First magic style

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Brethren of the Spark (6)

The spark is a metaphor for both individual faith and proselytization; Humble himself said that a “mere spark” of faith can accomplish miracles. Sparks are also at the heart of fire magic and of the electrical magic that characterizes advanced mastery of the college of Air, and this style covers both, though most practitioners choose one or the other, and for historical reasons the Air curriculum is more mature, Fire having once been dominated by a militant monastic order that has since gone apostate. Controversially, junior sparkies can learn to conjure wind, and those who do have been known to drop out rather than take vows, putting their skills to use on merchant vessels (the same problem the church has with healers). Acolytes with talent for both branches must choose an elementary text which will set the tone of their careers: “The Invisible Element” or “Ignitio!”

Required Skills: Religious Ritual (Church of Man), Thaumatology, Theology (Church of Man).

Required Spells: Purify and Create Air or Ignite and Extinguish Fire. Journeymen must be able to cast Resist Fire or Lightning, and masters must be able to cast Flaming or Lightning Armor.

Perks: Extra Option: Stabilizing Skill (Religious Ritual for Air or Fire spells), Huge Subjects, Mighty Spell (Lightning or Fireball), Missile Spell Mastery (same), Psychic Guidance (same), Secret Spell (Wings of Fire), Shortcut to Power (Pyromancy), Special Exercises (Moral Strength), Special Exercises (a level of Imbue for Fireball Only or Lightning Only with Power Modifier: Magic, net cost 5, available twice), Wizardly Garb.

Air: Power spells except Draw Power available to journeymen with no need for Minor Healing, Clouds and Rain with Predict Weather as prerequisite, Ball of Lightning sans Apportation prerequisite, Hold Breath with Recover Energy as the prerequisite, and Flash and Thunderclap with Lightning as the prerequisite (all counted as air spells for this style), and all other air spells except Air Vortex or Body of Air/Lightning/Wind (because the Church of Man holds the form of man exalted) and those with prerequisites from other colleges. Spells dealing with electricity have Clerical Investment as a prerequisite, and those dealing with air elementals require Religious Rank 1.

Fire: All Fire spells except Body of Flames and Burning Death, plus Infravision and Bright Vision as Fire spells with Resist Fire as the prerequisite and Divination (Pyromancy) as a Fire spell with the Shortcut to Power. Obviously, the Church of Man must allow acolytes to work with the most dangerous element, but Burning Touch, Fireball, Flame Jet, and Flaming Weapon require Clerical Investment, and spells dealing with fire elementals require Religious Rank 1. The secret spell Wings of Fire requires Flaming Armor and works like Hawk Flight with stall speed 5 that gives the subject a 1d Burning Attack Aura.

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Castle Chorus (6)

Just like secular guilds, the deacons of the Church of Man encourage their most broadly Gifted pupils to a career of enchantment. Of course, many of those not limited in scope are limited by circumstance, some of which are unsuitable. Dancing for instance is an undignified activity amidst a solemn ceremony, but singing – specifically chanting – fits right in. Many church enchanters can unlock their gifts only through song, and the rest find chanting helps focus the mind and cultivate their Gifts more rapidly (in other words, they take this limitation on levels of Magery above zero).

Acolytes start with Lend Energy and assist deacons of other styles to earn their keep and start networking. Then they move on to basic spells from several colleges to improve both their confidence and theoretical grounding, with Find Weakness particularly important for its use evaluating potential vessels of enchantment. When they finally learn Enchant, they receive their Clerical Investment, an exception to the general rule that Enchant is available only to masters, for they are masters of other colleges, and these are journeymen enchanters.

While the other styles are capable of enchanting within their own specialties, only the Castle Chorus can enchant arms and wizardly tools, so that’s their focus, and they teach some Air and Earth spells as prerequisites for the weapon enhancements. That’s why choirs of journeymen can be seen – and heard – shaping earth into walls and turning them to solid stone, the practice from which the style gets its name. The major cathedrals which sponsor circles have plenty of peripheral buildings on the grounds manufactured in this manner, safe enough since those grounds are routinely warded against hostile magic with rituals from the Book of Halos. In the event of a war, junior chorus deacons expect to be drafted as combat engineers.

The deacon’s masterpiece must be a work of devotional enchantment (minimum 2000 energy), which means in theory that he could be inept with spells. In practice, that’s
a trivial edge case, and in any event the church would rather have an inept master than a faithless one.

Required Skills: Religious Ritual (Church of Man), Singing (optional specialty Monastic Chants), Thaumatology, Theology (Church of Man).

