Mystic encumbrance

Authors : Eve Bernard and Lance Dyas

Whom amongst us has never met the magus Munchkinus, his monstrous Parma Magica, augmented by a score spells he casts on himself every morning, not to mention his trove of magical items that he never parts with, and enough vis to pay an archmage’s ransom ? And yet, according to the rules, Munchkinus suffers no special penalty to his excessive use of magic, and, should he happen to have the gentle gift, he can interact with the mundanes just as well as a Jerbiton magus who virtually forfeits the use ofmagic, even perhaps Parma Magica !

Another problem with the present system, the physical encumbrance of a magus impairs his use of magic. Albeit a spell can have some material components, mostly words and gestures, the use of magic still seems to require an effort of a more spiritual than physical nature ! and similarly things like giant size become reservoirs of resilience fueling the mages magics, somehow this just doesnt fit.

From these and similar ideas the concept of mystic encumbrance was born : the mind of a magus must bear the weight of the enchantments, of his Parma Magica, of the carried pawns of vis, and of all the other forms of magic affecting him, just like a knight’s body must carry the weight of his weapons and armours. That magical weight affects the magus in two different manners : on the one hand a spiritual encumbrance quantifies the magical aura that surrounds the magus and penalise him in his interactions with mundane mortals, on the other hand a magical encumbrance slows down his magic and makes it less flexible.

Mystic load

Definition

Any active magic on someone, or any source of magic worn by this individual, generates a mystic load that will be part of his total mystic encumbrance. The strongest the magic, the heavier its “weight”, moreover an active magic is heavier than a passive source like an inactivated magic item.

Parma and active spells :

Parma Magica : -1 point load per 2 points of Parma, just as a physical armour gives the wielder 2 points of protection per -1 point of physical load.

Active spells : -1 point load per 10 levels of spell.

This way, a lvl 4 Parma Magica or the equivalent level 20 ReVi spell of protection against magic have both a load of -2.

Vis :

Load:-1 point of load per 5 pawns touched by the magus or worn in the open.

Mundanes perceive the aura of power that radiates from vis, but they still react less strongly than when faced with active magical power such as spells. Moreover, the glow of vis is a lot fainter, and can be blocked by an appropriate wrapping, as proven by the fact that a magus must physically touch vis to be able to use it.

So many magi prefer to keep their vis neatly packed in leather pouches or tiny metal bottles, or even wrapped in a sheet of parchment, rather than to exhibit it in the open tied around their neck or on their belt.

Magical items

Active effect: The weigh of an activated effect created by the item is the same than that of the equivalent spell : -1 load per 10 levels of effect.

This way, if a knight owns a magical armour enchanted to be supernaturally light, the gain on weight will be partially offset by the mystic load of the armour.

Invested Vis: A magical item radiates also an aura due to the vis invested inside : -1 load per 10 pawns of invested vis

Boots with a minor enchantment to reproduce the spell Seven League Stride (ReCo35) are created using 4 pawns of vis, so they have a load of -0.4. However, major enchantments can weigh a lot more. So a silver dagger with a diamond in the pommel can holds up to 64 pawns of vis (32 for opening the item, and up to 32 more pawns for the various enchantments) and this way can weigh up to –6.4 points of mystic load.

Familiars

Cords : The golden cord that links the familiar to the magical power of the magus adds to the encumbrance of both, at least when they are within range of each other : the cord weighs as much as its quality.

Moreover, here comes a new quality and a new impurity of the link, both related to mystic encumbrance :

Transfer of mystic load (+ 5, ranged): You and your familiar can transfer the weight of your active magic from one to the other. In fact, the mystic encumbrance can be shared between the two of you no matter which one is really wearing the load.

Additive mystic load (-5, ranged): The mage and his familiar must not only bear their own mystic encumbrance, but the load of the other as well. So, when they are within range of each other, each of them is in fact wearing the mystic load of two, with all relevant penalties.

Longevity potion

Minimum load: -1 permanent load as soon as the mage starts taking a longevity potion

Potion quality: -1 load per 10 pawns of vis invested in the potion, for as long as it remains efficient (i.e. until the magus fails an ageing roll)

Longevity potion alter notably any magus when he starts taking it : sterility, slowing of apparent ageing, increased twilight risks. Moreover, to be efficient any longevity potion will require some, the older the magus the more needed. Consequently it sounds normal that it should influence notably the magical aura surrounding him.

Mystic load worn by ungifted characters :

A magus’ mystic encumbrance comes from the presence of magical effects of various intensity. But it is also possible to cast spells on mundanes, or even on animals or items. Also they were absolutely mundane at the start, they will accumulate a mystic load just like a magus.

