Form and Technique Descriptions (Action)

Templates for Action

Main article: Powers (Action)

Air Form Description (Action Powers)

Air magics deal with gases and atmospheric conditions such as wind, precipitation and cloud formations. It can be quite useful in that it can alter the battlefield itself, rather than the abilities of the combatants, evening the odds in an unfair fight by preventing the use or overwhelming odds or allowing escape from a hopeless battle. It is most practical when invoked over a small area, possibly dangerously powerful if used over wide areas.

Alternate Names: Wind, weather.

Associations

Creature: Air Elementals

Skill: Melee

Attribute: Move

Sense: Motion Sense

Mood: Inspired, flexible

Blast: Concussion

Air Cantrips

Basic Action

You can cause local currents in air, causing paper, dry leaves, dust, and curtains to billow and move, cause a cool breeze, and create a draft or move a small cloud. You cannot effect more than a small room full of air (approximately 100 cubic meters). You can create luminescent mist that drifts about and glows.

Animal Form Description (Action Powers)

The entire domain of living creatures is governed by the animal domain. Humans and other social folk are a special case, governed by Mind instead, but other than that, all natural creatures are considered animals.

Alternate Names: Beasts, Wilderness

Associations

Creature : Animals

Skill : Ride

Attribute : Move

Sense : Smell

Mood : Lustful, Competitive

Blast: Cutting

Animal Cantrips

Basic Action

You can send one basic request or order to an animal in non-verbal form. The animal is likely to obey but quickly forgets complex orders. You can tell the health, kind, and sex of an animal you touch. You can cause animals to glow, giving them a ghostly appearance, outlining a particular creature or part of an animal, and providing dim light.

Chi Form Description (Action Powers)

Chi is a power origin seeking to master the universe from the inside out - by mastering the self one gains power over the universe. It is introspective and requires meditation and concentration. The greatest power of Chi is always over your own body, often focused into stupefying martial arts maneuvers.

Alternate Names: Ki, Breath Control, Martial Arts, Centering

Associations

Creature : Folk

Skill : Maneuver

Attribute : All

Sense : Introspection, self-awareness

Mood : Disciplined, ordered

Blast: Blunt

Chi Cantrips

Basic Action

Chi allows great body control and awareness. It can be used to allow normally impossible body control, such as contortion, immobile levitation, suspended body functions, controlling normal body functions such as hair growth and skin pigmentation, ignoring hunger and thirst, and overcoming common cold and the frailties of age. It also allows an awareness of the body posture of others, giving insights into their powers, particularly Melee and Chi powers.

Death Form Description (Action Powers)

Action and motivation need not cease with death. Characters can use the powers of the dead, learn their secrets, and even reanimate them as undead.

Alternate Names: Necromancy.

Associations

Creature : Undead

Skill : Know

Attribute : Body

Sense : Second Sight

Mood : Morose

Blast: Infection

Death Cantrips

Basic Action

You can tell when and how a creature died by touch. You do not learn details, only general information such as if the creature died by violence or disease. You can read the emotional state a creature died in if it died no more than a Mind roll hours ago. You can cause corpses to move depending on its size; a dead insect can move around freely, a dead human only twitch slightly or slowly move a body part, such as a hand. You can temporarily render a creature or plant infertile. You can make dead tissue glow, using such remains for illumination, this includes the nails and hair of living creatures. You can chill dead flesh a few degrees and prevent decay by killing microbes, fungi and other reducers.

Earth Form Description (Action Powers)

Earth is solid matter and the basis upon which all other things rest. The earth can be influenced and used by other forms, yet it remains earth. Earth powers can be slow and imprecise, but are often very powerful.

Alternate Names: Soil, Clay

Associations

Creature : Earth Elementals

Skill : Impress

Attribute : Body

Sense : Tremorsense

Mood : Passive, Restful, Confident

Blast: Blunt

Earth Cantrips

Basic Action

You can cause small amounts of pebbles, gravel, or sand to move, possibly weakening larger structures over time. You can affect the balance of a precariously placed stone. You can sense fault lines inside a solid object you touch, which can help in stonecutting, to evaluate, or to find fault lines or secret compartments. You can polish and spruce up stone, bringing out any pattern it might hold. You can cause crystal and reflective facets of stone to glimmer and actually glow strongly enough to illuminate an area.

