Magical Landry Sign-Up Part Deux - The Landrying!

[Teal Mage]

Hello there NPF!

After spending several months in Hiatus (while I wrote papers), Magical Teacher Professor Landry is officially back. And it brought the World Primer - a handy guide book which explains the system that the Landriverse follows - with it. It is really the perfect introduction to this world.

What better time to try out a Recruitment thread to pull some new blood in? Never, that's when! So, if you're interested in playing a game that's basically the Magic School Bus meets Anime - in a Horror Movie/Dating Sim - keep reading.

It'll be fun.

You might want to check out the official Professor Landry edupad while you do that too.

Setting: Magical Teacher Professor Landry is set in a world that's deceptively similar to our own. The history, countries, religions, pop-culture figures and world leaders of this alternate earth are identical to our own - but the similarities end there. Guns are far less lethal. Beings from legend - demons, spirits and angels - all exist, most in isolated and magically concealed communities, but a handful live among humans using their special abilities to blend in. Reality warping phenomena is widespread, but little noticed, especially by the humans responsible for it. The Masquerade, enforced by powerful and hidden factions of a magic-using minority of humanity and their non-human allies, ensure that all these irregularities remain under the radar - a job that has been made far easier with the ascendance of science in modern society. Most people wouldn't believe magic existed if it bit their faces off.

Amaranth Institute for the Gifted: The bulk of the story will take place here. The Amaranth Institute is a private High School/College hybrid, dedicated to the pursuit of excellence. Run by Head Mistress Sophia Amaranth, the Amaranth Institute is physically located on the West Coast of Canada, surrounded by the city of Ansidor on the west and its old growth forest to its east. Through means of confusing legality, the School actually exists as an independent city-state and follows its own laws. It houses around a thousand students in its educational complex at any given time, and roughly half that number in faculty. All students and most faculty live on Campus, in assigned dormitories. Most students end up sharing these with two or three others, but the wealthier (or more dangerous) among them are assigned their own private room. The only area of the campus the school is contractually obligated not to bug or monitor is inside these dormitories - a detail that you may find useful, given the degree of electronic monitoring that goes on around the school. For your safety, of course.

Among the mundane world, the school has a reputation for turning out excellent students, but the sheer complexity of the disclaimers in its viability contract makes most parents hesitate to send their children there. Effectively, by sending a student to Amaranth, students waive all legal rights to hold the school responsible - even in the event of death. In spite of this, attendance numbers have remained relatively stable since the school's creation - which ought to speak well for how valuable an Amaranth education is, particularly to the talented and ambitious. Even a year attending this place looks great on résumés and post-secondary applications. For that reason alone, most students enroll for a year, then get out as quickly as possible. Less than half of the first year students progress to Amaranth's second year. The compliment of third year - graduating - students is smaller still.

To the supernatural community, Amaranth fulfills a very different function. Through careful recruitment, the school ensures that there are always a fair number of Blacks on campus, forcing the Magically Aware student population to be extremely careful with how they use their abilities. However, the high expectations of the classes make it virtually impossible to avoid some magic use on the parts of the students. The end goal is to produce magic-users who are able to use their powers responsibly enough to still benefit from them in modern society, without blowing the Masquerade apart. Thus far, things have worked out quite nicely!

If you haven't caught on yet, Players will be students in a particular class in Amaranth. Moving on!

The Masquerade: The formal name for the conspiracy which ensures that magic does not become common knowledge. As far as conspiracies go, the Masquerade is a remarkably inefficient one - the shadowy council at its heart is plagued with in-fighting and wields primarily symbolic power. The Guilds represented by the council are largely decentralized and self-policing, with the majority of enforcement carried out on the initiatives of its members. Government organizations have gradually become more and more prominent in monitoring magic-users over time, thanks to their superior funding capacity, but the continued existence of the Masquerade is more a result of happy coincidences, lack of serious threats and Black magic more than any all-encompassing conspiracy. The Masquerade is far from fangless of course - see Enforcers.

The Guilds: The Wizard's Guild, Witch's Guild and the Eastern Spiritualist Association (ESA) are the main representatives of the Guilds. Each Guild listed above is made up of magic-users who police themselves, share information about magic, and at times, work together to deal with threats. Most Guild Members, additionally, work regular jobs and pay a tax to their organization in order to support its more secretive institutions and relatively few paid positions.

