This post owes a great deal to Locheil's Wonder-Worker and lovely Purplecthulhu's Magician, and was written for my Hex setting.
In order to buttress magic against the loss of mystery caused by the proliferation of certain spells, a stabilizing grammar needs to be employed, founded on certain underlying axioms and developed along consensus lines. Æthelræd the Great, considered the greatest magician of history and the founder of the Gnostic tradition, laid out seven disciplines or schools in his seminal Gnosis of Æthelræd which would come to be taught at the Panopticon of Heptaphalyx.
In the early days, after Æthelræd split themselves into a man, a woman, and a eunuch (called Æthelwulf, Æthelflaed, and Unræd, respectively) but before WWI, most Magicians behaved like Nasuverse Magi: utterly amoral combinations of mystics, academics, and aristocrats, individually obsessed with a joint Magnum Opus—the search for the Grammaton—and willing to treat human life as grist for the mill in pursuit of its attainment.
Ever since the Wizard Wars, this count has declined a bit, and the average Magician finds herself unfortunately rather more fettered than her noble forebears. Illusion was stolen by Cthonian dreamthieves in WWII, and Conjuration was split down the seams into Apportation and Goety in the aftermath of WWIV for being too damn overpowered. The current Panopticon of Pentaphalyx teaches five orthodox schools, each rigorously explored by generations of logicians. You, like most Gnostics, are tutored in one of those five. You are commonly perceived somewhat like a lawyer: a professional sociopath, but a somewhat glamorous one.
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| Source: Me, sketching |
Gnostic Magician
Skills: 1) Trivium, 2) Quadrivium, 3) Binge-Drinking
Equipment: One Implement of your School, a color-coded leather greatcoat, single-breasted, with academic honors pinned on the breast, a Light muzzle-loader, a pair of specs or shades (depending on your CHA score), 5000gp of debt.
A: Crown, Grammarye, School, +1 MD
B: Eye-Body Praxis, +1 MD
C: Schoolmaster or Interdisciplinary Studies, +1 MD
D: Thunder Perfect Mind, +1 MD
A: Crown
You can only do direct magic inside your ‘Crown’, a ‘magic circle’ which is [templates] * 10 meters.
Effects that would leave your Crown falter and fail unless otherwise stated. Effects must originate within your Crown.
A: Grammarye
To work spells, combine a Word, an Implement, one or more MD, and up to [templates] Catalysts.
Your Words are imprinted into your brain and are not easily communicated or modified. Learn 2 new Words at every level from your School(s)’ list..
Implements are obtained in play. Each School has a list of Implements that can successfully channel their magic.
Magic Dice (MD) are the resource spent to cast spells. All MD are restored upon the conclusion of a full night’s sleep. When a spell is cast, one or more MD are allocated - all dice are rolled, [Sum] amd [Dice] are tabulated, and all dice that show 4+ are expended until the next proper rest.
Catalysts are objects or reagents, often consumable, that modify a spell’s effects. I can’t be bothered to write any right now, so just imagine I wrote a bunch and they’re all really, really cool.
A: School
Your School determines your Words and Implements.
Evocation
Words (Regular/SCHOOLMASTER):
- Fire
- Force
- Radiance
- Lightning
- SUN
- GRAVITY
- SHADOW
- MAGNETISM
Implements:
- Wand - Create a missile or wisp of [Word]. 1 Slot.
- Rod - Create a line or shield of [Word]. 2 Slots.
- Staff - Create a sphere or wall of [Word]. 3 Slots.
- Broomstick - Create a cone of [Word] or be propelled by a jet of [Word]. 4 Slots.
- OBELISK - Afflict all in your Crown with [Word], or destroy all [Word] in your Crown. Immobile.
Transmutation
Words (Regular/SCHOOLMASTER):
- Metal
- Wood
- Stone
- Crystal
- FLESH
- LIQUID
- GAS
- PLASMA
Implements:
- Gauntlet - Make a strike imbued with [Word], or against [Word] within your Crown. 1 Slot.
- Sword - Divide or parry [Word] with a strike. 2 Slots.
- Hammer - Break or repair [Word] with a strike. 3 Slots.
- Chain - Move or immobilize [Word]. 4 Slots.
- CRUCIBLE - Freely sculpt [Word] as if clay,or transform [Word] to another substance of [Word]. Immobile.
Divination
Words (Regular/SCHOOLMASTER):
- Dreams
- Sight
- Weather
- Water
- SPEECH
- MINDS
- STARS
- DIVINITY
Implements:
- Blindfold - See through or see through [Word] in your Crown. 1 Slot.
