Light Magic

Light Sorcerers focus magical energy through an entity they call the World Crystal—an all-encompassing yet invisible physical structure of near-infinite complexity. The World Crystal’s countless facets and vertices form regular patterns that mathematically correspond to the many possible paths of light. The discipline of Light Magic involves the manipulation of the World Crystal’s facets and vertices through subtle rotations and translations. Any Sorcerer can gain the abilities in this section with XP; however, you must first know or learn ✪ Focus Light Magic to learn the other Light Magic abilities.

✪ Focus Light Magic

✦✦ Intellect

Requires two free hands. Take -1 awareness and roll Focus to magically manipulate the World Crystal. You generate light focus equal to your roll*. You can then immediately cast one of the following spells, or another light magic spell you’ve learned.↳ * If you know the Scrolls of the Sorcerer lore, you generate light focus equal to your roll + your Intellect. You know five spells as part of this ability: ◮Refract, ◮Golden Arrow, ◮Path of Light, ◮Flash, and ◮Illuminate.

Maintaining Light Focus

Maintaining light focus can cause a distracting headache. While you have light focus:

You can't regain awareness.
You automatically fail to take Initiative.

Focus is precarious and can be lost. If you take lethal damage, make a free challenge roll to maintain your focus. Roll your Focus die.

✦ 5+: You maintain focus.

⬖ 3–4: You can take -1 awareness to maintain focus, or else:

ⓧ 1–2: You lose all focus you've accumulated.

◮ Refract | LIGHT FOCUS 2+

Until your next turn, you bend light around your body, tricking foes into targeting the wrong place. Expend 2 focus per -1 penalty to incoming attacks, and the total penalty can't exceed your Intellect. You can also cast this spell as a reaction to an incoming attack you can see—but only against one attack at a time.This magic has no effect against attacks that affect multiple targets in an area, like explosions. Nor does it affect foes who don’t rely on sight to attack, or who can see through light magic illusions.

◮ Golden Arrow | LIGHT FOCUS 1+

You draw back your hand and conjure a shaft of glowing yellow light, then release it at a foe. Make a ranged attack, rolling Focus instead of your Attack die. The attack inflicts lethal damage and -1 guard.You can expend an additional 1 focus to imbue the arrow with blinding light, inflicting -1 awareness on a hit. You must expend the extra focus before making the attack.

◮ Path of Light | LIGHT FOCUS 2+

You shine a thin, faint beam of light on a foe, to better aim a ranged attack against them. Expend light focus up to twice your Intellect and roll Maneuver.✦ Success: Cast ◮Golden Arrow or another light magic spell you know that is a ranged attack against a single foe, adding +1 for every 2 focus you expended. ⬖ Struggle: As above, but without the bonus.ⓧ Failure: You lose your aim and your turn is wasted.

◮ Flash | LIGHT FOCUS 2

Roll Maneuver with focus advantage to blind characters in your span with a bright flash of light. ✦ Success: The character(s) suffer -1 guard and -1 awareness. ⬖ Struggle: The character(s) suffer -1 awareness.ⓧ Failure: No effect.You can attempt to aim the flash so as to spare your allies from its effect. Take a -1 penalty on your roll for each ally you exclude.

◮ Illuminate | LIGHT FOCUS 1+

As an action (no roll required), you conjure a light source, as bright as a good torch, which can take the form of a halolike aura, a narrow beam, or a soft glow around your hand or staff. You can maintain the illumination at the start of subsequent turns by expending 1 focus (no action required). You can freely dispel the light at any time. Conjuring a new light source requires an action, however.

Abilities to Learn

.5xp new ability | 10xp with attribute increase

You must know ✪ Focus Light Magic before learning the abilities in this section.

✪ Enlightened Focus✦✧ Will Gain +1 max Spirit and add +1 to the calculation for your Focus die.

✪ Heart of Light Magic✦✦✧ Will Gain +1 max Life and +1 max Awareness.

