Wizardry
Wizards bend the forces of magic to their will by shaping runes of power. They gather ritual scrolls with these runes, competing fiercely with other Wizards for knowledge and power. Wizards power their magic with internal reservoirs of energy, called Fatigue.
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Wizardry
As a form of magic, Wizardry offers a wider range of effects, particularly unusual utility effects, than any other magic. Wizards must have Ritual Formulas in order to cast their spells, and can cooperate to cast more powerful spells. Rituals have a chance of failure and backlash based on the player’s ability to shape the rune successfully with the bones available to them. Many rituals offer more than one activation of a spell upon completion of the ritual in exchange for this risk.
Bones
Wizards form the runes of their spells with a double-six set of domino bones. Objects other than domino bones are possible with Plot permission, though standard dominoes make Cooperative Casting with other players much more convenient. Players store bones in pouches or other containers from which they can draw bones at random when they cast spells.
A Wizard's set of bones is a tagged item and can be stolen, but once a Wizard has created his first set of bones, it is trivially easy to create another; a Wizard can create a new set of bones at no cost once per event and once per BGA. (Do not harass Production Marshals for more tags unnecessarily.)
When a character spends character points on Wizardry this is referred to as “buying bones” or “buying Fatigue”. The meaning is the same: the character is able to draw more bones for the purpose of casting rituals. As a character accumulates Fatigue, the number of bones they can draw out of their pouch diminishes.
For example, Miranda has advanced to fifteen (15) bones. When she begins her first ritual in a day, she draws out fifteen (of the twenty-eight in the bag). She decides to cast the Cruel Iron Shackle of Aran-Shyr, and successfully completes this ritual. She puts all fifteen (15) bones back in her bag. The Cruel Iron Shackle of Aran-Shyr has a Fatigue cost of one (1), so when she begins her next ritual, she draws out fourteen (14) bones.
Novice Wizardry & Sense Magic - 20XP
Prerequisite: None
You can initiate Rituals, and you have 5 Bones.
You attune to a Wizard's Focus and you may cast cantrips from it.
Additionally, the Sense Magic skill is included in your purchase of Novice Wizardry.
Bone 6 - 4XP
Prerequisite: Novice Wizardry
You have a total of six (6) Bones to use while casting Rituals.
Bone 7 - 4XP
Prerequisite: Bone 6
You have a total of seven (7) Bones to use while casting Rituals.
Bone 8 - 4XP
Prerequisite: Bone 7
You have a total of eight (8) Bones to use while casting Rituals.
Bone 9 - 5XP
Prerequisite: Bone 8
You have a total of nine (9) Bones to use while casting Rituals.
Bone 10 - 5XP
Prerequisite: Bone 9
You have a total of ten (10) Bones to use while casting Rituals.
Bone 11 - 5XP
Prerequisite: Bone 10
You have a total of eleven (11) Bones to use while casting Rituals.
Bone 12 - 6XP
Prerequisite: Bone 11
You have a total of twelve (12) Bones to use while casting Rituals.
Bone 13 - 6XP
Prerequisite: Bone 12
You have a total of thirteen (13) Bones to use while casting Rituals.
Bone 14 - 6XP
Prerequisite: Bone 13
You have a total of fourteen (14) Bones to use while casting Rituals.
Improved Wizardry Focus - 10XP
Prerequisite: 14 Bones
Your Focus changes to one of the two Improved Foci based on your starting Focus. See the Focus Options Table for more information.
Bone 15 - 8XP
Prerequisite: Bone 14
You have a total of fifteen (15) Bones to use while casting Rituals.
Bone 16 - 8XP
Prerequisite: Bone 15
You have a total of sixteen (16) Bones to use while casting Rituals.
Bone 17 - 10XP
Prerequisite: Bone 16
You have a total of seventeen (17) Bones to use while casting Rituals.
Bone 18 - 10XP
Prerequisite: Bone 17
You have a total of eighteen (18) Bones to use while casting Rituals.
Bone 19 - 10XP
Prerequisite: Bone 18
You have a total of nineteen (19) Bones to use while casting Rituals.
Bone 20 - 12XP
Prerequisite: Bone 19
You have a total of twenty (20) Bones to use while casting Rituals.
Bone 21 - 12XP
Prerequisite: Bone 20
You have a total of twenty-one (21) Bones to use while casting Rituals.
Bone 22 - 12XP
Prerequisite: Bone 21
You have a total of twenty-two (22) Bones to use while casting Rituals.
Bone 23 - 15XP
Prerequisite: Bone 22
You have a total of twenty-three (23) Bones to use while casting Rituals.
Bone 24 - 15XP
Prerequisite: Bone 23
You have a total of twenty-four (24) Bones to use while casting Rituals.
Bone 25 - 15XP
Prerequisite: Bone 24
You have a total of twenty-five (25) Bones to use while casting Rituals.
Bone 26+ - 15XP
Prerequisite: Bone 25
You have a total of twenty-six (26) Bones.
