The Principles of Sorcery - The Black and White Treatise

[Krul]

The stories of the first sorceress vary, the Immaculate Order says it was the Immaculate Dragon Mela who first unlocked the princes of Sorcery, the Lunars have attributed it to Moon-toucheded Mishiko, but the oldest and most learned savants, gods, spirits and Sidereals, know that it was Twilight Solar Bridit who first penned the White Treatise, within which are the basic principles of Sorcery, though she might not have worked alone.  Others went on to refine her work, but it was Brigit who first managed to learn to shape and refine the essence that shaped creation and made sure that others could learn to do what she had.  

 

She also put into paper, the Black Treatise, which contained the first few spells that she created, Death of Obsidian Butterflies, Stormwind Rider, Infallible Messenger, Summon Elemental and Demon of the First Circle.  Others have developed further spells, but all sorcerers build upon the foundation that Brigit first laid, though it was the Zenith Salina who opened it up in a manner that even mortals could learn, but that is a different story.

 

NOTE: Both books, and the written words above are contained within the Sorcerous Academy of Ysyr as pictured above.

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Casting Spells

 

 When a sorcerer turns her skin to bronze, calls up a fiery kraken from the molten depths of the earth, or bind the greatest demons of Hell, she is not drawing upon her own Essence. Sorcery manipulates the energies of the world around the sorcerer, shaping it into patterns and matrices that achieve her ends. When a sorcerer casts a spell, the motes that power it are not drawn from her own Essence pools. Instead, she must take shape sorcery actions to manipulate the flow of Essence around her and channel sorcerous motes into the casting of the spell.

 

To take a shape sorcery action, the sorcerer must first declare the spell she is attempting to cast, and then roll (Intelligence + Occult). Each success contributes one sorcerous mote to the casting of the spell. If this is sufficient to meet the spell’s cost, it is cast immediately. If not, the sorcerer must continue focusing Essence into the spell in subsequent rounds. She may choose to take additional shape sorcery actions, rolling and adding successes towards the total, until she has enough to cast the spell. Once she has reached the total, she unleashes it immediately and reflexively.

 

The shape sorcery action itself is a combat action which cannot be included in a flurry. A sorcerer can pause in the act of gathering sorcerous motes to perform other actions, such as attacking or disengaging from an enemy, but loses three sorcerous motes at the end of every round where no sorcerous motes were gathered. If she uses a ritual that allows her to reflexively gather sorcerous motes for a turn, this counts as if she had used a shape sorcery action — sorcerer-assassins often find such techniques efficacious in their chosen trade, allowing them to fluidly switch between fighting and shaping spells.

 

If the sorcerer begins casting a different spell from the one she has started shaping, then her current spell is prematurely aborted, and all gathered sorcerous motes disperse and are lost. If she simply stops gathering motes, she will continue losing three sorcerous motes per round until she has none remaining, at which point the spell is lost.

 

Some spells require an extended period of shaping Essence to cast, generally on the order of hours or longer. Keeping track of the accumulation of sorcerous motes in these cases is less relevant than the time invested in the spell, and so they are simply noted as having a cost of “Ritual.”

 

 Additional Spell Casting Rules

•  Willpower: Most spells cost at least one point of Willpower, as it takes a significant investment of the sorcerer’s will to grasp and wield the Essence of the cosmos. This cost must be paid up front when the sorcerer first begins shaping the spell. If the spell is cast successfully, the realization of the sorcerer’s design fulfills her, restoring one point of Willpower spent to fuel the spell. If the spell is lost, aborted, or countered, then all spent Willpower is simply lost.
• Commitment: Sorcerous motes are never committed, regardless of a spell’s duration. 
• Casting in Crash: A sorcerer in Initiative Crash regains no Willpower spent on her spells, even when she casts successfully. Additionally, all spells cost an additional  three sorcerous motes to complete while crashed. 
• Control Spells: All sorcerers have at least one control  spell. A control spell is a signature spell at which a sorcerer excels beyond all others, imbuing it with some special measure of her mystic will and personal prowess.  Many spells enjoy special benefits when selected as a control spell, and many shaping rituals give special benefits to a sorcerer’s control spell.

