Symbolic Magic

This magic is the magic of symbols and runes, whose form and the power thus derived is jealously guarded by its practitioners. Available to the Rus and the Georgians.

Use of runes and symbols in divination can allow one to get brief glimpses of the near future, or general impressions of the course of events. Divination with regards to one other action in your turnsheet grants you some insight into its outcome and you prepare accordingly, usually increasing your chances of success. You may also obtain other insights, though these may be cryptic, misleading and/or completely unrelated to you.

Casting Divination gives a response relevant to the year of its casting, for the most part. Its use within the Peace of the Covenant is for some reason prohibited by the magics at work there.

Symbols can be attached to an object which has had some significance - eg. victory runes can be inlaid into a sword which has seen a great victory. This can promote the item to relic power-level immediately, or if the item is already a relic add some snacky related to its powers and character. Adding these symbols to mundane items does nothing, since the magic works by amplifying the latent power of the item.

These effects apply immediately and persist indefinitely unless removed by the Symbolic mage (requires the item and an equivalent casting of the initial spell). This spell can be partially prepared and “stored”, for the cost of 2AP. The spell can thereafter be triggered for the cost of 1AP as you attune the spell to the circumstances. This ritual may be performed in session with appropriate roleplay if you have paid the appropriate cost in your previous turnsheet.

Symbols can be used to curse an item or area. This could for example be used to make someone lose a duel using their cursed sword, or cause someone to fall sick after breaking into a temple. If you're attempting to curse an object, you must have it to hand. Cursing an area requires you to be in the vicinity at the time. Please describe the curse you would like to place when using this spell (overly powerful curses may fail or only partially come into effect).

Curses on mundane items or areas are usually temporary, rarely fatal, but can be inconveniencing. Their full power will only persist for a year and a day, though the effects will usually linger for much longer as the curse attenuates with power over time. Curses on artifacts/relics or significant areas can be more powerful - that is, lasting longer (possibly permanently), affecting a wider area, being more debilitating (possibly including death if concentrated enough).

This spell can be partially prepared and “stored”, for the cost of 3AP. The spell can thereafter be triggered for the cost of 1AP as you attune the spell to the circumstances. This ritual may be performed in session with appropriate roleplay if you have paid the appropriate cost in your previous turnsheet. It is nevertheless clear that the strength of the protective magics upon the meetings override the power of this spell, for at least as long as the Peace protects the area.

Words are powerful, sworn oaths more so. Through the codification of a person's oath in symbols, one can ensure that breaking the oath is discouraged. A sworn oath made in your presence (that is, “I swear by X that…”) can be codified and rendered consequential with the voluntary participation of the oath swearer. Codifying oaths in this manner is vastly more powerful and flexible than oaths sworn on the covenant - specifically, covenant oaths may only be sworn as a promise not to harm but there is no such restriction on the types of oath that can be codified by this spell.

Symbols will appear on the forehead of the person who took the oath and will be visible until the oath is completed, rendered unfulfillable or repealed. If the oath is an open or indefinite one, these symbols will fade with time but will never fully disappear (and nor will the spell's effects, unless repealed by the caster). The consequences of breaking this oath will be related to what the oath was sworn upon and the method/intent of the oath's breaking.

This spell may be cast and “stored”. The spell can thereafter be triggered at any time for the cost of 0AP (this may even take place in session, though if so this must be included in your next turnsheet), should an oath be witnessed.

The symbols of warding have powerful protective qualities. Through a combination of incredible luck and overt power, scribing the symbols of warding is likely to significantly improve the recipient's fortunes in terms of avoiding non-magical harm for a period of time. In addition, those who try to harm them may find that their harm turns against themselves; whether the harm be vicious rumours or biting blades. These symbols cannot be inscribed on objects or places. The symbols can also be inscribed on a group of people, though their protective potency is reduced in proportion to the magnitude of the group.

The spell's full effects last a year and a day from the time of its casting, though they may linger for longer if cast by a particularly powerful symbolic mage or in a ritual with great significance. A person so warded carries a symbol of the caster's choosing on their forehead (please describe this to us when casting the spell). The ritual for this spell takes too long to be performed within the timescale of the yearly meetings.

The curse of disruption is quite effective against spellcasters. The symbols inscribed in this ritual distort and subtly affect a person's mind such that their sorcerous abilities are led astray. Casting this ritual, invoking the name of a spellcaster, disrupts their magic.

There are two versions of this spell. For the first, you must also invoke the name of a single person, place or item as protected by the spell. Strange symbols faintly appear on the protectee. If a spellcaster casts a spell against the named protectee, it will be seriously reduced in power (and may fail outright).

For the second, a named spellcaster's magic is disrupted in general, as if they were affected by the Flawed Art quirk. If they already have this quirk, the GMs will think of some suitably spectacular mishap which might befall them.

Each version of the spell grants its full protection for a year and a day, though their effects may linger beyond that if cast by a particularly powerful symbolic mage or in a ritual with great significance. The ritual for this spell takes too long to be performed within the timescale of the yearly meetings.

The lifebringer runes, so prepared with a corpse, can bring a dead person back to “life”. They no longer have their soul - they have no free will, cannot use magic or skills, and know no more than they knew when they died (nor can they learn anything new). The animated corpse is utterly loyal to the spellcaster and will follow any simple commands given to the best of their ability. They feel no pain, do not tire or hunger, and will never stop - though damaging the body will hamper it as appropriate, and the lack of pain means that an animated corpse will not stop to preserve itself. The corpse will sport a symbol of the caster's choosing on its forehead (please describe this to us on casting the spell).

The spell can quite easily be applied to graveyards, battlefields or any other single area and will affect all the corpses within that area (even those long dead) for no further AP cost. Obviously it will be hard to do this secretly.

This spell can be partially prepared and “stored”, for the cost of 4AP. The spell can thereafter be triggered for the cost of 1AP as you attune the spell to the circumstances, provided a suitable corpse is at hand. The spell's effects manifest immediately on the spell's completion and persist indefinitely; however, an individual corpse's animation under this spell can be broken by cleaving its head from its body and this will effectively end the spell as far as that corpse is concerned. The ritual for this spell takes too long to be performed within the timescale of the yearly meetings.

The names of things and their natures are bound in those words used to describe them. By writing on an object you can change its essential nature. This is a lengthy ritual requiring much preparation, knowing the true name of and having the cooperation of the subject (therefore requiring lots of study into an object, or the willing participation of a person).

Examples of the use of this spell include: naming a person “redeemed”, which may erase some past stain on their soul; naming a sword “deathbringer”, which may cause the slightest wounds it inflicts to become much more deadly. The effect this has may be limited by the ambitiousness of the renaming - that is, you could rename something “God” but that person wouldn't become God, merely become more spiritual. Alternatively an overly specific naming may fail altogether.

The spell's effects apply immediately and persist indefinitely (the thing is now intrinsically changed). The ritual for this spell takes too long to be performed within the timescale of the yearly meetings.