Sorcerers

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When Ei planned the universe it was planned that the runes shall exist as a force; a force to be reckoned with or to peril. The great men of old learned this and created great cities and empires. Soon some of the old sorcerers became powerful and established themselves as Emperors and Kings of kings. The more wise sorcerers and sorceresses banded together to kill these people. These so-called kings had the support of all their people and a bloody war began. the kings were not toppled and as their subjects watched as nothing could kill them an idea was spread that they were immortal. Using magic to sustain their lives they fostered this image and called themselves godsÑimmortals.

The war was so bloody and so terrible that many were repulsed by the ways of the Mana and taught a more passive approach to using the runes. These people called for as little effort as possible in controlling the runes preferring to let them act on their own. They called themselves shamans. However they cause more harm than these so-called gods. They do not understand the runes enough to use them right. They mindlessly start them and let them take their own course blindly letting energy fly. They are misguided youths who can be taught better.

The sorcerer learns the basis of magic words and items through the magic theory skill. When a sorcerer casts a spell they use their level in this skill times the succeses to determine the effect of the spell. Furthermore sorcerers can learn new runes based on their knowledge of instance runes.

Spell Components

A sorcerer must be able to verbalize power words, gesture with their hands, and have material components for the spell. For each one of these pieces that is missing from the spell, the sorcerer is penalized 1 penalty die. The sorcerer’s Magic Theory spell can be concentrated in as a normal skill, giving the caster bonus dice in a particular rune. Magic Theory (Heal) is as acceptable as Magic Theory (Elemental).

Concentrations

Runic skills have no penalized concentrations, all are “free”; therefore at each level in a runic skill, the character can concentrate in a specific instance.

• Instances are generic terms for a class of thing. For example, a typical Instance is Human or Sword.
• Categories are derived from any two runes (or more) they know.
• Meta-Categories are derived from any two Categories (or more) they know.
• Parts are things which are considered (by the caster) to be sub-parts on an instance. For example, to most people an eye or a hilt is part. To an eye doctor, an Eye may be an Instance. Like categories, Parts can be derived from two instances. Casting a spell on a part is difficult and the caster gains two penalty dice when trying these spells.
• Singularities are specific things, such as this particular book or that particular individual. Casting a spell on a singularity is difficult and the caster gains two penalty dice when trying these spells.

This entire hierarchy is very subjective and should be made as an agreement between the player and the GM. For example, if we compare the sword-runes of three different mages we find different results. The differences between these three individual’s perceptions is the amount of familiarity with the objects. Someone who builds swords see individual pieces that are crafted and made into a larger whole, while to those unfamiliar with swords, they may not even know what a hilt is or what is the difference between a long sword and a bastard sword. The bonus for the category (or meta category) is the average (round down) of the bonus dice for each of the supporting runes.

Rune/Type	Swordssmith/Mage	Swordsman/Mage	"Classical" AD&D Mage
Hilt	Instance	Singularity	Singularity
Long Sword	Category	Instance	Instance
Sword	Meta-Category	Category	Instance
Melee Weapons	Meta-Category	Meta-Category	Category
Weapons	Meta-Category	Meta-Category	Meta-Category

Instances	Human +1, Dog +1, Armor +1, Pigeon +1, Hawk +1
Categories	Mammals +1, Birds +1
Meta Categories	Animals +1, Creatures +1, Living Things +1

Spell Power

The power of sorcerous magic is determined by multiplying the Intensity of the spell by the caster’s Magical Theory skill. In this way a caster with Magical Theory 5 and using 4 Effort will have a power of 20.

Unknown Runes

Any rune combination not known by the caster can be improvised on the spot for a penalty. The table below shows the number of penalty dice. These penalties are additive.

Number of unknown runes	Penalty Dice	Type of rune not known	penalty dice
One and only one	2	Verb, Singularity or Meta-Category	4
Two or more	8	Instance or category	2

Example 1: Appolonius knows Weaken (level 3) Door and runs across a portcullis. The GM rules that portcullises are significantly different than doors and the character would not think of them as the same thing. Previously, he hasn’t studied enough to derive entryway or entry device (or something similar) so, he cannot use a category. He decides to use Weaken Portcullis and derive the rune from his knowledge of door. He knows the action rune, but not the portcullis rune, therefore there is one unknown rune, resulting in two penalty dice. There are another 2 penalty dice for the unknown Instance for a total of 4 penalty dice. He will now roll with a skill of 3-4.

Example Two: Appolonius is having an unlucky day and breaks his leg. Unfortunately, he does not know the Heal rune, nor does he know the human rune. Since he is not a healer, the character and the player agree that Human would be an Instance to him. Since he doesn’t know two runes, he will derive his runes from his best skill: Move 7. He will roll 7 dice, but will be penalized 10 penalty dice (8 for not knowing two runes and another 2 for the Instance rune) and so his skill will be 7-10.

Example Three: Finally, Appolonius’ day is changing. However, he now has to create the door. He knows the Door rune, but not the Create spell. Nor does he know transform. So, he decides to, once again, make up a spell on the fly. He uses Create Door based on his Door skill. He knows one of the runes and so is penalized 2 penalty dice for one unknown rune. He will roll 3-2.

Magic Theory Specializations

Sorcerers have some advanced abilities that they can make use of with the magical theory skill if they specialize in them. These special abilities are listed below.

Spell Identification

Active Spells

Spells that have been cast can be identified by sorcerers by inspecting the magical afterimage of the spell. The afterimage is similar to the effect of looking into a flash bulb when it goes off and it fades rapidly with time. The afterimage starts with an intensity equal to the power in the spell. For each second after the spell is cast, this afterimage is reduced by 1 power. Each The table below shows the information discovered by this process. Successes are cumulative, for example, achieving 3 successes would reveal both the category and the meta-category of the spell.

