[Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen] Plot Item: The Thrakath Soul

((Out of Character (OOC):

Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen

Venue: Chronicles of Darkness - Mage: The Awakening (Fallen World Chronicle)

Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler
Designers: Korri Smith, Mathew Hagen, & Jerad Sayler
All Rights Reserved.))

                                      Plot Item:

The Soul of Thrakath

(aka The Dark Matter Blade)

Item Stats: 12 Dot Astra, Indestructible, Size 5, 23 Mana, Damage 10 Aggravated, +5 Accuracy & +5 Armor Piercing (Magical or otherwise), -5 Initiative.  Current Owner: Casstiel the Archmage

Thrakath is, in a word, Oblivion. It is the void that binds and divides all things, the mysterious fifth element of Eastern myth, the nothingness that once stood as the barrier between man and the Supernal. It was known as the darkness of the caves of Atlantis, the moment of clarity of Awakening, the Axis of the Supernal Realms where the only Truth is that there is No Truth.  It resembles the Abyss in many ways, but it is not a lie, nor is it a paradox; it is the Truth of Nothing. The Abyss is the result of man’s attempt to define its indefinable nature, and make Something of Nothing.

The Soul of Thrakath is none of these things, and all of these things. It does not exist, and has existed since before the first Truth coalesced. It is the shattered memory of the perfection of nothingness that existed before time, and exists past the end of time. It wants Nothing, and through the Golden Roads of the archmagi, it will uncreate nothingness once again.

Casstiel believes that the Soul of Thrakath is a part of his soul, shaped to represent his Golden Road, when the truth is much deeper – Casstiel’s soul has shaped itself to resemble the Soul of Thrakath, as he subconsciously sought to understand the Nothing it represents. What does it say about a man, a child, who only knows Oblivion as a weapon? As he reaches out to draw it forth, it acquiesces, but it is he that is being wielded…

As a weapon, the Soul of Thrakath does not exist in any realm until it is brought forth into the realm in which its “master” stands. 

Sublime Power

Costs 2 mana, reflexive action, Integrity 1 sin

Within the center of Oblivion, all things become possible.  The Wielder may join with Oblivion and reach a temporary state of “enlightenment”.  For the remainder of the scene in which the wielder invokes the Soul of Thrakath’s sublime power, he becomes a detached and soulless vessel of the perfection of Nothingness.  He gains the Oblivion Attenuation Condition and loses all of his Integrity/Morality, and every point of Integrity he loses for the scene acts as a dice bonus to any and all rolls made while in this state.  This Condition is resolved at the end of the story when the blade resheaths into the soul, causing a breaking point to occur and downgrading the Condition to the Conditions mentioned below.

The Oblivion Attenuation Condition this brings about is not that of a true monster; the wielder is not at 0 Integrity/Morality.  Rather, he has no need of such things.  It would be as if the character did not have an Integrity attribute at all.  The catch, then is that the state of mind this brings is free of desire.  The wielder will have little or no interest in pursuing the things that he once deemed important.  If the wielder is successful in his Integrity/Wisdom Score check to invoke this state of “enlightenment,” he may choose one goal or value to hold onto, a purpose to guide his actions while harmonizing with Oblivion.  If he fails, then his only goal will be self-preservation, which can only be pursued by the most efficient and pragmatic means the wielder can conceive.  The wielder still understand cause and effect, and still has a grasp of consequences that can be detrimental.  However, it is possible the wielder will not care.

After using the Blade in a given scene that character takes a Breaking Point with a penalty equal to the dots he temporarily lost.  He also suffers the remainder of the story with the Soulless Condition (Stage 1 Soul Loss).  If Casstiel uses the blade successive times in a single story the progress adds Enervated (Stage 2) or Enthralled (Stage 3) Conditions as well.  The only difference is that Casstiel retains his soul and can still cast magic.  Invoking the enlightenment of the weapon suppresses these conditions until the blade is sheathed again.  Details are below:

Condition References:

·         Oblivion Attenuation - Character summons the blade and his Integrity/Wisdom drops to 0.  Character gains the lost Integrity/Wisdom dots as bonuses to a single goal declared when the blade is summoned.  Resolution: At the end of the scene the blade vanishes.  Integrity returns to normal, character takes a breaking point with a penalty equal to his Integrity dots and gains one of the Soulless stages depending on how many times the blade is used in a story.  Using it once in a Story causes Soulless, using it twice adds Envervated, using it three times inflicts Thrall as well. If the blade is used more than three times in a story the character rolls their further breaking points on a Chance die.  This does not affect the story resolution check.