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Countermagic

One sorcerer can unravel another’s spell as it’s being shaped. Countering a spell as it’s cast is an (Intelligence + Occult) roll, with every two successes draining one sorcerous mote from the spell’s completion. If the sorcerer knows the spell she is attempting to counter, then each success drains one mote. She must be within short range of the sorcerer whose spell she wishes to counter, and she must be initiated into that spell’s circle. If countermagic reduces the total sorcerous motes invested in a spell to zero, the casting is broken, requiring the enemy sorcerer to attempt casting it anew. Also, the mystic backlash of a shattered spell prevents the enemy sorcerer from taking a shape sorcery action on his next turn. Countermagic is a combat action that cannot be placed in a flurry.

 

Distortion

Once a spell has been cast, its effects cannot be undone, but a skilled sorcerer may mute, twist, or weaken them with a distort action. This is an extended (Intelligence + Occult) action, with a difficulty based on the circle of the targeted spell—1 for Terrestrial Circle, 3 for Celestial Circle, and 5 for Solar Circle. The goal number of the action, as well as the precise effects, are specified in the text of each spell if it can be distorted, often diminishing the spell’s advantages or inflicting a drawback on its caster. Other spells, such as those that last only for an instant or that summon a being that exists independently of the spell, cannot be distorted. Distortion has a terminus of five rolls—if a sorcerer fails to achieve her goal, she cannot attempt to distort the spell again. As with countermagic, the sorcerer needs to be within short range of the spell’s target or effect, and must be initiated into that spell’s circle. Attempting to distort a spell that the sorcerer does not know imposes a -2 penalty on all distortion rolls. Distortion is a combat action that cannot be placed in a flurry. 

 

Undoing a Spell

Sometimes, a sorcerer may want to completely revoke the effects of a long-term spell—for example, lifting the curse of Corrupted Words that prevents one of the sorceress Mnemon’s minions from revealing the details of a secret alliance. Such feats require a sorcerous working (see below) of Ambition 3 and the same circle as the spell to be undone. The Storyteller may adjust these guidelines to better suit the circumstances or narrative, making it harder or even impossible to dispel an effect if doing so would utterly undermine the functionality of that spell, or making it easier to undo effects that he feels the players should be able to remove more easily

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Spells

 

Emerald (Terrestrial) Circle Spells (and where to find them)

• Combat
  • Main – Death of Obsidian Butterflies, Flight of the Brilliant Raptor, Mists of Eveningtide, Wood Dragon’s Claw
  • What the Fire Has Wrought – Thunder Wolf Howl, Unslakable Thirst of the Devil-Main
  • Fangs at the Gate – Blood Lash
  • Many Faced Strangers – The Violent Opening of Closed Portals
  • Adversaries of the Righteous – Glaciers Touch (pg 126)
• Defense
  • Main – Invulnerable Skin of Bronze
  • Fangs at the Gate - Flight of Separation
  • What the Fire has Wrought – Impervious Sphere of Water, Stalwart Earth Guardian, Virtuous Guardian of Flame
• Travel/Communication
  • Main – Cirrus Skiff, Infallible Messenger, Stormwind Rider
  • What the Fire Has Wrought - Floral Ferry, Keel Cleaves the Clouds
  • Many Faced Strangers – Path of Shimmering Mist
• Summoning
  • Main: Demon of the First Circle, Summon Elemental
  • Many Faced Strangers: Hound of the Five Winds
  • Across Eight Directions: Binding of Encircling Iron (this spell was developed by a group of Ysyr sorcerer-princes to bind Raksha, it only works on essence 3 and less)
• Other
  • Main – Corrupted Words, Silent Words of Dreams and Nightmares
  • Fangs at the Gate – Peacock Shadow Eyes
  • What the Fire Has Wrought – Beckoning that Which Stirs the Sky, Sculpted Seafoam Eidolon, Spoke the Wooden Face
  • Adversaries of the Righteous – Kiss of Fatal Courage (pg 181), Ineffable Koan (pg 182)

 