Electricity Form Description (Action Powers)

Electricity powers deal with electric current, tension, and potential. It also masters magnetism. Most commonly viewed in technological terms, this also represents the lightning bolts of Zeus and the thundering hammer of Thor. Electricity is in a dominant position towards much technology - even if electric powers are not subtle enough to control technology and electronics, they can usually detect or destroy such devices.

Alternate Names: Lightning.

Associations

Creature : Electric Elementals

Skill : Shoot

Attribute : Reflexes

Sense : Tension and current sense

Mood : Quick, descisive

Blast: Electricity

Electricity Cantrips

Basic Action

You can recharge batteries, power minor electrical devices, send little harmless sparks, or create an arc light - typically between your fingers. You can sense electric current or charge, even behind isolators.

Fire Form Description (Action Powers)

Fire is the the element of energy and change; it fuels the processes of the world. Science does not acknowledge fire as en element at all, but sees it as a process. Fire powers are often destructive, manifesting as searing goats of flame, raging elementals, or anger. But it has a peaceful side as well in the application of intelligence, crafts and industry.

Alternate Names: Combustion, Energy, Flame, Heat, Plasma.

Associations

Creature : Fire Elementals

Skill : Shoot

Attribute : Mind

Sense : Heat Sense

Mood : Aggressive, Industrious

Blast: Fire

Fire Cantrips

Basic Action

You can light and snuff out candles and small flames. You can create a free-floating flame, which will provide heat and light. This flame can float up to Mind meters away from you and be used as a match to light combustible materials. You can alter the color of flames and cause them to shine bright or dim.

Force Form Description (Action Powers)

Force is raw energy manifesting as physical forces, energy fields, or tangible but immaterial objects. It appears semi-transparent and is not affected by most normal physical phenomena. Some see forces as the purest kind of supernatural energy.

Alternate Names: Kinesis, Force Fields, Cosmic Energy

Associations

Creature : Aberrations

Skill : Create

Attribute : Mind

Sense : None

Mood : Determined, Inflexible

Blast: Impact

Force Cantrips

Basic Action

You can do minor telekinesis, slowly and jerkily levitating objects weighing up to a kilogram within Mind meters of you.

Ice Form Description (Action Powers)

Ice is a special case and a bit hard to classify. Some claim it is a variant of fire, cold where fire is hot. Others claim that it is an aspect of water, or a mix of water and air. Some claim it is an element all to itself. Most ice creatures could not care less and use the powers regardless.

Many powers of this form are limited to ice and snow. This includes frozen water, but also ice and snow created by freezing substances that are gaseous in normal room temperature. In many cases, the ice created with this form is actually dry ice, which means it can melt without leaving any water behind.

Alternate Names: Winter

Associations

Creature : Ice Elementals

Skill : Know

Attribute : Body

Sense : Cold sense

Mood : Cold, Aloof

Blast: Cold

Ice Cantrips

Basic Action

You can create hoarfrost, tiny cold spells, or a light mist in a cubic meter. You can freeze ice cubes, water, or organic material of up to a kilo. You can cool air and chill drinks . You can extinguish candles and kill small plants. You can cause ice to glitter and glow, or to display faint images as if reflected in the ice.

Illusion Form Description (Action Powers)

Illusion is the art of perception and deception. It is concerned with image, not substance. Illusion powers are most often used to deceive, but they can be used to educate and to discern new things.

Illusions normally create images of creatures and objects that are objectively real in the sense that there it registers on physical senses, including those of living creatures and sensory devices. Such images are still unreal in that they are mere projections, not the actual physical thing projected. An illusion cannot affect objects (other than sensors) unless the power explicitly says it can. An illusion of weight would cause scales to react, but could not cause a bridge to collapse. A lift with a weight limit sensor could shut off, but if the sensor is overridden, the lift would work normally despite the illusory overload.

Certain illusions are subjective and are even more unreal, to the point that they can only be perceived by creatures directly targeted. Such phantasms mean that two creatures watching the same scene can perceive things completely differently.

