The Storms are wild, vibrant and chaotic. They are the source of all motion, all energy, all life. Reflecting this, the magic of the Storms focusses on manifesting the energies of the Storm; the Stormtouched use this primordial chaos to create new matter, destroy their foes, and imbue items with the energy of the Storm.
Among the many kinds of energy that flows from the Storms, each Stormtouched will have one that particularly resonates to them. When you create your character, you can choose one kind of energy; all of your rituals will then be tinged with that energy, granting you an additional minor edge from that element where applicable, or a minor penalty if the added element is a hindrance. Additionally, you will get a minor edge towards defending against that kind of energy.
Pretty much any kind of energy you can think of comes from the Storms, and so could be chosen. For example, from the Storms comes Light and Dark, Water and Lightning, Fire and Ice, Radiation and even the warping power of Chaos.
At character creation, choose a kind of energy. Your rituals will be tinged with that energy, giving you a bonus in some situations and a negative in others.
There are a certain number of things you can do with the Storm's power;
The many wrecked fragments and communities across the world testify to the Storm's destructive power. By shaping the chaos of the Storm, the Stormtouched can fry their foes with lightning, destroy their shelters with a blast of acid, and then incinerate them with a rain of fire.
| Charges | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Enough energy to harm a person (Minor Edge in combat related action). |
| 2 | Enough energy to kill a person (Significant Edge in combat-related action). |
| 3 | Enough energy to harm a large group (Major Edge in combat-related action). |
By opening a conduit to the Storms within an item, the Stormtouched can give that item some of the properties of the Storm; a sword could cut through armour like the strongest acid, or a rock could be magnetised to point towards a certain precious ore.
| Charges | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Item has been imbued with energy of the level of a small magnet (Level 1 Heirloom). |
| 3 | Item has been imbued with the energy of a roaring fire (Level 2 Heirloom). |
| 5 | Item has been imbued with the energy of a lightning strike (Level 3 Heirloom). |
It is risky but possible for one of the Stormtouched to imbue themselves, increasing the amount of energy that flows into them from the Storms. This adds one to the amount of charges you generate every turn, at the cost of 2 charge the first time, 4 charges the second time, 6 charges the third time and so on.
The shifting patterns and colours of the Storm are just a pretty sight to most of the world, but to those who have a special connection to the Storm can see messages hidden within, giving clues about what is to come. The Stormtouched can use their stored energy to attune their minds to the Storm, reading in the clouds hints of the future, or answers to their questions.
The Storms can give wisdom only on things within their domain; on the new and the novel, on that unsheltered under the sky, on energy and motion. Any answer you get is likely to be phrased in those terms.
As you spend more charges, you get a clearer answer from the Storms. The more general your question, the more vague your answer.
More prosaically, the Storms have a great impact on people's lives simply through the weather they create. Those who are Stormtouched can take advantage of this, altering the movement of the clouds to direct the weather as they desire. This ability can be used to give a struggling farming community a new lease of life, or to ruin the production of a project with thunderstorms and acid rain. Bear in mind that little is more chaotic than the weather, and giving one person dark clouds could mean giving another a silver lining.
| Charges | Effect |
|---|---|
| 2 | Give a clan depressing weather for a season. |
| 4 | Give a clan an unnaturally good growing season. |
| 6 | Batter a clan with great storms of lightning and acid. |
Rather than spending charges to unleash energy, it is possible to absorb energy and get charges. This can be through taking the electricity from a lightning strike, or the heat from a fire. This can be used to regain charges after casting rituals, or to protect yourself from another Stormtouched. It is possible to set up complex rituals this way; e.g. using Manipulate the Storm to create a constant lightning storm in a certain area, then going there to absorb the lightning whenever you need charges.
In order to cast a Storm ritual, you must spend 2 AP and a certain number of charges. Charges represent the energy of the Storms that has been stored in you, and automatically increase as time goes on. The number of charges spent on a ritual will determine its effectiveness, as detailed in the tables for each ritual above.
As one of the Stormtouched, there are limits to how much energy you can hold and use at any time. The number of charges you can safely hold is double what you can safely spend in a ritual. If you go past this limit, whether by absorbing too much energy or by not using Storm magic often enough, your held charges are grounded into the area around you, causing highly unpredictable and dangerous effects and dropping you down to no held charges.
You start able to hold two charges safely, and able to spend one charge at a time.
By spending AP pushing your boundaries with Storm Magic, you can increase the number of charges you can safely hold. As a by-product of this, the amount of charges you can use in rituals will increase. The amount of charges you can use is half your charge limit, rounded down. It costs 2 AP to do this the first time, 3 the second, and so on.
Example: Milton the Stormtouched can currently hold 2 charges safely and cast with 1. He spends 2 AP, and can now hold 4 charges safely and cast with 2. By spending another 3 AP, he can hold 6 charges safely and cast with 3.
Note: you can only do this once a turn.
From your connection to the Storms, you naturally gain one charge a turn, though this can be increased through Imbuing rituals (see above). Charges gained from your connection to the Storms are formless energy, able to be used as energy of any kind for no penalty.
You can also gain charges through Catching energy found in the world, whether that be absorbing the heat from a furnace or the electrical energy of a lightning strike. Charges gained this way will be stored within you in the form that they were absorbed as; for example after absorbing the furnace's energy and the lightning strike you'd be left with one Fire charge and one Electrical charge. A ritual is more likely to succeed when it uses charges relevant to the ritual (i.e. launching a fireball with 2 Fire charges would be more effective that launching one with one fire and one ice charge).
By adding 1 AP to an action you are prepared to absorb any hazardous energy they come across in that action, whether that be fierce acid rain or an enemy Stormtouched trying to blind and sear them with light. Be warned that if you go over your charge limit, you will lose control over the charges you have stored, causing potentially destructive results.
By spending 2 AP, you can seek out a large source of energy, absorbing it as a charge. This way, you get to specify the type of charge gained, but you will only ever gain 1 and it takes more time.
Get one charge naturally a turn (potentially more).
Add 1 AP to an action to try to absorb charges during it.
Spend 2 AP to seek out and absorb a charge.