Difference between revisions of "Arcane"

Revision as of 17:49, 4 February 2015

Arcane Power, the power to rival God himself. The Arcanist, or Wizard, tries to find and comprehend the secrets of the Universe itself, by codifying it they are able to call upon these powers of creation. The problem is that language is itself imperfect to comprehend and codify these secrets, as is the human mind. Nevertheless approximations seem to work, though they only do so in well-defined parameters, called "secrets".

Rules

Magic is limited to the Secrets the Wizard knows. Within a Secret the Wizard can essentially create what he wants, as long as it is related to the secret. The Wizard uses Arcane Lore to shape these secrets into "Spells", by controlling the parameters they are able to wield enormous powers without burning out due to the enormous feedback.

Secrets

A Secret is a codified rules-set that establishes boundaries in which the Wizard can safely cast 'spells'. The secret is worded in a specific way that establishes those boundaries. As long as the player can imply, because "*secret's wording" after any description of his spell, and it feels right it should generally be allowed.

"I throw a ball of fire that incinerates the room, because I have Control over the fires of hell itself" is an example.

Secret construction

A secret should never be more than one sentence. If it contains and "and" or a comma, or the sentence could be logically split, the secret is too powerful. Obviously overpowered sentences are of course disallowed, no 'power over everything'.

Combining Secrets

The best thing about secrets is that they can be combined, following the same rules as above but now the secrets can be linked together with "and".

"The door melts instantly, because I have Control over the fires of hell itself and Mastery over metals"

Magic

When casting a spell, theoretically the more permanent the change, the more enormous the drain is. Creating something permanently out of nothing itself would burn out the wizard instantly and possibly wreak havoc on its surroundings (not to mention that whatever's created would crumble into dust). The laws of Physics apply, you cannot create something out of nothing (the above would probably try to rearrange atoms, something hideously expensive in energy cost). See the Secrets as your tools and the spells as the blueprint to create an effect. Just like you cannot create a car from a tree with your bare hands, you could possibly create something similar with the right blueprint and tools, it might not be a car, but could probably do similar things (a cart for instance).

There are of course short-cuts. You could create a fireball, which is only momentarily in existence, albeit in a very environment-changing way (it might even light some flammable things on fire), whilst creating a huge flame with which you could burn a house down, would be a lot more expensive. While the end-effect may be the same (though the latter would do it a lot more reliable), the way you went about creating it are hugely different in cost and principle.

Creating a spell is collaboration between player and GM, with the general idea being that the less permanent the change wrought by the spell is, the easier (and cheaper) it is to create. Short bursts of power or limited short-term effects are generally preferred.

That doesn't mean great permanent changes cannot be wrought by magic, but it requires a lot of preparation in storing "power" (1 point of Requisition per point of Drain lowered)

Power Source

The power for Arcana magic comes from within the caster, their years of study and practice have created a very pure and efficient way to bring them into existence without using a lot of their own health to power it. Mostly it comes from force of will, only when that's depleted will it start damaging their bodies (first damage is mental, after that, instead of creating troubles, it will start affecting the Wizard's health).

Summoning