There is an invisible world out there, and we are living in it.
- Bill Viola
This is a quick file on powers, somewhat how they get used, and some theories behind them.
Magic is nothing more or less than the power of the gods, the ability to reshape the world of reality and appearance. Such power costs greatly, which is the large reason spell casters tend to be rare in LoLaD. The primary cost of magic - and indeed, all power, is felt within. As above, so below. As within, so without.
For weres, whose self has become the fire of life, they pay for magic with that fire. Each magic they use burns off their life force, essentially causing them to die sooner than they would otherwise, especiallty if they use magic to harm or kill. Sourcing their power through a deity of any sort may slow (or hasten) this process.
For vampires, they use up the energy that keeps them alive, the borrowed fire (blood) of other beings. They also make their own self - their essential being - that much colder, needing that much more energy to sustain it. A vampires spirit gone dark and cold enough will become a living hunger, desperate to stop the end and an almost unstoppable killing machine. It is the primary reason few vampires learn magic unless it is innate to them.
With humans, magic is perhaps even more dangerous. Balanced between ice and fire, darkness and light, each magic a human does tilts them one way or another. Too far either way and they will be consumed by the power itself. Mental powers, which all humans could have if they dared to open those doors around them, are mostly internal and thus only change you if you over use them one way or another, somewhat like karma.
For Fey, the only magic they have or need is Glamour. which can lie to them and manipulate them as easy as they do others.
Most other abilities that beings tend to develop are extensions or variants on magic or psychic skills. Some of them are inherent or gifted to people, others less well known or in some cases not even considered a power, such as being surprisingly lucky. Those who do have powers tend to develop their own abilities over time and strong enough people. Or those with nothing to lose.
The most surprisingly thing about power that human mages have found is that its everywhere. Millions or doors and windows around everyone, with very few of them closed or locked. The power that caused many vampires, weres and some humans, fairies and mummies to be hailed gods is there for any with the courage and talent to claim it. Essentially, the peoples of the world are wanderers in a bright room willing themselves to be blind. For better or worse, this blindness has become almost a way of life in this present age.
The other factor in power is one very, very few know of, and fewer still choose to take. The universe. so the knowledge runs,. has escape clauses built into its nature. With them a being can live before they were born, close doors of power opened in wilful ignorance and most importantly: they can choose becoming over being. The actual affects of this non-power tend to be very strange. Any innate power the being has (such as The Wanderers power to travel time and change things) remain while all their powers vanish. The become killable, though it tends to be difficult. The exact non-powers of these beings is up to the DM, but they are traditionally immune to most powers, via resistances.
Vampires tend to have the most powers, but have both fire and silver as weaknesses. Weres are not bad on powers, limited to silver as a weakness. Animators have the least powers (in some ways) and no real weakness, except the fact that vampires want to kill them. The fairies have the best power and the biggest overall weakness since iron is everywhere. Many humans see this as natures way of limiting the supernatural.
As noted above, each type of being in the world has a different essence, or self or soul or whatever name you give it. The nature of that self reflects the aura the species has as well as how they tend to refer to others.
Fey: Called the Custodians of life, the Fey wield Glamour, a power beyond the cold and fire of being an in another realm entirely. Even gods are wary of this power and tend to be very careful when dealing with the fairies. The price paid for glamour lies in physical strength (hit points). For game purposes, 1st level glamours could as audible and visual glamours (any first or second level illusion). Making the glamour go beyond the limits of those spells costs hp, as the DM decrees. Second level glamour basically consist of 3rd to 5th level spells. Anything higher is third level glamour. This makes Glamour VERY potent.
Half Celestials/Fiends: Children of gods and spirits, these beings burn ... very brightly. The only Way permitted them is the Way of Pain (explained under humans) and most of them prefer to use their natural powers rather than learn the ways. Due to their brightness, they are immune to becoming vampires (under most circumstances, a fact not widely known) and burn almost as bright as were, rendering them 90% immune to lycanthropy.
Humans: The median, along with all other natural species of earth, are balanced between light and dark perfectly, neither ice nor fire. To change this balance and to gain any Power, they must use one of two methods. The first the Way of Pain, involves harming oneself. Many martyrs and religious people have found this the most useful way and, despite its name, the most humane. The Way of Pleasure involves using ones magic during extreme moments of joy, such as being really happy about something, sex and the like. There are ways to combine both methods, such as torturing others for the pleasure and using their pain, but they tend to be very chancy. The Way of Pain is more common mostly because its easier to access. Once one uses one of the 2 methods (or one of the rarer ones such as anger or fear) for a certain time, they become unable to access that Door to power in any other way. Lastly, whether the power makes a human bright or cold depends largely on its use. Humans will generally believe themselves to be doing good and move towards the fire aspect of being, since they are living creatures.
Mummies: Mummies count as humans for magical purposes, though being unliving, they have no aura at all (which is similar to a construct).
Vampires: The cold, icy being of vampires is a very potent force. For one, it makes vampires technically immortal, though they have to steal the fire from other beings to exist. For magic, they only have the way of pleasure for them, strangely enough. As vampires get older, only the point where pleasure becomes pain holds enough meaning for them to be able to call magic into their being and open that Door.
