Much like the fae who wield it, the Art of Ruin is incomplete. Half-remembered legends tell of a time when masters of this Art could shake the foundations of fortresses, decimate armies, and split apart mountain ranges, but those times are long gone. What remains of the Art of Ruin are fragmentary cantrips as damaged as the Dauntain themselves.
Most of its efficacy and flexibility has been lost since the Shattering; as a result, Ruin has little power over the Realms of Nature and Prop, and its effectiveness with Actor is limited to Prodigals, Kinain, Fae-Blooded, the Enchanted, and Dreamers.
It maintains full effectiveness with the Realms of Fae and Scene.
Unless otherwise stated, all cantrips of Ruin are chimerical only. Ruin has lost much of its ability to affect the Wyrd.
Unleashing Ruin
In its current incarnation, Ruin is the Art of destroying Glamour and creatures of the Dreaming. Dauntain unleash Ruin through raw Glamour to speed decay, create Nightmares, corrupt Glamour and chimerically wound their enemies, and legends are rife with words foreboding destruction, such as: “a plague on both your houses,” “be not,” and “break stuff.”
Ruin Bunks
Bunks for Ruin are typically representative of destruction, corruption, and erosion of dreams, fantasy, and creativity.
Example bunks: Tear up a dream journal, pull the wings off a pixie, break a vase into a hundred pieces, pour acid on a painting, or tell a child there’s no such thing as Santa Claus.
• Cold Iron Infusion
This cantrip is the reason many changelings believe Dauntain to be champions of Banality. It lends an item or person the properties of cold iron, augmenting physical or chimerical attacks. It may also be self-targeted to defend against cold iron attacks. Most Dauntain learn Ruin to at least this level, and Nihilists in particular are the most adept at wielding its effects.
Cold Iron Infusion requires the caster touch the target.
The bunk for this cantrip must include a piece of gray or silver metal to symbolize the cold iron. This cantrip can specifically affect all Realms, exclusive of the Art’s limitation.
System: The Realm is determined by what the Dauntain is trying to infuse. A rock falls under Nature, but a sword may be Prop or Fae, depending on its nature. If an augmented weapon is chimerical, it is destroyed when the cantrip’s effects end.
Each success adds one die of damage to an augmented weapon, or one die of soak if used in defense against cold iron.
Dauntain may also use the cantrip to attempt to directly damage another fae or chimera, but must roll more successes than the target in an opposed Glamour roll. Each success on the damage roll causes one die of damage to the target, and applies temporary Banality as if struck by cold iron. Using Cold Iron Infusion as a direct attack acts as a Banality trigger.
Cold Iron Infusion lasts for one turn, and multiple castings are not cumulative. Items of cold iron are unaffected.
Type: Chimerical or Wyrd
•• Poison the Well
Poison the Well spikes a source of Glamour, making it dangerous for any creature of the Dreaming to harvest its resources. This cantrip mixes nightmares into dreams, swirling the two until they are indistinguishable. Anyone attempting to pull Glamour from the source instead gains Nightmare dice.
Poison the Well requires close range to the source. The bunk for this cantrip must include throwing something toxic or dangerous at the target to represent the taint the caster is introducing into the Glamour. Belladonna and hemlock leaves, Thallain or Adhene blood, and snake venom are all
common components.
System: The caster identifies a source of Glamour — balefire and Dreamers are the most common targets, but anything that generates Glamour will do — and uses either the Actor or Fae Realms. The caster then splits her successes between effect and duration: how many Nightmare dice the victims gain, and how long the source remains tainted. A Dauntain with four successes may poison a balefire for one hour, causing anyone affected to gain three Nightmare dice, or poison the balefire for one day, forcing changelings to gain one Nightmare die from harvesting it. Multiple castings are cumulative, increasing the dice pool the caster may split between effect and duration.
| 1 success |
One hour, 1 die |
| 2 successes |
One scene, 2 dice |
| 3 successes |
One day, 3 dice |
| 4 successes |
One week, 4 dice |
| 5 successes |
One month, 5 dice |
••• Salt the Earth
Sometimes, it isn’t enough to torment your prey. Sometimes, you must also deny him access to the thing that gives him life. Salt the Earth destroys a source of Glamour, snuffing it out of existence so thoroughly it becomes a blighted place in the Dreaming. It is a canker sore that wounds all creatures of the Dreaming that see it, triggering episodes of despair and grief.
Though the Dreaming is resilient, it takes time for the blight to heal. Legends speak of cities razed to the ground and fertile soil deadened until the seventh generation, but if this cantrip ever had that power, it is now lost. Chimera reform and balefires reignite in time, though these are small comforts to those who depend on them for short-term survival
The bunk for this cantrip must include a symbolic breaking of an item. The item must be gathered from the target by the caster — the item may be a glass from a freehold tavern, the branch of a tree from a wild glade, or a bill from the trash of a Dreamer.
