Grimoires & Sorceries

Creating Sorceries

Magic is a force that exists wholly outside the material plane, so in order to be harnessed by those who are indelibly tethered to that plane, it must be filtered through objects which can act as conduits for such arcane energies. Such conduits are called Grimoires.

Grimoires are not simply passive receptacles for occult forces, however. The nature and shape of the Grimoires is what gives form to the magical energies contained within, converting them into usable forms known as Sorceries. And since Grimoires are objects painstakingly created and jealously guarded, each of them possess a requirement that must be met before the secrets of the Sorcery within can be revealed.

When an Errant discovers a Grimoire, they roll a D100 to determine which they find (p. 82).

After they have met the requirement to learn the Sorcery, roll a D50 for the essence (p. 78), which describes the function the Sorcery performs, and a D12 for the sphere (p. 78), which describes the subjects a Sorcery affects.

The Errant may then devise a Sorcery that aligns with the essence and sphere rolled, and is related in some way to the themes of Grimoire containing the Sorcery.

As a basic example, the Errant could have rolled a 19 (a melted candle stump, whose dripping wax reveals dark secrets; themes: fire, extinguish, forbiddance) for the Grimoire; a 3 (control) for the essence; and a 7 (elements) for the sphere. They decide that the Sorcery is one which allows them to control the flame of a candle, either causing it ignite, extinguish, dim, brighten, or erupt in a fiery conflagration.

If a Sorcery is learned during a session, it suffices to describe the Sorcery in a general way. The particulars of the Sorcery can be decided upon by the player and the Guide between sessions and written down then.

As a general rubric, a Sorcery can

• Deal 1D6 damage per Renown of the caster
• Heal 1D6 damage per every 2 Renown of the caster
• Can affect an area 10 feet or yards in diameter per Renown of the caster.
• Has a range of 20 feet or yards per Renown of the caster.

If the Sorcery affects multiple creatures, it can affect a number of friendly Errants or NPCs equal to the caster’s Renown, or a number of hostile NPCs whose total Threat is equal to the caster’s Renown.

It is left to the discretion of the Guide when and if a particular Sorcery requires a Saving Throw from its target to avoid or mitigate its effects. As a general rule, if the caster targets an NPC with a Sorcery whose Threat is greater than their Renown, that NPC is allowed a Saving Throw.

The duration of the Sorcery is determined by the caster’s Sorcery Depletion value.

For each Grimoire, a list of three miscasts is provided. If a Sorcery is miscast, roll a D3 on the miscast table, or the Guide can decide an appropriate effect based on the Sorcery and the situation. The precise effect, duration, and method of reversing the miscast, if any, are left to the Guide’s discretion.

Graphic: A slender spellcaster squats low and raises a thorny, umbrella-shaped branch above her head. She has a circular symbol inscribed on her forehead, and vertical lines intersecting the bottom edge of the circle as well as beneath each eye. Her eyes are milky white. She wears heavy tattered robes that cover her from neck to toe, and a sash at her waist that trails on the ground.

Essence

1. Protect
2. Summon
3. Control
4. Quicken
5. Slow
6. Comprehend
7. Move
8. Animate
9. Link
10. Command
11. Curse
12. Destroy
13. Create
14. Bless
15. Take
16. Transfer
17. Switch
18. Reveal
19. Hide
20. Restrict
21. Liberate
22. Reflect
23. Seal
24. Request
25. Grow
26. Shrink
27. Open
28. Close
29. Transform
30. Communicate
31. Improve
32. Diminish
33. Incapacitate
34. Return
35. Send
36. Enter
37. Become
38. Replace
39. Convert
40. Complete
41. Attract
42. Repulse
43. Absorb
44. Increase
45. Reduce
46. Receive
47. Aid
48. Hinder
49. Interrupt
50. Harm

Sphere

1. Magic
2. Space
3. Time
4. Mind
5. Spirit
6. Body
7. Elements
8. Dimensions
9. Life
10. Death
11. Objects
12. Biota

Example Sorceries

Eyes of Marut

Essence: Shrink

Sphere: Magic

Grimoire: 30. Pair of marble snake eyes, whose pupils move of their own accord. To learn this Sorcery, you must convince one who hates you that you should be loved by them above all else.

Themes: persuasion, manipulation, contempt

The caster’s pupils begin swirling in dizzying, hypnotic patterns around their eyeballs. While they continue to do this, any Sorcery or magical ability cast within range does not take effect, but rather has its effects compressed and stored into a small translucent orb, the size of a marble. The caster may also draw out and store into such orbs the magic of enchantments, wards, runes, and other such ensorcellments by looking upon them. The caster may have a number of these orbs equal to their Renown.

Such orbs are easily broken. A shattered orb releases its magical effect immediately, as if the magic had been cast or triggered.

Graphic: A face, decorated with arabesque patterns, and surrounded by 12 shining orbs. The face’s expression is neutral, and distant. Its eyes open wide and filled with interlaced patterns. Tight braids frame the face, without a single hair out of place. The face is adorned with jewelry of every type: dangling earrings, rings in nose and lips, chains artfully drooping between piercings, a tiara of two coiled serpents, which themselves dangle strings of pearls and jewels across the forehead and down the nose.

Principia Mechanica

Essence: Grow

Sphere: Mind

Grimoire: 57. Toolkit with a single iron nail inside. To learn this Sorcery, solve a problem, but be the nail, not the hammer.

Themes: fortification, repair, construction

The caster, by utterance of a series of ritual formulae and calculations, stimulates the temporary hypertrophy of the glands in the brain attenuated to the sacred geometry.

While the Sorcery is in effect, the caster can see the laws of natural motion as clearly as one might see colour: angles, trajectories, acceleration, force, distance, time, and other such functions can all be noted with perfect accuracy. Functioning of mechanisms, discernment of their design, function of individual components, and defects in their design — all are as easy to distinguish as the individual glyphs which comprise a word.

Graphic: The head of a devil, with no torso or legs, supports itself by its clawed hands. A spade-tipped tail helps it balance.

Transposer’s Fancy

Essence: Transfer

Sphere: Space

Grimoire: 96. Elaborate and ornate doublet which greatly restricts one’s movement, adorned with the feathers of a peacock. To learn this Sorcery, you must convince someone of humble nature to deem himself superior to all.

