Magic of the Orders

This is my first post on the system & setting i'm using in my Chronicles of the Crimson Soul campaign.

Magic.
In this setting there are two primary forms of magic, The Disciplines & Invocation. The first is only accessable to those with true magical power, while the later can be used to some extent by anyone. These abilities control what someone can do.
There are two other stats that are important for the use of magic, Magical Strength being the first. The form and source of this power can be manyfold but for the characters and all other members of the Crimson Soul this stat is called Inheritance. It is combined with a discipline or invocation to form the dice pool. When the effect of a discipline is maintained the effective Magical Strength drops by one.
The last magical stat important for the system is Magical Power. When an ability is used points are spent from this pool. For disciplines they are regained every 5 rounds at a rate equal to your Magical Strength. For invocations the points are locked up until its duration expires.

Ok now that the base is explained we will move onto the actual disciplines themselfs. There are 4 disciplines of magic each of which is broken down into two specialities. Its the specialities that a character has dots in.

True Seer

• Oracle - Abilities to see distant places, the past and possible future.
• Dark Seer - Abilities to see the hiden world, things and creatures hidden from mundane sight.
  

Elementalist

• Sorcerer - Can maninpulate elemental forces in coincidental ways, such as making a computer short circuit or a flame just across a gap.
• Conjurer - Can directly create elemental forces from nothing, flinging fireballs and making walls of stone.
  

Blade Mage

• Mystic - Just think of kung fu films and the almost impossible things the characters can do, run upwalls, move incredibly fast, kick someone standing on the other side of a room.
• Artificer - Can make weapons & martial equipement out of nothing. Imbuing them with power.
  

Soul Mage

• Body Mage - The power to alter your own and other peoples bodies, from harder skin to extra limbs to mind influencing pheremones.
• Mind Dancer - Reading of minds, entering peoples dreams and leaving lasting changes on their psyche.

There is one other thing about the disciplines that is very important to know! They leave marks on those who know them. Every character has mystical tattoos on them. A character has three colours, the first represents the disciplines and the other two each represent a specialism in each discipline. So a character with only one specialism in a discipline has a two colour tattoo, with both its three colours. Each discipline marks a certain part of the body and when powers are used at high levels or for extended periods they glow and become noticable even under clothing.

• True Seer - Marks around and between the eyes.
• Elementalist - Marks around the upper arms and legs.
• Blade Mage - Marks on the hands and wrists.
• Soul Mage - Marks across the chest and back.
  

Next the power of Invocations. These come in two types, those that have to be learned and those that can be performed from guideance such a book. To make use of the learned types you must have an invocation skill of at least its level. For the others no invocation skill is needed but to have it would help with reliability.

An invocation takes a number of hours equal to its level to perform and if a duration is not stated lasts for 24 hours. To perform an invocation successfully a number of points of Magical Power must be spent equal to its level. These are then locked up until the ritual ends. I did say that non-magically gifted people can perform rituals, but they are without Magical Power. For them the answer is sacrifice, a route also available to those with power if they should so choose. For an idea of the value of a sacrifice heres a quick chart.

1. Sacrificing a small mammal such as a rat or chicken. Losing a finger or toe. Giving up something of great value to you - like permantly breaking all contact with a loved one.
2. Sacrificing a larger mammal such as a cat or dog. Lossing a hand or eye.
3. Sacrificing a human. Lossing an arm or leg. Giving up every think you have and own.
4. Sacrificing your own life.
5. .....
   

As you can see the more powerful the invocation the more is needed and the cost increase is not linear! There is a way around the great cost though and thats to cast the invocation as a group. Each mumber making there own contribution to the total power of the invocation.

And that is the overview of the magic of my campaign. In the next article I shall go into an overview of the organisations of the world.

Wisp