Magic#

Doing acts of grand magic requires connection to the elemental powers of the world and sidereal powers of the beyond, represented by Mana. Magic is divided into spells, which are intended to be used repeatedly and do not cost actions, and rituals, which cost a full action and are generally one-offs. Spells are instantaneous and rituals are permanent, unless otherwise stated. Spells and Rituals both use the same rules for mana costs, divided into elemental and generic costs, all of which must be paid to cast the spell or complete the ritual. For effects that refer to the element of a spell or ritual, the elements are simply the set of unique mana symbols in the cost.

Spells can be Fast or Slow. Fast Spells take a few seconds to a few minutes to cast; you can cast any number as part of an action submission, and you can cast them during the Spellcasting phase of Battle and as part of ↩️challenges. Slow spells take hours or even a full day; Slow Spells must be part of a *️⃣submission, up to a max of one per submission. Rituals are *️⃣s that must be submitted on their own, they can never be part of another *️⃣submission. Spells have a mechanical effect, but they can also be used creatively to act as an asset for a challenge. Generally, using a spell as an asset is in place of its mechanical effect. As a balancing measure, spells with a high quality mechanical effect cost multiple element symbols, making them relatively worse as assets. Slow spells are more efficient. The rank of a Fast spell is equal to the generic component of their cost, while the rank of a Slow spell is the generic component of its cost plus 1.

Rituals can be accessed from designs, fragments, perks, or ambitions. Many Rituals have a cost greater than the amount of mana a power can normally hold: they require either specialization or cooperation to complete. When you fail a ritual, the mana you would have spent is lost. The rank of a ritual is twice the generic component of its cost.

Casting: Each power can cast “through” a particular set of people or locations. Spells and Rituals have a range, indicating how far away they can affect something; you must have something to cast through within that range in order to use the spell. Casting through an asset does not count against the limited number of uses for an agent in each season. Magically skilled agents are not necessarily effective assets just because you cast a spell through them as part of an action, unless their personal magical talents or knowledge are separately relevant; hiring a professor of divination to cast Freeze River in a far away location does not give them an opportunity to assist, though a professor of Transmutation would be able to separately add their rank.

Example: Fireball’s Cost is a fast spell with cost 2FF, so casting it costs two instances of Fire mana plus any two other mana. Its rank is 2 and its element is just Fire, even when a Water and an Earth mana were spent on the generic components. A slow spell with the cost 2FF would have rank 3.

Learning Magic: When an effect lets you learn any spell or ritual, you may pull from the list below or propose designs to the GM for approval. Scrolls are a single use effect that immediately allow a power to learn a particular spell, but are destroyed in the process. The magic of each power is too unique for them to teach each other spells, though in some cases (with GM permission) you can reverse engineer the spells of others.

Example Spells#

Fast#

Fast, Ranged#

Slow#

Rituals#

Rituals are Actions with a mana cost similar to a spell. Unlike spells, powers can combine their efforts and mana pools to complete a ritual. Rituals have a rank and difficulty equal to twice their generic mana cost, when failed, mana spent on them is lost. Rituals all access the Weave, a tapestry of energy and mana that underlies the mortal world. When designing rituals, remember the 7 rules of the weave:

1. The weave is shaped by the elements used in the ritual. Air moves and frees, Fire burns and strengthens, Earth protects and binds, Water slows and heals. Illusions are born of Air and Fire, Minds are bent by Air and Water, Constructs are woven of Air and Earth, Enhancements are forged by Fire and Earth, Summoning requires Earth and Water.
2. The weave changes permanently only at a permanent cost. If a ritual will have an ongoing or recurring effect, then it will require the sacrifice of another permanent resource, like a magic item, rare material, or the lifeblood of a mortal. Coin, Respect, Fear, and Mana are never sufficient for such purposes.
3. The weave does not know the names of mortal creatures. To target a ritual to affect a creature, army, town, or similar, you need to supply sufficient genetic material associated with them. Blood is a common requirement here.
4. The weave can alter the minds of lesser mortals, but not other powers. Their machinations can be disrupted by ensorceled servants, but not by ensorceled leadership.
5. The weave travels in a straight line (not necessarily cardinal). An entropic ritual can heavily damage towns and armies, but it will do so to every town or army in its path to the destination.
6. The weave alone is mindless, it cannot make decisions or follow even rudimentary logic once a ritual is complete. Spells of divination provide sight on a location or contact with a power from beyond the mortal plane.
7. The weave wears poorly with reuse. Every time you cast a ritual successfully, its cost increases by 2 generic mana. Rituals which are very broad and generally useful tend to have a high generic mana cost from centuries of reuse. For rituals granted by your Power rules, this cost increase is power specific

Some rituals can be resisted; the resister only needs half the difficulty in successes to protect themselves from the effect. All rituals with permanent effects can be broken by a dispel challenge, where the challenge difficulty is equal to the original ritual difficulty.

Crafting Magic items follows the same rules and expectations as rituals, but uses a mostly separate set of assets. Magic Items are permanent benefits, so always cost some permanent resource.

Magic Items:#

Magic items may have a wielder effect, granting a benefit to the individual or army they are given to, and a Power effect, which benefits the power they are most loyal to. Cities and Conspiracies might leave items on their leaders to prevent lower ranking traitors from stealing the item away for new lieges, though doing so generally prevents the wielder effect from being relevant. The Wielder of an item can be selected when the item is obtained or created, and it can be changed as part of any Action involving the item or its wielder.

Each Wielder can benefit from a single item at a time, apart from Champions, which can use three differently named items. A Power can give multiple items of the same kind to different wielders, but can only gain the Power benefit from differently named items.

All magic items can be used as assets equal to their rank if any of their narrative effects seem relevant. Any special rules for how they act as assets is in the Wielder section.

Rank 1#

Rank 2#

Rank 3#

Rank 4#

Potions:#

Rank 1#