Weres: As the weres are the lords of life and hold that fire inside them, they require neither Way to gain magic, but merely have to try and use it. The price they pay is their life itself. Each magic drains them of a little more life force and hastens the time they will die a natural death. Even using simple magics - say a cure light wounds spell once a day - cases a were to shorten their life span. The longevity power can get around this and keep the were alive, but if they use enough magic to have equalled their entire normal life span (say, 100 years) they instantly die.
As certain legends indicate, human psychics tend to be very common, vampire and fey next and celestial and were ones almost unknown. Most of them, like the NPC Zorro, have one basic ability they use and are very good at, such as pyrokinisis and telekinisis. The actual limits and range of the ability are entirely up to the DM.
example, Zorro claimed to be the worlds most powerful telepath though he never advertised the ability. His power worked in being able to read the direct mind of anyone in visual contact with him or within 100 yards. To read deep thoughts and secrets, he has to have a stronger contact, such as direct eye contact, touch or -- if he stretches himself -- over the phone. He is powerful enough to be able to read even a dragons unguarded thoughts and can sometimes send people dreams or messages. Lastly (and the power that truly earned him his name) was that if he formed a link with someone (employer, lover, friend etc.) he could sense wherever they were and read their surface thoughts without great effort. Sometimes, by pushing his talent, he can see into their future as if connects to his own.
Nay, let us walk from fire unto fire,
From passionate pain to deadlier delight,-
I am too young to live without desire,
Too young art thou to waste this summer night
Asking those idle questions which of old
Man sought of seer and oracle, and no reply was told.
- Oscar Wilde, "Panthea"
Auras hold power. The aura of a being tells you what they are and, in some cases, how powerful they are or can be as well. Au aura is more than just a possible fear radius or damage done to things: its also a too for rp. An example of RP involving auras follows:
* Rei_Jr backs up until he ends up tripping over some random peice of furniture that was behind him and flops to the floor very ungracefully :P
<AlcarDM> Adam stands, looking a bit pale himself, then says "And you're..... " shakes his head. "A light and .... innocent." A strange expression crosses his face. "Damn it. Look, I don't want to hurt you .. "
* Rei_Jr looks scared. "Are you going to?"
<AlcarDM> Adam looks shocked "NO!"
* Rei_Jr gets up slowly, watching Adam warily
<AlcarDM> Adam looks back, looking a bit shocked "I dont know what you saw... I dont know how it happened but .. "
* Rei_Jr seems a bit less scared, as he examines what he saw more, but not totally at ease. "I.. I know you wouldn't hurt me. But... there's something wrong... your soul.. some peice of it-- it isn't right..."
* Rei_Jr shakes his head to emphasise the point
<AlcarDM> The air in the room turns unnaturally still, a silence raidating outward from Adam. he turns pale then says slowly "I know."
* Rei_Jr shudders
* Rei_Jr seem to retreat into himself slightly for a moment, but then, as if to comfort himself, his own aura of warmth flows from him, slightly at first, but then gradually increasing to try to warm the room, but not uncomfortably so. A safe, comfortable warth. It seems like he did this unconsciously, without trying.
<AlcarDM> Adam blinks, then the stillness vanishes and he takes a deep breath "Damn it ..... sorry."
<AlcarDM> Adam looks at his watch, mutters a word to himself your mom never taught you. "Blast .. don't want to be late. Look ..... how about I explain it later, ok? There's food in the fridge and I'll be back to check on you when I return."
* Rei_Jr nods. "..ok."
Essentially, each supernatural species has a different kind of aura, which can be acitvated by fear, shock or anoy powerful emotions as in the above example, where Rei's aura activated in response to the NPcs. Generally, the stronger the emotion, the less stable the aura: an angry vampire is more likely to break things or hurt people with their aura than normal. Likewise, a weres aura is more likely to scare humans when the were is afraid or angry. A brief summary of basic aura types is below:
Animator: An animators aura is also their ability to sense the dead in graveyard etc. and the age of supernatural creatues like vampires. their aura comes accross as a very cold breeze from a tomb.
Elemental: Elemental auras acivate whenever they use powers, so they are oftne mistaken as just elemetal mages otherwise. For most of them, their aura is their own power. So a water elemental would unleash drops of water, a fire one be surrounded in flickering flames and so on and so forth.
Fairy: The fae have glamour, so their aura can be whatever they want. While few can mimic a vampires, they can duplicate the aura of almost any other supernatural creature and hide their own. The normal fae aura is flickering lights dancing around the fae.
Ghost: Ghosts have no aura. They have an absence where one should be that can alert sensetives to the presence of one, however.
Half Celestial: Half celestials have a holy light that flickers around they like a corona.
Half Fiend: Half fiends have a slimy feel to their aura, sort of like wading into oil.
Human: Most humans have no aura except the basis "I exist" of every living thing.
Mummy: Mummy's have an anti-aura, a stillness that flows out of the part fo them that is still in death. It can counter other auras but generally just creates an unnerving silence.
Spell Caster: Spell casters have their own magical power as their aura. It is normally only visible when casting spells and if the spell caster is not human, their normal aura takes precendence over it so the spell one can only be sensed when they cast spells and not at other times.
Were: Weres have a warm, electric wind - the life energy of the Lords of Life - as their own aura.
Vampire: Vampires have a very cold aura, a chill icy wind that blows off of them in waves and can frighten humans a lot.