Purview: Casters of spells
Description: Magic has been with us sine time immemorial. Likewise, we have always had stories of the rare few who, with words and gestures, can make the Radiance bend to their will, or know the Arts that allow them to make charms and potions and the magics of story and myth. Such people are rare, and in the UnderWorld, where magic is precious and rarely squandered, they become that much rarer.
The wizard (or witch) is simply an informal guild of spellshapers who trade knowledge with each other. While evil excesses - such as evil witches consuming virgin’s still beating hearts to regain their youth - are publicly deplored, the guild itself has no moral strictures or constraints on its users. Power is power. This view, sometimes deplored as being overly pragmatic, is also a reality: to deny evil is to give it power.
Special Abilities: Can use magic. (See magic.)
Magic: Spells come somewhere between charms and traits, touching both but not a part of either. To cast a spell, a spellshaper must pay a price to get the Radiance to do their will. That price is youth. Every spell cost drains weeks, months, or years off of the youth of the caster. Spells to restore youth are possible but once one reaches the end of a normal life span (60-80 years) normally, a spell to give oneself a second true life must be found, which is a rite much harder than restoring lost youth. Mages can also pay with weeks, months and years of memory of spells, but only do those if they have no choice.
Most spellshapers invent charms for a living, or spend years learning rites. Others invent spells to cast as times of need and desperation. Each mage decides on a type of magic they are good are. Broadly speaking, offensive or defensive; then: self, other, or group effecting. This becomes their source for random spells, ones cast at the spur of the moment. Each mage begins with 2 learned spells, 1 invented by them and 1 taught to them. Learned spells can be of any kind. What a spell does is up to the player and Conductor, but the Conductor determines the cost of the spell each time it is cast.
The price of magic - lost of youth followed by memories often sacrificed to bring back true youth - leads some to believe that nomads are actually wizards, or a special rite by wizards to save their lives. The fact that nomads have no Radiance means they can’t learn magic, so it is perhaps a very last ditch defence against death.
Finally, UnderWorld spells work along the same fairy tale child logic and symbolism as charms and rites do. A mage who uses their spells for good will lost their youth and appear handsome, an evil mage would appear ugly. Magic can be used to obfuscate this, but it is generally seen as a basic price. As well, mages are bound by their word. If a mage turns someone into a toad, then specifies what prices they must pay to get free, the toad - once freed - must be paid for whatever services they rendered the caster during the meantime. Failure costs them their magic, and more according to some stories (such as the three-fold rule idea). Likewise, slaying another spellshaper destroys one’s own magic, so such a death must be done carefully, if at all.
Defining Traits:
Artistic
Knowledgeable
Perceptive
Radiant
Strong Willed
Skills:
Invention
Lore
Research
Survival
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