·         Soulless (Special - Stage 1) - The character becomes lethargic and cannot attempt an Abjuration, Warding, or Binding (slight deviations from the rules in G-M book pg 231).  The character takes a -2 to resisting possession or mental manipulation.  The character does not regain Willpower through Surrender or Rest and the effects of regaining willpower using his Subvice/Subvirtue are reversed.  In a scene the character can use invoke their Subvirtue to regain 1 willpower point without any risk.  At the end of a Chapter if the character invokes their Subvice in a way that puts them at Risk they restore all willpower points but take a Breaking Point with a -5 penalty unless they are at Integrity 1.  The character retains their soul for the purpose of casting magic however.  Resolution: When the current story ends the character resolves the condition.  The character can also resolve the condition early by losing a dot of Integrity for indulging their Subvice. If the character already has the Enervated or Thrall conditions they cannot resolve this condition early.  Beat: Gain 1XP when the condition resolves at the end of the story or by losing a dot of Integrity but indulging their Subvice.

·         Enervated (Special - Stage 2) - In addition to the Soulless Condition, the character can now only regain Willpower from Subvice by invoking it in a way that causes risk.  In a scene this can be used to regain 1 willpower point, or all willpower at the end of a story.  However, every time the character gains a willpower point they lose a willpower dot.  Resolution: The condition is resolved at end of the story.  Beat: Character gains 1XP when they lose a willpower dot.

·         Thrall (Special - Stage 3) - In addition to the Soulless, Thrall, conditions the character also gains the Broken condition.  They cannot spend willpower points at all and cannot muster enough care to use their defense rating.  Resolution: The conditions resolve at the end of a Story.  Beat: The Character gains 1XP every time they are victimized during the course of a story as a result of these conditions.

·                                             Broken: Occurs during the Thrall Condition.  Whatever you did or saw, something inside you snapped. You can barely muster up the will to do your job anymore, and anything more emotionally intense than a raised voice makes you flinch and back down. Apply a –2 to all Social rolls and rolls involving Resolve and a –5 to all use of the Intimidation Skill.  Resolution: This condition can be resolved while the rest of the Thrall, Enervated, and Soulless conditions persist.  Resolve the condition when you regain a dot of Integrity, lose another dot of Integrity, or achieve an exceptional success on a breaking point.  Beat: You back down from a confrontation or fail a roll due to this Condition you gain 1 beat.

Secondary Functions

Costs 1 mana, instant action

When the Soul of Thrakath is not in the hand of its wielder, it is Nowhere.  It is not in Twilight, nor is it in the Shadow.  Some believe that it is hidden in the soul, but the implications of that idea cause even the most inquisitive of wielders to reconsider.  By spending a point of mana, the wielder can draw it forth from Nowhere, even if there is no entrance or egress from the space/time the wielder is in.  Returning it to Nowhere is as simple as letting go, and costs nothing.

Soul Carving (Willpower and Integrity draining)

Beyond attacking the flesh, the Soul of Thrakath can also pierce the soul.  By forgoing any physical damage on the body, the wielder may instead target the victim’s Willpower, doing damage to their temporary Willpower pool.  The wielder must spend a point of mana to make an attack this way, and still must make a successful Strength + Weaponry (+ Equipment) roll against the target’s Defense.  Damage can only be mitigated by Mental Shield and Armor of the Soul, which stack in this instance. 

Once the temporary Willpower pool is exhausted, any further damage dealt in this manner instead carves into the victim’s Integrity, doing direct damage to their Morality (an Integrity 1 sin).  The effects of an attack are cumulative; if a single attack does more Willpower damage than the victim has in his pool, the remainder of the damage is directly applied to his Integrity.  The victim must then succeed at an Integrity check at their new Integrity level or become afflicted with derangements as their soul perceives a glimpse of Oblivion in all its horrid splendor.  Should their Integrity be reduced to 0 in this manner, their soul is destroyed, which is an automatic loss of Integrity for the wielder.

Excise Memory:

Alternatively, by spending a point of mana, the Soul of Thrakath may delicately remove a memory from the mind of another, as per the spell Breach the Vault of Memory (the delete version only). The Dice pool is 10 + Gnosis resisted by the target’s Resolve + Gnosis.  The wielder’s roll may be raised by 1 per two points of Mana expended, to a maximum of 15 + Gnosis.

