Saving the world on a Sunday afternoon
Characters can follow a deity whose Power is based on one of the Nine Paths, which spring from the Four Principles of the Universe (the name of the character’s God can be any that the player chooses). Characters use CPs to learn miracles, and use Standing to cast them.
The Four Principles which govern the universe are:
| Life | ||
| Order | Chaos | |
| Death |
Each of the Four Principles grants Powers to the Gods, and these in turn are passed onto characters in the form of Miracles.
The Four Principles can be combined to give the Nine Paths of the Universe as follows:
| Justice | Life | Freedom |
| Order | Balance | Chaos |
| Might | Death | Anarchy1 |
1 Not available to PCs.
Gods who follow one of the 5 non-Principle Paths (Justice, Freedom, Balance, Might and Anarchy) are granted powers from all Principles which are adjacent. Hence a Goddess of Justice can grant Miracles from both Life and Order.
However, due to their distance from the Principle, all Miracles are treated as being 1 level higher when a character attempts to learn it, though for casting purposes it is still considered to be at its normal level. Thus a 2nd level Order miracle is treated as a 3rd level miracle when granted to a character by a deity of Might, Balance or Justice.
To maintain equilibrium, after learning a miracle from one Principle, a character cannot learn another miracle from that Principle until he has learnt one from all other Principles that the Path embodies (note the actual level of the miracle is irrelevant). Thus a Priest of Justice must learn a Life Miracle after learning an Order Miracle. A Priest of Balance must learn a miracle from each of the Principles in turn.
Example: Carlsberg, a Human Priest who follows Justice, wishes to learn Heal Wounds 4, a Level 0 miracle of Order.
A Human Priest’s base cost to learn a miracle is 2x(level + 1). Since he follows Justice, Heal Wounds 4 is considered to be 1 level higher when learning, and hence he had to spend 2x(1 + 1) = 4 CPs to acquire it.
The non-Principle Paths also have their own miracles. These can be learnt by characters of that Path at its base level and cannot be learnt by any other characters.
There is a tenth path, the Path of Nature. This is made up of five Sects:
| Tree | Animal | Weather | Seasonal | Death |
Followers of the Path of Nature believe in the supremacy of the natural world and that only by living in harmony with the needs and blessings that the world can offer can people find true contentment and power. A Nature follower should oppose the growth and development of civilisation which threatens to destroy the natural world rather than work in harmony with it. This can include things like mining, excessive forestry, monoculture farming, selective breeding of animals and hunting species to extinction. Followers of the Path of Nature can however disagree significantly, and violently, on which aspects of the natural world are the most important and which of its needs must be protected from the activities of civilisation depending on their Sect and guild.
A character who follows the Path of Nature may learn any number of miracles from the five Sects. The first Sect they learn is known as the Primary Sect. The second Sect they learn from is known as the Secondary Sect, the third the Tertiary Sect and so on.
A Characters Sect order is determined when they buy one of the following sect-dependent skills for a new Sect: Learn Miracle, Consecrate Item, Religious Ceremony, Read/Write <Path> runes.
The cost for a sect-dependent skill is dependent on the Sect order. A Primary Sect skill is bought at its level CP cost. A Secondary Sect is bought at its level + 1 CP cost (note the ‘level increase’ does not effect the casting level of the miracle or when you can learn it). A Tertiary Sect is bought at its level + 2 CP cost etc.
Example: Tiddles, a Human Priest, who has joined the Druid guild as an Animal Druid wishes to learn Claw Hand 2, a Level 0 Animal Sect miracle.
A Human Priest’s base cost to learn a miracle is 2 x (level + 1). Hence he had to spend 2 x (0 + 1) = 2 CPs to acquire it.
Later when Tiddles is high enough Rank, he takes Tree as his Secondary Sect. In order to learn Shillelagh 0, a level 0 Tree Sect miracle, which is considered to be 1 level higher when learning, and hence he has to spend 2 x (1 + 1) = 4 CPs to acquire it.
If learning the Path of Nature as a ceremony (number of Principles is 1), each Sect is bought as a separate ceremony. The Primary Sect is bought at standard cost. The Secondary Sect is treated as being 1 level higher when a character attempts to learn it, though for casting purposes it is still considered to be at its normal level.
Example: A Human Priest’s base cost to learn a ceremony level is (Principles x (8 + level)).
Tiddles can learn Religious Ceremony (Path of Nature – Animal) 0 for (1 x (8 + 0)) = 8 CPs.
Tiddles can learn Religious Ceremony (Path of Nature – Tree) 0 for (1 x (8 + 1)) = 9 CPs.
Any of the five Sects can be learned as a Primary or Secondary Sect, although there may be additional advantages for your Primary Sect if you are a member of the Druid guild.
The Sect of Death is restricted. There are no player accessible Guilds who offer advanced teaching in these miracles and all characters who follow this Sect are closely monitored by the agents of the Kingdom.
A character does not have a Path until he has learnt his first Miracle, Ceremony level, Consecrate Item level or Read/Write <Path> Runes. The way the character purchases this determines his Path.
Example: Carlsberg bought Mend(T), an Order miracle, as his first miracle. However he bought it at Justice cost, determining his path as Justice.
When a character changes Path all the CP costs for their class are increased by 1. For skills based on level, such as Learn Miracle, the 1 point increase in CP cost is added after the multiplication.
Example: The CP cost of a miracle for a Human Priest is 2x(l+1). If they change Path, this becomes (2x(l+1)) + 1.
In addition they will lose any miracles and other abilities they acquired from the Principle(s) to which they no longer have access. If a Priest’s miracles are no longer balanced between his new Principles, he must redress the balance as soon as possible. All new CPs must be spent on learning miracles from the new Path until they have an equal number of miracles from all Principles.
There may, of course, be other IC consequences for such a change of allegiance.
Example: A character following the Path of Justice with both 10 Life and 10 Order miracles changes to the Path of Freedom. In addition to the increased cost for his skills, he will also lose all of his Order miracles, though he can still cast Life miracles, and must spend any new CPs on learning 10 Chaos miracles.