So a grog loaded with spells and magical items can radiate a powerful magical aura, even if he has not an ounce of magical gift of his own. A powerful magical item will radiate his own aura too, an aura that could be somehow perceived even if the item itself looks very plain. However, if the item is picked up by someone, its load will be transferred to the wearer.
 

Mystic load of supernatural beings :

A supernatural creature will radiate a magical aura depending on his power : usually, it is the equivalent of –1 point of load per 5 might points. However, some creatures, especially demons, can chose to hide their mystic aura, and besides the impact of that aura of humans depends on the nature of the creature. In fact, the mystic aura of divine creatures usually has a positive social impact on mundanes, contrary to magical forces.

Spiritual encumbrance

Presentation :

The mere fact to be gifted makes mundanes and animals ill-at-ease. However, the more magical power a being accumulates around him, the more he will disturb them, because his aura will radiate more of that disturbing magical power. Some mage can this way end up locking themselves inside their Parma Magica like a knight locks himself in his armour, only seeing the outside world through the deforming prism of his magic.

On the opposite, a magus with the gentle gift does not radiate any magical aura by himself, any social penalty comes only from the load of the magical effects he choose to accumulate around him. In a similar fashion, a mundane under the influence of powerful spells, or carrying magic items, becomes temporarily corrupted by that magic, and suffers from spiritual encumbrance too.

Finally, some people, magi or mundanes, have the ability to internalise, at least partially, that disrupting magical aura. They get to develop a skill called Magical Absorption, that counterbalances their spiritual encumbrance.

Mechanisms :

Spiritual encumbrance is calculated this way :

Presence + Magical Absorption + Mystic load; rounded to 0 if the total is positive.

Given that :

The skill Magical Absorption can only be developed by people with the virtues Magical Absorption or Interior Gift, as described hereafter.

The average magus suffers from a –3 penalty (penalty suppressed by the Gentle Gift)

A magus with the Blatant Gift suffers from a –6 penalty

Spiritual encumbrance acts as a penalty to most social interactions with mundanes, especially when trying to win their trust or their affection. Moreover, someone with a strong spiritual load will find it hard to go unnoticed, and mundanes will tend to avoid him instinctually.

However, spiritual encumbrance can turn into an advantage in some cases, like trying to intimidate or frighten mortals. Since your spiritual encumbrance is the perceptible manifestation of the magic the mage is wielding, it can also help persuade another magus of your personal power.

Spiritual encumbrance isolates you from the rest of the world, the aura that surrounds you warps your perception of the world. Consequently it impairs any attempt to predict or interpret the behaviour of mortals (penalty to Folk Ken rolls)

Exempli Gratia

Tempetus of house Flambeau has the Blatant Gift, but is naturally rather good looking (presence +1). This day, he is protected by a level 6 Parma Magica, wears around the neck a rook of ignem vis, and carries at his side an enchanted sword (a total of 20 pawns of vis in the sword), but has not taken any longevity potion yet.

His spiritual encumbrance is then :

+1 (presence) –6 (blatant gift) –3 (Parma) –2 (Sword) = -10

He arrives at a village to find a dense crowd on the main square. He tries to makes his way to the center of said square : a normal being would probably have a hard time doing that, but his aura is so strong that the crowd spontaneously parts in front of him (+10 to any Strength + Brawl roll to open his way).

Once he reaches the middle of the place, he realise that a gibbet stands here, and that the hangman is about to hang one of the companions of the covenant for thievery ! Tempetus first tries to negotiate his pardon, but his magical aura makes him highly look highly suspicious to the villagers (-10 to all persuasion rolls), in fact after a few moments the crowd is starting to accuse him of being an accomplice and to demand he be hanged too !

Losing patience, Tempetus grabs the consortis and then draws and set on flame his sword (CrIg20, i.e. a mystic load of –2), then threaten to reduce the whole village to smoking cinders if they don’t let both of them go. His spiritual load is now of –12, let’s say that to the villagers he does look perfectly capable of carrying out his treat ! The crowd flees, panicked. But Tempetus’ visit will not be forgotten any time soon, and the covenant may face serious trouble if he keeps behaving that way with mundanes !

On the opposite, in the same situation, Sybille de Beaujeu, follower of Jerbiton, with her level 4 magical absorption (and thus the gentle gift), and her stunning beauty (presence +3)would probably have gone a lot more unnoticed :

Spiritual encumbrance of 3 (presence) +4 (magical absorption) ) –3 (Parma) –2 (Sword) = +2, and thus 0.

