The Gifted

The Gifted are (seemingly human) mortals with the unique ability to tap into the streams of mystical energy circling the planet known as ley lines, and using this power change reality through the casting of spells. They are more commonly referred to as Witches, however the polite term to avoid reopening old wounds, is The Gifted.

Being a gifted is usually thought today to be genetic, with many of the gifted coming from long bloodlines, while for others it is an atavistic trait which has skipped several generations only to appear again seemingly without reason. What is known is it passes most strongly along the maternal bloodline, with practically all of the gifted inheriting their powers from that side of the family—those whose power skips several generations often seem to instead inherit from the paternal bloodline, oddly enough.

The origins of the “Gifted gene” if there is such a thing—and indeed of The Gifted themselves—is entirely uncertain. Some few of the gifted claim they are blessed with a gift by god(s) and/or spirits. Still others argue the “Gifted gene” is a natural evolutionary trait, with becoming one of the Gifted being simply the next step of human evolution. By far the most popular theory, however, is that the origins of all Gifted is in the coupling of a Fae and Human during unique circumstances such as an eclipse or planetary alignment many, many generations ago. One can trace the root of this belief back as far as the times of the Knight Templars, though proponents of this idea often think it may be far more ancient as stories of supernaturally gifted humans with unusual ancestry are a thread woven through all of human history.

The Gifted have a long history of persecution by humans, and many still are wary of openly practicing their spells: The ancestral saying of “Know, Dare, Will, and Keep Silent” still echoes strongly in their ears. Still others rebel against caution and freely use magic, being “loud and proud” of their magical heritage.

Appearances:

The Gifted appear completely human but they may have eyes of any color on the spectrum. The eyes of all Gifted, no matter the shade, will glow softly when they are using magic and in some cases, there is a hum like a sound or vibration to their magic.

Strengths:

Base Health Points: 60HP
Double Healing: 10hp/day unaided.
Magical Abilities - The Gifted have an ability to tap into the ley lines and cast spells, something no other race can do. This ability manifests at puberty, and takes many years of training to use properly via spells.
Spellcasting - The Gifted can cast spells within their grimoire (Or fail at casting, if they're learning them!), siphoning energy off of the local ley lines to do so. They also can brew potions, tinctures, elixirs, and salves, imbuing them with magical properties. (See more below.)
Power of the Coven - A single Gifted is powerful, but a coven of them is a force which even the most ancient of fae thinks twice about crossing. By gathering around a coven-made spell circle members of a coven can join their powers together, working as a group to achieve acts of magic no Gifted could ever hope to accomplish alone.
Feel the Magic - All Gifted can feel the vibrations of nearby magic being cast. This merely allows them to know that magic is being currently cast somewhere around them. (Deciding Roll)
- A Gifted may follow the direction of the magical vibrations to find where magic is being cast, until the Gifted casting it halts or ends the spell. (Deciding roll every 20 m 11+)
- A Gifted can only know who cast the magic if they know that person’s magical frequency very well, provided they are within 20m. (Performed magic with them previously, etc.)
- This does not allow the Gifted to sense other Gifted fully nor does it detect magic on items, or the nature of a cast spell.

Extended Lifespan:

While they have a human lifespan, with a life-prolonging spell, The Gifted *can* live up to 200 years of age. However, many families choose not to do this as they can only use the spell once to get to 200, and it does maintain a constant drain on the Gifted's magic pool (Age extension reduces the Gifted by 1 ley charge: It is like having another app on in the background of a phone, draining the battery a little faster.) If they are doing this, remember that they are still mortal and can still die of disease or fatal wounds.

Turning & Infection:

A Gifted can be turned into a Shifter or a Vampire and may retain their gifted aesthetic aspects.
- Upon being turned into a Vampire, the Gifted instantly loses their magic and their book immediately acts as if they had died. (See The Grimoire)
- If a Gifted is bitten by a Shifter, they will begin to progressively lose their powers over the phases following the bite and all magical ability is completely gone by the time they have their first shift.
- Those who were once of the Gifted may remember how to do magic, or go through the motions as a form of comfort, but no magic will come of it and their grimoire is unintelligible to them. They can, as a last effect of their magical powers, choose to pass the book on as if they had died, or simply give it to a High Priest(ess) and the Coven.