- Lens - Render [Word] visible, or everything but [Word] invisible. 2 Slots.
- Tarot - Ask a yes/no question about [Word], or receive a numerical prediction about [Word]. 1 Slot.
- Orb - Get a vision of nearby [Word], or something in nearby [Word]. 4 Slots.
- POOL - Send a message via [Word], or cause [Word] that you know the location of to be within your Crown. Immobile.
Enchantment
Words (Regular/SCHOOLMASTER)
- Fear
- Rage
- Grief
- Lust
- TRUE LOVE
- FAITH
- WISDOM
- ROYALTY
Implements:
- Mask - Render yourself beautiful or terrible to creatures of [Word], and [Word] itself. 1 Slot.
- Veil - Render yourself invisible or hypervisible to creatures of [Word], and [Word] itself. 1 Slot.
- Grail - Issue one command to a creature of [Word] or [Word] itself, or cause one who drinks from the grail to be wracked with [Word] at your will. 2 Slots.
- Instrument - Animate creatures of [Word], and [Word] itself, to behave according to or opposite their nature. 2-4 Slots.
- FLAG - Inspire [Word] in all witnesses, or obedience to a set of ideals of [Word], within your Crown. Immobile.
Abjuration
Words (Regular/SCHOOLMASTER):
- Spirits
- Beasts
- Plague
- Sorcery
- CONSTRUCTS
- OUTSIDERS
- DRAGONS
- MEN
Implements:
- Salt - Prevent [Word] from crossing a boundary line or marker. Consumable, 6 uses.
- Mirror - Trap or deflect [Word] while the mirror is aloft.
- Bell - Drive out all [Word] from your Crown, or be alerted if [Word] enters your Crown.
- Lockbox - Draw in [Word], sealing it in your lockbox, or release that which is currently contained.
- CUBE - Draw all [Word] in your Crown into the cube, or torment everything within the cube with [Word]. Immobile.
B: Eye-Body Praxis
You gain the ability to see Crowns, and experience unmistakable synaesthetic feedback (of a form specific to each practitioner) when actually inside a foreign Crown, instantly alerting you regardless of condition (drunk, asleep, etc…) and allowing you to recognize familiar magicians. You also gain a +4 to Saves against Occult magic.
Additionally, certain cultivations and practices specific to each School result in unique capacities innate to your particular mind-body-perception complex.
- Evocation - You can hover unassisted at a height of up to [Templates] x 2 meters, and glide safely on energetic jets that project from your fingertips. This also allows your hands and feet to serve as Light weapons, with a damage type of one of your [Words].
- Transmutation - You gain a permanent [Templates] of DR against anything softer than your [Words], and can meditate for ten minutes to transform up to ⅙ of your body to one of your [Words].
- Divination - You gain a permanent +[Templates] to Initiative and, while focused (i.e. uninjured, well-fed, not engaging in complex arithmetic) have a flat 1-in-6 chance of dodging anything that can be dodged via precognition.
- Enchantment - You gain a +1 to all Reactions, even if they know you’re an Enchanter. You can animate up to [Templates] slots worth of items to follow you around, perform basic tasks according to their nature and your [Words], etc…
- Abjuration - You gain 14 base AC from mage armor, and can ward up to [Templates] willing individuals, making them within your Crown at any distance for the purposes of protective magic.
C: Schoolmaster
You fully dedicate yourself to the practice of a single school. You become capable of learning the other four Words, listed in ALL CAPS.
C: Interdisciplinary Studies
You become capable of learning the Words of one other School, and using their first two Implements.
D: Thunder Perfect Mind
You receive a glimpse of the Grammaton, and knowledge of a Quest for Power you could undertake to reach it. Even just this fragmentary comprehension is enough to strike you deaf, blind, and dumb, but your ability to read the underlying propositions and syllogisms of the Universe more than compensates, giving you omnivision (as Beholder) within your Crown and a cool text-to-speech voice.
Since this is slightly bullshit for Diviners, who already had a bunch of abilities about seeing through/in/whatever things inside their Crown, they now get to consider their Crown to be [Templates] kilometers for the purposes of their divinations, and also they can point at 1 HD losers and make them Save vs. Permanent Insanity.
You also gain a Mental Inventory of 10 slots, which you can use to cast spells without Implements. Come up with a Word+Implement combination and record it—thereafter, you can cast this specific spell without the physical implement in hand. Each spell occupies a number of slots equal to the Implement it would normally require—for “immobile” Implements, we will conveniently reckon them as requiring 10 slots. You can swap these out during downtime.