System: The caster targets a person, place, or thing that generates Glamour. The balefires of Freeholds are the most frequent targets, but any source, including heartstones of sylvan glades, chimera, certain Treasures, and Dreamers, is valid.
The caster must achieve more successes than the rating of the target in order to destroy the Glamour. A Dauntain may target their victim’s Dreamers and nullify their available Glamour, if successes on the cantrip roll exceed the target’s (Background rating + 1). The balefire of a rank 5 freehold may be quenched with 6 or more successes on the activation roll. Successes above the minimum required indicate how long the effect lasts.
| 1 success |
One day |
| 2 successes |
One week |
| 3 successes |
One fortnight |
| 4 successes |
One month |
| 5 successes |
One season |
Multiple castings of Salt the Earth are not cumulative, but once the destroyed Glamour source reforms, it may be targeted again. The Salted Earth regenerates at a rate of one point per duration level without assistance. A level 4 freehold’s balefire cursed with 5 extra successes will regenerate one point per season. Certain Treasures, Arts, and other abilities like the chimerical Rede Healing can hasten the process.
•••• Broken Oath
One of the most horrific traumas a changeling can experience is the breaking of an Oath. The Dreaming does not take such things lightly, and punishes transgressors harshly. The Broken Oath cantrip can enforce the Dreaming’s vengeance even when the target is innocent of wrongdoing.
The bunk for this cantrip must include an item symbolic of the Oath to be broken: A Claddagh may stand in for the Oath of the Clasped Hands, or the Oath of Fealty may be represented by a knight figurine.
System: The caster may sense any outstanding oath the target has taken with a reflexive Perception + Kenning roll, or she may choose one she herself is under. She may also choose a common oath neither herself nor her target is under, with an additional +2 difficulty to the activation roll.
The number of successes determine how long the effects of the broken oath afflict the target. If the oath has magnitudes of consequence, the effects are always the least damaging. The caster may spend a point of Glamour per level of consequence to force higher results, but this triggers a Banality roll.
| 1 success |
One turn |
| 2 successes |
One scene |
| 3 successes |
One day |
| 4 successes |
One week |
| 5 successes |
One month |
If the caster uses an oath already in play, the oath is not actually broken. The cantrip fools the Dreaming into thinking it is. Though potentially long-lasting, the effects are only temporary, and at the end of the duration, the target returns to his normal state.
••••• Burning in Effigy
This cantrip allows the Dauntain to transfer any and all negative effects, including Flaws, illnesses, injuries, and chimerical damage, from herself to another. Burning in Effigy is an all-or-nothing cantrip; the caster may not pick and choose which qualities transfer to her target. They either all go, or the cantrip fails. The only exception to this rule is the Dauntain’s kith Frailty, which remains with the Dauntain.
Burning in Effigy is most often used to circumvent the effects of the Brand the Dauntain carries. While the Dauntain still carries the mark itself, the negative effects afflict her target instead. A Lost sidhe may have restful sleep for the first time in years while her clurichaun opponent screams with night terrors. An Apostate eshu may travel trods again without fear of attack from chimera, while the pooka he targeted fights off his chimerical furry friends.
Though this cantrip does not allow the Dauntain to permanently rid herself of her Brand flaws, many nevertheless become addicted to casting it. Most addicts leave a river of traumatized victims in their wake as they constantly seek new prey.
The bunk for this cantrip must include an item of a personal nature from her target that allows her to establish a sympathetic link — saliva, blood, hair, skin, Treasures, items enchanted with the target’s Glamour, and chimerical companions are all valid items. The caster must also use her own blood, saliva, and hair to connect her body and soul to her target’s, and combine them in a rough doll made of wood, clay or grass.
System: The caster chooses her target, using either the Fae or the Actor Realms. The target must be a sentient being; freeholds, Treasures, and chimerical constructs are beyond the purview of this cantrip.
For Burning in Effigy to take effect, the caster must overcome the target’s natural Glamour rating. Successes beyond the threshold indicate for how long the cantrip affects the target.
Sentient beings without Glamour ratings are unaffected by this cantrip.
| 1 success |
One hour |
| 2 successes |
One day |
| 3 successes |
One week |
| 4 successes |
One month |
| 5 successes |
One year and a day |
Successive castings of this cantrip are cumulative, but any successes above five cannot extend the duration beyond a year and a day. The victim may not be targeted again with this cantrip within that time frame, either from the original caster or a new caster.
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