Dominion Cross: Magic

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I'm setting up this page to start with as a dumping ground for discussion and suggestions for how magic, priestly power and power sources work. Keep suggestions in the relevant section, and as they become accepted we can move them to the main section.--Daigoro 02:27, 27 June 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Magic Rules

1. Mages have Magery.

Magery is a prerequisite for spells as noted in Gurps: Magic or they are prerequisites for spell-source advantages as constructed by GURPS Powers. LemmingLord 14-July-2007

[edit] General Discussion

Might I suggest that magic exist in several forms. Some people practice one form (say standard) and other people practice another form (say ritual.) It gives different groups of people real differences, and that is fun. Also, it is important to come up with a basic idea of what fuels magic. Is it the land, minor spirits, internal power, what? I think that such a factor can make a difference in flavor and how different magical styles might interact. Of course, if it is supposed to be a mystery, then so be it. (Nanoboy)

As for a basic source of magic, have you looked here and here? These are still just suggestions, but do they fit what you need? I'm thinking that Gamus should be the Source of All Magic.

Also, do we want ley lines to exist? This could help with the explanation of how sea exploration hasn't advanced much and that contact between the two continents is a difficult and recent achievement.

Basically, we could say that regular shipbuilding technology and/or navigation is stuck at TL2/3, forbidding much seafaring away from the coast. However, there exists ley line navigation (for knowing where to go) and/or ley line sailing (for motive power) at TL3+1, giving deep seafaring ability. The obstacle has still been that ships can follow ley lines, but for some reason they all lead to an impassable zone in the middle of the ocean (the sunken Atlantis analogue). Recently, ley line routes crossing near the poles have been discovered, and it is these which connect the continents. Traversing them is still made difficult due to the extreme cold and violent storms at the poles, as well as Sea Monsters (tm), but at least some kind of contac has been made.

The technology may still only be in the hands of one or two nations who have the knowledge and wealth to build fleets of seagoing leyships, and this is a subject of espionage between various countries.--Daigoro 03:30, 15 June 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Suggestions and Working

[edit] Mana Zones

Mana is the creation/destruction energy that comes from the gods interacting with the material plane.

Priests do not rely on "Mana Zones" per se, but rather they deal with the proximity to the nearest place of power that venerates their god(s). The game effects may well look like divine mana zones...with Very High levels at a great temple of a powerful god, High levels at a temple of a powerful god, or normal about a church or shrine.. Proximity is key also; the further away from a venerating place of power a priest gets, the lower the effective mana level for casting divine spells.

Ley mana (or Gil mana) surrounds the ley lines that connect places of power. Places of power are either aligned with one another or not; if they are aligned (which means the gods venerated by the places of power are allied or the same; or the source of that place of power [i.e. Nature,etc] is the same) then a ley line is established that gives off mana that can be used by the standard wizard with magery in spells as described my GURPS Magic or in magical abilities as developed using GURPS Powers.

Dark mana (Gamus mana) is everywhere, typically at the "normal" mana level. It has a corrupting effect on its practitioners and is often regarded as being responsible for evil in the world by "good" clerics. LemmingLord 14-July-2007

[edit] Ley Lines

All magic comes as a direct result or side effect of gods or their worship. Ley Lines are created where places of power (POP) such as temples, churches, shrines and so forth align together to venerate a god, a pantheon of gods or the general idea of what the gods represent (Nature gods from different religions can be treated as the same when considering ley lines). While these POPs allow for the gods they venerate to encroach and control the material plane around these areas, the alignment of these POPs multiply that effect while producing a "ley line," an invisible line connecting POPs and giving off magical energies which can be harnessed and applied to arcane (i.e. non-divine) spell casting.

In games terms, you have at least a low mana zone along these ley lines. Some ley lines will be more powerful than others based on the POPs that connect them; some will be aspected based on the god(s) venerated at these POPs.

It is important to note that a POP does not connect to every other POP, but rather clerics align a POP with another during the dedication ceremony that creates the place of power. POPs must be connected to POPs that venerate friendly god(s); that is to say, a shrine to the god of love may well be aligned to a shrine to a god of passion, assuming the gods are friendly to one another; while a shrine to the goddess of nature may well NOT be aligned to a shrine to the goddess of undeath...LemmingLord 13-July-2007

Interesting take on things, although my feeling is that places of power should be built on intersections of ley lines, not that PoPs create ley lines. The version of ley lines I'd been working on was that they were a creation of the lost Atlantis-like culture, made by harnessing the power of Dragon, which worked partly as an advanced communication and teleport system. This fits in with the idea of The Dominion Cross Relics too, if you haven't already read that page.--Daigoro 03:58, 23 July 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Ley Technology

[edit] Ley Stones

The mineral Draconite is sensitive to ley lines. It appears in at least two forms, as a coloured, marbled rock with bright veins running through it. It is not widely known whether Draconite is a naturally occurring mineral, an alchemical product, or the product of alchemical treatment of a natural mineral. It orients itself to point towards the nearest ley line, or the strongest of several nearby lines, and emits a faint glow proportional to the strength of and distance from the ley line.