Wizard's Guild: Of the three, the Wizard's Guild is the largest and most powerful. Its reach extends the world over, and has absorbed many smaller organizations - notable among them are many branches of the Christian Church - into its hierarchy. The Guild has established Wizard Academies the world over to instruct young magic-users in the appropriate use of their powers. Unlike Amaranth, the hallmark of such Academies is rigid discipline and control - magic is quite dangerous, after all. Officially, the Wizard's guild only practices pure Blue magic - in the form of Wizardry - and holds dim views of less refined disciplines - particularly innate, demonic or old magic. However, the Wizard's guild is not above dabbling in these areas when it is useful. The guild has strict laws against Dark magic however, and will go to great lengths to enforce them. Most members of the Wizard's guild are human (gender is irrelevant). While there is no formal rule preventing demons from joining - indeed, a surprising number of Wizards have some degree of supernatural blood in their veins - demonic power is viewed as a taint, which needs to be controlled, if not outright eliminated.

Witch's Guild: Witches are those willing to pay the ultimate price for power - or, at least, that's what the Witch's Guild exposés. Historically, the Witch's Guild was always hunted, either by the Wizard's or the Church and resorted to Dark magic, alliances with demons and old magic to gain an edge over their hunters. Though they no longer find themselves fighting for survival, the guild retains strong ties to demonic, traditional and Eastern magical communities and casts itself as a neutral and progressive organization. Unlike the Wizard's guild, the Witch's Guild formally endorses Dark magic - provided the cost is always paid by the spellcaster themselves. The Witch's Guild does not have schools of its own - but does have close ties to the Amaranth institute. Similar to the Wizard's guild, gender is irrelevant to Witch's guild membership.

Eastern Spiritualist Association: The E.S.A. for short, the Eastern Spiritualist Association is a loose association of various Eastern schools of magicians, martial artists and demons. Though originally founded in response to the threat of Wizard's Guild domination, the E.S.A. remains a very decentralized organization that rarely acts in unison. Each school is, for all intents and purposes, still independent. For this reason, the E.S.A. has yet to become a significant actor - it does fulfill self-policing, coordinating, and diplomatic functions between its constituent parts, though. Most human schools within the E.S.A. run their own dojos. Outside of the Far East, this organization has relatively little sway - though it does have strong ties to the Witch's Guild.

Government Supernatural Organizations: Each Government in the world has at least a small department devoted to the monitoring, policing and control of supernatural threats. In the more affluent countries of the West, these Departments have sufficient resources to be more effective at their jobs than the Wizard's or Witch's Guilds could ever be. Outside of policing the Guilds, most Departments have similar mandates and objectives: To reduce the power and reach of the Guilds by researching ways to retain the benefits of magic without relying on mages. In Canada, the Ministry of Research and Development is the Government Supernatural Organization.

Enforcers: The Fangs of the Masquerade. Charged with ensuring the Masquerade remains in place and effective, these individuals specialize in killing rogue mages, Blacks who are viewed as too dangerous to be left alone, and any White they see. Enforcers are agents of the Guilds, and generally speaking, limit their own targets to the Magically Aware and the more insane Whites. Government Organization's have a different title for their Enforcers - Agents. This distinction is largely meaningless, but it has been noted that Agents are usually not magic-users in the traditional sense. They rely on drugs, modern weapons and machines to deal with supernatural threats. Enforcers, on the other hand, are mages in the traditional sense - most of specialize in magic cancelation or absorption. Thus far, there have been relatively few clashes between Agents and Enforcers.

Races: Players in Magical Teacher Professor Landry will be either Human, or Non-Human (Half-Human is still non-human). Here's some details on how these races breakdown, as well as some notable sub-classes of demons. This isn't an exhaustive list by any means, of course.

Humans: The dominant species on Earth. Magic, to most humans, is a quaint and antiquated notion which people clung to in the past to explain that which they did not understand. Overtime, this scepticism has resulted in the development of a low grade magical-resistance on the part of humanity - especially with regard to mental manipulation. However, humans raised in mainstream society also have more difficulty learning the basics of magic than demons - though all are fully capable of it. This fact is one of the primary reasons for the existence of the Masquerade. Were humanity to reach its full magical potential, the results would be catastrophic - particularly for the minority of supernatural creatures that exist. Naturally, humans are limited to physical augmentation with their magical power. Wizardry and other disciplines practiced by humans were developed to address this.

