Consequence of Failure:
- Mind-shattering (permanent insanity)
- Physical backlash (burns, freezing, drowning from within)
- Binding (forced servitude to the partially-named thing)
- Death (usually)
### C. Learning Names
University Teaching:
- Master Namer teaches through riddles, experiences, paradoxes
- No direct instruction; understanding must arise organically
- Process takes years/decades; most students never approach success
Self-Teaching:
- Observe the thing obsessively; understand its essence
- Meditate on its nature until understanding becomes intuitive
- Attempt to speak the name (usually fails catastrophically)
Ancient Methods (Lost or Forbidden):
- Adem songs may contain name-teaching (suppressed)
- Ruh ballads preserve fragments of naming knowledge
- Amyr archives contain dangerous name research
### D. True Names in Use
Practical Application:
Once you know a name, speaking it grants power:
Wind Name spoken = command over wind (calm it, accelerate it, create storm)
Fire Name spoken = command over fire (ignite, extinguish, shape flame)
Limitations:
- Name only works once active; speaking uses it
- Cannot speak name carelessly (wastes the power)
- Continuous command requires holding the name in mind (exhausting)
Cost:
- Speaking a name doesn't drain body energy like sympathy
- Cost is existential: using a name changes the namer
- Repeated use may corrupt the user or bind them to the named thing
## V. GLAMOUR (FAE MAGIC)
Glamour is reality-bending through will and desire. It is not sympathy (no links) and not naming (not understanding essence). It is Fae magic—alien, intuitive, and fundamentally different from mortal approaches.
### A. What Is Glamour?
Glamour is the power to:
- Create illusions indistinguishable from reality
- Reshape perception (mortals see what Fae want them to see)
- Alter physical reality within limited domains
- Amplify desire and emotion
- Bind mortals through promises and bargains
Key Difference from Sympathy:
- No links, no correspondence, no energy transfer
- Works through shaping reality directly
- Mortals cannot learn or replicate (Fae magic, not mortal)
- Resists logical analysis (works on emotion, not reason)
### B. Glamour Applications
Illusion:
Perfect deception of senses
Example: Felurian appearing as different person to different viewers
Cost: Fae attention/power; weaker Fae limited to small areas
Shape-Shifting:
Fae altering own form
Example: Becoming animal, human, elemental
Cost: Concentration; reverting breaks glamour
Desire Amplification:
Making mortals want specific things
Example: Mortal cannot resist hunger, attraction, fear
Cost: Fae willpower; strong-willed mortals partially resist
Reality Warping:
Changing local physical law
Example: Endless rooms, paths looping, time flowing backward
Cost: Massive; only in Fae courts/domains
### C. Resisting Glamour
Fae Cannot Lie:
- Their glamour is "true" deception, but verbal lies are forbidden
- Humans with strong will can notice inconsistencies
- Adem discipline makes them partially immune
Iron/Salt/Running Water:
- Glamour weakens near iron; disrupted by salt
- Fae cannot cross running water; glamour fails
- These weaken but don't dispel active glamour
Disbelief:
- If you truly doubt glamour, it weakens for you
- But Fae are master manipulators; doubt itself can be glamoured
- Stronger willpower = more resistance
---
## VI. LETHANI (ADEM DISCIPLINE)
The Lethani is not magic in the mortal sense. It is a philosophy encoded in practice—right action so internalized that it shapes reality.
### A. Core Principles
What Is Lethani?
A framework for action based on ninety-nine foundational stories. Adem who truly understand Lethani move, fight, and speak with impossible grace and precision because their actions align with universal rightness.
Practical Effect:
- Adem fighters predict movement before it happens
- Adem healers apply medicine with perfect technique
- Adem judges make decisions that satisfy all parties
- Adem living in Lethani waste no motion, no words, no energy
Cost:
- Decades of training required
- Constant self-examination; any deviation is failure
- Emotional suppression becomes habit (Adem seem cold)
- Complete commitment; half-measures fail
### B. The Ninety-Nine Stories
The foundational teaching of Rethe/Aethe; each story illustrates proper action:
- How to fight honorably
- How to grieve without breaking
- How to lead without tyranny
- How to love without possession
- How to teach without imposing
Stories are memorized, meditated upon, and lived. Understanding deepens over years.
### C. Is Lethani Magic?
Technically: No. It is discipline, practice, philosophy.
Practically: Yes. Results are indistinguishable from magic (superhuman skill, impossible reading of situations, perfect technique).
