GURPS: Church and State Magic

Discussion of Magic use and rules in Church and State.

Traditions

Magical understanding falls under 7 broad theories of how they work. Thaumatology skill must specialize in one of the traditions and this affects spell availability. Generally, all beginning spells in the colleges are open to all mages in all traditions. Advanced spells in a college are only available to a tradition that specializes in that college. The traditions came about slowly, and more advanced magic (including the colleges of meta-magic and gate) are fairly new in history. The first colleges of magic developed were animal, plant, and weather. Traditions bear a name of one of the icons associated with their founding, or the patron of their art. Protection and Warning (P&W) is a major college for all traditions. You can only have one Tradition, but you can learn spells outside your tradition through research and find how that spell can be done under the theories of your tradition. Traditions (with their main colleges) are:

• Hearth and Field- (Enkul), named after one of the first heroes, a great hunter who slew the Tarrasque. Plant, Animal, Food, movement
• Sky- (Usirius), named after a first hero who sailed around the Boden Sea. Weather, Air, Light and Darkness (L&D), Sound
• Earth- (Oldar), named after the great engineer and builder who during the Quani empire built many of the most important religious monuments. Earth, Making and Breaking (M&B), technology (only a few spells available), water, enchantment, plant
• Discovery- (Ampul), named after the Lord of Light. Fire, L&D, knowledge, enchantment, mind control, meta-magic
• Life- Animal, Plant, Healing, communication and empathy, water
• Deception- Mind control, Illusion, Sound, L&D, meta-magic
• Body- Healing, Body Control, Movement, Water, air

Necromancy is a minor tradition itself, outlawed almost everywhere. Minor necromancy spells are generally available to all.

Gate spells are almost completely unknown, and gate theory is just being developed.

Alternate Rules

Three new skills

Mathematics (Magical)- used to understand magic and do magic research. Only required or useful if you're going to develop your own spells or do raw research into magic.

Magical Heraldry- Requries Heraldry 12+. The knowledge of of the magical skills and techniques of schools, styles, monasteries, religious orders, noble houses, families. A success will give insight into the likely use of spells and their preferred employment by magicians. Use the same area modifiers as per area knowledge.

Tactics (magical)- A tactics specialty focusing on the employment of magic is small battles. Success would provide the same benefits as tactics (land, naval, or air)

Using most of the rules from Chapter 2 of GURPS: Thaumatology (TH) and some from Ch 3.

Characters can take Ritual Magery or Spell based Magery. The are different advantages. Either may learn symbol (rune) magic. In either case, Magery levels cost 10 each, except level 3 which costs 15 points and grants the use of Threshold Based magic (TH p. 76) in addition to fatigue based casting. At Magery 3, he begins with threshold 0 and recovery 2 and can buy them up with pts.

Magical Styles: Feel free to use GURPS: Thaumatology: Magical Styles to create styles for schools and teachers. I will add a couple. The biggest advantage is quicker access to perks. Normal mages only get to buy a perk for every 20 pts of spells. Stylists can buy one of their style's perks for every 10 pts in the style.

Staff Spell: Normally requires all living or once living material; can now be used with weapons made of mostly living or once living materials. Specifically this adds dueling polearms, spears, and other similar weapons that mass much more wood to metal. Most weapons under axe/mace do not qualify.

Ceremonial Magic: (I reserve the right to throw these rules out if too unbalancing.) Normally requires the leader to have a 15 skill. In C&S you only need a 15 effective skill level. Energy for skill can be used to buy the skill level needed, as well as conditional modifiers from Thaumotology. Participants input is also changed. 15+ skill (NOT effective) can add as much as they can channel, 12-15 can add up to 1/2 of what they could channel, and below 12 can do 3. Rules for energy input for those without magery is unchanged. Ceremonail magic uses the long distance range modifiers and not the normal -1 per hex.

Healing spells: Healing spells only heal HP damage cause by anatomical damage, much like an orthopedic surgeon, not HP damage caused by disease, poison, or other effects. Resist Poison/Disease now only give a bonus to HT roll equal to pts applied. Cure Disease and Neutralize Poison now have specialties which are broad categories; i.e. for poisons, can choose paralytics, insects, reptilian, plant based, respiratory, etc; disease could choose influenzas, staph, GI tract (cholera and dysentery), pox, etc.

Magical stuff (and how magical is Church and State)

I made a base assumption of 1/15 have magery 0, which is a recessive trait that manifests at puberty. From this and the population of the Barony of 110,000

GURPS: Church and State