Celestial Calkers

Those who primarily wield celestial or popular magic. Mages.

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Cervasanguin

Type: Sanguinist

Cervasanguins are wielders of celestial blood magic, drawn from the power of the Sacred Hunt.

To become a cervasanguin, one must not serve the imperials - if one does, one must leave them behind. One must understand the role of the Sacred Hunt in their community. They study the wilderness they dwell in and know it like the back of their hands. And they attune in rituals to the Sacred Hunt, usually guided by a mentor.

The Sacred Hunt is more than mere survival, more than predator and prey, but rather, hunting with a consciousness, hunting knowing how to show deep respect for the prey, for the cycles of life, and for justice itself. Never over-killing, always using every part of the prey, and killing those among the prey that are a threat to the prey's survival as well. Once they are deemed fit, they engage in a ritual hunt in which they are tracked and tagged by their mentor, but must evade being caught for three to seven days. After succeeding at this, they must shrive themselves of all power, weaponry, and skill, and then return to the people they serve, living without any possessions or needs. During this time, they will have visions, assuming they are successful, and in these visions, they will see a child who tells them the rules of the Sacred Hunt. If they remember and live by these, after a year, their mentor will have a vision confirming it. Then, their mentor will perform a blood ritual with them, during which all the spirits of the Sacred Hunt come to them.

They specifically tap into the power of the Blue Doe spirit, drawing from her blood to cast spells. These spells always require use of one’s own blood, blood taken during some kind of ritual hunt, and special tools to draw and store it. Some spells include the following:

• Preysmark: marking someone or something with their blood to always be able to sense it.

• Blood sense: the ability to smell or otherwise sense blood, what kind, who from, and more by smearing blood on their nose, eyes, or other sensory organs.

• Quickened heart: the enhancement of their bodies by consuming doesblood or their own blood, making themselves faster and stronger.

• Lifesblood bond: using their own blood to heal another and forming a magical bond of communication and care with them.

• Preservation spell: using their blood in a spell to preserve blood, food, or the life of someone.

• Redemption spell: using their blood in a spell to inflict a geas on someone, forcing them on a quest for redemption or death.

• Provision spell: using their blood in a spell to create provisions for someone in need.

• Fleetness of death: using their blood in a spell to give someone or some animal a painless death.

• Wisdom of the Spirits: a powerful spell which allows them to speak to the spirits of the Sacred Hunt, especially Old Buck.

• Cycle of the Hunt: a powerful spell that allows them to tap into the sustained cycle of life, death, and rebirth, wielding it to sacrifice themselves to bring another back to life or to kill them.

• Calling of the Herd: an extremely powerful spell that calls the spirits of the Sacred Hunt to run with them.

Cervasanguins are forbidden by imperial law and must hide the tools of their craft, keeping the antlered hoods, deerskin robes, antlered staves, and hoof shoes hidden until they are working their magic.

PRO +1 ATH +1 STR +2 AWA +2 WIL +3 PRS / STH +1

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Masciara

Type: Witch

Masciarae are witches who live among the oppressed in secret (as their magic is highly illegal) and help them resist the tyranny and exploitation they face. Masciarae first serve the people in mundane ways - helping out where it is needed, offering food, childcare, laundry, mending, cleaning, and other domestic support to workers (usually women in a patriarchal society) who cannot keep up with their unpaid but necessary labor. They aid anyone who is exploited or oppressed by being the person in the community people turn to for small favors or large, for acts of service that they would be embarrassed to ask of others. In exchange, they receive magic they are trained to draw from from a young age.

Most masciarae are taught by their grandparents (usually grandmothers) or parents (usually mothers). They are taught herbalism, minor medicines, domestic labors, and the kind of work the community needs. They are taught especially how to meet the everyday needs of people who are worked too hard to meet the needs of themselves or their families. And they are taught how to sense the magic that derives from this work, the secret magic that generates from cycles of work and support and communal love. Eventually, they are taught rituals and real, potent magic spells as well, but before they get to that point, they must learn the humble work.

