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Magic

Magic is the shaping of the powers of Ether by will alone. At its heart magic is about Power - personal power. Only the very talented and skilled can manage it, and each level of power comes with a price paid in sweat, toil tears, and often blood.

Any magical act is called a “Casting.” There are four separate types of Castings: Spells, which are magics intended only for short term effect; Enchantments, which are long term magics, even permanent on occasion; Summonings, which are spells that call extraplanar beings into reality for a brief period; and Artificing, which is the practice of manipulating physical matter (either animate or inanimate) to build magical devices and creatures.

With the exception of Artificing, all Castings are just variations on the basic Spell with a few additional rules, costs and effects. Artificing functions similarly to normal Industrial construction, though with a number of specific rules.

Note: In Lords of Ether, the terms “Spells”, “Enchantments”, “Summonings” and “Artificing” apply to very specific magical uses and should not be used interchangeably.

Casting Level and Combining Magical Categories

All Castings have a level. This level determines how complex the magic is; how long it will take to prepare, how much power it will require, and how skilled a mage will be needed to actually use it. Casting Level is the sum of all the levels of the various Magical Categories used.

Most Castings only use a single Magical Category, but the more complex magics combine multiple Magic Categories to enhance their effects. You may otherwise combine as many Magical Categories as you like, but a spell can only be cast by a mage with all of the categories used in it.

Thus a Casting prepared with Destruction Level 4 would be a Level 4 Casting, while one prepared with Destruction Level 4 and Transmogficiation Level 3 would be a Level 7 Casting.

Note: It is not always necessary to combine Magical Categories. Often two separate Castings cast sequentially can have the same cumulative effect as a single combined one. This is always the cheaper way of doing things, however multiple separate spells can interfere with each other, and placing more than two Castings at once on a single unit or batch usually means the failure of the additional Castings.

Area of Effect

Castings naturally affect one target, or one localized target area of small size. Area of Effect can be used to expand this, allowing a Casting to affect many more targets, or a vast area. Area of Effect increases the Ether cost of a Casting, but it does not increase the time the Casting takes to prepare. As the skill and power of a Mage increases, so too does the maximum class of Area of Effect she can use. As a note free levels of Area of Effect granted by various sources cannot allow a Mage to exceed the maximum of their class and if they cannot be used, they are wasted.

The Area of Effect Table is as follows:

Class	Ether	Mage Type	Area of Effect
0	+0	Postulant	1 person/small vehicle (truck, battlesuit)
I	+1	Disciple	up to 10 people/large vehicle (tank, plane)
II	+2	Adept/Specialist	up to 100 people/small warship
III	+3	Master/Trained S.	up to 1,000 people/cruiser
IV	+4	Archmage/Expert S.	up to 10,000 people/capital ships
V	+5	Oracle	up to 100,000 people/mega capital ship

Destruction Castings often have secondary effects that naturally add to their Area of Effect, such as the blast radius of a fireball, or shrapnel from an ice blast, as a result all Destruction Castings gain one free class of Area of Effect. This free area of effect does not have to be used, but if taken it incurs no extra ether cost. If the Mage chooses to raise the Area of Effect over and above the free amount, they can subtract the free levels from the overall total, so a Class V Destruction spell would only cost +4 Ether rather than +5.

The Area of Effect of a Casting can be paid for either when the Casting is being prepared, or at any time prior to the beginning of a battle or other game event. Obviously if a Mage wishes to “power up” a Casting just prior to using it they must have sufficient Ether on hand. It should also be stressed that this must still be done prior to the mage actually diving into the action, as such preparations still take time and concentration. Any Casting charged with Area of Effect can still be used at a lower level of power, though Ether spent on Area of Effect can never be regained.

