Domain Magic

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Revision as of 15:51, 24 July 2010

Domain Magic lets the character render a place, of some square kilometers, permanently magical, with some effects of benefit only to himself, and others affecting all who visit the area, or affecting the area itself. Note that Domain Magic works poorly for characters who want or need to travel a lot, such as adventurers (and many other PCs).

Performing Domain Magic

The act of "performing" Domain Magic, sometimes described as "Enchanting a Domain", renders an area permanently magical, and costs the character doing so Essence. The area is thereafter said to be the character's Domain, and the character is referred to as the Owner. A character can only have a single Domain.

Rules may be created later for how the Owner can sever his metaphysical ties with his present Domain so that he can Enchant a new Domain elsewhere (but note that the ex-Owner won't get back the Essence that he spent), and/or rules may be created for how another character can dis-Enchant a Domain, rendering it non-magical, which would be a very hostile act and quite understandably make the Owner upset. See further down for what happens when the Owner dies.

The cost in Essence is 0.1, plus a number of "Domain Units" worth of further Essence, dependent on the initial effects that the Owner wisehes to Enchant into the Domain (note that some effects must be chosen initially; they cannot be added at a later time), plus sometimes additional costs in Essence not accounted in Domain Units.

To Enchant a Domain, the Owner must walk along its borders starting at one point and walking all the way round to reach that point again, during a period of 6 Moons. If some lengths of the border cannot be walked, the character must at least be able to see them. This can be problematic for some characters who wish to have primarily mountaineous Domains, if they can't shapechange into birds or use other other tricks to "see" what they need to see. Once the walk is completed, the 0.1 Essence is paid, along with whatever initial effects the Owner desires (and keep in mind, some effects can only be chosen initially), and the Owner then owns the Domain.

If the character cannot complete the walk in 6 Moons, he can try again, but must start over from scratch. (Please note that any character with minimal wilderness skills and at least basic overall competence can complete such a walk easily within the generous time frame, unless the area is very hostile in one way or another, in which case it might be a badly chosen place.)

Being able to Enchant a Domain

There are no spells to do this, because Domain Magic cannot be classified as belonging to any one of the Realms. Most characters who Enchant a Domain do so using the Lore Enchant Domain, but there may also be Powers that lets a character do it.

The Domain Unit

Most Domain Effects have a price in Domain Units, in wholes, halves and multiples. The Domain Unit is an amount of Essence, derived from some of the traits of the Enchanter.

Start with a value of 2.4 Essence per Domain Unit, then subtract 0.1 Essence for each point of Will over 5, and then 0.05 Essence (do not round yet) for each point of either Psyche or Faith over 5. Don't use both attributes; use Psyche if the character uses the Enchant Domain Lore, or if the character is using a Power, then the writeup of that Power will define whether Psyche or Faith is to be used (it depends on whether the Power is magical or religious in nature).

Finally, subtract 0.1 Essence if the character has a Minor Affinity with the primary terrain type of the Domain, or 0.2 Essence if the character has a Major Affinity, 0.4 Essence if the character has a Grand Affinity (Humans cannot have this, but some non-Human species can), or 0.8 Essence if the character has a Wondrous Affinity (note that only beings of supernatural descent can have this). In the unlikely event that the the resulting cost is lower than 0.8 ES, raise it to 0.8 ES.

Insert reference tables here.

The resulting value is the cost in Essence per Domain Unit. Each Domain Effect costs a number of Domain Units, sometimes in halves, e.g. 0.5 DU or 2.5 EU. Multiply the DU cost by the number of DUs and then (and not before) round up to the nearest 0.1 Essence.

Example of DU calculation

insert example of DU value here, something like 2.25, to show how it works.

If the Owner dies

Once the Owner dies, the Domain begins to fade. All numerical modifiers begin to drop, e.g. plusses and minuses, and RD modifiers. After 3 Years, reduce all numerical modifiers by 1 (towards zero; a -1 RD bonus to something becomes 0, and a +2 RD penalty to something else becomes a +1 RD penalty). Numerical modifiers that become zero cease to exist. After a further 6 Years, reduce all numercal modifiers that still eist by a further 1 (towards zero), and again after a further 12 Years, 24 Years and so forth, until all numerical modifiers are gone.

(Insert table here?)

Effects that do not give modifiers, but are instead rated in levels or stages, e.g. Trivial, Minor, Medium, Major, Grand, or similar, drop one level or stage after 1 Moon, then another level or stage after 6 Moons, then another level or stage after 3 Years, then 15 Years, then 75 Years, then 300 Years, each effect disappearing when it drops in strength to below the lowest level available for it. In this way, game-mechanical effects tend to evaporate fast (pretty much anything is gone after 9 Years, or at least 21 Years), but if a strong-yet-subtle effect was Enchanted into the Domain, it'll linger for a rather longer time.

(And insert table here?)

The size of the Domain

The base size of the Domain in square kilometers equals the Spatial Intelligence of the Owner plus one. It can then be enlarged, but this can only be done during the Enchanting process. The base Fringe extends 1 km out from the borders in all directions, but the Fringe distance becomes larger as the Domain is enlarged.

Enlarged Domain can be taken at a higher grade than 5th, if desired. Just pay 0.5 more DU per doubling of size.

Example, Domain Size

Aerith the Aënchantress has a Psyche of 7 and a Will of 6, and no Terrain Affinity, so her Domain Unit is 2.2 ES (base 2.4 ES, then 0.1 lower for high Will, and 0.1 lower for high Psyche). Her Spatial Intelligence is 5, so her base Domain size, which she gets for the initial outlay of 0.1 Essence, is 6 square kilometers.