But on the other hand, she would perhaps have failed to reach the middle of the square in time…

Magical encumbrance

Presentation :

When a magus happens to carry an important mystical load, the aura of all these spells and magical effects is weighing on his shoulders, and part of his magical Gift is wasted trying to balance and carry that load. In the same way, when this wizard will use magic, when he will summon up the magical energies he wants to control, he will need to bypass all these magical energies concentrated around him, but already dedicated to other uses. So, the mystic load carried by a magus will slow him down, and make any use of more additional magic both harder and more demanding. Just like a mundane can only carry so much weigh before collapsing, a mage under the influence of too many enchantments faces the risk of having his ability to work magic greatly depleted by the sheer weigh of the already active magic around him.

However, some magicians are faster and better than others at channelling magical forces ; this is represented by their score in the Finesse ability. Thus, this ability can be used to offset the negative effects of the mystic load accumulated by the magus.

Effect on mundanes :

The magical energies active on a person will weigh on his spirit, exerting a permanent stress that makes any intensive intellectual effort more painful, just like it is harder to run or swim properly when wearing a mail hauberk. Whereas a magus mostly suffers from his magical encumbrance through its crippling effects on his Gift, for a mundane this tension, if it were to last, could bring sleep disorders or headaches, and would make him nervous and short-tempered : in short it is very close to what we call today mental stress.
 

Mechanisms :

Magical encumbrance is calculated this way :

Intelligence + Finesse + Mystic load; rounded to 0 if the total is positive.

While the notion of spiritual encumbrance was designed to handle the social penalties associated to an excessive use of magic, magical encumbrance truly is the intellectual counterpart of physical encumbrance : it replaces it in all mental or magical activities, so you should use magical encumbrance instead of physical encumbrance when calculating any magical total involving encumbrance, like when casting Formulaic and Spontaneous spells, as well as when determining casting speed of fast-cast counterspells.

Moreover, magical encumbrance also penalizes any sustained intellectual activity, and can even be detrimental to the attention span of the encumbered person. Thus, if during a season of study the student has a negative magical encumbrance on a regular basis, this encumbrance is subtracted from the amount of experience points gained at the end of the season (before division when studying areas other than magical Arts)

Magical Encumbrance and Twilight :

When a Magus is faced with a situation where he could enter Twilight,  the stronger the active magical energies around him, the higher the risk of actually falling into Twilight. So a character’s magical encumbrance is subtracted (Remember that encumbrance is always negative) from the original stress roll used to decide whether the magus experiments Twilight or not.

Moreover, if an ungifted consortis is faced with powerful enough wild magical forces, and if he himself carries a magical encumbrance below 0, he could well be dragged into Twilight by the magical forces that are affecting him at that time. Ordinary people are seldom faced with powerful magic, and only the most exceptional circumstances could make them discover magical Twilight, but the situation is completely different for the mundane members of House Mercere : a Redcap is often protected by various enchantments and magical items, could benefit from a longevity potion, and, moreover, meets strange magi on a regular basis. Some Redcap are known to have vanished into final Twilight just like magi do!

Exempli Gratia

Tempetus and the knight :

Let’s go back to our friend Tempetus of Flambeau, flaming sword in hand, standing on the now deserted village square. Deserted? Not quite : the sound of a galloping horse can be heard from behind, he turns back and see one of the servant of the local lord charging the sorcerer, lance down.

Tempetus is quick-witted (intelligence +2), and is renowned for the precision of his spells (finesse 5). His magical encumbrance is : +2 (intelligence) + 5(finesse) – 3(parma) – 2(vis) – 2 (sword) – 2 (magical flames) = -2

His various enchantments have thus slightly slowed down his magical reflexes. His casting total for the spell Ball of Abysmal Flames is now of :

+2 (stamina) + 10 (Creo) + 14 (Ignem) – 2 (Magical encumbrance) = +24 for a level 35 spell.

Unless Tempetus botches, the daring knight will probably be welcomed by a well-targeted Ball of Abysmal Flames long before he could reach Tempetus ! However, Tempetus will tire faster than if he hadn’t been so overloaded.

Sybille in the library

Sybille de Beaujeu has skilfully used her talents for persuasion to convince a mage to let her study for one season a tome from his personal library, tome famous for his clarity (summa about Mentem, level 15, quality 12)

Alas, the book is written in Greek, a tongue unknown to Sybille. She consequently uses every day a sun-duration variant of the spell Thoughts within Babble (level 30 spell). Moreover, as years go by her sight is not as good as it used to be, so she uses an enchanted monocle to enlarge the script (MuIm10, 2 pawns of vis in the item). On top of that, Sybille only has a limited trust in the magus whose library she’s using, and thus prefers to keep her parma magica on.

On the other side, she has a methodical mind (intelligence +1) but never bothered to develop her finesse skill (score of 0). Her magical encumbrance is consequently equal to :

+1(intelligence) + 0 (finesse) – 3 (parma) – 3 (Improved Thoughts within Babble) – 1 (enlarging effect) – 0.2 (vis in the monocle) = -6.2, i.e. –6.

