The One Thing I Know (GLOG Class: Magos)

 There is no distinction between Arcane and Divine magic in the Eikonokosmos. More to the point - there is no Arcane magic. It’s all from the gods. 

Magoi are not well-trusted in Eikonokosmos. 

They’re seen as the most crude, foolish and unreliable of the Four Professions of the Mind. Mathematicians, Philosophers and Inventors, in that order, are better trusted. 

Magoi are distrusted because they reach for the power of the Gods. This is Hubris, and it’s bound to come back around eventually. 

But in the meanwhile - behold their works, ye mighty, and stand in awe. 

THE MAGOS

+1 Save and +1 Magic Dice per Template 

Starting Items: Relevant Ritual Item. Relevant Robes. Kylix. Relevant Jewelry.

Starting Skill: per Order.    

A - Evocation, Works, Augury

B - Esoteric Speech

C - Favoured Spirit 

D - Transformation

Evocation

As a Magos, you have learned secretive arts - these allow you to command the Spirits of the Eikonokosmos to undertake Works, which the lay-folk call ‘spells’. You do this with Magic Dice, which operate as they usually do. 

Choose which kind of spirit you command by picking an Order. 

The Order has a list of twelve spirits they can reliably call, but they are not exhaustive.

You might meet new spirits in the world and befriend them, adding them to your list of allies. 

However, Evocation has a price: Hubris. The Titans will only tolerate mortals meddling with their spirits for so long. Whenever you roll doubles on MD, gain a point of Hubris. Whenever you roll triples, gain five. 

See your Order for the effects of Hubris. 

If you make a significant sacrifice to the Titan whose powers you borrow, you may reduce your Hubris by 1d6. 

If you burn your implements and scrolls, dismiss your spirits forever and swear an oath to never perform the Works again, you may clear all of your Hubris.

If you take up Evocation once again after the above oath, gain 6d6 Hubris immediately, and probably die. 

Works

You may expend MD to conjure Spirits to perform Works. 

You gain the acquaintance of two Spirits per Template. Roll 2d6 at Level 1, then 2d8, then 2d10, then 2d12. If you roll duplicates, you may move up or down the list until you gain a Spirit you do not have. 

At any time you may expend a single MD to call a Spirit without utilising its Works. They are chatty and knowledgeable. 

Augury

Your order taught you a method to divine Truth from the chaos of the world. 

Expend as many MD as you wish, while you perform the method of Augury noted in your Order of choice. 

You may ask [highest] questions, and receive answers of ‘Yes’, ‘No’, or ‘Unclear.’

If asking questions about something that is within the domain of your Order’s Spirits, you may instead receive the answers:

‘Certainly’, ‘Possibly’, ‘Unclear’, ‘Consider Further’, ‘Unlikely’, or ‘Impossible’. 

Esoteric Speech

You learn to speak the secret language of the supernatural, allowing you to converse with monsters, giants, spirits and gods, all on their own terms.

You may now also read ancient texts and know how to decode any cipher with a few days of work.

Favoured Spirit 

Name a Spirit who you can command. You build a rapport with them - you may conjure them to speak with them at any time, no MD required.  

When you use that Spirit’s Work, you do so with +1 MD. 

Transformation

Only the Gods may transform - themselves, and others. The power of shape changing is theirs, to use to their own whims, or to punish upstart mortals. 

Or it was, until right now. You have learned the Art of Transformation from your augury, your secret knowledge and the careless whispers of spirits. 

You may turn yourself into any animal, or turn anyone you can see into any animal. 

If they are unwilling, they may save. 

The transformed person remains so until you will them not to be, or until you die. 

Every time you use the Art of Transformation, gain a Point of Hubris. 

If you display this openly in front of a God, they’ll probably kick your ass (or transform you) for meddling in realms you shouldn’t. 

ORDERS

Only two orders remain in the lands of the Heptapolis. Hubris or the Despot have destroyed the rest. 

They are The Order Goetia, and The Order Theurgia. 

Some say the other Orders (Proteoi, Philia, Xenoi and Kritoi) are extant in the far corners of the world - but who can say for sure?

THE ORDER GOETIA

Spirits: Nymphae

Skill: Herbalism 

Augury: Casting of Bones. 

