Doom is the power of destiny. It is the power of curses, blessings, geasa and dire sayings. It sometimes appears to be a predictive power, and some doom sorcerers believe they are discerning the future rather shaping it, but for game purposes this is a lie.
Doom is a very powerful force with a great potential to disrupt the story. As always the GM should not let Sorcery disrupt the flow of events and story, but instead use it as a tool, banning overambitious attempts to derail the plot. But GMs may well choose to deny this schtick to some or all players if it is felt to be disruptive - it is better to deny the power all together, than to allow it and then never accept any of the pronouncements the players try to make.
Doom takes the form of utterances, dire words that have the power to become reality. Often oblique and uncertain, the full meaning of a doom is rarely obvious until it is fulfilled. This is a part of the power; trying to pronounce a clear and direct doom is much more difficult that a murky and uncertain one.
Dooms are among the most powerful magics there are, but also the slowest, subtlest, and least direct. A doom can bring about the fall of a kingdom, but often does so in a manner that takes the sorcerer and all that he loves with it. It is often seen as the will of gods, fate, or some other high, inhuman, and unreachable power. Some cultures where dooms are common consider attempts to avoid your doom to be a sin, hubris. Others embrace dooms and raise people who manage to survive under them into heroes. Yet others try to minimize the powers of doom, appeasing it by fulfilling the words of doom in harmless or even constructive ways.
A doom can never be kept secret. As an aspect of its power, the doom will become known. It is easy for any soothsayer to use Divination to learn what the doom is all about, and powerful curses will have legends spun about them in no time. In fact, this is one of the sources of power for this kind of magic - the power of belief strengthens it.
All these things considered, one would think that doomsayers would be highly unpopular, but this is not the case. Though disliked in academic, intellectual circles, doom is tightly embraced in most traditionalist and religious communities. Doomsayers are seen as prophets and bearers of divine destiny, and often called upon to try and interpret signs and guide the community.
As stated in the introduction, doom is also the power of blessings. But curses and dire pronouncements are by far more common and more powerful than blessings.
The Difficulty of Using Doom
When using doom magic, the sorcerer makes a statement, and attempts to bind this statement to fate. To do this, he must tie his own fate to that of the statement, and if the magic is unsuccessful, the utterance might not come out as expected. As the difficulty increases the more exact and absolute the statement is, so does the danger.
The difficulty of pronouncements of doom depends on the degree of control desired, and on the size and/or power of the people to be put under a doom.
| Type of Pronouncement | Example | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Very obscure | I see a dark, handsome man... | O |
| Obscure | A dark, handsome man will fall in love with you | 5 |
| Imprecise | You will meet a dark, handsome prince, who will carry you off to his faraway castle and make you his | 10 |
| Direct | Prince Ludlum will capture you for ransom, but love will intervene and decide the outcome | 15 |
| Precise | Prince Ludlum will capture you for ransom, but you will seduce him and sway him to your side | 20 |
| Exact | On Maplemass, Prince Ludlum will abduct you and take him to his castle for ransom. Since your father will not pay, you will be at his mercy, but after two months of suffering he will take pity on you after much pleading, and marry you. You, however, will never love him. | 25 |
| Modifiers | ||
| The destiny affects a few people | 10 or less | +0 |
| The destiny directly affects a many people | up to 1,000 | +5 |
| Affects a lot of people | up to 100,000 | +10 |
| Affects a country | up to 10 million people | +15 |
| The destiny affects a large nation or small world | up to 1 billion people | +20 |
| The destiny affects a large world or small universe | up to 100 billion people | +25 |
| The doom challenges cultural bias | The evil lord will save the country. | +5 |
| The target of the doom is not present | +5 |
As can be seen from this table, there are many possibilities of all but the most precise dooms. The lower levels quoted on the above table could all manifest as the higher levels exemplified, but that is just one of the infinite possibilities of each of those dooms.
The number of people affected by a doom can vary greatly and be very hard to decide. If the example prophecy is uttered over an heiress princess, it might affect the destiny of a nation, but few of these people would be directly affected unless the doom was very bad indeed. In general, you should give dooms the benefit of the doubt - only if it is obvious that the doom directly affects many people should these modifiers be used. It is also fully acceptable for a doom to grow in scope over time - it is then strengthened by the belief and awe it generates.
Cultural bias is perhaps the most difficult category. Think of it as similar to the general "derails the plot" modifier, but applicable to what breaks a setting, what makes the story seem less grand and fitting to the bystanders. The best comparison here is to the legends of the culture you play in. This modifier is of course cumulative with the regular plot modifier.
