Difference between revisions of "Book:Rituals"

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Rituals are invocations of the deepest and oldest magic. The kind used to forge the world. The kind used in the distant past to level mountains and fell empires. What powers the effects of a ritual? Is it the Twelve Immortals? Is it an even higher power? No one can say for sure, but it seems to be written into the very fabric of the world itself.

Rituals are nowhere near as prevalent as spells — they're complex, powerful, and dangerous. A mage may spend the majority of her life creating a ritual. To learn a ritual might be the very goal of a role-playing campaign. A ritual might end a drought, destroy an ancient evil, or even grant immortality.

Rituals are special in that the participants may not even know they're performing one! Imagine a farming village full of bright faces and hard workers, who gather on the vernal equinox to pray for healthy crops. They make offerings of what remains of last year's harvest onto a pyre. They slaughter a bull and offer its blood to the heavens. Their voices unite in ceremonial litany. Little did they know that they just successfully performed a minor ritual to bless their land and nurture what grows there.

Rituals are a petition to the laws of the universe. Rituals are not something that you can just fire off during a round of combat. Spells require fuel, but rituals require offerings.

Offerings

When a ritual is performed, an offering is the payment required to balance the ledger. One ritual can put you further in debt than another. Payment is due up front; the universe isn't in the habit of making personal loans.

In this game, offerings grant you Ritual Points. Every ritual requires you to amass a certain number of Ritual Points.

Time

Time is money, after all. The longer you spend performing a ritual, the quicker it comes to pass. You gain one Ritual Point per rank of the element needed every hour spent performing a ritual. For example, if you have five ranks in Fire, and you perform for ten hours straight, you gain fifty Ritual Points. Mages performing for longer than eight hours must make a Stamina check against a DL of 10 every hour. This DL increases by one for every additional hour. If failed, the mage moves one step down the Knockout Track, but can continue performing until they pass out.

Cooperation

Two heads are better than one. Several mages acting in tandem can split the check so to speak. All mages contribute the points they each gain as a ritual is performed. Three archmages, each with ten ranks in Light, performing for three hours amass ninety Ritual Points.

Mana

What makes a better offering than magic power itself? The debt can be paid with MP supplied by those performing the ritual, or with physical mana (in either gaseous, crystalline, or liquid form). You gain one Ritual Point for every MP offered.

Wealth

Some rituals can be paid with actual valuable materials: precious metals and gems, for example. These type of offerings are consumed as part of the ritual and vanish in spectacular fashion. You gain one Ritual Point for every 500𝕤 worth of wealth offered.

Events

Holidays fall on specific days for a reason: there's something special about that exact page on the calendar. The solstices, the equinoxes, the full moons, the new moons. You gain twenty Ritual Points when performing the ritual within a month named after the element, fifty if it takes place on a day of note. The summer solstice relates to Fire, the winter solstice relates to Ice. The vernal equinox relates to Verdance, the autumnal equinox relates to Ruin. The new moon relates to Dark, the full moon relates to Light.

Location

Any great business owner will tell you that location is everything. Some places are just better suited to rituals than others. The site of an ancient war, the place of birth of some notable wizard, or the intersection of two ley lines. You gain twenty Ritual Points for performing a ritual in a special location, fifty if it directly relates to the element needed.

Relics

We've all heard of objects with great mystical power. The skull of an ancient priest, the wand of an archmage, or the throne of a tyrant. You gain twenty Ritual Points for involving a relic, fifty if it was previously involved in the same ritual.

Sacrifice

Blood. Livestock. People. All of these make acceptable sacrifices. Sacrificial offerings help offset the cost of certain rituals (and each one will note whether a sacrifice is acceptable or required). Some of a participating mage's blood grants ten ritual points. An animal grants twenty. A person grants fifty. A self-sacrifice grants one hundred.

Details

The rituals below share some common parameters.