Preparation Time

The preparation time for a Casting is determined by its Casting Level. This is not quite as straightforward as the Area Effect Table. Any Casting of level 1-3 is a fairly simple undertaking and requires minimal preparation time, allowing such magic to be instantly cast by the Power as required. In actual fact Mages do still spend time preparing these spells, the process is routine enough that the rules do not bother to model this. A Casting of level 4 requires a week to prepare, and a Casting of level 5 requires a month. Every level above Casting Level 5 adds another month. Thus a Level 6 Casting would take two months to prepare, while a Level 12 Casting would take 8 months.

There is normally no way to speed up the preparation time, as Mages must be very careful when developing such magics, however special facilities such as the Arcane Laborium can speed up the process for Mages working within their walls.

Of particular note, there is a special Preparation rule that applies to Summonings. Summonings are more intrinsically dangerous than Spells or Enchantments, because the Mage is often dealing with intelligent forces that have a will of their own, do not necessarily wish to be summoned, and will actively attempt to thwart the Mage. Because of their tricky nature, mages must prepare meticulously for even the simplest Summonings, and the preparation time for any Summoning is the Casting Level in months. Thus a Level 5 Summoning would take 5 months to prepare, not 1.

This extended Preparation Time for Summoning can sometimes be circumvented if the Mage actively travels to the summoned being’s dimension and bargains directly with it. This is a dangerous and risky option that can often result in the loss of the Mage in question, and is usually – succeed or fail – accompanied by a daring story. If successful however it can result in Summoning Preparation times of no more than a week, though the Casting Cost is unchanged. A Mage must have Movement or Mental at Level 5 to use this option, and it will require story posts and GM attention

Casting Cost

Magic is raw power, and as such is much less energy efficient than technology, burning energy at a fantastic rate. Casting Cost is determined by its Casting Level and Area Effect, and is always paid in Ether. Enchantments and Summonings have separate cost mechanics.

Cost of Spells

Spells of levels 1, 2 and 3 have no Casting Cost. Or rather, while the Spell does require Ether to work, the amount is so small it fades into the normal Ether Upkeep for the mage. Castings of level 4 and 5 incur “High Magic Costs” which is additional Ether that must be paid for each such Casting that is prepared. Spells of Level 4 incur a cost of 1 Ether, level 5 a cost of 2 Ether and so on, each new level adding another point of Ether to the cost. Thus, a Spell of level 9 would cost 6 Ether.

The Casting Cost can be further modified by Area of Effect rules, as discussed above. This is added directly to any other costs. Thus the above Level 9 Spell, if cast with Class V Area of Effect, would have an additional cost of 5 Ether, for a total Casting Cost of 14 Ether!

In short: Cost = Spell Level -3 + AoE

Enchantments

An enchantment is a temporary boost applied to a unit through the use of magic. The relative power, and cost, lies in the advancement difference between the unit being enchanted and the magic it is being enchanted with. The enchantment itself manifests in the form of a temporary Added Capability that represents a mage doing something such as blessing ordinary steel to take a white-hot edge of fiery purification. The reason enchanting costs vary with advancement level is that the enchantment will also provide some broad (and equally temporary) improvements that are generally helpful to low-advancement units when fighting higher ones. Generally, enchantments are freely available to any artificed unit, any technological unit less than advancement 3.5 and any technomagical unit where any technology over 3.5 is fused with a magical category. Enchantments need not be applied and used immediately. They can remain inactive for a time, to a maximum of the end of the budget year. The basic Enchantment duration is three months when activated. The Casting Cost of a three month Enchantment is the Base Batch Cost of the unit being enchanted multiplied by the Magical Advancement Level plus 1 ether for every level of difference in advancement between the unit being enchanted and the enchantment magical level. As such enchanting some TL2 musketeers to have +1 exploding shot at ML4 would cost 1 x 4 + 2 = 6 ether. Enchantments cast on units must have an ML at least equal to their advancement level.

In short: Cost = Base Batch Cost x ML + ML/TL Difference per Added Capability

A unit can have a maximum of 2 enchantments.