Failure with doom means that you are to timid to master the powers of fate, and fail to make a meaningful pronouncement. Any magic point cost must still be paid, and you can expect the "repetitive use of schtick" modifier to kick in if you try again. Backlash with doom magic means that you are overcome by the powers of fate, and produce a dire prediction contrary to your own best interests. Such backlash can be very interesting, story-altering events.
The Power and Price of Doom
A doom is powered by the target's Magic attribute, and you must match that attribute with Magic points in order to bind someone to his doom. This is very costly indeed, but some of the effects noted below reduce this cost to manageable levels. Remember to always round the Magic point cost up when halving. If you lack sufficient Magic points to complete the spell, it fails automatically.
So, what does doom really do? Well, that is the jurisdiction of the DM. But the single most important aspect of a doom's power is the Magic attribute of the sufferer. Just as the cost of Dooms increase when cast on those of a powerful spirit, so does the power. Each session, the Doom has a number of Fortune points to spend equal to the Magic of the victim. These points can be spend on any action or random roll, and they can also be used to invoke special events or occurrences - one typical effect is to cause you to fail at a roll you have succeeded at, or to fumble a roll you failed.
Doom Effects
Pronouncement of Doom
This is the base effect of Doom - a dire curse, as outlined in the difficulties section.
Doom Modification
Conventional magic can never break a doom - only Divination: Remove Curse can manage this. However, it may be possible to modify a doom slightly, making it survivable.
In general, it is possible to elaborate on a doom - most often using the Geas effect. You cannot change any part of the doom as it has been pronounced, but you can specify the things that have not been pronounced - see the example in the difficulties section.
Death Curse
A doom speaker that dies maybe able to pronounce a death curse on his killer. At any time when you fail a Death Test, you may immediately make a Pronouncement of Doom, and you may use twice your full Magic attribute's worth of Magic Points on this doom - either to power it, or to make it succeed. If you go straight from conscious to dead - as you will do if your initial death test fails by 13 or more - you cannot do this.
Pronouncement of Retribution
This is similar to a Death Curse, but the situation is not quite so dire. When you have been terribly wronged, you can call down a retributive curse on those who caused you harm - and have the Magic point cost halved. Of course, you and the GM have to agree that terrible harm is involved - destroying your livelihood, killing loved ones, or maiming, are typical examples.
Blessing
This is a beneficial statement, one intended to cause you rather than woe. Basically, any doom can be both a blessing and a curse - depending on circumstances. But whenever a doom is to invoke a positive effect, it actually costs the subject a Magic point - not a point from among those available for the doom to use. The subject always has the option not to use such a magic point, and then the effect will not occur.
Geas
A geas is a restriction placed upon another, some vow that must not be broken, in order to avoid a certain fate. Such geasa can range from the trivial to the outright dangerous. Examples of more significant geas is "never return to your homeland", "never marry except into the clan Branganic" or "do not return home until you have avenged your father". Geasa must always be expressed as negatives. Thus, it is impossible to compel someone to actually do something, but you can place a magical condition of someone, who is only lifted when a task is performed.
When casting a geas, apply the usual doom modifiers to the exactness of the condition. A very vague geas is easy to cast, but easily avoided. The more precise the compulsion, the more difficult it becomes. Easy geasa includes things like "beware of the forest" or "wear no orange", while hyper-specific geasa, like "you must kill Mister Norman Stevenson on November 12th this year" are hyper-difficult.
If a geas is broken, it manifests as a dire curse. You can either specify this curse, using any allowed doom with the same difficulty as your geas had, or you can let the GM make one up on the occasion.
Quest
This is a geas that is willingly accepted. Sometimes, a character might be willing to foreswear himself, accepting a quest in order to get some social benefit, as a part of his belief system, or in order to close a deal. A quest has half the normal Magic point cost and a difficulty ten points less.
A quest also allows positive statements, often combined with blessings like this: "As long as you uphold the laws of the land, you will always find a happy home to return to".
Minor Doom
This is a lesser doom that only lasts a single session. Naturally, it is best used at the start of a session. The Magic point cost is half normal. This effect can be used on a quest or blessing.
Blip
This is a rather trivial use of the power of doom, a single act of will to negate the actions of another. As a 1-shot reactive stunt, you may make a sorcery roll against the AV of any action, and if you succeed, that action fails. This does not use any of the doom magic difficulties listed above.