The Archive

Part Two: The Rules

• Part One: The True Account
• Part Two: The Rules

Chapter Twenty: Magic and the We

Understanding and Wielding Magic

“ M agic is the art of pulling threads on the Loom of Reality and hoping they don't come undone." — Sentinel Teaching Stone, recovered near Concord

The We

Before Kin or Humans, before the Dragons dreamed, before the first mountains pushed through the skin of a young world, there was a creative tension at the root of everything. A force that orchestrates a universe where things exist, grow, and generate heat and life.

Every culture on Earth has a word for it. Eastern traditions name it in a dozen, each word pointing at the same invisible thing. The Fae, who retreated to the Aetherium when the world's frequency dropped below their tolerance, know it by a name that no longer resonates in the Prime. The Nether Dwarves, who have spent so long in the deep that their bodies have become Nether creatures, call it by a sound that shakes stone.

Mystic practitioners who have traced the knowledge, through the Sentinel archives and fractured records of the Age of Myth, find one word underneath all the others. The one the Dragon aspects taught the first Fae and Dwarven clans before the First Sundering. In the Sundered Codex it is written simply: the WE.

The WE is the fundamental harmonious energy of reality, the animating force that the five Dragons cycle through the world like blood through a living body. Every Ley Line carries it. Every living thing converts it into potential. The great Nexus points, where Ley Lines converge, are places where the WE runs so thick it makes things happen that are not possible elsewhere. Spellcasters feel it first. Everyone else catches on eventually.

Its antithesis has a name too: the Void. Entropy without cycle. The Nether. The frequency at which the Ancient Terrors operate, the native state where the laws of nature break down and chaos ensues.

Arcana

Arcana is the collective term for the learned methodologies through which sapient beings perceive and channel the WE. The word is ancient and cross-cultural. In the Sundered Codex it means the whole of magical practice: the study, the application, and the consequences.

Most Arcana on Earth flows through three fundamental reservoirs of personal channeling capacity: Mind, Body, and Spirit. These are actual pools of channeling capacity, the degree to which a practitioner can bear the WE moving through them before it costs something real. A caster who burns through their Spirit casting Shamanic invocations is not tired the way a runner is tired. They are temporarily depleted and it makes their remaining Spirit-sourced casting more challenging to attempt.

Individual acts of Arcana are called spells. Practitioners learn them, invest in them, carry them. A well-chosen spell list is as personal and tactical as a weapons loadout, but considerably more dangerous to get wrong.

The Six Traditions

Mortals have always found different handles on the WE. The six Traditions represent the methodologies that proved reliable enough and spread widely enough to still be taught in the present day.

Each Tradition has a default Source Trait, the pool it most naturally draws from. Experienced casters can sometimes draw from an alternate Trait for a different expression of the same spell, but the default is where each Tradition's power lives most cleanly, and where its spells are designed to perform.

Elementalism

Default Source Trait: Body

The WE moves through earth, water, fire, and wind. It has moved through them since before the first mountain rose. Elementalists locate the WE alive in the elements and give it direction. The work is more like conducting than conjuring. The practitioner extends their Body as a bridge between their own channeling capacity and the raw elemental force they are shaping.

Elementalism is among the oldest practiced Traditions on Earth, persisting through every Sundering in various forms across almost every major culture, because the elements themselves are persistent. You can drive Kin underground for six thousand years and fire still burns. Eastern elemental traditions refined Elementalism to extraordinary depth during the Age of Myth. Western practitioners tended toward alchemy and mechanism when Elementalism became culturally inconvenient, but the underlying knowledge survived.

The Elementalist's magic is straightforward in a way that other Traditions are not. It hits hard. It holds things in place. It protects with stone and shatters with force.

Book 1 Professions with Elementalism access: Alchemist (partial), Monk (partial), Witch (partial), Wondermancer (partial) Book 2: Elementalist (primary)

Aetheric Weaving

Default Source Trait: Spirit

The Aetherium vibrates faster than Prime Reality. The Fae retreated to it. The life force that empowers most forms of healing magic originates there. Light, illusion, growth, subtle energies that slip through physical barriers as if they do not exist: all of these draw from the Aetherium's higher frequency.

Aetheric Weaving is the most technically demanding Tradition. The practitioner reaches upward in frequency, into a register that can be overwhelming or alien. True Fae and Fae Blood practitioners learn it instinctively. Human and Kin practitioners learn it the hard way, through years of calibration. The magic that results is precise, often beautiful, and capable of effects that no other Tradition can replicate.

