Realms of Power: Faerie Chapter Three: Faerie Characters
This page is part of the Realms of Power: Faerie Open Content
Faeries are designed through a series of choices. A player creating a faerie can make these choices in any order, but in this section, they are laid out in the following sequence:
- Is this a player or non-player character?
- How powerful is this character compared to player character types?
- What is the Might score of the faerie?
- What is its physical form?
- How cognizant is the faerie?
- What is the role it is playing?
- What powers does it have?
- Does it have traditional vulnerabilities?
Quick Start GuidelineThe quickest way to get through the new options in this character creation process is to select a faerie that replaces a beginning companion, can pass for human, has a Faerie Might of 10, and follows the stereotypical role of its faerie type. This results in the following:'
Before play, balance up the Virtues and Flaws, paying attention to the Inappropriate Virtues and Flaws section. Skim the introductory text to each section, but pay particular attention to the powers of the faerie body. Read the detail of the Virtues and Flaws selected above. Select some Greater Powers if you like. They are based on a Major Virtue and allow your character to affect others mystically. Faerie Speech may prove especially useful if your faerie interacts with characters who speak a diversity of languages. |
PC or NPC?
Non-player characters may be far more powerful and versatile than freshly created player characters. Non-player characters do not need to balance their Virtues and Flaws, and may have more Pretenses — which substitute for Abilities, as described later — than starting player characters. The characters in Chapter 4: Faerie Bestiary are designed using the system below, as examples, but Troupes are encouraged to use a less-formal process of design if it suits their sagas.
Level of Power
Players designing faerie characters should negotiate the aspects of their design with the other members of their troupe, because even faeries designed within the guidelines given in this chapter may reduce the enjoyment of the game by other members of the troupe. The enjoyment of the other players is representative of the attention and emotional attachment of their characters, which is of prime importance to a friendly faerie basking in their vitality.
Player Character Faeries Are Designed to Suit Game Play
Faeries display a continuum of power, from mere shadows on nursery walls to the ancient gods of the Greeks and Norse. When designing a faerie character, a player is selecting a faerie that is approximately as powerful as a companion or magus. Within the Mythic European setting, these levels of power are unrecognized.
Maximum Number of Virtues and Pretenses
Faeries designed instead as player characters use values from the following formula.
- Replaces Companion: Up to 10 points of Virtues balanced by Flaws
- Replaces Magus: 1 free, then up to 20 points of Virtues paid for with Flaws at 2 Virtues per Flaw.
The character has a number of Pretense points figured as follows:'
| Pretense Points | 15 x (Average Age of Magus Player Characters – 5) + 120 Points |
The multiplier (15) may be changed by the Pretentious or Ostentatious Virtues, or Aloof Flaw, described in the section on Pretenses at this chapter’s end.
If the character’s physical form has any inherent Abilities, you must purchase Pretenses for those first. For example, a human being typically begins with Living Language 5 and 45 points in specific Abilities associated with early childhood. Animals often have a set of required Abilities that represent instinctive behavior for the species.
In Chapter 4: Faerie Bestiary, faeries designed for use as player characters assume that the magi in the campaign are 21 years old, which gives 360 points of Pretences.
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Might |
Social |
Required Virtues and Flaws
A character must have a Might score, a physical form, a level of cognizance, a Social Interaction Virtue, and a taboo. All faeries have certain innate powers, which may be traded away as Flaws.
Faerie Might Score
Player characters begin with a Faerie Might score of 5, which may be varied by selecting appropriate Virtues or Flaws during character creation. The Might Score of a faerie represents its spiritual strength. The more powerful a faerie is spiritually, the greater the likelihood that it is at the center of stories, and that other faeries act as its servants. Better roles in stories tend to be claimed by the mightiest faeries.
This observation is, however, not useful for determining the Might of particular faeries. Faeries that have interacted regularly for hundreds of years with humans may have very high Might scores, and yet remain interested primarily in domestic stories. It is generally true that the queen of a faerie court has a high Might, and a household brownie a low Might, but there are individual faerie queens that have Might scores of 10, and a few brownie-like creatures have Might scores of 45. Faeries usually contain more vis if they have greater Might, so these tiny, magically resistant faeries are particularly valued by magi as prey.
Faerie Might gives the character innate Magic Resistance equal to its Might Score. This does not stack with other forms of resistance. Faeries have Might Points equal in number to their Might score, which they spend to activate their powers. These are recovered at a constant rate, which would result in full recovery from zero over the course of 24 hours unless a Virtue or Flaw changes this rate.
Scale of Typical Might ScoresThe typical Might Scores in this table refer to creatures in Chapter 4: Faerie Bestiary. Might scores and examples:
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Virtues That Affect Might
Some virtues alter the rate at which faeries recover after using their powers. Hermetic scholars are divided over whether these unusual features are linked to the role or the spirit of the faerie.
Fast Might Recovery Minor, Supernatural
This Virtue allows faeries to recover spent Might in a quarter of the normal time. Instead of completely refreshing its Might over the course of 24 hours, the character restores its entire Might Pool in only six hours.
Feast of the Fae Minor, Supernatural
This Virtue allows a faerie to recover 5 lost Might by receiving traditional sacrifices left from a human. Sacrifices include food left on doorsteps for the faerie to consume, but some dark faeries feed on the wards left to keep them at bay, accepting them as the price that humans pay for safety. This power can only be used once per day.
Feast of the Dead Minor, Supernatural
This Virtue allows a faerie to recover 2 lost Might after draining a Long Term Fatigue Level from, or causing at least a Medium Wound to, a human. Different fairies employ various methods to extract vitality from humans. This Virtue does not, of itself, cause damage. For example, a faerie that feeds on the blood of sleeping shepherds must make a successful Bite attack to drink sufficient blood from a sleeping shepherd to cause the loss of a Long Term Fatigue Level. The faerie’s player can then claim 2 lost Might points.
Increased Faerie Might Major or Minor, Supernatural
As a Minor Virtue, this increases the faerie’s Might Score by 5. As a Major Virtue, it increases Might by 15. With the approval of the troupe, this Virtue may be taken multiple times.
Time or Place of Power Minor, Supernatural
The character’s Might Score is 10 points higher at a certain time or in certain places that are strongly linked to the character’s role. The time or place is known to any character who makes an Intelligence + Faerie Lore roll of against an Ease Factor of 9. This Virtue may not be taken multiple times.
Flaws That Affect Might
Certain Flaws influence the rate at which faeries recover their Might.
Decreased Might Supernatural, Minor
The faerie has only 1 point of Might, instead of the usual 5. Faeries with this Flaw retain the use of powers that do not require the expenditure of Might, like regeneration and the ability to generate equipment that does not cause Encumbrance.
Restricted Might Supernatural, Major or Minor
The faerie is nearly powerless at certain times or under certain conditions. At the onset of these disadvantageous conditions, any ongoing supernatural effects that the creature has started with its powers immediately end, except for those that constantly affect the creature itself. As long as the conditions last, the creature is unable to spend or recover Might points.
This Flaw may be Major or Minor. If it is Major, the creature’s Might is restricted under relatively common circumstances, such as when exposed to daylight or during the winter. The conditions should be in effect at least one-quarter of the time. For the Minor version of this Flaw, the conditions are uncommon, such as during a thunderstorm or on the night of the new moon.
Slow Might Recovery Major, Supernatural
A faerie being with this Flaw recovers a single Might Point per day, rather than all Might Points over the course of a day. A variant of this Flaw occurs in some faeries that regain all of their Might at a certain phase of the moon, but at no other time.
Might Recovery Requires Vitality Major, Supernatural
The character must get a full night’s rest and eat a meal to replenish its Might Points after they have been spent. This must be done within a human community by eating leavened bread, drinking beverages fermented by humans, feeding on human blood, or listening to humans sing or scream. For every eight hours the character rests, it recovers a number of Might Points equal to the prevailing Aura as modified by the Realm Interaction Table, or 1, whichever is greater.
Physical Form
Faeries may appear human, but do not truly have human bodies. A faerie is a spirit that, unconsciously, draws matter about itself. This body may appear and feel convincingly human, particularly if the faerie has enjoyed lengthy, passionate interaction with mortals. When faeries die, however, few leave conventional corpses. They disintegrate into their original matter: leaves, or clouds of black feathers, or sea foam, or snowflakes. They may seem like statues of stone, or portraits in wood, or manikins of straw. Faeries with low cognizance do not know it, but they are only pretending to have bodies.
There are several advantages to constructing a body of matter and glamour, then stealing vitality to animate it. Faeries cannot age or suffer Decrepitude unless they have a Flaw. They lack the ability to become fatigued, although some sleep for social reasons or because their role demands it of them. It is also very difficult for faeries to die.
Equipment Without Encumbrance
A faerie does not suffer Encumbrance for pieces of equipment traditional for the role it is playing, because these props are made of glamour. Props are treated as extensions of the faerie’s body for magical purposes. If a prop is lost, the faerie withdraws its glamour from the matter in the prop, and reconstitutes it closer to hand. Lesser faeries do this without understanding the mechanism; they find their lost items under rocks, or behind trees, or simply use them without remembering that they were lost. Reconstituting a prop costs no Might, and requires a single round.
Regeneration
The bodies of faeries are often damaged, but they consider that insignificant. A faerie may be required by its role to feel pain, or simulate it in the case of highly cognizant faeries, but pain isn’t meaningful to most faeries. They do not associate their pain with suffering in the way humans do. Some faeries report, how truthfully cannot be known, that when the Summer and Winter Courts make war upon the Equinox, the knights often chop each other to pieces. Once the battle has been won, they cease pretending to be human for long enough to reassemble themselves, then resume their roles and feast. If a human witness were present, this would not be possible: the bodies of the faeries would have to remain dead to suit their role. One of the faeries present often has a role that allows it to bring faeries back from the dead, if this occurs.
Faerie bodies regenerate as rapidly as is suitable to their story. Incognizant faeries heal swiftly and well, without die rolls, unless required to remain ill by their role. Narrowly and highly cognizant fairies can repair all but the cosmetic level of the damage their body has suffered, at will, once the scene they are participating in has concluded. Many do not even notice they are doing it, healing the superficial damage at a rate that appears reasonable to human viewers.
If killed by humans, or with humans witnesses, faeries may eventually rebuild a body, although it takes time. The time taken to regenerate equals the faster of the Faerie Might Score in months or Faerie Might Score / Aura (as modified by the Realm Interaction Table) in months. An incognizant faerie that rebuilds its body believes itself to be linked to, but not actually, the previous faerie. It might, for example, believe that it is its own daughter or brother. Narrowly cognizant faeries may return with their memories intact, although the incident that caused their body to be destroyed is hazy. Highly cognizant faeries can change roles, at the player’s discretion, between bodies, so that they appear as an entirely different type of faerie following their death. They retain the same number of Virtues, Flaws, and Pretenses, but may swap the ones they currently possess for a new set.
Permanent Death
Forces that are outside the story they are weaving can permanently kill faeries. A faerie whose Might Score is destroyed dies permanently. Miracles and agents of the Infernal can destroy faeries. If the vis from the faerie’s anchor (described in Chapter 1: Nature of Faerie, Vis) is used, then it is permanently dead. Incognizant faeries appear to be destroyed if killed with mystical things they are antithetical to, as represented by the Sovereign Ward Flaw. Some Merinita magi suggest that faeries who appear to be dead are merely dispelled to Arcadia for thousands of mortal years. It is possible to seek such faeries in stories, although there is no way to tell if the creatures found are the original faeries or merely skilled impersonators.