Celestial (Sapphire) Circle Spells

• Main: Cantata of Empty Voices, Demon of the Second Circle, Impenetrable Veil of Night, Incomparable Body Arsenal, Ivory Orchid Pavilion, Magma Kraken, Shadows of Ancient Past, Travel Without Distance
• Fangs at the Gate (Lunars) - Cloud Trapeze, Prince of the Fallen Tower, Thorn of Cold Rebuke, Torrential Cascade, 
• Many Faced Strangers (Lunars) - Invoking the Animal Avatar, Nightmare Jungle Flourishing, Stolen Face Masquerade 
• Charting Fate's Course (Sidereals) - Molten Shape of Shifting Glass, Hidden Judges of the Secret Flame, Mirror Nemesis Vizier, Masquerade of Coquelicot Veils, Warden of the Nepenthean Gardens, Wheel of the Turning Heavens

 

Solar (Adamant) Circle Spells

• Main: Benediction of Archgenesis,  Death Ray, Demon of the Third Circle, Rain of Doom
• NOTE: Sorcerous Workings can be used to give long term capabilities as well, and some spells from 2e have been converted by others can be found online in the Onyx Path forums, I will take those on a case by case basis if you see something among them you like.

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 Sorcerous Workings

 

Sorcerous workings allow characters to permanently reshape the world through their occult skill, enacting blessing, curses, or transformations. Renewing the fertility of a barren field, creating life in a vat of alchemical reagents, raising a city up from its foundations to sit in the sky— all of these miracles can be achieved through sorcerous workings.

 

Every working begins with the sorcerer’s intention: what she wishes to accomplish. Once this intention has been established—usually between the player and the Storyteller, if the sorcerer is a player’s character—the working is then assigned three separate traits of Ambition, Finesse, and Means, which are discussed below. Enacting the working is an extended (Intelligence + Occult) roll, with a difficulty set by the Finesse of the working, a goal number set by its Ambition, and a terminus set by its Means. It has a base interval of one week.

 

While most of the actual process of performing the sorcerous working over a span of weeks can be relegated to downtime or off-screen, the sorcerer must remain active in its completion, spending time performing ritual actions, arcane experiments, or whatever methodology fits her aesthetic of sorcery to bring about the working. If the sorcerer is unable to attend to these duties for at least part of an interval—for example, a pressing crisis draws a Twilight Caste away from his sorcerous laboratory for a month of heroics elsewhere—then no roll can be made for that interval (though it does not count towards the terminus). If a sorcerer persistently ignores a working in progress, the Storyteller might introduce complications as a result of this—hostile demons might emerge from a half-finished portal to Hell, or an incomplete blessing of fertility over a field might vent into the local wildlife, causing them to grow huge and aggressive. This should be thought of not as a way of penalizing the sorcerer, but as a way to bring narrative focus back to the working in a dramatic way.

 

Once a sorcerous working has been successfully completed, the sorcerer must pay experience points to finalize it. An Ambition 1 working costs 2xp, an Ambition 2 working is 4xp, and an Ambition 3 working is 8xp. Experience points spent on a working are not meant to be a poor investment— if a supernatural minion is slain, an enchanted bridge is washed away, a village under the sorcerer’s blessing is put to the sword by a deathknight, or a working is otherwise made irrelevant, the experience points spent on a neutralized working are refunded to the sorcerer at the end of the current story. If the sorcerer is performing a working of a Circle below her level of mastery (for example, a Solar Circle sorcerer performing a Terrestrial Circle working), the cost is reduced by two experience points per Circle of difference, to a minimum of 1xp. 

 

Spoiler

SORCEROUS WORKINGS AND BOTCHES

Unlike most extended actions, botching a roll to complete a sorcerous working doesn’t automatically ruin the entire effort—instead, it adds a complication to the outcome of the overall project, whether it is a success or a failure. If the working is completed successfully, then the Storyteller should come up with one complication to its outcome for each botch. A loyal minion created by a botched working might require a diet of solid gold, or a blessing laid on a field might be disrupted by the presence of any steel tools. These complications shouldn’t negate the core benefit of the working, but should introduce narratively interesting difficulties for the players to work around. On a failed working, each botch becomes a disastrous consequence of the working. A failed working to create a servitor results not in a useless heap of inanimate flesh, but in a sorcerous creation that is berserk and hell-bent on the destruction of its creator. A failed enchantment to fortify the walls of a town against dematerialized spirits turns patches of the walls themselves immaterial, breaching them for opposing armies.

