Magic and Religion

  TOC
1. Glossary
2. Magic Commonality

1. Glossary

Espiri: Master of the Old Ways (Gerrican)
Kadar: Ancestor Worshipper (master or not)
Benefits of the spells they knew and bonuses on their good skills
Rudi: Demon (rename) Worshipper Master
Ibo: Black Magic Master (Hun)
Gobi: Lich/Magus/Prophet of the Varamine sect and its derivatives
Inquistior: Position within a sect to capable of excommunicating members from the sect
Bretwalde: Major Chief in Teutan

2. Magic Commonality

Overview: Characters have Spirit (the permanent amount) and Mana (the temporary amount regenerating at dawn daily). Personal Mana (PM) is equal to Spirit until used in a spell.

Learning, Teaching, or Writing Spells: see Teach Spell

Spell Defense: Each spell cast at a target in a round rolls against the target's Personal Mana (PM) first. All the spells that overcome the target's PM then try to overcome the spell defenses in a manner similar to armor. Ex. 3 of the 4 Paralyze spells cast at a target in the round overcome the tartget's spirit. The total power of the 3 Paralyze spells is 9 vs. the target's Spell Shield 3 means 6 points get through, paralyzing a target with 6 hits or less or putting 6 points of paralysis on for a tougher target.

Potence (aka Anima Mundi, Vis, Juju, ru-mana, Soul of the World)

Potence is an intermediate magical power, less than one Spirit and more than one Mana. Uses for potence include suppling the mana to power one spell completely, adding to Time of a faithful spell, creating minor magic items (like potions), learning spells (except god spells, which cost no potence to learn).

Each character in Levar gains potence at the same time as everyone else every year (on New Year's Day.) The amount of Potence gained varies, but generally equals Spirit+Focus bonus. Some mystics and most members of the faithful have the ability to get an additional amount of Potence each year, based on the vows they take, see Vows and Potence. Remember that vows are not limited to members of the faithful.

Spell Power
The total magical strength of a spell for dispelling/removing/countering purposes is called the spell power. The spell power is equal to the cost in Mana for Mystic and Faithful spells. Spells of the gods have two spell power per point of spell. Faithful spells take three skill to generate one spell power (ex. 18 skill can cast spells up to spell power 6, which costs 6 mana.)

Personal Mana (PM)
Mana equal to a character's Spirit is used for defense against spells, spirits, and assorted other attacks. This Mana can be used to power magic, but will lower one's defense against the attacks described above. Personal Mana is recovered each day. Some special spells can cause PM to be lowered. If PM drops to -1, the charater passes out. After an hour of rest (or unconsciousness), a -1 PM returns to zero. If PM drops to -1 during spirit combat, the -1 PM combatant can be forced to loose one point of Spirit. PM cannot go below -1, but when PM recovers to zero and the character wakes and cannot or does not run away, the enemy Combat spirit could attack again.

Spell Durations
Mystic spells with duration last one continuous hour
Spells from Gods with temporal duration last one continuous day
Faithful spells with duration have a base continuous duration of one hour, but can be modified to last longer

Common Magic Spells: (all like spirit spells, one capacity to know, no skill)

Armor Enchant: self only, two Spirit for one increase of skin AP

Conjure [Spirit]: potence enchant. Used to conjure spirits, each spirit takes one potence to conjure and mana equal to its Spirit.

Fairie Sight: see spirits and auras.

Hit Enchant: spirit enchant. self only, one for one increase of body's hits

Mana Enchant: spirit enchant. self only, one for three reserve mana. This mana self regenerates.

Master [Spirit]: spirit and potence enchant. Main versions of this spell are Casting Spirit, Combat Spirit, and Mana Spirit. If the spell is forgotten to make room for other spells, the caster looses the knowledge and is not able to master that type of spirit, even spirits currently bound to the character (until the spell is relearned, costing another Potence.) This spell can be cast at a Spirit that is currently at zero PM for a cost of one Spirit to permanently have the capability to bind a spirit (of any type, just keep track of the total number of spirits one can Master). Mastering the spirit allows the caster to have the spirit provide a single capability on an ongoing basis. Spirits cannot be mastered if their Spirit is greater than caster's spirit, regardless of anyone's current PM. If the caster's Spirit increases and they wish to have more powerful spirits, they could Conjure new spirits to use their capability to bind on. (Note: The cost to link to Ancestral Masters, is 2 Spirit because they are not Mastered.)

