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Spell: The Shocking Curse of Free Space


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This is a pair of Y2 spells. A reward for Omni Disciplinarians. I intend for the original version to be roughly as powerful in Y2, as Puppet Master is to year one, and also as difficult to acquire. (maybe 19+ in all pillars. If specialization is as hard as you guys say it is, that should be plenty hard.) Meaning that in all likelihood it will not be feasible for most people to use until Y3+

Given the described effects of the spell I was thinking that it might also weaken the bond between the victim and other clique members. that may or may not be overpowered but it's an idea I'm throwing out there.

Edit: It was designed as a bragging rights spell, but also as a spell that might be useful to cast on a rival before a duel. Maybe a side effect can be random relation gain with someone who sees you cast it? Actually, it may be more practical to instead lower fitness by 2 as I think that would give an effect similar to what I was going for

(I'm not sure what phemes might be used but meh. Y2 hasn't come out yet so Y1 phemes might not be the best choice anyway.)
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The Shocking Curse of Free Space (Original)

Invented approximately 5 centuries ago by a particularly talented student of the Academagia (whose name is now lost to history), this spell was designed specifically as a way to convey the student's unique talents in magic to his peers. (and get revenge on a certain rival) This is the original version, and uses magic from all 7 known pillars:

Gates to subtly distort ley lines around the victim, causing a loss of Luck,
Incantation to generate constant static electricity on the victim, causing a reduction to vitality maximum,
Revision to alter the victim's sensitivity to electricity, causing an increase to stress minimum,
Glamour to make the spell difficult to identify, as well as make it appear negated on unsuccessful attempts to do so,
Negation to make the spell itself difficult to Negate,
Astrology to cause the effects of the spell to return if improperly Negated,
And finally Mastery to cause anyone nearby to be unable to recall the phemes necessary for it's proper Negation.

And all in one neat package! It's really quite powerful and mean spirited, a testament to the ways of life on campus in the older days. On it's first casting it successfully ruined the social life of one of the girls of college Durand. She appeared Cursed with clumsiness and shocked everyone she came in contact with, and even the school staff had trouble figuring out how to Negate it, leading to her being given wide berth (lots of free space) wherever she went until long after the spell's duration of 3 days ended. After graduating, the inventor revealed all the details of the spell to everyone at the ceremony.

It used to be very well known in some circles, as a test of skill. Of course, now that Gates and Mastery Themselves are forbidden, the spell is illegal and forgotten in the wider world. But of course you should really know that by know.

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The Shocking Curse of Free Space (modified)


This is a modified version of the original spell. It trades away some oomph in exchange for the ability to cast it without people wanting to execute you. It uses the 5 legally recognized pillars of magic:

Incantation to generate constant static electricity on the victim, causing a reduction to vitality maximum,
Revision to alter the victim's sensitivity to electricity, causing an increase to stress minimum,
Glamour to make the spell difficult to identify, as well as make it appear negated on unsuccessful attempts to do so,
Negation to make the spell itself difficult to Negate,
and Astrology to cause the effects of the spell to return if improperly Negated.

When the Bans on Gates and Mastery took place, a fan of the original work figured out a way to remove the now illegal aspects of the spell while remaining true to the original. Ironically this version is (while still difficult) considerably easier to cast, resulting in mages capable of casting it being more common, which has been the bane of the school every 30 years or so as the occasional new student figures out how to cast it and make lives for the entire school miserable.

This spell is technically legal, however it is still such a nuisance that various Legates have banned it at the Academagia during their tenure. The Present Legate has yet to do so but then the spell has not been used since before his tenure began.....

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"The Shocking Curse of Free Space"? "Invented approximately 5 centuries ago by a particularly talented student of the Academagia (whose name is now lost to history)"? Subtle.

 

As for the spell itself, it's a bit...lacklustre for something that requires so much knowledge. Mechanically, a reduction of luck with vitality and stress penalties is something a basic spell with a Pheme or two tossed in could accomplish (note: the only Luck reducing Pheme the wiki lists is Malicious, which is unlocked by Rimbal Plays 9 or Practical Jokes 11). Story wise temporarily turning someone in an electric fence is well and nice, but the effects thereof aren't really anything I wouldn't expect someone with a good Charm/Gossip roll to be able to accomplish as well. Or, you know, someone with Mastery.

 

Further, without the Mastery aspect and the spell being relatively more common knowledge would it still be especially difficult to Negate?

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The negation difficulty is where the spells power comes from - a regular spell could simply be negated, three of the five pillars (four of the seven for the original) don't add to the effect of the spell, they just make it hard to get rid of - and making someone walk around with their spell on is bascally the Acaemagia student bullies way of proving that they pwn you.