The Mechanism:
- Perfect alignment between intention and action
- Minimum wasted motion or effort
- Reading subtle environmental/social cues others miss
- Decisions made with full information and perfect clarity
---
## VII. OTHER MAGICAL TRADITIONS
### A. Knot Magic (Yllish)
Nature: Weaving fate through knotwork and symbolism
Practitioners: Yllish sailors, fate-weavers
Mechanism: Patterns tied in cord create sympathetic links to events
Limitation: Works only on possible futures; cannot change fundamental destiny
Risk: Misinterpreted knots create opposite effect
### B. Church Healing (Faith-Based)
Nature: Miraculous healing through prayer and divine intervention
Practitioners: Tehlin priests, Hospitalers
Mechanism: Believed to be direct divine action (not explained rationally)
Evidence: Some healings work; many fail; no clear pattern
Skepticism: University views as placebo + basic medicine; Church insists on miracles
### C. Iron Druid Magic (Shamanic)
Nature: Communion with spirits; shape-shifting; primal power
Practitioners: Grey Druids (Iron Druids), wild mages
Mechanism: Unclear; possibly Fae-touched or Chandrian-corrupted
Results: Dangerous, unpredictable, often horrifying
Question: Are they channeling or corrupted?
## VIII. MAGICAL LIMITATIONS & COSTS
### A. Energy
All Magic Costs Energy:
Sympathy: Caster’s body heat (primary cost)
Sygaldry: Pre-stored at inscription; released at activation
Naming: Existential transformation (unknown cost)
Glamour: Fae willpower/essence (Fae only)
Lethani: Decades of discipline (not renewable; intrinsic cost)
### B. Knowledge
Access Requires:
- University training (Arcanum admission)
- Apprenticeship (Doctors, Adem, Ruh traditions)
- Discovery (self-taught, often deadly)
- Stolen (dangerous; sources hunt you)
### C. Talent
Not Everyone Can:
- Most cannot touch sympathy meaningfully
- Naming requires specific cognitive structure (rare)
- Glamour impossible for mortals; Fae-blooded glimpse it
- Lethani requires decade+ commitment
Variance:
- Some show immediate aptitude; others struggle for years
- Age, culture, personality affect learning
- Natural talent + training = exponential improvement
### D. Sanity & Humanity
The Price of Power:
- Excessive sympathy use: dissociation, emotional numbness
- Naming: fundamental personality shift (speaking names changes you)
- Glamour study (mortals): madness (Fae think differently)
- Lethani mastery: emotional suppression becomes permanent
Long-Term Cost:
Powerful mages are often isolated, dangerous, or inhuman by choice or necessity.
## IX. PRACTICAL MAGIC FOR PLAYER CHARACTERS
### A. Sympathy (Most Accessible)
Baseline Rules:
Simple working: 1-5 silver talents energy cost (body heat)
Complex working: 10-50 talents cost
Dangerous working: 50+ talents cost (risk of hypothermia/death)
Usage:
- Create heat/light (practical applications)
- Move objects (limited by energy cost and distance)
- Combat (difficult; requires focus and correspondent targets)
Learning:
- University Arcanum admission required (expensive, competitive)
- Takes months to years to become proficient
- Ongoing cost: tuition, materials, energy
### B. Sygaldry (Knowledge-Based)
Baseline Rules:
Simple gram: 5-10 talents to inscribe (one-time cost)
Moderate grammarie: 50-100 talents (requires rare materials)
Complex grammarie: 1000+ talents (master-level)
Usage:
- Permanent solutions (locks, alarms, lighting)
- Combat applications (limited; pre-set traps)
- Utility (mechanical advantage, persistent effects)
Learning:
- Requires understanding sympathy first
- Artificer training (workshop access, materials)
- Years of practice; mistakes are dangerous
### C. Naming (High Risk, High Reward)
Baseline Rules:
Attempting partial name: likely failure and catastrophic backlash
Learning true name: months/years of obsessive study
Speaking name: massive power spike (once per dramatic moment)
Usage:
- Game-changing power (command over elemental forces)
- Extremely limited (one name learned over entire campaign)
- Lasting consequences (using name changes character)
Learning:
- Self-taught (dangerous)
- Elodin's teaching (cryptic, requires player patience)
- Ancient texts (Amyr archives, lost knowledge)
---
## X. CREATING MAGICAL ENCOUNTERS
### A. Hostile Sympathist
Threat Level: Moderate (dangerous in 1v1, manageable with numbers)
Tactics: Maintain distance, link to heat sources, target multiple enemies
Vulnerability: Hypothermia; limited energy; alar can be shattered
Countermeasure: Tackle them (breaks concentration); shield with heat (blocks transfer)
### B. Sygaldric Trap
Threat Level: Variable (depends on grammarie complexity)
Common Types: Alarm runes, lock grammarie, kinetic trap (explosion)
Disarming: Sympathist can overwrite; physical destruction breaks seal
Failure: Energy release (explosion, fire, uncontrolled force)
### C. Fae Glamour
Threat Level: High (mortals nearly helpless against)
Defense: Disbelief, iron, salt, running water
Vulnerability: Cannot lie; clever use of literal language corners them
Countermeasure: Academic study (University) or Adem discipline
## XI. MAGIC SYSTEM QUICK REFERENCE TABLE