Successes	Information
0	No information
1	The presence and quantity of magic is known 1
2	The meta-category of a noun rune used is known
3	The category of a noun rune used is known
4	The verb rune used is known with 50% accuracy
5	The verb rune used is known with 95% accuracy
6	The Instance rune used is known with 50% accuracy
7	The Instance rune used is known with 95% accuracy
8	Identifying the type of magic used2
9	Identifying the school of magic used3
10	Identifying the fingerprint of the caster4

¹The investigator will be able to tell the initial power of the spell(s) and the quantity of spells.

²Each type of spell caster leaves distinct traces. An in vestigator would be able to differentiate a god, from a sorcerer, from a spirit, from a psychic casting the spell.

³Each school of magic, including psychics, priests, and spirits leaves a different signature. The investigator may not know the details of the school, but they would know that it is different. A Magic Theory (Magic Schools) or similar skill may have to be used to name the school.

⁴Like a fingerprint, magical workings are individually unique. Though the caster may not know who the magical fingerprint belongs to, they would understand it’s differences from another magical fingerprint.

The Spell identification roll will gain a bonus die for each 10 power in the afterimage. After the afterimage has disappeared it is no longer possible to identify the spell. Use the following table for additional bonus and penalty dice to this roll:

Information about the Caster (pick the best one)	Bonus	Information about the Runes (pick all that apply)	Bonus
Well known Caster	+4	All Runes Known	+4
Well known school	+2	One Rune Known	+2
Known spell caster type	+1	No Runes known	4 penalty

Dormant Magic Spells

Spells that have not been triggered yet, for example enchanted items are much harder to identify. Their magic is infused with the object and the threads of magic must be searched through. In addition, the more spells that have been tied together, the more complicated the attempt. Each hour, the caster will attempt to identify the "outermost" spell. Spells will be revealed from the last cast to the first cast. In other words, any trigger spell is revealed first. For every 10 minutes less than an hour, the investigator gains a penalty die. Use the table above to determine what is discovered during any attempt to identify the magic. Each attempt takes one hour of time.

Alared picks up Harris’s Fire ring and tries to figure out if it a beneficial ring or not. Alared’s Magical Theory is 8.

• Hour 1: He rolls 6 Ss. At this point:
  • he is 95% certain the verb is Sense.
  • he is 50% certain the Instance is the word "Alight"
  • There are three total spells in the ring
• Hour 2: and rolls 9 Ss. The second spell is:
  • The verb rune used is "Protect (from)"
  • The Instance rune used is "Fire"
  • The spell was cast by a Mage
  • The Mage was from the Greyhawk Magic Guild
• Hour 3: Deciding to spend another hour inspecting the ring. He is only 20 minutes in, when he hears Harris coming back. This gives him 4 penalty dice [60 minutes-20 minutes = 40 minutes/10 = 4]. He still achieves 3 successes:
  • The meta-category of the noun rune used is "First Principles"
  • The category of a noun rune used is "Elemental"

This last attempt doesn't help him much, but he must return the ring before Harris becomes suspicious!

Later Alared starts to investigate again. He must start at the beginning again and, in whole, it takes him four hours. He now knows the other spell is a Create Fire spell. The wearer is protected from the spell by the Protect from Fire spell and it is enabled by speaking the word "alight".

Spell Masking

Sorcerers can cast spells that are subtle; they are either not visually obvious or are harder to determine what the spell is. In order to mask a spell, the caster must declare so prior to the casting of the spell. Each point of spell masking is added to the potential drain of the spell prior to the spell roll and will directly offset 1 success on a Spell Identification roll. Please note, that this ability does not impact Sense Magic or Weaken Masking spells.

Alesius is creating a Weaken Strength ring as a Trojan horse for an enemy–Tiresius. He doesn’t want the man’s sorcerer to identify the spell readily. He therefore, decides, in addition to the 12 point spell that he will cast onto the ring, he will also add 8 points of spell masking. This results in a 20-point spell and will force Alesius into a spell ceremony to cast the spell. 5 hours later, he has his ring and is all but assured that the secret of the ring will not be easily discovered. When Tiresius is given the ring, he gives it to his hired mage to investigate. The man is excellent, but cannot find any determine the spells on the ring even though he rolled 7 successes. The mage, however, is no slouch and after his hour of investigation is still suspicious, since he knows there is magic there. He hands the ring over to a professional auditor. The man takes the rings and investigates it. Several days later, the auditor hands it back and tells the mage that there is a Weaken Strength spell on it with a trigger of Detect Tiresius on it.

Spell Protection

Sorcerers may armor spells by declaring so at spell casting time. Each point of spell protection gives the spell 1 resistance from opposing spells. For example, if Alesius decided against masking the spell, he may have decided to armor the spell and out the 8 points into spell protection. In this case, all can see the spell and determine easily. However, it will use a resistance of 8 against the Break Magic spell–making it harder to remove.

Spell Chaining

Spell Chaining allows a caster to perform magic that is beyond the typical boundaries of a typical spell. When chaining spells, the caster will perform one spell and then prior to that spell’s completion starts another spell and so on until all spells are completed. In this way several spells’ effects can happen at the same time. Often, when chaining spells, the overall effort is so great that a ceremony is needed. A spell caster can chain together a number of spells together equal to half their Magical Theory skill (rounded down).

Spell Casting

The spell casting specialization adds a bonus die to any spell that is cast. ===Guild Signatures A sorcerer can specialize in knowing different guild signatures. This specialty represents the specific study of magic schools and their signatures.

Spell Components

This specialty allows the caster to substitute alternative components for spells.

Componetless casting

Each level of this will offset the penalty for not having a specific type of component.