Magic Resistance Against Faeries
The bodies of faeries are made of matter arranged by glamour, which is a mystical force. Faerie bodies, and the other props created by the same process, are not, however, blocked by the Parma Magica or other forms of Magic Resistance. This is not unique to faeries: elemental spirits of the Magic Realm and demons construct bodies of incidental matter, and the physical attacks of these creatures are not resisted, either. Magi do not agree on why this is the case, but some suggest that the construction of bodies is part of the essential nature of faeries, so the power cannot be alienated from them by Hermetic magic.
Spells that target the material the faerie is made from, like Circular Ward Against The Faeries of the Wood, or the spiritual nature of the faerie, like the Aegis of the Hearth, are effective against faeries.
The powers of faeries that have Might costs and ranges greater than Personal are, in most cases, opposed by Magic Resistance.
Varieties of Form
Many faeries are able to take several forms. If the character’s physical form has any inherent Virtues or Flaws, as most animals do, a player must select as many of them as possible before selecting others.
Human and Animal Forms
A humanoid faerie has 7 points with which to buy Characteristics, as per the table on ArM page 30. Faeries in animal form should be guided by the statistics provided in the “Book of Mundane Animals” appendix of Realms of Power: Magic, or be constructed as mundane animals are, using the rules presented in the Bjornaer chapter of Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults (pages 38-43).
Many lesser faeries, including those with human shapes, lack true Intelligence. Unintelligent faeries are not suitable as player characters, however. A player who selects an animal form for a character may trade the beast’s Cunning score for Intelligence. This is a Free Virtue.
Hybrid Forms
Most hybrid forms are simply human forms with animal elements grafted onto them. These elements may be simply cosmetic — in which case they do not change the character’s scores — or they may represent Minor Virtues. The physical anomalies of the bodies of faeries are not Flaws unless they limit the faerie in stories. As an example, the serpent’s tail that a faerie has instead of legs is not a Flaw if she spends most of her time in Arcadia or her cave in the hills, since it’s only a detriment if it is going to terrify humans that she’d prefer were civil.
Some faeries have animal parts that they use for combat. This uses the Brawl Ability and the statistics on the following table. Minimum Strength, Load, and cost do not apply to these weapons. Having natural weapons does not, in itself, require a Virtue.
| Init | Atk | Dfn | Dmg | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teeth | 0 | +3 | +1 | +1 |
| Large Teeth | 0 | +4 | +1 | +3 |
| Tusks | 0 | +4 | +2 | +5 |
| Claws | -1 | +2 | +3 | +2 |
| Large Claws | 0 | +5 | +3 | +4 |
| Horns | +1 | +3 | -1 | +2 |
| Large Horns or Antlers | +2 | +3 | +2 | +3 |
| Hoobes | +2 | +2 | +2 | +1 |
Glamorous, Immaterial Forms
All faeries have bodies made of matter, glamour, and vitality, but some prefer to interact with humans through forms made solely of glamour, and draw matter to themselves only when wishing to alter the physical world. Some theorists argue that all faeries dwell as pure spirit when humans are not watching, but this class of faeries is willing to use this power in the presence of humans. This makes them appear ghostly, but to the educated or those with the Sight, magical spirits and faeries are quite distinctive.
Immaterial faeries are invisible to those without magical aid, and can pass through solid objects. Some may interact with humans simply by shedding species with glamour — that is, they may make illusory bodies for themselves. These bodies cannot, however, move objects. To move objects, they must take on matter. While taking on matter the faerie can continue to move and act, but cannot pass through objects. While in material form, the faerie’s spirit is bound to the matter it has taken on. If the body is destroyed, the matter returns to its initial state, with the spirit of the faerie still attached to it as vis.
To design an immaterial faerie, instead design the characteristics for the physical body it takes on when it dons matter and select the Intangible Flesh Flaw, described in the nearby insert. The Loosely Material minor faerie power may suit the character.
Size
Players of humanoid characters select a size from the following options. Characters outside the range of Size +2 to –3 are difficult to accommodate in sagas, and should be carefully scrutinized by the Troupe.
Modifier: +3 or more
- Size: Huge
- Must Select: (Size–1) times +(2 x Size) Strength, –(Size) Quickness
Modifier: +2
- Size: Huge
- Must Select: +4 Strength, –2 Quickness
Modifier: +1
- Size: Large
- Must Select: Characteristics aren’t adjusted
Modifier: 0
- Size: None
- Must Select: Characteristics aren’t adjusted
Modifier: –1
- Size: Small Frame
- Must Select: Characteristics aren’t adjusted
Modifier: –2 or –3
- Size: Little
- Must Select: –(2 x Size) Strength, +(Size) Quickness
Modifier: –4 or more
- Size: select Little twice
- Must Select: –(2 x Size) Strength, +(Size) Quickness
Faeries may not have flaws like Dwarf or Giant Blood, which are for mortals whose bodies are structured slightly differently from those of other humans. Faerie bodies only pretend to follow the mechanical principles of organic life.
Nonhuman characters that have a base Size other than zero do not usually select Virtues and Flaws on the table above. An adjustment for the Size of creatures is, for example, contained within the rules for creating mundane animals given in House of Hermes: Mystery Cults, and has been invisibly included in the “Book of Mundane Beasts” in Realms of Power: Magic. A similar adjustment is found in the rules for objects as player characters given in Realms of Power: Magic. Characters deviating from their base size by 1 do not change Characteristics, but those deviating by more than 1 are adjusted as indicated by the table above.
Huge Major Virtue, General (faeries only)
The character is far larger than usual. Its Size score is increased, its Characteristics are adjusted, and its Body levels change, as detailed in the inserts accompanying this section.
Little Major Flaw, General (faeries only)
The character is far smaller than usual. Its Size score is decreased, its Characteristics are adjusted, and its Body levels change, as detailed in the inserts accompanying this section.
What Do Size Scores Represent?
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Virtues for Physical Forms
Characters must take a Virtue that defines the usual form of the faerie. There is no free Virtue that defines physical form, because all faerie forms have abilities beyond those of mortals, such as regeneration. Players are re minded that faeries can also take Virtues that suit humans. Many faeries that are drawn to stories in which humans enjoy the thrill of combat have Tough forms, for example.
External Vis Minor or Major Virtue, Supernatural
The faerie’s spiritual essence (anchor) resides in one of the props traditional for its role, and this can be carried far from the faerie’s body without the faerie suffering ill effects. There is an Arcane Connection between the object containing the faerie’s spiritual essence and the faerie’s body. If this connection is broken, or if the object is destroyed, the faerie’s distant body disintegrates, but the essence can construct a new body, given sufficient time. If the vis in the prop is used, the faerie is permanently destroyed.
When selected as a Major Virtue, the prop provides its bearer with any one Minor Virtue, selected at creation. This provides the faerie with a little additional power, but its main advantage is that humans who discover the object are far more likely to treasure it, and keep it safe. This provides the faerie with time to form a new physical body and reclaim his object.
As an example, a faerie warrior with a Might of 20 uses his sword as his spiritual anchor. A character that defeats the warrior finds that the sword contains 4 pawns of vis, but also finds that the sword has no Encumbrance and grants a human wielder a +2 bonus on the Single Weapon Ability. The bonus comes from the Grant Puissance power, described later. If the human keeps the weapon, then eventually the faerie can generate a fresh body, and seek out the wielder and challenge him to a duel.
Faerie Beast Minor Virtue, Supernatural
The character appears to be an animal. It has all of the advantages of being a faerie, and having a faerie body. The innate limitations of an animal form, such as having no hands and being unable to pronounce human words, may not be taken as Flaws. Faerie beasts that wish to speak like humans may take Language Pretenses, or the Faerie Speech Virtue.
Faerie Sight Minor Virtue, Supernatural
This Virtue, which works constantly at no cost to the faerie, is used in conjunction with the Awareness Pretense. It allows faeries to:
- Tell mundane from glamourous things. (Automatic success: no roll required.)
- See the borders of glamour, so that they know which faerie that props and territories belong to. (Automatic success: no roll required.)
- See Arcane Connections, so that they know which objects belong to a human (automatic success), and also to which human they belong. (If human and object can be observed, automatic success.)
- Read each other’s glamour. Faerie Lore is a body of knowledge that humans learn through experience, so very few faeries have it. (Ease Factor = Might of other faerie/5) Faeries use the ability to read each other’s glamour to guide their interactions, instead of using Faerie Lore.
- See mundane things hidden by glamour. (Ease Factor = 3 + (Might of Faerie causing the glamour – Might of the faerie attempting to see through the glamour)/5)
Faerie Speech Minor Virtue, Supernatural
Many faeries have a Pretense called Faerie Speech, which they use instead of acquiring human languages. Faeries seem to know the same languages as whomever they are talking to. If speaking to a group that has demonstrated mixed linguistic skills, the faerie may select which language to speak in.
This effect occurs whenever the faerie speaks and costs no Might. It is not magically resisted, because the effect only alters the behavior of the faerie. If the faerie has not heard a person from its audience speak, it may only use whichever language it last used with humans. Once its audience speaks, the faerie may then converse in the correct language for its audience.
In the bestiary chapter, Faerie Speech is frequently given to characters designed as NPCs. Characters designed for possible use by players have this Virtue more rarely, to free up a Virtue slot, but it is still appropriate for a wide variety of faeries.
Humanoid Faerie Minor Virtue, Supernatural
The character has a material body of roughly human shape. It has all of the advantages of being a faerie, and of having a faerie body.
Hybrid Form Minor Virtue, Supernatural
The character has a material body that mixes human and animal elements, and lacks a humanoid structure. It has all of the advantages of being a faerie, and of having a faerie body.
Immune to (Source of Damage) Minor or Major Virtue, Supernatural
The bodies of faeries are made of matter held together by rules, and this means that they are vulnerable to injury according to those rules, not the usual rules of human physiology. A faerie with this Virtue takes no damage from natural or magical examples of the nominated force. This is a Minor Virtue if the thing is rare, or only likely to be employed by the environment or magi — examples include cold or lightning. It is Major Virtue if it is a force that mobs of mundanes might employ to assault the faerie — like fire, iron weapons, or wooden weapons. Immunity to entire Forms sometimes occurs, but only where the faerie is so strongly tied to an element that any person with Common Sense could tell that the weapon will be ineffective, like wooded weapons against a forest god or metal weapons against a dwarfish blacksmith. Immunities to entire Forms are Major Virtues.
Improved Damage Minor Virtue, Supernatural
One of the character’s natural weapons has been enhanced by a story event before play begins, making it sharper, heavier, or somehow more dangerous. Before each combat, the player nominates how much additional damage the weapon does, up to +5. If the player chooses a score above +2, then those watching the combat can deduce that the weapon is supernatural after it causes injury. This requires an Intelligence + Awareness roll against an Ease Factor of 11–Damage amount chosen.
Improved Initiative Minor Virtue, Supernatural
One of the character’s natural weapons has been enhanced due to a story event before play commences, making the character more likely to act first in combat. Increase its Initiative score by 3.
Improved Soak Minor Virtue, Supernatural
The character’s natural protection is magically enhanced, making it more effective at warding away blows and physical injury. Increase the character’s Soak by 2. This Virtue may be taken more than once.
Puissant Pretense Minor Virtue, Supernatural
The character’s form is well suited to a particular Pretense, gaining a +2 bonus on roles in its use. For example, a character that has a body designed for combat gains +2 Attack and Defense for a single combat Pretense.