Jewelry: Ouroboros torc. 

Robes: Green and Black 

Ritual Item: Bronze dagger. 

The Goetia command The Nymphae, the spirits of the land, the stones, the plants, the deep places. The Nymphae are daughters of the Titan called Earth. 

For this reason, they use the Ouroboros as their symbol - as all serpents and scaled creatures are the creations of Earth.

All Magoi of this order were tutored by the Grey Robes, three women who live on a storm-lashed island in the North. They are Denial, a Goddess, Daughter of the Titan called Blood, Dolusia, a Heroine, who is daughter of the Goddess Folly, and Deimos, an elder Lampad, or Nymph of the Underworld. 

WORKS

1. Phero (Carrier) 

A tall, craggy oread, the colour of sandstone. She is bald and bony, with long limbs and a broad back. She finds mortals hilarious. She is sarcastic, chatty and calm. 

Phero can easily carry up to [sum] Inventory Slots of items, so long as none of them are fragile, for she is… enthusiastic, let’s say. She will carry these weights for [dice] hours, following along through the earth below the Magos, before disappearing. 

 

2. Iaomai (Heal)

A dryad, small and slight. Worry lines her face - her hair is made of up every variety of medicinal herb, and her skin is mottled and clay-like. She is professional, curt and exasperated.

Iaomai can restore [sum] HP to any creature that both she and the Magos can touch. 

3. Koneia (Hemlock) 

A dryad, tall, mottled maroon and vivid green. She has hair like the leaves and flowers of the hemlock. She carries a chalice. She is wolfish, cruel and droll. 

Koneia can produce [sum] points worth of poison in her chalice. This poison can be divided among anywhere it can be applied, such as poured into wine or smeared on a blade. Targets affected by the poison may save for half damage. 

 

4. Katolisthia (Landslide)

A burly oread, granite grey and corded with muscle. She is three heads taller than you, and has curly, rust-red hair. She is furious, good-hearted and quick-witted. 

Katolisthia can move [sum] Inventory Slots worth of rocks anywhere within twelve paces, dealing [rocks]+[dice] damage if the rocks hit someone. The rocks don’t have to be in your inventory for Katolisthia to throw them, but it might be useful to bring a supply, say, aboard a boat. 

She alone among the Nymphae is also just really up for decking people in the jaw. She can be invoked to, instead of moving rocks, deliver a furious punch which does 1d8+[dice] damage and will knock even a giant down.  

5. Orussa (Tunneler) 

An oread. She is broad shouldered and strong armed. She is the colour of soil after the rain. Grass grows from her head like hair. She is curious, enthusiastic and rude. 

Orussa allows the Magos to swim through soil and stone like a Nymphae, for [sum] rounds. They may choose to leave behind a cramped tunnel which lasts for [dice] minutes. 

6. Telma (Morass) 

An eleionomae, a nymph of wetlands and bogs. She’s slouched and heavy, covered in cloying vegetation like a veil. Her limbs are thick and peatlike. She is calm, kindly and quietly sarcastic. 

Telma can turn an area of soil [dice]*10 feet on a side into a swampy bog. It drags at the ankles and takes 1 + [Dice] Rounds to cross. She can also make any field untillable, or sink a building’s foundations with this same power. 

7. Purphorosia (Torch-Bearer)

A lampad, carrying a torch of purple fire. She resembles a scorched and smoking corpse, made of grey-black rock and veined with bluish sapphire. She is impolite, encouraging and hates philosophers. 

Those who fall under the light of Purphorosia’s torch must save or fall into terror and panic. Creatures with less HD than you feel an urge to flee, while those with the same or more instead act irrationally. Purphorosia’s torch can affect up to [sum] creatures at once. 

8. Apotropaia (Curse-Turner)

A lampad. She appears as a frost-lined skeleton made of black obsidian, with glittering ruby eyes. She carries a steel rod and a black flame. She hates all Magoi but the Goetia. She is rude, judgemental and laconic.

Apotropaia can, when summoned, make the Magos immune to all magic for [sum] rounds.

She can also dissolve active works of magic or enchantments made by creatures with [Dice] HD or less (if a Magos directed a spirit to make the magic in question, use the Magos’ HD). 

