Zarkany Magic

The magic system in Vicious Princes is something I’ve been working on for a while. It’s designed to go along with the scope and pace of the game–which is in days–but I’m thinking about trying to rip it out and paste it into my heartbreaker I’ve been running. Here is a first stab at that.

How does this work?

Gaining points

When you come upon a place of power, you can siphon from it with an hour’s meditation. You can siphon once per day, at either 7:00 in the morning or 7:00 in the evening (not fully sold on this part).

Anyone can siphon from a Place of Power. Some do it accidentally. The fire of rebellion in a human heart instinctively reaches out like a candle toward parchment.

The trick they teach is how to do it without blowing up.

Magic (as everyone knows) is violet. You can divide it into two spectra: Blue and Red.

To meditate, pick any number of d8s and roll them all.

• Every result of 8 siphons a point of blue magic from the place of power.
• Every result of 1 siphons a point of red magic from the place of power.
• Every result of 7 siphons a point of your choice from the place of power.

The points of magic you siphon remain with you until they’re used, 7 days have passed, or you siphon again.

Should you ever siphon more points of red magic than you have levels in Magician, you explode into violet flame, dying instantly. If you’re not a magician, you die as soon as you roll a single 1.

Spending points

You can spend a point to cast a spell of the same color. Without any training, there are two universal spells everyone can cast. I’ve posted the ones I’m thinking of using–maybe you’ve got another idea?

Blue spells are subtle in effect. They are capable of doing what a single trained adult can do, with either unnatural distance, unnatural materials, or unnatural speed.

• The Universal Blue Spell is Mage Hand.

Red spells are the miraculous and dramatic things for which magicians are known. With red magic, you may animate a corpse for 7 hours, conjure balls of fire, or swap bodies with wild beasts.

• The Universal Red Spell is Magic Missile.

To do anything more specific, you’ll need to be a magician, who can discover new folia of magic. Each folio gives you a swathe of things you can affect with blue magic, and a single powerful Red spell. Here are some example folia:

• Beast mage: Blue spells manipulate warm-blooded animals. Red spell: Swap bodies with a beast for 7 hours.
• Door mage: Blue spells manipulate doors and other openings. Red spell: Turn a door into a portal to a place you’ve been today, for 7 minutes.
• Mind mage: Blue spells manipulate perception. Red spell: Invent or delete a memory in someone’s head.
• Mirror mage: Blue spells manipulate light and reflection. Red spell: Draw two copies of yourself from a reflective surface. Lasts 7 minutes.
• Fire mage: Blue spells manipulate flame and heat. Red spell: Fireball.

The Nature of Zarkanian magic

Magic comes from Hell–before Great Old Orc burst from the Red Mountain and destroyed the old Lords of Zarkany, it didn’t exist. His rupture in the membrane of the world allowed it to seep through and outward, and Reality’s skin has scabbed but never healed. The places where the chaos bleeds through are the places of power. The leeches who suck from the world-wound are called magicians.

In most cities, there are two, perhaps three places of power, guarded with uncompromising zeal by the polity magicians.

In Zarkany there are thousands; new Places of Power lacerate themselves forth as quick as the city’s magi can drain them.

Places of Power & how they are born

A minor place of power comes into being with seven points’ worth of magic inside it. Four or five of these open every day in Zarkany. It’s easy to miss the birth of a minor place of power. Lightning strikes a nearby vane, a cat gives birth to a two-headed kitten.

A major place of power has seventy-seven points of magic. A new one opens once a month at most (though the rate has begun to increase). A major place announces itself with an unmissable portent. When a star falls from the sky onto a Chalktown shack, or the Red Mountain bubbles and erupts, or a Great Lord’s royal sepulcher shakes and howls are heard from within–then the city tears itself apart seeking the newborn font of Hell’s own sinew. The knowledge of such a place (the secret knowledge, especially) is priceless.