Other Traits

The Soul of Thrakath, manifested as a blade, is exceedingly sharp.  It is a 10 Aggravated Damage weapon, has armor piercing 5 that affects magical and non-magical armor alike, and a +5 equipment bonus to attack. This equipment bonus may be raised by 1 per two points of Mana expended, to a maximum of 10.

This sword acts as an Artifact in every other way, including the regeneration of Mana at a rate of one per day.  While not an Artifact its estimated dot rating is 12.

[Mage: The Awakening] Legends of the Acamoth

 ((In Character Post (IC):

Chronicle: Mage: The Horsemen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening (Fallen World Chronicle)
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler))

The Legend of the Acamoth: 

Essay by Heliodromus, Summoner Mystagogue

Notes prepared by Lorekeeper of the Horsemen, Casstiel, originally compiled Spring 2012 soon after Nergal's first deal with a strange dream entity following the trip to the Aeonic Citadels that previous Yule (Winter 2011).

Well, we got the books from the Scholomance.  And let me tell you, the one bound in human skin is quite terrifying.  This excerpt comes from a reference in the other book I have right now, a reference that points to a Summoner named Heliodromus, a member of the Pentacle and an authority on summoning outerworldy entities.

Turns out I don’t really need to sleep; at least I was fine last night.  Between my three minds, two slept and rotated out with the one that was awake.  My body feels weak but my mind is fresh today.

“There was something awesome in the thought of the solitary mortal standing by the open window and summoning in from the gloom outside the spirits of the nether world.” – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I think I found it… Nergal… tell me if this sounds familiar:

The Dreaming Madness:

“The face of the Abyss most familiar to mages in the Fallen World, the Acamoth are those Void-born spirits that somehow became trapped within the material realm between the sundering of the Ladder to Heaven and modern times. Some of these entities have lingered in fitful slumber for millennia, while others found a way down from the Abyss (or were called from it) and got stranded. The most ancient of these beings might never have truly dwelt within the Void, at all, having become cut off from their “native” realm in the instant of its creation in the Fall.

The Acamoth constitute the overwhelming majority of the Abyss spirits with which mages interact, due to their relative nearness, if nothing else. Even while the Acamoth slumber, they influence the world around them, projecting their nightmares into minds and spirits, their very presence exuding a corruptive taint. Skilled investigators among the Awakened can often spot the clues that point to these earthbound monstrosities, following their trail as readily as a hound tracks an elusive scent. Certainly, some seek the Acamoth to destroy them, but the majority of seekers have much different goals in mind. Among all of the ephemeral entities found in the Fallen World, none are so amenable to pacts and other binding agreements as the Acamoth, and few have such interesting gifts to offer.

Summoning the Acamoth Severed from the realm that gives them their identity, the Acamoth spend most of their time in the Fallen World held fast in the slumber of spirits. Perhaps they have, over their long imprisonment, become so much like the denizens of the Shadow Realm that they are now bound by many of the same laws. Regardless of the reasons, however, deliberately making contact with an Acamoth is no simple feat.

A mage must overcome the inertia of sleep, passing through layers and layers of alien nightmares, just to get the entity to notice that someone is attempting to communicate with it; less forceful methods of contact are almost always simple dismissed by the spirit as one of an infinite number of odd details of an endless horrific dream and forgotten nearly the instant that the attempt ceases. Even repeated messages are often ignored as patterns that temporarily spring up within an individual Acamoth’s nightmares. Like a sleeping human who occasionally incorporates elements of half-sensed stimuli into her dreams, so, too, do the Acamoth sometimes dimly perceive that which transpires around them and experience the reflections of such in their slumber….”

(I have excerpted the parts about finding, contacting, and summoning Acamoth.  We are looking for similarities to Nergal’s spectral visitor)

Bargains with the Acamoth:

So, what, exactly, can a willworker get from dealing with the Acamoth? First of all, Acamoth, no matter their power, are capable of offering Investments to those willing to bargain with them. Even the feeblest such spirit is able to offer any mage one year’s respite from the ravages of time, for instance, in exchange for the freedom to use that mage’s Oneiros as a temporary gateway to the Abyss. It is only through long familiarity with the Fallen World that Abyssal beings gain the knowledge and understanding necessary to make this journey, making Investments unique to the Acamoth; though the Gulmoth are, quite often, stronger in terms of raw power, they lack the requisite conversance with the nature of the terrestrial realm to perform these particular manipulations of the human form and spirit.