The Witch tradition draws heavily from Aetheric Weaving in its older, purer forms, before it crossed with blood-pact and Shamanic elements over centuries of underground practice.

Book 1 Professions with Aetheric Weaving access: Witch (partial), Alchemist (partial), Wondermancer (partial)

Nether Shaping

Default Source Trait: Spirit (alternate: Body)

Below Prime Reality, the Nether Realm vibrates at a lower, denser frequency. The upper layer of the Nether is the Gloom, where Kin have built their civilization in First Age Dwarven ruins. Below the Gloom, the Nether grows stranger and more dangerous. It is the home of Demons and Undead. Even deeper is the Dragon Dream Prison, and the Void that bleeds through at the prison's seams.

Nether Shaping draws from that lower frequency. The practitioner reaches downward, into shadow, geothermal pressure, and the psychic residue of the Void. The magic it produces can bind, erase, decay, and terrify. It is marked as risky for a reason: the lower you reach, the closer you get to what the Terrors feed upon. Practitioners who work Nether Shaping develop a relationship with something that seeks to usurp them. Some manage it. Some do not.

The Assassin tradition uses Nether Shaping specifically for frequency manipulation: stepping into the shadow register between Prime and Nether for concealment and precision. This is controlled, disciplined, and comparatively safe. Wide-spectrum Nether Shaping is a different proposition.

Book 1 Professions with Nether Shaping access: Assassin (primary), Witch (partial), Wondermancer (partial)

Shamanism

Default Source Trait: Spirit

The soul cycle runs constantly: life borrows WE-energy from the Source through the Dragon conduit, dies, returns along the Dragon Current for cleansing and renewal, reincarnates. This is planetary infrastructure as old as the Dragons themselves. Shamans work with that infrastructure rather than against it. They commune with spirits in transit, ancestral presences that have not yet completed their return journey, and with the Dragon Consciousness that manages biological and spiritual flow.

Shamanism's range is wider than it appears from the outside. Healing and blessing occupy the visible end of the practice. At the other end: divination that reads the soul cycle's currents, curses that interfere with a target's frequency coherence, and fate manipulation that nudges probability in the practitioner's favor. A Shaman calling on Soulfire is focusing soul-cycle energy through a point of such concentrated pressure that it burns on contact.

Shamanism is practiced by virtually every culture on Earth in some form, because the soul cycle does not respect geography.

Book 1 Professions with Shamanism access: Witch (primary), Wondermancer (partial)

Biomancy

Default Source Trait: Body

Living things convert WE-energy constantly. The biological processes of respiration, metabolism, growth, and healing all run on WE at the cellular level. Biomancers know this intimately. They work directly with life force, accelerating and redirecting the processes that bodies already perform, targeting the points where chi flows through biological tissue, introducing or countering toxic compounds through arcane means.

Biomancy heals faster than rest. It also kills more precisely than most weapons. The same knowledge that lets a Biomancer close a wound lets them open one at a point the target cannot easily defend.

The Alchemist's practice heavily involves Biomancy. The potions and tinctures they brew are not purely chemical. Every effective alchemical product is a physical carrier medium for Biomantic WE-manipulation.

Book 1 Professions with Biomancy access: Alchemist (primary), Monk (partial), Witch (partial), Wondermancer (partial)

Wondermancy

Default Source Trait: Mind

In the First Age, the Dragon aspects taught select Fae and Dwarven clans to bind WE-energy into crafted objects. The Fae developed the practice into enchanting art, song, and nature. The Dwarves learned to translate WE binding into arcane-powered machines, both small and vast. Not infusing objects with vague magical potential, but encoding spell-effects into physical substrates with such precision that any sufficiently trained practitioner could operate them reliably. That knowledge became the foundation of the first Wondermancy.

The lineages that survive today are scattered across the five Dwarven Bastions in the deep Nether. Each holds different fragments of the original teaching. Surface practitioners can only replicate the most rudimentary applications. The deep craft, the work that produced ancient Wonder Gear still functioning after six thousand years, is not recoverable from surface-level knowledge. A Wondermancer who finds and repairs a piece of First Age gear is working with something they do not fully understand.

Wondermancy operates differently from the other five Traditions. A Wondermancer does not cast spells by channeling through their body. They bind spell-effects into Wonder Gear, creating charged items that store WE-energy and release it on activation. When a Wondermancer "casts," they are activating a charge stored in an object, or imbuing a new one. The gear, not the caster's body, absorbs the bulk of the channeling burden. A Wondermancer stripped of their Wonder Gear is operating at a significant disadvantage since it represents their arcane arsenal.