 

Ambition

The Ambition of a sorcerous working is the power and scope of the miracle the sorcerer wishes to perform. Ambition is rated on a scale of 1 to 3, but each circle of sorcerous working has its own separate scale of Ambition— what might be a trivial feat of spellcraft for a master of the Solar Circle is a nigh-impossible feat for a newly initiated sorcerer of the Terrestrial Circle. For each circle, an Ambition 1 working is what most sorcerers might consider a simple feat of magic, similar in power to what might be achieved by a spell of that circle. An Ambition 2 working is an exceptional feat of magic, with considerable power or scope beyond what any spell could achieve. An Ambition 3 working is the highest and most difficult feat of that circle’s magic that can be imagined, defining the upper bound of what that circle of sorcery can accomplish. The Ambition of a working is set by the Storyteller based on the effect the sorcerer’s player wishes to create, and determines the goal number of the working, listed in the tables below.

Spoiler

 

• Terrestrial Circle Workings: Workings of the Terrestrial Circle are generally rooted in transforming, enhancing, or weakening pre-existing elements of the natural world, rather than directly invoking supernatural forces. When outright supernatural forces are invoked, their intervention is generally constrained or specialized in some significant way. Emerald Circle workings are typically limited either in power or scope. An Emerald Circle working might enchant all the fields of a village, but only with a minor blessing—something that would still be a marvel to the inhabitants of the village, but augments the natural properties of that area or protects it against a mundane threat or nuisance, rather than completely overwriting the nature of that region through magic. Conversely, the most powerful workings of this circle are confined to the scope of a single chamber within a larger structure or the transformation of a single character. As a general rule, any sorcerous feat the Storyteller feels should be routine for a Dragon-Blooded or mortal sorcerer should fall under this circle. Below are some examples:
  • Ambition 1 (Goal Number 5): Create or bind magical entities capable of performing mundane, household chores, but not much else, in service to a person, organization, or structure. Enchant a path to prevent travelers from becoming lost or lead them to a particular location. Invite an unbound First Circle demon into Creation in a ritual that culminates at midnight. Make permanent but small scale geographical alterations, such as drawing up a freshwater spring or flattening a hill. Ward a town or neighborhood-sized region against a particular type of mundane nuisance, such as forest fires, crop-eating pests, or rabid animals.
  • Ambition 2 (Goal Number 10): Cross two different species of plant or animal to create a hybrid species with the best traits of both. Grant mutations to oneself or a willing subject. Instill a plant, animal, or object with human-level intelligence. Ward a chamber against scrying, teleportation, or intrusion by a particular type of spirit.
  • Ambition 3 (Goal Number 20): Bless a region to enhance its natural properties, causing a field to always deliver a bountiful harvest or a freshwater river to always run clean. Create a completely new but mundane form of life, or breed a specimen of an existing species with a minor supernatural power that augments its strongest traits. Place a curse on a small region in a way that diminishes, warps, or blights its mundane aspects such as flora, fauna, or natural resources, making it all but impossible to make a livelihood off the cursed land. Create a rift between two realms of existence that allows communication, possession, or similar forms of limited interaction, but not actual transportation
• Celestial Circle Workings: Workings of the Celestial Circle are miracles of outright supernatural power, either rewriting the laws of the natural world on a relatively large scale or instilling supernatural power into the mundane world. They can have scope sufficient to place powerful blessings or curses upon an entire village or a particular neighborhood or feature of a city, and their power is either an overt manifestation of supernatural magic, or a dramatic and drastic change to the properties of the natural world. As a general rule, this is the circle for sorcerous workings that the Storyteller feels established Lunar and Sidereal sorcerers, as well as accomplished Solar sorcerers, should be capable of achieving without excessive effort, or that an exceptionally potent Dragon Blood or mortal might be capable of attaining with great dedication, skill, and risk. Examples include:
  • Ambition 1 (Goal Number 25): Create a sorcerous bond between two characters that allows them to mentally communicate at any distance, or bestow a similarly useful but limited supernatural blessing. Create persistent illusions that haunt a structure or town-sized region. Invite an unbound Second Circle demon into Creation in a ritual that culminates on the night of the new moon. Transform a chamber so that its interior emulates the environment of any natural terrain within Creation. Ward a chamber or structure against all intruders with magical traps or barriers.
  • Ambition 2 (Goal Number 30): Alter the weather of a town-sized region over a long duration, extending the harvest season by a month every year or making every winter exceptionally harsh. Enchant fortifications to strengthen them against mundane assault or give them a measure of resilience to supernatural powers. Grant a supernatural power to one’s self or to a willing subject, such as a burning gaze, a hypnotic tongue, or cursed blood that turns into deadly scorpions when shed. Make alterations to the nature of a willing supernatural being, such as imbuing a fire elemental with the aspect of earth to turn it into a being of molten magma, or reshaping a demon to express a different facet of its oversoul and altering its Charms to match. Spread mutations throughout the mundane flora and fauna of an entire ecosystem.
  • Ambition 3 (Goal Number 35): Create a loyal minion with supernatural powers comparable to a Second Circle demon or notable god. Enchant the architecture of an entire structure to grant it limited mobility, the capacity to rearrange its internal structure, intelligence comparable to a human, or similar powers. Open a permanent portal between two different realms of existence, such as a small shadowland or a faerie ring that leads travelers into the deep Wyld.
• Solar Circle Workings: Solar Circle workings are the height of what can be accomplished by sorcery. They can rewrite the laws of reality, or write new ones into being. Their scale can be huge, encompassing entire cities at the low end of Ambition 1 or the whole of the cosmos at its upper, nigh-unattainable end. Its power can bend time, space, or the boundaries of worlds to the sorcerer’s will, and manipulate the fine workings of Essence down to the level of changing a being’s very soul. As long as the Storyteller feels that something should be possible through a sorcerous working, it can be attained through workings of the Adamant Circle. Examples include:
  • Ambition 1 (Goal Number 40): Completely transform the terrain of a region to raise lush tropical paradises out of deserts, curse forests to wither away into scrubland, dry up seas, and so on. Enchant a village or small city sized region to emulate the nature of another realm of existence, possibly acting as a point of meeting between the two worlds. Purify a hundred miles of shadowland or Wyld zone. Extract the soul of a willing mortal from hisbody and transfer it into a new vessel, such as an automaton, manse, or similar form. Restore someone’s body to the prime of its youth. Ward an entire city against invasion with supernatural traps, barriers, or concealment.
  • Ambition 2 (Goal Number 50): Alter major metaphysical properties of a city-sized region: make it capable of moving across Creation, cause it to rise up and float in the sky, alter the nature of space within it so that it’s bigger on the inside of its borders than the outside, meddle with the flow of time within it, make it invisible or intangible to those who do not meet certain conditions. Enchant a city-sized region or a group to change the nature of the afterlife for those who die within it, such as designating particulars of how they reincarnate or transforming the souls of the dead into elementals. Lay a potent curse on a city, region, or group of people that can only be broken when specific circumstances are met. Utterly transform the nature of a supernatural being— remaking a demon as a god, or turning an elemental into a specter composed of the corpse-elements of the Underworld, or similar.
  • Ambition 3 (Goal Number 75): Make subtle alterations to the metaphysics of the entire cosmos. Create a supernatural being of a singular nature and considerable power. Cast a city-sized region into a different realm of existence, or outside of time and space altogether, with set conditions for when it returns or how it can be accessed