Some Acamoth — those that were stranded in the Fallen World during the collapse of the Celestial Ladder — possess lore that dates back to the time of the Atlantean Diaspora and most are certainly willing to part with the information, provided that the price is right. One shred of occult knowledge is essentially as meaningless to the Acamoth as another, though most are aware that the Awakened highly prize particularly ancient secrets, so they bargain particularly dearly in such a case. Despite this, however, the occasional willworker even walks away feeling that what he gained was worth the steep cost of an Acamoth’s teachings.

Other Acamoth have accrued small stockpiles of treasure over the millennia: Artifacts and Enhanced and Imbued Items, as well as grimoires, spirit fetishes, and other enchanted relics. On top of this, some hold entirely more mundane objects of great value, such as the journals of Archmasters or tablets inscribed with lost dialects of the High Speech. Some, according to their natures, hoard wealth with which they might tempt the Awakened to service and gladly dole out gold, silver, and precious gems to those who submit to the will of the Acamoth. Indeed, whole cabals of Scelesti have financed their works throughout the ages solely upon the riches held in trust by a half-sleeping spirit of the Void.

Naturally, many of the Accursed worship or otherwise revere the Acamoth, making such entities a ready source of disreputable labor. Some Scelesti are so irresistibly conditioned by the monsters to which they kneel as to be virtually incapable of disobedience. A Scelestus’ soul is, of its very nature, a less desirable prize than that of a willworker not yet seduced into the service of the Abyss; thus, an Acamoth will venture its human resources in a calculated gambit to win the fealty of one not yet swayed to the thrall of the Void. For mages looking to have enemies wiped out, commodities stolen, or other shady activities undertaken for their benefit, an Acamoth can offer much, sending its Awakened soldiers forth to attend the will of the summoner.

No matter what a mage requests, however, the Acamoth almost always asks for its customary price: the freedom to use the mage’s soul for an Astral journey, through the Oneiros and the Temenos, and, from there, into past the furthest reaches of the Astral Realm and into the Abyss, itself, there to drag just a tiny measure of the Void back to the Fallen World. Unless a mage can offer something vastly preferable to this all-consuming drive, no Acamoth will settle for anything less, and most are decidedly less than pleased to be roused by a willworker who doesn’t even understand how the process works. Certainly, mages have been died for less.''

Investments:

In addition to the Acamoth Investments, the Acamoth are capable of granting certain other gifts to those who dare to carve the glyphs of old and speak the words of power. These Investments are, in some cases, rarer than those more commonly known to mages (inasmuch as anything can be said to be “commonly known” about the Acamoth, anyway). All of these powers go outside of the known boundaries of Awakened magic, even if only in subtle ways, but therein lies a good deal of their attraction.

Legendary Investments: (From the essay)

“Stories circulate among the Awakened — typically, through the least reputable circles of mage society — regarding particularly powerful Investments offered by the rarest and most potent of Acamoth. Those who tell such tales speak of bargains to have a particular Sleeper’s soul carried on an Astral journey in the hopes of inspiring an Awakening, granting immunity from Paradox (whether for a set period of time or for a lifetime), and even restoring life to the dead. As fanciful as they are, these stories persist from generation to generation and some willworkers are compelled to wonder whether any shred of truth exists, at all, among these sorts of accounts. Those who dig a little deeper, however, invariably discover darker, uglier details to the myths. A Sleeper Awakens… perhaps… but returns from her sojourn with a strange, unnatural fire in her eyes and wielding terribly destructive magics that stink of the Abyss. The lash of Paradox avoids the bargaining will-worker, but seems to rain down its fury upon all those closest to her, Awakened or not. A lost loved one sits back up, all of his wounds mended, but speaking in hollow tones and the spark of his human spirit replaced by something else. Those mages who barter with the Void for even small services invariably end up cheated in the deal. So much worse off are those who negotiate for terms that challenge the rules of the cosmos in far more ambitious ways.”

Soul Disintegration:

After the first two or three times that a mage grants an Acamoth the power to use her soul as a bridge to the Void, why doesn’t she do it all the time? After all, repetition of almost any heinous act eventually anesthetizes a person to the moral consequences and repugnance of such deeds. The answer to this question is known to many of those who fancy themselves scholars of the Abyss and its ways a “soul disintegration”; literally, a process by which the Awakened spirit becomes metaphysically riddled with small tears that render it increasingly unusable by an Acamoth for the purposes of a journey through the Astral Realm and back to the Abyss.