Book 1 Professions with Wondermancy access: Wondermancer (primary), Alchemist (partial)

Casters and Capacity

Source Traits and Spell Pools

Every caster has three pools of channeling capacity in the form of their Traits. The number of spells you can cast from a given Trait equals that Trait's current score at the start of the encounter.

A character with Mind 4, Body 3, Spirit 5 can cast:

Up to 4 spells sourced from Mind

Up to 3 spells sourced from Body

Up to 5 spells sourced from Spirit

...before an extended rest of six or more uninterrupted hours restores all pools.

What Casting Spends

Every spell cast reduces the Source Trait used by 1, immediately, exactly like a Wound from combat.

A caster who spends three Spirit spells in a fight and takes a Spirit Wound from an attack enters the next encounter with Spirit reduced by 4. That reduction affects spell capacity, defense rolls against Spirit-targeted attacks, and the number of augment dice available for any Spirit-driven check. The pool is the same pool everything runs on. Burning it for spells means not having it for what happens when the spells stop working.

Depleted Trait points from casting recover exactly as Wounds do: through rest, through Healing Light or Body Revival, through any effect that explicitly restores Trait scores.

Failing a casting roll still costs 1 Trait point. The WE was drawn upon. The fact that the spell did not land does not return what was spent.

Arcane Focus

Most practicing casters carry an Arcane Focus: a piece of Wonder Gear specifically designed to absorb some of the channeling burden and spare the practitioner's body.

A Focus defers or absorbs Trait drain up to its capacity. Most Foci are aligned to a single Trait at crafting (Mind, Body, or Spirit) and soak drain from that Trait only.

Most magic-using Professions teach their practitioners to craft a Minor Focus early, often at the point of first formal training. The process is simple enough to be a rite of passage rather than a technical achievement. The resulting Focus is almost always aligned to the Trait the practitioner taps most naturally, and it tends to carry marks of its maker, the material, the binding, the way it sits in the hand, that distinguish it from anything purchased or inherited.

Minor Focus

Talisman, bound amulet, small fetish object

A Minor Focus holds 1 charge. Each charge soaks 1 drain from its aligned Trait. Once depleted, all remaining casts cost the caster normally.

Standard Focus

Staff, wand, tome, bound gauntlet, channeling rod

A Standard Focus holds 3 charges. Each charge soaks 1 drain from its aligned Trait. In a sustained fight, a Standard Focus can cover an entire encounter if the caster is pacing themselves, or burn through quickly under pressure.

Greater Focus

Scepter, relic, channeling crown, Dragon-touched implement

A Greater Focus holds 5 charges. Each charge soaks 1 drain from any Trait, regardless of which Tradition the spell draws from. Two spells cast in the same turn each spend a charge independently.

Greater Foci are rare. Most in circulation are old. The Wondermancy required to create a new one exists only in the deep Nether Dwarven lineages and is not surface knowledge. A caster who carries a Greater Focus is either exceptionally connected, exceptionally lucky, or carrying something they do not fully understand.

Focus Recharge

All Foci recover 1 charge per hour under normal conditions. There is no requirement for an extended rest. A Focus recovers gradually, so partial recharges between encounters are meaningful. A caster who spent 3 charges in a tough fight and travels for two hours enters the next encounter with two charges restored.

Casting Mechanics

The Casting Roll

Casting Score = d20 + Skill + Augment Dice

Each spell specifies its own Skill from the standard six: Might, Grace, Will, Sense, Logic, or Knowledge. The Skill reflects the nature of the spell rather than a universal casting discipline. Crushing Blow draws on Might. Memory Wipe draws on Logic. Healing Light draws on Sense. Will appears frequently in Spirit-sourced spells but carries no special default status. The Skill for each spell is listed in its entry.

Augment Dice follow the standard five-type rule: one of each type per roll (Gear, Training, Magic, Tactic, Special). The total number of augment dice on any casting roll cannot exceed the current score of the Source Trait used.

Uncontested Casting

Spells that create effects no creature actively resists require a standard check against TN 20. Advanced or difficult spells specify a higher TN in their entry.

Success: the spell fires as written. Failure: the spell fails. The Source Trait drain still occurs.

Contested Casting

Offensive spells targeting an unwilling creature are resolved as a contested check.

Caster: d20 + Skill + Aug Dice

Defender: d20 + Targeted Trait + Aug Dice

The defender adds only their Targeted Trait score, plus any applicable augment dice from equipped defenses. No Skill bonus applies. The Targeted Trait for each spell is listed in its entry.

