Rituals & Enchantments
Around the world, all civilizations have employed the magical practice in their own ways, for their own ends. The variations between techniques and methods seem innumerable, but there are five known constants.
Below are the fundamentals needed for each spell. When an arcanist casts a spell, it takes time for them to gather components, select a power source, a rune, and other essential items. Although it takes three successful rolls in the thread, flavor and the nature of their work means arcanists will generally prefer to take longer, allowing them to set up a ritual for the best possible effect. Hence, the slow casting time.
Arcanists begin by drawing, carving, laying down the circle. Then they draw their runes. After that, they place the components. Once it is all set up, they activate the ritual using a drop of their own blood. It does not need to be much, only a tiny drop, but arcanists are sometimes known for their dramatics.
After that, the ritual proceeds, much like a computer program runs as directed by its code. Stopping the process at this point is often more disastrous than allowing it to play out, as it usually means that an arcanist needs to break the circle.
When performing a ritual or scribing a spell, players use the keywords they've chosen for their arcanist character. Like the other Paths, you are welcome and encouraged to come up with as many interesting spells as you'd like for your arcanist to explore, within the bounds of those keywords. In-game, arcanists are not aware of their 'keywords'. They just know they have a specialty or a focus in certain areas of magic.
Arcanists may create rituals with keywords outside of their chosen keywords, but they always roll with the Circlebreaker Cinder pool with a Threshold of 5 due to unfamiliarity.
Ritual magic is a dangerous practice but the reward often outweighs the risk. Below are the consequences of failure. As with all things involving the mechanics of the Strike & Cinder system, regard these as guidelines and make the dice work for you. The way in which the ritual backfires and your character loses Luck are up to you in terms of flavor, timing in the thread, and other such elements.
Non-human or tainted humans, such as Possessed and Cursed, use their Path's Cinder pool. When they use their own blood, one keyword, magic or mundane, is randomly added to the ritual, causing it to have unexpected effects.
Although they could be practiced and knowledgable in the ritual arts, the Threshold for a non-human or tainted human is modified to a 5. Anything less than an extraordinary success as they're performing the ritual is considered a critical failure. A partial failure results in a catastrophic failure.
The Ritual Preparation Three successful rolls in separate posts.
A failed roll cannot be re-rolled, but it can be attempted again in the casters next post.
The Ritual Activation One Cinder roll to activate the ritual.
The POWER SOURCE must be specified.
The circle is the foundation of ritual magic. Both a gateway and a barrier, the circle, found everywhere in nature, was the natural choice for prehistoric arcanists. It can be made of chalk, bone, metal (excluding sky iron, or silver), or even just leaves. Arcanists in the Exchange often carry metal rings with them that they can throw down quickly to cast spells in the field. Other places in the world may have arcanists using rope or ceramic plates with runes inscribed around the edge. Ultimately, the material does not matter and is subject to the arcanist's preference. It should be noted that there is a risk of breaking the circle in the process of casting, so hardier materials are recommended.
In casting more than one spell at a time, such as in the case of a summoning and a binding spell, it is common for arcanists to draw multiple circles, with a concentric arrangement being best practice. Others may prefer interlocking circles. Results may vary.
Anything less than a complete circle is very likely to lead to disaster. Similarly, it is always recommended that the circle be as close to perfect as possible, which has led to a joke in the supernatural community that arcanists are the next largest consumer group of compasses after mathematicians and navigators. Should an arcanist's circle be incomplete, anything less than an extraordinary success is a critical failure. If the circle becomes broken mid-ritual, the effect is an immediate and catastrophic failure.
Catastrophic Failure - The nightmare of every arcanist. A broken circle means dealing with pure, untethered magic. Directionless and destructive, the backlash affects everyone and everything in the immediate area. Roll Cinder: On an extraordinary success, the arcanist is able limit the effect to themselves, allowing the ritual to reduce their Luck to 1. Otherwise, it affects everyone in the thread, reducing their Luck by half, rounded up.