Some Covens are capable of stopping the virus from completely infecting it’s host, given that the Coven knows the spell and the infected has not yet undergone their first shift. There is always a chance that it may not be successful and it requires most of the coven to collectively perform.

Weaknesses:

Mortal - The Gifted are mortal, they may have magic, but they are still essentially human, and can die of illness, disease, and have a normal human lifespan. A Gifted can magically expand their lifespan, though there are limits to that listed below.
Magic Fades - Magic is never permanent, and charms and enchanted items need to be recharged. Specify how long charms and enchantments last in posts during creation and recharge as needed. (1 month or Admin approval for longer.)
Exhaustion - Using magic burns energy, thus why they have a limited amount of ley charges they can use per day. If they try to cast spells exceeding the ley charges they have free, a Gifted must substitute the missing ley charge(s) with 10hp per level of the spell to be casted.
Magical Focus - A Gifted whose focus is compromised (emotions, drugs, etc.) rolls all dice rolls for spellcasting with a -5 penalty. Additionally, if the Gifted is successfully attacked during an attempt at spellcasting they must restart the spell and casting from the beginning.
Cold Iron - While it does not harm them physically cold iron repels ley energies, and a Gifted within three feet of cold iron cannot cast spells.

Magic 101, or “What is magic, anyways?”:

The exact origins and mechanism allowing for a gifted to warp reality is a matter of great debate. There are dozens of theories proposed at any one time, varying from it being a gift from god(s) and/or spirits to being an undiscovered facet of quantum physics. The most popular and generally accepted idea which has existed in slight variation for at least a thousand years is that magic comes from a primordial extra dimensional force—known to modern gifted as “the Prime”—which is drawn into Earth’s dimension by its children, the Fae, residing there.

According to this theory when the Prime interacts with the Earth plane it becomes in a manner bound by rules, it’s chaotic energy flowing over the planet as streams of power known as ley lines. Drawing upon these lines of extra-dimensional energy a Gifted can use specific esoteric formulas and incantations to warp reality in ways that defy normal physics.

The Prime theory comes with a few interesting logical implications: Namely without Fae existing on Earth magic itself would cease to exist in Earth’s dimension as the Prime would withdraw fully into its home dimension.

Ley Charges

When a gifted casts a spell, they tap directly into their local ley lines, letting power flow through them to be shaped into a spell. Defining the amount of energy used to do this was always a vague matter, until the 1670’s, when the gifted Gabriel Mouton measured the amount of energy a typical gifted can channel through their body in ten seconds. This measurement became known as a Ley Charge, and serves as a standard of measurement for magical energy among the Gifted.

A Gifted ’s body can only withstand so many ley charges worth of energy per day before it begins to be damaged. All of the gifted can use five ley charges of energy, except for the High Priest(ess) who are specially granted a spell to withstand up to seven ley charges.

Spells are ranked first (1st) through fourth (4th) levels, indicating the number of ley charges required to properly cast them.

Backlash Phenomenon

It is a well known fact among the gifted that reality abhors breaches in its logic and always fights to restore itself. This is something known to magical scholars as the Backlash Phenomena, though most of the gifted just call it “backlash”. This phenomena is why the more spectacular the effect you try to cause the more energy you must exert to overcome reality’s resistance, and why spells sometimes fail despite perfect execution on the part of the caster. Backlash is the force that causes magic to decay, particularly with persistent magic such as enchantments. It is also why all magical races on earth are eventually destroyed or forced into exile outside of normal reality.

Backlash phenomenon can take a direct toll on one’s body, and underestimating its impact has been the death of more than arrogant Gifted through the centuries.

