Because of its many restrictions and the great power it can wield when used fully, this schtick is not recommended for player characters except in special campaigns - it simply has too large ups and downs to work well.
Some sorcerers elect to study the magic of the ancients. Some do so because they must, as the magic of their world has decayed. Others do so by choice, seeking the ancient lore that they believe will bestow extraordinary powers. In either case, they scour ancient ruins, seeking the artifacts and lore of bygone ages. Ancient powers are often secrets man was not meant to know. Archaic magicians may fall under the sway of ancient evils they uncover, and become nothing more than their pawns in the modern world. The best of them realize that such ancient magic should be used with care, and give up the artifacts they find after having done what must be done.
Examples and References
Howard's Conan saga. The Cthulhu mythos. Pulp; Indiana Jones, The Mummy.
Limitations
Echoes
Ancient artifacts have a will of their own. It might be subtle, almost imperceptible, but it is strong and inhuman, often malignant. Keeping such an artifact for any length of time (usually beyond the adventure in which it was found) is increasingly dangerous, twisting the personality of the magician and causing spontaneous magical effects and in the end physical and psychological changes in their user, turning him into something more pleasing to their inhuman esthetics.
Focus
In order to use the power of an artifact, you must of course have that artifact on hand. The exception to this is Divination; any archaic magician can use divination to find and study artifacts without using a focus.
Hocus Pocus
Even when using their magical artifacts, archaic magicians still use props, sigils, wards and other means of insuring that they are not harmed by the powers they try to tap. They often dress up in whatever they think used to be the ritual vestments of however once used the artifact.
Manifestation
Arcane sorcerers can often develop new ways to use an existing artifact, thus learning to use sorcery schticks using the artifact as a focus. But you can never create a magical effect totally unrelated to whatever artifacts you have in your possession. Of course, you can always use whatever powers the artifact itself confers, without having access to any special sorcery schticks.
Obvious
Ancient artifacts are rarely subtle, and most often awe-inspiring.
Benefit
Because of the many and heavy restrictions on this tradition, it gives certain advantages. When actually using a magical artifact of sufficient power, the archaic magician recovers all Magic points every Sequence, and can spend them again and again.
Common Schticks
- Divination - many archaic magicians have only this schtick, using the power of artifacts that they come across.
Rare or prohibited Schticks
- Artificing
Summonables
Supernatural guardians related to the artifacts.