The focus, the sacrifice. Arcanists need up to five components to engage each of their five senses, although casters who lack one of the senses can and do manage with less. These components are placed in or around the sigil circle and these items are consumed in the process of casting.
Components do not include an item being enchanted, or the potion being brewed.
Components vary by caster, but should be relevant to the spell they intend to cast. Other than these parameters, the components are bespoke and arcanists can often be spotted toting large bags full of their preferred components.
For example, one necromancer will choose bone meal, a burial shroud, a jar of embalming fluid, myrrh, and the echoes of a tomb caught in a handkerchief, while another will choose a raven's skull, a black feather, a drop of asp blood, flowers, and chanting a dirge. You're more than welcome to design your own spells and needed components.
If a ritualist is missing two or more components, the threshold for the ritual increases by 1. So, instead of 4, they need 5 or higher on each die in their Cinder roll for it to count as a success.
Thousands upon thousands of runes exist, each with their own special meaning. The origin of this eldritch alphabet is a mystery lost to time, but evidence shows that it is ancient, and runes vary by culture, language, and region.
These runes are carved within and without the sigil circle, programming the spell's intent, duration, and potency. An arcanist must carve, draw or otherwise write these runes accurately, lest they write a rune wrong and produce unexpected results while casting.
Experienced arcanists often learn how to craft their own spells with the runes, while apprentice arcanists will follow the directions in grimoires or spellbooks.
Runes can also be used independently of ritual spell casting. Often, they are carved into items to make them capable of being enchanted with a ritual. The better the caster, the more power an enchanted item will hold, and for longer. Some ancient artifacts have lasted centuries, created by a very powerful arcanist, or a group of arcanists.
Other times, they are drawn as warding symbols or perhaps even as traps - a single explosive rune in sigil circle drawn in chalk on a wall makes a devastating trap.
This part of the spell is the place with the greatest margin for error and where less experienced arcanists fail.
An arcanist's signature. The caster's blood dripped on the sigil circle is the only known way of activating the ritual.
A drop of blood on the sigil circle is used to seal the circle and to begin the ritual. This is what precludes nonhumans and the cursed from using ritual magic as their blood will introduce an unknown variable to the spell, warping the magic and bringing out potentially destructive results.
Nonhumans can use someone else’s blood but the risks will be as noted below.
Substituting your own blood: Should an arcanist use another PCs blood for a ritual, it randomly introduces one of that PC's keywords, regardless of whether or not the combination works. If the blood is non-human or tainted, the Threshold of all rolls are increased to 5. As a result, the ritual will not function as intended, but use this as a guideline for the possible disastrous effect or the way it fizzles.
Everything needs energy, including magic. For their rituals, arcanists can call on a variety of energy sources based on the size and complexity of the ritual; thunderstorms, a burning fire, or perhaps even the electrical power grid. The power or force of the energy source often defines the potency of the ritual, especially when the power source is active during the ritual. Passive energy sources are ill-suited for rituals and result in lackluster enchantments.
If there is no available power source or the power source is too weak, the spell will default to draining energy from the caster. Seasoned Arcanists know that going without an energy source should only be done when there is no other choice. A careless caster may find themselves near unconcious or killed by neglecting to find an appropriate energy source.
Should an arcanist cast without an appropriate energy source, it takes them down to 1 Luck. If they roll a Partial Failure during such a ritual, this effect applies to everyone in the vicinity of the ritual.
Allowing a ritual to drain from the caster is physically debilitating. Arcanists have reported various physical effects ranging from loss of limb coordination, symptoms of blood loss, symptoms of a stroke, dysarthia, or apraxia. It can also mimic the effect of Resonance. In the very serious cases, it can result in permanent disability or death.
Enchanted items are bespoke items created through the process of a ritual or magical objects created by some other means beyond our understanding. They populate the world, scattered in innocuous spots, forgotten or misidentified, stored away, or misplaced. This page refers to the process of creating an enchanted item in a thread. Although enchanted items are difficult to replicate, to the degree of making mass production impossible, a skilled arcanist can repeat a ritual to create an item of a similar or identical effect when they have the same components available to them.