✪ Light of the Red Moon

✦✦✧ Intellect

You’ve mastered the magic of light at the red end of the spectrum. You can sense and control heat. You know the following light magic spells:

◮ Red Sword | LIGHT FOCUS 8

You gather light into a wide plane of glowing heat, then sweep it across multiple foes. Make a melee Attack with focus advantage. This attack targets all characters in front of you in your span who aren't behind cover, indiscriminately. It inflicts lethal damage and-2 guard, and can’t be countered. If this attack doesn’t miss and the foe holds a wooden weapon or light shield to block, roll Brace with focus advantage. If your result exceeds the armament’s durability, the armament ignites and is destroyed. (If the red sword threatens to ignite multiple foes’ armaments, only roll once.)

◮ Vision of Inner Flame | LIGHT FOCUS 4

As an action (no roll required), you widen the orientation of the World Crystal in front of your eyes, enabling you to see heat. This magic reveals:

Warm-blooded people or creatures hiding in darkness or foliage
Distant warm objects, like hot-air balloons, beneath the clouds or in the night sky
Remnant heat signatures from entities who were recently active in an area (handprints on walls, bare footprints on floors)

This magic overlays your normal sight, but can’t penetrate solid objects like walls. You can expend 1 focus at the start of subsequent turns to maintain the spell (no action required).This spell can reveal the weak points of certain large, flesh-and-blood monsters.

✪ Light of the Blue Moon

✦✦✧ Intellect

You’ve mastered the magic of light at the blue end of the spectrum. You can focus light into highly concentrated energy and can sense light with energies beyond normal sight. You know the following light magic spells:

◮ Blue Spear | LIGHT FOCUS 8

You collect a swirl of increasingly bright light between your hands and then release it. Make a ranged attack, but roll Focus instead of your attack die. You shoot a perfectly straight beam of blinding blue light at a distant foe. The spear itself inflicts lethal damage and -2 guard. Additionally, an explosion blossoms wherever the beam terminates. The explosion is a second attack targeting the foe and anyone standing near them. Roll 3d4 for this attack, which inflicts lethal damage and -2 guard. If blocked, roll 3d4 again as a breaking roll to determine if the blast destroys the defending armament. Missing. If your blue spear attack roll had a negative result—by virtue of its range penalty or the target evading it—apply that negative result to the explosion’s 3d4 attack roll. For example, if your blue spear’s attack roll result is -2, the explosion attack roll is 3d4 – 2. If the beam misses a target on high relative to you, the explosion automatically misses—the spear shoots straight past the target and up into outer space.

◮ Vision of Inner Stone | LIGHT FOCUS 4

As an action (no roll required), you narrow the orientation of the World Crystal in front of your eyes, enabling you to see a form of invisible light that passes through many solid objects.

Denser objects, like bone and stone, appear opaque.
Less dense objects, like skin and plaster, appear ghostly and transparent.
You can see through thin plaster or wooden walls of typical houses and vehicles.

This magic overlays your normal sight, but can’t penetrate thicker walls of stone or metal. You can expend 1 focus at the start of subsequent turns to maintain the spell (no action required).This spell can reveal the weak points of certain large, inorganic beings, like giant Shinarian vessels and ancient machines.

✪ Light of the Silver Moon

✦✦✧ Intellect

You’ve learned to redirect light, creating illusions. You know the following light magic spells:

◮ Appear | LIGHT FOCUS 4

You weave an illusory object of bent light into being. Make a Deceive roll with focus advantage to determine how convincing the object is to onlookers. You must have seen the object before. The object can appear anywhere you can see, and you can make it move in simple rotations or translations. You must expend 1 focus at the start of each subsequent turn (no action required) to maintain the illusion. But the illusion dissipates instantly if you take any other action besides Focus or Deceive, or if you lose focus. If you take -1 spirit along with the spell’s focus cost, you can create an illusory person or creature you’ve seen before. The illusion can’t talk, but can move and gesture in a lifelike way.

◮ Vanish | LIGHT FOCUS 4

You weave light into a shimmering robe, then drape it over yourself, becoming invisible. Make a Hide roll, then roll your Focus die and add it to your result. You don’t need cover to hide this way.