Demons: All things that aren't human are classified collectively as demons. Most demons exist in isolated communities made primarily of their own species, where magic is accepted and widely practiced. Consequently, demons have an easier time learning magic, but are also more sensitive and vulnerable to its effects than the average human. On the whole, demons also have easier access to both martial and magical training than humans. This, coupled with their own innate capacity to manifest overt supernatural effects (see: Demonic Magic) and long life spans constitutes their primary edge over humans. However, as the potentials of fully trained demons and humans really differ very little, this advantage would count for little if the Masquerade were to fall apart. Additionally, all demons suffer from highly inconvenient, racially specific, weaknesses (such as a strong aversion to sunlight, in the case of vampires) which can be exploited against them in battle. The taint that allows demons to use their individual demonic magic is responsible for this weakness - it's the price of being able to manifest spells - sometimes extremely high level techniques - without human shaping techniques, like Wizardry. The taint also enables demons, in general, to better cope with techniques like shapeshifting, which are extremely painful and difficult for humans. However, it also makes human spells, which are designed for the neutral magic they use innately, far harder for demons to use.

Exceptions: Humans and demons don't always fit into the generalities outlined above. Some demons live among humans in modern society, while some humans live in small and isolated communities, where magic is commonplace. In the case of the former, demons - particularly those who are raised from birth as humans - develop a resistance and insensitivity to magic normally associated with humans. In the latter's case, humans develop magical vulnerabilities and sensitivities normally associated with demons. Sometimes, they develop racial weaknesses too - making them more demon than human. Half-demons - children with both human and demon blood in them - also occur periodically, either through natural or unnatural circumstance. Typically, half-demons have unusual eye, hair and skin colours, similar to their demonic parents, but are otherwise able to pass for human. They have tainted magical power, like demons, but this taint is diluted by their human blood, making demonic magic more difficult for them. The same is true of their racial weaknesses - they exist still, but their human blood dilutes it somewhat. Whether or not half-demons are resistant or sensitive to magic depends on their upbringing. Hybrids of different races of demons are also possible. They're similar to half-demons, functionally.

Ghosts: A type of demon created when something dies. Should a ghost be killed, the being is destroyed completely. Naturally, ghosts are immaterial and invisible beings without the ability to move from the exact spot they died. Only through the use of magic can they move or interact with the world. However, like most demons, ghosts have tainted Will, so even a master magician in life is nearly powerless in death. Most ghosts pass over into the next world naturally (a function of their tainted magic) anyway. Those who can't, or won't, become the responsibilities of beings known as Psychopomps - Death Guides. Because ghosts possess even less of a resistance to magic than most demons, they are often captured and used as weapons or servants of living magicians. Psychopomps, charged with the protection of the dead, usually take a dim view of such practices. How they address them varies heavily between them, though. Zombies and other undead are ghosts which, through magical means, have possessed or been sealed into a body. Players who want to play a deceased character are heavily encouraged to consider one with a body, not a ghost.

Greater Spirits: Everything that exists has a spirit. Most aren't self-aware and exist only as creatures of instinct. A minority of them, known as Greater spirits, are self-aware though - these sorts of spirits are available as races at Character Generation. In their natural states, greater spirits are diffuse and incorporeal manifestations of consciousness, most corresponding to large territories of land, water or air. The true body of these spirits is the landform they represent - damaging the landform damages them. Most style themselves as the protector of their territory and employ their Demonic magic to take a corporeal form and protect it when it's threatened. These forms usually aren't made of flesh and blood. A water spirit's corporeal body, for instance, would have red water in place of blood. Though fundamentally different at an atomic level than a human's blood, this red water would exhibit all the qualities of human blood - in addition to all the qualities of water. A similar principle would be at work in the rest of their body. Again, in the case of Water spirits, simply existing at the extremes of temperature would damage them, among other unpleasant things. Once in corporeal form, spirits become very vulnerable - they're as easy to kill as any human. If the spirit representing a territory dies, the area will suffer for a short time - but a new spirit will be born shortly after. Greater spirits, it should be noted, are all actually composed of the countless lesser spirits that make up their territory - stripping these away would, slowly, kill the greater spirit permanently (and catastrophically affect the landmass they make-up too).

