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Rituals

Soul magic is the art of using your own aetherial soul to create extraordinary effects. Conversely, ritual magic relies on external forces to create effects - usually relying on aetherial beings or the omnipresent Archsouls.

This makes ritual magic more powerful and varied than regular soul magic. The downside is that rituals are very hard to learn and are less adaptable.

Rituals can have these special keywords in their listings:

Soulpowered rituals require some usage of the soul to cast.
Movement rituals require physical movement, be it a dance or a hand gesture. These rituals trigger reactive attacks, cannot be used while grappling, and require an uncovered free hand to perform.
Costly rituals require abnormal materials that are either consumed or degraded in the casting process.
Synergy rituals can have extra effects added through the use of soul magic.

Tier 1 Rituals

Conceal from Sight

1 AP
Prevent the minds of others from seeing a target.

Target one person or item that is within 10 meters. You may target yourself. Any creatures who could not see the target as the ritual was being performed can no longer see the object in the future. This effect lasts until the object leaves your targeting range or interacts with a soul (attacking a creature, being attacked by a creature, or using soul magic).

This ritual only blocks sight. Invisible targets still leave tracks and can still be heard, smelled, and detected by magic.

Only one target may be kept invisible at a time. In combat, using this ritual requires 1 action point per turn to focus on maintaining the concealment.

Blade of Soulfire

Soulpowered, Synergy
1 AP
Summon a floating beam of energy as a weapon.

Soulfire blades may be created in the caster's hand in the form of a knife, a gladius, a shortspear, a spear, a broadsword, a pike, or a greatsword, but with a few differences. Namely, the blades are simplistic in design and made of a translucent flow of energy that glows faintly in the color of the caster's soul. They also gently levitate in place when dropped, preferring to hold to one point in the air unless thrown.

Soulfire blades cannot exist beyond a range in meters equal to double your Soulpower. Beyond this range, the blades instantly vanish. You may only have a number of blades summoned up to your Soulpower, but you may freely dismiss blades at any time.

Synergy: Blade Burst Using Evocation, a Soulfire blade can be made to store up volatile energy for a single deadly hit. By spending 1 action point, you may charge a blade you are holding with additional energy. Upon hitting a target, the blade expends the stored energy to add your Evocation to the dice pool of the damage roll. Charging a blade this way causes 1 Drain.

Synergy: Bladestorm Using Telekinesis, a Soulfire blade can be made to attack on its own. By spending 2 action points, you may move a single blade through a number of spaces up to your Telekinesis. Roll a thrown weapon attack with Soulpower/Soul Casting against all targets that the blade passes through. Roll for damage against all targets hit with Soulpower/Telekinesis, difficulty 5. Blade Burst is only applied to the first target struck. This causes 2 Drain.
Alternatively, you may instead choose to move all of your blades at once. Instead of rolling for damage, each blade instead does 1 point of damage on a hit. All blades share the same attack roll, and multiple blades can hit one target. Each weapon charged with Blade Burst may also roll damage against its first target hit with a dice pool equal to your Evocation and a difficulty of 5.

Storm's Lightning

Movement
3 AP
Blast all targets in a line with powerful lightning.

The caster traces complex lines through the air with an index finger, then extends an open palm to launch a bolt of lightning. This bolt continues in a straight line out to 40 meters, targeting everything it moves through. Roll an elemental attack with Intellect/Ritual Casting difficulty 3 against all targets. The damage roll is 10/Ritual Casting, difficulty 4. This ritual requires 3 action points to perform.

Once this ritual has been performed, it cannot be performed by anyone within 20 meters of the casting site for at least one hour. This restriction is removed during thunderstorms.

Sounds of the Marionette

0 AP
Amplify a noise and change its apparent source.

You may relocate and modify sounds. If a sound is about to happen within 10 meters of you, you may cause that sound to instead originate from a point of your choosing within 10 meters. Sounds moved this way can be amplified, but not to deafening levels. This can be used to move your own sounds, such as moving the sounds of your footsteps or voice. You cannot move more than one sound at a time.

Raise in Mockery of Life

Soulpowered, Movement
3 AP
Call upon a wicked being to possess a corpse.

This ritual takes 3 action points and requires a relatively intact dead body that is within reach. Roll Intellect/Ritual Casting difficulty 4. If the number rolled surpasses the original Soulpower score of the body, it becomes a zombie with a number of hit points equal to the result of your roll. The zombie is not immediately hostile towards you, but it is easily angered.

There is no limit to how many zombies you can summon. Zombies persist until slain.

Animate the Unliving

Soulpowered, Movement, Costly
1 Hour
Call upon a subservient being to posess a specially made golem.

This ritual requires at least one hour and 200c worth of various precious metals, as well as an intact golem to animate. At the end of the hour, roll Intellect/Ritual Casting difficulty 6. The result rolled is then distributed evenly between the golem's Intellect and Soulpower stats, with any remainder going into Intellect. This golem is entirely subservient to your commands and the commands of anyone you explicitly tell the golem to obey. If a golem is slain, you cannot animate it again for at least 24 hours.

There is no limit to how many golems you can animate. Golems persist until slain.

Mage's Pocket

0 AP
Gain the ability to store a single item in an extradimensional space.

You may instantly transfer an item that you are holding in one hand to a special extradimensional space. You may then freely summon this item to your hand later. Upon falling asleep, dying, or being knocked unconscious, the item is returned to your hand.