Themes: pride, humility, hubris

The caster marks a space, 10 yards square per Renown, through an intricate rococo dance, which involves much strutting and rhythmic shaking of hands. The marked space folds in on itself till only a single element, such as a floor tile, remains. Where the space once was is marked only by a gaping hole in reality; anything that enters it finds itself immediately and forcefully ejected.

The caster may place the remnant of the marked space wherever they wish. There, it will unfurl like the tail of a peacock, replacing whatever was once there. The area replaced then fills the lacuna left where the Sorcery was first cast.

Flagellant’s Freedom

Essence: Protect

Sphere: Spirit

Grimoire: 28. Onyx pendant wrought in the shape of a weeping face. To learn this Sorcery, you must make the happiness of another your own.

Themes: egocentrism, trinket, expression

The caster debases themselves pathetically: weeping and wailing, begging, prostrating themselves in supplication, gnashing their teeth, and tearing at their clothes and hair. So long as the caster continues this display, they and a number of other Errants or NPCs equal to their Renown are immune to supernatural influence or possession.

Converting Spell Scrolls & Spellbooks

If running material for a game with a more traditional Vancian casting system, here are some suggestions for how to convert spell scrolls and spell books.

Treat spell scrolls as consumable, one-time use items and use the spell as normal from the original system, making any conversions for Checks, Saving Throws, and other matters as normal. To cast them successfully, the caster must make a successful mind or pres Check (depending on if the spell is arcane or divine) with a DV equal to the spell level, minus the Renown of the caster if they are of the appropriate Archetype.

Treat spell books as instead being a number of Grimoires equal to the highest level spell in the spell book (e.g. a spell book containing a 4th level spell would be treated as if the Errant had found four Grimoires).

Graphic: A book with a comical number of pages. So many that the closed book appears to stand 3 feet tall or more. Bookmarks and torn pages poke out at every angle, and there is a spoked symbol on the cover.

Grimoires

1. Silvered hand-mirror, inlaid with runes. To learn this Sorcery, you must see yourself blink.
   Themes: reflection, mirror, prediction

   1. All surfaces appear reflective to the caster.
   2. The caster and all nearby are pulled into the mirror dimension.
   3. All predictions the caster makes invariably end up being wrong.

2. Tuning fork, which makes no sound when struck. To learn this Sorcery, create sound with the fork.
   Themes: sound, music, resonance

   1. The caster is deafened.
   2. The caster can only speak in song, and only move in dance.
   3. The caster vibrates intensely.

3. Length of unnaturally cold iron chain, upon which tiny etchings are visible. To learn this Sorcery, you must survive with your arms or legs bound among enemies.
   Themes: metal, restraint, imprisonment

   1. All inorganic matter around the caster turns into metal.
   2. The caster becomes unable to move their limbs.
   3. The caster becomes wanted for heinous crimes in all nearby Settlements.

4. Large, watchful, and odious toad, with strange, shifting markings. To learn this Sorcery, the toad must be fed pieces of a loved one once a day for a month, without the loved one realising.
   Themes: possession, betrayal, parasitism

   1. The caster becomes possessed by a spirit, demon, or other entity.
   2. The caster’s allies become hostile towards them and attack.
   3. The caster can only derive sustenance from food stolen from others.

5. Ancient tome, bound in human skin. To learn this Sorcery, the true name of an extradimensional being must be learned, and engraved into one’s flesh.
   Themes: flesh, secrets, extortion

   1. The caster loses all skin.
   2. The caster becomes unable to lie or keep secrets.
   3. A powerful creature descends upon the caster, demanding regular payment lest they face the creature’s wrath.

Graphic: A wild-eyed woman with bleeding runes carved into her forehead holds a book in front of her face. The book is thick, and bound in strange uneven leather. The woman’s rags are soaked in blood.

2. Scroll, upon which is written a contract in an infernal tongue. To learn this Sorcery, the contract must be notarised by an official of heaven, or hell.
   Themes: oath, trust, witness

   1. The caster becomes pathologically unable to keep their word, and will betray any promises made.
   2. The caster trusts absolutely everyone, categorically and wholeheartedly.
   3. The caster inadvertently becomes the sole witness to a heinous crime committed by very dangerous people.

3. Bounty poster, with the name and portrait blank, and the reward set at the soul of the slain. To learn this Sorcery, your own name and portrait must be entered in the bounty.
   Themes: assassination, retribution, target

   1. The caster is tasked with assassinating the ruler of the land by powerful forces, lest their head be next on the chopping block.
   2. The caster will never win an argument, and all witnesses to it will side against the caster.
   3. All enemies will single-mindedly aim to attack the caster, with intent to kill.

4. Wrought iron lamp embossed with dancing figures, the wick of which cannot be lit. To learn this Sorcery, light the lamp.
   Themes: illumination, shadow, flicker

   1. The caster radiates blinding light from every pore of their body.
   2. The caster is banished to the shadow realm.
   3. Every other turn, the caster vanishes from existence.

5. Obsidian decanter filled with a swirling, noxious gas. To learn this Sorcery, spend one day without breathing.
   Themes: miasma, contagion, breath

   1. The area immediately surrounding the caster is filled with noxious, poisonous gas.
   2. The caster is unable to resist contracting any diseases or infections.
   3. The caster’s breath becomes unbelievably odious.

6. Crystal ball set upon a base of carved ebony. To learn this Sorcery, you must learn of the way you will die.
   Themes: clairvoyance, truth, fortune

   1. The caster foresees the inevitable, near-future death of all other Company members.
   2. The caster becomes a pathological liar, unable to tell even the most banal of truths.
   3. The caster believes resolutely in their ability to foresee the future.

7. Crystalline prism, criss-crossed with veins of translucent code, half-glimpsed in light. To learn this Sorcery, fold a sunbeam.
   Themes: refraction, vision, geometry

   1. The caster sees what is behind them, in front, and what is in front of them, behind.
   2. The caster is blinded.
   3. The caster loses all sense of balance.