Magic System:

Basics: Will is roughly analogous to the concept of Mana. It is what fuels magic in the world of Magical Teacher Professor Landry. In its natural state, Will is without form, shape or substance - it does not even exist. All beings, human, god, fairy, peasant or king, have the same amount of Will, which can not be raised by any means. Under normal circumstances, Will is expressed whenever an individual interacts with the world around them - breathing, lifting a fork, or firing a gun all expend Will. Therefore, every action, even existing, takes Will, and may be considered a spell. Demons possess tainted Will which varies with their species, while Humans Will is neutral. For the purposes of this game, Will expenditure is only significant when used for supernatural effects that could not normally be realized. These 'special' expenditures are catalogued in your character's Spell list. The use and creation of Spells is the discipline of Magic. Naturally, Magic is an instinctive rather than a conscious activity. Only through Awakening – when a Black is made aware of and comes to believe in magic – or Snapping – a sharp disassociation from reality triggered by trauma – may this be changed.

Magical Exhaustion: In-game, Will is expressed as a total out of 50. As this total decreases, a character will begin to show signs of Magical Exhaustion - a gradual depreciation of physical and mental abilities, eventually culminating with explosive bleeding and internal damage, after a character tries to cast spells with 0 Will remaining. Experienced mages are able to continue casting spells after passing 0, but each cast causes additional, painful, damage to their body. Such practices are life-threatening and should be avoided.

Magical Backlash: The strength of a magic-user is not measured in the damage their spells can do - anyone, with the proper knowledge, can level cities. A powerful magic-user is someone who can expend dizzying amounts of Will, without experiencing Magical Backlash. When a spell is cast, externally or internally, the user's Will travels through what amounts to magical pores before manifesting. If the spell in question forces too much Will through those pores, it causes explosive haemorrhaging. This bleeding is Magical Backlash. A powerful mage, therefore, is someone with unusually large magical pores. Through special training, a magician may increase the size of their pores - and reduce the chances of magical backlash. This process usually comes at the cost of a magic-user's resistance to magic, however.

Auras: When Will is expended in unusual quantities a magical corona of coloured shadowless light appears around the magician. These coronas are Auras. Generally, this only occurs when casting spells, but states of high emotion or intense focus can also cause auras to appear as well. The colour of an Aura is the collective hue of all spells known by the magician, in addition to the base shade of their Will. Objects created or enchanted with supernatural powers will carry the aura of the one who created them. Auras are only visible to the Awakened or Snapped.

Black Magic: The vast majority of humans (and a small minority of demons) possess black auras and are known, collectively, as Blacks. Blacks are those outside of the Masquerade - they don't know about, or believe in, magic. Consequently, even if exposed to an overtly magical event, Blacks are likely to rationalize it as anything but magic - science is a mysterious thing, after all. In spite of this, Blacks are fully capable of using spells. Black magic is an instinctive, subconscious and emotionally driven variant of magic which subtly warps reality to match the perceptions or desires of the caster. Black magic usually takes on a life of its own, adapting and improving itself independent of its owner's will, with the objective of protecting the Black in question. Unless doing so conflicts with protecting the Black, Black magic never allows its user to learn about magic or their own powers.

Half-Awakened Magic: Awakening, the process by which magic becomes a conscious, rather than instinctive, thing has never been a strict binary - it's actually far closer to a continuum. Half-Awakened magic exists in the murky and confusing middle of this continuum. Individuals who only believe in a particular kind of magic, or who do not accept magic per se, but suspend their scepticism long enough to be convinced that there are forces in the universe which they can not understand but can take advantage of, are both examples of the Half-Awakened. Mages who have recently been Awakened and are in the process of learning to control their instinctive abilities are also half-Awakened. That said, it is entirely possible for people to be stuck in this stage indefinitely. The Half-Awakened have darkly coloured auras.

White Magic: The power to overwrite reality as a god. White magic-users are created when a Black completely disassociates from reality, usually resulting from a traumatic emotional shock, or a slow process of sanity degradation. Put another way, White magic-users are insane. Unlike Blacks, they possess full knowledge of their own unique and special abilities. Most Whites are also aware of Magic's existence, but rightly perceive themselves to be outside of its rules. Roughly a hundred Whites exist in the world at any one time, but most die within five years of their birth. These people are at the top of the magical food chain - if you see one, your best bet is to run. Note that it isn't impossible for an Awakened mage to become a White, but such an event is almost unheard of in rarity.

