The Spheres of Magic

Magic

Magic in Fortunate Blades is very powerful, dangerous, and beyond complete understanding. It should be fantastical, mystic, and frightening. Anyone in our Story can try to use it, but it's extremely risky to do so.

And sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, so in this context Magic could just mean gear or techniques so advanced as to not be easily understood.

Thus dealing with magic is always risky and requires a Roll to avoid any consequences. Characters with the proper Talents can cast spells from the specific Spheres and Difficulty there Talent is in. So if they have a Talent for Simple Magic, and chose 'Fire' as a Sphere, they can cast Simple Fire Spells at a Simple Difficulty (and are probably Lucky while doing so, as most Talents that include spellcasting also make them Lucky when casting spells).

If a Character has no Talent for magic, or isn't trained in a specific Sphere of Magic, then casting that spell is two ranks higher in difficulty. So a Simple spell would become a Serious difficulty.

And certainly other circumstances happening to the Character while they are trying to cast a spell might increase or decrease the difficulty as per the GM's discretion. For example, the difficulty may go up a rank or two when the caster is trying to avoid getting hit by an attack while also trying to cast their spell, or to see if they can cast it fast enough to avoid some Harm, or if they can resist the evil magic that's actively trying to corrupt their soul, etc. Or perhaps the caster has done something clever to put themselves in a better position, or is standing in a place of great positive magic.

But no matter how trivial, there is always risk with magic, and thus the Player should always make a Roll.

Spells

There are Cantrip, Simple, Serious, and Heroic Spells.

• Cantrips can effect a single limb of a person, or a small animal, or a small 1' cubic area, do one level of effect, and a Trivial difficulty for the trained to cast them.
• Simple spells can effect a single person or 4' cubic area, can last for up to an hour, do two levels of effect to a Clock, and a Simple difficulty for the trained to cast them.
• Serious spells can effect a group of up to four people or a 16' cubic area, can last up to a day, do four levels of effect to a Clock, and are a Serious difficulty for the trained to cast them.
• Heroic spells can effect a group of up to sixteen people or a 64' cubic area, can last up to a year, do eight levels of effect, and can only be cast by those with training, and even for the trained they are a Heroic difficulty.

Spells can only come from a single Sphere unless a Character has a Talent that allows them to combine two or more Spheres together into a single spell.

Spheres of Magic

All spells come from one or more Spheres of Magic that enable certain effects and limit others. While there are some example spells listed here, Players can make up their own spells in the moment of play as long as those spells fit within a Sphere their Character knows.

The GM will decide how well that spell fits within the Spheres the Character knows. If it's square within it, the spell does it's full effect and isn't harder to cast.

If it falls just outside of it, the GM may decide that it does a lesser effect and/or is harder to cast. And if it's fully outside of the Sphere, the GM can rule that it's the same as casting an Untrained Spell (so two ranks higher in difficulty).

For example, if 'Fire' is chosen as a Sphere, that Character can cast spells involving fire as a effect. So shooting a fire spray at a monster, heating something up they are holding, or igniting something they can see is squarely within the Sphere.

Healing someone by cauterizing their wounds, making an animal out of fire to do some task, or flying by shooting flame jets from their feet could be ruled by the GM as being more difficult and/or less effective, as it's getting outside of the Fire Sphere.

And raising the dead, quietly unlocking a door, or determining if someone is lying could be ruled by the GM to be all squarely outside of the Fire Sphere.

Here are the basic 20 Spheres to pick (or randomly roll for). If you have an idea for something that's not covered herein, discuss it with your GM to create a custom one for your Character.

The Basic Spheres

1. Fire

All things related to fire, heat, and raising temperatures.

Opposite is Water.

Example Fire Spells

Trivial Fire Spells

1. Set something on fire that the caster can see that’s able to burn.
2. Affect the color and shape of an existing flame.
3. Heat up a mug full of liquid the caster is holding.

Simple Fire Spells

1. Instantly call forth a decently-sized bonfire
2. Shape a fire into a form complex enough show images in it
3. Shoot fire at something to do a Standard Effect

Serious Fire Spells

1. Instantly call forth a house-sized fire
2. Create a broad wall of fire between two things
3. Throw a fireball at something to do a Serious Effect

Heroic Fire Spells

1. Instantly call forth a massive town-sized fire
2. Call forth fire meteors from the sky to rain down for a Heroic Effect
3. Turn yourself into living fire

2. Mending

All about repairing, fixing, strengthening, and altering inanimate objects.