She wants seven levels of Enlarged Domain, which costs her 7 x 2.2 ES = 15.4 Essence, for a total of 15.5 Essence. This gives her a Domain size multiplier of x128, so her Domain is 768 km2 in size, and has a Fringe of 8 km out from the borders. If square'ish, it would be something like 27 by 28 km (and the Fringe would be about 450 km2), but it is actually somewhat elongated, something like 16 by 45 km, which makes for a huge Fringe (of almost 1200 km2).

Airith starts the border-walking process one day, and sets out to walk the roughly 122 km. She takes a leisurely 10-11 km a Day, and does not walk on Sundays because of her husband, so after 2 Weeks she is done. She pays the 15.5 Esence, and is now the Owner of her Domain.

Note, however, that so far Aerith's Domain does nothing.

The Domain Fringe

Putting Domain effects into effect

Some Domain effects must be put into the Domain during the original Enchanting process. Others can be put in at any time. A Domain does not have to have any effects initially; the Owner merely pays 0.1 ES, then for whatever reason delays putting in additional effects. A Domain with no effects at all (excepting Enlarged Domain) is said to be a "dormant Domain".

Domain Watchfulness

This is a commonly chosen effect.

After either of these effects have been Enchanted into the Domain, which may be done at any time, the Owner becomes able to set permanent Watchful Nodes from which he can see or hear, or both if both effects were chosen, as if the Node item had eyes or ears.

The Watchful Node must be set up in a reasonably stationary item, such as a large stone or a tree, but the item doesn't have to be immovable. For very large items, the Watchful Node must be defined as part of the item, e.g. a huge rock outcropping.

Each Watchful Node is permanent and costs 0.1 ES. It takes 6 Minutes and a simple act of will to make an item into a Watchful Node by touching it. The Owner may have a number of Watchful Nodes up to his Intelligence. Nodes cannot be moved, but they can be given up, which requires 6 Moons of dis-use preceded by and followed by an act of will. After that the Node ceases to function and the Owner has "space" for setting up a new Node, but the Owner does not get the 0.1 ES back, and must pay for the new Node.

There may be other types of Nodes in Domain Magic. Each is limited in number seperately, and may have different rules in all regards.

Example, Watchful Nodes

It turns out, Aerith the Aënchantress enjoys spying on people. She's the wife of a French count, and uses her magic without his knowledge.

She immediately puts Watchful Domain (Ears) into her Domain, then sets up two Nodes, one in the chapel at her husband's mansion, and one in the small church of the village surrounding the mansion, each time choosing to place the Node at a wall close to where confessions are made (in the case of the village church, she has to guess, though, since she very rarely visits it, and it has no confessional, because that would be anachronistic).

Continue example.

Q: How can the Owner "tap into" a Node? Does it require trance, concentration, or what?

Domain Focus

This effect gives a Focus bonus to spellcasting, similar to that of an item Focus (or an Inner Focus) and is therefore not cumulative with it. A character has a Domain Focus instead of an item Focus, or he has a Domain Focus that gives a bonus to something else than what his item Focus gives a bonus to.

Note that this is rather inflexible, compared to an item Focus, and of course also restricted; outsite the Domain, the Owner doesn't get the bonus. On the other hand, it costs less Essence than a comparable Staff (or othe Large) Focus item, and cannot be taken away from the character (although the character can be taken away from it).

Domain of Recovery

This effect helps the Owner heal and recover in a wide variety of ways. There are two kinds of effects here, one affects only the owner, while the other is weaker but affects everyone, and gives some additional benefits..

If a Domain contains both versions of Recovery, the Owner in each case gets the most powerful bonus.

Note also that the first version of Domain of Recovery gives no bonuses to medical skills.

Wisdom of Nature

This Domain effect gives an RD bonus to all skill rolls to interact with nature, including botanical or zoological rolls (even including knowledge bases rolls rather than rolls involving activities), and hunting and animal training, and the use of medical skills for any purpose beneficial or harmful (but not Psychology because that is not interacting with the physical body), and Cooking.

The bonus affects the Owner, although the highest grade also gives a lesser bonus to everyone else in the Domain, if the Owner does not decide, when he adds that effect to his Domain, that he wants to be the only one to benefit (such a decision is final; the Owner cannot later change his mind, one way or the other).

Airs of the Dreamer

This Domain effect gives a bonus to all creative efforts, both those of an artistic nature (Painting, composing poetry or prose fiction) as well as Invention, and to Creativity rolls.

33% of people tend to experience more vivid dreams when in such Domains (the stronger the Domain's effect, the more vivid the dreams are); roll once per person, not once per person per Domain.

Domain of Command

These Domain effects makes it easier to magically control people, animals and supernatural beings.

The specifics of how spells to control animals or humanoids work, have not yet been determined, so those Domain bonuses aren't defined yet.

Domain of Controlled Winds

This Domain effect somehow makes it easier to cast Weather Magic spells within the Domain. Details to come later.

Domain of Health and Longevity

Please note that the Aging Speed divisor is not cumulative with the divisor from a magic item, or from a Magic Tree. Use only the highest such divisor. Also, bonuses to the Recovery sub-attribute from Domain of Recovery do not stack with those from Domain of Health; use the highest bonus.

Also, unlike other Domain effects, there's a stark penalty if the character leaves his Domain if it has Domain Health Enchanted into it.

Unlike most other Domain effects, there is no effect when the Owner is in the Fringe; he gets neither the bonuses nor the penalties.

Domain Health, especially the 3rd grade version, is hugely tempting for a character wishing for along life, being a relatively cheap way to get a big aging speed divisor plus hefty bonuses to health, but the catch is that if the character ever goes outside the Fringe of his Domain, he's in trouble. Nevermind aging a lot faster. The character will probably die from some trivial disease even before his next Aging Roll.

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