Magic of the Gifted: OOC Basic Rules and Mechanics

Basic Rules of Magic:

All of the Gifted, save for the Coven Leader, get a maximum of Five (5) ley charges per day starting from when they wake up, to when they sleep for 8 hours total.
- Cantrips do not count toward the ley charge cost. Doing so repeatedly would still be draining on the Gifted and shouldn’t be performed extensively.
There are six Schools of Magic that each Gifted would choose one to have studied while growing up, then choose their starting 5 spells from that school, along with gaining the spells from the universal cantrip list of which they would have learned during their preliminary training began shortly after the onset of puberty. (Cantrips are automatically granted from the chosen School and do not cost against your 5 Spell Picks)
All spells take two posts to cast. The preparation then the execution. This is for every spell cast, not just in combat.
Confidence and Intent are everything. If the Gifted lacks confidence or is unclear in their intent, a spell could go very wrong. (This is where a Deciding Roll can be fun!)
All spells that have a lasting effect on someone will be dropped the moment the caster takes damage, moves out of range (20m), and sometimes if other variables occur, in which each spell will state such. Some spells may follow atypical duration rules; in this case follow the rules specified for that spell when using it.
- A spell can be extended past its normal duration with ooc consent of the afflicted player.
Greater Spells must be performed by multiple Gifted of the same Coven as rituals, each giving up an allotted amount of ley charges that equal the level of the spell.
- A Gifted outside of the Coven may not assist other than bringing supplies, as their magic is not on the same frequency as the others.
Joining a Coven tunes a Gifted’s magic to the same “frequency” as the rest of the Coven. This frequency can be sensed by other coven members like a vibration. The Coven Leader is the only one that can automatically feel the vibrations of other Gifted nearby (20m) without OOC permission. Other Gifted need to gain OOC permission to be able to concentrate enough to sense another non-member Gifted.
- Likewise, Gifted attuned to a Coven gain an extra 10 HP bonus at all times.
Chaos Unleashed:
- The powers wielded by the Gifted can and do occasionally draw the attention of the malign entities known as Chaos Spirits, which momentarily exert their influence upon the Gifted in a small way while the spell is cast. If a Gifted rolls a 1 or multiple of 5 while attempting to cast a spell they suffer an effect as noted below:
  - Value Rolled - Resulting Effect
  - 1 - Violent Impulse: The Gifted suffers from a sudden irrational burst of anger, and will attempt to harm (punch, slap, kick, etc) the nearest person. This does not differ between friend and foe.
  - 5 - Snarls and Growls: A nearby animal becomes irrationally angry and attacks you for one post round, dealing 1 damage and disrupting any spellcast efforts.
  - 10 - Somatic Symptoms: For at least the three post round the Gifted feels the symptoms of a terrible illness of their choice, or the symptoms of being poisoned by any one substance. They do not ACTUALLY have this sickness nor were they truly poisoned.
  - 15 - Neurosis: For at least the next post round the Gifted suffers from a debilitating phobia or mental disorder of their choice.
  - 20 - Nihilism: For at least the next post round the Gifted suffers from a crippling sense of nihilism, making it exceedingly hard to be motivated to do anything but sit and ponder the pointlessness of it all

W.I.P.

This information may be changing shortly.

Learning New Spells: A Gifted may put in the work to learn from another character that has that spell ICly.
- If the spell is within the character’s School of Magic - The player must succeed on a deciding roll witnessed by either the Coven Leader or an Admin, after posting the learning or practicing of the spell with the other Gifted that already can perform it. (Roll 11-20 for Success) They must post, roll, and succeed three times before the spell is considered learned.
- If the spell is outside the known School of Magic - the same requirements must be met, however the roll target is increased to 15-20 for a success.
- You cannot learn or perform a spell outside your chosen school without the help of another Gifted to aid you that has trained in that school.
- While learning new spells, attempts at casting the spell only costs its listed ley charge cost if you successfully cast it. However, this only applies if you are inside your coven sanctum, otherwise each attempt costs as normal.

