As we begin our second week of the campaign, I've got another sneak peek of material coming in a few weeks to backers. As a reminder, backers of this project are able to download and read the draft manuscript and will have access to the entire text of the book as it exists now before the end of the campaign - before any pledges are processed or payments collected.
I'll be back tomorrow with our third and final section of Charms, but for today, let's dream about Sorcery!
Sorcery in Autochthonia
The Eight Nations know sorcery as an ancient art, one that predates the Great Maker’s exodus. It is spoken of with a mixture of reverence, suspicion, and mystery. Alchemical sorcerers may rightly wield such power, but its rare mortal practitioners wield magics that could threaten the Octet’s status quote. Folklore stigmatizes it as a selfish, egoistic power that comes from within, in contrast to Champions forged by the strength of their community. Many sorcerers, Alchemical and mortal alike, see themselves as the heirs to an enigmatic legacy, exchanging scraps of apocrypha from before humanity came to Autochthonia in addition to more recent sorcerous discoveries.
The Alchemical Exalted are sorcery’s most numerous practitioners, but even for them, sorcery is often regarded as an esoteric pursuit. Some machine spirits are initiated into the art, including a few especially inquisitive or well-suited First Circle machine spirits.
Mortal sorcerers are as rare in Autochthonia as they are in Creation. There are few established sorcerous schools or traditions among the Octet, and fewer still that would admit mortals. Mortal sorcerers most commonly discover the secrets of sorcery through communion with the Great Maker and his emanations. Each nation has its own attitude towards mortal sorcerers, but most expect them to put their talents at the Tripartite Assembly’s disposal. In some cities and metropoli, they’re assigned labors worthy of their sorcerous talents; in others, they’re recruited into units of elite sorcerer-agents. Those who serve their nation with enthusiasm and dedication may be regarded as minor saints with holy purposes; those who abuse their gifts meet harsh censure, including exile or execution as a Lumpen or a voidbringer.
Necromancy is all but unheard of in Autochthonia, its Essence anathematic to that of the Great Maker. Its known practitioners are almost entirely gremlins, with the mightiest of them being corrupted Alchemical Apostates. For more information on necromancy, see Abyssals, p. XX.
The Canon Protocols Many spells from before Autochthon’s exodus are maintained in a text called the Canon Protocols, sometimes included among the chapters of the Tome of the Great Maker. While a recorded spell’s names may sometimes depart from Creation’s terminology, its natures does not. The Autochthonians know Flight of the Brilliant Raptor as the Missile of Shrieking Flame, but it still conjures a firebird — though even savants might mistake it for some strange insect from lost Creation. Other “common” texts exist, from the esoteric Circle-in-Circle, whose students must first discover how to the read it, to the borderline heretical Rathemar Treatise.
Sorcerous Initiations
Autochthonian sorcerers walk strange paths through a Realm of Brass and Shadows, cultivating the clockwork enlightenment of the Machine God or studying the fundamental mysteries of the cosmos and the Grand Design. For Alchemicals, their sorcerous initiation is given form in their Man-Machine Weaving Engine. Designing, creating, and installing it are often the culmination of a sorcerer’s path, or the penultimate step before enlightenment.
Storytellers and players should feel free to adapt sorcerous initiations from other Exalted books to Autochthonia, altering them as needed to fit the Realm of Brass and Shadows. An Alchemical who studies under the Subminister Murogam, the Living Foundry, could represent this tutelage using the Pact with an Ifrit Lord initiation (Exalted, p. 467). Other initiations need no adaptation, like the Soul-Perfecting Elixir (Exalted, p. 469). Likewise, Autochthonian initiations can be adapted for Creation.
Arcanometric Calculus
The sorcerer-savant Pursuit of Infinite Accuracy pioneered this field of esoteric mathematics, the study of impossible mystery-theorems and the gematria of numbers not yet discovered. Its practitioners, known as Calculists, begin their study with a rigorous curriculum of advanced mathematics, focusing on the metaphysical geometries and dynamic, non-linear formulae that describe key patterns of Essence. There is no single formula for enlightenment — each Calculist’s initiation is a singular epiphany into the calculus of the cosmos, as months or years of learning and experimentation crystallize into transcendent understanding.
Shaping Rituals
Energy Redistribution Equation: The sorcerer is tattooed with intricate geometric circuit-sigils that can channel and redirect Essence flows. Once per scene, she can charge them with up to (higher of Essence or 3) sorcerous motes by drawing in ambient Essence from a willing metropolis or a demesne, manse, industrial organ, or similar site of power. In the Reaches, this can also be done with a successful roll to tap an energy-bearing conduit (p. XX). These motes last until the end of the scene. She can also charge the circuit-sigils to gain this bonus when she takes damage from an energy- or Essence-based attack or hazard.
Infinite Theorem Recitation: The sorcerer retreats into meticulous calculations, repeating a litany of esoteric formulae and ineffable proofs. After spending eight hours performing these calculations,, she rolls (Intelligence + Lore), banking sorcerous motes equal to her successes. She need not perform all eight hours of study consecutively. These sorcerous motes last until the end of the story or her next use of this ritual. The sorcerous mote can add a non-Charm die on the roll by doubling the amount of time required. She can additional non-Charm die by doubling that time, and so on, up to a maximum of five dice after 256 hours.