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Well, it's not a combat spell. (though reducing vitality effectively damages you.)

 

It was designed as a bragging rights spell, but also as a spell that might be useful to cast on a rival before a duel. Maybe a side effect can be random relation gain with someone who sees you cast it? Actually, it may be more practical to instead lower fitness by 2 as I think that would give an effect similar to what I was going for. Anyway...

 

I considered giving vitality or stress damage over time as opposed to immediately but decided against it.

 

Remember that I'm sure that if you made it too hurtful, you could potentially be expelled! There's a limit to what you can pull off in good form.

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It's certainly a bragging rights spell, though honestly as a "reward" for omnidisciplinarians it's lacklustre as all heck. Especially if using it for the one good purpose is has - showing off exactly just how much you hate someone - could have you be expelled.

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Oh Bah. It's not like I didn't add some secondary effects that could result from casting, even if it wasn't a direct result from the magic itself. I really don't know what the team has in mind for this sort of thing and so I think of this as more of a template. The team will change what they like and don't like anyway.

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Personally I hope there's a way to combine magic schools beyond stacking different spell effects into a single spell. It'd fit the setting, but it honestly doesn't feel like an actual accomplishment. The reward of mastering so many schools of magic should be more than "you can now do everything you could do before, but at once".

 

And as soon as I have so much as a remote clue as to what that should be, I'll post it as soon as reasonably possible.

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Well, that's a good point.

 

Personally I imagine that until one actually learns and masters the art of casting across pillars the best that one can hope for is to fuse the magics with clear distinct lines separating them. And honestly I don't think that perfectly blending them should be possible to do... in Y2. Nor would I want it to be so. I have some interesting ideas for later years but.... meh. That's a loooong way away.

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Personally I suspect that the pillars are more a creation of human tradition and teaching than actual difference in magical theory. To me the true master of all pillars should have a much easier time casting spells "on the border" of various pillars as to them the border would simply not exist - the art is the art and such limitations as your pillars impose on it are limitations of your limited perspective sort of thing.

 

If the team wanted to push a benefit to cross-casting I'd go for easier stacking of phemes from different pillars (since the "contradictions and divergences of pillars" are seen as phantasmal to the omnidisciplinarian), perhaps some phemes only accessible to those skilled in certain cominations of pillars, possibly better ability to resist/break spells from single pillars or other meta-magic type enhancements.

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I am not so sure. There is still the question of Astrology that is completly unrelated to the other pillars.

 

For pillars blending; well we know Enchant and Orthography are believed to be cross-pillar skill altough it is not proven but i wonder if its even possible to cast a spell blending all the pillars at once or if its really worth it as a single pillar can pretty much do anything with sufficient skills, I wonder what would be consequence of such huge spell.

 

for the draconic pillars, well my personal theory is that all their tradition have their origin in a specific dragon. Each of them taught to their subject a specific magic who became the pillars as we know them know but I don't have enough information to guess if there all are only artificial construct of one single magic theory or related but completly different magics but thats what free will have to discover for us ;) . (Astrology aside of course)

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To me the true master of all pillars should have a much easier time casting spells "on the border" of various pillars as to them the border would simply not exist - the art is the art and such limitations as your pillars impose on it are limitations of your limited perspective sort of thing.

 

I agree, but I think it will take some time and a lot more understanding of all the magics than at Y2 level before you can understand magic theory on the level to be able to do that. You would almost have to be smart enough to figure it out yourself as I doubt very seriously that anything like that is taught at all at the academy.

 

There is still the question of Astrology that is completly unrelated to the other pillars.

 

I actually don't think that Astrology is completely unrelated. I mean, there are phemes associated with it, even if fewer than average. The real disassociation comes from the dragon's (lack of) usage for yet unknown assumed reasons.

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  • 3 months later...

There was lore of a very skilled wizard in the old days who didn't see the distinction between pillars and thought ii was foolish.

 

He could use all of it and didn't really how he mixed it up it seemed, expect for what couldn't be done of course. A special prodigy. I can't recall what lore it was but it was in there somewhere.

 

It seems like the legate is mixing up different pillars aswell. Carnage on the fields seems to imply this.

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Well:

 

1. I don't consider 2 pillar spells to be truly omni.

2. I still haven't looked at every single spell individually yet.

3. I merely used the one example that I remembered off the top of my head.

4. I don't recall there ever having been official confirmation on there being *any* spells in Y1 that were multi-pillar. The legate even dodged my question on confirming corner sight as being one.

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