Spell/Potion/Enchantment Creation: New spells and potions may be created by any Gifted , though can only be officialized by a Coven Leader ICly ( who will bring it to Admins for review). To create a spell, the Gifted must write up the components and how to perform it, what it can and cannot do, and any other specifics surrounding it, then submit it ICly to the Coven Leader to be officialized. If the spell is approved, then it will be added to the Coven’s Spellbook for referencing and later learning, as well as the Gifted ’s for use. If no Coven Leader is available, contact a Mentor for assistance.
- A newly created spell should not be attempted before the coven leader approves it; think of it as designing the magical theorem but not actually executing it. Depending upon the spell’s effects the Coven Leader may ask you to demonstrate it, in which case you may attempt to perform it but only within the sanctum wards.
- Potions and Enchanted items may be created by a Gifted and sold or given to a non-Gifted for use later. The casting Gifted can feel if an Enchantment or curse they created has been broken.
  - Keep RP records of all potions and enchanted items you create, in case there is future need of the admins to audit these.
- When enchanting or cursing someone or something, a deciding roll is needed to determine if it is a success or not.
- When removing an enchantment or curse, contact the original caster and perform contending rolls. If the original caster is unavailable, have the one cursed/enchanted perform the roll or contact a Mentor for assistance.
- Enchanted items that fail simply shatter or otherwise break the same goes for enchantments and or cursed items that get dispelled.

A failed spellcasting or creation attempt may have repercussions on the caster. In the event the spell is cast on someone, the caster is the only affected person on a failure.

Potion and Enchantment Usage: Enchantments and potions are instant use, but may only be used once per two post rounds, unless noted in their documentation.
- You may only use one potion or enchanted item at a time, and it takes up your entire post’s action. This means any spells cannot be cast at the same time.
- You may only use one enchanted item which grants an advantage during combat, and no more than three potions.
The religious side of being a Gifted is up to the personal preferences of the player and or character, just be aware that there will be no actual interaction with any sort of celestial or infernal being as these do not exist in our lore.

Spell Creation

Magic and Technology:

Magic and electronics do not get along well. Minor amounts of ley energy seen in a normal spell do not cause more than occasional small glitches, but enchanted electronics are broken in the process. Bringing an electronic item into an intensely magical area such as Underhill or a coven ritual space will render it inoperable.

Familiars:

Familiars are fey animals of Underhill, often mundane animals of Earth whose ancestors wandered (or were intentionally brought) through a portal long ago and over generations were transformed into an Underhill native of the various regions/elements. In their true form they can seem fantastical, even monstrous, but they hold an exceedingly minor amount of glamour, enough to change what they seem to be. It has been a long held expectation in Gifted society to have your familiar seem to be a mundane animal such as a cat or owl, so as to avoid causing a panic.

The ritual of summoning is seen as a rite of passage in Gifted society, and every young Gifted-in-training aspires to perform it successfully so that they might be viewed as legitimate by their peers. The ritual essentially creates a magical beacon which resonates into Underhill, and asks the Prime (aka Wilde) for an assistant in their magical practices. If performed properly the Prime in an instant judges the character of the Gifted, and then sends a suitable fae animal into the conjuring circle.

Once a Familiar is summoned, the Gifted feeds them a small amount of their blood, forming a magical pact. This is an exceedingly dangerous part of the process, as until this is completed the Familiar is essentially a wild fae animal which will likely wreak havoc if left alone. If a familiar is abused the Prime will eventually notice, and whisk the familiar back to Underhill. If this occurs the pact is suspended and the Gifted cannot summon their Familiar back until penance is performed (exact task is at admin’s discretion).

Familiars are not quite as smart as a human, and cannot speak verbally, but have a limited form of telepathy (20m range) through the magical bond they share with their master. No Gifted can talk to another Gifted’s familiar except for the high priest(ess), who can speak to the familiar of any Gifted in their coven. As Familiars cannot lie this is a powerful tool in keeping The Gifted honest with their coven leader.

