Aspects

“Battle magic” (the magic cast by spell-casters who have not yet mastered Formal Magic) is separated into three “aspects”: Celestial, Earth, and the perversion of Earth magic known as Necromancy. A spellcaster focuses the raw elements of magic into a specific, understandable aspect, which produces a specific effect.

Similarly, when casting a Ritual, an effect will always come out as one of these three aspects. There are many scrolls which are written as “General” aspect, which means that the Ritual will take on the aspect of the caster at the time of casting.

Each purchase of Formal Magic is identified with a specific aspect: either Celestial or Earth depending on the High Magic used to purchase it. Earth Formal Magic is used to cast both Earth and Necromancy aspected Rituals.

Some general aspect Rituals affect the performance of other Rituals (for example, by extending the other Rituals’ duration). Upon casting, the caster must decide which aspect of other Rituals shall be affected. If the caster chooses an Earth aspect, for example, any Celestial aspect Rituals within the Ritual’s area of effect will not be affected. If the caster chooses to affect Earth aspected Rituals, Necromantic Rituals will also be affected.

Necromantic aspected Rituals are visually recognizable as Necromantic, even if the invocation does not use the word “chaos.” Any individual observing a Ritual may ask the out-of-game question, “Does this Ritual look Necromantic?” The Ritual Marshal should answer “yes” or “no” and may provide an in-game description such as “Dark flows of energy can be seen swirling within the Circle of Power.” All items that are created using a Necromantic aspect are given Earth aspect tags.