Faith
Faith
AX.C.08.04.02
TRADITION: Faith Magic
Category: Resonance
Focus Terminology: Spheres (with associated Ethos)
Default Attribute: Wit or Speed (see Design Notes)
Access Grant: Fantasy Genre Catalog, assigned by Lineage and Profession
entries; typically tied to religious or community identity in the setting
Genre Context: Fantasy Genre Catalog. Faith Magic is the Resonance
Tradition of divine attunement, power drawn not from study or innate
ability, but from an active relationship with a Primal Force and the
practitioner's alignment to the values that Force expresses.
Faith Magic differs from Arcane Magic in origin and orientation: where arcane power is learned from external sources, faith power emerges from alignment. A practitioner's Sphere is their window into a Primal Force, the specific aspect of that Force they have attuned to. Their Ethos is not a mechanical selection but a statement of who they are relative to that Force. A cleric of Life attuned to the Sphere of Renewal and oriented by the Ethos of Hope produces different effects than one attuned to Vital Essence and oriented by Compassion, not because the mechanics are different, but because the fiction of their relationship to the Force shapes how effects manifest in play.
Faith Framework
A Faith practitioner selects one Primal Force and one Sphere within it as their primary Focus. Their Ethos describes their orientation to that Force but does not restrict available effects. Genre Catalogs may allow a practitioner to hold multiple Spheres (as additional Foci) or to hold Spheres from different Primal Forces, at the author's discretion.
| Primal Force | Spheres | Associated Ethos |
|---|---|---|
| Life | Light, Vital Essence, Renewal | Growth, Compassion, Hope |
| Magic | Ether, Arcane Currents, Hidden Patterns | Knowledge, Transformation, Potential |
| Death | Darkness, Passage, Stillness | Acceptance, Balance, Sacred Finality |
| Nature | Plants, Animals, Wild Harmony | Interconnection, Adaptation |
| Seasons | Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter | Change, Renewal, Reflection |
| Elements | Air, Earth, Fire, Water | Equilibrium, Power, Purification |
| Undeath | Entropy, Consumption, Decay | Inevitable Return, Oblivion |
Foci - Spheres
Faith Spheres do not produce a fixed menu of effects. Instead, each Sphere defines a domain of influence; the practitioner uses their Sphere to produce Resonance effects within that domain. The following entries describe the domain and provide representative effects at each Threshold tier.
Life, Light
Domain: Illumination, revelation of hidden truth, and protection against concealment and deception.
Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Produce a sustained, directed light source; reveal the presence of active illusions within Near range - Moderate (T3): Expose a hidden creature or object to perception; remove a Frightened condition from a target - High (T4): Reveal all concealed presences in a Near range burst; purge a magical darkness or suppression effect - Epic (T5+): Illuminate a wide area with divine light that imposes Threshold penalties on concealment-dependent entities; reveal a significant hidden truth about a location or event
Recovery: Short Rest for illumination. Long Rest for revelation effects. Full Rest for area revelation and purging.
Life, Vital Essence
Domain: The fundamental life force of living things, its presence, its strength, and its flow between living beings.
Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Sense the health state of a target at Close range; stabilize a dying creature - Moderate (T3): Restore Stress to a target; accelerate natural healing (remove one injury penalty for a scene) - High (T4): Remove a disease or toxin from a target; restore a target to consciousness from Incapacitated - Epic (T5+): Perform a miraculous restoration, reversing significant injury, extending life past natural expiry for a scene, or purging a curse
Recovery: Short Rest for sensing and stabilization. Long Rest for healing and restoration. Full Rest for miraculous effects.
Life, Renewal
Domain: The cycle of growth, restoration, and return, endings that become beginnings.
Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Cause rapid plant growth in a small area; restore a damaged object to functional condition - Moderate (T3): Purge corruption or contamination from a water source, soil, or small area; restore a ruined object to full function - High (T4): Revitalize a blighted location (remove a persistent environmental negative condition); sustain a dying ecosystem for a significant duration - Epic (T5+): Restore a devastated location to prior health; trigger a renewal effect that affects a community or region
Recovery: Short Rest for minor growth. Long Rest for purification and restoration. Full Rest for large-scale renewal.
Death, Darkness
Domain: The absence of perceivable light and the concealment that absence provides.
Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Extinguish light sources in Close range; impose -1D on a target's visual perception rolls for a scene - Moderate (T3): Create a zone of magical darkness at Near range that light cannot penetrate; impose a Fear effect on a target who fails a Wit Save - High (T4): Sustain a Near-range darkness zone for a scene while moving; blind a target temporarily - Epic (T5+): Blot an area's light entirely across a wide range; create a persistent fear condition on a group
Recovery: Short Rest for suppression effects. Long Rest for sustained darkness zones. Full Rest for area-wide or persistent effects.
Death, Passage
Domain: The transition between living and dead states, the moment and mechanism of death and what lies immediately beyond it.
Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Sense the recent dead in the area (within a few hours); feel the manner of death of a recently deceased creature - Moderate (T3): Delay the death of a dying creature for a scene (they remain stabilized regardless of further injury until scene end); communicate briefly with a recently dead spirit - High (T4): Draw a spirit back to answer questions before it passes fully; impose a death-touched condition on a living target (they feel the imminence of their death, Frightened, at -1D on all rolls until they succeed on a Wit Save) - Epic (T5+): Return a very recently dead creature to life (within minutes, not hours) with narrative cost; refuse the death of a target for one scene entirely
Recovery: Short Rest for sensing. Long Rest for communication and delay effects. Full Rest for major passage effects.
Nature, Wild Harmony
Domain: The attuned relationship between a practitioner and the living systems of an environment, animal behavior, weather patterns, and ecological balance.
Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Calm a frightened or aggressive animal; sense the general mood and activity patterns of an ecosystem - Moderate (T3): Direct an animal to perform a specific action it would not take naturally; accelerate or slow a weather pattern over a small area - High (T4): Call a significant number of animals to a location with a specific behavior in mind; shift local weather conditions meaningfully (from overcast to storm, from dry to rain) - Epic (T5+): Trigger a significant environmental response (migrating herds arrive, a storm turns, a flood crests or recedes); establish a long-duration natural harmony effect over a region
Recovery: Short Rest for calming and sensing. Long Rest for direction and minor weather. Full Rest for major environmental responses.
Elements, [Any Element]
Domain: Direct relationship with a specific elemental force, Air, Earth, Fire, or Water. The element can be created in small quantities, shaped, directed, and used defensively or offensively.
Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Produce a minor elemental effect at Close range (a gust, a spark, a ripple, a tremor); impose a minor environmental penalty on a target - Moderate (T3): Direct a meaningful elemental attack at Near range; create a useful elemental feature (a wall of flame, a stone barrier, a water current, a sustained gale) - High (T4): Sustain a significant elemental effect for a scene; produce an effect that alters terrain or movement options across Near range - Epic (T5+): Trigger a large-scale elemental event; reshape environmental features at Far range
Recovery: Short Rest for minor effects. Long Rest for sustained features. Full Rest for large-scale events.
Note: Not all Spheres are detailed here. The table above lists all available Spheres. Genre Catalog authors should use the format above to define any Spheres not fully specified.
Backlash
Faith backlash reflects the practitioner's relationship to their Primal Force turning against them, not punishment, but imbalance. A Life practitioner who fails critically does not stop being faithful; they experience the weight of what they were trying to do. Life backlash might impose an injury on the practitioner as the healing they were channeling turns inward. Death backlash exposes them to the presence they were engaging, a spirit refuses to leave, a death-touched condition spreads to them. Nature backlash alienates the ecosystem, animals become hostile, plants wither at their touch for a scene. Element backlash throws the element at the practitioner rather than the target.
The specific nature of Faith backlash should be calibrated to the Primal Force and the magnitude of the attempt. Minor backlash is a complication; epic-scale backlash should have narrative weight.
Design Notes
Ethos is a fiction anchor, not a mechanical selector: A character's Ethos does not restrict their available Sphere effects. It tells the table who this character is relative to their Power, the values they hold and the orientation from which they approach their tradition. GMs may use Ethos as a guide for when a character's Faith power should feel strained or cost more narratively, without introducing explicit mechanical penalties.
Wit vs. Speed: Contemplative, scholarly faith expression (prayer-as-study, ritual preparation) defaults to Wit. Intuitive, reactive, embodied faith expression (the healer who acts before thinking, the elemental priest who feels the storm in their bones) defaults to Speed. Lineages and Professions in the Fantasy Genre Catalog may specify which expression they grant access to.
Multiple Forces: A character might gain access to Spheres from two different Primal Forces, a practitioner who studies both Life and Death, or one who holds both Nature and Seasons. These are separate Foci managed independently. Genre Catalog authors designing multi-Force traditions should consider whether the traditions are in tension (the setting has opinions about Life/Death practitioners) or complementary (Seasons and Nature are closely related in this setting).