The benefits Familiars bring to their master are:

Familiar’s Bond: A familiar can be magically summoned as a standard two post spell, provided they are not dead. A familiar will try to carry out any orders given by their master, but if they travel beyond 20m away from the Gifted their orders cannot be adjusted.
Remote Sight: A Gifted can see through the eyes of their familiar, and hear through its ears. The player must have their physical avatar present and note their familiar is listening/watching in public chat. They must be doing so from an angle they realistically could. (no listening through walls or seeing through closed blinds!) While the Gifted is using their familiar’s senses, they lose access to their own, meaning they are vulnerable to ambush.
- NOTE: Fae can roll a deciding roll to see Familiars for what they truly are, and The Gifted can likewise roll to notice a slight magical resonance to them.
Touch Casting: A Gifted can cast spells normally requiring them to touch the target through their Familiar. This, of course, does require the familiar must be touching the target to do.

Familiars only have 5hp, but instead of being killed are merely banished back to Underhill. A Gifted can perform a four post round ritual to resummon their familiar, but this must be done out of a combat situation, and requires a gift to give to the familiar to ensure the Prime does not censure the Gifted for familiar abuse.

NOTE: There ARE instances of true Fae binding themselves into a familiar pact. These Fae must be Player Characters, and while they retain their normal player abilities have no familiar traits save for Familiar’s Bond. Being in such a pact is considered quite humiliating in Fae society, as it means serving ‘lesser’ creatures that Fae have frequently presided over as gods in times past.

The Grimoire:

A Gifted requires a personal spellbook, known as a Grimoire, in order to cast their spells.

Should this be stolen or destroyed they can recreate it, but must spend 72 hours performing the complex rituals used to do so. During this 72 hours they are considered to be powerless.
In order to read another Gifted’s grimoire, the Gifted will need to adjust their magical frequency to the new grimoire. This takes 24 hours of constant meditation or focus on the new book.

Upon a Gifted ’s death, their grimoire will act on one of either three scenarios:
- If the Gifted has a blood-tied family member that is of age, sibling, child, grandchild, niece/nephew, the book will immediately transport itself to that Gifted , unfortunately also announcing their family member’s death by doing so.
- If there is no family member that could receive the grimoire, the book will transport itself over the course of up to 72 hours to the Gifted ’s Coven’s Library to be found by the High Priest(ess) and archived as is proper.
  - Should a family member come of age and ability at a later date to receive the grimoire of their ancestor, the book will do everything it can to attempt to transport itself from wherever it is, to that new owner.
- If the Gifted wasn’t bound to a Coven and had no family members to receive the grimoire, the book locks itself in a stasis, remaining with the body, oftentimes transporting itself from where someone might leave it to where the body is unless it is intercepted and removed from that Gifted ’s body by another Gifted. Only a Gifted can unbind a Grimoire from its deceased owner. The Gifted would then be able to read it by “tuning” themselves to that grimoire.

Repudiation - A Gifted’s grimoire is their lifelong partner they cannot cast a single spell without. They carry an impression all the generations before that carried them and a sense of awareness and morality that develops with that. A Gifted that does morally reprehensible actions runs the risk of their grimoire abandoning them for a set period of time.
- Roll a deciding roll, if you fail this roll your spellbook vanishes for a set time equal to your roll in days. This can occur each time you perform an action your Grimiore finds disagreeable.
- You may trigger this yourself, as a RP tool. Alternately, an Admin may do so if you trigger the Villain Clause.

Migrating a Spell - In order to move a spell from one book to another, a special parchment paper called “Transfer Paper” is used for the transfer.
- The Gifted tunes themself to the book that has the spell to be migrated from (24 hours)
- Takes the time to copy the spell to the transfer parchment. (12 hours)
- Tunes to the book they are migrating to. (24 hours)
  - In the meantime, while the spell is on the parchment, that spell has disappeared from the original source and is only located on the parchment. If the parchment is destroyed or stolen during this time, the spell is gone.
- Migrate the spell from the transfer parchment to the new book. (12 hours) In total, transferring a spell from one book to the other takes 72 hours of work by the Gifted.
- Coven members are already tuned to the same frequency as the Coven’s library of grimoires, so they are not required to tune to the spellbooks. Also, the spell is copied rather than moved from the source material. It still takes 24 hours to copy a spell from a coven book this way.