8. Model ship in a bottle with full crew, rendered in microscopic detail. To learn this Sorcery, the ship must sail around the world and return to you.
   Themes: microcosm, voyage, homecoming

   1. The caster becomes obsessed with creating a perfect replica of the nearest city.
   2. The caster is teleported to the opposite side of the world.
   3. Everyone in the caster’s hometown loses all memory of them.

9. Engraved wooden talisman, with a concave indentation in the centre. To learn this Sorcery, sacrifice one of your eyes and place it in the talisman.
   Themes: sacrifice, wisdom, prophecy

   1. An angel appears and demands the caster sacrifice the soul of their most beloved to them.
   2. Whenever the caster is faced with a decision, they will bring forth a litany of all the ways any given course of action could go horribly wrong.
   3. The caster is granted a vision of the end of the world, which will occur exactly a year from now.

Graphic: A scarred and roguish man smiles, his lips gone and the entirety of his teeth showing. His left eye has been removed, replaced with a wooden one that radiates strong lines of magic out from it.

1. Silver disc, covered in a series of raised dots. To learn this Sorcery, throw the disc straight forward and have it return to you unaided.
   Themes: return, arc, gravity

   1. Anything the caster tries to rid themselves of always returns.
   2. The caster becomes unable to throw, fire, or otherwise project any object or Sorcery; it simply falls straight down.
   3. The caster is no longer affected by gravity.

2. Black silk blindfold, with inky black runes of velvet stitched onto the fabric. To learn this Sorcery, walk into an unfamiliar room blindfolded and describe accurately what is within.
   Themes: perception, foresight, awareness

   1. The caster’s perception of reality depends entirely on what others tell them.
   2. The caster becomes unable to conceptualise or otherwise conceive of the future.
   3. The caster loses their peripheral vision.

3. Paper Möbius strip. To learn this Sorcery, find its second side without splitting it.
   Themes: perspective, containment, curvature

   1. The caster and a random target’s sight are swapped; the caster sees only what the target sees, and vice versa.
   2. The caster will endeavour to spend as little time in any single room as possible.
   3. The caster becomes unable to comprehend straight lines.

4. Set of wind chimes that always produces the same melody. To learn this Sorcery, the chimes must be kept in motion for a day in a place without wind.
   Themes: tone, air, catalyst

   1. The caster continually emits an incessant high-pitched whine.
   2. The caster becomes unable to jump or climb of their own power.
   3. The caster feels compelled to intervene in situations that don’t concern them.

5. Sphere of glass filled with an ever-whirling snowstorm. To learn this Sorcery, you must move while frozen solid.
   Themes: ice, cessation, continuation

   1. The caster immediately freezes any liquid they come into contact with.
   2. The caster is unable to stop doing any activity they start doing.
   3. The caster becomes unable to complete any task.

6. Melted candle stump, whose dripping wax reveals dark secrets. To learn this Sorcery, self-immolate, but be the wax, not the wick.
   Themes: fire, extinguish, forbiddance

   1. Anything flammable near the caster immediately ignites.
   2. Any light sources near the caster will go out at the most inopportune moment.
   3. The caster becomes unable to say no.

7. Tarnished bronze cup inlaid with sinuous petroglyphs. To learn this Sorcery, the cup must be filled with water from the bottom of the sea.
   Themes: water, treachery, pressure

   1. The caster becomes permanently moistened.
   2. The allegiances of every creature near the caster change.
   3. Random objects explode around the caster at regular intervals.

8. Ornate hand shovel, its inscriptions still glowing red hot. To learn this Sorcery, you must be buried alive for three days and three nights.
   Themes: earth, openings, weight

   1. The caster is followed by a perpetual earthquake.
   2. Any openings near the caster seal shut.
   3. All objects become incredibly heavy to the caster.

9. Weather vane, bearing the icon of the simurgh, that indicates no direction and is not moved by the wind or mortal force. To learn this Sorcery, the arrow of the vane must be moved till it faces due east.
   Themes: storms, navigation, flight

   1. A personal rain cloud hangs over the caster’s head.
   2. The caster loses all sense of direction.
   3. Flight becomes impossible around the caster; birds drop from the sky.

10. Long copper lightning rod, which always faintly hums with static charge. To learn this Sorcery, you must let lightning pass through you and into another, and have both of you emerge unscathed.
    Themes: lightning, conductivity, thunder

    1. All nearby lightning arcs unerringly towards the caster.
    2. The caster becomes upsettingly rude.
    3. Every step the caster takes booms with the sound of thunder.

11. The animated skull of a dead Sorcerer-king, the markings left on his skull the evidence of arcane leaching. To learn this Sorcery, you must read the markings upon the skull, which is impossible so long as the skull keeps talking, interrupting you and telling you that you’re doing it wrong and that back in his day people knew how to cast real magic.
    Themes: undeath, oppression, hierarchy

    1. Any creature slain by the caster immediately rises as a zombie or other form of undead.
    2. The caster will find themselves harassed and denied by all authority figures.
    3. The caster is considered by all to be wretched and lowly.

12. Plain, worn, sackcloth doll to which you find yourself inextricably drawn. You will remember owning this doll as a child, loving it, cherishing it, doing anything, absolutely anything to protect it. To learn this Sorcery, do not question the truth of this memory.
    Themes: nostalgia, haunting, denial

    1. The caster becomes unable to remember anything beyond the events of yesterday.
    2. The souls of those slain by the caster follow and torment them.
    3. The caster refuses to acknowledge anything dangerous, malign, or otherwise negative.

13. Wooden mask, which always seems to display a different emotion. To learn this Sorcery, you must assume the identity of another.
    Themes: identity, disguise, personality

    1. The caster loses all sense of self, and believes themselves to be the last person they talked to.
    2. The caster refuses to show their face to anyone.
    3. The caster suffers constant mood swings.

14. Planchette board carved of bone. To learn this Sorcery, the board will query you with an unsolvable riddle, which you must solve.
    Themes: puzzle, solution, contradiction

    1. The caster believes that everything which is said to them is, in fact, an inscrutable riddle with some deeply obscured hidden meaning.
    2. The caster believes themselves to have the solution to any problem presented to them.
    3. The caster does the opposite of whatever they say they will do.