9. Pholea (Grotto) 

An alseid, with leaflike hair and skin of bark. Her face is like a wooden mask. She wears faint mist as a cloak, and leans on a tall stave made of ash wood. She is quiet, introverted and thoughtful. 

Pholea can make any area ringed by plants a hidden grotto that none but the Magos or their allies may enter. There is always a spring in the center of the grotto, which contains [dice]+3 HP, which can be used to heal those who drink from the spring.

10. Taphosia (Tomb)

An ancient and powerful Lampad. She resembles a huge, hunched skeleton made of dark red stone, with glittering chunks of diamond in her eye sockets. She rattles two adamant chains as she approaches. She is talkative, and takes great enjoyment in both humour and cruelty. 

Taphosia can bury an object or creature which is on the ground, imprisoning it beneath the earth in dreamless slumber. Things she imprisons are unaffected by time and undiscoverable by mundane means. If you try to imprison a creature, they can save, but fail the save automatically if they have less than [dice] HD. 

If a creature has more than 8HD, Taphosia cannot bury them (since she has to physically wrestle the damn things into the ground.) 

When you die, everything you have imprisoned is released simultaneously.

11. Thraka (Ember) 

A volcanic oread. Along with the oread of the Holy Mountain, she is one of the two eldest oreads. She is black basalt, and her eyes and mouth stream with red lava and plumes of smoke. She is twice your height, muscular, bald, and armed with a red-hot iron hammer. She is proud, honest and easily angered. 

Thraka can cause any stone she strikes with her hammer to explode, in a shimmering wave of heat, cinders and smoke. Any nearby to the stone take [sum]+[dice] damage and are lit aflame. This will also crumple all but the strongest structures. 

Furthermore, she can, with an hour of forging, create [dice] inventory slots worth of magma. She offers no special help in storing or transporting said magma. 

12.  Vatosia (Bramble)

Not a nymph anymore, but a bitter dryad who hated the world, for its cruelty. She petitioned the Titan called Earth, to be made into a drakon, so that she might never suffer again. 

She is a massive, shimmering, fire-breathing snake, which boils up from the earth nearby. She is furious, arrogant and callous. She speaks with a voice like thunder and her scales are polished bronze. 

She has [dice]x2 HD. She is allied to no-one and despises everything living. 

She has a total of [sum]*3 points of Fire Breath she can allocate as she wishes. Those she breathes on may save for half. Her bite deals 3d6 Poison Damage, and she can easily swallow a horse, whole. 

HUBRIS

At 5 or more Hubris, your hair is replaced by tangled plants. You can harvest your hair if the plant which grows there is useful or edible. Hiding your identity as a Goetian is challenging. 

At 10 or more Hubris, your blood becomes the blood of the earth - that is to say, black, toxic and flammable. Plants cling to you, and you are constantly filthy. 

At 15 or more Hubris, your limbs have become as soil, and your heart as stone. Your weight increases ten-fold, and you move very slowly. You are immune to poisons, and your emotions are dulled. 

At 20 Hubris, your flesh changes into black adamant. You are invulnerable, but should you ever step onto soil with nothing beneath you, you will immediately sink into the Underworld and disappear forever. 

THE ORDER THEURGIA 

Spirits: Daimones 

Skill: Astrology 

Augury: Reading of Constellations. 

Jewelry: Plain gold circlet. 

Robes: Blue and White.

Ritual Item: Oaken rod. 

The Theurgia command The Daimones, the spirits of the stars, the storms, the flames, the lightning, the upper air. The Daimones are sons of the Titan called Horizon. 

For this reason, they use the owl as their symbol, as all birds are kin to Horizon. 

The Theurgia learned their arts from Khalkos, an ancient and coppery Cyclopes who came from the East some time ago, and set up a school on an islet near the City of Stars. 

(Cyclopes are, incidentally, metal-skinned semi-mechanical artisan-giants descended from the Titan called Order.) 

WORKS

1. Brontes (Thunder)

A burning white fire in the shape of a muscular man. He is prudish, boisterous and melodramatic. 

You clap your hands together as Brontes claps his. There is a thundering boom, a lightning flash, and a rushing wind. All nearby are deafened, blinded and flung off their feet, suffering [dice] damage.