Sublime Geometric Array: Once per scene, the sorcerer may summon an array of concentric circles and geometric patterns formed from pure Essence when she takes a Shape Sorcery action. This circle extend to close range when she takes a Shape Sorcery action to begin shaping a spell. So long as the sorcerer remains within the circle, she adds a non-Charm success on all Shape Sorcery actions.
Merits
Demiurge Line Geometries (•): The sorcerer can make a difficulty 3 (Intelligence + Lore) roll after a few minutes of calculation to analyze local Essence flows. Success lets her detect the presence of a demesne, manse, or industrial organ within (Occult x3) miles, along with the distance and direction to it. If she spends an hour performing more complex equations, she can attempt a difficulty 5 roll to sense such sights within (Occult x20) miles. She can attempt to detect a specific site, or search for whichever is nearest to her.
Extraspatial Reasoning (•): The sorcerer has an intuitive awareness of her position and orientation within in a structure or enclosed area. She must be aware of its general shape or layout, whether through her own observation or based on maps or similar information. She also adds an automatic success on rolls that involve navigating or finding her way through such a space, detecting hidden rooms and passages, or overcoming magic that distorts space or direction.
Clarity of Intellect (••): Once per day, the sorcerer can add (Occult) dice on a Lore roll that involves math or a Craft roll that could benefit from an understanding of mathematics, such as architecture. This never applies on attack rolls.
The Mysteries of Ixagrad
Deep in the Endless Smoke, there is a perfect pearl of habitability. Inside it dwells the subminister Ixagrad, the Miasmatic Parfumier, who tends to the exact composition of the toxic vapors within her home. She is a spindly creature with limbs of elongated bronze, tarnished by startling purple rust. Her voice is a choral susurrus, as if each word had ten speakers. Some of her students seek her out in pursuit the poisonous enlightenment she holds. Others receive visions from her, drawing them along a narrow current of safety into Ixagrad’s garden of toxic flowers. There, she teaches them her mysteries — secrets of medicine, poison, doubt, and purgation. When they are ready, she offers a course of increasingly potent hallucinogenic toxins that will burst open the gates of the mind…or prepare their soul for another attempt in their next incarnation.
Shaping Rituals
Enlightened Cruelty Epiphany: Once per day, the sorcerer’s player may invoke this shaping ritual to ask the Storyteller for a cruel lesson.a bleak truth revealed by Ixagrad in an omen or nightmare. Some example lessons include “everything ends,” “no one is loyal forever,” or “what you love will wither.”. The sorcerer’s player may incorporate that lesson into a stunt, gaining (higher of Integrity or Medicine) sorcerous motes that last for the rest of the scene. She gains an additional (Essence) motes if she takes a Minor Principle embodying this lesson. Each lesson may only be used once.
Toxic Soul Alchemy: When the sorcerer rolls to resist a poison, she gains sorcerous motes equal to its duration, even if she failed the roll. They last until the end of the day. She may bank up to (Essence + Stamina) motes from this ritual at once.
Poisonous Apothecary Delight: Once per scene, when the sorcerer diagnoses or treats an ailing character, she banks sorcerous motes equal to her successes on the roll,, savoring her patient’s agonies. She gains an additional (Essence) sorcerous motes if her patient had a total penalty of −4 or higher from wounds, disease, poisoning, or similar ailments, or if he suffers a Major or Defining disease. These motes last until the end of the story or the next time she uses this ritual.
Merits
Hidden Face of Dread (•): The sorcerer can reflexively transform her features into a smoky, wraithsome appearance, gaining the Hideous Merit until the end of the scene (Exalted, p. 162).
Smog Like Sweet Perfume (•): The sorcerer can breathe smoke as if it was clean air. She adds a non-Charm success on rolls to resist environmental hazards or poisons based on smoke.
Transcendent Miasma Mastery (••): When the sorcerer casts a spell that creates or manipulates poison or smoke, she reduces its cost by three sorcerous motes. If it’s her control spell, she may lower its Willpower cost by one once per day.
Terrestrial Circle Spells
Aperture of Rarified Breath
Cost: 10sm, 1wp Keywords: None Duration: One scene With a clap louder than the most clamorous factories, the sorcerer pierces a tiny rift in reality from which pours a whistling cloud of superheated steam.
The sorcerer opens the Aperture of Rarified Breath at a point within long range that she can perceive. It constantly expels superheated steam, an environmental hazard that extends out to short range with difficulty 3 and Damage 1L/round. Anyone fails their roll against the hazard is also knocked back one range band away from the aperture. Objects and structures anchored into the ground are usually too heavy for the steam to push back, but they may still suffer damage from debris and pressure.
The sorcerer may choose to tap a less perilous reserve of steam when she casts this spell. This reduce the hazard’s damage to zero, though the hazard still causes knockback. Sorcerers sometimes use this as a source of fresh air and water in otherwise inhospitable regions. A single casting can provide air for up to a dozen people within range, though it’s uncomfortably warm and humid. Collecting condensed vapor as potable isn’t always possible, but it provides enough water for a few people to drink for a day under optimal circumstances.
Control: A faint vapor rises from the sorcerer’s lips when she speaks. She adds (Essence) dice on rolls to resist steam-based environmental hazard, and always succeeds on rolls to resist the aperture opened when she casts this spell. She also adds this bonus on rolls to resist airborne disease, and can add it on a Medicine roll to treat disease if she exhales steam as part of the stunt to do so.
Distortion (8): The aperture contracts, reducing its environmental hazard to close range and reducing the hazard’s difficulty by one.