15. Onyx pendant wrought in the shape of a weeping face. To learn this Sorcery, you must make the happiness of another your own.
    Themes: egocentrism, trinket, expression

    1. The caster becomes obsessed with making everyone they meet cry, and tasting their tears.
    2. The caster insists on carrying any and all valuables.
    3. The caster’s tone conveys the opposite emotion to what they truly feel.

Graphic: A pendant made from onyx, with a small cord at the top. The pendant has been engraved to look like a weeping face.

1. Long dead heart, withered and blackened. To learn this Sorcery, the heart must be made to beat again.
   Themes: revival, rejuvenation, animation

   1. The caster plays dead at the faintest sign of hostility.
   2. All corpses around the caster return to life.
   3. All objects carried on the caster’s person animate and spring to life with a will of their own.

2. Pair of marble snake eyes whose pupils move of their own accord. To learn this Sorcery, you must convince one who hates you that you should be loved by them above all else.
   Themes: persuasion, manipulation, contempt

   1. Everyone the caster meets will attempt to up-sell them.
   2. All serpents immediately attack the caster on sight.
   3. Any suggestions or ideas of the caster are dismissed out of hand.

3. Old, plain music box that produces no sound. To learn this Sorcery, hear the song it plays.
   Themes: silence, melody, listening

   1. No sound can be produced around the caster.
   2. The caster is only able to comprehend language in the form of music.
   3. The caster’s hearing becomes superhumanly attenuated; any but the most minute of sounds overwhelms their senses.

4. Marionette doll, painted in intricate, lifelike detail. To learn this Sorcery, you must convince someone, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that all they know to be true is false, and all they know to be false is true.
   Themes: replication, subversion, belief

   1. An evil twin of the caster is summoned.
   2. Strings emerge from the caster’s limbs, torso, and head. They cannot move except by being puppeted through these strings.
   3. The caster will stubbornly reject all commonly held beliefs, fabricating elaborate conspiracies to explain otherwise simple occurrences.

Graphic: A marionette doll sits casually, strings coming from its hands and feet, its eyes staring forward blankly, a jester hat on its head.

1. Card with blotches of ink that seem to be ever morphing. To learn this Sorcery, you must convince someone that a thing which ought to be trusted by them should rightfully be feared.
   Themes: fluidity, doubt, cowardice

   1. The caster dissolves into a puddle; they are still alive, and still able to speak, but must be held in a container of some sort.
   2. Any accusations brought against the caster are immediately believed, regardless of any evidence to the contrary.
   3. The caster is filled with a heady bravado, and will charge headlong into any danger without hesitation.

2. Brown sack stuffed with iridescent, gossamer wool. To learn this Sorcery, awake without sleeping.
   Themes: slumber, consciousness, meditation

   1. The caster falls asleep at the most inopportune moments.
   2. The caster believes themselves to have transcended mortal ego consciousness, and become one with the cosmos.
   3. The caster becomes unable to stand still.

3. Silver stopwatch inscribed with swirling, fractal patterns, hanging on a chain. To learn this Sorcery, you must kill a person in sight of their loved one, and not have them notice.
   Themes: ambiguity, confusion, hypnosis

   1. The caster becomes unable to give a clear yes or no response to anything.
   2. All in the vicinity of the caster who attempt to harm another end up instead harming themselves.
   3. The caster must obey any command given to them.

Graphic: A strange stopwatch, with a small chain attached to the top. Instead of numbers, it has four runes, one each at the position where the 12, 3, 6, and 9 ought to be.

1. Iron bell carved with graven images and a stone hammer. To learn this Sorcery, you must convince someone to do something they do not wish to do, and have them believe that they did it of their own volition.
   Themes: intent, purpose, narrative,

   1. The caster refuses to take responsibility for any of their actions.
   2. The caster becomes singularly obsessed with furthering a particular creed or ethos.
   3. The caster believes themselves to be the subject of any story told.

2. An old journal, written in your hand, which you do not remember writing, describing events you don’t remember transpiring. To learn this Sorcery, you must write your own name and not recognise it.
   Themes: memory, archive, history,

   1. Each morning after waking, the caster loses all memories of anything that occurred after this Sorcery was cast.
   2. The caster obsessively catalogues their every thought and action within a journal.
   3. The caster constantly invents ever changing, increasingly elaborate tragic backstories for themselves, which they will recount to anyone they meet.

3. Small lotus wrought in gold, etched with ornate, microscopic calligraphy. To learn this Sorcery, you must pass through a threshold while your body remains in place.
   Themes: threshold, passivity, motion,

   1. The caster insists on being the first person to pass through all doors or portals.
   2. The caster never makes the first move; they will speak only when spoken to, attack only when attacked.
   3. The caster will only move when specifically told to.

4. Hollow cylinder of clay, the inside of which is always blacker than night. To learn this Sorcery, you must find that with which you have nothing in common.
   Themes: emptiness, disparity, difference,

   1. The caster refuses to carry anything other than the clothes on their back.
   2. The caster encounters their doppelganger; everything the caster does is scorned, while the same actions from their doppelganger receive adulation.
   3. The caster becomes unable to agree with anyone.

5. Shimmering silken veil, through which kaleidoscopic patterns can be glimpsed. To learn this Sorcery, you must find where nothing comes from.
   Themes: void, origin, periphery

   1. Anyone encountering the caster for the first time forgets the sequence of events that led to them meeting the caster.
   2. The caster’s face is replaced by a sphere of deep, unfathomable darkness.
   3. Something begins stalking the caster, which can only be vaguely glimpsed out of the corner of their eye; they don’t know what it is, but they do know that it should absolutely not be looked at directly.

6. Ceremonial tea set, painted with the script of a foreign land. To learn this Sorcery, tea must flow from the kettle to the cup, but the latter must remain empty and the former full.
   Themes: culture, tradition, artefact

   1. The caster is unable to physically receive anything; whatever is handed to them just ends up returning to where it came from.
   2. The caster forgets all the languages they currently know, each of them being replaced by new, random, exotic tongues.
   3. The caster becomes paralyzed with awe at the sight of fine paintings, sculptures, and other significant cultural works.

