[Martial Arts/Thaumatology] Magical Styles for Martial Arts styles

[Prince Charon]

A bit more on the Ashla style. I'm mostly working on this as an intellectual exercise in seeing how close I can get to 'a Magical style that works like the Jedi' using the spell-based system, without making too many house rules. I've already started thinking that I may need to either rule that the style doesn't need Attribute Substitution to have several spells be DX-based, or rule that they can have more of specific perks than the usual allowance... or just rule that they tend to put a lot of points in defensive spells.

Required Skills <possibly incomplete>

Force Sword; Hidden Lore (Ashla); Meditation; Thaumatology; Theology (Impetus)

Required Spells <possibly incomplete>

Sense Life; Sense Foes; Lend Energy; Foolishness; Apportation; Sense Danger; Purify Air; Seek Earth; Seek Fire; Seek Water;

Perks <incomplete>

Magical Style Familiarity (Ashla); Attribute Substitution; Blocking Spell Mastery (Deflect Missile, Catch Missile, Return Missile); Covenant of Rest; Fast Casting; Intuitive Cantrip (Aid); Melee Spell Mastery (<TBD>); Missile Spell Mastery (Poltergeist); No Incantations; Sacrificial Blocking Spell (<TBD>); Shortcut to Power (<a few of these>); Spell Duelist (Ashla); Stabilizing Skill: Hidden Lore (Ashla).


The Monks of Ashla, and indeed the faith of the Impetus of Life in general, is not a widely organized religion. There is no Space Pope or High Council that can legitimately claim authority over all followers of the Impetus, whether Ashla, Bogan, or other aspects. In some areas, the monks are not organized beyond the level of individual monasteries, temples, or shrines, while in others, there is some level of organization covering large regions, whole planets, or even a few systems. Specific monasteries and such of the Ashla (the more generally peaceful and selfless aspect of the Impetus) vary in their practices from ascetic monks to what are effectively orders of religious knighthood. Something similar can be said for the followers of the Bogan (the more aggressive and selfish aspect of the Impetus), though by nature, very few can be said to be ascetic in any but the most ironic sense. It should be noted that sincere followers of the Ashla are not automatically 'good,' and sincere followers of the Bogan are not automatically 'evil.' Likewise, the two categories, being followers of different aspects of the same entity, are not always opposed, and in many parts of known space, they answer to the same leaders. They do often tend toward opposition, however, and in many places the Ashla has a reputation for being good, and the Bogan has a reputation for being evil... but not always, and not everywhere.

Followers of the Ashla may roll critical failures on the "Clerical" Table (Thaumatology p257) or the Spirit-Oriented Magic table (p260), though many use the standard table. Most followers of the Bogan use the standard table for critical spell failures, though the ones that most contribute to the Bogan's negative reputation tend to roll on the Diabolic/Horrific Table (p258) or the Black Critical Table (Magic p157, boxed text).

In general, demons in this setting are far more often spiritual and mental threats, rather than physical.