After a couple weeks of study, Sybille suffers from persistent headaches, and at the end of the season she feels that the reputation of the book was greatly overstated (for her, the tome seemed to be only of quality 12-6 = 6)

 

How to reduce encumbrance

If a magus always has the possibility to develop the abilities needed to decrease his encumbrance, like finesse, and to limit as much as possible the active magical effects surrounding him, some chose to attack the problem at its very core and try to reduce the mystic load generated by the various magical effects.
 

Spells and stealthy magical effects

When a magus invents a spell or invest a magical effect in an item, he can choose to make the effect less disturbing, to tune it with the other surrounding energies to reduce its load. However, such stealth has its cost, paid in increased time to invent the spell or instil the effect, and a more difficult casting.

Subtle spell or effect : at the cost of 1 additional point per initial magnitude of the spell or effect, the magus can design a spell or instil an effect in an item that weigh only half the normal mystic load.

Airy spell or effect : at the cost of 2 additional points per initial magnitude of the spell or effect, the magus can design a spell or instil an effect in an item that carries no mystic load.

Attuned items

At the cost of one season of lab work, a magus can tune an item to the aura of a given person. The person must be present during the operation, or the sorcerer must have an arcane connection to him. Such an attuned item is no longer a source of perturbations in itself, the mystic load of the invested vis is ignored when it is handled by the attuned person. However, the load of the instilled effects, when activated, is unchanged.

A given item can only be attuned to one person at a time, moreover it turns it into an arcane connection to that person. From its very nature, a talisman is always attuned to its owner.

Virtues and Flaws for Mystical Encumbrance :

Modification of existing V&F :

Gentle Gift : a magus with the Gentle Gift does not suffer from the –3 additional penalty caused by the Gift that usually affects a magus’ spiritual encumbrance.

Blatant Gift : a magus with the Blatant Gift suffers a total penalty of –6 to his spiritual encumbrance, instead of –3 for the other mages.

Magical Air : a mundane plagued by this flaw suffers the same –3 penalty to his spiritual encumbrance than magi.

Personal Magic : magi suffering from this defect have a naturally more intimate connection to their magic, but on the opposite have greater difficulty projecting their Gift outside. So for such a mage, the mystical load of his personal spell is halved, but the load of spells cast by him on others is doubled.

New virtues

Magical absorption (+1, non magi only) : for some unknown reason, you are more capable to endure the presence of magic without disturbing your surroundings. You start with the exceptional talent Magical absorption at +1, and you can increase it normally with experience

Light Magic (+1) : your magic is lighter and less cumbersome than that of most of your sodales. Your spells consequently weigh only half their normal load, regardless of the target. So they carry only 1 point of load per 20 levels of spell.

Subtle Parma (+1) : your parma magica is less “heavy” than usual, the mystic load generated by your parma magica is halved (merely 1 point of load per 4 points of parma)

Interior Magic(+2) : not only you do not generate the disturbing aura common to most mages, but you can even neutralise the one due to magical effects affecting you. You have the Gentle Gift, and you start with the exceptional talent Magical absorption at +1, that can be increased normally with experience.

Interior Parma (+2) : although it remains as efficient as usual, your parma magica is completely inconspicuous and doesn’t encumber you at all. Regardless of its level, the mystical load of your parma is thus always zero.

Airy Magic (+3) : your magic is so subtle that your spells becomes light as a feather. Your spells weigh nothing, regardless of their target or level.

New flaws

Discordant Magic (-1, -2 for Verditius) : some flaw in your gift makes you unable to tune any magical item to your aura. A direct consequence is that you cannot own a talisman. If you are a magus of house Verditius, this flaw gives you a bad reputation (-3) as well amongst the other followers of Verditius, and moreover even your foci are heavier (load of -0.1 per focus).

Heavy Magic (-1) : your magic is too heavy and violent, so your spells are twice heavier than usual. They bring 1 point of mystical load per 5 levels of spell.

Obstructive Parma (-1) : you parma magica is particularly heavy to wear and disruptive. So its mystical load is twice that of a normal parma, i.e. 1 point of load per point of parma.

Conclusion

The notion of mystic encumbrance described above divides itself in two complementary aspects, one meant to quantify the social penalty due to the Gift in an objective way free of arbitrary decision from the storyguide, the other used to replace the physical encumbrance with a magical encumbrance better suited for magical activities.

Of course, if you find only one of these aspects suitable for your saga, nothing compels you to adopt both versions of mystic encumbrance. So, if in your approach of Mythic Europe wizards are capable of effortlessly wielding incommensurate magical powers but on the other side are kept isolated from mundane society, it sounds logical to prefer the concept of social encumbrance over that of magical encumbrance.