7. Heavy, wrought iron key-ring, though none of the keys on it have a bit. To learn this Sorcery, you must open a door that no key can open.
   Themes: entrance, forbiddance, security

   1. Any door the caster passes through closes and locks itself shut.
   2. The caster denies any request made of them.
   3. The caster insists on giving anyone they meet an ocular patdown in order to assess their danger level to the Company.

Graphic: An old iron keyring, covered in rust, with five keys attached to it. All of the keys are broken off at the stem. None of them have any teeth.

1. Simple spinning top, upon which dancing figures appear when spun. To learn this Sorcery, for one day and one night, the top must always be spinning when you look at it.
   Themes: rotation, perpetuation, cycle

   1. The caster ends every sentence by performing a pirouette.
   2. Any Sorcery cast by the caster is cast again at the same time every day thereafter.
   3. The caster becomes unable to sleep at night, and unable to stay awake during the day.

2. Pair of old spectacles with rusted rims and thick lenses. To learn this Sorcery, you must see yourself as others see you.
   Themes: clarification, association, relativism

   1. The caster’s eyes fall out of their head; they can still see through them, though they are incredibly sensitive, having no protection from the elements.
   2. The caster insists on conducting extensive background checks on anyone of whom they make acquaintance, interrogating them for any hint of past wrongdoing, lest their character be tainted by association.
   3. The caster loses all ability to make ethical judgements.

3. Plain golden ring, which yet compels anyone who sees it to wish to wear it. To learn this Sorcery, you must hold in your hands the one thing that cannot be stolen.
   Themes: heist, hold, prize

   1. Anyone who the caster has ever wronged immediately becomes aware of the caster’s location.
   2. The caster refuses to have their hands full.
   3. The caster will never freely give another anything, insisting they must succeed in some challenge of the caster’s devising in order to earn it.

4. Blood-stained, studded training muzzle. To learn this Sorcery, you must tear into your own flesh and not draw blood.
   Themes: potential, domestication, savagery

   1. The caster refuses to eat any plant matter.
   2. The caster will disobey any order given to them.
   3. The caster ends every sentence by barking loudly.

5. Chained metal censer filled with heady, soporific incense. To learn this Sorcery, you must sleep for a week without waking, and dream no dreams.
   Themes: odour, intoxication, unconsciousness

   1. The caster emits unbearably foul odours.
   2. The caster will endeavour never to be sober.
   3. The caster is beset by horrible nightmares each night, preventing restful sleep.

6. Cruelly thorned whip. To learn this Sorcery, you must remain awake for a week, yet feel no exhaustion.
   Themes: torture, resilience, limit

   1. The caster feels unbearably sinful, and seeks always to find new arbiters of their punishment.
   2. The caster refuses to receive any healing or medical attention.
   3. The caster firmly believes that “just one more can’t hurt”.

7. The small taxidermied corpse of several animals, stitched variously together into a grotesque chimaera. To learn this Sorcery, you must hunt yourself, and be both predator and prey.
   Themes: survival, adaptation, predation

   1. The caster becomes violently, uncontrollably angry upon viewing their own reflection.
   2. The caster hoards all their food, refusing to share it with others.
   3. The caster becomes obsessed with surpassing the limitations of their mortal form.

8. Clay effigy, featureless, yet still bearing an uncanny resemblance to you. To learn this Sorcery, stop the beating of your heart while you yet live.
   Themes: representation, fortitude, vitality

   1. The next time the caster sleeps, a clone of the caster is created. Both insist that they are the original.
   2. The caster loses the ability to feel pain.
   3. The caster believes resolutely that they are immune to illness and disease.

9. Gavel, once belonging to an esteemed judge. To learn this Sorcery, you must commit a crime yet break no law.
   Themes: authority, judgement, corruption

   1. The caster believes utterly in absolute notions of right and wrong.
   2. The caster will dole out punishment to anyone they judge guilty of wrongdoing.
   3. The caster will always accept a bribe, no matter how small.

10. Broken noose soaked with blood and sweat. To learn this Sorcery, certain doom must be averted without your knowledge.
    Themes: escape, fate, crime

    1. A metal box forms around the caster. There are air holes, but no opening.
    2. The caster receives a vision of their own death.
    3. The caster believes that all they find unpleasant is in abrogation of the law; they will cite obscure, impossible, or fictitious legal clauses to justify their case, and will pursue legal action whenever possible.

11. Pair of pristine boots, fashioned with the insignia of a wing. To learn this Sorcery, deliver a message from one world to another.
    Themes: celerity, delivery, contact

    1. The caster’s presence bodes ill for travel; at sea the winds are always against them, on land wagon wheels and mount’s legs often break.
    2. The caster receives mysterious and unpleasant deliveries at unpleasant times: boxes of manure at a royal banquet, evidence of guilt while standing trial, and so on.
    3. The caster’s thoughts become entangled with a random person’s somewhere else in the world; neither of them are aware of what is happening.

12. Pouch of medicinal herbs, pungent beyond belief. To learn this Sorcery, you must cure an incurable disease.
    Themes: benevolence, medicine, dosage

    1. The caster is unable to refuse a request for aid, no matter how extravagant or inconvenient.
    2. The caster develops an allergy to all but the most exotic of medicines.
    3. The caster becomes unable to distinguish between different measurements and volumes; a quart and a gallon may as well be the same.

13. Diary which records your desires and temptations as they arise. To learn this Sorcery, give in to your deepest, most heinous desire.
    Themes: record, temptation, repugnance

    1. Anyone in the vicinity of the caster can hear their inner monologue.
    2. The caster becomes unable to resist the temptations of their appetites.
    3. The caster’s visage becomes unbearably repulsive to those they admire, and impossibly beautiful to those they disdain.

14. Bronze shield, chipped, worn, and scratched. To learn this Sorcery, you must protect another from harm while suffering none yourself.
    Themes: armour, protection, integrity

    1. The caster refuses to wear any armour or other protective gear of any sort.
    2. The caster will always place themselves between their allies and harm’s way.
    3. The caster will always sell someone out or go back on their word at the first available opportunity.

