Arcane

Arcane

AX.C.08.04.01

TRADITION: Arcane Magic

Category: Force

Focus Terminology: Philosophies

Default Attribute: Wit (Body and Speed expressions valid, 
see Design Notes)

Access Grant: Fantasy Genre Catalog, assigned by Lineage 
and Profession entries

Genre Context: Fantasy Genre Catalog. Arcane Magic is the 
scholarly, pattern-based Force Tradition of the Fantasy setting. 
Practitioners, variously called wizards, mages, artificers, 
or arcanists depending on cultural context, manipulate an 
underlying energetic layer of reality through learned symbolic 
systems, written formulae, and sustained study.

Arcane Magic works through deliberate mastery: practitioners use patterns, symbols, and learned knowledge to direct otherwise inaccessible force into structured effects. The tradition rewards investment and preparation. An Arcane practitioner who has not studied a relevant Philosophy cannot improvise it, their power is bounded by what they have learned.

Foci - Philosophies

Forging

Domain: Creation of temporary objects and chimerical constructs from raw aether. Forging produces things that exist at the practitioner's will, objects, creatures, structures, and dissolves them when that will lapses or when the aether dissipates.

Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Produce a simple tool or light source from aetheric matter, lasting a scene - Moderate (T3): Summon a chimerical creature of modest capability (comparable to a trained animal); produce a functional object with moving parts - High (T4): Summon a chimerical construct with combat presence; produce a complex object (a working mechanism, a sealed container of aetheric matter) - Epic (T5+): Summon a major chimerical entity; produce an object or structure at architectural scale

Recovery: Short Rest for minor conjurations. Long Rest for sustained constructs or combat-capable summons. Full Rest for epic-scale creations.

Ruin

Domain: Raw destructive force, unstabilized magical energy released as blast, burn, shock, or dissolution. Ruin is the most direct Force Philosophy; it produces effects that are immediately measurable and immediately dangerous.

Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Force the target to make a Save (Speed or Body) or suffer a minor condition (Staggered, Prone); deal light damage to an object - Moderate (T3): Deal meaningful damage to a target or group of targets; destroy a door, wall section, or structural element - High (T4): Devastate an area (Near range burst); render a structure section uninhabitable or collapsed - Epic (T5+): Reshape a battlefield; destroy a fortification; produce an effect visible and measurable from Far range

Recovery: Short Rest for single-target effects. Long Rest for area effects. Full Rest for epic devastation.

Guile

Domain: Subtle influence on thought, telepathic contact, memory alteration, and persuasion that bypasses conscious resistance. Guile does not destroy or create; it adjusts.

Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Project a single emotion or simple impression into a target's mind (they do not know its origin); read whether a target is hostile, neutral, or friendly - Moderate (T3): Implant a suggestion the target acts on if it does not directly contradict their core interests; read a surface thought or recent memory - High (T4): Alter a specific memory; establish a persistent compulsion (the target pursues the mage's interest for a scene without knowing why) - Epic (T5+): Rewrite a substantial portion of a target's recent memory; establish lasting compulsion (until magically broken)

Recovery: Short Rest for impression/read effects. Long Rest for suggestion or memory access. Full Rest for alteration or compulsion.

Scrying

Domain: Extended perception beyond normal sensory limits, past impressions, present distant events, and probabilistic future states. Scrying does not change anything; it observes.

Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Sense whether an object has been recently handled; determine the general direction of a known target within the same settlement - Moderate (T3): View a known location at Near-to-Far range in real time; probe an object for its history and significant past owners - High (T4): View an unfamiliar location given only a name or object connection; receive a useful (though not guaranteed accurate) forewarning of an immediate threat - Epic (T5+): Track a target across significant distance regardless of mundane concealment; receive actionable foreknowledge of a complex future event

Recovery: Short Rest for directional sense. Long Rest for active scrying. Full Rest for future-sight.

Portage

Domain: Manipulation of physical space, movement, relocation, and spatial compression. Portage treats distance as a property that can be altered rather than a fixed constraint.

Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Step across a Close-range gap instantaneously; hold an object in place against mundane physical force - Moderate (T3): Teleport self to a known, previously-visited location within the same building or district; accelerate or arrest the movement of a Near-range target - High (T4): Teleport self and one companion to a known location within the same city or region; open a temporary passage through a non-magical physical barrier - Epic (T5+): Teleport self and a small group across significant distance; create a sustained spatial shortcut (an hours-long passage connecting two non-adjacent locations)

Recovery: Short Rest for minor spatial effects. Long Rest for teleportation. Full Rest for sustained passages.

