Through training or talent, you tangibly aware of the strings of fate. Destiny and luck seem to hang in the air. You can sense where they concentrate and, whats more, you can twist them.
Some things are just more significant than others. There is an energy around a coin that comes up heads more often, around an arrow that found the crack in armor. Manipulating these strands of fate is a tricky and imprecise affair, but mastering such an art has powerful rewards.
Your magic allows you to build relics that let you twist fate, and turn it to your own ends. You are still very inexperienced at this, and you are sure there is a lot more to learn than about what you do.
Your magic works by creating small relics that focus your power in a specific way.
It costs a base 2AP to create a base relic. When doing this you state
Once finished, you need only hold the relic activate or deactivate it, and inflict its effect on the target. As long as the relic is intact, it will continue to function, even over great distances. If you lose the relic, it cannot be altered until you get it back. If the relic is destroyed, the effect ends immediately.
The appearance of a relic entirely suits the style of the caster. Some of the formulae below suggest a form for the relic but that isn't necessary. Like zen archery, its all about how you do it. Some of your kind scribe scrolls of power. Others craft their power into weapons, others still into jewelery. You construct something very carefully following the intuitive formula you have studied.
While crafting a relic, you attune it to a specific target. This target is usually an individual, though it isn't impossible to target a group, or a specific place. More general targets make for a less effective relic, and its not easy to tell how effective a relic is until it has been made and activated. Additional relics of a similar type can be used to reinforce a relic spread too thin.
A person targeted by a relic instinctively knows that something is up, and that the effect is not natural. This is not necessarily a bad feeling. It could be quite euphoric, or similar to deja vu. It depends on the nature and specifics of the formula used.
Each formula allows you to create one type of relic. At game start you will have a short list of common formulas that you could learn, but there are more out there, and you can also attempt to create your own.
To learn a new formula, you need one of the following:
With any of these resources, you may turnsheet for 2AP to study and learn the new formula.
To create your own formula requires 3-4AP, depending on how powerful the effect is. To tweak a specific formula for a more specialised effect, it will cost 1-2 AP, you don't get XP for the tweak, but you still do for creating the new relic. For all formula's you must have a similar formula to base it on. Please talk over ideas for new Formulas with your GM.
Regardless of your skills, a base relic will only ever have a minor effect.
It is not possible to make a formula which is simply a more powerful version of one you know.
You understand that a strong power source is needed to boost their relics, and cause a more significant effect. At game start, you don't know how to recognized these power sources, nor how to incorporate them if you could. With a little training however…
Beginning players are Apprentices. They start knowing 1 Formula from the starter list. They may then choose one of the following:
Depending on how you acquired your magic, you may have other starting benefits. These will be communicated to you individually.
Training your magic works along similar lines to skill training by gaining XP. To become an Expert, you will need 5XP. You automatically gain 1XP For any of the following actions:
Beginning players should also note the appearance their relics usually take.
Please turnsheet clearly when an action should grant you an XP, and when you think you have leveled up, so that we can keep track.
The traditional horseshoe-over-a-door is the most universal use of fate magic, but only one use of this formula. The target of this relic will, in the broadest sense, be lucky. The exact effect is entirely unpredictable, though eventually any recipient will attest to it. The luck could save your life, or result in a particularly tasty dinner one night (OOC: You will be lucky somehow, once per turn).
The only way that a lucky horseshoe is predictable is that it will never work if the person is relying on it.
This must be presented to the recipient on their birthday. If they accept it, they receive a blessing crafted into the item.
The words of the blessing are up to you, but must be honestly intended. The blessing will manifest three times, generally when needed, after which the relic is powerless. A more generally worded blessing is more potent, as fate has a habit of twisting blessings unexpectedly. A blessing of health, wealth and happiness is a typical safe favorite.
While crafting the relic, you concentrate on a fate you wish to befall your victim as long as the relic is intact, fate will work to bring your curse to fruition. By its nature, this relic is very imprecise. It may take years to materialize, or not happen quite how you intended. 'May you be cut with knives' could result in a nick while shaving. 'May your eyes be plucked out' may only happen when a raven finds the corpse a decade later.
Rest assured, eventually the curse will hit, and hit up to three times. A carefully chosen curse can encourage things along, as will a less ambitious curse. For example, 'may your footing slip' would be working with the universe if the target were a mountain climber.
This relic must be crafted into a weapon of some sort. When wielded against the attuned target its effect can be rather unnerving. It will seem to naturally find gaps in their armor. It will pierce deeper, fly farther, or hit harder. Stories tell of wielders, clearly outmatched, tripping over a root and accidentally executing their foe.
As with all relics, it is only effective against the specified target. Against any other foe, the weapon is perfectly ordinary.
Unlike most relic, this has two targets, and ties their fortunes together. In some way, the two people will become important to each other. An enmity might grow between them, or a love. It could mean that one will happen upon the solution to the other's problem, or it could mean that they just keep on bumping into each other.
Before Red String is effective, both targets must have touched the relic.