15. Toolkit with a single iron nail inside. To learn this Sorcery, solve a problem, but be the nail, not the hammer.
    Themes: fortification, repair, construction

    1. The caster believes that any mechanical malfunction can be resolved with percussive maintenance.
    2. The caster refuses to use any items which they did not hand-craft themselves.
    3. The caster will always outfit themselves in the heaviest armour available to them.

Graphic: A small shallow chest, the lid open, empty of contents. Above it a single iron nail hovers in the air, lines of magic radiating out from the head.

1. Abacus missing half its beads. To learn this Sorcery, you must split something in two while keeping it intact.
   Themes: reduction, multiplication, calculation

   1. The caster insists on carrying coinage only in the lowest denominations possible.
   2. The caster becomes obsessed with growing their financial portfolio, and will readily agree to any investment opportunities or other get-rich quick schemes.
   3. Any calculation the caster performs results in wrong answers; they are, however, entirely convinced of their accuracy.

2. An autograph on a card, ripped in half. To learn this Sorcery, you must meet the person whom you admire most and see them as they truly are.
   Themes: signature, disappointment, division

   1. The caster becomes unceasingly cruel to any who admire them.
   2. The caster refuses to speak to anyone they deem to be of a lower social status.
   3. The caster seeks to rupture the bonds of close friends and lovers.

3. Crumpled paper crown. To learn this Sorcery, force someone into another world.
   Themes: banishment, position, expulsion

   1. The caster becomes convinced they are the rightful monarch of the land, wrongly deposed, and desires their crown back at all costs.
   2. The caster insists on being at the front of the Company at all times.
   3. The caster receives a letter from wherever they learned the Sorcerous arts, which disavows them as an illiterate fool and a turner of cheap tricks, and forthwith strips them of any ranks, honours, or titles they may hold.

4. Exquisitely preserved finger, sliced cleanly. To learn this Sorcery, subvert the terms of an unbreakable oath.
   Themes: pact, willpower, malice

   1. The caster’s fingers all fall off.
   2. The caster must swear themselves to the service of the next person they meet.
   3. The caster swears undying vengeance on any who show them kindness.

5. Surgical scalpel with a handle of white bone, upon which is engraved a horse with open sores. To learn this Sorcery, the healthy must be made sick.
   Themes: pestilence, desperation, frailty

   1. The caster becomes the carrier of an incredibly dangerous disease, which does not affect them at all, but is incredibly contagious.
   2. The caster’s skin becomes paper, their bones glass.
   3. The First Horseman is loosed upon the world.

6. Broken off piece of a mural, its origins unknown. To learn this Sorcery, return what was lost to its rightful place.
   Themes: completion, separation, origin

   1. The next image the caster sees comes to life, its subjects emerging into the real world.
   2. The caster splits down the middle into two halves; they are unharmed, but the halves must be controlled separately.
   3. The next person the caster encounters claims they were grievously wronged by the caster, and demands restitution to be made whole.

7. Unfertilised phoenix egg. To learn this Sorcery, create life from death.
   Themes: fertility, reincarnation, gestation

   1. A newborn infant is summoned and the caster charged with its care; if the baby dies, the caster dies.
   2. The caster’s head splits open, out of which emerges the caster reborn again as an infant; it retains all its knowledge and is able to speak, but in all other ways has the capabilities of a newborn.
   3. An angry Phoenix descends from the sky, seeking the return of its egg.

8. Vial of perfume in the shape of a goat’s head. To learn this Sorcery, you must convince one who is chaste to indulge in the pleasures of the flesh.
   Themes: lust, chastity, obscenity

   1. The caster will attempt relentlessly to court an enemy’s hand in marriage.
   2. The caster becomes mortified at the prospect of wearing clothing that reveals any amount of skin.
   3. The caster’s diction becomes unspeakably obscene.

9. Wineskin, upon which is stitched the image of a swine. To learn this Sorcery, you must induce one who is moderate to excess.
   Themes: gluttony, temperance, inebriation

   1. The caster refuses all food and drink.
   2. The caster becomes unable to use or consume just ‘one’ of anything.
   3. Any future Sorceries cast by the caster, in addition to their other effects, summon a swine of random size and temperament.

10. Blood-red wax seal stamp depicting a galloping horse amid a battlefield. To learn this Sorcery, the friendly must be made to war.
    Themes: war, provocation, injury

    1. The caster becomes a committed pacifist, averse to any and all forms of violence.
    2. The caster refuses to acknowledge the severity of any injury they may receive.
    3. The Second Horseman is loosed upon the world.

11. Small porcelain figurine, broken in two and clumsily repaired. To learn this Sorcery, make right the earliest wrong you ever committed.
    Themes: youth, redemption, forgiveness

    1. The caster believes themselves to be the oldest being in existence, and will claim to have first-hand memory of any and all historic events.
    2. No apology of the caster’s is ever accepted.
    3. The caster believes themselves to have been gravely wronged by a random Company member.

12. Set of dice carved from the bones of a once infamous gambler. To learn this Sorcery, roll the dice and have the same number come up six times in a row.
    Themes: luck, probability, gamble

    1. The caster is ever doomed to ultimately lose at games of chance; if money is on the line, they will often start strong before falling into a string of disastrous losses.
    2. The caster’s estimation of how likely something is to occur is inversely proportional to its actual probability.
    3. The caster is unable to turn down any opportunity to gamble.

13. Bracelet in the shape of a snake devouring its tail. To learn this Sorcery, effect must precede cause.
    Themes: causality, consequence, inevitability

    1. Upon completing a task, the caster loses all recollection of their motivation for doing so.
    2. Anyone who finds themselves telling the caster of their woes will find themselves receiving a sanctimonious lecture about how “you have no one to blame for your problems but yourself!”
    3. The caster becomes convinced that their death is imminent, and becomes utterly resigned to this fate.

14. Small portrait of a woman who you recognise as your mother, who died in your birth. To learn this Sorcery, you must give your life to another.
    Themes: birth, shame, guilt

    1. A child appears, who follows the caster wherever they go; it does not speak, nor do anything but simply watch the caster. If it dies, it reappears the following morning. It appears to all who witness it as a child version of themselves.
    2. The caster apologises at every possible moment, constantly and profusely.
    3. The ghosts of those the caster has killed haunt them, following them around and generally making life as inconvenient as possible.