Each year, a willworker can allow an Acamoth to “ride” her soul up through the Astral Realms a number of times equal to her soul’s power and supernal understanding without other deleterious consequences (other than the simple act of bargaining with an Abyssal entity, anyway). This represents the overall wear and tear on the Awakened spirit inherent to the Acamoth’s misuse of the mage’s soul. For each time thereafter within a single 12 month period that the willworker permits an Acamoth to use her soul as a conduit back to the Void, she incurs a cumulative wounds in her soul which inflict penalty to acts pertaining to magic, whether rote or improvised. A exercising tremendous will it is possible to stave off additional injury for additional trips.  When the mage can take no more injury, through that of weakened will or damage to the soul, an Acamoth can no longer use her as a conduit to the Abyss (and will, therefore, almost certainly refuse her its services, unless she has something better to offer).

Each year (counting as every 12 months, to the day, from the time of her first bargain with an Acamoth), provided the willworker has not exceeded her Investment tolerance completely, the begins to heal slowly. 

Other Awakened who glimpse a mage currently suffering from spellcasting penalties as a result of too-frequent Investment bargains with Acamoth with the Death sight “Soul Marks” spell note a feeling of raw, ragged wounds of uncertain origin upon her spirit. Those who look upon her with the Prime Unveiling Sight “Supernal Vision” see fraying at the edges of her aura; the greater spellcasting penalty, the greater the apparent damage. If the soul becomes full unusable, it is no more powerful than a sleeper.

So here is my theory.  When Nergal took some of that Abyssal dragon’s blood into his soul for a short period of time, some of the traces of the abyss were left behind (the paradox I sensed in his Onerious).  That pure unholy taint must have pierced the mad slumbering mind of a nearby Acamoth and so “Light at the End of the Tunnel” as he calls himself, started deceiving Nergal into making dealing.  Since it is bound to honor any pact it makes it HAD to reward you for the one thing it wanted.  It didn’t lie about traveling into the abyss either.  It only lied about what it truly was.  Dangerous when these things deceive without breaking their word.

So, it stands to reason that Nergal can just turn this bastard down and hopefully the Acamoth will leave him alone.  No pact, no Abyss, no benefit.  Or, it may choose to push it’s nightmares into your dreams in which case I need to find a more potent way to shield your Onerious, he just bowled through the ward last time.

This also means a very important fact.  I do not know what the telepathic scope and reach of a typical Acamoth is… but it stands to reason one is sleeping nearby.  Somewhere barren in Beulah or even as far as Bismarck or even farther, this thing is calling out from its slumberin  g prison.  Where ever it is, it will be completely isolated from sleepers, things will be tainted and corrupted around it, and usually completely barren or devoid of life.  It could be in an underground well or inside a hill… anyone’s guess.  There are ways to track it with the right spells… but it will be a lot stronger if we go to it directly and try to fight it physically.  Perhaps the battle is better fought in your head where we control the battle ground.

Thoughts?  It’s just a theory that the being Nergal is communicating with is an Acamoth… but the description seems pretty dead fucking on…

[Mage: The Awakening] How to Cast Spells

((Out of Character (OOC):

Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen

Venue: Mage: The Awakening

Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler))

THE CREATIVE ARTS: How To cast spells

Borrowed & Edited from Original Posting on April 29^th 2015 by Dave Brookshaw of Onyx Path

Mage is different to all the other World of Darkness games in how it treats the characters’ powers. A Mage character sheet doesn’t list individual powers like Werewolf Gifts or Demon Exploits. Its powers aren’t progressive lists like Vampire Disciplines that are purchased in series. The Arcana lists many example spells, but they are examples. The game’s big draw, like its predecessors’ in Mage: The Ascension and Mage: The Awakening 1^st Edition, is the ability to come up with thousands of spells and place them within the framework provided by the mechanics.

Mage breaks spells down into a five-step process, which assumes the spell is using the full rules rather than Down and Dirty magic, which only uses steps one and two:

STEP ONE: DECLARE INTENT

This can be the hardest part of the process, especially for a player. It comes with practice, and in taking the example spells as a starting point rather than an exhaustive list – think of something similar to an existing spell but not quite covered? That can be your basis. A minority of players all but abandon the described spells and think only in terms of the Practices. Most players will be somewhere in-between once they get the hang of it.