If the caster's score exceeds the defender's score: the spell lands. If the defender's score meets or exceeds the caster's score: the spell fails.

The Source Trait drain occurs regardless of outcome.

Mounting Success in Casting

If a casting roll exceeds TN or the defender's score by 10 or more, the spell produces an enhanced effect. For every full 10-point margin above the threshold, the caster gains one additional benefit from the following options (as the spell's description allows):

Deal +1 Wound (damage-dealing spells only)

Double the Range (add additional original value, not accumulated)

Double the Duration (add additional original value, not accumulated)

Double the Area of Effect (add additional original value, not accumulated)

Apply the secondary effect noted in the spell description

Each increment of 10 grants one separate benefit. A margin of 30 grants three.

Alternate Trait Casting

A caster with sufficient Trait depth can power a spell from a Trait other than its Tradition's default. Doing so costs 2 Trait points instead of 1. The spell's fundamental effect is the same; its expression shifts. Healing drawn through Body is accelerated biological repair rather than soul-energy restoration. A binding cast through Mind is geometric and exacting where the Spirit version is instinctive and willful.

A Focus soaks 1 point of the 2-point cost if it is aligned to the Trait being used for alternate casting. The caster pays the remaining point regardless.

Multiple Spells Per Turn

A caster may attempt multiple spells in a single turn, subject to the standard No Repeat Skill rule: two spells requiring the same Skill cannot both be Actions in the same turn. A Beat-cost ability does not conflict with an Action-cost spell, regardless of Skill. If one spell is slower than the other, both operate at the slower speed.

Each spell cast in a turn triggers its own Source Trait drain independently.

Acquiring and Empowering Spells

Tradition Access: Primary and Partial

Each Profession that uses magic has defined access to one or more Traditions, listed in that Profession's entry.

Primary access means no cap: you may learn as many spells from that Tradition as you are willing to pay SP for.

Partial access means a hard cap of 2 spells from that Tradition, ever. SP can be spent on those 2 spells normally, but you cannot learn a third regardless of advancement.

Access level cannot be upgraded through SP. Gaining a new Tradition or expanding from partial to primary requires a Profession or Training that explicitly grants it.

Starting Spells

Every Profession that uses magic lists a number of starting spells from its accessible Traditions. These are part of that Profession's Original Loadout and are awarded only if this is your first Profession. Multi-classing into a magic-using Profession later does not grant its starting spells; you acquire new spells by spending SP as normal.

Acquiring Additional Spells

Learning a new spell costs 4 Story Points. The spell must belong to a Tradition your Profession has access to. Tradition access cannot be purchased; it is defined by your Profession and any Trainings that explicitly extend it.

Empowering Spells

Each spell carries its own Magic augment die, starting at d4 unless specified otherwise. You can increase a spell's die by investing SP equal to the next die size:

Maximum die size is d12. A caster who has upgraded a spell's die has cast it hundreds of times and found its optimal frequency.

Wondermancy: Special Rules

Wondermancy "spells" are activations rather than castings. The practitioner channels WE into an object, and the object releases the effect.

Imbuing: Spells with the Imbue tag bind a spell-effect into a piece of Wonder Gear during an out-of-combat preparation action. The gear holds the charge until activated. The Mind Trait drain occurs at imbuing, not at activation.

Overloading: Activations marked Overload push gear past its designed operating range. Enhanced effect results, with risk: if the activation roll's d20 shows 1-5, the item downgrades one die step. On a natural 1, it breaks.

Spell Lists

Spell entries use the following format:

Range: the maximum distance the spell reaches. Duration: how long the effect persists. Instant means the effect resolves immediately. Action Cost: the action type required to cast. Spells without a noted Action Cost default to [Action]. Roll: the casting roll formula: d20 + Skill + Aug Dice. The Skill varies by spell and is listed in each entry. Target: TN for uncontested spells; contested notation for resisted spells. Defenders in contested checks add only their Targeted Trait, with no Skill bonus. Effect: the mechanical result.

Default Source Trait: Body

Crushing Blow

Range: Melee Duration: Instant Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Might + Aug Dice Target: Contested — d20 + Body + Aug Dice

Effect: Deals 1 Body Wound on a successful hit. Mounting Success (margin 10+): +1 Body Wound per increment.

You channel a surge of elemental force through your limbs and deliver it at a point of contact. The strike lands with a weight that has nothing to do with your physical mass. Stone transmits force; you are briefly the stone.

Earthen Shield

Range: Self Duration: 2 turns Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Might + Aug Dice Target: Uncontested — TN 20

Effect: For the duration, add this spell's Magic aug die to all Defense rolls. Mounting Success (margin 10+): extend the shield to one adjacent ally.