Opposite is Unraveling

Example Mending Spells

Trivial Mending Spells

1. Fix a small rip in a piece of clothing

Simple Mending Spells

1. Fix a large rip in a piece of clothing

Serious Mending Spells

1. Fix a torn up piece of clothing

Heroic Mending Spells

1. Fix a shredded piece of clothing

3. Luminance

Daylight, sunshine, radiance, revealing things, and lasers...

Opposite is Darkness

4. Empowering

Strengthening, protecting, enhancing, and empowering living things.

Opposite is Weakening

5. Life

Healing, soothing, growing, all things about life.

Opposite is Death

6. Air

Air, wind, weather, and flight.

Opposite is Earth

7. Time

Speeding things up, slowing them down, and even traveling thru time.

Opposite is Gravity

8. Mechanical

Creating, manipulating, understanding, and destroying mechanical elements.

Opposite is Animal

9. Ice

All things related to ice, cold, and lowering temperatures.

Opposite is Plants

10. Judgement

Perceiving, scrying, comprehension, and discernment.

Opposite is Illusion

11. Water

Creating, manipulating, and destroying water.

Opposite is Fire

12. Unraveling

Unmaking, altering, and destroying inanimate objects.

Opposite is Mending

13. Darkness

Night, shadow, hiding, blinding, and darkness.

Opposite is Luminescence

14. Weakening

Weakening, cursing, debilitating, and poisoning living things.

Opposite is Empowering

15. Death

Killing, pain, passing on, all things about death.

Opposite is Life

16. Gravity

Pulling, pushing, and flying.

Opposite is Time

17. Earth

Creating, manipulating, understanding, and destroying anything mineral or dirt.

Opposite is Air

18. Animal

Creating, manipulating, understanding, and destroying animals (including people).

Opposite is Mechanical

19. Plants

Creating, manipulating, understanding, and destroying plants.

Opposite is Ice

20. Illusion

Illusions, tricks, invisibility, and disguises.

Opposite is Judgement

1. Fire - All things related to fire, heat, raising temperatures

• • Cantrip examples: Set something on fire that the caster can see that’s able to burn, affect the color and shape of an existing flame, heat up a mug full of liquid the caster is holding.
  • Simple Spell: Instantly call forth a decently-sized bonfire,
  • Serious Spell: Instantly call forth a house fire
  • Heroic Spell: Instantly call forth a massive town-sized fire

1. Water

Ice - All things related to ice, cold, lowering temperatures

• • Cantrip:

1. Water

1. Earth

1. Air

1. Life

1. Animal

1. Plant

1. Death

1. Protection

1. Creation

1. Destruction

1. Time

1. Transmutation

1. Enhancement?

1. Judgment

1. Revelation

• Illusions

• Movement

• Summoning

So a Cantrip Fire spell would be to set alight something the caster can see, a Simple spell would be to call forth a bonfire-sized fire, a Serious spell would call forth a house fire, and a Heroic spell would call forth a massive town-sized fire.

Some magic users have a special Talent that lets them combine together two or more schools into a single spell. So a Cantrip combined “Fire Burst” would be a firework-like small explosion, a simple one would be a small fireball, a serious one would be a classic ‘fireball’ spell, and a heroic one would be a massive fire bomb.

Familiars

Some Characters have a Talent that gives them a Familiar, a magical pet. The Player should write down what sort of creature it is, and then write down two things it has been trained to do:

1. Stay and guard / watch
2. Follow someone
3. Sneak into somewhere
4. Steal something
5. Attack something
6. Go where commanded

Familiars come in four sizes, Small, Medium, Large, and Enormous. A normal sized Character can only ride a Large or Enormous Familiar, a Character with the Tiny Talent (or similar) can ride on a Medium Familiar (or larger), and a Character with the Huge Talent (or similar) can only ride on a Familiar that's Enormous.

When attacking or performing other physical feats of strength, a Small Familiar will only do a Minor effect, a Medium Standard Effect, Large a Greater Effect, and an Enormous Familiar will do a Heroic Effect.

Players don't have to track Familiars food or water (except if they want to for fun story aspects) but a Familiar can be lost or even killed as a Consequence. If this happens, the Player can regain a new Familiar at the start of the next Quest if the GM decides it's feasible for the Character to have found another one.