To create an item, one must first prepare a ritual. Before this ritual begins, the enchanter must know what they plan to make, or the results will be unpredictable. An uncertain caster results in unstable magics.
Preparing the ritual itself requires the ritual circle with the ritual runes, components placed on the ritual circle, and the finally activated by a drop of blood.
Components are a vital part of a ritual, as five need to be placed within the circle. Components come in several different qualities, there are Poor, Average, Good, and Superb Components, all of which define the quality of the enchantment cast on the object. Superb components are exceedingly rare, often found in encounters with mythical creatures or by extremely lucky or clever Arcanists.
An Arcanist uses their Collector ability to collect components using their Cinder dice pool. The results below define the quality of the components gathered.
Partial failure: Poor Complete success: Average Exceptional success: Good Critical hit (10 passes): Superb
Poor and Average components are the most common, and both define how long-lasting an enchanted item is and how powerful the enchantment can be. Components that are not gathered through rolling Cinder are all considered Average components.
Having set your mind to create an enchanted item, you must also have something to enchant. The conduit is whatever the ritual magic is supposed to anchor to; this can be a pen, a necklace, an item of clothing, whatever you may have on hand. Be mindful of what you choose your conduit to be. Whatever object used will be channeling the primal forces of magic and wear and tear is expected. Inanimate objects don't naturally heal. Natural materials, such as wood, metal, or stone, seem to have a great deal of staying power, while human-made materials like plastic tend to fall apart more quickly. Consider also how it is to be used, for example snapping an enchanted toothpick in half to trigger a spell.
Conduits do not need to be rolled for, they are defined by what object they are and players use this in the flavour of object creation.
The keywords used in a ritual define the nature of the enchantment. If a specific goal is in mind, the keywords must match. Ritualists can use some magical items in rituals as a keyword, but they are destroyed or become inert after the ritual unless otherwise stated.
In the case of Arcanists, they have chosen keywords they have studied, and they are very skilled in using them. However, Arcanists can also use keywords they do not know and keywords outside of their portfolios, but this incurs a penalty. An arcanist casting with a keyword they do not have must use their Circlebreaker Cinder pool, and the Threshold increased to 5. This does not apply to items with keywords being used in a ritual.
For non-Arcanists, they use the Cinder pool of their Path, and the Threshold increased to 5. When Arcanists use non-human or tainted blood in a ritual, one of the keywords connected to that blood is randomly added to the enchantment and the Threshold increases to 5.
Enchanted objects come in two forms: pure flavour and mechanical. Magical items that have an effect that is purely for flare or flavour–like a pen that writes by itself–can be in the world without rolling dice or even going through a ritual. Magic has been around for as long as written history and longer, so there will be magical items dotting the world, and players are free to think of as many as they want.
However, a magical item that offers modification to dice odds, adjusts Thresholds, or impacts the Strike & Cinder system in any way, must be created through a ritual using said dice system. The process through which these enchanted objects are made is through a ritual using Cinder rolls, components, and a conduit. At the activation of this ritual, a player must post a moderation request for the enchantment to be defined and take effect.
Once the ritual is activated and the player has enchanted an item, the player must drop a magic item request in the Moderation Request thread. The template used is shown below and must include: a link to the thread, keywords used (or introduced randomly), the power source involved, the quality of the components, a description of the object, whether or not it is intended to be one-time use or rechargeable, and what effect the object has. On the last section, do not suggest specific mechanical effects in the dice system, such as specific dice bonuses, just what you imagine it doing.
[b]Link:[/b]
[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Keyword(s):[/b]
[b]Power Source:[/b]
[b]Component quality:[/b]
[b]Description:[/b]
[b]Consumable?:[/b]
[b]Desired Effect:[/b]
Only a few factors go into determining the mechanical effect of an enchanted object: The quality of the components, the success range of the rolls, and how the energy source is used. Component quality offers little boosts, with Poor quality providing unexpected side-effects and Average adding nothing at all. Good and Superb are things that can elevate an enchantment.