 

Finesse

The Finesse of a sorcerous working is the extent to which a sorcerer controls how its effects manifest and what form they take, rated on a scale of 1, 3, or 5 and set by the player. The base difficulty of the (Intelligence + Occult) roll to perform a sorcerous working at each interval is equal to the working’s Finesse. While every sorcerous working is defined by the sorcerer’s intention or goals in performing it, Finesse determines the extent to which the sorcerer’s player gets to dictate how this intent is fulfilled by the working. If, for example, a sorcerer wished to ward a chamber against demons, a Finesse 1 working and a Finesse 5 working would both be equally efficacious in fulfilling that goal—but the nature and mechanics of the Finesse 1 working would be decided almost entirely by the Storyteller, while those of the Finesse 5 working would be decided by the sorcerer’s player

Spoiler

Finesse Effect

• 1 The Storyteller determines how the working manifests in the world. This will always be in accordance with the basic intent of the working— a sorcerer wishing to create a magical servant from clay who succeeds at a Finesse 1 working will never end up creating something that refuses to serve him—but all details of the final result are in the Storyteller’s hands.
• 3 The sorcerer’s player comes up with a rough description of how the working plays out in the world, which the Storyteller can then polish or embellish with catches, quirks, or twists that make the working more interesting or flavorful without undermining the core intent of the working.
• 5 The sorcerer’s player defines exactly how the sorcerous working plays out in the world, subject to Storyteller approval.