Alternate Names: Mirage, Phantasm

Associations

Creature : Spectres

Skill : Dodge

Attribute : Reflexes

Sense : All senses

Mood : Playful

Blast: Illusory damage.

Illusion Cantrips

Basic Action

You can change the color of objects. You can create translucent free-floating images and animate them by concentrating. These effects are limited to one cubic meter. You can change ambient lightning, sounds, and small visual details altering the atmosphere and level of illumination of a person, room, or other small area. You cannot create complete darkness or blinding light.

Dark Form Description (Action Powers)

Darkness is associated with our shadow selves, base drives, primal instinct, evil, and the subconscious. In physics, darkness is merely the absence of light, and many claim that spiritual evil and darkness is the absence of enlightenment and control. Darkness powers deal with moral and physical darkness, base carnality, indulgence, and deception.

Alternate Names: Black Magic, Infernalism, Obscuration.

Associations

Creature : Devils

Skill : Recon

Attribute : Body

Sense : Hearing

Mood : Selfish, deceptive, covert.

Blast: Enervation

Dark Cantrips

Basic Action

You can create small blobs of free-floating darkness, similar to puffs of dark smoke but wholly insubstantial. You can darken the color of objects and deepen areas of shadow. You can create shifting patterns in shadows and darkness, giving the illusion of movement or faint light. These effects are limited to one cubic meter of space.

Flux Form Description (Action Powers)

Flux is the power of unrealized potential; it is free energy and tension, infinite detail and variation without inherent meaning. Flux revels in randomness, and can produce spectacular but unpredictable results. This gives it an affinity for drunkenness and other inhibition-reducing states. Anything can be created using flux, but in its raw form it is uncontrollable and disruptive.

Alternate Names: Quantum Mechanics, Chaos.

Associations

Creature : Whimsies

Skill : Dodge

Attribute : Move

Sense : Intuition

Mood : Reckless, Creative

Blast: Random

Flux Cantrips

Basic Action

You can control small random events, like the roll of dice. You can cause small disorderly mishaps, such as making a precariously balanced object tip. You can accelerate wear and decay, making worn items break. You can cause random sparks and puffs of light to burst forth to provide erratic illumination.

Fey Form Description (Action Powers)

Fey live by their own rules, that seem weird to ordinary folk but has as much power as any set of natural laws.

Alternate Names: Geas, Custom, Old Ways.

Associations

Skill : Dodge

Attribute : Reflexes

Sense : Dream

Mood : Elusive, fascinated, in rapport

Blast: Piercing

Fey Cantrips

Basic Action

You create glowing fairy dust. This dust sticks to both physical objects and creatures, and to ephemeral things such as mist or power effects. This allows you to illuminate your path as you walk, and can be used to show power use and power effects. This does not hinder stealth or interfere with illusion powers, but it can make the unseen and mystical visible. It is common to use this when you use your own powers to make them look more impressive (this does not require a separate action).

This is a meta-power that affects other powers. In some campaign worlds there is a strong Origin Divide among different origins. Check with your GM regarding your campaign. Origins that are opposed cannot cannot be modified by meta-powers; it is as if powers from the opposing origin was actually a schtick rather than a power.

Gifts Form Description (Action Powers)

Gifts are innate abilities that certain individuals have. They are not earned or learned but basically bestowed randomly.

Alternate Names: Mutation, Creature Powers, Super Powers.

Associations

Skill : Recon

Attribute : Body

Sense : All senses

Mood : Egocentric, egotistic, individualistic

Blast: Cutting

Gifts Cantrips

Basic Action

You can make your eyes (or other significant part of your anatomy) glow, providing illumination for a scene or until you use this power again to shut the light off.

You can detect if someone else is a power-user as soon as you sense them. As you get within Mind meters, you can compare one of your own skills to that of another power user, noticing if they are stronger, within 1 point of you, or weaker than you. The result is quite obvious and instinctively understood by all onlookers. It is brusque but not rude, like two beasts evaluating each other for dominance. It can be repeated for different skills. Often used to establish a dominance chain between monsters and sometimes between other gifted. A creature can pretend to be weaker than they are to fool you with an opposed Charm check.

Light Form Description (Action Powers)

Light is the power of ethics, inspiration, and enlightenment. It involves physical light, insight, and meaning. It gives meaning to the blind forces of order and flux, and drives away the darkness. Light powers serve to inspire, awe, and enlighten.