The duration of Enchantments can be extended to last until the end of the year. This means the Enchantment will expire with the New Year, no matter when in the current year it was cast (call it the changing of the Astral Tides). This doubles the Casting Cost of the Enchantment. It should be noted that a one-year Enchantment may not actually last a year. Enchantments that are frequently activated or are attacked by countermagic often fail early.

One thing of note is that you must have mages in the area in question to perform enchantments and that certain large units will require a mage of commensurate power. For example a Level 4 enchantment will require a Master to be present, and doing 10 batches at once on a battlefield will require 10 Master mages to be present. Regardless of enchantment level, for a Base Batch Cost greater than 1 an Archmage is required. For a Base Batch Cost greater than 5 an Oracle is required.

Summonings

Summonings pay Casting Cost in two parts; for the Summoning Spell itself, and then for the Summoned Being. The Summoning Spell costs 1 Ether for every Casting Level as well as any High Magic costs. Added to this is the PP cost of the Summoned Being, or Batch (or partial Batch) of beings, which is calculated in the same manner as any military unit, using Base Cost, Modifiers, and Advancement Level. The Advancement Level of the Summoned Being cannot be higher than the Casting Level of the Summoning Spell itself.

One Summoning Spell can only call a maximum of a single Batch of Summoned Beings. It is not necessary to summon an entire Batch, but doing so only reduces the cost of the Summoned Beings, not the Summoning Spell itself.

Some limitations apply to Summoning Spells in the same way it applies to Enchantments, thus a Mage would have to be an Oracle to summon a Lord of Hell.

Summoned Beings generally last for a month before dissipating, or returning to their home plane. As with Enchantments their stay can be extended until the end of the year by paying twice the total Casting Cost – Summoning Spell and Summoned Being. However year-long Summoned Beings may depart earlier if engaged in heavy combat or sufficiently wounded. Worse, in the case of the more powerful Summoned Beings, a year-long stay on our plane of existence may allow them to collect enough information and power to free themselves – and then pay their erstwhile masters back for their term of bondage!

Artificing

Artificing is the artisan craft that produces magical items and materials, exclusively at the hand of a learned spellcaster with honed skills. How they do it, either literally with hammer in hand or using an arcane device of their own construction, is rather immaterial to the fact that the craft requires the entirety of the artisan's time and focus. Fundamentally unlike technology, no part of the process can be offloaded to automation or a broader base of workers. This is largely the way in which Powers that are mostly or exclusively magical can craft Units without the need for technology, technomagic or its associated infrastructure. In order to practice Artificing a Power must have advanced past the threshold of hedge magic and possess Transmogrification (or Creation in the case of biological wonders or horrors) of at least level 3. When using Added Capabilities, the associated magical school must also be at least Level 3. Technological Advancement Levels and Added Capabilities cannot be used on Artificed units.

To reflect the devotion of spellcasters to this task and not to others, a Power must sacrifice (spend) some amount of Research annually to produce Artificed units. At the beginning of each year an amount of Research is spent on Artificing and every month through the year they will be able to spend the same amount of PP on artificed units. For example, if 20 Research were spent on Artificing, then 20 PP of Artificed units would be produced every month until the end of the year.

The cost of artificed units are similar to those produced by other means, with (Base Cost + number of Added Capabilities) multiplied by the magical Advancement Level used in their production. Their build times are independent of the sophistication of the associated infrastructure and are instead uniform at (base cost + number of Added Capabilities) x 5 months. The use of 1 geode per point of base batch cost can reduce this to x3 months. There is no other way to increase build speed of Artificed Units. At game start, artificed units are bought like tech units, (base cost + caps) x highest ML level = pp cost.