Essence

Just like spells, every ritual belongs to an essence that describes its makeup, purpose, and means of operation.

Elements

When a mage performs a ritual, it is evoked using a specific elemental school. Rituals available in multiple schools list the symbol of each. Rituals with no elemental symbols are available in all elemental schools. A ritual available in multiple elemental schools may behave differently depending on the element that powers it.

Target

The recipient of the ritual's effects. The target is either Not Applicable (the ritual just happens and there's no special target), Self (the ritual affects the caster), Creature(s) (the spell affects one or more creatures), Object (the spell affects an inanimate object — sometimes only certain kinds of objects, such as things that are metal, or the remains of a creature), Area (the spell affects an area and anything within it).

Requirements

Some rituals must have specific kinds of offerings to activate. For instance, a specific earth ritual might require that it be performed underground.

Oppositions

Some rituals must not have specific kinds of offerings. For instance, a verdance ritual is diametrically opposed to a human sacrifice.

Ritual Points

The total amount of Ritual Points needed to activate the ritual.

List of Rituals

What follow are some potential rituals that can be used by heroes and villains alike. Since Rituals are grandiose, legendary occurrences, the ones detailed here are only examples, and the possibilities are endless.

Awaken Automaton

An obedient, durable servant that excels in combat is a desirable thing indeed. Through the power of the Binding Ritual, the mage junctions an elemental to a lifeless object, and in doing so gives rise to a new fabricated creature. Each different kind of elemental produces a unique type of fabrication.

The fabricated creature which arises from this ritual are intelligent, can follow orders, and some are capable of speech. In all cases, they have a disposition of enamored toward their creators. Each one has a vastly different array of abilities (See Appendix II: Creatures for more information).

These automatons infused with the power of an elemental obey very specific laws of magic. Each one has at its disposal an assortment of spells, and it can only replenish its MP by way of its master refueling them, so to speak.

The ritual requires at least 20 Ritual Points worth of Wealth, and in addition, at least 15 MP worth of mana to provide the automaton. The junction is permanent until the creature is destroyed, at which time the elemental is released.

Brainwash

This ritual wipes clean the memories of another creature. The target becomes partially amnesiac, retaining basic, common knowledge, but nothing personal. The ones performing the ritual can author new memories to replace the stolen ones, if desired. Doing so is a fantastic way of hijacking someone's loyalty.

The Brainwash ritual is rather simple, and requires only a small blood offering of a participating mage, and that the target remain bound, blindfolded, gagged, and lying on a flat surface while the ritual is performed.

Rain Dance

Water mages are in high demand in times of drought since many of them possess the knowledge of how to call the rains to nourish withered crops and souls alike. The mages must dance in a ceremonial circle and chant while performing the ritual. At the end of the rain dance, the skies open up and an area ten miles in diameter receives cool, steady rain for a day.

This ritual can be used for good or ill, however, since an extended, wide-spread rain will cause flooding, mudslides and damage to structures. For every 50 Ritual Points past the required 100, the rain continues an additional day.

Spawn Undead

Spawning undead is considered a taboo practice nearly everywhere. Through the power of the Binding Ritual, the mage junctions an elemental to a humanoid body. Each different kind of elemental produces a unique type of undead.

The undead which arise from this ritual are intelligent and capable of speech. In most cases, the creature has a malign disposition to the ones that summoned it; it will generally leave them alone unless provoked. To anyone else, the creature has a hostile disposition, and will seek out the living to consume their life force. The only exceptions to this are Guardians and Deathless (See Appendix II: Creatures for more information).

Undead infused with the power of an elemental obey very specific laws of magic. Each one has at its disposal an assortment of spells, and it replenishes its MP by taking them from the living. These creatures are repelled only when presented with the symbol of an Immortal whose associated element is opposite their own. For instance, vampires are repelled by a symbol of Loelir the Lady of Light.

The junction is permanent until the creature is destroyed, at which time the elemental is released.