 

Means

The Means of a sorcerous working are the resources that a sorcerer has available to put to use beyond the baseline of her own sorcerous power. Means can take many forms, but all of them have the same benefit—adding to the working’s terminus. Multiple Means stack their benefit, and it is intended that more ambitious workings will require the extra rolls from these to succeed. A sorcerous working with no Means has a terminus of 5 rolls

 

Spoiler

Common Means include:

• Complementary Abilities: A sorcerer who’s mastered an Ability that naturally lends itself to the sorcerous working she’s undertaking may claim that as one of her Means, allowing her to make one additional roll. Examples include using Medicine for a sorcerous working intended to create a new form of organism, or Performance for a working to fill the air around her home with songs which befuddle those who approach uninvited. In order to claim this benefit, the sorcerer must have a rating of 5 in the complementary Ability, or a rating of 3+ along with an appropriate specialty. At the Storyteller’s discretion, a sorcerer who’s invested in a significant number of Charms or other supernatural powers that are either based on or enhance the complementary Ability may instead receive an additional two intervals from that Ability.
• Complementary Spells: A sorcerer may claim one of her known spells as a Means if its function is related to the working she is trying to perform, allowing her to make one additional roll. A sorcerer attempting to breed a species of obsidian butterflies would obviously benefit from knowing Death of Obsidian Butterflies, while one attempting to create a rift through which demons can possess mortal cultists could claim benefits from knowing the spell to summon demons of the same circle as those brought through the rift.
• Cooperation: The assistance of another sorcerer initiated into the Circle of the working allows for one additional roll. Alternatively, the sorcerer could receive assistance from a supernatural entity who, while not a sorcerer, possesses powers that naturally lend themselves to the completion of the working—a sorcerer trying to revive a dry riverbed might seek the assistance of a river god or water elemental, while one attempting to open a portal into the Underworld might seek help from an Abyssal Exalt. As a third alternative, a character might use a group of characters who are not sorcerers, but are well versed in Occult, such as an infernal cult or a Heptagram class. Each of these alternatives can add one roll, but they don’t stack with each other. In theory, a sorcerer who had access to a large organization of fellow sorcerers initiated into the Circle of the working could add two additional rolls from this Means, but such orga- nized networks are few and far between in the current, fallen era.
• Extra Time: A sorcerer willing to invest months or even years of preparation, research, and diligent practice into a sorcerous working may claim that extra time as one of her Means. Extending the interval of the roll from one week to one month allows the sorcerer to make one additional roll, while extending the interval to one cycle (three months) allows for two additional rolls. A sorcerer could receive three additional rolls by extending the interval to one year, but only the most dedicated of sorcerers are willing to retire from the world for that long.
• Exotic Components: Esoteric or rare materials that the sorcerer has accumulated over the course of the story may be consumed in the process of a working to count as a Means, allowing the sorcerer to make one additional roll. What counts for this category is left largely to the Storyteller’s discretion, as he will generally be the one introducing these exotic components into the game. The severed head of a Wyld behemoth, carved with glyphs of abjuration and displayed prominently from the walls of a city, might aid in warding that city against the influence of the Wyld, while an orichalcum lantern lit with a tongue of sunfire found in a First Age ruin could be used as part of a working to purify a shadowland. At the Storyteller’s discretion, exceptionally rare or powerful components, such as the withered corpus-fragments of a slain Deathlord, can add two additional rolls to an appropriate working
• Sorcerous Infrastructure: Sorcerous laboratories or ritual chambers stocked with esoteric texts, occult reagents, and other tools of the sorcerer’s trade add one additional roll to a sorcerous working. It is no easy thing to assemble such infrastructure—even among the opulence of the Realm, most sorcerers must make do with basic, rudimentary study chambers tucked away in the far wing of a family manse. For a newly-Exalted sorcerer to assemble her own sorcerous infrastructure would be an adventure in itself. Sorcerous infrastructure from the First Age could provide two additional rolls to a working, if repaired and restored to full functionality.

