Arts
Each of the Arts line up with either a subject or an action. They deal with what kinds of things the spell can affect:
- Animal (An) Animal. This Form targets beasts of the field, birds of the air, and fish under the sea. It does not target humanoids like dwarves or elves.
Pronounced “ah-nee-MAHL.”
- Aquam (Aq) Water. This Form affects water and all kinds of liquids. It also affects fluidic properties of other types of matter.
Pronounced “AH-kwahm.”
- Auram (Au) Air. This Form affects air and gasses of all types. It also targets the wind and weather, including lightning.
Pronounced “OW-rahm.”
- Corpus (Co) Body. This Form deals with humanoid bodies, living and deceased. It does not target animals like cattle or birds.
Pronounced “COR-poos.”
- Herbam (He) Plant. This Form has to do with plants and trees and their byproducts, like lumber and textiles.
Pronounced “HARE-bahm.”
- Ignem (Ig) Fire. This Form concerns itself with all matters pertaining to heat and light.
Pronounced “IG-nem.”
- Imaginem (Im) Appearance. This Form deals with the perceptions of the senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. It affects the appearance that a subject presents to the world, but it does not change the subject’s actual effects.
Pronounced “ih-MAH-gih-nem.”
- Mentem (Me) Mind. This Form pertains to minds, thoughts, and spirits. It can also affect the bodies of incorporeal entities like ghosts and wraiths.
Pronounced “MEN-tem.”
- Terram (Te) Earth. This Form has to do with most types of solid, inorganic matter, but especially with earth and stone.
Pronounced “TARE-rahm.”
- Vim (Vi) Power. This Form affects raw magical power. It can also affect the magical bodies of extraplanar and faerie creatures.
Pronounced “WEEM.”
The Techniques describe actions. They deal with what the spell does to the subject:
- Creo (Cr) I create. With Creo, a magus can make magical subjects out of nothing; however, that’s not all. Ze can also restore existing subjects to their natural state, healing them from damage and degradation. Finally, Creo can improve a subject to its natural potential, making a horse as fast as the fastest horse alive or a shield as strong as the toughest wood.
Pronounced “CRAY-oh.”
- Intellego (In) I perceive. Intellego permits its caster to learn all kinds of information about the true nature of a subject. It does not deal with causality or probability, however.
Pronounced “in-TEL-le-go.”
- Muto (Mu) I change. A magus uses Muto to transform the subject in an unnatural manner, giving it features or properties it does not normally possess or taking away intrinsic features or properties. The more substantial a change is, the higher its level.
Pronounced “MOO-toe.”
- Perdo (Pe) I destroy. Perdo, the opposite of Creo, breaks down the subject into a worse or less effective state. It can simply destroy the subject, or it can remove natural properties or features of the subject, like a body’s ability to heal naturally or a steel plate’s ability to resist force. It cannot be used to make something better, even if sharpening a sword technically removes some of its edge or removing a wound might make someone well.
Pronounced “PARE-doe.”
- Rego (Re) I control. This Technique lets the magus alter a subject’s natural state. It can include all matter of natural changes, like causing a human to fall asleep or forcing a tree to bud out of season or moving a teacup across the room. It cannot cause unnatural changes, however, like aging a subject—that would be degrading the subject, a function of Perdo—or changing the color of a dog’s coat. As a rule of thumb, Rego can cause any change a natural craftsman would be able to accomplish on a subject, given unlimited time, tools, strength, and skill.
Pronounced “RAY-go.”
In addition to the Arts, each Ars Magica spell is expressed in terms of three parameters which define its extents. Each of these parameters has a default at the low end of a spectrum of possibilities. To increase the value of a parameter, the caster increases the magnitude of the spell by an equal number of rows. Magnitude 1 spells below Level 5 are a special case: instead of increasing the Magnitude of the Spell, each parameter shift increases its Level, up to Level 5. After that, shifting a parameter increases the spell’s Magnitude, as normal.
Spell Parameters
Range
Default: Personal.
The range of a spell is the distance to the nearest part of its target.
- Personal. (Default.) The spell affects the caster or the things ze wears or carries.
- Touch. The spell affects anything or anyone the caster touches.
- Eye. The spell affects anyone with whom the caster shares eye contact.
- Voice. The spell affects anyone within the range of the caster’s voice: typically, 30’ for
normal volume or 60’ at a shout.
- Road. (Faerie Magic only.) This level is only accessible by those inducted into the Faerie Magic mystery. See 'Mysteries' in the 'Rules of Magic' section, below.
- Sight. The spell affects any target the caster can see.
- Arcane Connection. The spell affects any target to which the caster has an Arcane Connection.
Duration
Default: Momentary.
A spell’s duration is the how long its effect remains active. Note that although the effect ends, the effect’s consequences often persist.
- Momentary. (Default.) The spell effect remains active for a moment and then dissipates.
- Concentration. The spell effect remains active while the caster concentrates on it.
- Diameter. The spell effect remains active for as long as it takes the sun to move its diameter
in the sky: almost exactly two minutes.
- Sun. The spell effect remains active until the next time the sun rises or sets.
- Ring. The spell effect remains active until the target moves outside a ring drawn at or before the time of casting or until the ring is broken.
- Moon. The spell effect remains active until both the new and full moon have set.
- Fire. (Faerie Magic only.) This level is only accessible by those inducted into the Faerie Magic mystery. See 'Mysteries' in the 'Rules of Magic' section, below.