Required Spells: Lend Energy.

Perks: Extra Option: Stabilizing Skill (Religious Ritual for Enchantment), Quick and Focused, Magic Weapon Bond, Shortcut to Power (Defending Shield, Link, Ghost Weapon).

Analyze Magic, Apportation, Charge Powerstone, Create Air, Detect Magic, Earth to Air, Earth to Stone, Earth Vision, Find Weakness, Identify Spell, Ignite Fire, Lend Energy, Light, Purify Air, Seek Earth, Seek Water, Shape Air, Shape Earth, Walk on Air, and all spells of the Enchantment college. Enchant itself has only 9 spell prerequisites but also requires Clerical Investment, as do all further spells that depend upon it. In addition to the usual modifiers for spells of the Deacons’ School, Chorus spells actually require Singing but have an alternate configuration that grants a further bonus, facilitating larger groups for quick enchantment. This configuration makes items so enchanted give off a flagrant magical aura even while dormant, glow when in use, and fail in the presence of mithril, conditions ill-suited to military application but fine for honest commerce.

[Gef]

Conjunctional Metamagic (2)

Deacons of other styles whose Gift is broad enough supplement their specialty with extended seminars on Metamagic. The seminars are a great way to network with deacons of other specialties (remember that Style Familiarity is a Claim to Hospitality).

Required Spells: Counterspell. All in this style count as Metamagic.

Perks: Psychic Guidance (Throw Spell), Spell Duelist (any style of the Deacon’s School).

Deacon (requires Clerical Investment and Thaumatology 12 in any specialty): Analyze Magic, Aura, Counterspell, Detect Magic, Identify Spell, Mage Sight, Reconstruct Spell, Suspend Spell.
Dean (requires Religious Rank 1 and Thaumatology 15 in any specialty): Affect Spirits, Delay, Hang Spell, Lend Spell, Link, Maintain Spell, Penetrating Spell, Reflex, Throw Spell.

[Gef]

Devotées of the Grand Design (6)

Those deacons who cast Movement spells see the universe as something like a machine, a great clock full of interconnected moving parts, with the Lord Himself as the grandest of all clockwrights. By studying time and distance, they can influence the operation of the clock. (Game mechanically, they may be able to use appropriate scientific skills to assist spells). Naturally, the Order of Ferrin sponsors them, but not alone, for their magic is too useful to all manner of travelers, and in Keeve even the secular Society of Geometers will fund their researches. The majority provide services to merchants and pilgrims, but a few support the militant orders when they’re on the march and cast Flight (and Invisibility) for the shock troops.

If any style informs the popular stereotype of the deacon-wizard, it’s this one: Scholarship to the level of incomprehensible jargon, distracted and eccentric, with spooky telekinetic powers.

Required Skills: Religious Ritual (Church of Man), Thaumatology, Theology (Church of Man).

Required Spells: Haste and Apportation; Haste provides opportunity to exercise and strengthen the talent necessary for Apportation.

Perks: Anachronistic Skill (Physics), Extra Option: Stabilizing Skill (Religious Ritual for Movement spells), Huge Subjects, Shortcut to Power (Freedom, Invisibility, Swim, and Divination: Augury), Special Exercises (Moral Strength).

All “Shape” spells with Manipulation as the prerequisite, Divination (Augury), Ignite Fire, Measurement, and Tell Time as Movement spells, plus all conventional Movement spells except those with out-of-college prerequisites – the Church of Man does not approve the use of teleportation or magical gates. While it’s not on the curriculum, masters with access to arcane magic figure out how to do it! (Remember that the Ritual of Isolation severely curtails the range thereof.) Deacons who support soldiers on the battlefield with Flight or Hawk Flight also have a stand-alone formula for Invisibility, but it still counts as a Light and Darkness spell, not Movement.

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Ephemera Cast by the Halo (6)

The brethren of the Halo understand better than most that mortal men are mere shadows, momentary flickers animated by divine whim, and yet cast in the very image of the divine, for they have learned the trick of creation themselves. (Yes, they talk like that.) They start with Light spells (but not Darkness), and move from there to Creation (but not Illusion). While some do serve in a military capacity, most are tradesmen, selling magical lights and bringing the full light of the sun to cathedrals on special occasions, or for rituals when it matters, beyond which it is their custom to encourage members to study Kubic, the Elder Tongue of the angels concerned with light and creation, which leads to the potent but difficult magic of runes.