STEP TWO: DETERMINE ARCANUM AND PRACTICE

The ten Arcana list various phenomena as being under their purviews, but like the spells those aren’t strictly speaking exhaustive. If you can think of something we haven’t, put it into one of them. Second edition clarifies a few things in terms of the Arcana’s dividing lines – Death is very clearly the “magic that affects the Soul” Arcanum now, rather than sharing it with spirit, Prime is “truths” not “illusions”, as purely sensory illusions are Forces now. Before each Arcanum goes into the example spells, they also give any special notes and advice on how their purviews work; I have personally noted (often firsthand) a great number of players and storytellers not “getting” how time – the dimension, not the Arcanum – works in Awakening and struggling with improvised spells. That was because principles like “the past is fixed unless altered by magic, the future is constantly changing according to probability (which is itself a function of Fate)” and “if you kill your grandfather you don’t blink out of existence, but everyone will forget who you were” were built into 1st ed’s spells but left to inference. Second edition flat-out tells you about it, and about how Fate interacts with destiny, and how magical sympathy and contagion work with Space.

Here is the quick and dirty list of Arcana matches with Purview (this is just off the top of my head):

1.   Prime – Supernal Phenomena, supernal spells & magic, Illusions expressed through “Truths,” magical constructs, Mana, Tass, dispellation, phantasms, leylines, divine energies

2.   Forces – electromagnetic spectrum, heat, cold, kinetics, gravity, pressure, electricity, fire, radiation, weather, sound, light, magnetism, observable energy

3.   Time – Temporal Sympathy, time distortion, witnessing past/future events, divination, time dilation, timing, duration of spells, all time stuff

4.   Fate – Chance, luck, destiny, happenstance, probability, prediction, targeting, cause and effect, intuition, curses

5.   Mind – consciousness, intelligence, telepathy, neurons, Astral travel, memory, mentalism, hypnotism, mental control, inner demons,

6.   Space – Distance, Spatial Sympathy, Contagion, Area of Effect, Teleportation, Portals, far seeing, location, spatial manipulation, perception

7.   Life – All living things and their processes, instinct, regeneration, biological control, evolution,

8.   Spirit – Gauntlet, Shadow, spirits, ephemera, numina,

9.   Death – Souls, ghosts, ectoplasm, undead, darkness, entropy, mortality,

10.    Matter – materials, molecular structures, chemistry, supernal materials,

The Practices are the skeleton behind the Arcana system – thirteen categories for spells (with a few more as the secret business of Archmasters) that every spell falls into. One of the happy results of the new edition’s Reach system for Paradox is that we have none of the warping of Practices relative to their dot-ratings first edition had, and we’ve extended that by removing the “offsets” some Arcana had for different types of subject: Every single Fraying spell is three dots, and Life no longer requires higher dots to cast on animals than plants. Game balance (such as it is) is administered through Reach, instead – if you can imagine two versions of the same spell in the same Practice, and one is obviously more powerful than the other, our advice is to make the more powerful one a Reach effect on the less powerful one. Because the Practices are now hard-locked to their dot ratings, they’re much improved as the means for a Storyteller to figure out what dot-rating a spell needs to be.

Initiate (•)

·         Compelling spells nudge something into doing something it could have done naturally. A coin toss can be made to come up tails (Fate), a bored worker can be made to take that coffee break now (Mind), or a spirit can be forced to avoid its bane (Spirit). Making the coin hover and spin in midair, making the worker walk into her boss’s office and quit, or making the spirit ignore its favorite prey are beyond the bounds of a Compelling spell.

·         Knowing spells deliver knowledge about something directly to the mage (or to another target). A mage can divine the cause of a corpse’s death (Death), sense whether someone has a powerful destiny (Fate), or unerringly know which way is north (Space.) This knowledge is a direct awareness of Supernal truth; the mage doesn’t have to interpret evidence based on her senses or try to divine the truth out of cryptic riddles.

·         Unveiling spells expose hidden things to the mage’s senses, or expand the confines of those senses. She might gain the ability to hear radio waves (Forces), peer across the Gauntlet or perceive things in Twilight (Spirit), or see the flow of Mana across the landscape (Prime).

Apprentice (••)

·         Ruling spells grant fuller control over phenomena than a mere Compelling spell. Water can be made to flow uphill or into unnatural shapes (Matter), animals (or even human beings) can be commanded (Life or Mind), or time can be momentarily made to accelerate or slow down (Time). A Ruling spell can’t fundamentally alter its subject’s abilities: Water can be directed, but not turned solid or gaseous. Time can be altered, but not overwritten. An animal can be commanded, but not made stronger or fiercer.

