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Thaum
Thaum is the vary essence of magic. There are several known methods for accessing and shaping thaum each with their own risks.
Shamans, Savants, and Sorcerers channel thaum through their bodies causing physical damage to the living tissues. The damage begins with the internal organs and moving outward. (See Physical Damage)
Wizards; Mages; Psychics; White, Grey, Black, and Hedge Necromancers; and Warlocks channel thaum using their minds which causes damage to their psyches. (See Sanity Damage)
Theological Necromancers, Enchanters, and sometimes Ritualists, use another object to pass thaum through such that most of the damage from the contact with thaum is done to another object.
Bards and Namers thaumicly charge their voices which causes them to burn their throats, mouths and lips.
Clerics draw on their own vitality to harness Thaum which means that over extension causes them to age. The more experienced a cleric the more likely they are to have come to the attention of their god and the more willing to shield them their god becomes.
Sigil Mages, and Rune Mages alter creation. The repercussions of this are hard to confine and harder to predict.
Sanity Damage
Overextending:
When a Wizard over extends (i.e. uses more then their base number of Thaum points) s/he takes temporary sanity damage (see table). While Wizards naturally heal 5
% temporary sanity damage/day 1% sanity damage will become permanent each day it takes the Wizard to return to his/her (new) base sanity level.
Sanity Threshold:
A Wizard will begin to outwardly manifest symptoms of their sanity damage when they can no longer self-regulate i.e. when they’re sanity level drops below 100 - (Intelligence+Willpower)%. At that point they will cease to understand that what they are experiencing is due to the damage they have done to their minds and will come to believe that what they are experiencing is real (even if only temporarily if they have only temporarily dropped below their sanity threshold).
Going Gradually Insane:
A Wizard’s decent into madness - as it is due to the over use of Thaum - is far more predictable than that of the average person. All Wizards leave Seagarden University with 1d4-1 healed disorders already in play. These, and all subsequent disorders, are chosen via d12 and the table on page 2.
A Wizard begins to experience brief psychotic intervals (see table on page 2) when they drop below 40% sanity. Dropping below 30% sanity is the equivalent of a full schizophrenic break.
Healing Sanity Damage:
The University keeps several soul healers (see Clerics) and there is a fairly good chance that at least one can be found in any major city. However, to seek a soul healer’s aid the Wizard must still be aware that their progressive psychoses are not real i.e. they cannot have yet passed their sanity threshold. After a Wizard has passed their sanity threshold they will be unwilling to see a soul healer or seek help in any way.
Multiple Psychoses:
A Wizard is never truly free of a psychosis once it is gained. A soul healer can only returned it to a “latent” i.e. manageable state. Should the Wizard over extend again it will return. This time, however, it will be accompanied by a second psychosis. Each time a visit to a soul healer is followed by over extension a new psychosis is gained. Old psychoses only progress to the point they were at when the Wizard was healed.
Disorders:
Depressive:
- Bipolar Disorder: The Wizard goes through bouts of manic energy (during which time they will be unable to sleep and must be reminded to eat) followed by deep depression (during which it will be nearly impossible to get them to move, bathe, or interact with others). The duration of each stage, and the cycle time, decreases with the severity of the condition (see table).
- Depression: Negatively effects your Acumen and Willpower stats (extent to be decided by GM).
- Dysthymia: The Wizard grows increasingly unable to enjoy life. They will lose 1 point of Willpower for ever 10% sanity lost below their threshold. When they reach 0 Willpower they will kill themselves.
- Major Depression: The Wizard grows increasingly intensely sad and despairing. They will lose 1 point of Willpower or Acumen for ever 5% sanity lost below their threshold. When they reach 0 Willpower they will kill themselves.
Addiction:
- Drugs: The Wizard’s drug of choice, and its effect on the character, will be determined by the GM.
- Religion: The Wizard becomes increasingly incapable of thinking about, doubting, or questioning Phael teachings. They become locked into seeing everything in a totally dualistic manner (their alignment will alter to reflect this). The Wizard also becomes scrupulously adherent to rules, ethical codes etc. At 60% total sanity, they will cease to be able to compromise their beliefs with the real world and so will seek the change the world to fit. They have come to see themselves as the soul crusader for righteousness in a depraved world.
- Sex: The Wizard increasingly engages in persistent and escalating patterns of sexual behavior acted out despite increasingly negative consequences to self and to others. (GM will explain)
- Thaum: The Wizard must use Thaum with escalating frequency increasing the risk of overextension.
Eating Disorders:
- Anorexia: The Wizard will believe they are fat, no matter what their actual weight, and lower their food intake accordingly. The result is that they are slowly starving themselves to death. The rate at which they lose weight is 1 lb./week for every 3% below their sanity threshold. This condition will negatively effect their Endurance, Strength, and Intellect stats (extent to be determined by the GM).
- Binge Eating: The Wizard will eat until it makes them physically uncomfortable. The frequency of these binges increases with the severity of the condition (1/week for every 5% below sanity threshold). It will also cause them to gain weight (how much and how fast to be decided by the GM) which will negatively effect their Agility and Endurance.
- Bulimia: The Wizard will Binge Eat (as above) and then purge. This combination will negatively effect their Endurance, Intellect and Strength sats.
- Pica: The Wizard craves and, given an opportunity, will eat a substance that is not digestible - such as sand or wax. Every time they do so they must make a saving throw vs Strong Stomach (DC set by GM). At 10% below their sanity threshold the Wizard will actively seeking out the substance they crave. At a 60% total sanity the craving becomes all consuming.