Grey Magic: Snapping is either something that occurs in an instant, or as the result of a slow process of sanity degradation. In the case of the later, the magic-user sometimes develops Grey magic. The specifics of Grey magic are extremely murky - it requires the user to recognize that they have an ability of some sort that is unusual and special, in a very specific circumstance, which does not apply to other areas of life. However, once a Grey spell is developed, it generally isn't long before the Grey experiments further in other circumstances. Most experiments like this prove successful - and Snapping entirely is not far away. Unlike the Half-Awakened, it is rare for Greys to remain Greys indefinitely.

Awakened Disciplines: Auras that are red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple (or some combination of those shades) belong to the Awakened – magic users in on the Masquerade. The way the Awakened use magic and shape Will varies quite heavily between disciplines – this section is a list of some of the more common (or at least, more well known) forms of Awakened magic in the Contemporary World of Magical Teacher Professor Landry. As mentioned above in the Witch's Guild write-up, hybrizing disiciplines is fully possible.

Innate Magic: Without the shaping techniques found in other Awakened disciplines, human Will has no form or substance - it is merely power. The discipline of Innate magic directs this force and uses it to infuse the caster's body to augment the user's natural attributes. Though easier to learn than Red and Blue magic, it is also profoundly limited - humans are not naturally able to manifest supernatural phenomena outside their bodies, making overt spells extremely difficult.

Demonic Magic: According to human legends, demons were created as weapons of War. For this reason, their Will was tainted in order to allow them to manifest spells outside their bodies, without the need for human shaping techniques. Demonic magic varies heavily with the race of the user, but each possesses very finite limitations. To get around them, some demons choose to augment their natural powers with human arts. However, their tainted Will makes this a difficult, and frustrating, experience, to say the least. While some races have developed extremely refined forms of Demonic magic, it is technically still a version of Innate Magic.

Wizardry: The quintessential Western magical art. Wizardry is the art of shaping Will through complex arrays of symbols, lines and shapes. Will, in its natural state, is merely potential power - Wizards use their spell circles as lenses to reshape this power, enabling them to manifest virtually any kind of phenomenon, provided they know the correct set of symbols to create it. In ancient times, Wizards used physical objects as lenses, such as rocks or circles drawn in the dirt. Contemporary Wizards create spell circles from their auras alone - a process which requires a great deal of mental discipline, because the slightest error can cause the spell to fizzle, or worse, backfire entirely. Wizards are the most common form of Awakened magic-user in the modern world.

Onmyodo: A form of magic primarily practiced in Japan. Onmyodo draws on the sacred properties of nature to cast spells. Omnyoji - the practitioners of this art - do not shape Will into spells on their own. Instead, they rely on nature spirits known as kami to do so. Most require written inscriptions to communicate their desires and transfer Will to their spirit ally, the advanced practitioners - known as the Enlightened - are capable of direct interaction with the kami without the need for such intermediaries. The power of Onmyodo users is reduced the further they are from nature. Most Onimoji live in Japan – outside of it, they're rare.

Katsujinjitsu: More commonly known as Chi, Katsujinjitsu roughly translates to the Life Arts. Katsujinjitsu manipulates Life energy, both outside and inside the user, when casting spells. Onmyodo and Katsujinjitsu are often practiced in concert because of their similarities - both primarily draw power from outside their user - but Katsujinjitsu manipulates this force directly. Consequently, this is a mildly easier, though more limited, discipline. It also comes far closer than Onmyodo does to the principles of Dark magic. Katsujinjitsu users are most common in the Far-East, though even there, they are firmly in the minority.

Old Magic: All forms of ancient magic, Alchemy, Druidism, Song magic, etc. fall under the collective heading of Old magic. Most forms of it have all but died out. Old magic is the art of shaping Will through physical lenses to cast spells, or, the art of infusing objects with Will, to enhance their properties. The key distinction between Old magic and contemporary disciplines is that the lens used exists physically - it is not a purely metaphysical construct like aura-based spell circles or the immaterial kami.

Shamanism: An ancient form of Onmyodo still practiced in remote communities. Where Onmyoji commune with spirits of the world itself, Shaman work with the spirits tied to physical objects - rocks, printers, rats, etc - to cast their spells. Most spirits that are invoked by Shamans are not fully self-aware, nor do they typically have a grasp of the human language, so communication is often mental or semantic, with verbal and written commands generally limited to bestial sounds, or more rarely, simple symbols. Shamanism is exceedingly uncommon in the modern world and is technically classified as Old magic.

