Magic as Water: Mages of the Cyclica

Magic is thoroughly explored for its properties. Most magicians agree that there are a number of ways one can bring magic into the world; opinions on which way is best, which way is dominant, and which one should use, varies magician to magician.

Magic as the Water Cycle; Mages of the Cyclica

In this model, magic wafts through the air, a miasma, until it condenses on its own or through the help of a wizard. The magic has to be contained somewhere, but can be contained indefinitely. Then, when a wizard needs it, they perform another ritual which condenses it into a spell.

• Raw magic: analogous to water vapor. Condenses into harnessed magic with weight & magnitude, or with a ritual. Stored in ritual storage containers or natural ones.

• Harnessed magic: analogous to water. Magic that has to be stored somewhere, in a ritual or natural container. A supply of harnessed magic is called a Tide; vessels for a Tide are called Tidelocks.

• Directed Magic: analogous to ice. Spells.

Setting Element: The Containment Ritual

Takes 5 mins for every wizard involved. Supplies a Tide to the wizards involved. 

If you participate in the Containment ritual, you gain 1 Tide for every Mage of the Cyclica template you have, and 1 Tide for every wizard present.

Setting Element: Ritual of the Vessel

Takes an hour to cast. Take a holy item-- a staff, an orb, a metal plate inscribed with holy symbols. That object can store 3 Tide when the Cyclica mages cast the Containment Ritual and envision the vessel as the Tidelock.

Setting Element: Foci

Some things, like temples, holy sites, magical places, hallowed ground, are Foci for magic-- they attract Raw magic. Relics are sometimes Foci, sometimes Containers, sometimes both.

Setting Elements: Sublimation and Deposition, Phase changes

The analogy between Water and Magic strains at the level of Phase changes, without temperature as a feature in the conceit. It feels like the more will is applied by man, the more solid magic becomes.

Cyclica mages cast spells by familiarizing themselves with concepts. The more familiar they are with the concept, the more capable they are of directing magic to fulfill those wishes. The Containment ritual grants the wizard a Tide of magic.

• Freezing: spellcasting is freezing, converting their Tide of harnessed magic to a force in the world.

• Melting: When a spell is cast, competent wizards are able to return their magic to their Tidelocks. This is called Melting.

• Sublimating: when a wizard fails to Melt their spell, it returns to its raw form.

• Deposition: a rare talent. Depose is a concept wizards have to learn on its own, and given how abstract and unintuitive it is, none but the most talented learn it.

• Condensation: the Containment ritual is Condensation.

• Evaporation: when a Tidelock breaks, harnessed magic returns to the world.

GLoG Wizard: Mage of the Cyclica 

Every level, learn 2 chosen nouns, or 12 random ones. Also, learn 1 chosen verb, or 6 random ones.

Start with robes of your Order, a Major Tidelock from your Order (stores 5 Tide), and a random Cyclica Trinket.

A: Concepts, The Cyclica, Saint Mentor

B: Pondrance

C: Preaching

D: Mastery

The Cyclica: you cast spells according to the principles of the Cyclica. You know the Ritual of the Vessel, and the Containment Ritual. You belong to the Church of the Cyclica, and are a student of a Saint of the Cylica. 

Concepts: You cast spells by announcing Words. To cast a spell, spend a Tide equal to the number of words in the spell and roll that many d6s. On a 5+, you lose the Tide. For every set of doubles, the GM may change a word in the sentence; for every set of triples, they may change 3 words. You know the plurals of words.

For each word in the sentence you have Learned, you may choose whether to roll a d4, d6, or d8.

Pondrance: You have learned the skill of Pondrance. You can learn words by reading arcane and philosophical texts. The GM will tell you what word you learn. You must spend a day pondering the word in deep, uninterrupted meditation to totally get it.

Some words are really expansive in their associations. Words that are widely applicable are hard to learn; specific ones are easy to learn. You can use any word in a sentence, but knowing how to control association with your mind is tough with words you aren’t thoroughly familiar with. 