Residual Power Minor Virtue, Supernatural
When the character’s body is destroyed, one of its faerie powers is automatically triggered. This often has the useful effect of preventing the faerie’s vis from being gathered, so that the faerie eventually regenerates.
Flaws for Physical Forms
Players who select Flaws that inhibit combat effectiveness must convince their troupe that these Flaws do not, effectively, simply describe a character who has the Noncombatant Flaw. Combat effectiveness flaws are only permitted for those characters who expect to regularly be involved in battle.
Intangible Flesh Major Flaw, Supernatural
The character is immaterial, and cannot physically influence the world. Characters with this Flaw should consider the Eidolon and Loosely Material powers.
Poor Combatant Minor Flaw, Supernatural
The character’s form is well suited to a role that involves combat, but the character’s role makes it incompetent. It loses 2 Attack and Defense for a single combat Pretense. This flaw may not be taken more than once.
Reduced Damage Minor Flaw, Supernatural
One of the character’s natural weapons has been blunted by a story or event before play commences, making it less damaging or dangerous. Decrease its Damage score by 2, but only if it is naturally greater than 0.
Reduced Initiative Minor Flaw, Supernatural
One of the character’s natural weapons has been slowed due to a story or event before play commences, making the character less likely to act first. Decrease its Initiative score by 3, but only if it is naturally greater than 0.
Reduced Soak Minor Flaw, Supernatural
The character’s natural protection has been damaged by contact with a Ward, making it more vulnerable to physical damage. Reduce the character’s Soak by 2, but only if it is greater than 0. This Flaw may be taken multiple times.
Role Requires Suffering Minor Flaw, Supernatural
The character’s role requires both frequent injury and that it feels pain and physical debilitation. The character retains the faerie ability to regenerate all but superficial damage, but it experiences pain as if it bore the wounds that its injuries superficially resemble. If the faerie attempts to use its Pretenses, including the Penetration Pretense for its powers, it suffers the negative modifiers that a human would for the equivalent level of injury or exhaustion.
Susceptible to Deprivation Minor Flaw: Supernatural
The character’s role limits it, so that it suffers human consequences if it lacks air, food, and water. The character is still immune to aging.
Vulnerable to (Substance) Supernatural, Minor or Major Flaw
The body of the character, and all of its accouterments, are made of matter held together by glamour. The character’s glamour provides no defense against a particular source of damage. This is particularly problematic, as the faerie’s armor contains glamour. The character has a Soak score of 0 against this substance. This is a minor Flaw if it is something that people would not consider using unless prompted by a wise person with the Faerie Lore Ability — examples include weapons smeared with garlic, bunches of fennel, sharpened rocks, and burning brooms. Major Flaws suit characters vulnerable to obviously dangerous things — like iron weapons or fire, or to entire Hermetic Forms.
Social Interaction Virtues and Flaws
The Social Interaction Virtues and Flaws taken by faeries govern only their interaction with humans and replace Social Status Virtues. When dealing with other faeries, player characters are usually treated as representatives of the humans they are with, and treated as the social status of the humans requires.
Monstrous Appearance Major Flaw, Social Interaction
Something about the character looks strange and frightening to others, giving the character a –6 penalty in all social situations where its appearance is a factor.
Negative Reaction Minor Flaw, Social Interaction
People find something about the character disturbing. This causes a –3 on all social rolls. In many communities, all obvious faeries suffer this reaction.
Passes for Human Free, Social Interaction
The character suffers no social consequences, as it can seem human. The character lives at the margins of human society and does not mimic prestigious human roles; to do so requires the Infiltrator Virtue, described later.
Positive Folktales Minor Virtue, Social Interaction
The character’s type of faerie is described in local folklore, and because of this, the character is treated with respect, caution, and deference when its nature is obvious.
Infiltrator Minor or Major Virtue, Social Interaction
An Infiltrator is a faerie who, during most stories, lives as if he were a human being. This costs the same as the Social Status the Infiltrator is mimicking. If the revelation that the character is a faerie would destroy the character’s status in mortal society, then the player should consider the Dark Secret Flaw.
Cognizance
The concept of cognizance is described in detail in Chapter 1: Nature of Faerie. Cognizance is significant when designing faeries for two reasons. The character’s cognizance may influence his goals during the story: he may seek vitality in a way that allows him to change roles. The faerie’s cognizance also limits the faerie’s potential to develop new powers during the course of a story or saga. Characters of low cognizance do not consciously attempt to improve their statistics during the saga. Those of middling cogni zance may transform predictably into a more powerful being. Those of high cognizance are the most flexible, and might change roles between scenes in stories, with the assistance of a human, as described later.
Virtues and Flaws Concerning Cognizance
All fairies must have one of the following levels of cognizance.
Incognizant Minor Flaw, Supernatural
The character is not aware that it can change its role, although it may develop additional Pretenses by assisting humans in stories. Incognizant faeries do not, however, notice that they are more skilled than they once were, and cannot consciously seek developmental opportunities.
Narrowly Cognizant Free Choice, Supernatural
The character is able to improve itself in ways traditional for characters of this type. A dwarf may seek to become a dwarf king, for example. Or a faerie maid may wish to steal a child to raise as her own.
Highly Cognizant Minor Virtue, Supernatural
The character is aware that creative humans can generate change in faeries, and can actively seek out such changes.
Taboos
Individual faeries can be repelled with symbolic objects or actions, defined in their glamour. These Flaws are the basis of faerie taboos — lists of actions that faeries are forbidden to take by their glamour. Taboos relate to symbolic objects or actions, and broad classes of taboos are described after the Flaws.
Traditional Ward Minor Flaw, Supernatural
If a taboo is selected as a Minor Flaw, then the faerie may not touch a thing protected by the ward with its glamour. The faerie is likely uncomfortable in the presence of the ward, but is not compelled to flee. The faerie cannot regenerate Might points in the presence of a traditional ward. If forced to touch the ward, the glamour holding the faerie’s body together begins to break down: its body begins to flake away. Prolonged contact with the ward destroys the body of the faerie by unpicking the glamour holding its body together.
This may appear to humans as if the ward is burning the faerie. The damage to the faerie’s body can be simulated with the Heat and Corrosion rules found on page 181 of ArM5. Assume that the object acts as a source of damage with an intensity of +6.
If a faerie receives an Incapacitating wound from an item that is a Traditional Ward, then in addition to the usual effects of Incapacitating wounds (ArM5, page 178–179) the faerie cannot spend any further Might points. It can still activate powers with a zero cost, though. If the character has constant-effect powers with a non-zero cost, they expire at the next sunrise or sunset and cannot be reactivated until the character is no longer Incapacitated. The character may heal at a human rate, or may remove the injury with an appropriate story event.
Sovereign Ward Major Flaw, Supernatural
If a taboo is selected as a major flaw, the faerie may not harm a person or thing that is defended by the ward. “Harm” is defined very broadly in the faerie’s glamour. A faerie that is vulnerable to religious symbols, for example, can not work around the symbol by putting mundane poison in the food of the wearer, or burning his house down around him. The person is completely safe from the faerie. The faerie must attempt to flee the ward, and its body is destroyed instantly by the ward’s touch.
Folk Charms
Folk charms are trinkets made to protect people by repelling faeries. In Italy, for example, people make a finger sign as a charm, while in Greece they often paint eyes on things instead. A character with this taboo cannot face folk charms, deliberately used, from any culture; faeries from the Yorkshire do not emigrate to Italy to escape witch bottles, and Greek faeries cannot merely leave Greece to escape their weakness before the sign of the evil eye.
Objects that were once the focus of worship may maintain their power over faeries, despite having no supernatural strength, insofar as Hermetic magi can detect it. On the Isle of Man, for example, it is traditional to plant a species of tree once sacred to the god Thor by the door, and carry a fishbone that looks a little like Thor’s hammer, to dissuade faeries. The locals no longer revere Thor, but the bones and trees continue to ward off faeries.
Individual people may have folk charms that those skilled in Faerie Lore would not recognize, because they are not part of a traditional tale. These are items that are precious and meaningful to the human, and in whose power to grant aid the human devoutly believes. These items are an Arcane Connection to the human. They vary from “lucky” clothes, through the toys of children that scare away nursery bogies, to ships that never founder in unnatural seas.
Herbs
The herbs that repel a faerie are based on that faerie’s role, so the faerie is unable to vary them, except by changing roles. Matching the fairy to an effective botanical ward requires the Faerie Lore skill or the ability to read its glamour. In the same way that a faerie is unable to escape its vulnerability to folk charms by moving to a different ethnic community, so faeries find that the underlying symbolism of herbs can be transferred. For example, a vampiric faerie from Slavic lands may flee garlic, but when it moves to the Alps it would find that wild mountain roses also repel it. This is because, in each community, the herb is known to ward against spirits of plague through its strong smell.
Iron
Iron is a supremely magical metal that is easily bent to the will of humans. It is woven into the stories of many faeries, as a ward. Some faeries refuse to negotiate with humans who carry iron, even if they will not suffer from contact with it, because they know it is intended to poison them and so take its presence as an insult. Many other faeries are entirely comfortable around iron, particularly the various styles of miners and crafters. Urban faeries are usually resistant to iron.
Names
If a faerie has this taboo, and a character knows its name, the character can force the faerie to leave it alone. Many powerful faeries prefer to go by titles and roles when in the presence of humans for this reason. Conversely, in many areas people misbelieve that a person loses one year of life when he says the word “fairy,” because it is a failed attempt at naming a specific faerie. People often use slightly flattering euphemisms for faeries, as well — they call them “the good neighbors,” for example.
Payment Or Thanks
Some faeries must leave human service if paid or thanked. They do this because, for that particular faerie, payment or thanks means that the continuing relationship between the human and the faerie has reached its point of emotional equilibrium. Everything that one owes the other is in balance. Some refuse payment because masters pay servants — the offer is a claim that the human is the faerie’s lord and master. So the faerie departs, seeking humans that suit it better.
Other faeries leave because they have been made complete by the payment — their story is over. A brownie that was once an unbaptized child left to die of exposure, is made complete when offered clothes. It moves on to a new role. Note that such a faerie has probably been accepting bowls of rich cream for years, but does not see this as payment because it does not complete the faerie’s role.
A few faeries, once released from service by thanks, return to their destructive natures and attack their previous employers. Examples — like jinn released from bottles who offer three wishes followed by death, and Yallery Brown, who was released from under a stone, did work in gratitude, and then tormented his master to death after receiving thanks — demonstrate that it is important not to sever the relationship with certain faeries.
Places
Flaws based on places must seriously inconvenience the character. Some faeries are so tied to their home that the rest of the earth acts as a Traditional Ward against them. They can travel foreign lands provided they do not touch the earth, which burns them. Some vampiric faeries rest in coffins lined with the earth of their homeland to allow their Might to regenerate. Characters tied to their home with a Sovereign Ward simply cannot leave, and are unsuitable as player characters in most sagas.
Religious Symbols
Faeries with this taboo flee church bells, but this is unusual in urban faeries. The Dutch, for example, believe that all of the oldest church bells in their country were made by faeries, as presents for early missionaries. A surprising number of English faeries are dedicated Christians, and yet one English saint was able to destroy a faerie bower with a bottle of holy water, disrupting its glamour so that it looked like a charnel pit.