✪ Light of the Day Star

✦✦✦✧ Intellect

Requires ✪ Light of the Red Moon, Blue Moon, Silver Moon, or the Solar Circle lore.You've learned how to directly channel the light of the sun itself. You know the following light magic spells:

◮ Cloudpierce | LIGHT FOCUS 8

Daytime only. Clouds and darkness cannot keep the sun's light from you. If the sun is in the sky somewhere above you, roll Focus as a challenge action. ✦ Success: A pillar of sunlight parts the clouds above you and illuminates your span, where it lingers for a minute or so. Rain and other weather effects dissipate during this time. ⬖ Struggle: You can cast this spell again on your next turn, reducing the struggle threshold by 1. ⓧ Failure: No effect. The thresholds depend on the weather and where you are in the Skysea.

ⓧ 2 | ⬖ 4: Above the Sea of Clouds, under cloudy or stormy weather.
ⓧ 3 | ⬖ 6: In Sea of Clouds.
ⓧ 5 | ⬖ 10: In the Sea of Death.

◮ White Obelisk | LIGHT FOCUS 8+

Requires sunlight. You can only cast this spell on a sunny day, or after you cast ◮Cloudpierce to bring the sunlight to you. You rotate and bend the World Crystal to form a magical lens that intensifies the sun's light into an increasingly deadly pillar of destruction. When you cast this spell, choose whether to create a wide or narrow obelisk. The obelisk is an effect with its own attack dice, separate from your action of casting this spell. Wide obelisk. Roll 2d4 as an attack against all characters in a span who aren't behind cover relative to the sun. The span the obelisk strikes can be a number of spans away from you, up to your Intellect. This attack inflicts lethal damage and -1 awareness on a hit, and -1 guard. On each subsequent turn, as an action, you can expend 4 focus to maintain the spell and intensify the obelisk. Add a d4 to the obelisk's attack roll each time. For example, on your second turn casting this spell, roll 3d4. On your third turn, roll 4d4, and so on. Attacks with 3d4 and higher can burn armaments (see below). Alternatively, you can expend 4 focus to reorient the spell to strike an adjacent span, but without adding a d4 to its attack. The obelisk dissipates if you take any action or reaction besides casting this spell each turn, or if you lose all focus.Narrow obelisk. As part of casting this spell, make a ranged attack, but roll Focus instead of your attack die. If the attack doesn't miss, you point the obelisk at a single foe's body: roll a d8 and add the result to your attack. This attack inflicts lethal damage and -1 awareness on a hit, and -1 guard. On each subsequent turn, as an action, you can expend 8 focus to maintain the spell and intensify the obelisk. Make the attack as above, and on a hit or block, add an additional d8 to the attack bonus. For example, on your second turn casting this spell, roll +2d8. On your third turn, roll +3d8, and so on. Attacks with 2d8 and higher can burn armaments (see below). You can cast ◮Path of Light before first casting the narrow obelisk, but not on subsequent turns. The obelisk dissipates if you take any action or reaction besides casting this spell each turn, or if you lose all focus. Burn: On a hit or block, the obelisk threatens to ignite any defending arms held by the foe(s) that are composed primarily of wood: light shields, spears, staffs, and clubs. Reroll the obelisk's attack dice and compare the result to the armament(s)' DR.

✪ Gray Magic

✦✦✧ Intellect

You’ve delved into the obscure branch of Light Magic that connects light to magnetism. You know three spells as part of this ability: ◮Light’s Grasp, ◮Attract, and ◮Repel.Armaments affected by gray magic include anything with bronze or starmetal components: all swords, maces, and heavy shields, as well as typical speartips and arrowheads used by Kananites and Mazrians or bought with imperial credit. Spears and arrows from other origins, as well as shoddy or otherwise makeshift weapons, may not have metal components, at the Guide’s discretion.

◮ Light's Grasp | LIGHT FOCUS 0

You twist your hands carefully but forcefully, attempting to spellbind a foe so you can wield gray magic against them more directly.As part of casting this spell, make a ranged attack, but roll Focus instead of your Attack die. ✦ Success: You spellbind the foe and can cast ◮Attract or another gray magic spell that requires spellbinding as a free action. Add your margin of success on this attack to the subsequent roll. ⬖ Struggle: As above, but without the bonus.ⓧ Failure: No effect. This spell costs no focus and only establishes a temporary link between you, the foe, and the World Crystal—a spellbinding. If you cast ◮Attract on an armored foe, you can maintain the spellbind.