·         Shielding spells, sometimes called Warding spells, offer protection against phenomena under the Arcanum’s purview. A Shielding spell might protect against a ghost’s Numina (Death), make the mage immune to fire (Forces) or disease (Life), or allow her to survive in a caustic atmosphere (Matter). Mages protect themselves from general harm through the power of their Arcana with the Mage Armor Attainment rather than Shielding spells.

·         Veiling spells are twofold: Firstly, they can conceal things under the Arcanum’s purview from detection: A subject can be made to lose all sense of time (Time), a fire’s heat and light can be hidden from view (Forces), or making a building all but impossible to notice (Matter). Secondly, they can conceal a subject from concrete phenomena under the Arcanum’s purview: a mage can render herself invisible to ghosts (Death) or ward a powerful Locus from detection by spirits (Spirit) or walk unnoticed through a crowd (Life or Mind) or past a camera (Forces). Short of archmastery, it’s impossible to Veil something against an abstract concept or force: a mage can’t Veil herself against death or hide from time, for example.

Disciple (•••)

·         Fraying spells degrade things, weakening them and enhancing their flaws. Fraying spells can weaken subjects under the Arcanum’s purview: damping a fire (Forces), sapping Strength (Life), or eroding the barrier between worlds (Death, Spirit, or others, depending on the worlds in question). They can also directly attack subjects using the energies of the Arcanum: inflicting damage via the chill of the grave (Death), or psychic overload (Mind). Damage inflicted by a direct-attack Fraying spell is always bashing.

·         Perfecting spells are the opposite of Fraying spells in many ways: they bolster, strengthen, and improve rather than weakening and eroding. A Perfecting spell might repair damage to an object or a person (Matter or Life), allow a machine to function perfectly, with no wear and tear (Matter), or make a modest destiny into an earth-shaking one (Fate).

·         Weaving spells can alter nearly any property of a subject without transforming it into something completely different. Solid steel can be transmuted to liquid (Matter), a sword can be enchanted to damage beings in Twilight (Death or Spirit), or a few seconds of time can be rewritten (Time). A spell that grants the target the properties of something that falls within the Purview of another Arcanum, like giving someone diamond-hard skin (Life and Matter), requires a mage to know the Practice of Weaving for both Arcana.

Adept (••••)

·         Patterning spells allow a mage to completely transform a target into something else that falls under the Arcanum’s purview. A memory can be replaced wholesale (Mind), the mage can turn herself (or a subject) into an animal (Life), or she can teleport by “rewriting” her own location (Space). A spell that transforms the subject into something that falls within the Purview of another Arcanum, like transforming into a living pillar of fire (Life and Forces), requires a mage to know the Practice of Patterning for both Arcana.

·         Unravelling spells can significantly impair or damage phenomena under the Arcanum’s purview, or directly inflict severe damage using the forces of an Arcanum. A raging storm might become a calm summer’s day (Forces), solid iron reduced to dust (Matter), even spells can be torn asunder (Prime). Mages can hurl fire (Forces) at their enemies, or cause aneurysms and heart attacks with a glance (Mind or Life) Damage inflicted by a direct Unravelling attacks is lethal, but can be upgraded to aggravated by spending a point of Mana and one Reach.

Master (•••••)

·         Making spells allow for the creation of whole new phenomena ex nihilo. The mage can conjure gamma rays (Forces), birth new spirits (Spirit), or create a doorway to the Underworld (Death). Time can be dilated by creating more seconds, hours, or even days (Time).

·         Unmaking spells annihilate subjects under the Arcanum’s purview entirely. Life can be snuffed life a candle (Life), two locations can be forced into each other by destroying the distance between them (Space), even Hallows and Verges can be wiped from the earth (Prime). Unmaking spells are beyond inflicting direct damage with attacks; a successful Unmaking destroys the subject altogether.

Astute players will likely figure out a multitude of ways to accomplish similar effects with different Arcana, sometimes at different dot levels. This is okay. Just because a Fate ••• spell can do a thing doesn’t mean a Forces • spell that does a similar thing is “broken” or should be disallowed.

Take for example influencing the outcome of a coin toss. A simple Compelling spell of Fate can easily tip the odds toward either heads or tails, but it’s theoretically possible to use a Forces Fraying spell to alter the kinetic energy imparted to the coin, causing it to spin slower, or use a Matter Weaving spell to change the coin’s center of mass. Both are perhaps more complicated than the Fate approach, but they’re valid within the purview of their respective Arcana. Similarly, a Mind Weaving spell could force a target to feel love, while a Life Ruling spell could cause the target’s brain to release dopamine and other hormones that create a similar effect.