Many of the most powerful faeries cannot enter the Dominion, because God has not invited them in and they are unable to trespass. Certain Merinita magi dream of a day when they can get a bishop to do this, on God’s behalf.
Optional Virtues and Flaws
Faeries may take a wide variety of Virtues and Flaws, with some exceptions and modifications as given here.
Inappropriate Virtues and Flaws
Faeries may not have supernatural powers associated with the Divine, Infernal, or Magic realms.
Faeries may not have The Gift, or any Virtue or Flaw specific to Hermetic magi.
Faeries do not have human Social Status virtues. If the faerie has a role that makes it appear part of human society, it should take the Infiltrator Virtue.
Faeries do not have any human Virtue linked with having an appropriate upbringing or life experience.
Many faeries are religious, and many more are amoral, but Virtues and Flaws linked to the Divine and Infernal should be taken only after close consultation with the Troupe. However, as noted above, Virtues and Flaws that grant Divine or Infernal powers are not permitted.
Modified Virtues and Flaws
These are virtues and flaws from the Ars Magica 5th Edition core rulebook that are modified when selected for faeries.
Confidence
Faeries do not have Confidence scores. They may have the Personality traits that are usually associated with confident people, but lack the internal spark of inspiration that allows them to live up to their self-image.
Reputation as Confidence Minor Virtue, Supernatural
Some faeries are forced, by their glamour, to live up to their Reputations. These faeries don’t have true Confidence, but pretend to have it to such a skilled degree that the distinction does not matter. A faerie with this Virtue gains a number of false Confidence points equal to its highest reputation, and may spend them, one at a time, on rolls that support any Reputation. The faerie regains these points when a human would regain Confidence.
Highly cognizant faeries may be aware of the link between their Reputation and their need to uphold that Reputation with Confidence; other faeries with this Virtue are not.
Personality Flaws
Faeries may have up to three Minor Personality Flaws and one Major Personality Flaw, so long as all of these Flaws come into play. Faeries often have Personality Flaws associated with their form or role that they must take. Added Flaws allow players to individualize their characters.
Virtues Granting Faerie Powers
Focus Power Major Virtue, Supernatural
The character has a power that produces varied effects related to a theme, which is smaller than a Hermetic Form. The theme must be selected at character creation, but the effects within the theme are fluid, like those of spontaneous spells. The player receives 25 spell levels to spend on this power. This Virtue may be selected more than once to allow for more-powerful effects. Effects may not have a level higher than the faerie’s Might Score unless they have been fortified with the Improved Powers Virtue, described below.
This power has a Might Point cost of the magnitude of the effect, and an initiative score of (the character’s Quickness – the power’s maximum magnitude). Players should also note the Form or Forms associated with the focus, to evaluate Magic Resistance. Any spell levels that are left over may be used to increase the effect level of other Focus Powers, or they can be converted into Intricacy points.
Greater Power Major Virtue, Supernatural
The character has spell-like powers designed, at character creation, like formulaic spells. Taking this Virtue gives the character 50 spell levels to spend on these powers, and this Virtue may be selected repeatedly, to allow effects of higher level. Each power has a Might Point cost equal to (the magnitude of the effect / 2), and an Initiative score equal to the character’s Quickness – (the magnitude of the effect / 2). Players should note the Forms associated with the effect, to calculate Magic Resistance.
Any spell levels that are left over may converted into intricacy points, with 5 full spell levels equal to 1 intricacy point.
Lesser Power Minor Virtue, Supernatural
The character has spell-like powers, which are designed at character creation like formulaic spells. Taking this Virtue gives the character 25 spell levels to spend on these powers, and this Virtue may be selected repeatedly, to allow effects of higher level. Each effect’s Might Point cost is equal to the magnitude of the effect. The initiative of the power is equal to Quickness – (2 x Magintude).
Any spell levels that are left over may be used to increase the effect level of other Lesser Powers, or converted into intricacy points, with 5 full levels of effects equal to 1 intricacy point.
Personal Power Minor Virtue, Supernatural
The character has a spell-like power, which is designed at character creation like a formulaic spell. Personal powers must have Personal Range.
This Virtue grants the character 25 levels to spend on a power, and may be taken multiple times to allow for effects of higher level. Personal Powers have a Might Point cost equal to (the magnitude of the effect / 2), and an initiative score equal to the character’s Quickness – (the magnitude of the effect / 2). Players should note the Forms associated with the effect, to calculate Magic Resistance.
Any spell levels that are left over may be used to increase the effect level of other Personal Powers, or converted into intricacy points, with 5 full levels of effects equal to 1 intricacy point.
Ritual Power Major Virtue, Supernatural
Players designing Ritual Powers should consult with their Troupes. The character has 25 spell levels with which to purchase Ritual-level effects. If this Virtue is taken multiple times, these spell levels can be combined into effects of greater magnitude. An effect needs to be a ritual if:
- It would require a magus to perform a Ritual spell,
- It has a level higher than 50, or
- It breaks Hermetic limits in ways that faeries do not usually break Hermetic limits, as decided by the troupe.
All Ritual Powers are at least Level 20, regardless of the actual level of the effect, and have a Might Point cost equal to the magnitude of the effect. The Initiative for the power is equal to the character’s Quickness – (the magnitude of the effect x 2). The player should also note the Forms of the effect, to calculate Magic Resistance.
Besides reducing the character’s Might Pool, Ritual Powers also require the player to subtract one from the character’s Might Score for each point in the Might cost, whenever it activates the effect. This lost Might may return over time, at the storyguide’s discretion, but at a much slower rate than recovering lost Might Points. For example, the character may regain a single point for each story in which it plays a decisive role.
Any spell levels that are left over after the Ritual Power is designed may be used to increase the effect level of other Ritual Powers, or converted into intricacy points, with 5 spell levels equal to 1 intricacy point. These may be spent like the intricacy points gained from the Improved Powers Minor Virtue on any of the character’s Ritual Powers.
Improved Powers Minor Virtue, Supernatural
This Virtue gives the character 5 intricacy points to spend on any of its powers. This Virtue may be taken more than once.
At the storyguide’s discretion, this Virtue can also be used to modify a power in the same way magi can master a Hermetic spell. Each time this Virtue is taken, the character’s intricacy score with the power is increased by 1, and this gives the character a spell mastery special ability (such as those listed on page 87 of ArM5). Note that activating powers does not require a die roll, so many of the typical benefits of mastering a spell (such as reduced botch dice) do not apply to mastered powers.
Flaws Limiting Powers
Reduced Power Minor, Supernatural
Subtract 5 intricacy points from any of the character’s powers. Each lost intricacy point increases the number of Might Points needed to activate a power by 1, or subtracts 1 from the character’s Initiative score for a power. This Flaw may be taken more than once, but the activation cost for a power may not exceed the character’s Might Score, and you cannot reduce a power’s Initiative below 0.
Slow Power' Minor, Supernatural
One of the character’s powers is very slow, so that it requires an additional round of preparation to activate. This Flaw may be taken more than once, if the character has multiple powers, but all powers affected must be used in situations such that the Flaw seriously reduces their effectiveness.
Constant PowersA Greater, Lesser, or Personal Power can be made constant, triggering automatically at both sunset and sunrise and continuing perpetually as long as the character has a Might Score and the Might Points needed to activate it. The effect must be designed with Sun duration, and costs an additional magnitude. If the power has a Might cost, it is subtracted from the character’s Might Pool each time the sun rises or sets, whether the character is aware of it or not. If the character does not have enough Might Points, the power is temporarily interrupted until the next activation. |
An Exemplary Catalog of Faerie Powers
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Faerie powers that could be simulated by Hermetic magic are designed using the Virtues given in this section and summarized in the adjoining table. Each Virtue gives a number of spell levels, a Might cost, and an Initiative score for the powers it permits. There are many other powers, collected from folklore, that are designed on a less-structured basis, but if they merely imply that faeries have targets or ranges that are inaccessible to Hermetic magi, they use these rules to help guide their cost. Faeries gain one use of a power each time they spend its cost in Might. Penetration for a Faerie Power is calculated as shown on page 191 of ArM5: Might Score – (5 x Might Point cost) + Penetration bonus. This means that to increase a power’s Penetration Total, you must decrease the power’s cost, increase the character’s Might Score, or improve the character’s Penetration score. Wound and Fatigue penalties do not apply to powers unless the character has the Role Requires Suffering Flaw, described in the Flaws for Physical Forms section above, although some faeries pretend that they are inconvenienced by wounds so that their story can be finished with a heroic victory by a human. A character whose Might pool has reached zero can no longer activate any powers unless it has a cost of zero. Powers that have already been activated continue until their duration expires. If they’re constant-effect powers with a non-zero cost, they cease at the next sunrise or sunset unless the character has regenerated sufficient Might points in the intervening period to reactivate them. Faeries that are in an area dominated by another Realm cannot use powers with range greater than Touch unless they have an Arcane Connection to the target, or have been invited in. See the Gaining Admittance section in Chapter 1: Nature of Faerie for more detail. Faeries find it easy to create Arcane Connections to humans by tricking them into breaking taboos, particularly the taboo against speaking to faeries. Intricacy PointsIntricacy points represent portions of the character’s glamour, which support a particular power, that are more complex than average. An intricacy point spent on any non-Focus Faerie Power either makes it activate faster by increasing its Initiative by one, or drain less vitality by reducing its Might Point cost by 1. Intricacy points may increase the Initiative of a Focus Power, but may not change its Might cost. Intricacy points may be purchased by selecting the Improved Powers virtue, or gained as a recompense for unspent spell levels when any of the Faerie Power Virtues are selected. Every 5 unspent levels equal an intricacy point. Characters with Focus Powers may also spend 1 of these points to raise the maximum level of effect their focus power can produce by 5. Although this allows the character to generate effects with a level higher than the character’s Might score, it does not grant Faerie Might or those things that flow from Might, like Might points and Magic Resistance. Odd Targets and DurationsThere are few examples in this book, because it is intended to stand alone, but faeries may use any of the Ranges, Targets, or Durations available to Merinita magi in Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults. One that is used repeatedly in this book is Until, a Duration that makes a spell last until a certain thing occurs. In this book it is treated as being equivalent to Year, but not requiring a Ritual. This is substantially more powerful than Merinita magic, and is a field of interested study by magi of that House. In some examples, two Durations are given. For example, a power might be marked as Sun or Until. In that case, the power’s spell level is treated as Sun duration, and the power expires if either the Sun Duration is completed, or the condition of the Until duration is met. The conditions of Until durations designed by players need to make narrative sense, and troupes should sternly enforce them. Faerie Power Virtue Comparison TableVirtue Name Spell Levels Value Effect Type Might Cost Initiative Focus Power 25 Major Virtue Spontaneous magnitude Qik – maximum magnitude Greater Power 50 Major Virtue Formulaic (magnitude / 2) Qik – (magnitude / 2) Lesser Power 25 Minor Virtue Formulaic magnitude Qik – (magnitude x 2) Personal Power 25 Minor Virtue Limited (magnitude / 2) Qik – (magnitude / 2) Ritual Power 25 Major Virtue Ritual magnitude Qik – (magnitude x 2) |
Ritual Faerie Powers
Binding Oath 10 points, Init (Qik – 20), Vim
Enforces the power of a solemnly sworn oath or contract between two or more parties. All parties must agree to the oath of their own free will, and the power must penetrate the Magic Resistance of all parties to take effect.
