Miracles

There are two types of casting in our system: magic and miracles. Miracles are powers that come from fundamental Principles and gods. They follow certain Paths, and these Paths form the basis of religion in the Kingdom.

• The Four Principles and Nine Paths
• The Principle of Nature
• Proscribed and Illegal Paths
• Playing a Priest
• Paths and Non-priests

The Four Principles and Nine Paths

The four fundamental Principles are Life, Death, Order and Chaos. These can be combined to form nine Paths:

A priest must choose a Path to follow, which determines which Principles they can cast from. It costs more Character Points to learn a miracle from the adjacent Paths than your primary Path.

• Life, Order, Chaos and Death priests can only cast from their Principle
• Justice, Freedom, Might and Anarchy priests can cast from their Path and the adjacent fundamental Principles (e.g. a Justice priest can cast Justice, Order and Life miracles).
• Balance priests can cast from Balance and all four fundamental Principles.

Look at the miracle lists in the Player Rules to see what each priest can learn to cast. You can make up your own gods or look at ideas other players have shared.

The Principle of Nature

There is also another Principle, Nature. Nature is split into five sects:

Look at the druidic miracle lists in the Player Rules to see what each druid can learn to cast.

Priests of Nature usually join the Druids guild.

Proscribed and Illegal Paths

Chaos and Death are looked on with suspicion in the Kingdom of Exiles. It is legal to be a Chaos priest or Death priest, but illegal to form any kind of organised temple or guild following those paths.

Anarchy is so deeply despised in the Kingdom that it is illegal to know any Anarchic miracles, let alone be a priest of Anarchy.

Dark Druidism is currently illegal in the Kingdom.

Playing a Priest

The Paths and the gods, unlike the Schools of Magic, do not give power to people freely. A priest is expected to follow the rules of their Path in all things they do – if they don’t, they may be punished by their Path or their gods for their actions, anything from losing power temporarily to being completely cast out.

This doesn’t mean that all priests of a Path will be exactly the same in their outlook though, as gods in particular can be more interested in specific aspects of a Path. You can get ideas of what each Path expects by looking at the miracle lists in the Player Rules. The miracle lists in the rules will tell you more about what each path values. Characters interpret these in different ways, but if you want your character to believe in a very unusual form of their Path (e.g. ‘Justice means killing everyone because everyone has sinned’) check it with the Character Refs first to make sure it will be allowed.

Priests should never willingly accept beneficial castings from their opposing Path (e.g. a Life priest should never willingly accept a Death miracle), and should be at least very reluctant for the Paths adjoining their opposing Path (e.g. Death and Chaos for a Justice follower). If you’re uncertain, check with the GM or a Character Ref.

Paths and Non-priests

It is completely possible to worship a Path or a god without being a priest. Sometimes this is purely a roleplay decision, but most characters can learn low-level miracles regardless of their class. While your character is still expected to behave appropriately for the Path there’s a lot more wiggle-room.

There are miracles which can detect which Path you follow. You only respond to these if you have learned a miracle from your Path.