Green Draconite is a brightly marbled mixture of different hues of green. Its glow can only be perceived by mages or other mana-sensitive creatures.

Violet Draconite is a different form of the mineral, containing additional trace elements that flouresce in the visible spectrum when the composite Green Draconite glows, making it usable by non-mages. Needless to say, this form is rarer and more valuable. Something this useful is almost certainly a product of alchemical invention, and the secret of its manufacture is one that many nations would like to get hold of.

[edit] Ley Compass

Finding ley lines at sea is accomplished by various methods and devices, one of which is the Black Society's ley compass.

It consists of a heavy stone bowl, about 6" across, containing a pool of mercury. A triangular or diamond-shaped piece of draconite floats on the mercury, pointing in the direction of the nearest ley line. A domed or conical brass hood covers the bowl to contain the mercury and block out light, making it easier for the navigator to perceive the draconite's faint glow, which he does through a small slot and eyepiece mounted on top of the hood. This whole apparatus is mounted in a gimbolled frame, so that it's not upset by the rocking of the ship.

It is generally said to be usable only by mages, although it is not certain whether this is because only mages can see the glow of green draconite, that it requires some form of magical activation or empowerment (i.e. it drains fatigue points), or that it is locked from casual use by a magical password.

[edit] Wyrding Rod

This device is one way of supplying motive power from a ley line, and is commonly used by ships of the Black Society.

Wyrding rods take many forms, but the basic structure is of two large masses of draconite connected by a long rod of silver, which may be solid silver but more commonly is a wooden mast with silver cladding. The draconite masses are usually carved 12" orbs, although other geometries exist, and the conducting rod is anything from 15' to 50' long, depending on the length of the ship it is empowering.

A ley ship typically mounts its wyrding rod beneath the deck, fastened to the masts. In good conditions, the additional motive power can drive the ley ship almost twice as fast as a similar wind-powered ship at full sail.

Variations include using different sizes and shapes of draconite; mounting more than one rod in different configurations; dampening the motive power with iron pads, used in contact with the silver rod to drain off mana flow; switching the flow on and off by disconnecting the draconite orb from the rod; or using gold or other alchemical substances instead of silver for the rod.

Engineering and ship-building considerations include the weight and expense of the components, and whether the ship's superstructure can cope with the coupling, not to mention the stresses of greater speed. The ship might have to be more heavily built, with consequent effects to its handling, speed, expense and time to build.

All of the above considerations are what go into the art and science of ship-building, and different countries will all have different approaches to handling the problems. The state of the art is still in its infancy, so no-one has yet found the perfect combination of factors, so different ships of different countries will all have various quirks and bugs of manufacture.

Due to the nature of the materials involved in making a wyrding rod, as well as the alchemical expertise required, they are rare and extremely valuable items, probably worth several times the manufacturing cost of the ship itself. Thus only richer nations, or those with a fortunate supply of the rare materials, will have more than a few ley ships. They would be the prime targets of pirates and enemy navies, so ley ships would be cautious of sailing alone, somewhat limiting their effectiveness.

Theoretically, the same principle could be used with vertically mounted wyrding rods to create a flying vessel, however experimentation has yet to provide a viable prototype. A submarine vessel may also be postulated, but the difficlulty of making a watertight hull and underwater navigation are the limiting factors there.

[edit] Priest Magic

1. Modifiers
   1. Distance from Home- use the Long Distance Table, measured from the closest temple or sacred site, to determine a casting penalty for Priestly Magic. Carrying a personal holy symbol mitigates this penalty by -2 to -4 (depending on size and ability to hide said symbol). A large holy symbol, carried by several men and easily visible, is worth up to -8. People with Blessed or True Faith can ignore these penalties personally, and mitigate -4 to -6 for their nearby followers, being a living conduit of their god's power.

Priestly magics are more powerful about the sacred place of power aligned with the god(s) venerated by the priest in question. Priestly magical ability becomes less stable (as above) as the priest moves away from the sacred places of power of her deity(ies). Priestly magic is much more powerful than arcane magics around these holy places as the priestly magic is channelled directly from the divine to the priest through the lens of the sacred site while arcane casters are siphoning off the leftover energies... the flip side of this is that arcane spellcasters are equally powerful almost everywhere but divine spellcasters may find themselves without magic (or even with negative, constantly draining magic) in an opposed gods area. LemmingLord 14-July-2007

[edit] Arcane Magic

[edit] Ley Mana

Functions as normal magic explained in GURPS Magic.