If one participant attempts to act in direct contravention to the oath, the other participants are immediately aware of this. Humans who attempt to break their oaths are given a warning. This warning often takes the form of a memory or sensation this is reminiscent of the faerie’s motif. If the human fails to understand, or disregards, this warning he suffers a Major or Minor Flaw at the discretion of the Troupe.
The Troupe should assign the Flaw based on the powers of the faerie, the nature of the oath, and the seriousness of the transgression within the framework of the story. This Flaw can be removed by powers that destroy mystical effects. The character may also end the Flaw by fulfilling the conditions of the oath, swearing a new oath with the wronged faerie, or destroying all of the oath’s other participants.
Faeries cannot break their oaths, although some roles allow them to seek loopholes and alternative interpretations.
Costs 50 levels. Special, No Hermetic equivalent (R: Touch, D: Mom, T: Group, Ritual)
Grant (Major Virtue) 10 points, Init (Qik – 20), Vim
Imposes the named Major Virtue upon a target. Each creature may have more than one power of this type, each bestowing a different Virtue. The creature can decide to bestow the Virtue permanently or temporarily. If permanent, the power is a ritual-like power and costs points from the creature’s Might Score as well as Might pool (see Ritual Power, above). If temporary, the Might Points spent on this power are only recovered when its effects are withdrawn. The faerie may do this at any time simply by choosing to, but it also often occurs when a prohibition placed at the time the blessing was made is broken. The prohibition is often just a time limit, like a year and a day.
If the Virtue requires Might to use, a human may instead spend a Fatigue level for every five Might required. Many enchanted objects given by faeries are actually uses of this power with a suitable prop generated from glamour. The material effects of the blessing do not disappear when the effect is over: fertile crops do not wither, and money earned from faerie gold does not vanish.
Costs 50 levels. Special, No Hermetic equivalent. (R: Touch, D: Mom, T: Ind, Ritual)
Grant (Minor Virtue) 5 points, Init (Qik –10), Vim
Imposes the named Minor Virtue upon a target. Each creature may have more than one power of this type, each bestowing a different Virtue. The creature can decide to bestow the Virtue permanently or temporarily. If permanent, the power is a ritual-like power and costs points from the creature’s Might Score as well as Might pool (see Ritual Power, earlier). If temporary, the power only costs points from the Might pool.
Might Points spent on this power in its temporary form are only recovered when its effects are withdrawn. The faerie may do this at any time simply by choosing to, but it also often occurs when a prohibition placed at the time the blessing was made is broken. The material effects of the blessing do not disappear when the effect is over.
This Virtue can allow humans to use faerie powers. If the power requires Might to use, the human may instead spend a Fatigue level for every five Might required. Many enchanted objects given by faeries are actually uses of this power with a suitable prop generated from glamour. Popular granted powers include regeneration, water breathing, flight, and the Virtue Puissant (Single Weapon).
Costs 25 levels. Special, No Hermetic equivalent (R: Touch, D: Mom, T: Ind, Ritual)
Grant (Major Flaw) 10 points, Init (Qik – 20), Vim
Imposes the named Major Flaw upon a victim. Each creature may have more than one power of this type, each bestowing a different Flaw. The creature can decide to bestow the Flaw permanently or temporarily. If permanent, the power is a ritual-like power and costs points from the creature’s Might score as well as Might pool (see Ritual Power, earlier). If temporary, the Might points spent on this power are only recovered when its effects are withdrawn. If this power can affect families, bloodlines, households, or villages add 5 levels to its price at character creation, and add 1 to the Might cost for each use.
Curses can have immediate effect, or be triggered by an action like breaking an oath or stealing an object. The material effects of the curse do not disappear when the effect is over: burned crops do not magically regenerate, and lost stock is not found. Traditional curses cause pain, visions, paralysis, madness, nightmares, petty annoyances, and poverty. It is not possible to use this virtue to kill a victim directly. Players should recall that the props traditional to a faerie’s role, made of glamour, extend the Touch range of the faerie.
Costs 50 levels. Special, No Hermetic equivalent (R: Touch, D: Mom, T: Ind, Ritual)
Grant (Minor Flaw) 5 points, Init – 10, Vim
Imposes the named Flaw upon a victim. Each creature may have more than one power of this type, each bestowing a different Flaw. The creature can decide to bestow the Flaw permanently or temporarily. If permanent, the power is a ritual-like power and costs points from the creature’s Might score as well as Might pool (see Ritual Power, earlier). If temporary, the Might points spent on this power are only recovered when its effects are withdrawn.
Add 5 levels and 1 Might to the cost if the curse can affect families, bloodlines, households, or villages.
The material effects of the curse do not disappear when the effect is over.
Costs 25 levels. Special, No Hermetic equivalent (R: Touch, D: Mom, T: Ind, Ritual)
Greater and Lesser Faerie Powers
Every effect that can be created as a Greater Power can also be created as a Lesser Power. Lesser powers have advantages and disadvantages compared to Greater powers. A Lesser Power gives more spell levels for the spent Virtue slot than a Greater Power, and is easier to earn as the character develops. On the other hand, each use costs twice as much Might as the equivalent Greater Power. Lesser Powers also have slower Initiative than Greater Powers.
Storyguides creating faeries for single encounters, like combat, may simplify the process by ignoring Lesser Powers. Nonplayer characters do not need to balance their Virtues and Flaws, so Lesser Powers have fewer advantages for them than for player characters.
The Initiative bonus for a power is the listed bonus, plus the individual faerie’s Quickness Score. The powers below have all been created as Greater Powers, and have not been tailored using intricacy points, as described in the insert above. It is common for faeries with Lesser or Personal Powers that cost 15 spell levels or less to convert the unspent spell levels into intricacy points, and then use them to reduce the Might cost of their power to 0.
ConversionTo quickly convert any of the Greater Powers listed here to Lesser Powers, do the following: If the cost in spell levels is a multiple of ten, double the Might cost and quadruple the Initiative penalty of the power. If the cost in spell levels is not a multiple of ten, then the cost and initiative of the Greater Power were rounded up when they were calculated. For these Greater Powers, the Lesser Power equivalent has a Might cost of (double the current cost –1) and an Initiative modifier that needs to be calculated from scratch (equal to twice the effect’s magnitude.) |
Adhere 1 point, Init –1, Corpus
Takes control of the muscles of the lower body of the target. He cannot dismount the faerie animal unless it wishes, which is of aid when riding friendly flying animals, but is dangerous with animal-like kelpies.
Costs 5 spell levels (ReCo Base 3 +1 Touch +1 Conc.)
Allure 1 point, Init –1, Mentem
This power causes the faerie to seem more attractive and pleasant than it really is, granting a +3 bonus on all rolls that involve impressing or convincing others.
Costs 10 spell levels (Base 3 +1 Touch +2 Sun)
Cause Fatigue 2 points, Init –2, usually Corpus but varies
This faerie can cause a human to lose a fatigue level. The mechanism that harms the human varies by faerie. Some harvest faeries cause heatstroke, for example.
Costs 20 spell levels (Base 10 +2 Voice)
Cause Drowsiness 1 point, Init –1, Corpus or Animal
Allows the faerie to cause a human it touches to fall asleep. Versions that are slightly more powerful allow the faerie to affect people at Voice range, or keep them asleep until a certain time.
Costs 5 spell levels for Touch range (Base 4 +1 Touch),
Costs 10 spell levels for Voice range (Base 4 +2 Voice). Costs 1 Might, Init –1.
Add 20 spell levels for Until duration. Cost rises by 2 Might points and Initiative has further –2 penalty.
Cause Sickness' 3 points, Init –3, Corpus
The faerie can cause a specific, serious illness with its touch, or poison objects it touches so that they harm humans who consume them. See ArM5 page 133 for guidelines.
Costs 25 spell levels (Base 20 +1 Touch)
Craft Magical Trinket 10/15 points, Init 0, as per target
The faerie may create an object, from glamour, that allows the character with the trinket to use a particular Virtue once. The Virtue that the faerie’s trinkets permit is selected at character creation. The faerie does not automatically regain the Might spent to produce a trinket, but may refresh itself if it has Virtues that allow it to regain Might by consuming sacrifices or humans.
The trinket ceases to function when a condition placed at the time of creation is met, or when it spends an entire day when no human with a passionate intention to use it for a specific purpose beholds it. This makes stockpiling trinkets impossible except in dire situations. In exceptional circumstances, large numbers of trinkets are possible: for example, in a covenant that knows it will soon have to withstand a Mongol siege, it might be possible for the faerie to give a trinket to each of the covenfolk.
A trinket costs 10 Might points if it invokes a Minor Virtue, and 15 points if it invokes a Major Virtue.
Costs 50 spell levels (Special)
Damaging Effect 2 points, Init –2, By weapon
Causes all of the faerie’s weapons, which are part of its glamour, to take on a more deadly aspect for two minutes. The danger of the aspect varies according to the motif usual for the faerie, but always increases the weapon’s Damage by +5. Faeries that produce mounts from their glamour can improve the Damage of those mounts with this power, since they are effectively weapons of the faerie.
Costs 15 spell levels (Base 5 +1 Part +1 Diameter. This Base is lower than might appear usual in Hermetic magic, because faeries are creatures of stories, and conflict is such a useful tool in roleplaying games.)
Eidolon 2 points, Init –2, Imaginem
Creates an illusionary form that is visible and audible. The creature can create a single form for each version of this power they possess. The image can move and speak as directed by the faerie, and lasts until the faerie has no further use for it. This power is particularly favored by tiny faeries who wish to interact with humans.
Costs 20 spell levels (Base 2: +2 move at direction, +1 Touch, +2 Sun, +1 intricacy)
Enthralling Sound 3 points, Init –3, Mentem
Allows a faerie to create a particular emotion in any group of people that can hear it. Fear, loyalty, and infatuation are popular choices. This power also increases the intensity of an emotion that already exists. A stress roll with an appropriate Personality trait against an Ease Factor of 9 allows a victim to overcome this power’s effect.
Costs 30 spell levels (CrMe Base 4 +2 Voice +2 Sun +2 Group)
Enthrallment 4 points, Init –4, Mentem
Allows a faerie to take complete control of a single human’s mind for a day, by making eye contact.
Costs 40 spell levels (ReMe as Enslave the Mortal Mind, ArM5 page 152)
Fearful Flaming Eyes 2 points, Init –2, Corpus
Completely paralyzes a human who makes eye contact with the faerie.
Costs 15 spell levels (Base 5, +1 Eye, +1 Conc)
Grant Puissance in (Ability) 2 points, Init–2, Corpus
Bestows the faerie ability to feign prowess in an activity. For every Might point invested, ten men can be given a +1 to all rolls in a general situation (such as combat, or woodcraft); or 1 man can be given a +3 to a specific Total or Ability (such as Soak or Hunt). Might points spent on this power are only recovered when its effects are withdrawn.
If a character has received the +3 bonus, other humans who have a score of 5 of more in the affected Ability can detect that the character is receiving supernatural aid by making a Perception + Awareness roll against an Ease Factor of 9.
A faerie cannot use this power to grant aid to a second faerie unless the giver has a Pretense Score that exceeds the receiver’s Pretense by at least the value of the bonus.
MuCo 20 (Base 2, +2 Voice, +2 Sun, +2 Group)
Guide 3 points, Init –3, Mentem
Subtly influences a group of beings towards a specific course of action. Some creatures can use this power to direct the movement of a group, taking it to a desired location. Other creatures can guide humans towards rash or brave or wise actions. Each time this power is used, it can subtly influence the actions of a single person for up to a day. The storyguide should provide advice to the character in a similar way to the Common Sense Virtue, except that the advice serves the creature’s agenda, not that of the character. There is no compulsion to follow this advice.