2. Deiknumi (Revealer)

A shimmering wisp of bluish flame in the shape of a cloak. Red eyes burn within. He is prying, gossipy and sycophantic. 

You may give your eyes to Deiknumi, and see any place that you have been to, or have had described to you in detail. You may ask him [dice] questions about its surroundings.

3. Phaos (Light) 

A small and youthful Daimon appearing as a wisp of yellowish light. He will gladly act as a lantern. He is idealistic, curious and naive. 

Phaos can illuminate an area by flying to it. He will remain with the Magos for [dice] hours, before becoming bored and wandering off. 

Alternately, he can illuminate up to [sum] HP of creatures within sight, making it impossible for them to hide in darkness. 

4. Tagos (Arranger) 

He resembles a man made of reddish smoke, with a small red flame burning at his heart, and at each eye. He holds power over many minor Daimon-servants, and can conjure them as he wishes. He is loyal, fussy and exasperated. 

Tagos’ Daimon-servants can be called upon to do the work that [sum] people might do in [dice] hours, over the course of a few minutes. They do this loudly and brightly - figures resembling glowing cloaks with glowing hands, flying around moving things and attending to tools. 

5. Hoplon (Shield)

A Daimon made of geometric pieces of golden light which orbit around a small red flame. He’s a warrior-Daimon, a soldier of the endless wars which occur between the glittering star-palaces of the Firmament. He is curt, irritable and courageous. 

The Magos can ablate up to [sum] damage against themselves, as Hoplon’s pieces appear and move in the way of attacks and harmful effects. The Magos takes any excess damage. 

6. Kryptos (Hidden) 

Kryptos is barely visible - a faint violet shimmer, like heat-haze - on the darkest night, one might see a pair of blue-lit eyes, peeking from the dark. To other Daimones, he is supposedly the brightest light in the sky, but mortals lack the sight to comprehend his colours. He is vain, distracted and nervous. 

Kryptos can bless up to [dice] creatures or objects with his unseeable colours, making them invisible to everything but other Daimones. They are invisible until they are sharply moved, or perform some strenuous action, such as stabbing something (since Kryptos is easily distracted, and even more easily startled). 

7. Petomai (Maker of Haste) 

A slim, tall figure, a shimmering man made of golden lightning, with wild thundercloud hair and eyes made of green light. He speaks with incredible speed and rambles endlessly about multifarious topics. He is obsessive, impatient and easily bored. 

Petomai can infuse a creature with the speed and weightlessness of a thunderbolt. For [sum] rounds, they are exactly as fast as they need to be, can run over clouds and water, and cannot be bound by any mundane bindings. They can also run up walls (though not across ceilings.) 

8. Syntribos (Shatterer)

Appears as a cloaked figure of greenish flame, crowned by ram’s horns. His eyes are bluish fire and he creates a great amount of foul grey smoke. He is malevolent, insulting and prone to laughter. 

Syntibos can shatter, bend, discolour or shred [sum] mundane objects - blasting apart pottery, bending swords, spintering doors, that sort of thing. Syntribos’ ministrations are neither subtle nor gentle. He cannot shatter magical, divine, or adamant objects. 

100 coins count as one object. Larger things may count as multiple objects (you would need [sum=20] to shatter a ship, for example.) 

9. Gnomon (Interpreter) 

A nearly invisible Daimon, a greyish wisp of smoke with two faint eyes of yellow flame. He is laconic, professional and takes satisfaction in his Works. 

Gnomon can send a message of [sum] words to a person you know, decode a riddle of [sum] words of less, or translate [sum] words of text, so long as the text is inscribed on a scroll for him to read. Sphinxes and mystery cults despise him. 

10. Keraunos (Lightning) 

The elder brother of Brontes, and by far the stronger of the two. He appears as a muscular man three metres in height, made entirely of blue lightning. He wields a white thunderbolt in the manner of a spear. His eyes are red fire. He is loud, arrogant, and dismissive. 

Keraunos can hurl a lightning bolt as long as you mime the motion of throwing it. The lightning bolt deals [sum]+[dice] damage to whatever it hits, then [sum] damage to anything nearby. Lightning will split trees, mangle armour, ignite fields and reduce warriors to ash. 