Most acolytes have a limited Gift suitable only for Light and Darkness spells, so they can’t master the magic of creation on their own. While the Church of Man officially disapproves of White Magic, as it amounts to pestering Halos for His direct approval, they permit the Ephemera to teach it at the master level (very powerful, +4 but only expect it to work against demons or in defense of a town). Darkness and Illusion, though not on the syllabus, can be derived from theory of arcane magic available to masters, but demonstrating this fact is never a good way to get approval for White Magic!

The style uses just 3 textbooks: “By His Hand” is a primer on Biology and covers the creation spells including White Magic variants ($3400, 7#); “Piercing the Darkness” covers the vision spells with such a tight body of theory that a single Reduced Footprint perk applies to all of them, but only with respect to each other ($580, 7#); “Halo of the Divine” covers the balance ($560, 7#).

Required Skills: Religious Ritual (Church of Man), Thaumatology, Theology (Church of Man).

Required Spells: Continual Light. Journeymen require Sunlight, and masters require Create Object. All except Create spells count as Light.

Perks: Continuous Ritual (Flash), Extra Option: Stabilizing Skill (Religious Ritual for Light and Creation but not Darkness or Illusion), Mighty Spell (Sunbolt), Missile Spell Mastery (Sunbolt), Psychic Guidance (Sunbolt), Reduced Footprint (Vision), Magical Style Adaptation (Create Servant and Create Warrior), Shortcut to Power (Divination: Symbol-Casting – not a Light spell), Special Exercises (Moral Strength).

Acolyte: Light, vision spell Keen Vision.

Senior Acolyte (requires Light): Colors, Continual Light, Remove Shadow, Shape Light; vision spells Bright Vision, Hawk Vision, Magnetic Vision, Night Vision, Small Vision.

Deacon (requires Clerical Investment and half the spells of lower level): Flash, Glow, Light Jet, Mirror, Sunlight, Wall of Light; vision spells Air Vision, Darkvision, Glasswall, See Invisible.

Senior Deacon (requires Religious Rank 1 and half the spells of lower level): Continual Sunlight, Images of the Past, Sunbolt; vision spells Astral Vision, Water Vision; creation spells Create Earth, Create Food, Create Water.

Dean (requires Create Earth and Water, eligible for Religious Rank 1): Creation spells Control Creation, Create Animal, Create Mount, Create Object, Create Servant, Create
Warrior, Dispel Creation, Independence.

[Gef]

Friends of Ferrin (6)

The archangel Ferrin is the patron of craft and innovation, and the monastic order dedicated to him sponsors many deacons but especially those with the magic of making. They call themselves “Friends” of Ferrin because “Sons” or “Disciples” might give the wrong idea, as if they denied the primacy of Halos. The nature of their specialty suits them to serve in military support roles as well as in civilian commerce, but few serve on the battlefield. Formulaic magic of the college of Technology is yet in infancy, but a master wizard of the Friends of Ferrin can learn the arcane magic path for it (if his Gift encompasses it) as well as the path of Making and Breaking.

Required Skills: Religious Ritual (Church of Man), Thaumatology, Theology (Church of Man), and a craft skill such as Carpentry, Masonry, or Smith.

Required Spells: Inspired Creation. All learned through this style are Making/Breaking spells.

Perks: Perks: Extra Option: Stabilizing Skill (Religious Ritual for Making and Breaking), Shortcut to Power (Rejoin – recycle for Repair then Rebuild), Special Exercises (Moral Strength).

Acolyte: Inspired Creation, Seek Earth, Seek Fuel, Seek Machine, Seek Plant, Test Fuel.

Senior Acolyte (requires Inspired Creation): Identify Plant, Identify Metal, Preserve Fuel, Restore, Reveal Function, Shape Earth, Test Load. “Aspiration” for both acolyte levels ($660, 6½#).

Deacon (requires Clerical Investment and 4 spells of prior level including Restore): Animate Object, Clean, Create Earth, Earth to Stone, Purify Fuel, Shape Metal, Shape Plant, Shape Plastic, Recover Energy, Scroll (style spells only), Soilproof. “Education” ($880, 5½#)

Senior Deacon (requires 4 spells of prior level including Shape Metal): Copy, Create Fuel, Dye, Earth to Air, Find Weakness, Inscribe, Rejoin, Reshape, Schematic, Scribe, Shatter, Weaken. “Experience” ($1200, 6#).