◮ Attract | LIGHT FOCUS 1

Requires spellbinding a foe wearing or wielding metal.Roll Brace with focus advantage against a spellbound foe. If the foe wields a metal armament, this spell disarms them on a success as you pull the item from their hands, and the spellbind ends.If the foe wears metal armor, you can move the foe's body: ✦ Success: You pull the armored foe forcefully toward you (as with the Shove action), inflicting -2 guard. Until you lose all focus or take another action or reaction besides Focusing and casting this spell, the foe remains spellbound and rooted in place: they can't move or maneuver, and they can't make melee attacks unless a foe engages them in melee first.⬖ Struggle: The foe can take -1 stamina to resist your pull; your spellbind ends.ⓧ Failure: The foe resists and your spellbind ends.

◮ Repel | LIGHT FOCUS 2

Until your next turn, each time you’re attacked with a weapon or projectile containing metal, roll Focus and subtract the result from the attack roll. You can also cast this spell as a reaction to an incoming attack, provided you have the focus required. However, you can only affect one incoming attack at a time this way.

✪ Secrets of Bronze and Stars

✦✦✧ Intellect

Requires ✪ Gray Magic. You’ve developed fine control over magnetic forces, which you’ve come to understand are a kind of “sister” to the light within the normal facets of the World Crystal. You know the following two spells:

◮ Awaken Blade | LIGHT FOCUS 6+

You enchant a metal armament to follow your commands. When you cast this spell as an action, and at the start of each subsequent turn you expend 1 focus (no action required), you mentally command the awakened blade, which then acts like an independent allied character. You can awaken any weapon that has a metal component—or even non-bladed arms like maces and heavy shields—though heavier arms with non-metal components are much less effective. You can also awaken multiple armaments, provided you have enough focus. The table shows how much focus each type of armament requires to awaken.The blade itself. All awakened arms float, and only have the two statistics shown in the table (treat other defenses or attributes as zero). If an awakened armament is struck with an attack that exceeds its Guard, it falls to the ground, inert and no longer awakened.You can command the armament from a number of spans away equal to your Intellect and for as many turns as you have focus to expend.A foe’s blade. If you disarm a spellbound foe with ◮Attract, you can immediately cast this spell as a free action and enchant their weapon. If the weapon in question is sheathed or otherwise not being actively held by the spellbound foe, you can cast ◮Attract to cause the weapon to fly out of its sheath on a 5+, then cast this spell as a free action to control it. Starmetal arms. If the armament is made of starmetal, this spell only costs 1 focus to cast.

◮ Vision of Twisted Light | LIGHT FOCUS 4+

As an action (no roll required), you twist the orientation of the World Crystal in front of your eyes, enabling you to sense nearby conductive metal. This spell reveals:

The presence of bronze or starmetal armor or weapons within sight or concealed under clothing
The presence of such weapons behind thin walls (plaster or wood), slightly diffused
Large-scale patterns of the magnetic ore within almost all floating islands and the field lines that hold them aloft.

You can expend 1 focus at the start of subsequent turns to maintain the spell (no action required).

✪ The Light Within

✦✦✦✧ Intellect Requires ✪ Secrets of Bronze and Stars. You’ve peered deeper than you thought possible into the mysteries of gray magic. You know the following two spells:

◮ Take Heart | LIGHT FOCUS 16

Requires spellbinding.You extend your hand toward a foe you've spellbound with ◮Light's Grasp, gesturing subtly. This spell automatically fails if the foe wears metal body armor. Roll Brace with focus advantage. If the foe is a monster or otherwise doesn’t have the anatomy of a typical person, roll with a -2 penalty. ✦ Success: The foe’s still-beating heart bursts out of their chest and flies toward your outstretched hand, like starmetal to a lodestone. If the foe doesn’t recover the heart and receive magical healing within one round, they die.⬖ Struggle: The foe can take -1 stamina to cause your brace to fail.ⓧ Failure: No effect.This spell only works on foes who have bodies of flesh and blood (and hearts). It has no effect on Shinarians or wraiths, for example.

◮ Deep Light | LIGHT FOCUS 16

You extend your hands in front of your eyes, peering deep into the World Crystal. For a brief instant, you can see the surface of an object magnified to an extreme. This spell reveals the molecular structure of materials and living cells. This magic appears to have little practical purpose, but perhaps it will help you uncover some hidden knowledge.

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