Alternate Names: Good.

Associations

Creature : Angels

Skill : Melee

Attribute : Mind

Sense : Sight

Mood : Inspired, Enlightened, Benevolent.

Blast: Radiation.

Light Cantrips

Basic Action

You can create a light of any color in the area within Mind meters from you. You can make this solidly illuminated, or create bright spotlight effects at certain points.

Life Form Description (Action Powers)

This is life and life-force at the primal level; the essential principle that fuels all creatures, magical and mundane. It is at the opposite scale of the evolution from Mind, yet Mind could not exist without it. It is the antithesis of death, but without death it would become static.

Alternate Names: Organics, Bio-Chemistry

Associations

Creature : Microorganisms, Mitochondria

Skill : Charm

Attribute : All

Sense : Mystic life sense

Mood : Nurturing, sensual, sexual

Blast: Wounding

Life Cantrips

Basic Action

You can tell the health of a living creature by touch, diagnosing illness and ailments. You can relieve pain. You can make blood and living tissue glow, using it as a ghastly source of illumination or to outline blood vessels, bleeding, infection, or other localized medical phenomena.

Magic Form Description (Action Powers)

Magic is the power of inspiration and mystic understanding; it is a perfect union of reasoning and intuition. Magical powers are often the most well-understood and controlled of the supernatural powers, and the closest rival of technology. The Form of magic deals with metamagical effects that alter how other powers work.

Alternate Names: Alchemy, Arcana, Astrology, Cabala, Magick, Hermetic Magic.

Associations

Creature : No specific creature, very flexible.

Skill : Know

Attribute : Reflexes

Sense : Astral sight

Mood : Inspired, informed, enlightened

Magic Cantrips

Basic Action

You can detect Magic powers out to a range of a Know roll and other Powers and Items by touch. You can create free-floating glowing runes, glyphs, or symbols out of thin air; these can be used as a chalkboard or to provide dim illumination.

Metal Form Description (Action Powers)

Metal is considered an element in some systems of thought, a mix of elements in others. It combines the resilience of earth with the flexibility and destructive potential of fire. It carries the mark of civilization, yet is used in wars of destruction. Metal, especially iron, is essential to technology and thus opposed to the fey and magic in general.

Alternate Names: Edge, Tools, Craft

Associations

Creature : Metal Elementals

Skill : Melee

Attribute : Reflexes

Sense : Vibration

Mood : Precise, decisive, confident

Blast: Piercing

Metal Cantrips

Basic Action

You can change the elasticity of metal objects, making small metal objects soft and bendable, elastic like springs, or stiff and inert. Such changes only last while you hold the object. You can turn ferrous metals into magnets or demagnetize them. You can sharpen edges and cause metals to tarnish or give them a polish. You can cause metal to glitter and actually glow, creating ghostly illumination or pointing out particular parts of a large metal object.

Mind Form Description (Action Powers)

This is anthropomorphic man as a civilized being, part of a society, sapient and cultured if not necessarily human. It represents the end product of evolution and, by extension, ultimate intelect. It can exist independently of life, in machines and undead.

Alternate Names: Enlightenment, Folk.

Associations

Creature : Folk

Skill : Charm

Attribute : Mind

Sense : Telepathy

Mood : Reasonable, open-minded, vacillating

Blast: Psychic

Mind Cantrips

Basic Action

You can telepathically transmit a simple image or short sentence and read similar thoughts in others if they concentrate on transmitting them. This will not transcend language barriers, but you can use non-verbalized message for simple communication even without a common language. The range is your Mind in meters.

Order Form Description (Action Powers)

Order is the system of the world; the ordered universe of space and matter we are all familiar with. It is associated with what science calls low entropy; a completely ordered universe has no content but enormous potential.

Alternate Names: Harmony, Harmonics, Law.

Associations

Creature : Virtues

Skill : Ride

Attribute : Mind

Sense : Harmonics, as in music

Mood : Serene

Blast: Sonic

Order Cantrips

Basic Action

You can avoid chance, making worn objects last, longer or making a die or coin spin without falling on any of its faces. You can calculate odds on simple events, such as dice or cards. You can spot the weakest part in a mechanical structure. You have true pitch and can tell the frequency of sound (tough you may express it in less technical terms). You can keep an exact pace or beat, like a metronome.