Dark Magic: Dark magic has been known by many names throughout history - Purple magic, True magic, Witchcraft in the West, the Death Arts (Satsujinjitsu) in the East. Regardless of their name, all forms of Dark magic follow the same logic: There is power in sacrifice. When something dies or is destroyed, energy is released - energy that Dark magic-users make use of to empower their spells beyond what they are normally capable of. Dark magic is a classification for spells, not a magical discipline into itself - a Dark magic user must also practice a normal magical discipline to use their powers.

Combat: While Battles in Magical Teacher Professor Landry usually take quite a long time to play out, actual combat – especially exchanges that occur in melee – is both fast and brutal. Fighting is hard and – generally speaking – should be avoided. The people around you may be stronger, faster or smarter than you – and you really won't be able to tell until the battle begins. That said, sometimes fighting can not be avoided. Being able to defend yourself will help a lot, since one of the more significant power-gaps in this game is between untrained fighters and trained ones. Even so, do not expect easy fights or handholding – nasty things can and will happen when swords are out. Remain calm, think things through and play to your character's strengths. Nothing in this world is truly invincible – but fighting a master martial artist in straight-up combat probably won't work. It'll be up to you to figure out what will. I promise, the outcome will be fair – to both you and your opponent – if nothing else.

One Turn-per Week: Roleplaying games like this take a very, very, long time. In an effort to keep things moving, I'll be doing my best to post once a week. This means if you're involved in a scene you'll need to do the same. If you can't, or just don't, I will assume you passed your turn. Outside of combat, the ramifications of that are pretty mild – it'll usually mean your character just doesn't do anything that turn. In combat, the consequences for hesitating are usually worse. If you don't post but are heavily involved in a fight, I'll select an action that makes sense for your character in that moment, in order to keep the game moving. I should also say that off-screen action is only alright with GM permission – if it isn't posted in game, it didn't happen. You can contact me via PM or IM if you need more time, but I won't promise to give it to you. I might allow you to select what your character does, though.

Reaction Commands: Sometimes, when I'm working on a post, I find a small area which requires player input (such as whether or not you trigger a relevant reflexive defensive ability or not). When that happens, I send out an unfinished copy of the post, stopping at the place where the player has a chance to influence the scene, and allow them to dictate what their character does. Similarly, sometimes when resolving a particularly action – usually a scuffle in melee combat – I'll request player input on how their character capitalizes on a particular situation. Players, generally speaking, will get around 24 hours to decide what their character will do in that moment – your character doesn't have more than an instant to decide, after all, so more than that doesn't seem fair. I won't be unfair about this (especially not if you tell me that you need a little more time because) but I really don't want the game held up too long because of Reaction Commands. They're meant to keep things moving, after all.

Meta-Gaming: Do not use information that your character can't have access to (IE: Out-of-character knowledge). Play in-character. Doing otherwise is cheating, and I really don't like cheating. If you aren't sure what this means, ask. You really don't want the GM to be mad at you.

Non-Lethal Principle: This is a caveat to be kept in mind when fighting. Guns, bows and all long range weapons are non-lethal; most of the time, bullets and arrows will only shallowly pierce a target's skin and deal (heavy) blunt damage. The exception to this rule occurs when an individual desires, with all their heart, to kill someone (this is a function of the way Will is expended when firing a bullet, even in a mundane weapon) and does not waver in this desire until the bullet strikes. With long-range weaponry, rage is usually the easiest way to get around this principle. Melee weapons are an entirely different beast – and far more lethal, by comparison.

Spells: Under normal circumstances, magic is extremely difficult to use. It requires careful concentration, years of training, a close attention to detail, access to altered states of consciousness and spell components - none of which is particularly easy to manage when being shot at. Spells are techniques designed to get around this. Through meticulous rehearsal and practice, Will can be trained to fall into particular templates quickly and reliably, in order to evoke supernatural effects without concentration. Different structures of templates are required to evoke different effects and Will may only be directed into a single spell template at a time. Auras are the collective catalogue of spell templates available to a Mage.

Compound Spells: Will may only be directed toward a single spell at any given time. Basic spells only do one thing - Compound spells are an advanced spell, designed to get around the 'one magical effect at a time' limitation. Through careful control and coordination, magicians are able to construct spells which evoke two distinct magical effects at the same time. The metaphor of a river flowing both north and south (at the same time in the same place) fits a Compound spell - it ought to be physically impossible. Because most spells are able to be turned on-and-off reflexively, Compound spells are generally not pursued if there's a viable alternative. They're really hard. Compound Spells, at minimum, are Grade 2.

