Domination
Domination, sometimes called Inspiration, involves altering the emotional influence of the souls of others. At extreme levels, it can involve directly restricting the soul. While the majority of those who utilize Domination do so in ways that are entirely kind-hearted, it holds an unshakable reputation of emotional abuse and mind control, sometimes even being conflated with Rending. Those who lead by arcane Inspiration often wrestle with the potential of the darker side of their powers.
All usage of Domination is limited to a range in meters equal to double your Soulpower.
Utility
Domination can be used to subtly manipulate the opinions and emotions of others in conversation. When using the Negotiation, Intimidation, Confusion, or Acting skills while speaking with a single individual who is in range, you may roll with your Soulpower attribute and add your ranks in Domination to the dice pool. If you fail the check without a tie, however, your target becomes aware that you have used magic. Using Domination in this way causes 1 Drain.
Combat
Domination is useful both to aid allies and hinder enemies. It has a tremendous range of abilities, though its effects are mild compared to more specialized forms of magic.
Break Will
Soul Attack
2 AP
Select a single living target and attempt to disrupt their emotions and willpower. Make an attack roll with Soulpower/Soul Casting. The opponent may defend with Soulpower/Willpower. If you exceed the opponent's defensive roll, determine the amount by which you exceeded your opponent's defensive roll and consult the table below.
| Amount Exceeded | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1-2 | The opponent's mind is clouded. The target's Intellect and Precision decrease by 1. |
| 3-4 | The opponent trembles in fear. All of the opponent's rolls have their difficulty increased by 1. |
| 5-6 | The opponent freezes in panic. The opponent becomes restrained and cannot talk or use magic. |
| 7-8 | The opponent bends to your will. You may force the target to drop all held equipment and run away, kneel in place, heal you or an ally (if the target can do so, otherwise the target kneels in place), or attack any target you command. |
| >8 | As above, but the effect cannot be removed before it naturally wears off. |
These effects last for a number of rounds equal to one-third your Domination, rounded up. In the case of overlapping effects from multiple Break Will attacks, the strongest effect takes priority. This attack causes 3 Drain.
Cause Fear
Soul Attack
2 AP
Attempt to terrify a crowd of enemies. Select a number of living targets up to your Domination, then make a single attack roll with Soulpower/Soul Casting difficulty 6 or Soulpower/Intimidate difficulty 5. Each target may defend with Soulpower/Willpower. Each opponent hit is forced to run away at top speed or to cower in fear (restrained and unable to talk or use magic) if there is no path of escape. This effect lasts for one round. Any target that successfully defends against the attack roll has the difficulty of future defensive rolls against your Cause Fear reduced by 1 for the duration of the fight. This attack causes 3 Drain.
Taunt
Soul Attack
2 AP
Attempt to enrage a target against you. Make an attack roll with Soulpower/Soul Casting opposed by the target's Soulpower/Willpower. On a hit, the target must target you with any aggressive actions taken. If the target of this effect had no aggressive intent or strong emotions, the difficulty of the defense roll decreases by 2.
Inspire Courage
1 AP
Select an adjacent ally to give courage to. At any point, the chosen ally may expend the courage to add your Domination score to the dice pool of any Athletics roll. This effect must be used within a number of rounds equal to your Soulpower. Applying this effect to an ally causes 1 Drain.
Attempting to inspire courage on an ally affected by fear requires a Soulpower/Soul Casting roll opposed by the original roll that caused the fear. On a success, the courage is applied and the fear effect is removed. On a failure, you cannot use Inspire Courage on the target again for the remainder of the fear effect.
Forced Calm
Soul Attack
3 AP
Clamp down on a single target's severe emotions. This does a number of things:
- Instantly removes all other Domination and fear-based effects from the target.
- Increases the difficulty of Awareness skill rolls by 1 for the next round.
- Reduces the difficulty of the target's next ranged weapon attack or academics skill roll by 1.
- Staves off any mind-altering effects of poisons or diseases for 1 minute.
- Forces the target to calm down from severe emotional outbursts.
The target becomes entirely aware of your usage of magic and may still choose to be hostile or uncooperative. Animals driven by hunger, for instance, will still proceed to calmly eat you.
This ability causes 3 Drain. If used against an unwilling target, this drain value is doubled.