STEP THREE: DETERMINE EFFECT AND COST

The effects of a spell can be incredibly broad, and it’s impossible to categorize every conceivable thing a mage might want to do with a spell, but this section will highlight some of the more common effects, how to adjudicate them, and what they should cost. We go through Damage, Healing, Conditions and Tilts, Bonuses and Penalties, Dice Effects, Protection, Hiding, and Narrative Effects.

Don’t think of this section as a “menu;” any individual spell should have a single, clear effect. If you start designing a spell that deals damage and grants bonus dice and imposes a Condition, you’re probably creating a combined spell, not a single spell.

Here’s an example:

Conditions & Tilts

As pre-packaged blocks of rules already designed to fit into a lot of different systems, Conditions are an excellent source of inspiration for long-lasting spells.

Because the effects of Conditions and Tilts are so broad, it’s difficult to assign hard-and-fast rules for Practices that inflict them. Use the Practice descriptions and the following list as a guideline:

·         Compelling (•) spells can’t create Conditions out of whole cloth, but can intensify phenomena that already exist to inflict Conditions. A Compelling spell can make someone who’s already nervous Spooked, for example, but can’t make someone who’s uninterested in the mage romantically Swooning.

·         Ruling (••) spells can create most non-Persistent, mundane Conditions. Supernatural Conditions, such as the soul loss Conditions or Manifestation Conditions, generally require a Weaving (•••) spell.

·         Creating a Persistent Condition is almost always a Patterning (••••) or Unraveling (••••) effect.

·         Spells inflict Conditions that harm, hinder, or inconvenience characters. Wholly beneficial Conditions, like Informed or Steadfast, should be saved for the benefits of rolling an exceptional success on the spellcasting roll. Spells can mimic the effects of a helpful Condition, but using magic to gain a benefit and a Beat is double-dipping.

·         Tilts are usually created by applying a Reach to an attack spell, but if you want to create one on its own, it’s usually a Fraying (•••) or Patterning (•••) spell.

Conditions created with magic only last as long as the Duration factor of the spell. If the target resolves the Condition before the Duration expires, the spell ends early and the target gains a Beat as normal. (It’s the Storyteller’s call whether the Beat is normal or Arcane.) If the Duration runs out, the Condition goes away, but that doesn’t count as resolving the Condition.

Removing a condition with magic is always at least a Ruling (••) spell, but otherwise follows the same guidelines as creating one.

The Beat Goes On…

At this point, you may be wondering what’s stopping you from loading up on Condition-causing spells in a relatively safe environment, resolving them all, and earning Beats by the bucketload? The honest answer is “nothing, mages do it all the time.” Mastigos force their apprentices to face terrifying fears in order to better themselves. Thyrsus challenge their own bodies with horrible diseases. The only limits are the rule that a character may only earn one Beat per scene from resolving Conditions, and the limits of her own Wisdom. Remember, though, that letting a Condition-causing spell’s Duration expire doesn’t count as resolving the Condition.

Costs

When designing thecorebook’s spells, we had lists of what would definitely require Reach, Mana, or both – and we give both lists here. They’re less important in Creative Thaumaturgy terms than in actual spellcasting – most Reach is spent to manipulate spell factors, and most Mana is spent on Attainments or to mitigate Paradox – but when some spell effects do require one or the other, we tell you.

STEP FOUR: DECIDE PRIMARY FACTOR

Determine which Factor is the Primary Factor –  the one that starts at the mage’s Arcana dots in levels before penalties, while all the others begin at the first level. This is almost always Potency, or Duration, but the rule of thumb is “whichever Factor you immediately think of when you think of a more powerful version of the spell.” The Primary Factor can be changed during spellcasting with a Reach. The Primary Factor of a given spell effect is always the same; you can’t make a creative thaumaturgy spell that’s identical to another spell except with a different Primary Factor.

STEP FIVE: CAST THE SPELL

And then cast away!

When designing new spells, it’s important to remember how the spellcasting system works – never assume what the spell will be cast on, for example, because that’s a function of the Spell Factors. First edition had lots of spells that required touch range, or needed extra dots to cast on someone else, or stipulated that they were always Aimed; second edition does none of that, as those things are all handled by the business of your spell and Paradox dice pools.

How do the spell factors work? That’s a subject for another blog.