Dean (requires 6 spells of prior level including Rejoin, eligible for Religious Rank 1): Contract Object, Enchant (style spells only), Explode, Extend Object, Fasten, Knot, Mapmaker, Musical Scribe, Mystic Mark, Propel, Repair, Rive, Ruin, Sharpen, Shatterproof, Stiffen, Toughen, Transform Object, Transparency. “Mastery” is a two-volume set for both dean levels ($2720, 11#).

Senior Dean (requires Religious Rank 1 and 8 spells of prior level including Repair): Disintegrate, Enlarge Object, Rebuild, Shrink Object.

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Gentle Brothers of the Lord’s Creatures (6)

Most deacons with Animal spells serve essentially as country veterinarians, gentle indeed, and supplement their magic with mundane skills, including Herb Lore for healing potions. They work with and are sponsored by the Order of Seire, but militant orders have use of them too, especially cavalry to recall straying horses, and for them, at least the ones not fearful of magic, the ideal specialist is a wizard capable of giving a horse the intelligence of a man. Such a specialist requires Mount and Brawling skills.

Required Skills: Animal Handling (any), Mundane Magic (Control Animal for Veterinarian), Religious Ritual (Church of Man), Thaumatology, Theology (Church of Man).

Required Spell: Beast-Soother with Animal Handling as the prerequisite; all spells work only on animals for which the caster has the Animal Handling skill or Good with Animals perk, unless he has Animal Empathy. Deans must master every variant of Animal Control.

Perks: Extra Option: Stabilizing Skill (Religious Ritual for Animal spells), Huge Subjects, No Gestures (Master), Special Exercises (Animal Empathy, Moral Strength).

All animal spells except Permanent Beast Possession and any form of shapeshifting; Clerical Investment and an appropriate Animal Control spell serve as the prerequisites for Beast-Seeker and Protect Animal, displacing the conventional out-of-college prerequisites.

[Gef]

Holy Calling of Abjuration (6)

At the acolyte level, the Holy Calling resembles the college of Knowledge, and at master level, it starts to look more like Protection, but in fact it concerns itself mainly with metamagic, especially that which counters other kinds of magic. The “spellbusters” may have a limited Gift, but it suits them well to duel other wizards, for which purpose they seek Familiarity with other styles of the Deacons’ School in order to extend the scope of Counterspell. The majority serve in a militant order. Those deacons with both the ability and the aspiration to generalize usually pursue metamagic as a secondary course of study, as it compliments other colleges well.

Required Skills: Religious Ritual (Church of Man), Thaumatology, Theology (Church of Man).

Required Spells: Scryguard and Ward. All spells learned through this style are Metamagic.

Perks: Extra Option: Stabilizing Skill (Religious Ritual for Metamagic), Mana Compensation, Secret Spell (Mana Bolt, Oculus Superior), Shortcut to Power (Divination: Crystal-Gazing), Special Exercises (Moral Strength), Spell Duelist (any style of the Deacons’ School), Staff Bond.

Acolyte: Detect Magic, Scryguard, See Radiation, Sense Evil, Ward. “Basic Ban” is slim for a grimoire ($200, 2½#).

Senior Acolyte (requires 2 spells of prior level): Aura, Conceal Magic, Counterspell, Great Ward, Identify Spell, Mage Sense, Mage Sight, Protection from Evil, Reflect, Scrywall, Seek Magic, Sense Mana, Sense Observation. “Calling the Acolyte” ($780, 6½#).

Deacon (requires Clerical Investment and 4 spells of prior level): Analyze Magic, Catch Spell, False Aura, Mage Light, Recover Energy, Repel Evil, Scroll (style spells only), Scryfool, Sense Spirit. “Calling the Deacon” discusses Tactics with a specialization in magic ($920, 5#).

Senior Deacon (requires 4 spells of prior level and familiarity with another deacon style): Astral Block, Astral Vision, Catch Spell, Continual Mage Light, Dispel Illusion, Dispel Possession, Divination (Crystal-Gazing), Exclude Evil, Invisibility, Magic Resistance, Reconstruct Spell, See Invisible, Spell Shield, Suspend Magic, Teleport Shield, Turn Zombie, and the secret spell Mana Bolt which which functions like Lightning with +1 damage per die to magical beings (including anyone with Magery) but -1 per die to anyone else, who can’t even see it without magical aid (Mage Sight or See Invisible). “Advanced Abjuration in Two Volumes” includes all but the secret ($1600, 8# for set).

