On the table are presented 52 playing cards, face-down in a random order.
A mage is asked to pick out the Ace of Spades among them.
They pull out a random one...
-- And their power forcibly makes that card into the one desired --
The rigid and classical Temple-University of Edinburgh. The mysterious and often feared Scholomance in Transylvania. The eccentric and little-understood Crypts of Salamanca. The chaotic and dangerous Kyöpelinvuori. The modern and forward-thinking Abbey of Thelema. And as their centerpoint, the mystical and ageless Prague Orloj.
These are the six grand schools of magic that make up the Pentagrammon – Europe's Pentagram.
An organization that reaches its roots all the way back to figures like Hermes Trismegistus and King Solomon, the Pentagrammon has been an uniting factor between the various, numerous mages hidden in the world. Originally, the various schools and cabals were many and separated, but back some 500 years ago they were reforged into a loose collective in the aftermath of a certain disaster. These days the Six Pentagrammon Schools are the major learning centers for mages across the world, to the point they have been accused of stealing students from smaller institutions by paying handsome stipends for individuals who show even the smallest of promise. Yet, despite the grumbling in the shadows, Pentagrammon is the leading voice in politics of magic around the globe.
As the thickness of inhuman blood is getting weaker and weaker by the generation and as old families die out by the dozens, it is no wonder that Pentagrammon tries to gather all candidates within its protective walls. In the last two decades it has even began to encroach to the independent institutions of Asia and dared to breach its pact with the Freemasons who outlawed magic in America long ago. Being based in the Old World, a center of mystic arts, has always been Pentagrammon's strength, but these days it might also be too late. It may be expanding too little too late...
You are one of these promising candidates; You are a student of Pentagrammon.
You are a mage.
As a mage, you have a blood running through your way that's not quite human. One of your ancestors was a magical, mythical beast that had gathered numen: a semi-divine power that could be thought as an unit of measure to the legend and stories around that creature, capable of powering it even further. The more numen something has, the more powerful it is. This numen was then passed on to its children through their genes, allowing them to harness the power of numen to wield magic; impossible, mythical feats brought made reality. Whether your ancestor was an ogre, a kitsune, a gorgon or even an akhlut, the numen they had has manifested in you as a control over mystic arts.
As the old saying of mages goes: “A human can see beauty in everything, even fire or thunder. It is from those unions that us mages are born.”
The power of mages are two-fold. First you have the numen within you, which allows your body to naturally generate mana – the power needed to power spells. Then, your mythical heritage might have made your body a bit more supernatural than most: your strength could be tremendous, you could be unnaturally good-looking, all sorts of things all tied to the origin of the inhuman blood within you. This means that there are as many different mages as there are people, everyone using their powers their own way. Some use them to fight monsters, some pursue academics, some want to delve deep into the mysteries of the world... however, whatever it is you want to do with your powers, you must first learn to control them. And that is where the Pentagrammon comes in.
Many of the oldest mage families want to home tutor their children to ensure their spells, rituals and powers are passed on just right, but many send their heirs to one of the Pentagrammon schools to get some active experience on spellcasting, incantations and harnessing your mana. Then, of course, there are those who are outside the jurisdiction of Pentagrammon, which means they are usually educated by a local, smaller temple, school or a coven if the family itself fails to do so. Still, while the means of educating young mages are many and varied, there is but one rule that every mage across the globe agrees to:
One must never reveal their existence to the world. Those who do are punished by death.
After all, those who have gained the power of magic have lost the power of mankind in return, making them alien to this planet and its rules they bend with their magic. There are Seven Unbreakable Rules that the mages skirt around, century to century, but only The Seven have ever broken them. There won't be an eight.
And for that reason, a mage must never be found out by the normal populace, for he is an error that the world will try to erase.
Mage Origin
As a mage, you are capable of harnessing mana and casting spells thanks to your inhuman heritage. Your body, your blood and your mind is shaped by the creature that was your ancestor. Your powers may be anything mystical to physical, as diversity is one of the greatest assets of mages.
Upon choosing the Mage Origin, you gain:
Temple-University of Edinburgh:
Also known as 'Cannon Fields', it is a school based on a castle that lies a little ways from the city of Edinburgh, though some of its faculties can be found in the city proper. Originally a temple of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the splintering of the organization in later years saw them reform into a part of the Pentagrammon. Today this school teaches classical western magic and its various forms while providing excellent environment for research and study of the esoteric. Its structure greatly resembles a mix of a British boarding school and an university like Oxford.
Skill Increase: Crafting +2 SP.
Granted: Perk [Solid Basics].
Scholomance:
Also known as 'Devil's Den', it is a school hidden underground in central Romania. Elite of the elite, the enrollment of students is minimal as only the very best are chosen. This is because the magic taught in Scholomance is forbidden arts, part of a library that inherited from King Solomon himself. Having a Scholomance-taught mage in your family is a sign of pedigree and something that many elder families envy. Those that do particularly well in their studies are even imparted knowledge by a dragon that is part of the faculty.
Skill Increase: Investigation +2 SP.
Granted: Perk [One of the Best].