Plant Form Description (Action Powers)

Plant governs the majority of all life, things that do not act or move but only grow. Some plants do move, and there are plant elementals, animate plants that act as other creatures do, but these are exceptions.

Alternate Names: Flora, Nature

Associations

Creature : Plant Elementals.

Skill : Recon.

Attribute : Body

Sense : Touch.

Mood : Stoic.

Blast: Neurotoxin.

Plant Cantrips

Basic Action

You can instruct a living plant to do something it is capable of doing - usually limited to such things as unseasonal growth, flowering, or turning to face a certain direction. You can tell the health and kind of a plant by touch. You can make plants grow as much as they normally do in one week of growing season. Over time this can be used to grow plants into unusual and useful shapes. If you use these powers more than once per day on a particular plant or in a way that leaves the plant out of its seasonal rhythm, it may die. You can cause plants and plant matter (including dead wood) to glow, outlining certain parts and providing ghostly illumination.

Psi Form Description (Action Powers)

Psi is a power origin that manipulates reality trough mental power alone. This might be based on the mind's status as observer of quantum events, manifestation in astral space, or otherwise. Psychics leverage their personalities and powers of concentration against the inertia of the universe, and win.

Emotions are contagious to psychics, who often need to focus to avoid being swept away by the moods of people around them. Giving in to such urges can give great power but robs the psychic of control.

Alternate Names: Quantum Manipulation, Psionics, The Force.

Associations

Creature : Folk

Skill : Maneuver

Attribute : Mind

Sense : Holistic awareness

Mood : Joyful, outgoing, self-disciplined

Blast: Psychic

Psi Cantrips

Basic Action

A psychic can sense masses of minds and the emotions they undergo. This can be used to sense places of habitation or population concentrations over long distances. A psychic can also tell the general mood and feelings of a group of people this way. Creatures with developed psychic powers (those using the Psi origin) potentially register much more strongly, but also learn to shield themselves. You can sense them when they actually use psychic powers or if they are closely linked to you by friendship or blood.

Space Form Description (Action Powers)

Space governs the position of all things in this universe and others. It is a very ordered form, at odds with powers like Flux and Time that represent change. Yet space magic is used to break the barriers between worlds and shatter the very rules it seems to uphold. The signature power of Space is teleportation.

Alternate Names: Correspondence, Gate, Teleport

Associations

Skill : Ride

Attribute : Reflexes

Sense : Spatial awareness

Mood : Exact, Patterned, Going with the flow

Blast: Enervation

Space Cantrips

You know your exact movement as long as you can perceive your surroundings. You can teleport wallet-sized objects to and from a location within 10 cm of your body, but it is a stunt to do so accurately or unobtrusively. You magnify your vision to emulate a normal telescope or microscope.

Spiritual Form Description (Action Powers)

Spiritual powers are based on the relationship between the community and spirits, deities, or philosophical ideals. It draws its power from the united minds of a group sharing the same ideals. This form is about metapowers of spiritual power; the powers here deal with how to change spiritual powers and are used to make generic powers more spiritual in nature.

Alternate Names: Divine Magic, Faith, Spirit Magic.

Associations

Creature : No specific creatures, general powers of warding

Skill : Impress

Attribute : Mind

Sense : Visions

Mood : Inspiring, Pious, Devout

Blast: Spiritual

Spiritual Cantrips

Basic Action

You can project an air spirituality, making it obvious to others that you are a spiritual person. This does not insure a positive reaction, and might have the opposite effect on enemies of your brand of spirituality. You can detect those who share your faith and ideals, but this can be faked by a good charlatan. You can sense the presence of Principles and Creatures relevant to the Forms you know.

Tech Form Description (Action Powers)

Technology is the origin of scientific, reproducible powers. While still fantastic (or it wouldn't be Powers), it is less wild and more reliable than the other origins. This origin relates to Tech Level and usually becomes much more common at higher levels of technology. At the hyperspace level, technological powers are the norm rather than the exception. But it is not entirely dependent on tech level; powers can be mystical and yet take on a technological manifestation, and weird science can use this origin to perform feats impossible to local tech levels.