- Year. (Requires a Ritual.) The spell effect remains active until sunrise on the fourth equinox or solstice after its casting.
- Until. (Faerie Magic only, Requires a Ritual.) This level is only accessible by those inducted into the Faerie Magic mystery. See 'Mysteries' in the 'Rules of Magic' section, below.
- Year +1 (Faerie Magic only, Requires a Ritual.). This level is only accessible by those inducted into the Faerie Magic mystery. See 'Mysteries' in the 'Rules of Magic' section, below.
Target
Default: Individual.
Target expresses what or how much the spell can affect.
- Individual. (Default.) The spell can affect a single entity, such as a person or object.
- Circle. The spell affects everything inside a ring drawn at or before the time of casting.
- Part. The spell affects part of a discrete thing, like a person’s arm or a section of the ground.
- Group. The spell affects a group of people or things close together in space.
- Room. The spell affects everything within a chamber.
- Structure. The spell affects everything within a single structure.
- Bloodline. (Faerie Magic only.) This level is only accessible by those inducted into the Faerie Magic mystery. See 'Mysteries' in the 'Rules of Magic' section, below.
- Boundary. (Requires a Ritual.) The spell affects everything within a well-defined natural or man-made boundary. It’s only available for rituals.
Definitions
- Arcane Connection: A piece or possession of a ritual’s target used to link the spell to its target at casting. How long a connection remains viable depends on what it is and how it is stored.
- Art: One of the 15 categories of magic, made up of domains called Forms and methods called Techniques
- Duration: How long a spell will affect its target. The base level is Momentary, meaning the active effect of the spell lasts for an instant and then dissipates. Increasing its category adds one Magnitude to the spell’s level each or one level to the spell up to Level 5.
- Flaw: A disadvantage from Ars Magica that makes the character’s life more difficult
- Form: A grouping of magic that defines what types of being the spell can affect. A Noun, in the spell syntax of the system
- Formulaic Spell: In Ars Magica, a spell written down in a book. It can be cast quickly, easily, and with minimal preparation
- Magic Resistance: An innate quality of mages and magical creatures that makes them immune to weaker magical effects
- Magnitude: 1 Level of Magnitude = 5 Spell Levels (rounded up) e.g., A 15th level spell is 3rd Magnitude.
- Parma Magica: A mage’s ability to resist spells and to extend that resistance to others
- Range: The distance over which a spell can be cast. The base level is Personal, meaning the caster can only affect hirself or things ze is wearing or carrying. Increasing its category adds one Magnitude to the spell’s level each or one level to the spell up to Level 5.
- Ritual: A type of magic casting in Ars Magica that takes extra time and preparation, but is often more powerful than the quicker spells mages use. A Ritual is always at least Level 20, takes fifteen minutes per level of Magnitude, and costs 1 Raw Vis per level of Magnitude
- Sigil: A trademark effect or mark that runs through every instance of magic a caster works. It can be an environmental effect, like the scent of roses, or a personal effect, like the maga’s eyes glowing when she casts a spell, or a mutative effect of the spell itself, like a white patch that appears on anything the caster’s spell targets.
A sigil can never have a useful effect, as it’s just an expression of personal style. It also leaves traces that can be used to identify the spell caster.
- Spontaneous Spell: In Ars Magica, a spell the caster invents on the fly. It’s slower and more difficult to cast than a formulaic spell, but it gives the caster great versatility
Target: What a spell can affect. The base level is Individual, meaning the spell affects a single creature or object. Increasing its category adds one Magnitude to the spell’s level each or one level to the spell up to Level 5.
- Technique: A grouping of magic that defines the kinds of things a spell can do to its target. A Verb, in the spell syntax of the system
- Twilight Scar: The marks left from a wizard’s encounter with Twilight. A scar can have positive or neutral effects on the mage, depending on hir experience, but it’s always magical in nature. The air around the mage may always smell faintly of roses, for example, or hir eyes may glitter with many colors, or ze may always walk a fraction of an inch above any surface. For Hermetics that prefer to keep their magic on the down-low, scars usually take less conspicuous forms: the people around hir may tend to feel happy, or insects may avoid biting hir.
- Virtue: An advantage from Ars Magica that works similarly to a feat
- Vis: (pronounced 'wees’) Magical power. When made manifest in a solid substance, it’s called 'Raw Vis.' Raw vis invariably exists in some kind of matter appropriate to the Technique or Form to which it corresponds. Animal vis might be found in blood, skins, or horns; Herbam vis in plant fiber or sap; Terram vis in crystals; and so on. When raw vis is used its power is permanently lost. When this happens its substance often changes — dissolving, withering, crumbling, shriveling, or otherwise degrading — in whatever way is appropriate to it.
- Warping: The effect strong or prolonged magical exposure has on people and things in the world. At sufficient levels of warping, the subject may begin to exhibit strange quirks and unusual features related to the magic that shared hir. On the whole, though, warping is very uncommon except among practicioners of magic and their servants.
- Wizard’s Twilight: The reaction hermetically-trained mages have to Warping, which involves strange visions and temporary paralysis as the character’s mind struggles to assimilate the changes magick wreaks in hir body. While in such a state, the mage’s body may disappear entirely or it may remain but seem out of phase with the world. In such cases, the mage’s body is completely immune to magic, mundane damage, aging, and hunger, and it is completely unable to perform magic.