Ritual: One hour to cast. Spell allows enchant or conjure spell to be cast as a ritual with more than one member. Additional members do not need to know the spell, but can use the spell to cast self only enchantments. Skill can be provided by any member of the group, but maximum effective Enchant in a Ritual is 15, meaning a 1:1 ratio of Spirit spent to effective creation.

Spell Enchant: spirit enchant. self only, increases maximum spell power. Does not count against maximum spells known. Example, a Faithful caster knows Weapon Damage 24 and has enchanted Weapon Damage 4. Normal spell power with 24 would be 8 (24/3) with a 4 addition for total spell power of 12. Mystic casters could achieve the same effect by increasing Capacity and learning a more powerful spell. Mystic spellcasters and Worshippers of the gods who have reached their maximum will use this too. Example, a worshipper with Spirit 4 and who is limited by his god to 3 power spells desires to use Spell Enchant to enchant spells over 3 power.

Spirit Enchant: Spirit enchant. increases maximum spirit, but does not increase spirit. For example, a character with 5 Spirit (racial maximum for the character) does one spirit enchant, lowering Spirit to 4 and capacity to 6. They can now raise their Spirit to 6.

Teach Spell: Used to teach a follower any one common mystic spell (even variable, regardless of level), common magic spell (those listed above), or faithful spell. Normally any spell can be taught at any level (maximum spell power equal to Spirit), but Faithfull spells can only be taught if the caster (teacher) currently knows the spell. Only one spell can be learned per week normally. To learn a spell, the person being learned must spend one Potence to learn the spell. Literate Mystics and Faithful can use this spell to write a specific spell in a tome, an action that takes two weeks time. These tomes can be used to learn the spell from without needing the teacher. To succeed in learning the spell from a tome, the person must sucessfully roll under their read skill for the appropriate language.

Common Spirit Types

Ancestral Masters combine the abilities of Casting Spirit, Combat Spirit, Mana Spirit, and Spell Spirit. Ancestors are mastered by the spell Master Ancestor. Ancestral Masters cannot be Mastered, but could be allied by spending 2 spirit to link them.

Ancestor: Ancestors can be of any type listed below.

Casting Spirit: Spirit can cast any spell the master knows (but not those in Spell Spirits), using the spirit or master's mana or the master's potence, but not the mana from other spirits the master has mastered or any mana the master has enchanted as reserve mana.

Combat Spirit: This spirit is capable of initiating spirit combat. If it takes an enemy to -1 PM, it can cause the target to pass out and/or loose one Spirit.

Mana Spirit: This spirit supplies mana for the master's spells. Mana can be drawn from multiple mana spirits to power a spell, so only the grand total need be tracked.

Spell Spirit: This spirit allows the caster to transfer spells (any but God spells) to the spirit. The purpose of doing this is to be able to know more spells beyond what one's capacity is. The cost is Spirit instead of Capacity skill.

Relics, Idolitry, and Iconography
Relics are wide spread from any being that has residual parts that still have power. Ancestor worshippers wish to bury or burn their dead, for they have access to the dead's power unless the ancestor's tomb is looted. Because the huns enslaved or destroyed the dead buried in goblin lands, goblins have few ancient ancestors (that remain sane or free) and now burn their dead. Burning the dead is not popular in the holy lands, mainly from tradition but also because of the desire to have relics.

Polytheistic religions have extensive idolitry and iconography. Because of the corruption and false idolitry, the faithful try to restrict idolitry and unsuccessfully frown on iconography. Although mystic traditions do not emphasize idols, pilgrimages, or iconography, most of these things have powers originating from the mystic tradition (and usurped or taken over by the gods or the faithful.) Idols and Icons have actual powers associated with them and can grant these powers to those visiting them on pilgrimage or owning them.

 Regardless of the position of the faithful hierarchy on idolotry and especially iconography, prohibitions on these are incompatible with the needs of the goblin method of faithful worship. Goblin iconography is essential for the conversion of goblin demons into faithful apostles and other figures integrated with the beliefs of the faithful.