Costs 30 spell levels (ReMe Base 5, +2 Voice, +1 Conc, +2 Group)
Hands of the Animal 2 points, constant, appropriate Form
This allows an animal to manipulate and carry an item as if it had human hands and a Strength of +5. The character must concentrate to do anything other than carry the object, and to drop it or take something else.
Costs 15 spell levels (ReTe Base 3, +1 Touch, +2 Sun, +1 constant)
Hound 2 points, Init –2, Corpus
Allows the faerie to know the direction and distance to its human quarry.
Costs 20 spell levels (InCo Base 3, +4 Arc, +1 Conc)
Illusionary Home 4 points, Init –4, Imaginem
This comprehensive use of glamour makes a place look, sound, smell, and feel like a suitable home for the role the fairie is playing. Not all faeries use this ability — it is usually restricted to faeries who travel within the Dominion, and cannot extend their glamour over their homes. Within the altered space, the sense of taste is also affected.
Costs 40 spell levels (MuIm Base 5, +1 Touch, +4 Until, +2 Room) an alternative that also costs 40 spell levels is (MuIm Base 5, +1 Touch, +2 Sun, +1 Constant, +3 Structure)
Image Phantom 2 points, Init –2, Imaginem
Allows the non-principal faerie of an area to coat an object with illusion, making it seem to be some other thing of approximately the same size and shape.
Costs 20 spell levels, as spell of the same name ArM5 page 146. (Base 5 +1 Touch +2 Sun)
Kiss of Forgetfulness 4 points, Init –4, Mentem
Causes the person touched to forget his mortal life until he sees a particular object, or class of object, associated with his home.
Costs 40 spell levels (Base 15 +1 Touch +4 Until)
Kiss of Frost 2 points, Init –2, Ignem
Allows the person touched to survive the cold above the snowline on mountains until he treads upon grass.
Costs 15 spell levels. (Base 2 +1 Touch +4 Until)
Kiss of the Mermaid 3 points, Init –3, Aquam
Allows the person kissed to breathe under water until he walks upon dry land.
Costs 30 spell levels (Base 4 +1 Touch, +4 Until, +1 Part)
Loosely Material Variable points, Init –5, appropriate Form (usually Corpus)
This power allows a faerie that is generally immaterial to take on matter, over the length of a combat round, and produce a specific body of flesh, wood, or elemental matter. Some faeries have many versions of this power, and can form more than one physical shape, but can still only inhabit one at a time.
Each body has defined physical Characteristics and a fixed Might cost. For each Might point spent on this power, 5 characteristic points are available to spend on the four physical Characteristics of Strength, Stamina, Dexterity, and Quickness. A faerie’s material body can have any Size up to a maximum of its Presence unless it spends additional Might points on Size. Every 5 extra points increases its Size by 1. Wound ranges for humanoid forms are as per the Size table.
A faerie may maintain the material body indefinitely. If slain, the body contains pawns of vis equal to the faerie’s Might/5, of an appropriate Art. When the faerie returns to immateriality, which takes an uninterrupted combat round, it regains the Might points spent to activate this power. If it then takes on matter again, it does not carry over the wounds caused to its previous body.
Costs 25 spell levels (special)
Pine Away 3 points, Init. –3, Corpus
This ability causes the target to slowly lose both the will to live, and the vitality that permits life. This is treated as a major disease, with an Ease Factor of 9 that causes a Light Wound, but either Faerie Lore or Medicine may be used to treat the effects. Many versions of this power exist, with both weaker and stronger effects.
Costs 30 spell levels (Base 20 (5 +15 for virulence), +2 Voice)
Repel Animals 1 point, Init –1, Animal
Like Circle of Beast Warding (ArM5 page 120) Costs 5 spell levels (Base 2, +1 Touch, +2 Ring)
Send Message 2 points, Init –2, Imaginem
This power allows the faerie to send short verbal messages to beings to which it has Arcane Connections.
Costs 15 spell levels. (CrMe Base 3, +4 Arcane)
Spirit Away Variable points, n/a, Vim
Allows the faerie to act as a threshold guardian, as described in the Chapter 2: Faerie Realm.
Costs 50 spell levels (Special)
Spreading a Mantle of Snow 3 points, Init –3, Auram
Covers an area a mile across in snow, much like Clouds of Summer Snow, ArM5 page 126.
Costs 25 spell levels. (Base 2,+3 Sight, +1 Conc, +2 Group, +1 Size)
Steal Judgment 2 points, Init –2, Mentem
Makes the target believe almost any lie that the faerie tells, by diminishing his capacity for doubt. An Intelligence roll against an Ease Factor of 6 is permitted to resist, with easier rolls for truly incredible lies.
Costs 15 spell levels (Base 4, +1 Eye, +2 Sun).
Torrent from the Lungs 3 points, Init –3, Aquam
As Curse of the Desert. Draws the water forth from the human body, causing +15 Damage that armor does not protect against. If the target does not drink within a few minutes, he dies. The name comes from the surprising quantity of water that pours out of the victim’s mouth.
Costs 25 spell levels (PeAq Base 10, +2 Voice +1 Part) See ArM5 page 123.
Transform Victim into (Animal) 3 points, Init –3, Animal
Turns a target who can hear the voice of the faerie into a land animal for Sun duration. The animal’s type is nominated at character creation.
Costs 30 spell levels (Base 10, +2 Voice, +2 Sun); although many faeries have a variation with Until Duration that costs 40 spell levels, 4 points per use and has an Init modifier of –4.
Transform Victim into (Bird or Fish) 4 points, Init –4, Animal
Turns a target who can hear the voice of the faerie into a bird or fish for Sun duration. The type of bird or fish is nominated a character creation.
Costs 40 spell levels (Base 20, +2 Voice, +2 Sun)
Transform Victim into (Object or Plant) 5 points, Init –5, as per object
Turns a target who can hear the voice of the faerie into a solid inanimate object or plant for Sun duration. The object is selected at character creation.
Costs 45 spell levels (Base 25, +2 Voice, +2 Sun)
Many faeries have a variation with Until Duration. It costs 5 Might per use and has an Init of –5. This more powerful version has Touch Range, to keep the level of effect at 50 — the highest a Greater Power may have without becoming a Ritual Power. Players should recall that the traditional objects of a faerie’s role extend the faerie’s power of touch.
Costs 50 spell levels (Base 25, +1 Touch, +4 Until).
Powers of TransformationIf a character is able to transform a specific substance into another specific substance, like weaving straw into gold, then that is best designed as a Greater Power. If the character is able to turn a wide variety of substances into a specific thing, like turning everything it touches into gold, then that is best designed as a Focus Power. Similarly, if the character is able to turn a specific thing into a wide variety of substances, then that is best designed as a Focus Power. Faeries can also cloak objects in illusions and use misdirection, substituting one object for another and claiming they transformed the original into the new. |
Focus Powers
Focus powers can have broad application, and should be discussed with the Troupe when selected. Each use of a focus power has a Might Point cost equal to the magnitude of the effect, and an Initiative score of (the character’s Quickness – the power’s maximum magnitude). Players should also note the Form or Forms associated with the focus, to evaluate Magic Resistance.
Domestic Work
Performs household tasks from a distance. This focus allows some aggressive behavior. A domestic faerie can kindle fires, boil water, and move household objects not held or fastened down — all of which, with a little planning, can be used to hurt humans. The most aggressive domestic faeries hurl objects. For 1 Might point up to five pounds can be moved, and every additional Might point doubles this. If the faerie has a thrown weapon Pretense, the object may be hurled with force. Blunt objects inflict +5 damage per Might point spent. If the faerie could use the object as a weapon, then it may use the object to strike foes while using this power. All physical attacks with this power must penetrate Magic Resistance. The power lasts until the faerie releases the object.
Father of Serpents
Duplicates any non-Ritual Creo, Intellego, Muto, or Rego spells pertaining to snakes at a cost of 1 Might point per magnitude of the effect. Like many focus powers, the limiting factor is the faerie’s motif. For instance, a lion who was the ruler of a woodland glade could define exactly the same Virtue as including the entire Hermetic Form of Animal, perhaps ignoring Intellego instead of Perdo. Troupes are cautioned to only allow Focus Powers broad enough to make their saga interesting.
Manifestation
Manifests the faerie’s consciousness among animal and plant life its glamour touches, temporarily controlling their actions. This power allows the character to simulate any Creo Animal, Rego Animal, Creo Herbam, or Rego Herbam effect with a value of 25 spell levels or less, targeted at the animals within its glamour and suiting its motif. A lord of a wild hunt, for example, may manifest through the wolves of a forest, but would not manifest through squirrels or trees.
Shrinking
The character can reconfigure the matter and magic in its body into a series of increasingly tiny frames. The character may choose any Size smaller than or equal to the basic form and use the modifiers for the new Size. Players desiring a small faerie who can grow massive should design the faerie as if its basic form was massive, and select this power. Players should generate a table with the appropriate combat statistics for each Size, so as not to slow the game during play.
This can simulate the effect of any size-changing spell of level 25 of less. This power simulates selecting a spell that shrinks the character by 1 Size, then another that shrinks the character by 2 Size, and so on, plus a spell that returns the character to normal size.
Utterly changing the size of a person has a Base level of 3. If these are personal effects with Sun duration, then the maximum level of effect from this focus is 5. This allows the character to claim 20 spare levels as 4 intricacy points, which are explained in the Improved Powers Minor Virtue.
Smithying
Duplicates any non-Ritual Creo, Muto, Rego, or Perdo spell pertaining to the Terram Form, at a cost of 1 Might point per magnitude of the effect, limited by the motif of the faerie.
Miser’s Midas
This power turns any living thing the character touches, excepting himself, to stone. This power requires two Virtues to get enough levels. The most combat-worthy of these effects — turning a human into stone for more than a few minutes — is level 35 (Base 20, +1 Touch, +2 Sun). A player who selected the Virtue twice could trade 15 spell levels for another focus power or for 3 intricacy points, as described in the insert earlier.
Personal Powers
The powers below have not been tailored using intricacy points. It is common for faeries with Personal Powers that cost 15 spell levels or less to convert the unspent spell levels into intricacy points, and then use them to reduce the Might cost of their power to 0.
Appear Human 1 point, constant
Allows a humanoid faerie of size –2 to +2 to look and feel human. This power is not required by humanoid faeries, only by shapeshifters who spend the majority of their time in a non-human form. This is an illusion, unlike Transform into Human, later, so a centaur that used it would still be unable to wander inconspicuously through a crowd, ride a horse, or avoid leaving hoof prints.
Costs 5 spell levels (Base 2, +2 Sun, +1 constant)
'Extended Glamour' 0 points, constant, Mentem
Grants awareness of everything that happens within the bounds of a specific domain chosen by the faerie. In essence, the faerie is coterminous with its associated landscape feature, so it is present simultaneously everywhere within its boundaries. The faerie’s Might score determines the size of area possible: a Room (5–10 Might), a Structure (15–25 Might), or a standard Boundary (30+ Might).
The area controlled by the faerie can produce a yearly harvest of (Might/10) pawns of vis of an appropriate Form, which manifests as physical objects within the controlled region. Removing this vis does not harm the faerie if it is bargained for. This is the power that allows faeries to extend auras about themselves, as described in Chapter 1: Nature of Faerie.