Dean (requires 4 spells of prior level, eligible for Religious Rank 1): Banish, Control Gate, Crystal Ball, Dispel Magic, Dispel Creation, Displace Spell, Enchant (style spells only), Extinguish Radiation, Pentagram, Remove Aura, Remove Enchantment, Scry Gate, Seek Gate, Spell Wall, Spellguard, Steal Spell, Suspend Curse, Suspend Enchantment, Suspend Mana, and the secret spell Oculus Superior, which works like Telecast except that the Wizard Eye doesn’t actually teleport. “Calling the Master” includes all but the secret ($4800, 7#).

Senior Dean (requires Religious Rank 1 and 4 spells of prior level): Curse, Drain Mana, Restore Mana, Remove Curse, Steal Spell, Suspend Magery. “Foiled Again” includes the next level too ($1000, 3½#).

Dean of Censure (requires Suspend Magery): Drain Magery.

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Scholars on the Physical Nature of Man (6)

Notwithstanding their official style name, deacons who specialize in Body Control curses and buffs are more soldier than scholar, preferring the title “Buffmaster” and forgetting that the first to bear it was one of the Stalwart Brothers (below). They belong to the militant orders who sponsor their training and serve on the front lines. The Church of Man does not condone self-inflicted harm, so the buffmasters aren’t really flagellants as implied by the name of the style perk, but they specialize in sustaining their magic even while injured in battle. Their texts cover Physiology (deacon), for use with Interrogation (dean), as well as spells.

Required Skills: Religious Ritual (Church of Man), Thaumatology, Theology (Church of Man).

Required Spell: Lend Energy and Might.

Perks: Afflicted Casting (Flagellant’s Blessing), Continuous Ritual (Roundabout), Extra Option: Stabilizing Skill (Religious Ritual for Body Control), Magic Weapon Bond, No Gestures (Stun, Choke), Shortcut to Power (Monk’s Banquet and Divination: Physiognomy), Special Exercises (Moral Strength), Unusual Training (Pressure Points).

Lend Energy, Lend Vitality, Haste, Long March, and Monk’s Banquet are body control spells in this style, and all body control spells are available except those with out-of-college prerequisites. Deathtouch and Wither Limb are restricted to masters in good standing, and Alter Visage, Alter Body, Shrink and Enlarge (self or other) are available to them as well, with Clerical Investment and Religious Rank 1 displacing conventional out-of-college prerequisites.

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Seekers after Divine Wisdom (6)

Some deacons are wizards, and some are scholars, but the Seekers practice a form of wizardry useful mainly for scholarship and find themselves in utmost demand. They can be found in every diocese and most monasteries, for good intel is welcome in rituals as well as myriad mundane pursuits, and Seekers typically study enough silver magic to assist directly as well. Note that deans who known the arcane path of Knowledge can use forms of divination outside the standard texts, but cartomancy is particularly associated with pagans while anything invoking a spirit is unlikely to work except on Orange Night (because of the ritual of isolation) but likely to draw official censure if it does.

Required Skills: Expert (Epistemology), Religious Ritual (Church of Man), Thaumatology, Theology (Church of Man).

Required Spells: Measurement. All learned through this style are Knowledge spells.

Perks: Extra Option: Stabilizing Skill (Religious Ritual for Knowledge spells), Shortcut to Power (Divination: Oneiromancy), Special Exercises (Moral Strength).

Acolyte: Detect Magic, Find Direction, Measurement, Scryguard, Seek Earth, Seek Food, Seek Fuel, Seek Machine, Seek Magic, Seek Plant, Seek Water, Sense Life, Tell Time. “To Seek” ($520, 6½#).

Senior Acolyte (requires 3 spells of prior level): Alarm, Aura, Know Illusion, Mage Sense, Mage Sight, Reveal Function, Sense Mana, Tell Position, Test Load. “To Know” ($600, 5#).

Deacon (requires Clerical Investment plus 3 spells of prior level): Far-Feeling, Far-Hearing, Far-Tasting, History, Identify Spell, Know Location, Pathfinder, Recover Energy, Scroll (style spells only), Seeker, Wizard Eye. “To Find” ($880, 5½#).

Senior Deacon (requires 3 spells of prior level): Ancient History, Astral Vision, Divination (Oneiromancy), Know Recipe, Memorize, Reconstruct Spell, Remember Path, Schematic, Trace, Wisdom, Wizard Hand. “To Dream” ($1100, 5½#)

Dean (requires 3 spells of prior level, eligible for Religious Rank 1): Divination (Astrology), Echoes of the Past, Enchant (style spells only), Images of the Past, Invisible Wizard Eye, Know True Shape, Prehistory, Recall, Scents of the Past, Seek Gate. “To Remember” ($1200, 5#).