Gender Identity:
Once the Wizard drops below their sanity threshold they will begin experimenting with transmutation spells to change their sex. As the disorder progresses (as determined by the GM) they will devote more and more of their power to the project. When they are in their preferred form they will suffer from anxiety over their authenticity and fear being discovered to be a fraud.
Hypochondria:
The Wizard will believe that s/he is sick even when s/he is not. The imagined diseases (determined by the GM) will grow more serious as the disorder progresses.
Narcissism:
The Wizard gains a grandiose sense of their own abilities or achievements; fantasies about having exceptional power, attractiveness or success; has expectations of special treatment; sees nothing wrong with the exploitation of others; loses any empathy they may have had for other people; and believes that any and all criticisms of their behavior are the result of envy on the part of the critic. As the disorder progresses the Wizard becomes more vocal about their perfection, less tolerant of others, and more brutal in their reactions when their extraordinary expectations not be fulfilled.
Obsession:
- A Body Part: The player may chose whether their character becomes fixated on the functioning of a part of their own body, or with the appearance of a body part in others i.e. obsessively worried about the possibility of losing the use of one of their hands, or obsessing with the appearance of other people’s noses.
- A Color: The Wizard will become fascinated with a color, its possible meanings and significance. Its appearance in the world around them will influence their decisions about people and situations.
- A Person: Usually a person of status or a person known to the Wizard. The Wizard’s relationship with this person, or lack there of, will become the focal point of the Wizard’s life.
- A Social Group: The player may choose as to whether the Wizard has become obsessed with belonging to a particular social group/organization, or is convinced that a particular social group is working behind the scenes to control the world and become obsessed with exposing them.
- Being Correct: The Wizard becomes obsessed with being correct / making the correct decision and so becomes incredibly indecisive and must carefully weigh the pros and cons of each decision they must make before they can make it.
- Exactness: The Wizard comes to believe that there is a proper place for everything they own, will check repeatedly to make sure their things stay in the right place, and will become agitated if they are found to have moved.
- Knowledge: The Wizard becomes obsessed with knowing everything there is to know about a certain subject.
- Music: The Wizard becomes obsessed with certain song or refrain and will hum or sing it over and over again.
- Remembering: The Wizard will become obsessed with remembering a type of minutia such as the name of every horse they have ever seen.
- Sports: The Wizard will become obsessed with the playing or watching of a particular sport.
- Superstitions: The Wizard will obsessively follow every superstition they can think of.
- Symmetry: The Wizard will become worried by a lack of symmetry in the man made objects around them and bring it to the attention of anyone who will listen.
OCD:
- Cleaning: The Wizard’s obsessive dislike for dirt forces them to compulsively clean everything around them. The amount of dirt they can tolerate decreases as they lose sanity.
- Grooming: The Wizard’s obsessive fear of dirt causes them to wash themselves. As the disorder progresses they will wash themselves more frequently and with more abrasive/
- harsher substances. This will eventually cause damage to the Wizard.
- Checking: The Wizard’s obsession with having things done properly causes them to check over and over again. As the disorder progresses the number of things they need to check,
- and the number of times they need to check them, will increase.
- Repeating: The Wizard repeats common actions multiple times e.g. walking through a door or getting off a horse. As the disorder progresses the number of actions that need repeating, and the number of times they are repeated will increase.
- Ordering: The Wizard will order anything s/he believes is out of order even if it does not belong to him/her.
- Counting: The Wizard will count to a particular number over and over again.
- Hoarding: The Wizard is incapable of throwing anything “that might be useful” away. The range of things they categorize as potentially useful increases with their sanity damage.
- Neediness: Whenever there is nothing ells to occupy space in a conversation the Wizard will seek reassurance and approval. The Wizard loses 1 Willpower stat point for every -10% sanity and will become progressively more intent on pleasing others in the hope of their approval.
Pain:
The Wizard will experience unexplained pain (beginning in a body part of the GM’s choice). As the condition worsens the pan will increase and spread through out the Wizard’s body. This will negatively effect all of the Wizard’s physical stats beginning with Empathy and Strength.
Panic Attacks:
Below their sanity threshold a Wizard experiences a panic attack as a sudden cold sweat, shortness of breath, and increased heart rate.
At 10% below their sanity threshold dizziness/vertigo and nausea are added to their symptoms. At 20% below, hyperventilation, smothering sensation, and hot and cold flashes are also
experienced. At 30% below, trembling, uncontrollable crying, and feeling of impending doom. At 40% below, terror and tunnel vision. Below that the character goes catatonic.
Attacks last for 1d12 rounds.
Phobias:
The Wizard has an irrational fear of something fairly common (to be determined by the GM). As their phobia progresses they will grow increasingly incapable of dealing with the object of their fear.
At 50% sanity the Wizard will be forced to flee the presence of his/her phobia and at 40% sanity any sight or contact with the object of their phobia will cause the Wizard to suffer a bout of severe hysteria.
Self Hate:
Self hate can manifest in any number of ways but, basically, will cause the Wizard to harm themselves and place themselves in harms way (this may be mistaken for heroism but is actually a sort of suicide attempt). As they grow progressively more self loathing the damage they do to themselves, and the danger in which they will willingly place themselves) increases. (How this will manifest depends upon the character and is up to the player and GM.)
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