Costs 25 spell levels: may be taken as a Lesser Power on its own, or as part of a package of Greater Powers. (Special)
Power Design: An ExampleNeil wants to design a faerie like the German doppelganger or Scottish fetch. These faeries appear to people as their exact duplicates, and drive them slowly mad. Neil’s troupe thinks this is an interesting idea, and so Neil designs a basic humanoid faerie, but needs to give it powers to spice up its opportunities in play. The first power he needs is one that allows his faerie to impersonate specific individuals. He uses the spell Disguise of the Transformed Image as a basis for his new power (ArM5 page 146,) but modifies it slightly so that it has Personal Range and Moon Duration (which does not change the level, 15). Since this power has Personal Range, Neil builds it as a Personal Power. To do this, he selects the Personal Faerie Powers Virtue, which grants him 25 spell levels of powers, then works out the cost of this power using the table given earlier. Personal powers cost (magnitude/2) points, rounding up, and have an Initiative score of his character’s Quickness – (magnitude/2, rounding up). With Personal and Greater Powers Neil finds it easier to just divide the spell level by 10 and round up for cost, and then apply the same number to his Quickness to work out Initiative. In this case, it’s a cost of 2 and since his character has a Quickness of 0, the Initiative score is –2. This costs him 15 of the 25 spell levels that the Personal Faerie Powers Virtue buys him. He can either buy another power to consume the 10 spare spell levels, or he can convert them to 2 Intricacy points. If he does this, he can spend them to make his power cheaper or faster, or a little of both. He uses the spare Intricacy points to reduce the cost of the power by 2, to 0. (Players designing a power based on this example should note that perfect illusory copies require a Perception + Finesse roll against an Ease Factor of 12). There’s a ritual in House of Hermes: Societates called Donning the Mask of Another, that allows the user to duplicate the memories of a particular individual (page 97). Neil considers it, but since it is level 35, it doesn’t work. He’d need to buy the Ritual Faerie Powers Virtue twice to get his 30 spell levels, and he’d lose 6 Might for an extended period each time he used it. It would also be very slow (Initiative of –12). Neil reworks the spell description, dropping the Duration to Moon and the Range to Personal. This makes it a level 25 effect that can be purchased with the Personal Faerie Powers Virtue. It has a cost of 3 and an Initiative modifier of –3. Neil wants one final power: a sort of selective invisibility so that he, or the person he touches, can only be seen or heard by the person he is driving mad, and by those in his group. Selective invisibility is discussed in House of Hermes: Societates (page 64), and Neil’s troupe agree that what he’s trying is similar to Ambush on the Deserted Road, but with a Duration of Sun and a Target of Individual, making it level 20. Since this can affect others, but is not a ritual, it must be either a Greater or Lesser Power. As a Greater Power, it has a cost of 2, and an Initiative modifier of –2. Neil must take the Greater Faerie Powers Virtue and has 30 spare spells levels, which can be spent on other powers or traded for Intricacy points. As a Lesser Power, it costs 4 points per use, and has an Initiative of –8. Neil decides to have this as a Lesser Power, despite the extra Might cost and relative slowness, because this is not a combat power, and it requires only a Minor Virtue. Since the Lesser Faerie Powers Virtue grants 25 spell levels, Neil has 5 spare. He trades them for an Intricacy point and uses that point to reduce the cost of his power by 1, to 3. Neil thinks his character through, and notices that two of his powers — invisibility and duplicating a victim’s appearance — are linked by a theme: they affect the character’s personal appearance. He notes that the two powers could instead be replaced by a Focus Power. If he took a Focus Power, the character could produce any Imaginem effect, up to level 25, that altered its appearance. Each use of the Focus Power costs the magnitude of the actual effect produced, and has an Initiative Modifier equal to the maximum magnitude the power can produce, which is –5 in this case. Neil’s troupe initially vetoes this focus because the selective invisibility power can be used on others, so it doesn’t fit his theme. He counters by redesigning the effect so that it has Personal Range, which lowers the level to 15 and fits the theme. The character’s two powers are both based on level 15 spells, which means each costs 3 points to use, and has an Initiative modifier of –5. The Focus Power Virtue grants 25 spell levels. Neil decides to trade away 10 levels for 2 Intricacy points, which he wants to use to reduce the cost of his Focus Powers by 2, but his Troupe points out that Focus Powers are unique: you can’t reduce their costs with Intricacy points. He reconsiders and decides, instead, to think up some new effects; in the end he uses the extra 10 levels in his Focus Power, and trades the points back. |
Flight 2 points, constant, appropriate Form
The character is capable of flight. The character may use the Athletics skill to simulate difficult maneuvers, but may not engage in combat while flying incredibly swiftly. The faerie may not fly when heavily encumbered, or with a passenger of its Size or more, unless assisted by another faerie that shares the load.
Costs 15 spell levels: (ReFo Base 4, +2 Sun, +1 constant. This base is deliberately lower than Hermetic magic might suggest.)
Immateriality 4 points, Init –4, as suits faerie’s body
Makes a faerie immaterial until sunrise or until nightfall. Costs 40 spell levels. (Base 30, +2 Sun)
Invisibility 2 points, Init –2, Imaginem
A personal version of Veil of Invisibility, as per ArM5 page 146. Costs 15 spell levels. (Base 4, +2 Sun, +1 for moving image)
Shift Human Shapes 1 point, Init –1, Corpus
Allows the character to change its appearance to any other human configuration, although this cannot be used to replicate the features of a specific person. If the human shape selected is related to a form other than Corpus in some way, the power costs 5 extra spell levels and an added point per use. As an example, some faerie knights use this power to don armor by transforming the outer layers of their bodies into layers of metal.
Costs 5 spell levels (Base 3, +2 Sun)
Silent Motion 1 point, constant, Imaginem
Allows the character to move without making a noise.
Costs 10 spell levels (Base 3, +2 Sun, +1 constant)
Sight Beyond Sight 3 points, Init –3, appropriate Form
All five senses of the creature operate at a distance, as far as the creature can see. This makes the creature supernaturally aware of everything that occurs; and it is exceptionally difficult to catch it by surprise.
Costs 30 spell levels (InIm Base 5, +1 Conc, +4 Vision), so requires the Virtue to be selected more than once.
Size Reduction 1 point, Init –1, Corpus or Animal The character can reconfigure the matter and magic in its body into a far smaller frame. The player chooses a single alternative Size less than 0 on the Size Chart and, when in the smaller form, uses the modifiers for the new size. Players desiring a small faerie who can grow massive should design the faerie as if its basic form was massive, and select this power.
Costs 10 spell levels (Base 3, +2 Sun, +1 Constant)
Supernatural Agility 3 points, constant
This power allows the character to perform minor supernatural feats when using its Athletics Pretense. These might include swiftly scaling walls, leaping from the ground onto the back of a galloping horse, and dropping great distances to the ground without harm.
Costs 25 spell levels (Base 10, +2 Sun, +1 constant)
Transform into Animal 2 or more points, Init –Might cost, Animal
Transforms the character into a specified land animal of human size or smaller. Faeries retain the power of speech in animal form.
Costs 20 spell levels (Base 10, + 2 Sun)
Costs 25 spell levels (Base 10, +2 Sun, +1 size) to turn into a larger animal, like a horse. This costs 3 Might per use.
Costs 30 spell levels (Base 10, +4 Until) for a version with an Until Duration, which requires 3 Might per use.
Transform into Bird or Fish 3 points, Init –3, Animal
Transforms the character into a specified bird or fish. Faeries retain the power of speech in animal form. Costs 30 spell levels.
(Base 20, +2 Sun) A version with an Until Duration requires 4 points per use, costs 40 spell levels, and has an Init of –4.
Transform into Human
This power costs non-human faeries whatever it would cost a humanoid faerie to transform into the character’s native shape, using one of the other transform powers.
Transform into (Solid Object) 4 points, Init –4, as Form of object
Transforms the character into a specified object. In object form, the character is capable of speech and limited movement.
Costs 35 spell levels. (Base 25, +2 Sun) Some faeries prefer a version with an Until Duration, which requires 5 points per use, costs 45 spell levels, and has an Init of –5.
Transform into (Environmental Effect) 4 points Init –4, as Form of effect
Transforms the character into a wave, breeze, cloud, fire, or other nebulous thing. Costs 40 spell levels. (Base 30, +2 Sun) Some faeries prefer a version with an Until Duration, which requires 5 points per use, costs 50 spell levels, and has an Init of –5.
Pretense: Faerie Abilities
Few faeries can teach humans. A faerie knight with Pretense as a swordsman may look blindingly swift to a novice, but a skilled duelist will notice that his sword doesn’t necessarily travel the complete distance through the space between his strikes and blocks: it may rapidly flicker from place to place. The faerie can’t teach this to a human because no human can cheat the way that faeries do.
Some exceptional faeries are able to teach Abilities to humans. Faeries that are linked to the dead seem disproportionately able to do this, for example. It is theorized by those who accept that faeries are, in some cases, the pagan dead, that these faeries are able to teach the Abilities they had in life. They cannot develop their Abilities further, though, enhancing them as Pretenses instead.
Faerie Instructor Minor Virtue, Supernatural
Some faeries have the ability to take human Abilities when striking bargains. If the faerie has this Virtue, these Abilities can be stored, then given to favored humans. The faerie imparts the Ability by trading it for the Ability that the student currently has. It does this either by giving the human a prop and claiming it is a magic item, which allows the faerie to easily trade the Abilities back when the story is over, or by pretending to teach the human. Human teachers know that faeries are faking, because their training is too swift to be natural, and too similar to mystery initiation to be effective. It focuses on the trainee reaching an appropriate mental state, rather than the repetitive practice required for real learning.
Faerie Trainer Free Virtue, Supernatural
The character has one or more human Abilities, rather than Pretenses, and so it may train humans using conventional methods. The faerie can develop these abilities further using human methods, or can convert them to Pretenses and increase them as a faerie would. Once an Ability has been advanced as a Pretense, the maximum level at which the faerie can train humans has been reached.
Unspecialized RoleFaeries do not require the Virtues that allow characters to have Martial, Arcane, or Academic Abilities to have Pretenses for them. These Abilities tend to be used by skilled professionals, and faeries attempting to use these pretences in military camps or universities are rapidly detected as fraudulent and supernatural. |
Player-defined Pretenses
Some faeries have pretenses that correspond to their story role, rather than specific human abilities. These player-defined pretenses must be negotiated with the troupe. The faeries in the Bestiary chapter do not have unusual pretenses because there is insufficient space to detail the limitations that would arise from the negotiation of each pretense.
Player-Defined Pretense Example: Chivalrous CombatA player, Dave, asks his troupe to allow his faerie knight to have a Pretense called Chivalrous Combat, which rolls together the ability to use a sword and a lance. His troupe members express concern that this seems broader than a standard Ability. Dave agrees, and suggests that his knight may become confused in combat that is non-chivalrous, like ambushes and tavern brawls, so that he is unable to use his Chivalrous Combat Pretense, and must use Brawl instead. His troupe agrees. |
Resistance and Pretenses
Faeries use magical powers instead of Abilities, but because these powers affect the faerie, rather than the magus, they are not resisted by Parma Magica.
As an example, consider a faerie using its guile Pretense to try to lie to a magus. The faerie is not targeting the magus with magic. Instead, the faerie is using magic to guide its actions: to know what deception is, what human language is, and how humans deceive each other. Since this inner knowing does not cross the Parma Magica that protects the magus, it is not resisted.