The ground beneath you responds. A barrier rises, not conjured but redirected: earth that was already there, persuaded to stand differently. It is not elegant. It does not need to be.

Stone Grip

Range: 20 ft. Duration: 1 turn Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Might + Aug Dice Target: Contested — d20 + Body + Aug Dice

Effect: On success, target gains the Restrained condition for the duration. Restrained targets cannot Move. They may still take Actions and Beats. Mounting Success (margin 10+): extend Duration by 1 turn per increment.

The earth under a target's feet has opinions. You voice them. Most opponents are surprised how quickly stone develops grip.

Flame Surge

Range: 30 ft. Duration: Instant Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Grace + Aug Dice Target: Contested — d20 + Body + Aug Dice

Effect: Deals 1 Body Wound. On Mounting Success (margin 10+): target gains the Burning condition. At the start of each of their turns they take 1 additional Body Wound until the condition clears. Burning clears on a successful TN 10 uncontested Body check as an Action, or when an ally extinguishes them.

You find the WE already present in thermal energy and tell it where to go. The fire you produce is not metaphorical. It burns exactly as fire burns.

Gale Force

Range: 40 ft. cone Duration: Instant Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Will + Aug Dice Target: Contested — all targets in cone roll d20 + Body + Aug Dice

Effect: All targets in the cone who fail the defense roll gain the Staggered condition and are pushed 10 ft. in the direction of the wind. Mounting Success (margin 10+): push distance doubles and targets are Knocked Down instead of Staggered.

The WE moves through air with extraordinary ease. Getting it to move very quickly through a precise cone of space is mostly a matter of asking properly.

Default Source Trait: Spirit

Illusionary Veil

Range: 50 ft. Duration: 1 turn Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Sense + Aug Dice Target: Contested — d20 + Mind (for any creature attempting to disbelieve) + Aug Dice

Effect: Creates a sensory illusion up to 10 ft. in any dimension. The illusion affects all senses of creatures who fail their disbelief check. It cannot physically interact with the world, but it appears to. Mounting Success (margin 10+): Duration extends by 1 turn per increment.

Aetherium light behaves differently than Prime Reality light. A practiced Weaver borrows just enough of that difference to convince the eye that the air contains something it does not. The illusion is real enough. What it lacks is substance.

Intellect Surge

Range: Self or ally within 20 ft. Duration: 2 turns Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Will + Aug Dice Target: Uncontested — TN 20

Effect: Target's Mind Trait increases by 2 for the duration, increasing their Mind spell capacity and Mind-based aug dice cap accordingly. The bonus Mind points absorb damage and are lost first when Mind Trait drain occurs. Mounting Success (margin 10+): Duration extends by 1 turn.

Higher frequency Aetherium energy, focused into a mind, sharpens processing at a level that feels nothing like effort. Targets describe it as remembering something they forgot they knew.

Telepathic Link

Range: 60 ft. Duration: 10 minutes Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Sense + Aug Dice Target: Uncontested — TN 20 (willing target); Contested — d20 + Mind (unwilling) + Aug Dice

Effect: Establishes a two-way mental communication channel between the caster and one target. Communication is silent and does not require line of sight once established. Range extends to 60 ft. for the duration. Mounting Success (margin 10+): link range doubles per increment.

Aetherium energies cross the distance between two minds more easily than most practitioners expect. The difficult part is keeping the channel quiet enough that only what you intend to send actually crosses.

Mind Shield

Range: Self or ally within 30 ft. Duration: 3 turns Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Will + Aug Dice Target: Uncontested — TN 20

Effect: Target is immune to Mind-targeted attacks, contact spells, and psychic interference for the duration. Mounting Success (margin 10+): extend the shield to one additional ally per increment.

A shell of Aetherium frequency around a mind acts like a barrier to anything attempting psychic intrusion.

Ethereal Step

Range: Self Duration: 1 turn Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Will + Aug Dice Target: Uncontested — TN 20

Effect: For the duration, the caster becomes partially incorporeal. They may move through solid objects and are immune to Gear-based physical attacks. Magical attacks and environmental hazards still affect them normally. The caster cannot physically interact with the world while incorporeal. Mounting Success (margin 20+): Duration extends by 1 turn.

The boundary between Prime Reality and the Aetherium becomes, briefly, negotiable. The caster is here and there simultaneously, which has the practical effect of making conventional physics stop working on them for a moment.

