Arcane

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)

Drain

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 the Wizard's mental strength, 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). The minimum drain is always 1.

Using your spells is just a skill check, the price is paid immediately afterwards, you can try to absorb the drain (partially), by using your Arcane Lore skill to resist the Drain. To figure the TN you first deduct any components from the calculated Drain, then roll open-ended for Arcane Lore. Your total result will be deducted (or added should you roll negatively), then applied to first your Mental stress, and any left-over to the Physical stress. If there's still leftover drain you start "burning out".Take mental and physical troubles alternatively, and must immediately check for Procursus.

Yes, creating a kilo of sugar permanently out of thin air (17 Drain) is an expensive proposition, but there are ways to lower this using Components or Ritual Magic.

Drain
Permanent creation	1 point per specific energy of mass in MJ/Kg
Permanent effect	2 points per point of influence squared
Effect or creation / turn	1 point per point of influence
Effect or creation / scene	1 point per point of influence * 2
Instantaneous effect	no extra cost
Combat: Per point of damage	1
Combat: Per point of defence	2
Limited effect	/2
Extremely limited effect	/4
Extremely powerful effect	*2
Improbable effect	*2
Impossible effect	squared

Components

Components are a short-cut, a way to bend the power required for a spell, and make it easier to handle for the Magician. There are 3 types of components, material components: the building blocks that serve as a form of energy to power a spell, conduits: they serve as a sort of lever that eases the strain on the caster and somatic components: techniques that shape the way the spell comes into existence.

• Material components, like Orichalcum, Aqua Vitae,... and other rare materials with Arcane properties (at a rate of 1 point of Requisition per point of Drain lowered).

• Conduits, like a Wizard's staff, wands, orbs, rings,... The more expensive the component, the greater the drain it resists, but before you load up, every component interferes with the next, so after the first conduit, every next one will be half the power (or double the cost). The Wizard can mix and match as long as he sticks to this logic. The price of a conduit is the power it's supposed to give X 2.

• Somatic components, like verbal (sing, mumble, articulate,...) movement (dance, explicit movements,...), drawings (sigils, seals, stars,...) and so on. As long as they can physically be executed by the caster (and combined) they count towards lowering the drain by 1 point per component (as long as they can physically be done together).

Ritual Magic

Another way to lower drain is by sharing it with others and possibly over time. Choose a Ritual Leader and that one can share the drain over his followers and himself. (before they try to resist individually). The problem with Ritual magic is that it cannot move, so a direct (visual) link with the subject needs to be kept up, another possibility is an Astral link being established by a familiar or by using a physical link (through a link to the user's body... anything containing a complete string of the user's DNA should work (so hair with a follicle for instance)).

Extending the ritual over time is also a possibility but this requires some resources to contain the energies, at a cost of 1 requisition per division over time. A division over time involves splitting the drain is many parts as you pay for, each division takes one hour. So you could split a drain of 17 over 3 divisions, each costing 6, 6 and 5 drain respectively.

Power Source

Arcane Magic is Unnatural. It can be used against and affected by Natural creatures and powers.