Gifted Covens:

Each territory usually has at least one Coven of Gifted that is led by a High Priest or Priestess. It is up to the player’s discretion on whether or not their character joins the Coven, it is NOT required, however the perks of joining a Coven usually outweighs the cons.

High Priest(ess):

High Priests and Priestesses of a Coven gain a blessing from the Grand Council that allows them to have two more ley charges per day along with being able to learn three extra spells from another school of their choosing. This Blessing can only be taken away if they lose their position and can only be granted by an Emissary Messenger (Admin).

The High Priest(ess) sets up their coven as they see fit, giving and taking roles and positions of power within the coven at their discretion.

Special Charms, Enchantments, and Potions:

Below is a listing of charms, enchantments, and potions with special rules in how they function, who can perform them, etc.

Sun Charming:

Some of The Gifted have been able to avert the sun’s effects on vampires by enchanting items, trinkets, and tattoos. Only a High Priest(ess) has the spell though it can be granted to the Coven members of his/her choice to be used by them at their discretion.

While in direct sunlight, the vampires wearing charms have their vampiric side suppressed, walking among the humans during the day, possibly picking out their prey for later that night.
They cannot feed or use any abilities while the Sun Charm is activated, as it does suppress all abilities. Note again, this is only true in DIRECT sunlight. Being within a shady building, cave, etc means a vampire’s powers are not repressed.
There is a Central stone or artifact which is the keystone for the Sun Charms. If it is destroyed, then all of the charms created by the Coven will stop working immediately. Location and access to the keystone is only known to the High Priest(ess) of the Coven.
These charms need to be recharged monthly at the New Moon.

New Vampires arriving to the City have functional Sun Charms if the player wants them to, however it will stop working at the next New Moon. (or the one after if the next New Moon is under a week away.)

Anti-Compulsion Charm:

A High Priest or Priestess can, with the help of a lead of the territory’s vampire House, create Anti-Compulsion Charms. However, these are generally reserved for Racial-based Faction leaders and their Seconds and they make the wearer completely immune to Vampire Compulsion.

These charms still need to be recharged every month at the New Moon as well.

Fae Binding Charm:

The art of Fae binding comes from the middle east, where Fae are known by another name: Djinn. The creator is said to be the Witch-King Solomon, who forced his bound fae to use their power to construct his palace.

A Fae Binding Charm allows for whoever holds the charmed object to force the subjugated fae to magically appear before them and “grant a wish” once per day—They are forced into using their reality warping connection to the Wilde in service of their binder (wishes must follow the rules for this power on the fae page).

The ritual requires that a Fae-binder must get the Fae to agree to a special magical pact (Often this has been done through trickery or coercion).
Unlike most enchantments this one does not require recharging to remain active, and only expires if the bearer wishes for the Fae to be free of it.

This charm requires a player character Fae, who must OOCly consent.
- If Consent is withdrawn it is considered that the Wilde has somehow severed the connection, or else the Fae has stolen the compelling charm.

Warmth Enchantment:

This enchantment, once active, keeps its bearer at what is for their species a comfortable temperature despite clothing and environmental circumstances, within an external temperature range of -20 to 120°F (-29 to 49°C). While a mere convenience enchantment for most races, for those with more cold blooded physiology it can be the difference between life and death during the winter in northern climates such as what Myserie is. This enchantment’s only functionality for a vampire is to keep their body from freezing.

This enchantment must be recharged once per month, on a clear sunny day.

Universal

Deciding Roll

Channeling magic through a wand or staff of your choice you lash out with a bolt of magical force. This functions as a normal attack, and the target rolls for defense against a value you roll.
> Note: This spell requires a wand or staff to perform.

Schools of Magic:

All of the Gifted start off in Myserie with five (5) spells from their chosen school, plus the cantrips from that school.