After a certain point, they are initiated fully by their mentors or other masciarae, and from this, they gain certain magical abilities:

• Evil eye: if someone performs an unjust act in the present of the masciara, they can give that person the "evil" eye when the person is not looking, cursing them to take the low die on all rolls for a given period of time.
• Alleviating spell: if someone is suffering an undue amount of worries and troubles, the masciara can reduce their stress or worry via a quiet magical word that allows them to rest.
• Maternal charm: the masciara can give this charm to any person performing unpaid childcare and domestic labor to give them bonuses to up to three mundane tasks.
• Child's delight charm: the masciara can give any child this charm to stop their crying or distract the from pain or worry temporarily.
• Mending charm: the masciara can perform this charm on a string which, when knotted, will mend any torn clothing, broken dishes, or other mundane household goods.
• Unending pot: the masciara can, every month under a full moon, make a massive pot of food that does not empty until everyone they care for is fed and fed well.
• Waters of the blue: the masciara can make any bucket of water into a potion of quick cleansing with a drop of her own blood.
• Guidance: the masciara can send silent advice to anyone under their care anywhere in the world with a whisper and closed eyes once per day.
• Deeper listening: the masicara can listen to anyone under their care and hear the unspoken needs, worries, stresses, or pains.
• Soothing balm: the masciara can make a painkiller balm out of any liquid with a touch once per day.

Masciarae cannot take riches for their work, but they can take some payments if they are not an undue burden on the giver. They usually take foods and small gifts. They never serve imperials.

PRO -1 ATH +1 STR +1 AWA +2 WIL +3 PRS +1 STH /

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Prismatic Mage

Type: Esotericist

Users of celestial light who carry prisms that can split celestial light into its seven component parts. These energies can then be redirected to empower others or create other radiant energies. Though anyone can use prisms on celestial light, few understand how to control the results or how it works. Only those deemed worthy by rainbow serpents learn those secrets.

Anyone who uses celestial light often enough will begin dreaming of rainbow serpents. If they are deemed worthy, the rainbow serpent will teach them the arts of the prismatic mage. If they are not deemed worthy, they will have to find other ways to learn. Those taught by rainbow serpents are often required to render services to the serpents, going on long journeys to help others in the world. A prismatic mage proves themselves worthy by helping others. A rainbow serpent will never teach those who harm others (or wish to) how to wield their powers.

Raw celestial light is more versatile and powerful than any of its single component parts, but it is much more difficult to control and can often overwhelm its targets. It also hits everything in its range, including targets you might want to avoid empowering. Because of this, prismatic mages tend to use the components instead. In order to find raw celestial light, a prismatic mage must either seek out natural rainbows, find objects that contain it, or generate it by helping others and receiving it from the rainbow serpents when they dream (they will awaken with celestial light around them that follows them until they use it).

Much as light splits into an infinite number of colors collected into seven categories, so too does celestial light split into an infinite number of variations split into seven categories of “radiance”:

• Radiant body: Scarlet radiance, the energy of empowering bodies and physical matter.

• Radiant action: Fulvous radiance, the energy of empowering actions, behaviors, and skills.

• Radiant thought: Yellow or saffron radiance, the energy of empowering thoughts, knowledges, and learning.

• Radiant movement: Emerald radiance, the energy of empowering movement, kinetics, energies and gaseous matter and sound.

• Radiant identity: Sapphire radiance, the energy of empowering Names, the whole of one's being.

• Radiant emotion: Lavender radiance, the energy of empowering emotions, as well as liquid matter.

• Radiant soul: White radiance, the energy of empowering souls, identity, self, as well as light.

There is also a theoretical eighth component, known as black radiance, celestial absence, or empowering shadow, which is the explanation for the existence of celestial shadow, though others just claim this is an entirely separate energy.

Once split, celestial light can be filtered such that the only component present is the one(s) the prismatic mage wishes to use. This is done either by using colored prisms or by use of colored materials (cloth, paint, etc.) that absorbs components the mage does not wish to use and only releases the celestial light the mage wishes to use. These colored materials are draped over or applied to the prism when it is in use in order to direct and refine the celestial light.

Refining is done through use of complementary colors:

• Scarlet (red) is refined by use of emerald (green) filters and vice versa.

• Yellow is refined by use of lavender (violet) filters and vice versa.

• Fulvous (orange) is refined by use of sapphire (blue) filters and vice versa.

• White is refined by use of black filters and vice versa.

Magenta will neutralize a prism.

In other words, if you want a beam of red, drape green cloth over your prism, and so on. Use of in-between colors may result in more subtle or complicated results.

One may direct celestial light via the prism that breaks it up. Once it is refined, it can be pointed at a target. If it is held on a target for three seconds, the target will become empowered. This means that bonuses apply on the subsequent round to the one the prism is used in.

What can be empowered by a component is determined by its characteristics. Substance, color, and energy all come into play.