Inner Peace

Range: Self Duration: 5 turns Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Will + Aug Dice Target: Uncontested — TN 20

Effect: The caster becomes immune to fear effects and charm effects for the duration. Active conditions of these types are removed; new applications fail automatically. Mounting Success (margin 10+): extend the effect to one nearby ally or extend duration.

Aetherium frequency, turned inward, produces something resembling calm but operating at a different level. Fear and charm work by catching the mind's edge. This leaves no edge to catch.

Default Source Trait: Spirit (alternate: Body)

Note: Nether Shaping is marked as a risky Tradition. Extended use of Nether Shaping in a single session or campaign arc may accumulate subtle consequences for the practitioner, representing increased sensitivity to Void-frequency bleed.

Psychic Blast

Range: 30 ft. Duration: Instant Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Will + Aug Dice Target: Contested — d20 + Mind + Aug Dice

Effect: Deals 1 Mind Wound on a successful hit. Mounting Success (margin 10+): +1 Mind Wound per increment.

Nether-frequency psychic pressure, projected. The sensation in the target is not impact. The awareness that something in the low frequencies has noticed them, and decided to express interest.

Spectral Chains

Range: 30 ft. Duration: 2 turns Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Will + Aug Dice Target: Contested — d20 + Spirit + Aug Dice

Effect: Restrains a target in place with shadow-frequency bonds. Restrained targets cannot Move. They may still take Actions and Beats. Mounting Success (margin 10+): target is also Silenced for the duration (cannot use Magic-tagged abilities), or extend duration.

The chains are not physical. They exist at the frequency where the Nether touches Prime Reality, which is why cutting them with a physical weapon does not help.

Memory Wipe

Range: Touch Duration: Permanent (until dispelled) Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Logic + Aug Dice Target: Contested — d20 + Mind + Aug Dice

Effect: On success, erases one specific short-term memory from the target's accessible recall. The target is aware something is missing but cannot recover the erased content without magical assistance. The Conductor determines which memory is affected if the caster does not specify. Mounting Success (margin 10+): the window of erasable memory extends by one additional day per increment.

Nether-frequency interference at the point where memory encodes is a specialized and unsettling application of the Tradition. What it leaves behind is the absence: a blank space which the target keeps reaching for.

Wither

Range: 40 ft. Duration: Encounter Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Sense + Aug Dice Target: Contested — d20 + Spirit + Aug Dice

Effect: On success, one of the target's augment dice of the caster's choosing degrades one step for the remainder of the encounter (d12 → d10 → d8 → d6 → d4 → lost). The die step cannot be recovered until after an extended rest. Mounting Success (margin 10+): degrade an additional die step per increment.

You reach into the Nether frequency and find the WE-thread that sustains the target's magical resilience. You pull it slightly. The effect is quiet and, to the target, deeply confusing.

Shadow Reach

Range: Self Duration: 1 turn Action Cost: [Beat] Roll: d20 + Will + Aug Dice Target: Uncontested — TN 20

Effect: The caster extends their effective reach through the Nether shadow frequency. For the duration, they may make melee-range actions at ranged distance, treating the intervening space as if it were not there. The extended reach does not work against creatures currently in the Aetherium or fully incorporeal. Mounting Success (margin 10+): extend duration.

The shadow frequency runs parallel to every point in Prime Reality within a short distance. A Nether practitioner with sufficient control can touch a point 15 feet away as easily as they touch the air in front of them, provided they are willing to reach through something that is also reaching back.

Default Source Trait: Spirit

Healing Light

Range: Close Duration: Instant Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Sense + Aug Dice Target: Uncontested — TN 20

Effect: Restores a number of Wounds equal to this spell's Magic aug die result, distributed across any Traits at the recipient's choice. Mounting Success (margin 10+): the restoration increases by 1 additional Wound per increment.

The soul cycle moves through every living thing. A Shaman who knows the current can push against it, accelerating the return of what was lost. The light is real, even if its source is not luminous in any conventional sense.

Spirit Lift

Range: 15 ft. radius Duration: Instant Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Sense + Aug Dice Target: Uncontested — TN 20

Effect: All allies within range restore a number of Spirit Wounds equal to this spell's Magic aug die result. Enemies in range are unaffected. Mounting Success (margin 10+): the restoration also applies to one additional Trait of each recipient's choice.

*A Shaman who opens themselves to the soul cycle for a moment and then releases it outward gives everyone nearby a brief contact with what the WE actually feels like. *

Soulfire

Range: Ranged Duration: Instant Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Will + Aug Dice Target: Contested — d20 + Body + Spirit (defender adds both Trait scores to a single roll) + Aug Dice

Effect: Deals 1 Body Wound and 1 Spirit Wound simultaneously on a successful hit. The dual defense reflects that Soulfire attacks both dimensions at once. Mounting Success (margin 10+): +1 to each Wound type per increment.