11. Kometes (Comet)

The peacemaker and diplomat of the Daimones. Appears as a single orb of blue light, within the hood of a rainbow-prisma cloak, of shimmering mists and sparkling cinders. The cloak is orbited by small lights in various colours, which leave faint trails of light.  He is wise, kindly and curious. 

Kometes may bring the Magos and [dice] other creatures within his cloak, transforming into a comet and flying across the Eikonokosmos. This is basically a teleport effect - he can go anywhere near instantly, so long as it is more than a day’s travel away. 

12. Heliopyron (Sun-Fire) 

The repenting king of the Daimones. The Heroine Eupraxia toppled their reign of fire in the ancient times of the Golden Era. This Daimon was the least among the seventy-seven kings. 

He resembles a pillar of golden light in the shape of a champion wielding a sword. His eyes are white flame, and his crown is smoke. He’s quiet, reserved and prone to giving compliments.  

Heliopyron had many powers and many names, but he gave them all up when he repented. The last, which he kept, was the ability to summon golden Sun-Fire, which cannot be extinguished except by him. Sun-Fire ignores fire resistance, and can burn stone and metal as if they were wood.  

For 1 Dice, he will light a torch with Sun-Fire. 

For 2, a brazier. 

For 3, a house. 

For 4, a town. 

For 5, an entire Polis. 

It costs the same amount of dice to extinguish the same amount of Sun-Fire. 

HUBRIS

At 5 or more Hubris, your eyes permanently glow with fire. You can see in the dark, but hiding your person or nature as a Theurge is challenging. 

At 10 or more Hubris, your head is permanently surrounded by a halo of fire. Flammable things near you have a habit of catching aflame, and any lightning bolt or fiery arrow will be attracted to you unerringly. 

At 15 or more Hubris, you sing with barely contained power - golden flames play along your limbs, and the light of your halo and eyes is undisguisable. A small explosion occurs around you whenever you suffer a critical hit, and your unguarded touch is flammable. 

At 20 Hubris, you are consumed by Sun-Fire, violently exploding in a pillar of eternal flame. You die, and take everyone and anyone nearby with you. The place of your death is forever scarred by inextinguishable Sun-Fire. 

+++

OTHER ORDERS?

 

The Proteoi might have commanded the Monstrum, the flesh-bound, shape-shifting spirits of the deep places, the changing tides, and the capricious moon. The Monstrum were the descendents of the mercurial Ocean, the Titan that rings the world. 

They performed augury with the casting of objects upon maps. They wore black and white robes, they carried silver thread, and wore silvered veils. Their symbol was the fish. 

+++

The Philia might have commanded the spirits bound into mortal flesh called the Pathe, or Passions. They did this to inflame mortal recklessness and counsel the wise to foolishness. And also to break oppressive hierarchies, but that one doesn’t often show up in the scrolls. 

The Pathe were said to have spilt from the multifarious wounds of that greatest and most horrendous beast, the Titan called Blood, where they crawled into the flesh of mortals and made them unreasonable.

 

They performed augury in entrails. They wore red and rose, they carried hooks, and wore copper bangles. Their symbol was the bull. 

+++

The Xenoi might have commanded the Anemoi, the other lineage of Horizon. The Anemoi are the multifarious fragments of the Primordial Storm. It tried to eat the Eikonokosmos in the earliest days, and was torn apart by the Gods. The six greatest Anemoi each bring in the Six Seasons, but the Xenoi likely commanded the lesser, nameless Anemoi. 

They divined by following the movements of birds. They wore white and red, they carried silver pan-pipes, and wore an adamant chain as a belt. Their symbol was a gull. 

+++

The Kritoi might have commanded the Erinyes, the iron spirits of the titan Order, who right Wrong viciously and enforce Divine Law. These spirits sally forth from the Golden Island, which lies in the middle of the world, and is the axis upon which Creation turns. 

They divined by the use of complex, Cyclopean-built mechanisms. They wore gold and grey, they carried arrowless bows, and wore orichalcum amulets. Their symbol was a spider. 

+++

No order has yet figured out the secret of tearing the Psychopompoi (the spirits who guide the dead to rest in the Underworld) away from their duties. 

(But should they exist, they would be the Katabatoi, would divine with shades in fire pits, would wear black, carry animal bones, and wear copper masks.)