.
Sacrifice is another source of power, a ritualized death of a victim to pull Veil from them. Traditionally the most minimal sacrifices are livestock animals, whilst the most potent are sapient beings. The amount of Magic Points harvested by a being’s death is equal to their POW. The sacrifice of magical items can also produce power, though often it mechanically works as a percentage of a character's Magic Points.
The Veil returns to an area slowly, and the design of most Kresh allows for recovering a single Magic Point worth of Veil per day.
This is a slow recovery which has led to the practice of sacrifice in Kerethad. Since magic tends to be held in reserve, used only for important necessity, the frequency of sacrifices in nominally irregular. However faces with dire threat or outright war, traditional niceties are often abandoned.
On reaching zero Magic Points the magician must make a successful Willpower roll to remain conscious. They are not prevented from trying to cast a new spell, but each subsequent attempt requires a new Willpower roll, at an additional difficultly penalty. Thus the second check is Hard, the third Formidable, and so on. If the caster fails they collapse into unconsciousness for a random number of days up to the number of Willpower checks taken (so failing the third check would be 1d3 days of unconsciousness) and receives 1 Hit Point of physical damage to all Hit Locations. Natural healing processes are needed to restore expended Hit Points.
It is not automatically assume that everyone can use magic or, even if they can, have access to it. Magic is not a right and nor should it be. Achieving any skill in magic usually requires following a career that teaches it as a specific discipline. This is certainly very true of the higher magical paths such as Magery. It may be possible for characters to have a smattering of Witchery spells if this fits with the setting and level of magic within it. Generally magic should be something to be marveled at, respected and feared.
Specific skills are required to learn magic that are by default restricted to certain professions. The most common way to become a practitioner is through membership of a cult or company that specifically trains their members in these skills. Membership into many prestigious companies is only granted to those of a higher caste in society, but often cults and priesthoods are more open to their members.
Characters permitted to learn magic start with knowing a number of abilities (spells, miracles, spirits or talents) based upon the value of the appropriate magical skill in that tradition. Once the game begins they are restricted in what additional abilities they can learn, and when they can learn them.
At character generation, a practicing character knows one relevant spell or ability for each 20% (or part thereof) they have in their magical skill.
Once a character enters the game, learning further abilities must be paid for by the investment of Experience Rolls, and a commensurate amount of study time.
The availability of certain abilities are according to member's rank, ensuring that characters learn the secrets of their path in a particular order, and withholding the most potent abilities until the cult deems them responsible enough to be trusted with such knowledge.
Since they are important advancements both to personal power and progression within a tradition, their costs should be a significant investment. However, a character can break down the total investment of time and Experience Rolls into installments over several sessions of play. At some point magician characters are likely to have learned all the abilities provided by their cult, school or path. A character might be able to join a new cult, find another cache of sequestered knowledge or even seek tuition by a more renowned master. Such efforts require the starting of another skill specific to the philosophy of the new tradition.
Magic Type | Type | Experience Rolls | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
Witchery | Cantrip | 3 | 1 Week |
Magery | Spell | 5 | 1 Month |
Theurgy | Miracle | 5 | 1 Month |
Nothing prevents a character from joining a new tradition, provided that:
The new tradition uses the same magical discipline, for example a theurgy cult can only join other theistic traditions
There is no antipathy between the new tradition and any others the character may already be a member of
The Games Master is willing to permit the character to join a new tradition
This assumes that magic cannot simply be learned by anyone who decides to start studying it. In this case there may be no restriction to joining traditions which teach new styles of magic, save for the usual conflicts of interest. Games Masters should beware of characters learning multiple magical disciplines if this does not suit their campaign setting.
In general it takes six months of dedicated study and the permission of its highest ranking masters, to gain the new tradition at its base percentage, and whatever initial spells or talents the student is capable of learning. This costs the same amount of Experience Rolls as would normally be required to learn whatever new Professional skills are necessary for that tradition, plus the cost of each spell learned.
This system uses a number of default assumptions concerning the casting of magic. Since the same fundamental concepts are utilized by each discipline, they have been collated here for easy reference and avoid unnecessary duplication. The following rules are intended to be globally applied to all of the magical disciplines – namely Witchery, Magery, and Theurgy.
Whether the passionate entreaties of a theurgist calling upon his god or the esoteric gestures of a mage, all magical disciplines are assumed to use ritual words and gestures to aid in the focusing of concentration required for their proper incantation. By default the following freedoms are required:
Clear thought, unclouded by detrimental magic, narcotics or emotional stress
The ability to gesture or symbolize with at least one free hand
The ability to make appropriate vocal sounds to invoke the formulae or request
The ability to accurately perceive or sense a potential target, if the spell has to be targeted
Where one or more of these are denied to a practitioner, each missing element increases the difficulty grade of the appropriate magic skill. A hedge mage who is bound and blindfolded could attempt to cast some witchery, but does so at a Formidable grade. With enough penalties it may become impossible to perform any form of magic.
Whilst performing magic, no matter what discipline, characters are only able to: h Move at a maximum of walking pace h Perform Free or Reactive Actions Therefore characters cannot attack any foes whilst preparing a spell, or make any attempt to run or indeed perform any other skill. This reflects the deliberation needed to focus on the spell and channel the energy for it to have its desired effect. At the Games Master’s discretion, some reactive actions such as parrying or evading may make completing a spell more difficult due to disruptions incurred to the normally required somatic gestures or mental focus.
All types of magic have casting times measured in Turns. This means a magician performing more complex invocations can be slowed down in their casting by reacting to threats which eat up their available Action Points. However, unless the caster suffers some dramatic shock, all this does is delay the final completion of the magic.
To totally disrupt casting normally requires that the magician be injured or mentally suborned. The chance of this depends on the precise circumstances:
Minor Wounds force the caster to make a Willpower check, failure makes the casting one difficulty grade harder
Serious Wounds force the caster to make a Willpower check, passing makes the casting one grade harder, whilst failing makes it two grades harder
Major Wounds automatically causes the casting roll to fail
Succumbing to mental domination automatically causes the casting roll to fail
Characters can dismiss any magic they have personally cast as a Free Action. No roll is needed for dismissing a spell; simply the decision needed to cease its effects.
In all circumstances, magic of different disciplines cannot be stacked together to produce greater effects. Thus a Folk Magic spell cannot add its effect to that produced by a theist Miracle for example. In addition, magic of the same discipline which has a similar purpose cannot be stacked. So two weapon enhancement magics such as Fireblade and Bladesharp cannot work together.
In situations where two incompatible spells are in simultaneous existence, the magic with the greater Intensity take precedence, suppressing or subsuming the lesser magic. Where both magics are of equal Intensity, the newer magic replaces the previous one.
Magnitude and Intensity These two terms are methods of describing the potency of magic. Magnitude is used to see how difficult it is to dispel the magic whereas Intensity reflects its level of effect. More detail concerning these terms is described for each discipline.
Although Intensity (and sometimes Magnitude) are based upon the value of a magical skill, they are not modified by any difficulty grades applied to the casting roll. For example, the Intensity of a magery spell is one tenth of the mage’s Invocation skill, no matter whether the casting roll is Easy, Hard or even Herculean.
As a general rule, the Magic Points attribute (or pool) of a practitioner is temporarily reduced by the cost of all his ongoing active magic. He is unable to start recovering Magic Points used to cast a spell (or similar ability) until that magic is dismissed or expires.