Soul-cycle energy, compressed to a point and released as directed force, burns what flesh and spirit share. It is one of the most difficult offensive Shamanic spells to learn because the practitioner is temporarily weaponizing the same current that sustains all life. Including their own.

Fate's Favor

Range: Self or Close Duration: Instant Action Cost: [Beat] Roll: d20 + Sense + Aug Dice Target: Uncontested — TN 20

Effect: On success, the target may immediately reroll any single d20 they just rolled and take either result. The Fate's Favor cast must occur before the original roll's outcome is fully resolved. Mounting Success (margin 10+): the target may also reroll and take the best result with an aug die of the same type they used on the original roll.

The soul cycle has currents and eddies. A Shaman who knows where the eddies are can step a friend into one at the right moment. It is not luck. It is better placement.

Serendipity

Range: Self Duration: Instant Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Sense + Aug Dice Target: Uncontested — TN 20

Effect: The caster becomes aware of one useful object, exit, structural detail, or environmental feature within 60 ft. that they could not have located by ordinary observation. The Conductor determines what qualifies as useful given the current situation. The caster does not summon the object; they discover it was already there. Mounting Success (margin 10+): the caster locates one additional useful element per increment, or the revealed element is more specifically suited to the current problem.

Divination through the soul cycle works because the WE connects everything. A Shaman who learns to read that connection does not find things so much as stop overlooking them.

Ill Omen

Range: Ranged Duration: 3 turns Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Will + Aug Dice Target: Contested — d20 + Spirit + Aug Dice

Effect: On success, the target is cursed. For the duration, the target must reroll their first d20 each turn and take the lower result. The curse ends at duration or when dispelled. Mounting Success (margin 10+): Duration extends by 1 turn per increment.

A Shaman who severs a target's smooth passage through the soul cycle's current does not make their luck bad. They make it inconsistent in ways that tend to resolve badly. The target feels it before they understand it.

Default Source Trait: Body

Body Revival

Range: Close Duration: Instant Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Knowledge + Aug Dice Target: Uncontested — TN 20

Effect: Target restores a number of Body Wounds equal to this spell's Magic aug die result. Mounting Success (margin 10+): the caster may apply any excess restoration to a second Trait of the target's choice.

Biomantic healing accelerates what the body already does. The WE in living tissue responds to a Biomancer's direction the way a river responds to a well-placed stone: the flow was already there. The caster just redirects it.

Adrenaline Rush

Range: Self Duration: 3 turns Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Might + Aug Dice Target: Uncontested — TN 20

Effect: The caster's Body Trait increases by 2 for the duration, increasing their Body spell capacity and Body-based aug dice cap accordingly. The bonus Body points absorb damage and are lost first when Body Trait drain occurs. Mounting Success (margin 10+): Duration extends by 1 turn.

The biological process of an adrenaline response takes seconds naturally. A Biomancer accomplishes it instantaneously and with considerably more precision than the body's own emergency systems.

Vital Strike

Range: Close Duration: Instant Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Grace + Aug Dice Target: Contested — d20 + Spirit + Aug Dice

Effect: Strikes a chi point where WE-energy flows through living tissue, dealing Spirit Wounds rather than Body. 1 Spirit Wound on success. Mounting Success (margin 10+): +1 Spirit Wound per increment.

Every body has points where the WE runs close to the surface. A Biomancer who knows them, and most do, can strike those points in ways a conventional attack cannot reach. The defender's Spirit resists because that is the frequency being targeted.

Mind Mend

Range: Close Duration: Instant Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Knowledge + Aug Dice Target: Uncontested — TN 20

Effect: Target restores a number of Mind Wounds equal to this spell's Magic aug die result. A Biomancer healing Mind Wounds works through the biological substrate of cognition rather than through psychic or spiritual means. Mounting Success (margin 10+): the caster may apply any excess restoration to Spirit Wounds.

The synaptic structures that sustain thought are biological. Biomancy treats them as such. The approach is less elegant than Aetheric psychic healing and considerably more effective on recipients who are resistant to frequency-based interventions.

Toxin Weave

Range: Close Duration: 3 turns Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Grace + Aug Dice Target: Contested — d20 + Body + Aug Dice

Effect: Introduces a Biomantic toxin into the target's system. On success, the target gains the Poisoned condition. While Poisoned, the target loses 1 Body Wound at the start of each of their turns. The toxin clears after the Duration or when treated with an applicable antidote or healing effect (any healing spell that restores at least 1 Body Wound also clears the Poisoned condition). Mounting Success (margin 10+): the Wound loss per turn increases by 1 per increment.