Grades: All spells may be rated on a grading scale. Most start as Grade 1 - they're an application of Will to do one specific thing, like making something explode with a touch. Grade 2 spells add a second effect to a Grade 1, such as enabling you to blow an object up from a distance, increasing the size of the explosion, or making the explosion release poisonous gas as well. Higher grades continue this pattern. To work out what Grade a spell is, you need to break down what it does, and then count the steps involved.

Growth: Players will begin the game with a relatively short list of low Grade abilities. Through practice and experimentation (see: Spell Refining), new abilities can be added to the list, or old abilities can be improved. This takes a fair amount of in-game time. So, just to be clear, power-levels will increase slowly for the most part, with the largest increases occurring off-screen during time skips. There will be in-game events where spell Grades spontaneously increase, but don't expect them to happen often. From an in-game perspective, events that have that sort of power are extremely uncommon - and are usually associated with Dark magic.

Spell Refining: Is the process by which mages can increase the Grades of their spells. Mages of different disciplines have to do different things to refine spells. Generally, though, the process can be boiled down to experimentation to find a way to successfully alter their pre-existing spell, then continuous practice until they can cast the new spell in their sleep. Spell Refining is a long and frustrating process, which can also be extremely dangerous - more than one unlucky magician has been killed by an experiment gone awry.

Spell Degradation: Magic is hard. In order to use spells effectively in battle, magicians must devote hours of their lives to the practice of their discipline, much like Martial Artists. However, between experimentation to design or improve on new spells and the demands of living in a modern society, practicing spells often falls by the wayside. When this happens, the slow process of Spell Degradation begins. Like any skill, when spells are not frequently used, they become rusty. Typically, this takes the form of a slight delay when casting a spell, or an increased chance of spell failure. Generally speaking, a magician never forgets a spell they knew in its entirety, but lengthy periods of disuse certainly take their toll. Try not to let this happen when using important spells.

Free Casting: Spells are extremely practiced, fast, applications of magic designed for battle or other situations where concentration is a luxury that can't be afforded. Sometimes though, the spells a magician knows are insufficient. In such situations, Free Casting - the use of magic without a spell template - is one of the tools available to mages. Free Casting may be used, in battle and out, to develop new spells or adapt an existing one. However, magic is not easy or safe - attempts at Free Casting are frequently characterized by fizzles or, if the mage is unlucky, fatal backfires. Being slow and careful, not to mention having a wide array of casting components and ritual devices, increases the chances of a Free Cast being successful - which is why most attempts at it are done inside a magician's workshop, not in battle. When hurried, even simple spells or adaptations contain a significant chance of failure. Free Casting in battle is generally viewed as a very desperate act. Most mages avoid it for good reason - those who rely on it die. Extreme caution is advised.

Enchantments: Spells which apply prolonged magical effects to objects, with or without an associated drain of Will, are referred to as Enchantments. Colloquially, positive effects are referred to as Blessings, while negative ones are referred to as Curses. Such classifications are inherently poor for subjective reasons, however. There is no objective mechanical difference between a positive or negative enchantment. Enchantments can be applied a variety of ways - battle based ones (usually possessing short durations) are usually thrown like projectiles and appear to be invisible to the Unawakened, but glow brightly to the Awakened. Longer effects, like those applied to enchanted weapons, usually require longer rituals and greater magical expenditure.

Barrier Fields: Barrier Fields are a closed space that separates everyone within their boundary from everything outside. The most common form of them creates a copy of the environment which it encloses, moves it half a dimension away, and takes all living things with it. Effectively, once a Barrier Field is activated, everyone within its boundary vanishes. However, the specifics of this - whether it is selective in only taking the Awakened or not, for instance - vary quite heavily between Fields. Breaking a Barrier Field is quite difficult from the inside, but the most reliable way is to kill the magician who set it up, or destroy whatever talisman is anchoring it. Outside, the easiest method is to disrupt whatever boundary (sometimes as simple as a line in the sand) created it in the first place. Certain spells may also be designed specifically to eliminate Barrier Fields. The realities of the Masquerade make Barrier Fields a relatively common phenomena, when magic is involved – you'll see more than a few of them.