15. Blackened cook pot with an etching of a horse amid a field of withered crops. To learn this Sorcery, the full must be made to starve.
    Themes: famine, cruelty, deprivation

    1. All food the caster consumes turns to ash in their mouth.
    2. The caster enjoys the suffering of others much too obviously.
    3. The Third Horseman is loosed upon the world.

16. Jade figurine of a gaunt, skeletal horse. To learn this Sorcery, that which is dead must be made to die.
    Themes: death, overthrow, mortality

    1. The caster begins to decompose while still alive.
    2. The caster seeks to incite violent revolution wherever they go.
    3. The Fourth Horseman is loosed upon the world.

Graphic: A figurine of a gaunt skeletal horse, mounted on a stand, lifting one forehoof as if cantering forward.

1. Yellow arrow with blood-flecked, ragged fletching. To learn this Sorcery, you must stand in an arrow’s path and not be struck.
   Themes: hostility, recklessness, dedication

   1. The caster’s worst enemy falls madly in love with them.
   2. The caster feels compelled to perform increasingly dangerous stunts.
   3. A nearby person or animal becomes completely codependent on the caster, refusing ever to leave them alone, constantly asking them how they feel, etc.

2. Plush, velvet pillow, embroidered with the sigil of a snail. To learn this Sorcery, you must convince one who is diligent to shirk their duties and obligations.
   Themes: sloth, diligence, rest

   1. The caster will procrastinate doing any task till the last possible moment.
   2. The caster becomes unable to sleep.
   3. The caster refuses to accept aid from anyone, insisting on doing everything all by themselves.

Graphic: A comfortable looking pillow made from velvet with tassels hanging from each of the four corners. Embroidered in the center of the pillow is a snail, its body stark white against the pillow’s black.

1. Deck of well-worn cards, whose backs are decorated with unusual patterns. To learn this Sorcery, lightning must strike twice.
   Themes: chance, play, serendipity

   1. Probability is reversed around the caster.
   2. The caster becomes unable to win any games or contests.
   3. The caster is beset by constant, small, unfortunate coincidences.

2. Glittering golden coin, embossed with the figure of a toad. To learn this Sorcery, you must convince a person of charitable heart to hoard their wealth.
   Themes: greed, charity, property

   1. Everyone in the vicinity of the caster refuses to give money to anyone else.
   2. Everyone in the vicinity of the caster refuses to take money from anyone else.
   3. The caster becomes unable to have any worldly possessions.

Graphic: A roughly shaped coin stamped with the head of a toad. Its eyes are half-lidded and it has a small crown on its head. Its lips are parted to reveal human teeth, clutching a cirgar stub at the side of its mouth. Underneath the head are the words “greed”.

1. Simple wood plane with an oddly rough and bumpy finish. To learn this Sorcery, you must undo the creation of which you are proudest.
   Themes: creation, texture, destruction

   1. The caster is compelled to destroy any intricate, delicate, precarious constructions: houses of cards, sand castles, and other such.
   2. The caster loses all sense of touch.
   3. The caster will attempt to fix any broken object they come across, not stopping until the item is repaired.

2. Set of undergarments of an erotic and exotic cast. To learn this Sorcery, you must create desire between those who feel for each other only loathing.
   Themes: passion, diplomacy, power

   1. The caster falls madly in love with a new soulmate every month.
   2. The caster will attempt to stoke the enmities of any who seem as though they are making inroads to peace.
   3. The caster hoards incriminating evidence with which to blackmail people.

3. Red brick clung to by ancient mortar. To learn this Sorcery, you must replace the foundation without collapsing the structure.
   Themes: architecture, support, decay

   1. The caster refuses to enter any non-ruined building.
   2. The caster cannot stand still without falling over.
   3. The caster ages one year each day.

4. Writ of recall for a long exiled scholar. To learn this Sorcery, you must abandon the one dearest to you.
   Themes: learning, loss, irony

   1. Any mail or messages intended for the caster are forever waylaid, never to be received.
   2. Any object set down or dropped out of sight of the caster is immediately and irrevocably lost, seemingly vanishing from existence.
   3. The caster takes everything that is said literally.

5. Brittle bird’s nest, filled with broken, bloodstained eggs. To learn this Sorcery, you must nurse a living creature from infancy to maturity, and then consume it.
   Themes: home, empathy, hunger

   1. All children near the caster turn on and consume their parents.
   2. The caster feels the pain of all nearby creatures as their own.
   3. The caster becomes insatiably hungry; the more they consume, the more emaciated they become.

6. Mummified cat’s paw, which when held seems to emit a low, contended purr. To learn this Sorcery, one must poison themselves, in order to witness the vast unseen oneiric vistas that lay unexplored within one’s own mind.
   Themes: toxin, psyche, affection

   1. All cats immediately attack the caster on sight.
   2. The caster reverts to the mindset of a toddler.
   3. The caster becomes unable to be loved.

Graphic: A hooded figure, their mouth covered with a scarf, holding up a mummified cat’s paw in a tight grip. Their eyes are wide and locked on the paw. Scratches cover their exposed skin.

1. Fragmented pane of a stained glass window. To learn this Sorcery, you must see the truth unmediated.
   Themes: shatter, sight, distortion

   1. Any piece of glass near the caster shatters into tiny pieces.
   2. The caster sees everything in delirious, disorienting, microscopic detail.
   3. Everything close to the caster appears incredibly small, and everything far away incredibly large.

2. Old and heavy chisel; its weight fills you with grave responsibility. To learn this Sorcery, you must free someone who did not know they were shackled.
   Themes: leverage, rebellion, resistance

   1. The caster always trips when attempting to walk.
   2. No one will ever take orders or instructions from the caster.
   3. The character becomes the most publicly hated person; their conduct is blamed for all manner of social ills.

3. Time-worn painted scroll depicting an unknown mountain range. To learn this Sorcery, you must return home to a place you have never been.
   Themes: exploration, discovery, Alignment

   1. The caster will always wander away if left unattended.
   2. The caster insists that everything they encounter has been discovered by them, regardless if someone else found it first.
   3. The caster’s Alignment inverts.