Mirage

Domain: Glamour and illusion, constructions that fool natural senses. Mirage does not change what is there; it changes what is perceived to be there.

Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Alter the practitioner's apparent appearance (clothing, coloration, minor facial features); produce a distracting sound or false image at Close range - Moderate (T3): Create a convincing illusory environment feature (a sealed door where there is none, a crowd of figures); suppress a physical feature from perception (a wound, a weapon) - High (T4): Sustain a complete false identity including voice and movement for a scene; create an illusory double that moves and responds to simple interaction - Epic (T5+): Alter the apparent layout of an entire room or outdoor area; maintain a sustained disguise through extended interaction and scrutiny

Recovery: Short Rest for passive appearance changes. Long Rest for active maintained illusions. Full Rest for large-scale or sustained illusions.

Void

Domain: The magical nature of spirits, death, and the boundary between living and unliving states. Void practitioners engage the threshold between existence and dissolution.

Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Sense the presence of spirits or unliving entities within Near range; speak briefly with the spirit of a recently deceased creature - Moderate (T3): Command a minor spirit or animate corpse for a scene; suppress the animation of an unliving entity temporarily - High (T4): Bind a spirit to a location or object with specific instructions; reanimate a more capable undead construct - Epic (T5+): Negotiate with a significant spirit entity as an equal; create a persistent binding that survives without sustained concentration

Recovery: Short Rest for sensing and brief contact. Long Rest for command effects. Full Rest for binding and reanimation.

Warding

Domain: Defense against physical, mental, and magical threats, shields, barriers, suppression, and resistance. Warding is reactive and protective; it does not strike but it absorbs, deflects, and neutralizes.

Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Grant a target +1D on their next Save against a specific threat type; suppress a minor magical effect for a scene - Moderate (T3): Establish a magical barrier that prevents passage of a specific type (unliving, or one element type); grant a target resistance to one damage type for a scene - High (T4): Seal a room against magical intrusion; break an active enchantment on a target or object - Epic (T5+): Create a sustained ward on a structure; suppress or sever a significant ongoing magical effect

Recovery: Short Rest for minor bonuses and suppression. Long Rest for barriers and resistances. Full Rest for structural wards and disenchantment.

Backlash

On Critical Failure, Arcane effects misfire along the lines of the Philosophy invoked. Ruin backlashes energetically, the practitioner takes damage or deals it to unintended targets in the area. Guile backlash turns inward, the practitioner experiences the emotional or mental state they were attempting to impose. Forging backlash produces something unintended, a construct that refuses commands, an object that crumbles immediately, or an entity that acts on its own will. Scrying overloads the practitioner's perception, they receive images without context and are Disoriented (Wit-based rolls at -1D) until they make a Wit Save vs T3 at the start of their next Turn. Portage backlash displaces the practitioner, to the wrong location, or in a disorienting spatial inversion (Prone, -1D Speed rolls for one scene). Mirage backlash traps the practitioner in their own illusion, they cannot distinguish their construct from reality for one scene. Void backlash exposes the practitioner to the attention of whatever they were contacting, the spirit, the unliving, or the dissolution they invoked turns toward them.

In all cases, the specific nature of Arcane backlash should be defined by the GM to fit the Philosophy and the scene. The backlash is energetic in character but philosophically shaped.

Design Notes

Body and Speed expressions: While Wit is the default, Body-focused arcane practice (ritual sorcery, physical attunement, battle-magic channeled through physical action) and Speed-focused practice (instinctive casting, reactive warding, impulse-magic) are valid. Lineages or Professions in the Fantasy Genre Catalog may specify which Attribute their access grant uses, or leave it open.

Philosophies are not siloed: A practitioner with both Scrying and Guile can combine their effects narratively, scrying what someone is thinking while simultaneously reading their memories. The GM should reward creative combination without requiring a mechanical rule for every case.

Flavor vs. mechanics: The eight Philosophies cover the most common arcane traditions in fantasy fiction. A Genre Catalog author adding a ninth Philosophy (Runecraft, Alchemy, Ritual Magic) should ask: does this do something the existing eight Philosophies don't cover? If not, it is probably a flavor variant of an existing Philosophy, not a new Focus.