Some Pretenses, such as those for combat or medicine, guide the use of tools. These tools may be resisted in certain situations described more fully in the earlier section on the glamourous body.
Increasing Pretense
A character’s Pretenses become more skilled as it observes humans with the abilities that it is copying. In any given season, a faerie may select a single person who is having a momentous personal experience and gain the same amount of experience toward a Pretense that the person gains toward Abilities, provided that the faerie’s Pretense is not already higher than the human’s Ability. During this season, the faerie must be closely involved in the person’s story. Faeries cannot gain experience from study, training, or practice: they cannot learn through repetition, as mortals do.
Faeries may gain adventure experience. They take experience in any Pretense that is equivalent to any Ability raised by any character who participated in the adventure, including adversaries, provided the Ability being copied is equal to or higher than the Pretense.
Most player characters can only arrange to increase their Pretense about half the time. Characters who through luck, flexibility of role, or good planning can increase their Pretenses more often require a Virtue. Similarly, characters who pay little attention to humans and do not develop their Pretenses at this rate have Flaws.
Aloof Minor Flaw, General
Aloof fairies play roles in which they do not find humans particularly interesting, and so rarely increase their Pretenses. Over the course of a saga, these characters can be expected to gain Pretenses for around one season per year. During character creation, an Aloof faerie has a Pretense multiplier of 10.
'Freshly Sprung Minor Flaw, Supernatural
Subtract 50 experience points from the character’s pool for purchasing Pretences. This represents the character losing some of its glamour. This Flaw may be taken more than once, but players cannot select this Flaw unless the character has at least 50 pretense points to lose.
Observant Free choice
A typical faerie player character increases its Pretenses in two seasons per year. In the other season, it completes the tasks set by its role.
Ostentatious Major Virtue, General
A character with this quality is closely interested in the bubbling vat of emotion that is the life of a human community. It finds ways of involving itself in useful stories every single season, and gains Pretense appropriately. During character creation an ostentatious faerie has a Pretense multiplier of 25 instead of 15.
Pretentious Minor Virtue, General
A character with this quality is closely interested in a particular family or group of humans, and regularly finds ways to increase its pretense by aiding them through life’s challenges. It increases its Pretense, on average, for three seasons every year. During character creation a pretentious faerie has a Pretense multiplier of 20 instead of 15.
Faerie Advancement Through Change
To alter its role so that it gains additional powers, a faerie requires several contributing factors. It requires the potential to change within its glamour, represented by the cognizance Virtues. It also needs sufficient mystical energy to change, which is stolen from humans and represented by Pretense points. Finally, it needs a human collaborator to provide the creativity required to design the changes in its glamour.
Cognizance
A faerie’s cognizance determines its attitude to advancement. Incognizant faeries have goals, but these are not related to becoming more mystically powerful. Narrowly cognizant faeries know that a certain situation or possession will bring contentment. The goal they work toward completes their role, but again they do not see this in terms of personal power. Only highly cognizant faeries understand that they can use human vitality and creativity to tailor their roles in amusing ways. This is not to say that faerie player characters do not advance: they do. It is simply that the faerie does not understand the process unless it is highly cognizant. Many incognizant faeries behave in ways that incline them toward the acquisition of greater power, but in incognizant faeries this is instinctual, rather than strategic, behavior.
Vitality
Whenever a character gains Pretenses, the player may choose not to spend those points, instead storing them for character advancement. When the character has sufficient Pretenses, which represent human vitality stored in its glamour, the faerie tends to seek humans who can evoke this potential. Only highly cognizant faeries are aware that they are deliberately seeking a human to provoke changes in their role, but all faeries have an instinct, when change is possible, to seek humans.
The amount of vitality that a faerie requires to change its role varies — the greater the new power, or Mightier the role that the faerie seeks, the more its glamour must change. The more that a faerie’s glamour must change, the more vitality it requires. Faeries who already have complex glamours find the process of change more difficult, because their glamours are more rigid and constraining than those of simpler spirits. When the character is exposed to creativity, it may consume vis to reduce resistance caused by the current complexity of its glamour, however.
This desire to consume vis at a particular time is why faeries encase vis, as described in Chapter 1: Nature of Faerie, rather than simply eating it like bread and beer. Faeries often hoard vis, placing a layer of their glamour over it so that other faeries will not steal it. This glamour makes the value of the vis obvious to human onlookers, however, so they may see it as mundanely valuable materials, like a pot of gold. This hoard disappears when the faerie uses it, and it reduces the Pretence Cost in the nearby table by 1 for every pawn of vis consumed, to a maximum of the faerie’s Might score.
A faerie may only use encased vis for advancement where the outcome is determined by a creative human. If the faerie has left part of its glamour in Sleeping vis, then the presence of a creative, helpful human allows it to reincorporate its glamour and resume its old role.
Story Seed: AdvancementSeveral years ago, a narrowly cognizant faerie was drawn to a young woman prone to daydreams, and made straw into gold for her. She is used this gold to marry a local prince, offering, in exchange, to give the faerie her firstborn. Now that the child has been born, the faerie has relented to her pleas and given her a loophole: she may keep the child if she guesses its name. The magi travel to the faerie’s home at her bequest, but discover that it has no name. The reason for the change in price is that the faerie has reached the point where it is able to develop the Highly Cognizant Virtue. On an instinctual level, the faerie desires a personal identity of its own even more than it wants the enormous vitality expressed within the fate of the heir to the kingdom. The reason the girl’s attempts to name it keep failing is that the human names she is offering are too mundane to resound through the faerie’s glamour and spark its transformation into a new, cognizant, role. The name the girl, or her magical advisers, choose needs to promise the faerie attention once it is cognizant, so that the faerie claims it willingly. When the faerie accepts its name, it will scream and rage and be consumed by the Earth, because its old role needs to end dramatically. Eventually, however, the same faerie will return with its new name and shape, perhaps as an ally of the royal family or the covenant who helped it, in order to keep the story of its old role alive for another faerie to follow. |
Creativity
Faeries must have the aid of a creative human to change their glamour. The faerie opens its glamour to the human, who uses his Abilities to develop it by creating a symbolically related object or performance. The process can be as brief as the impromptu performance of a song, or as extended as the design and carving of a sculpture. All necessary rolls are made using whichever Ability is appropriate for the form of creativity being employed, such as Music or some variety of Craft.
If the human fails to match the Ease Factor given below, he has wasted the vitality that the faerie has stored. The temperament of the faerie determines whether it will harm the human, but regardless the human is unable to alter this faerie’s glamour at any future time. The Ease Factor should be reduced by 3 if the faerie’s role has drifted away from the folklore of the area, and the change the human is making would draw the faerie closer to what is expected. This often happens to incognizant and narrowly cognizant faeries in areas where communities have been displaced.
Once the faerie has opened its glamour to the human, it must accept the changes the human makes. Faeries do not tell humans this, but to those that make an Intelligence + Faerie Lore roll against an Ease Factor of 6, it is obvious once they begin to alter the faerie’s glamour that they control the stuff of which its identity and attitudes are made. A human who has successfully assisted a faerie to advance in the past, and is aware he is manipulating the faeries’ glamour, may include a single change in the faerie’s motif, attitude, or memory without the faerie noticing. This requires a roll with against an Ease Factor equal to (the Ease Factor of change the faerie has requested be made – 6). If the faerie is a principal, then its servants will notice major changes. If the faerie’s glamour has been substantially altered, their glamours might not remain sympathetic and the area may fall into dispute.
Ease Pretence Effect of Factor Cost Collaboration 6 0 + Might Lose a Virtue or Flaw and gain another of equal value 9 5 + Might Gain a Minor Virtue and a Minor Flaw 12 10 + Might Gain a Minor Virtue or lose a Minor Flaw 15 15 + Might Gain a Major Virtue and a Major Flaw 18 20 + Might Transform a Minor Virtue into a Major Virtue, or a Minor Flaw into a Minor Virtue, or a Major Flaw into a Minor Flaw 21 25 + Might Gain a Major Virtue and a Minor Flaw 24 30 + Might Gain a Major Virtue or lose a Major Flaw
Roll Bonuses
- +3 if for a Virtue like Inspirational or Free Expression. May only be claimed once, multiple Virtues do not stack.
- +3 if the local Reputation of the faerie better suits the character after the change than its current state.
At the troupe’s discretion, the faerie’s player, rather than the artist’s player, may make these dice rolls, given their vital importance.
Why Isn’t My Faerie a Genius At Every Ability?Faeries live forever, and so they can theoretically accumulate enormous experience. Starting faeries do not have enormous experience. There are several reasons for this: A faerie character that is the center of a story is not gaining vitality from that story. Even the pagan gods used to send heroes out to do impossible things, so that they would be supporting characters in stories. Being more skilled than humans makes a faerie unable to feed on their Ability-earning experiences. The faeries selected as player characters are, arbitrarily, those drawn toward stories with magi, which implies a certain level of power and ability compared to magi. Faeries often lose Pretenses. Incognizant faeries lose their Pretenses if they lose their role. They have the basic Pretenses of their new role instead, even if both roles are the same type of faerie. Fairies that are narrowly cognizant lose some of their Pretenses when they complete their role and move to another. Highly cognizant faer ies often lose and regain Pretenses as they change roles. Faeries want vitality, and they want to enjoy themselves. They do not require their Pretenses for their professions, which they lack, or to extend their lives, which are limitless. Shedding Pretenses, and becoming someone else in a new story, is amusing. Like a roleplayer who decides to retire a character once it has ceased to present novel challenges, some faeries just give up their Pretenses, knowing they can earn them back in other stories. The Divine casts down faeries that become too powerful, because it has granted dominion over the Earth to humans. It is difficult for faeries to judge what “too powerful” is, because it seems to vary over time and place. And some magi suggest that once faeries become mighty enough, they cease to feed on human vitality. They head out into Deep Arcadia and are lost. The faeries humans see are a perpetually renewed batch of recently-generated faeries. Using Abilities On FaeriesThis section summarizes how different Abilities apply to faeries. Animal Handling: This Ability is useful for knowing how to take care of a being with an animal form, though not for social interactions with a faerie in an animal shape. To predict how such a creature might behave, use Faerie Lore. Animal Ken: This is a Supernatural Ability with an effect that allows communication with any animal, and it also allows communication with faeries that have animal forms, or have hybrid forms with animal-reflective personalities. Bargain, Carouse, Charm, Etiquette, Guile, Intrigue, and Leadership: These can be used with any intelligent being. Faerie Lore: This may be used like Folk Ken when attempting to understand the motivations of a faerie’s role. Folk Ken: This is an understanding of human beings only, though it may give insight into the motivations of human-like beings or faeries who were once human. Some faeries have this as a Pretense, letting them understand human societies. Language: Any Faerie with a score in Faerie Speech can understand any language. Teaching: Faeries cannot be taught, since they do not learn by doing. |
Editor's Note: This text includes errata.
Attribution
Attribution Based on the material for Ars Magica, ©1993-2024, licensed by Trident, Inc. d/b/a Atlas Games®, under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license 4.0 ("CC-BY-SA 4.0"). Ars Magica Open License Logo ©2024 Trident, Inc. The Ars Magica Open License Logo, Ars Magica, and Mythic Europe are trademarks of Trident, Inc., and are used with permission. Order of Hermes, Tremere, Doissetep, and Grimgroth are trademarks of Paradox Interactive AB and are used with permission.