LOSING MEANS

Spoiler

Sometimes, a sorcerer might lose access to her Means mid-working. A cooperating sorcerer has a change of heart and ends his collaboration; the sorcerer’s laboratory is raided and razed by her enemies; a pressing issue denies the sorcerer the luxury of taking her time, forcing her to change the interval of her rolls from months to weeks. Losing Means obviously denies the sorcerer the extra rolls they also grant, but also counts as a botch to complicate the final result of the working, representing the complications of adapting to the loss of the resource.

 

If the sorcerer has already completed the base five intervals, and is working on the extra intervals granted by one of her Means when it is lost, then her working is placed in dire jeopardy. She is allowed to finish the last interval, but cuts the number of threshold successes she receives in half (rounded up). If this is not enough to finish the working, then it has failed

Beyond the Boundaries

Unlike spells, which demand initiation into the proper circle before they can be learned, it is possible for a sorcerer to perform a working of a Circle that she has yet to master. Working beyond the boundaries is difficult, dangerous, and always requires extraordinary effort on the part of the sorcerer. The sorcerer’s player must describe the extraordinary efforts of her character and the great lengths to which she goes as she describes the enactment of the sorcerous working—it’s not something that can be done routinely, easily, or safely. Going beyond the boundaries of one’s sorcerous initiation has the following consequences:

Spoiler

 

• The base difficulty of the (Intelligence + Occult) roll at each interval is increased by 2 for each Circle beyond the sorcerer’s own initiation. For example, a Terrestrial Circle sorcerer attempting a Solar Circle working would make rolls at a difficulty equal to (4 + Finesse), rather than (Finesse). Because of this, most sorcerers deliberately choose a low Finesse for such workings.
• Each failed interval roll on a working counts as one botch to complicate the final outcome of that working. Actually botching a roll completely ruins the effort, in addition to adding disastrous consequences to that failure.
• Even the extraordinary efforts of working beyond the boundaries has limits. A Terrestrial Circle sorcerer cannot attempt Solar Circle workings of Ambition 3. Aspiring to such world-shaking miracles requires the sorcerer at least be initiated into the Celestial Circle.
• The default interval of such workings is increased from one week to three months, if reaching one Circle above the sorcerer’s capacity, or one year if reaching two levels above the sorcerer’s mastery. The requirement to gain additional means by dedicating extra time and effort to the working rises to one year, three years, or five years (for those reaching one Circle above their mastery), or three years, five years, or ten years (for Terrestrial Circle sorcerers attempting Solar Circle workings).
• The experience point cost of such workings are increased by four points per Circle the sorcerer has not mastered.
• NOTE: This means that even with just terrestrial circle sorcery, even a mortal sorcerer-prince can manage solar level workings, if they are willing to pay the price.  It is easier for Exalted, as at least they can prevent botch's with excellencies.

 

 

THE LIMITS OF SORCERY

 Some things are beyond the power of even the mightiest sorcerers. While this is ultimately a matter for the Storyteller to decide, a few specific prohibitions are listed below, along with the reasoning behind the restrictions.

Spoiler

• Immortality Has A Catch: Sorcery can make a character immortal, but never in an unconditional, guaranteed fashion. There may be periodic rituals needed to renew a character’s immortality, certain conditions under which he can die, a regional restriction he cannot travel outside of without risking his immortality, or similar. This does not mean that immortality is a trap or a waste of effort— instead, the purpose of this is to preserve the relevance and power of death as a dramatic element within the game, even if the players do bestow immortality to all their friends, allies, and family.
• No Resurrection: Dead is dead. A sorcerer might try all manner of clever tricks—binding someone’s ghost into a sorcerously-created vessel, imprinting his memories onto a cloned body, even altering the nature of reincarnation within a region so that souls retain all memories of their past lives—but once someone has died, he can never be truly brought back. While a sorcerer’s most powerful workings might create a simulacrum or duplicate of him as he was in life, it will never be the same as the original person. The purpose of this restriction is to maintain the dramatic significance of death as a narrative element within the game, and to prevent players from reversing the consequences of their actions. 
• No Time Travel: What has happened, happened.  Sorcery cannot be used to travel back into the past or to rewrite past events. The purpose of this restriction, like that on resurrection, is to emphasize the importance of the players’ choices and their consequences, as well as to avoid the tangle of narrative confusion that comes from introducing time travel and altered pasts into a collaborative narrative

 

Edited November 10 by Krul