Blood Magic is a collection of abilities that enhance characters bodies in some way. Unlike spells, Blood magic works differently and does not use magical Power and has no connection to the draconic gods. Due to this, Blood magic is only available to characters that have not learnt spells. If a Character has even one Focused or Inherent spell, then they are forever unable to access Blood Magic. This works both ways, as a character who has trained in the use of Blood Magic can never use any Focused or Inherent Power
There are a number of different classes of Blood Magic split into groups of similar abilities:
Characters can only learn from one of these groups at any time and must learn each ability in procession from the lowest costing ability to the most expensive. Characters may learn from a different group only when all abilities in the current group have been learnt.
As mentioned, Blood Magic in itself does not involve power, but instead concentrates on the harmony of mind and body. The more ranks of Body Development the character gains the greater the number of abilities can be used each day .
The number of times Blood Magic may be used in a day is worked out as twice the total number of Ranks of Body Development that the Character has. For Example: A Character with Body III is able to use six Blood Magic Rituals per day.
In order to gain the benefits of Blood Magic, a Character must perform a ritual. Each ritual requires a focal point, normally an object such as a candle, for the ritual to be perfumed around. If the Ritualist or focal point is stopped or disturbed in any way, the ritual is lost and no benefits are gained, although the Ritualist may take damage without disrupting the ritual. All rituals only affect the person performing the ritual.
Each Ritualist does things differently. The only things that must be consistent are the necessity for an obvious start and finish point and for the ritual to be long enough. If this causes a problem then ask the ref to give you the nod when you start and finish.
Normal starting vocals are:
“Using my mind and body I begin the ritual of ….”
During the ritual, you may choose to slowly move, such as exercising and stretching muscles. But you may not take any offensive or defensive actions in any form unless you break the ritual. You must also not move away from the immediate area where the ritual was started.
Once the ritual duration time has passed, the normal finishing vocals are:
“I thank my mind for the focus and my body for its strength. My ritual of ……. has ended.”
Unless otherwise specified, each ritual takes 1 min to perform and the benefits only apply once the ritual has been completed successfully. Most rituals provide an ability that does not have an immediate effect, instead, the ability will only work if a character is targeted by a specific spell or in the presence of a specific ability or performs an action that the ritual affects. From that point, the dormant ability will become active and protect the character from the effect for a further five minutes. Once this duration has ended, the ritual must be performed again in order to gain continued protection.
Characters can have any number of dormant abilities providing they perform a ritual for each one and do not attempt to perform more rituals than they are able to for the day.
A character who uses rituals, or ritualists as some prefer to be called, will regain the full number of rituals available to use after a nights rest at dawn, refreshing the limit set by the ranks of Body. Any existing dormant rituals will dissipate at dawn and cannot be carried over. All ritualists will perform a morning ritual on waking, generally five minutes long, but this is purely ceremonial and can be overlooked in difficult situations such as during a siege or on an adventure.