Crypts of Salamanca:
Also known as 'The Viewing Pool', it is a school that spreads underneath the city of Salamanca, Spain, as a web of crypts and tunnels, only to swoop back up in form of beautiful buildings that serve as lecture halls. Specializing in divination magic and viewing of the past, present and the future, it is no secret that those who have spent a long time studying in The Crypts have become slightly odd, weird to the point they have trouble adjusting to the world around them. Such is the price one pays for knowledge they should not have. Truth is the natural enemy of the illusion we live in.
Skill Increase: Lore [_] +2 SP.
Granted: Perk [Unpredictable Present].
Kyöpelinvuori:
Also known as 'Chaos Coven', it is a school that has been built into the forested ridge of stone in western Finland. Partly inside the Kuivila mountain, partly out in the woods themselves, it is hard to call Kyöpelinvuori a proper school. It is more of a loose connection of witch covens and acts as the hub for the world's shamanistic magic system and forms of witchcraft. Students are expected to find a tutor among the elder witches living on the premises until they are ready to enter the Glass Castle that lies underneath the mountain – the true place of learning.
Skill Increase: Occult +2 SP.
Granted: Perk [Evil Eye].
Abbey of Thelema:
Also known as 'The Wicked House', it is a school that is more of a commune that has come together to share ideas and perfect them. Located in Cefalù, Italy, the commune itself is hidden in an unknown field and warded by magic sigils. Those who want to find it must locate a certain house that acts a front and find the portal hidden within it. Unlike every other school of magic, the Abbey promotes modern understanding of magic, tracing its teachings back to the old headmaster Aleister Crowley. The approach to the mystical arts is more akin to science and innovation is put above tradition, which makes them disliked in the eyes of traditionalists.
Skill Increase: Computing +2 SP.
Granted: Perk [Right Tools for Right Job].
Prague Orloj:
Also known as 'Zodiac Clock' and 'The Eplictic', it is a school that is the pride of the Pentagrammon and the hub of mages world-wide. More than a school, it is basically a plane-shifted version of the city of Prague itself, with the tower acting as the lynchpin between the two. Prague Orloj is seen as a prestigious school that trains mages all around the world and is known for having the largest attendance out of all of the schools, thanks to its aggressive poaching. A center of political intrigue, scheming and old feuds in the magical world. Various organizations tend to have their own offices within premises.
Skill Increase: Arcana +2 SP.
Granted: Perk [House of Cards].
Home-Tutored:
If you are not a student of any of the Six Pentagrammon Schools, you are this. Whether this means that you were taught by your own family (common in case of very prestigious families), live in a place where the reach of The Pentagrammon is weak (like Asia or America) or just slipped through the cracks, to the point of having been taught by a passing mage or just being self-taught... well, that is up to you to decide. Home-tutored mages do not enjoy the same advantages as those with ties to the Pentagrammon, and even home-tutored mages might further their education by later enrolling into one of the schools. However, they also have more freedom than your typical Pentagrammon mage, as well as a different view of magic altogether.
Skill Increase: Any one Skill +1 SP.
Granted: Perk [On Your Own].
Your Ability is: Magic.
Magic is harnessing mana that grows within you and using it to fuel supernatural phenomena that are created through your incantations, rituals and various ways of achieving them. Depending on what Magic System you chose your magic may manifest in a radically different ways from others. Do you use mana-infused vapors to create bullets that harm the enemy? Do you summon weapons from a specifically prepared magical forge? Do you direct puppets with strings of pure prana? Your imagination is the limit.
You start with a spell that's called 'Cantrip'. A cantrip is an F-Rank spell, a basic usage of your magical powers to achieve minor tasks such as lighting a candle, closing a window from afar or doing any other sort of small, effortless action. It is tied to your Elemental Strength and Magic System, and should be flavored as such. For example, someone with lightning Elemental Strength could use their cantrip to, say, charge their phone or turn on the television from a distance.
You can buy more spells by spending AP. Spells proper each have a Rank, one that starts from E and goes up to A. By spending 4 AP, one can increase the Rank of their spell by 1. In other words, each Rank costs 4 AP. The Rank of the spell tells of its general power and how much mana it costs to cast. Duration, complexity, additional effects all may take away from the overall power, but make the spell powerful in other ways. Spells may be targeted to a single target, a group, a large area or everything in-between.
When making a spell, there are two things you should also choose for it. The spell needs to have an Element and it needs to have a Type. The element is self-explanatory, it is the element of the spell itself and it should make sense. For example, a strike of lightning that heals you is unlikely. The Type of the spell means under which division of magic it falls, and is tied to the Color Wheel system used by most mages. Like with element, this should reflect the spell itself and what it does.
The Spell Types and their respective Colors are:
The quick list of how much each Rank of spell costs in AP and in mana is as follows:
The overall power of your ability comes not only from what Rank it is, but how strong is your governing attribute and how much AP was paid for it. This means that though two different abilities may appear similar in scale, one might actually be stronger in contest of raw power if more AP was spent on it. However, only fools trust raw power, as that is the easiest thing in the world to turn against yourself...
The contents of the spell may be decided freely by you. Just remember that they should reflect the spell's Rank. If your character is chosen as one of the player characters, the GM will then go over the in-game mechanics with you, making it so that it can be used in the actual game. The best way to ensure this is to make sure your spells are imaginative, unique and creative.