You may purchase this skill as many times as desired for one (1) additional Bone with each purchase.
Wizardry Tier Cost
Focus
Most Rituals imbue spells into a Wizard’s Focus, which allows the wizard to activate that spell at a later time. All Foci must be phys-repped, and the phys-rep must be approved. Player creativity in the appearance of your Focus is strongly encouraged. You must always carry the tag for your Focus. A Focus is immediately recognizable as such by any Wizard, or by any character with the Sense Magic skill.
Any initiated Wizard can replace a lost or Shattered Focus with five (5) minutes of Roleplay and access to domino Bones. Spell activations stored in a lost or Shattered Focus are not accessible through the replacement Foci. Foci are personal, and cannot be traded from one character to another. Spells imbued into a Focus are available only to the wizard attuned to that Focus. Foci are immune to Break and Shatter effects from the five Aspects of Essence, but can be affected by Kal’tov or Kal’inokh Break or Shatter effects.
Wizards can only bind themselves to one Focus. A Wizard is not locked into keeping the same Focus forever. If you ever wish to change your Basic Focus or your Improved Focus choice, it is possible to do so through In-Play means. Players are encouraged to investigate and interact with other characters in the story to learn how best to accomplish this goal for their character. If you have any questions or are unsure how to proceed, please reach out to Citadel Staff to point you in the correct direction for your character’s goal.
Basic Focus
A Wizard creates their first Focus during their initiation, chosen from one of the five types (Focus Options Table). Not only is a Focus necessary to store your spells, a Focus also grants you one (1) or more cantrips, which are basic spells that quickly refresh. The cantrips in a Focus refresh automatically - meaning you are able to cast them again - as long as you have not cast a cantrip from your focus for one (1) minute. Once you have cast a cantrip from your Focus a total of three (3) times, then you must wait for your Focus to Refresh before you can cast either effect again.
Cantrip charges don’t accumulate. For example, if you refresh your Gravesoil Focus, it returns to three (3) Earth Darts, regardless of how many you used before refreshing it. The same is true of Improved Foci, below.
Improved Focus
After you buy your 14th Bone, you can buy the Improved Wizardry Focus skill, which transforms your Focus into a stronger form. The Wizard chooses which one (1) of the two (2) possible higher forms for their Focus. For example, the Skyblade Focus can transform into either a Crown of the Moon or a Speaker of the Will Focus.
An Improved Focus still acts as a Focus of its original type. For example, a Cenotaph of Three Sisters Focus is still considered a Gravesoil Focus. You can find Rituals In-Play that grant spells that refresh on a Short Rest to Improved Foci.
Focus Options Table
Focus Benefit
Rituals may include a Focus Benefit - an extra bonus for casting the spell if the wizard is bonded to a specific focus.
For example, in the spell listed below - Amarin’s Purgation of Mortal Frailty - if a wizard has the Bound Malediction focus, then they would receive the Focus Benefit when they cast this spell. In this spell’s case, the Focus Benefit allows you to add a Flurry tagline to one of the Light Cleanse effects you gained by casting the spell.
If a Wizard has an Improved Focus, they still gain the Focus Benefit of the original Basic Focus. However, some spells may require Improved Foci for their Focus Benefit (which will be clearly noted on the spell).
Amarin's Purgation of Mortal Frailty
Type: Battle
Number of Bones: 9
Cost: 1
Tagline on Cast: Imbue Focus with Light Cleanse
Tagline on Activation: Activate Light Cleanse
Description: You imbue your focus with 1 charge of Light Cleanse. At the time of activation, you can expend 1 charge of Weaken from the focus of any caster in the working to 2 additional charges of Light Cleanse, as many times as you want.
Focus: Bound Malediction
Focus Benefit: One activation of Light Cleanse that you imbue with this spell gains the Flurry tagline.
Conjoin Benefit: The first caster to your right gains 1 charge of Light Cleanse if they have a charge of Weaken in their focus, or if any caster in the working is currently Weakened.
Backlash: If you begin this spell but cannot complete it, you release a malediction into the working. One caster in the working becomes Disrupted to Light for 1 hour. This Disrupt can't be Cleansed by magic. One caster in the working imbues a Light Weaken into their focus.
Activating Spells from a Focus
To activate a spell that has been imbued into a Focus, touch your Focus, speak the spell’s tagline on activation (as specified in the ritual formula), and throw a packet. The tagline typically takes the form of “Activate (Source) (Effect),” though some spells add descriptors such as Poison.
See the Effect List for more information on Taglines, Sources, Effects, and Descriptors. Wizards do not require any additional incantation to activate their spells. If struck during the delivery of the tagline, Concentration on the spell would be broken and the spell is lost.
Casting Spells Alone
In order to cast a ritual, the caster must have the ritual formula in plain view. The ritual formula shows the pattern that the caster must form with domino bones. From your bag of domino bones, draw out as many as your Fatigue score allows, less any Fatigue you have already spent since the last Reset. Even if you have bought more than twenty-five (25) Fatigue, however, you may never draw more than twenty-five bones; additional Fatigue acts as a buffer against Fatigue lost to rituals.