Component	State	Form	Stat	Skill / Power	Color	Element
Black Radiance	Liquid	Shadow	All (esp. Stealth)	Unexpected skills	Blacks/greys	Darkness
Emerald Radiance	Gas	Sound	Awareness / Presence	Music, communication, language / Team activities	Greens	Wood
Full Radiance	All	Name	Any (esp. Prowess)	Any	All	All
Fulvous Radiance	Plasma	Action	Prowess / Stealth / Athleticism	Fine motor control / Acts of resistance	Oranges	Fire
Lavender Radiance	Liquid	Emotion	Presence	Alleviating pains / Medical skills / Cooking / Mixing	Violets	Wind
Sapphire Radiance	Solid	Identity	Presence / Athleticism	Skills to help others / Relationship skills / Sex / Empathy	Blues	Water
Scarlet Radiance	Solid	Body	Strength	Craft skills and manual labor / Inherent physical powers	Reds	Metal
White Radiance	Plasma	Soul	Willpower	Inherent non-physcial powers / Artistic skills	Whites	Light
Yellow Radiance	Gas	Thought	Awareness	Lores and knowledges / Hard-learned skills	Yellows	Earth

As per the spectrum above, browns are somewhere between oranges and yellows and thus can be empowered by both. Magenta is an unreal color and does not get empowered. Indigo is a violet. Anything on the edge between colors gets empowered by both, and lighter or darker versions thereof can tap into white or black radiance at weaker ranges than full white or black.

Some things may not be the color they are associated or perceived to be - many "grey" steel armors are in fact blue, for instance. Or mostly blue.

Anything with multiple colors within it will be empowered by any color present, but at a rate equal to the proportion the target is the specified color. For instance, a ship's sail that has a red stripe down the middle will be more strongly affected by white radiance than scarlet radiance.

No one has ever figured out how to create celestial shadow with radiance, hence why it is usually classified as a non-radiant energy. It is theoretically possible only.

Most naturally occurring rainbows contain celestial light, at least in trace amounts. To be specific, a rainbow is not merely the eruption of light into its spectrum, but such a phenomenon created by atmospheric conditions, especially in association with rain. In order to reach such a rainbow, a prismatic mage usually has to be able to fly; most acquire this (if they do not already have it) via use of yellow radiance. A prismatic mage will absorb celestial light by wearing clothing dyed with radiant dye.

Prismatic mages who absorb enough celestial light from rainbows into their clothing can unleash it and shape it into beautiful light sculptures and sometimes coherent images. They do this by rending the fabric and using prisms to catch the radiance as it escapes, then willing it to shape.

PRO -1 ATH -1 STR -2 AWA +3 WIL +2 PRS +3 STH -2

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Sorridente

Type: Puzzler

Sorridenti are bearers of special magical puzzles called Arca Ortus (“Box of the Arisen”), a complex box that was designed by ancient celestial magic users to aid people seeking to redeem themselves after committing a terrible crime. These boxes were chained to the wrists of the bearer, and every action they undertook to redeem themselves would alter the box. When they were redeemed, depending on their past actions, the box would be released and the person marked.

These boxes cause no pain and are not punishments. If one leaves the path of the redemption, the box simply falls off and the person is left unredeemed. There would be social consequences for this in the communities in which they were used, but the boxes themselves would cause no harm. Instead, the boxes rewarded acts of redemption by empowering and enabling them. For every act the person did that was penitent, redemptive, reparative, or otherwise a balance or balm for the harms they previously caused, the box would grant them magic to help in the acts they sought to do next.

The boxes were pacifistic (not out of principle, but practicality, to avoid misuse). They could not harm or hinder someone. But they could give the bearer aid in any action that would be good for the people, the oppressed, the exploited, the abused. These bonuses would vary greatly. What the sorridente needed to do was determined by their crime. A thief might need to repay what was stolen and then some. A person who engaged in unwarranted violence might need to make amends via acts of healing. A person who was a tyrant might have to free the enslaved. The box would accommodate with magical support.

There are some rare sorridente who completed the box, but kept them, using them as vessels of greater magic for redeeming others. These were very rare, and they required continued practice of their former redeeming work.

PRO / ATH / STR +1 AWA +2 WIL +3 PRS / STH -1

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Tranquilist

Type: Sympatheticist

A tranquilist is a wielder of magic designed to quell violence, bring peace and accord, calm and soothe nerves. They do this via sympathetic magic - using simulacra of people, places, and things to cast their spells.