Biomantic toxins are not chemical in the conventional sense. They are biological WE-disruption, targeted at the cellular conversion processes that keep a living thing running. The body cannot easily identify what is attacking it, which is why the condition persists past ordinary defenses.

Default Source Trait: Mind

Note: Wondermancy spells follow special rules detailed in the Wondermancy section above. Review those rules before using spells marked Imbue or Overload.

Arcane Bind (Imbue)

Range: Touch Duration: 1 Day Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Logic + Aug Dice Target: Uncontested — TN 20

Effect: Bind one spell the caster knows into a held piece of Wonder Gear as a stored charge. The charge holds a single-use version of the spell at the caster's current augmentation level. The Mind Trait drain for the stored spell occurs now. Any Persona may activate the stored spell later at no Trait cost. Stored charges that are not activated expire after one day. Mounting Success (margin 10+): the stored spell's Magic aug die improves by one step for its single use.

The process: find the WE-thread that matches the spell, compress it into the substrate, seal it. The quick version holds. It just doesn't hold long.

Forced Activation

Range: 40 ft. Duration: Instant Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Logic + Aug Dice Target: Uncontested — TN 20 (unattended gear); Contested — d20 + Mind + Aug Dice (gear held by an unwilling creature)

Effect: Remotely trigger the stored charge in any piece of Wonder Gear within range. The charge fires at its current aug die level. If the gear is unattended, the Wondermancer chooses the target within the spell's normal range. If the gear is held by an unwilling creature, the charge fires targeting that creature: their own gear discharges against them, with the Wondermancer choosing the effect target within the spell's normal range. A failed contested roll means the charge does not trigger; the stored charge is not expended. Mounting Success (margin 10+): the triggered charge fires one aug die step above its stored level.

A piece of Wonder Gear stores WE-energy in a stable lattice. Stability, however, is negotiable. A Wondermancer who knows the substrate well enough does not need to be holding the item to wake it. The item does not know who is asking.

Resonant Seal

Range: Touch Duration: Permanent (until released by the caster or gear is destroyed) Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Knowledge + Aug Dice Target: Uncontested — TN 15

Effect: Bond a piece of Wonder Gear to yourself at the substrate level. The seal has two effects. First: the gear will not activate for any user you have not explicitly authorized. Unauthorized users who attempt to trigger stored charges find the charge simply does not respond. Second: when you personally activate the sealed gear, you may sacrifice 1 Trait point to push the gear's Magic aug die one step higher for that use. The Trait point is spent whether or not the activation succeeds. Mounting Success (margin 10+): the Trait sacrifice pushes the die two steps instead of one for that activation.

The seal is not a lock. It is a declaration. The gear learns whose frequency it belongs to and responds accordingly: generously for those it knows, and not at all for those it does not.

Overload (Overload)

Range: Close Duration: Instant Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Logic + Aug Dice Target: Uncontested — TN 25

Effect: Push an imbued Wonder Gear item past its intended operating parameters. The stored spell fires at one aug die size above its current level (d4 → d6 → d8 etc., up to d12). On a d20 result of 1-5, the item's Magic aug die degrades one step permanently. On a natural 1, the item is destroyed. Failure means the stored charge fires at normal level but the d20 risk check still applies. Mounting Success (margin 10+): no degradation risk on next Turn if you choose to Overload.

Every piece of Wonder Gear has a rating. Overload ignores it. The object was built to handle a certain level of WE-flow; when you exceed that, the WE finds its own way out. Usually through the effect you wanted. Sometimes through the item. Occasionally through both.

Echo Charge

Range: Close Duration: Instant Action Cost: [Action] Roll: d20 + Logic + Aug Dice Target: Uncontested — TN 20

Effect: Transfer one stored spell charge from one piece of Wonder Gear to another. Both items must be held or in contact. The receiving item must be capable of holding charges (determined by item type). The charge transfers at its current aug die level. If the receiving item already holds a charge, the existing charge is overwritten by the transfer. Mounting Success (margin 10+): the transferred charge upgrades one aug die step in transit. The transferred charge is used and the original enchantment returns after first use.

WE-energy in stable storage follows certain rules. One of them is that charges can be moved if the practitioner understands the substrate well enough to open both containers simultaneously. Wondermancers use Echo Charge to redistribute assets in the field when a pre-loaded item ends up in the wrong hands.

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