You must connect matching domino ends together into the shape of the ritual’s rune. If successful, you imbue spells into your Focus or cast effects directly on targets, as shown in the Description of the ritual formula. You take the listed amount of Fatigue, reducing the number of bones you draw when casting spells later in the day.
Backlash
If you cannot complete the ritual (because the bones drawn make it impossible due to not enough matching ends), walk away from the ritual without completing it, take a Disrupt effect before completing it, or fall Unconscious before completing it, you immediately suffer the Backlash described in the ritual formula. You do not take the normal Fatigue for casting the spell. In Conjoined or cooperatively cast spells, the whole ritual backlashes if any of the characters casting it walk away from the ritual without completing it, suffer a Disrupt effect before completing it, or fall Unconscious before completing it.
Cooperative Casting
Wizards can choose to share Bones between each other while casting spells. They tie their fates together, but also give themselves more flexibility and a greater chance to be successful at casting a spell.
More details on Cooperative Casting COMING SOON!
Conjoined Casting
There is an additional form of cooperative casting, called Conjoined Casting, in which the wizards attempt to complete more than one spell at a time by joining their glyphs together. Conjoined benefits usually grant an additional boon to “the first caster to your right”, so upon deciding to Conjoin Cast, the casters agree to a counterclockwise progression of the spell-glyphs. A single Wizard can initiate more than one spell at a time using Conjoined Casting. This allows an individual wizard to Conjoin Cast alone, as the condition “the first caster to your right,” would apply to themselves.
Spell-glyphs should be laid out to touch the next glyph in the sequence in at least one point. The normal rules of domino matching apply.
Backlashing any spell in the ritual backlashes every spell in the ritual.
Common Spells
Amarin’s Purgation of Mortal Frailty – 9 bones, 1 Fatigue, 1 charge of Light Cleanse
Burning Cinders to Chasten the Unworthy – 7 bones, 1 Fatigue, 3 charges of Fire Dart
Cruel Iron Shackle of Aran-Shyr – 8 bones, 1 Fatigue, 2 charges of Earth Snare Foot
Encircling Fortress of the Seven Fathers – 14 bones, 2 Fatigue, 2 charges of Earth Ward against Weapons
Howling Gale of the Nine Spears – 8 bones, 1 Fatigue, 3 charges of Air Dart
Lore of the Unburied Ones – 14 bones, 2 Fatigue, 1 charge of Earth Speak with Dead
Naleth’s Torrent of Wrath – 12 bones, 2 Fatigue, 1 charge of Flurry Fire Arrow
Proud Might of Ancient Hills – 12 bones, 1 Fatigue, 1 charge of Earth Strength
Radiant Balm of Temacha – 6 bones, 1 Fatigue, 3 charges of Light Accelerate Healing
Rushing Waters of the Lost Mountain – 6 bones, 1 Fatigue, 3 charges of Water Accelerate Healing
Tempering Coals of Serav – 10 bones, 1 Fatigue, 1 charge of Fire Ward against Destruction
Tethered Star of the Ora – 4 bones, 1 Fatigue, 6 charges of Light Glow
Gaining New Spells
The three most common ways wizards gain new spells are:
Trading with other wizards, in which case they will need scribes to duplicate spells for them.
Through research of new spells or old spells that have been lost, which requires some combination of money, Lore skills, BGAs, solving In-Play puzzles, and additional resources; or
Through capturing the spellbook of an enemy wizard, certainly the riskiest of the three options.
There are far more rituals available in the world than the list shown above. The text included in ritual formulas may offer clues about rare rituals, lost rituals, and rituals that could be created new.
Spell Types
There are four types of spells: Battle spells, Enchantment spells, Divination spells, and Metamagic spells.
Battle spells generally require the invoker to successfully strike the target of the spell with a spell packet for the spell to take effect. Any spell that does not require this will state so clearly in the spell’s description. When casting a spell, the spell packet must leave the invoker’s hand within two (2) seconds of completing the spell’s verbal component. No packet may be thrown until the spell’s verbal component has been completed.
A Battle spell that is a healing or curative spell is always Touch-cast. Hold a packet in one hand and bring it within two (2) inches of the target character; it is not necessary to make physical contact.
Enchantment spells are Touch-cast, and require one (1) minute of Concentration to activate out of a Focus. Scribes casting Sigilcraft spells are the exception to this rule, and may activate the Sigil as soon as they complete its drawing.
Divination spells allow a character to gather information beyond the evidence of their senses. They always require the presence of a Marshal. Most Divination spells allow one or more questions from a detailed list of questions.
Metamagic spells do not create any effects on their own, but modify other spells in a Conjoined Casting. Such a spell might alter the tagline and rules of any other spell in the casting, or have a highly variable effect based on the other spells in the casting.