Catalyst Creation Rules

In the beginning there was Om, a singular being. The perfect resonance that encompasses all life, and all magic, and all entropy...everything.
Then that being took a shotgun to his own face, because he was bored. No, really. I'm serious. I mean metaphorically at least. Om consciously split off pieces of itself to create the first titans. These titans were unaware of Om, who creeped on them just to see what they would do.
Guess how many titans there were? Eight. Life, Air, Dream, Fire, Void, Earth, Spirit, and Water. The Circle of Eight we all know and love. The primal titans.
My species, humans, likes to think of ourselves as war-like, but as it turns out the universe itself is warlike. The titans built planets and stars and empires and gods. And then they went to war and tore it all down.
Their ragged descendents built it all back up, and then, wait for it, tore it all down again. Godswar after godswar after godswar. That's why their corpses dot not just our sector, but the whole galaxy. Maybe the whole universe.
Anything you can envision is out there somewhere. Gods came in all shapes and sizes, especially when the wars have been going on for millions of years.
-Jerek, Relic Hunter

Designing a Catalyst

Designing a Catalyst is a fairly straightforward process, though it requires some imagination on the part of the game master. Answer the following.

1. What aspect or aspects did the deity represent?
2. How powerful was the deity?
3. How did the deity die?
4. What magical materials were created?
5. Does the Catalyst have a Guardian or is it wild?
6. What are the dominant primal types?
7. What unique properties can this Catalyst grant?

What aspect or aspects did this deity represent?

All gods embody one or more aspects of magic. The vast majority of Catalysts possess a single aspect. Your demon god is probably void. Your legendary artificer goddess is probably life, or maybe air. You may choose up to two adjacent aspects on the Circle of Eight, though dual-Catalysts are very rare.

How powerful was the god?

Assign the god a Divinity Rating on a scale of 1 to 100. More powerful gods than that exist, and true titans are probably 1,000 or greater, but so far as anyone knows there are no true titans, just a lot of shards who all believe themselves to be the heir of the titan they came from.

Divinity Scale
1 = Minor god or fragment of a true god
5 = Lesser god or large fragment of a true god
10 = True god or fragment of a greater god.
25 = Greater god or fragment of a titan
50 = World Devourer or large fragment of a titan
100 = False Titan

Divinity is used to determine powers for living gods. For Catalysts it represents a magic pool of a specific aspect. The greater the divinity the more people can Catalyze, and this is very nearly exponential. A divinity 1 Catalyst might be exhausted by a thousand mages. A rating 10 could provide magic to a million mages before dropping in rating to a 9.
The stronger the Catalyst the more contested it will be, and the more primals it will attract.

How did this god or goddess die?

What great cosmic battle led to the death of your goddess, or god? The legendary devourer of worlds, the warrior scholar Xal allowed his own death. His head was torn from his body, and became the Skull of Xal. His body was left in a forgotten system with a dead star, awash in his demonic children. That became the Husk of Xal.
How did your goddess die? Is this her crown? Her arm? Her heart? Her mind? Or her entire body?

What magical materials were created?

When Xal's head was ripped from his body a vast quantity of blood sprayed forth, and crystalized in the cold. These void stones were small enough that they orbited the closest large structure...the Skull of Xal. Miners willing to dare the wrath of the tech demons can harvest these void stones.
If they make it inside, then they can harvest entropic bone directly from the Skull itself. The bone adds a point of armor to anything constructed with it. Void stones can be socketed into an eldimagus to hold a void spell, or can act as a mana battery if crushed.
What materials were created by your god's death? Did their blood splash on mountains, infusing the iron / gold / platinum there? Did a mighty redwood grow over the corpse of a goddess, like Shaya? The possibilities are only constrained by your imagination.

Does the Catalyst have a Guardian?

The universe recognizes divinity, which is why primals are attracted to their corpses. When primals find the corpse of a fallen deity they seek to protect it. One will rise from among their number to become the guardian, who is imbued with extreme power. This could be an ancient Wyrm, or water elemental, or anything else you can conceive of.
What would your deity's right-hand primal look like? If there isn't one, then the Catalyst is considered to be wild, and often times different tribes of primals will war on each other.
If there is a primal it should match one of the dominant primal types. The guardian's strength reflects the strength of the Catalyst. A rating 1 might have an earthscale drake. A rating 10 might be an elder Wyrm, while a 25 has a god protecting it. One generally supported by an army of primals.
Which brings us to...

What are the dominant primal types?

Primals are attracted to gods over time, and over time their appearance can vary, as the primals begin to effect the very deity that attracted them. Maybe in the beginning your nature goddess attracted cosmic wisps, air elementals with lightning powers.
Over time those wisps are captured and enslaved. They're forced into pattern inducers, which shape them into whatever form their new master wishes.
The wisps become more warlike over time. They intentionally alter their appearance to look like attractive young men and women, just like the slavers turned their companions into. They infiltrate the slavers and wipe them out.
When the wisps return some of them stay in this new form, and a humanoid version is created.
Or, maybe you have a more traditional fantasy set up. Maybe your guardian is a Wyrm, and you have goblins, trolls, and ogres, all flavors of primal that the god found pleasing in life.

What powers does the Catalyst grant?

Let's be real...this is the part your players probably care about, amitrite? All Catalysts can grant the following:

• Magic of that aspect
• The attribute associated with that aspect
• Greater magic of that aspect (3 more pool, and 3 more resistance). This stacks infinitely.
• A defining ability
• Whatever the depths else you think a Catalyst should grant

All Catalysts grant a defining ability commiserate with the strength of the Catalyst. This is the part of the system that is a bit more nebulous, and allows for your creativity. If it's a powerful Catalyst, then you can give the players something pretty nutty. Keep in mind that anything over a rating 10 should involve an extraordinarily difficult adventure to obtain.
We generally recommend starting with weaker Catalysts, and giving good powers that scale to crazy by the end of a campaign.
A rating 1 dream Catalyst might grant edge to all stealth and larceny checks.
A rating 10 dream might also remove all penalties from those checks.
A rating 25 might allow you to auto-succeed once per day, no matter how crazy what you're stealing is.
A rating 50 would essentially turn you into a minor stealth deity who can't be seen unless they wish it. All attempts to scry or see them simply fail.