Alternate Names: Super-Science, Gadgetry, Weird Science

Associations

Creature : Robots

Skill : Create

Attribute : Mind

Sense : All, as measured by apparatus

Mood : Detached

Blast: Impact

Technological Cantrips

Basic Action

You can figure out the workings of a technological device, understanding what it does and how to make it do it. You do not learn any special keys or passwords needed to bypass security, nor are you automatically skilled in using it. You can sense the power, efficiently, and degree of complexity of a technological device, evaluating it.

Time Form Description (Action Powers)

Time is the governing principle of all things, the regulator or the stream from Order to Flux. Together with Space, Time governs position and movement. The universe would be incomprehensible without orderly time. Time is a favorite of disaster theorists. Many claim that time manipulation is foolhardy and dangerous. Some claim time is an artifact of our perception; that it is the ultimate prison.

Alternate Names: Process

Associations

Skill : Maneuver

Attribute : Reflexes

Sense : Time reckoning

Mood : Curious, precise, fast

Blast: Blunt

Time Cantrips

Basic Action

You can tell time, both subjective time and objective time, avoiding confusion caused by temporal disturbance. You can set a silent alarm to alert you at a specific future time. You can time an event in the world around you. You can sense temporal disturbances out to Mind x 10 meters away.

Water Form Description (Action Powers)

Water is matter in a liquid state and fluidity in general. Liquids often enable other elements to function, making earth fertile, filling the air with clouds and vapors, and either fueling or putting out fire. It is linked to the spiritual and nurturing side of life, and often considered a female element. Water powers often have subtle or indirect effects.

Alternate Names: Sea, Fluid

Associations

Creature : Water Elementals.

Skill : Charm.

Attribute : Reflexes.

Sense : Motion sense in water.

Mood : Caring, Mercurial, Spiritual.

Blast: Acid.

Water Cantrips

Basic Action

You can cause currents in a volume of water no more than one cubic meter. You can remove particles from water, making it clean of solid impurities, but you cannot affect solutions or desalinate. You can collect moisture out of the air, creating small amounts of water. You can manipulate up to one liter of water, causing it to run in unusual ways or separate it from other substances, drying them or separating mixed liquids. You can make liquids glow, providing illumination and highlighting different parts or layers of a liquid.

Blast Technique Description (Action Powers)

Blast uses the various forms to attack. In often incorporates elements of the move, transmute, or even summon techniques, but the effects are transitory and focused on combat. It generally does not involve any spiritual manifestations, focusing on using the form directly.

Detect Technique Description (Action Powers)

Detects or analyzes the form, or uses the form to gather information in some way.

All detect powers have one limitation; they create an image in the user's mind, and using the same power again will not contradict or enhance this image. Thus you cannot re-try a detect power that failed to acheive a desired result.

Dispel Technique Description (Action Powers)

Know gives a deeper understanding of powers and allows you to manipulate them. Many Know powers deal with dispeling, destroying, or changing other powers of the same form. Others protect or increase your resistance. Yet others analyze or manipulate other powers.

Emote Technique Description (Action Powers)

Charm powers communicates with, charms or imposes moods associated with the form on creatures. As noted in the form descriptions, each form has an associated mental state; emote powers are often based on this state. Depending on how its used this can either be a blessing or a curse.

Imbue Technique Description (Action Powers)

Use the form in close combat and martial arts, enhancing your physical attacks and abilities. This often involves the spirit or associations of the form.

Move Technique Description (Action Powers)

Move the from about, or use the form to move.

Shapeshift Technique Description (Action Powers)

Body control powers used to change yourself or imbue yourself with additional abilities. It is possible to make a Shapeshift power that affect other's as well, but that is not their basic purpose.

Summon Technique Description (Action Powers)

Summons and controls creatures related to the form. A powereful technique with very absolute results, but hard to use in that it requires true names.

Transmute Technique Description (Action Powers)

Transformation and conjuration of inanimate objects. Generally concerned with personal gear or environmental effects. Some transformation spells affect living creatures or parts of living creatures, but in a less holistic way that Shapeshift - transformation of the living is more like surgery than magical shapechange.