Preaching: You may deliver long sermons to crowds of people. If the final word of your sermon is a Word of Power you learn, you can cause it to take effect in some way you choose. For every minute you spend talking normally in your speech, spend a Tide and gain a Word's control over the effect of the spell.

Mastery: gain a mastery skill.

Sample Saints:

• Saint Mosil the Mystic: He saw words in the stars and the trees. What did they have to say in common? And what accounts for their differences.

• Words: With; Commune, Know; Thought, Everything, Quality.

• Power: You can use the word Quality with a specific quality in mind. All things resemble all other things to some degree. The less a given Quality is expressed in an object, the more dice you roll when effecting that quality in that object. You always roll at least 2 dice when you use Quality this way.

• Drawback: conjugates of the verb “to be” count as three words in your sentence. Your mind loathes the idea of identicality. You can never learn the verb “to be” or utter words like “same” or “identical”.

Note: This saintly order can cast the spell “Know Everything.” Doing so will put the person into a trance, seemingly forever. They do not age. No one has woken up from it or died in it.

Connected to this: the verb “Know” is tricky. It takes time to learn things. Knowledge is delivered as revelation, but processed as semantic content, and that takes time. Mosil’s Mystics know this.

• Saint Redding the Harbinger: and an angel with skin of bronze came to the sleeping saint, speaking Words of the end times. He woke wailing Words that shook the temple and stirred the graves.
• Words: Final, Last; End, Destroy; Sign, End-Times, [Word of Destruction]
• Power: You know how the apocalypse will happen. Your word of destruction terrifies people and unmakes reality. You also know one verb and noun of similar meaning that refer to how the world will end (if it will end in fire, you know Burn and Flames).
• Drawback: your words are incredibly powerful. The Word of Destruction brings the apocalypse, and all of your words have qualities of the End Times in them. Your speech shapes reality, and learning shapes the learner; the more you speak, the closer the apocalypse comes. People will generally feel safer around you with your mouth bound.

• The Muse-Saints: Cylea and her chorus sang, and the skies were moved. Rain poured weeping; was it tears, or design? They did not break their song to answer; the distinction is insignificant.
• Words: Feel, Sing, Dance; Color, Light, Love, History, Music, Poetry
• Power: You deliver your words through Song. This is louder. When you use the word Feel, you may choose an emotion to accompany it. You can make them feel that emotion stronger by repeating Feel multiple times, or by spending more dice in one fell swoop for instantaneous effect. You can sing in Choruses with other Students of the Muse-Saints, pooling Tides together.
• Drawback: Many people distrust you for working magic in their minds. People will grow angry if they think you're trying to mess with their mind, and people who are already feeling strong emotions are hard to unstick.

• Saint Simni of the Night: ...upon which he was thrown out into the night. He called out in desperation: a voice answered, speaking in a spine chill, revealing hidden things in the Dark.
• Words: Night; Dark/Black, Hidden, Chill, Fear, Light, Presence.
• Power: You are in tune with the night. Every night, fill up a Tidelock you have on your person. In addition, you may speak one Word per night for free, or one Word per spell for free if it is the New Moon. You can see in dim light as if in daylight.
• Drawback: You cannot see in daylight.

Mastery Skills:

1. Deposition: You can turn raw magic into directed magic, without performing the Containment Ritual. Dictate your spell, then roll a die for each word; on a 5-6, that word is not included in the spell, and the spell is cast.
2. Concentration: you only fail to harness magic on a 6+.
3. Quick Thinking: One word spells you cast gain an extra word that doesn't count as part of the spell for die-rolling purposes.
4. Poet: Roll one less die for one Word in your spell if it rhymes with another word in your spell.
5. Anagrammist: When you use words that are anagrams of your Learned words, you may reroll the die corresponding to that word.
6. Snarer: You can snare harnessed magic that melted from other peoples' spells through force of will. Whenever someone casts a spell, if they would regain the die, you may roll a d6. On a 6, you gain it instead. These points can only be used to cast your personal Verbs.