Artificed units are fundamentally different from those produced by technology or technomagic, suited more towards the naked application of force than those of an exact equivalent technological power but having gaps in capability and associated weaknesses. Unlike Technology this means that a basic Artificed unit by default does not include the other schools of magic that a power might have. Given that transmogrification or creation alone can only imbue a material with structure and form, they begin unsophisticated and inherently lack the advantages afforded by complex mass-produced machinery or electronics. For example, basic Artificed infantry with no Added Capabilities have only what basic equipment Transmogrification can give them. This means melee weaponry, their base mobility and armour. This is largely true of other types of units as well. This is not to say that artificed units are melee-only, forever without certain abilities or are necessarily weaker. Artificed units can gain the full benefits of other schools of magic through Added Capabilities or Enchantments. Artificed added capabilities also tend to be more powerful than their Technological equivalents. The easiest way to conceptualize this is that after the basic frame is crafted from raw materials, it does not inherently possess any ability to generate energetic effects like flaming blades or ominously hovering over terrain until another mage with a different skill set comes along to carve the levitation runes. To equip the example infantry with sun-guns with the white-hot light of fiery purification, at least a +1 added capability to that effect is required, along with Destruction. Ranged weapons do not specifically require Destruction or any other school, however even with only Transmogrification an Added Capability is still needed to reflect the extra investment in time and effort of creating something with more complicated moving parts like a crossbow. Similarly a magical star ship at ML4 does not have a shield-like energy barrier like a Technological unit with Physics 4 unless it is specifically equipped with one.

This leads to Artificed units often being specialized for specific roles as it is often impractical or impossible to include added capabilites or enchantments in all areas, particularly at low advancement levels. Battlefield mages often perform duties that are taken for granted in Technological powers, such as long-distance communication, scrying for enemy activity or for applying situation-specific enchantments when certain abilities are needed. This means that operating a purely magical military often requires a greater degree of management than a technological or technomagical one, with some weaknesses in roundedness in exchange for raw power.

Artificed infantry by default has 1 WU, 0 IUU, and 0 EU upkeep. Artificed vehicles default to 1/0/1. The first addition of ranged weapons adds either 1 IUU or EU, and the unit then gains additional upkeep from caps as per usual (described cap-by-cap in the unit lists).

Artificed units take draft as normal.

Doomsday Magic

Ultimate magical power and also consequences.

If the Casting Level of a spell is paid in geodes, then it becomes a Doomsday spell with a substantial increase in power. AoE costs are paid in ether, but unlike other magic AoE costs for Doomsday spells are the Casting Level multiplied by the AoE modifier. No form of free AoE increase applies. This implies that a Destruction 5 Doomsday Spell with an AoE of 5 would cost 5 geodes and 25 ether.

Storing and Using Castings

Once a Casting is prepared and the Ether costs paid, it does not have to be immediately used. The Casting can be stored in a reagent or vessel. A reagent is some sort of perishable item that when used in a certain way by a Mage with the necessary skill will release the magical energy stored within - a plant leaf, animal part, or powder for instance. A vessel is a non-perishable item that can store the magic, to be released by a specific gesture or arcane word, again, by a suitably skilled Mage. Common vessels are things like rings, amulets of magic staffs (or perhaps the Mage herself!). As vessels and reagents can be given to other mages a Casting need not be used by the mage who prepared it, but it must be used by a mage who understands all the magical levels involved, and is capable of handling any Area of Effect that has been added to the Casting.

Prepared and stored Castings do not have an expiry date and can be stored indefinitely. A prepared Casting can be voluntarily dispelled by any mage commanding the vessel or reagent. Destroying the reagent or vessel will also dispel the Casting. In the case of a Mage who uses herself as a vessel, apart from death, there are various magical and technological procedures that can be used should she be taken captive which can also dispel or hold in check any spells she may have stored within. Most of these revolve around channeling a negating flow of Ether through her, a procedure not dissimilar to electrocution and thus rather painful.

