Designed for “Mix and Match” usage, the magic system requires specific character investment to function.

To function as a spellcaster, a character must possess two specific traits:

Casting Method Trait: Determines the mechanical limits and resource management of spellcasting.

Source of Magic Trait: Determines which Spell List the character has access to.

Regardless of Source or Method, casting a spell requires a successful Esoterica skill check. The resulting Degree of Resolution (Success, Partial Success, etc.) determines the spell's effectiveness.

If the spell inflicts damage, the Damage Multiplier (x0 to x5) corresponding to the Degree of Resolution is applied to the spell's fixed damage value.

Fundamentally, every spell functions as a Trait. A character must spend a Trait slot to learn new magic. However, this varies by Source:

• Standard Rate: 1 Trait = 1 Spell (Typical for Inherent, Experimental, and Granted Magic).
• Studied Magic: 1 Trait = 2 Spells added to the character's selection (Spellbook) from which they prepare.
• External Magic: 1 Trait = 1 to 4 Spells added to the character's selection (depending on the specific external source).

Casters can prepare a number of spells equal to their current level. Spells consume preparation slots based on their Trait Tier:

Note: Casting a prepared spell does not typically consume its preparation slot. The spell remains prepared unless a specific mechanic, such as a “Bad Thing” in the Consequences casting method, explicitly renders it unprepared.

Mana-based: The caster has a daily pool of points to spend on casting spells.

Ingredients-based: The caster must spend currency to acquire specific ingredients used to cast spells.

Charge Up: The caster must spend a significant amount of time building up power, making each spell take longer to cast.

Cool Down: Each individual spell is put on a cool-down timer when cast, preventing immediate reuse.

Consequences: Includes a list of “Bad Things” that can happen if the caster fails to roll high enough when casting.

4. The Sympathetic Path (Borrowed / Manipulated Magic)

Those who manipulate magic generated by others—spirits, magical creatures, ancestral shades, ambient intelligences, wandering souls.

Theme System: The Nine Choirs

A symbolic structure based on nine categories of entity, each representing a mode of borrowed power. Unlike the Runic or Decanic paths, these are relationships rather than personal talents.

Instead of spells, practitioners form Pacts, Bindings, Bargains, or Resonances with one or more Choirs.

The Nine Choirs

Each Choir is an archetype of “otherworldly agency”:

Beasts – animal spirits, animistic echoes, wild totems Themes: instinct, senses, tracking, frenzy, resilience

Shades – ghosts, memories, dying echoes Themes: fear, silence, entropy, secrets

Wights – household and land spirits, wardens, guardians Themes: protection, boundaries, blessings, curses

Fae – tricksters, dancers, courts, liminality Themes: glamour, misdirection, bargains, emotion-twisting

Elementals – fire, water, storm, stone, wind, void Themes: raw forces, channeling, shaping the environment

Dragons – pride, hunger, dominion, treasure Themes: overwhelming power, command, avarice

Celestials – ideals given form Themes: order, purity, guidance, illumination

Infernal – corruption, temptation, destruction Themes: compulsion, ruin, sacrifice, power-at-price

Titans – ancient world-spirits, tectonic principles Themes: inevitability, gravity, fate, time, deep lore

You can easily adapt the Choirs to factions, Courts, or specific monsters.

Mechanics Fit

Each spell requires a link to an entity type, not memorization.

Using a spirit’s power may invite obligations or influence.

Favour/Slight could alter the spirit’s willingness to cooperate.

If you want, I can format each Choir with explicit spell categories, sample abilities, and advancement trees.

5. The Conceptual Path (Reality-as-Lego Experimenters)

Those who treat the building blocks of the universe as manipulable components through trial, error, and strange genius.

Theme System: The Eight Primordia

A symbolic structure based on eight universal conceptual “bricks” — not elements, not schools, but fundamental properties of existence.

These are the tools experimenters use to assemble spells.

The Eight Primordia

Form – shape, structure, geometry, bodies

Force – motion, impact, vectors, energy

Pattern – logic, repetition, sequence, probability

Essence – life, spirit, identity, uniqueness

Entropy – decay, randomness, noise, dissolution

Continuum – space, time, distance, duration

Threshold – boundaries, transitions, liminality, states

Concord – synchronization, resonance, harmonics

These are conceptual enough to feel distinct from runes or Decans, while still being manipulable “Lego pieces.”

Spell Philosophy

Spells are constructed, not learned; they are reproducible experiments.

A spell might combine Primordia (e.g., Continuum + Force = teleport shove; Essence + Form = living sculpture).

Mistakes can cause wild, but scientific, failures.

Practitioners often keep lab notebooks of working formulae.

Mechanical Fit

Experimenters assemble spells from 1–3 Primordia.

Higher tiers allow abstract manipulations: rewriting probability, bending time, splitting identity.

Favour/Slight could affect stability of assembled spells rather than potency.

If you want I can write a formal spell-construction framework, like a “recipe format” for combining Primordia.