[edit] Dark Mana

[edit] Dark Magery

Dark Magery is a separate advantage to regular (Ley/Gil) Magery.

You must re-learn any spells with Dark Magery that you already know with regular Magery if you want to use them, although there is a mutual default between the two at -6. There may be some spells or colleges only known to Dark mages, either because of an inherent property of the magic, or just because they have separate bodies of spell knowledge.

[For a simpler version requiring less bookkeeping and being less of a sponge for CP, just say that there's only one version of each spell, but using it with different magery has a familiarity penalty of -6, which requires a number of uses to eliminate (around 10)]

[edit] Corruption of the Wielder

Using Dark Magic is powerful, but it can easily take a toll on the caster as he is inviting the darker gods to pass through his body as he channels their magical power and shapes it as spells.

The mechanics for this need some thought, especially with respect to balance and flavour, but here are a couple of initial ideas.

1- The more successful you are at using Dark magic, the more corrupt you become.

1. Make the success roll for your spell, note the margin of success (MoS)
2. Make a Fright Check, with your MoS as a penalty to the roll
3. The Fright Check table results might not be most appropriate, but some of the following effects should be considered or substituted-
   1. Gain a snake-like Unnatural Feature- scales around the eyes, back of the hands/neck, wrists, or temples; slitted irises, yellow irises; forked tongue; fangs; lisping speech; tail; fingernails become lizard-like claws; eventually whole body is covered with scales
   2. A result for Mental Disadvantage can be changed to an equivalent Physical Disadvantage- No Legs; No Fine Manipulators (becoming snake-like tentacles); loss of Appearance; Unnatural Voice;
   3. Some results give an advantageous mutation- nictating membrane; venom; natural striker; protected vision
   4. Stunning results can be interpreted as having nightmare visions, coughing up black bile, etc.
   5. Mental Disadvantages should be more like OPHs, Bloodlust, etc, instead of Delusions.

The problem with this is that every casting causes a fright check, so the progress of corruption might be too fast.

2- Each FP of Gamus Mana used is tracked by the GM, and some of the above corrupt features are applied at certain levels, eg 1 Unnatural Feature after the first 100 FP spent, Bloodlust at 1000 FP, etc.

3- How about a combination of the two? Let each casting require a fright check versus Will+Magery at a penalty equal to the fatigue cost of the spell. If it really is poisonous, what if any failure on this costs hit point damage instead of fatigue..LemmingLord 14-July-2007

[edit] Dragon Mana

[edit] Dragons and Ley Lines

[edit] Examples of Spells

[edit] Overview

Each culture with wizards is likely to have a different tradition of magic - even if the difference is slight; for those traditions that will be represented through GURPS: Magic spells and requisites, there are slightly different sets of spells available, perhaps divided into different sets of colleges with slightly different effects and prerequisite trees.

See the Ilven Magics page for an example.

Comment: [ThatDarnCat] In my own game world of Phacseon I actually have 12 or so diffurent magic systems. Each is represented by a college and I select spells from all the spells available for each and arrange them in the order I find most 'logical' for that college. Some spells are found in more than one college, but they 'work diffurently' for each and do not count as prerequisites for other colleges. Some spells do not appear in any college. There is no prohibition against wearing armor, other than normal encumbrance issues. There is no apsected Mana. There is aspected magery. You can learn more than one type of magic.

Spells within each College are divided into levels; Printice, Journeyman, and Master. Once an aspiring mage can learn Journeyman level spells they must pass a test administered by other Masters for the right to use the title Mage. This test isbn't just about spell use, but about the underlying principles of magic (represented by the Thuamatology skill) and the mundane skills that are part of the college's curriculum.

Example: for Creationists this includes knowledge in enchantments, making & breaking spells, Thuamatology (Creation), and the mundane sciences like architecture, engineering, and other skills. When a Prentice can pass this, they become a full mage and can learn the Journeyman lvl spells.

There is also another college that is adjacent, but not touching, to the other colleges. This is the Archmage college. When a mage has acquired the ability to cast Journeyman lvl spells in three colleges, but has not learned Master lvl spells in an college, they can petition the Archmages for entry into that college. Archmages work with 'raw' magic where the other colleges manipulate mana. Once a Mage becomes an Archmage they are barred from learning Master Lvl spells in any other college. This is to keep any one mage from becoming too powerful, like Grezyol the Shadow Mage, who joined the dark side of my cosmology for even grrrreater power than he had already acquired.

I do not have many 'granted powers' as such for priests, since the gods of Phacseon do not interfere in the lives of mortals like they used to. This means Healers are actually trained physicians and mages rather than priests.

Gah, I hope this makes sense to somefur besides me.