A Mage can only use one major Casting at a time. A major Casting is any magic that requires the expenditure of additional Ether, beyond the Mage’s usual Upkeep. This means any Enchantment, Summoning, Level 4 or 5 Casting, or Casting charged with Area of Effect Classes counts as major. Because of the energy involved, these Castings require a serious focus of will, and Mages cannot effectively multi-task to manage more than one. The number of Mages available thus influences the number of major Castings a Power can use in any one phase of a battle.

Range of Magic

Some magic involves ranged effects, most commonly offensive or detection spells. This is determined not by the Casting itself, but by the ability of the Mage. The more powerful a Mage the greater range at which the Casting can operate. As with all things, using Castings at longer ranges decreases their effectiveness. Weaker spells thrown over long ranges, regardless of the skill of the mage tend to lose a great deal of their power. It is also quite possible to miss with a spell and mages who are unfamiliar with battle techniques are more susceptible to this than most.

The range table is described below:

Mage Type	Max Offensive Range	Max Detection Range
Postulant	Melee	Melee
Disciple	Very Close	Close
Specialist/Adept	Close	Medium
Trained Specialist/Master	Medium	Far
Experienced Specialist/Archmage	Far	Very Far
Oracle	Very Far	Intersystem

Note that these ranges are not universally applicable. Castings such as invasive mind control require close range contact no matter the power of the mage involved, and some spells such as teleport spells with an anchor ignore them entirely. There are also methods, involving Movement and Mental, to circumvent these ranges by sending spells through gates or by projecting the consciousness of the mage away from her body. Some of these methods and exceptions will be described in the Example Spell Book section, but given the endless possibilities of magic this is by no means exhaustive and others are up to rulings by the Game Moderators.

Counter Magic

There are a number of ways to counter the effects of magic; Standard Countermagic, Opposed Effects, or General Jamming.

Standard Countermagic

Standard Countermagic is the default method. It must be performed by a Mage who has at least one level in all the Magical Categories involved in the Casting at hand. The Counterer does not have to be able to cast the spell herself, only have minimal knowledge of the spell's basic form. Standard Countermagic involves the pitting of the will of one mage against another and requires no extra Ether expenditure or prior preparation on the part of the Counterer. However it does require a great deal of focus and very fast reactions. As such, to best use this method a mage must be largely free of distractions and focussing on the potential attack. Attempting Standard Countermagic "on the fly" makes success less likely. All things being equal success is judged mainly based on the skills of the mages in question - a Postulant is manifestly unlikely to be able to counter the spell of an Oracle in this manner, while even a distracted Oracle will be able to laugh at any spell a Postulant may try to throw at her.

Opposed Effects

Opposed Effects are the most reliable form of Countermagic. In this situation two castings act directly upon each other, such as a Destruction fireball against a Movement shield, a plague curse against a curative enchantment, or a teleport spell against a dimensional barrier. More reliable than Standard Countermagic, the downside is that, like any Casting, the Opposing Effect must also be prepared beforehand and may cost its own Ether. Such Effects can in fact be set up on an automatic trigger requiring only an imminent threat and minimal action from the Mage's subconscious so as to activate in time, though the Mage still cannot be busy casting other magic. They can also be Spells cast for a one-time-only counter, or Enchantments for long term standing protection. Of note: Technological systems generally act as Opposed Effects, with devices like neural scanners defeating mental suggestion, or energy shields defeating lightning bolts.

General Jamming

General Jamming is a method most used by Technology, however it also has its Magical uses. In this case a general Etheric field disrupts all magical effects (though the more sophisticated fields can be selective about what they impede). All technological ECM systems can have this effect, and the most powerful can be a real problem. When used as magic these effects are usually cast as a long term Enchantment, which works to hinder certain forms (or even all forms) of magic in an area. However it does not directly block or counteract the Casting as with an Opposed Effect but merely disrupts and weakens it. Rather than a dimensional barrier to physically block a teleport spell, Magical Jamming might just dilute or muffle the signal of the spell's anchor. As such it is usually overall less effective than a direct Opposed Effect, but usually lasts longer.

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