4. Ancient and moth-worn burial shroud. To learn this Sorcery, you must mourn one who no one knows is lost.
   Themes: ritual, compassion, community

   1. The caster throws themselves into any ditch or hole they encounter.
   2. The caster becomes incredibly self-interested.
   3. The caster insists, at every opportunity, on splitting the Company.

5. Slimy, stinking ooze of unknown origin. To learn this Sorcery, you must cure the rot at the head of the fish.
   Themes: correction, purification, mystery

   1. The caster is compelled to explain and demonstrate to everyone the proper way something ought to be done, even if that person is performing the action correctly.
   2. All food and water near the caster rots.
   3. The caster refuses to answer any questions, instead giving only a knowing smirk.

6. Crown of dirty, woven grass. To learn this Sorcery, you must save the life of another without them ever knowing.
   Themes: recognition, honour, resourcefulness

   1. The caster will attempt to take credit for anything whenever possible.
   2. The caster becomes prone to offence, and will challenge those who have caused them offence to a face-off, given the chance.
   3. The caster compulsively maintains a list of everyone they believe owes them a favour of some sort.

7. Ancient misogynistic screed written on flaking parchment. To learn this Sorcery, find someone who, upon reading it, heartily agrees with the sentiments expressed. Then kill them.
   Themes: foolishness, reprisal, gender

   1. The caster’s every action is accompanied by comedic sound effects, though the source can never be found.
   2. Whenever the caster has been attacked in any way (verbally, physically, magically), they must respond in kind via the same means.
   3. Everyone perceives the caster to be a gender they are not.

8. The sun-baked, shed skin of a great serpent. To learn this Sorcery, Ouroboros must eat its head.
   Themes: secrets, growth, heat

   1. The caster becomes incapable of revealing any information about themselves.
   2. The caster grows one foot each Downtime Turn.
   3. The caster is only ever too hot or too cold, never just right.

9. Pouch of powdery, rose red soil, taken from a grave that was disturbed from below. To learn this Sorcery, you must carry a grain of sand on your fingertip for a week entire.
   Themes: dirt, focus, rebirth

   1. The caster becomes anxious unless they are buried at least waist deep, preferably neck deep.
   2. The caster loses the ability to concentrate on something for more than a few minutes at a time.
   3. The caster begins ageing in reverse.

10. Sweat-stained rags of an impoverished giant. To learn this Sorcery, one must dull themselves to the beauties of the world, and feel no joy or pleasure for a cycle of the moon.
    Themes: denial, filth, depression

    1. Any recreation the caster engages in brings them only irritation and misery.
    2. The caster will ever after refuse to bathe.
    3. The caster becomes irritatingly chipper at all times, especially those in whom it is most inappropriate.

11. Broken sword whose pommel is fashioned in the shape of a lion’s head. To learn this Sorcery, you must convince someone with no hate in their heart to kill one whom they despise.
    Themes: wrath, patience, violence

    1. The caster is surrounded by a whirling typhoon of blades.
    2. The caster becomes overly patient, drifting into apathy, frequently forgetting to pursue their desires at all.
    3. The caster develops a strong preference to solve every problem they encounter with a bare knuckle brawl if at all feasible.

Graphic: A broken sword, the blade snapped off to a quarter of its regular length, the blade pocked and chipped. The hilt is a lion’s head, the blade emerging from its open maw. Two long horns, one from the top of the lion’s head and the other from the bottom, form the crossguard. The hilt is gripped by a thick spiraling coil.

1. Book of epic poetry whose every line was plagiarised, the spine of which depicts a sinuous snake. To learn this Sorcery, you must convince one who is content with their lot in life to take what rightfully belongs to another.
   Themes: envy, gratitude, theft

   1. The caster turns a sickly shade of neon green; this colouration extends to anything they wear or hold.
   2. The caster is compelled to give gifts of great value to anyone who is kind to them.
   3. The caster is compelled to steal small items of great sentimental value.

2. Elaborate and ornate doublet, which greatly restricts one’s movement, adorned with the feathers of a peacock. To learn this Sorcery, you must convince someone of humble nature to deem themselves superior to all.
   Themes: pride, humility, hubris

   1. Whenever the caster speaks they must find some way to boast.
   2. The caster must have their companion’s unanimous approval for any action they take.
   3. The caster goes out of their way to make a foe out of priests, holy persons, angels, or gods they encounter.

3. Ancient scroll, yellowed and flaking. To learn this Sorcery, you must know what it is you must never know.
   Themes: prudence, reason, discernment

   1. The caster’s judgement of the danger of a situation is inversely proportional to how dangerous the situation actually is.
   2. The caster will accuse anyone who disagrees with them of being over-emotional, as opposed to the caster, who argues only with perfect “facts and logic”.
   3. The caster insists on making all the decisions for the Company, down to exacting, micromanaging detail.

4. Battered and oft-repaired wheel. To learn this Sorcery, you must resist that which is irresistible.
   Themes: temperance, appetites, production

   1. The caster refuses to consume any alcohol or other intoxicants, and will make a great show of their denial.
   2. The caster becomes incredibly snobbish regarding what items are fit for their consumption.
   3. The caster becomes incapable of abandoning any long term goal until it is completed, even those which seem destined for failure.

5. Ancient and primitive club. To learn this Sorcery, you must endure that which is unendurable.
   Themes: fortitude, courage, defence

   1. The caster develops an uncontrollable craving for consuming poisons.
   2. Creatures that meet the caster have an intense desire to try and frighten them.
   3. The caster turns into a solid cast iron statue whenever they are threatened.

Graphic: A cloaked and hooded figure cast in iron, their face locked in an expression of profound, close-eyed exhaustion. They grip a wood club in both hands. The club is unsanded and raw, appearing fresh cut from the tree.

1. Copper balance and scales, burnished to a brilliant gleam. To learn this Sorcery, you must find what is fair in that which is unfair.
   Themes: justice, proportionality, impartiality

   1. The caster believes altruism to be fundamentally unjust, and that the infliction of suffering on others is the only way to beget true fairness in the world.
   2. The caster’s head grows three times larger.
   3. The caster’s solution to any disagreement is to cut the baby in half, so to speak.