Book:Rituals

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.