Sorcery & Necromancy

Focus Will

Action

Sagacity + Attribute

Difficulty 3

Successes converted to Will

Cast

Action

Expend Required Will

Lower Defense after casting

-1 per tier

Penalty lowers each round

Can Focus & Cast be a Flurry

Sagacity

  Understand academic and historical teachings, languages, occultism, and medicine.
 

Sagacity

  The characters ability to understand the academic/historical teachings and the ability to comprehend the mystical realities of Creation, as well as medicinal practice.

1: Average — Your peers respect you as a knowledgeable person.

3: Capable — You are a learned scholar, familiar with much of Creation’s strange workings. You may also be a sorcerer of some regard.

5: Exceptional — You are a renown sage, capable of curing any disease and well-versed in the mysteries of the world.

 

Example Difficulties

Difficulty 3: Identify the needs of a local spirit.

Difficulty 5: Cure a plague ravaging a city.

Difficulty 7: Solve a forgotten First Age riddle.

 

Special uses

It is the prerequisite for learning sorcery, as well as curing diseases. Sorcerers use Sagacity to Focus Will (p. XX).

Shadow-Hands Casting

  Prerequisite: Finesse 3   The Lunar’s shadow comes to life, weaving itself into arcane postures as the Lunar attends to other matters.   Commit 1 mote for the scene.   The Lunar may flurry a Focus Will action with any non-attack action, and ignores the flurry penalty to do so.

Casting a Spell

  Sorcerers and necromancers shape their Spells through raw force of Will, sharpening their resolve until the world has no choice but to conform to their expectations. This requires a Focus Will action; the character rolls any Attribute + Sagacity at a default difficulty of 3, adding any extra successes to her current Will pool. A character can hold up to 10 Will at a time, but unspent Will is lost at the end of the scene.   On their turn, a character can use an action to cast a Spell by spending the required Will. This effort drains their Defense by one point for Spells of the first circle, two points for the second circle, and three points for the third. At the start of each of her turns, this penalty lowers by one.

Shaping Rituals

  No two sorcerers walk identical paths. Even the most devoted students stray from their teachers, discovering some divergence in their understanding of spellcraft. Each time the character initiates into a new level of sorcery or necromancy, she gains a shaping ritual to reflect her particular path to greater mastery. Unless otherwise specified, each Initiation can only be used once per session. Will generated from shaping rituals lasts until the end of the session and does not count towards the sorcerer’s normal maximum.   Blazing a New Path   Players should feel free to work with the Storyteller to devise new Initiation rituals that reflect their character’s journey. Most rituals describe a circumstance the sorcerer can use to bank Will in advance, with more Will offered for difficult or inconvenient tasks.

Sorcerer Shaping Rituals

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  Bargain with Mara
You learned sorcery at the cloven feet of Mara, the demon-queen of love betrayed.

When a nontrivial character expresses unrequited love, admiration, or obsession for the sorcerer, she gains three Will.

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  God-Machine Weaving Engine
A fusion of technology and mysticism manifests as two spinning adamant rings embedded in your forehead, one inside the other, together granting access to reality-altering command protocols.

When the sorcerer incorporates local spirits or other subservient supernatural entities into creating a spell, such as commanding fire elementals into a casting of Flight of the Burning Raptor, gain three Will.

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  Ifrit Pact
You offered three labors to an Ifrit Lord — princes of fire — in exchange for the secrets of sorcery.

The sorcerer gathers strength from burning ritual offerings. Tokens grant one Will; valuable sacrifices grant two; and exotic, unique, or powerful sacrifices generate three.

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  The Jasmine Gems of Mishiko
The gems holding the thoughts and lessons of the first Lunar sorcerer have come into your possession, teaching you to channel Essence into spells. Mishiko’s spirit appears at dawn or dusk to pose a seemingly nonsensical riddle to the sorcerer.

Answering this twilight kōan correctly (or correctly recognizing the lesson it means to impart) involves a Sagacity roll at Difficulty 3 and grants the sorcerer two Will.

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  Raksi’s Teachings
The secrets of sorcery revealed themselves to you under the cruel tutelage of the Lunar Queen of Mahalanka, a fabulous and ruined city of sorcerers.

When a nontrivial character expresses fear of the sorcerer, or upon success of an intimidation roll against them, gain three Will.

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  Soul-Perfecting Elixir
You found enlightenment at the bottom of a cauldron, concocting awareness-expanding potions.

When the sorcerer has the opportunity to retrieve complicated or unusual ingredients and render them into an elixir through intricate procedures, she gains two Will.

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  Student of the Heptagram
You learned sorcery at the Heptagram, the preeminent institution of sorcerous learning in the Realm and the origin of most Realm sorcerers.

Students of the Heptagram learn to recognize dragon lines and the hidden geomantic mandalas in the world, using them to puissant magical effect. When the sorcerer spends a dramatic scene studying the local geomancy of an area, she gains two Will.

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  The Talisman of Ten Thousand Eyes
A great gleaming ruby with ten facets, set in a rune-etched orichalcum amulet, allows you to channel baleful sorceries.

The sorcerer may imbue a fraction of their Will inside the Talisman, banking one Will from a Focus Will action to use later. This Will persists until it’s used. The sorcerer may also use Evocations of the Talisman (see p. XX).

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  Theanoan Method
You apply divine numerology and written sigils towards calculating the strange, unintuitive truths of Creation.

The sorcerer gathers strength from arcane mathematics. As long as they’re able to inscribe some element of the spell they’re casting as a reflexive action, they gain one additional Will for every Focus Will action they take to a maximum of three per session.

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  Wyld Wisdom
You wandered the nightmare-tides of the Wyld in search of enlightenment.

When the sorcerer wakes from slumber, her player may ask the Storyteller for a strange taboo — something she must not do or, alternatively, must always do. The impact of this taboo determines how much Will she gains, up to three. If she violates the taboo, she loses all Will and the difficulty of Focus Will actions increases by two for the rest of the session.

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Necromancy Shaping Rituals

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  Disciple of the Void
An intricate tattoo made of softly-moaning soulsteel adorns your body and recites an Old Law — the principles which governed the Underworld before the Neverborn — to grant you sinister insights.

The necromancer gathers strength from death; use the conditions for the Abyssal Advantage Cruel Banquet (p. XX) but gain Will instead of motes. An Abyssal necromancer may only benefit from one or the other once per scene.

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  Half-Souled
You forged a small portion of your higher soul into soulsteel, leaving a token physical remnant and a spiritual hollow filled by necromantic energies.

Incorporating the physical representation of your sundered soul into the ritual of casting a spell grants one Will.

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  Skull Diarist
Ancient and inhuman skulls, adorned with necromantic runes, constantly babble with soft whispers and teach you the secrets of the dead.

When necromancer makes a sacrifice of a living thing and anoints the skulls with blood, gain one Will for sacrificing minor or trivial creatures; two for important personages; and three for powerful characters.

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  Student of the Raiton Academy
You learned necromancy at the Raiton Academy, an ancient and preeminent school based on Nightfall Island.

The Academy gleans arcane insights from understanding the history of death. When the necromancer spends a dramatic scene to understand the funerary customs and overall history of death in an area (plagues, battles, major burial grounds, etc.), gain two Will.

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  Wanaasan Exorcist
The ancestor-ghosts of the West reveal their drowned secrets to you.

When the necromancer spends a scene fully immersed in a body of water to commune with her ancestor-ghosts, she gains two Will.

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