You can only keep one item in the extradimensional space at a time, regardless of size. You cannot store items that you cannot comfortably lift with one hand; this does allow for the storage of two-handed weapons, as wielding the weapon with one hand is not required.

Items cannot be summoned into occupied space

Glissading Grasp

Movement, Synergy
1 AP
Cause an item or surface to become incredibly slippery.

You may turn one item or adjacent space that you touch incredibly slippery. This lasts until the beginning of your next turn. Any item turned slippery is immediately dropped upon use, and any creature that moves through or performs an action on slippery ground while standing must roll Precision/Agility difficulty 3. If this roll is lower than your Ritual Casting score, the creature is knocked down. If the creature was previously standing, the attempted action is prevented.

Unlike most movement rituals, this does not trigger reactive attacks.

Synergy: Effortless Slide This ritual may be used to slide stylishly across flat ground by casters with 5 ranks in Mobility. You may choose to leave a trail of slippery ground behind you as you slide for 1 Drain per round. Sliding is considered a regular movement action, except that you must move in a straight line. If you are launched by an outside force or sliding down a slope, you may be able to move faster than your normal speed. Long distance sliding does not cause exhaustion, regardless of speed.

Tier 2 Rituals

Burn the World

Movement, Costly
3 AP
Launch building-sized fireballs at your foes.

This ritual involves performing a special dance, followed by throwing 25c worth of electrum which quickly melts into worthless slag. This creates a 4-meter radius sphere of fire centered in the space you are occupying. This sphere then moves up to 20 meters in a straight line and creates a 10-meter radius explosion where it stops. Everything in the radius of the explosion takes 4 damage. Anything touched by the sphere during its movement is targeted, including you. Roll an elemental attack against all targets with Intellect/Ritual Casting difficulty 2. The damage roll for this attack is 10/Intellect/Ritual Casting, difficulty 4.

Wither and Die

Soulpowered, Movement
2 AP
Wither away the life of a touched creature.

By focusing your soul and chanting an ancient phrase, you may drain the life of a living creature that you touch with your hand. Successfully touching a creature requires a successful unarmed attack. Instead of dealing regular unarmed damage on a hit, the target takes damage equal to your Soulpower. The opponent must then roll Soulpower/Resolve difficulty 4. If the opponent's roll does not exceed your Ritual Casting, the opponent's Endurance is reduced by 3.

You may perform this ritual while grappling without needing to make an attack roll. However, if you are not in control of the grapple, it requires a successful grapple roll.

Unlike most movement rituals, this does not trigger reactive attacks.

Turn Fortune

Soulpowered
0 AP
Reroll any roll made by yourself or an opponent up to once per round.

Whenever you make a roll, a creature you are targeting makes a roll, or a creature targeting you makes a roll, you may force it to be re-rolled. You may know the result of the original roll before using this ritual, but you may not know the dice pool rolled (if the roll was made by an enemy). This causes Drain equal to the size of the dice pool rolled and may only be done once per round.

Fury of the Rapids

Movement
3 AP
Open a portal that projects a powerful stream of water.

By concentrating on a specific pattern in your mind and holding out your arms, you generate a stationary portal that creates a high-power blast of water for as long as you remain motionless. The blast of water forms a line 20 meters long. Roll an elemental attack with Precision/Ritual Casting against all targets in the line. All targets hit are pushed back to the end of the geyser and take 5 damage. Targets that run into each other or an obstacle while being pushed are treated as having fallen 20 meters. Any object that is firmly anchored to the ground or weighs more than 1,000 pounds takes 10 damage per round and blocks the water blast (if it survives the initial damage). Any object that moves into a space occupied by the geyser is automatically pushed back and takes 5 damage with no chance to defend.

This ritual may be maintained for as long as the caster does nothing but focus on the ritual. While focusing, you are considered restrained. Focusing on the ritual is considered extreme activity for the purposes of exhaustion.

The water stream generates 1,000 liters of water per minute. This water is safe to drink, but it has a distinct metallic taste.

Tier 3 Rituals

Speak of What Must Not Be Known

Soulpowered, Movement, Costly
6 AP
Summon forth a living creature's nightmare, a horrid being that haunts dreams.

This ritual requires two full rounds to perform and requires the destruction of a specially made doll whose construction costs 5 platinum, takes at least one week to create, and must be made specifically for the intended target. The ritual targets any creature at any distance.

Upon completion of the ritual, the target rolls Soulpower/Willpower difficulty 6. If the result does not exceed your Ritual Casting score, a nightmare is summoned in a space adjacent to the target and acts according to the target's greatest fears - usually immobilizing the target and then attacking the target's companions. The nightmare persists until slain or until the original target is slain. If the target succeeds on the defensive roll, the target is made aware of the attempt.

Light in the Darkness

Movement
3 AP
Slay or banish creatures of dark magic and prevent dark magic from being used.

The caster lifts a hand to the sky and screams out a phrase of ancient power. All undead creatures, nightmares, demons, and evil Celestials within 10 meters must roll Soulpower/Willpower difficulty 6. If the result does not exceed your Ritual Casting score, the creature is banished back to its home dimension and takes damage equal to half its maximum hit points plus your Ritual Casting score. Otherwise, the creature takes damage equal to your Ritual Casting score and becomes immune to this ritual for 24 hours.

For the next hour, creatures within 20 meters of where the ritual was used cannot use the rituals Speak of What Must Not Be Known, Wither and Die, or Raise in Mockery of Life, and cannot use the the Rending or Domination soul specializations. Undead creatures refuse to enter or stay in this area willingly.