d20 Order Trinkets

1. A tarantula in a cage. Starts suddenly when someone says a Verb you know.
2. 9 wax seals depicting the 9 muses.
3. A tiny bloodred pyramid inscribed with the magical phase changes. Open it up to see whirring gears and hear incomprehensible syllables.
4. an empty glass jar with stylized butterflies, labelled "Raw Magic: You are the Lid."
5. A calligraphy set with glitzy green ink. 
6. a complete set of the Cyclica Hermetica. Very rare.
7. Two knives, one large and dull, one small and pointed. Both painted with bright white paint.
8. A bowl with intricate carvings in it. A spell's inscription around the bowl's edge tells you a spell to store 2 Tide in the bowl as a thin red liquid. 
9. A tin medallion displaying the miracles of two Saints of the Cyclica on both sides.
10. A pendant of a lizard with a huge gemstone eye. Can store 1 Tide. While 1 Tide is stored and the pendant is visible, small lizards fear you, and big lizards might pause before continuing to eat your face off.
11. An amulet of Saint Mosil. Sages and Scholars appreciate it; people who are tripping bug out when they see it and do not speak for the rest of their trip. Stores 1 Tide.
12. A shining round Mirror, surface marred by inscriptions of a strange version of the Containment Ritual. Stores 2 Tide.
13. A polished plate helmet with and eye emblazoned on the shutter. Armors up your head.
14. A ten foot rusted iron pole. Extremely cumbersome, extremely sensitive to wind changes-- breezes can send it skittering across the ground, even if it would otherwise be quite difficult to lift.
15. A pair of iron-plate monocles. You can see music as waves and currents of color while wearing them over your eyes. Stores 1 Tide each.
16. Huge boots that are always filled with a bit of water-- unclear from where. Smells bad. Makes sloppy squishing noises when you walk but leaves no footprints.
17. A set of herbal teas. Relaxing.
18.  A set of sheet music in an unfamiliar form.
19. A tome-relic of a Saint of the Cyclica:
1. The Glass Book: A book with a leather spine, Padded iron covers, and d6 thin, blank glass pages. Each page stores 1 Tide. Glassblowers are rare and expensive, but can add pages to the book.
2. Apocralyptica by Saint Redding. Stories descend from various stock tropes into twisted nightmarish tales of apocalyptic end. Stores 5 Tide; you feel extremely uneasy carrying this book, as do those around you who put any stock in the Cyclica.
3. Annals of the Night by Simni. You cannot sleep the night you read this book-- it's really fucking scary. Stores 1 Tide.
4. Stripes on the Back. A book by the Flagellant Saint. Stores 2 Tide; the text in the book is frequently interrupted by gaspingly intense descriptions of sudden pain.
20. A Relic of a Saint of the Cyclica.
1. Mosil's Astrosphere: a glass sphere. Within it most people see the Stars, their consciousness drifting about the universe. Stores 3 Tide; the more Tide stored, the more bizarre and strange the sights within the Astrosphere. Mosil used it in his pursuit of The Word. 1 Inventory Slot.
2. Eyes of the Muse: a visor with nine eyes painted onto it. Stores up to 9 Tide, but can only store 1 from any given Containment Ritual, and requires the performance of a new song once every lunar cycle to continue functioning. 1/2 an inventory slot.
3. Contemplator Tank: a large glass jar with pictographic waves drawn on it. Used by the Saint Contemplator to breathe at sea. Stores 3 Tide, and acts as a Focus in the ocean (Containment rituals cast with it as one of the Tidelocks draw 1d3 more Tide). 1 Inventory Slot.
4. The Huntsman. A huge pistol with one barrel and one shot. Comes with 3 rounds, each of which can store 1 Tide but which use that Tide to fire. Used in exorcisms.

The original idea was from Nothing Ventured's blog-- go give it a gander! Lots of cool stuff there.

Some inspiration also taken from Lexi's Psion-- really cool class.

I would love it if people came up with more mastery skills and Saints, especially Saints. There's so much richness there, if you see Words where words are...