Tranquilists began as an occupation thousands of years ago during the earliest wars, using their powers to bring peace, negotiate, and protect those who sought peace. They gain their magic by refusing to ever engage in violence, not even in self-defense, and practicing a diet and behavior that minimizes any harm to others. This extreme pacifism manifests magically when they begin to meditate upon and study it. They also study statecraft, negotiating, and deescalation work to go with their magic.

The primary tool of their magic are the simulacra. These work best with a piece of the target or targets, but this is not necessary. Most tranquilists will have generic dolls or figures that represent either specific occupations, roles, or species to target certain kinds of people instead. Something with a crown for a royal, something with armor or a sword for a soldier, etc. With them, they can perform certain rituals, such as washing them in special waters, whispering soothingly to them, wrapping them in special cloths, or reading certain things to them to calm them, get them to see or hear reason, or block attacks against or from them.

If they ever use this power to harm, they will lose all their magic immediately. This magic is forbidden by imperial law.

PRO -3 ATH / STR / AWA +3 WIL +3 PRS +2 STH /

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Visardeur

Type: Masker

An esotericist who wears masks that are empowered by different forms of love.

A visardeur is someone who at some point in their life experienced love and loss. Their loss resonates with them deeply, and they gain the ability to sense and understand their own emotional resonance when it comes to love. This can take many forms - being taught by a mentor, learning it through trial and error (often weaker if no one helps them), or being guided by a celestial being. However they learn, eventually, they fashion the loss they feel into a blue jewel dumaqu mask.

The mask allows them to sense emotions, initially, but it also lets them understand their own better. As they do, they begin to sense when they feel different kinds of love, and if they act when these different forms of love are felt and resonate with them, they can empower their mask for new abilities:

• Acceptance: acceptance as a form of love means taking someone as they are without judgment. This form of love grants the mask the ability to absorb inferally charged emotions and convert them to love.

• Admiration: admiration is looking up to someone. This form of love grants the mask the ability to take on one feature or characteristic of those they admire if they are within 50’.

• Communal love: communal love is love of one’s nation or group, community, etc. This form of love grants the mask the ability to speak without words to other members of their community.

• Compassion: compassion is understanding the pain and suffering of others and wanting to help regardless of how much they are like you. This form of love grants the mask the ability to heal psychological damage to someone with their touch at a power of 13.

• Crush or puppy love: the affection and desire of inexperienced or new love. This form of love grants the mask the ability to have an aura of joy once per day.

• Desire: desire for people, places, or things. This form of love grants the mask the +3 seduction/PRS.

• Divine love: love of the Divine or semi-Divine beings, worship of something greater. This form of love grants the mask the ability to roll PRS to gain favor with the Divine if they are a sincere worshiper thereof.

• Familial love: love of family, blood or chosen. This can be between siblings, parent to child, child to parent, grandparent love, etc. This form of love grants the mask the ability to create an aura of protection around any children within 50’.

• Friendship: love of one’s friends and acquaintances. This form of love grants the mask the ability to extend protection to anyone they call friend within 100’, giving them +3 vs. infernal attacks.

• Grief: love of someone or something lost. This is the love that starts a visardeurs journey. This form of love grants the mask empathic senses and the ability to see the visardeur’s emotional resonance.

• Kindness: generosity and altruistic love, love for strangers. This form of love grants the mask the ability to give one point of any stat to another person within 50’.

• Passion: love for something like a hobby, pursuit, job, or action. This form of love grants the mask the ability to _

• Pet love: love for a pet, usually an animal. This form of love grants the mask the ability to call their pet from anywhere within 5 miles.

• Romantic love: love for a life partner or intimate partner. This form of love grants the mask the ability to sense their romantic partner anywhere and go to them instantly, within 1,000 miles.

• Self love: love of one’s self. This form of love grants the mask the ability to alter one aspect of themselves once per year to better match their inner sense of self. These incongruities must be predetermined.

• Sexual attraction: physical attraction to others. This form of love grants the mask the ability to heal physical injuries with a touch at a power of 10.

• True love: probably mythical, or perhaps only supernatural. This form of love grants the mask the ability to destroy anyone who harmed their true love with a wave of blue flame 50’ in radius at a power of 19/28/37/46.

• Unconditional love: love not only without judgment but without chance of losing it. This form of love grants the mask the ability to trade their life for someone else’s.

To wield any of these, they must be listed in the character’s motivations.

Other forms of love are possible, including more specific versions of the above. Consult the GM.

PRO / ATH +1 STR / AWA +2 WIL +1 PRS +3 STH -1