Supernatural powers are expressed in Song of Heroic Lands as a Mystical Ability.
Invoking a Mystical Ability is resolved as a Success Test, exactly like a skill. Where an ability’s EML comes from depends on how it is governed:
- Skill-governed abilities draw their mastery level from an associated skill — the discipline or lore the ability rests on. Many abilities can share one governing skill, so they improve together and inherit whatever modifiers apply to that skill.
- Spirit-governed abilities — Spirit Rites and Spirit Actions — draw instead on the Spirit Power they are performed through.
- Self-rated abilities carry their own mastery level directly, used when no separate skill governs them.
Note that abilities do not themselves carry any skill base. No mystical ability of any kind can be performed while the character carries Aural Shock — not penalized, but unusable, for as long as any of it remains. An ability’s own modifiers always stack on top of whatever mastery level it draws upon.
Arcane Mysteries
The Arcane tradition draws its power from the caster’s own aura and from formally taught lore. Arcane practitioners shape unseen forces directly — where a priest asks and a spirit-worker petitions, an arcanist commands.
Divine Mysteries
The Divine tradition ostensibly draws its power from a deity, granted in answer to devotion. Divine practitioners do not command power so much as request it: the god acts, and the character’s standing with that god governs how readily and how strongly the request is answered.
For reasons only known the the gods themselves, dieties seem to not intervene in the lives of mortals directly. All actions of the gods are made through either mortal or spiritual agents acting on their behalf. In the one situation when they may act directly, divine intervention, the intervention seems to always be couched in a form which leaves the agency in doubt; a fortuitous avalanche at just the right time to wipe out swarming enemies, a sudden turn in the progression of an illness, a coincidental heart attack in a seemingly hale enemy warlord. To an outside observer these could be explained as coincidence, but to the faithful they are certain signs of divine intervention.
Note that there is a clear and important distinction between a religion and a diety. A religion is a folk-tradition and possibly institution, containing various practices, beliefs, and lore surrounding the worship of one or more dieties. Whether those dieties actually exist is a separate issue. A religion may exist and worship a diety that itself doesn’t actually exist. It is also possible for there to be separate sects and whole religions who worship the same diety but with totally different practices and beliefs.
Some, none, or all dietys may exist.
Spirit Mysteries
The Spirit tradition draws its power from spirits — ancestors, totems, and the wild energies of the world. A spirit-worker does not command power directly, as an arcanist does, nor petition a distant god, as a priest does; they cultivate relationships with spirits, who confer Spirit Powers on them. Those powers are the standing conduit through which every spirit rite and action is performed.
Birthsign
A passive influence conferred by the celestial sign under which the character was born. A birthsign is never invoked; it quietly shapes the character, strengthening the aptitudes it favours and weakening others.
A birthsign is a standing Mystery the character carries: attach the sign the character was born under, and it adjusts the Effective Mastery Level of the skills it governs — a bonus to those the sign favours, a penalty to those it hinders. Each sign is named, and a character bears the one under which they were born.
Mysteries
Standing arcane conditions a character carries. (The tradition-agnostic mysteries — Boon, Boost, and Other — are described in the Esoterica Introduction and may attach to an arcane skill as well.)
Fate
The measure of a character’s power to bend destiny in their favour — the pool of Fate a character holds. Fate is not performed as an ability; it is a resource the character spends. After a roll has settled, a character may spend Fate to improve that roll’s outcome, raising its success level. See Fate for how Fate is held and spent, and Divination below for the arcane act of reading fate.
Mystical Abilities
Arcane acts a character performs. The two Incantation forms are subject to the Incantation Casting Penalty described in the Esoterica Introduction: invoking one costs a penalty to EML of Level × 2, so the more powerful the spell, the harder it is to invoke.
Arcane Incantation
A formally learned spell, invoked by word and gesture. The caster directs arcane forces with their own aura, following a rite they were taught. More powerful Arcane Incantations are correspondingly harder to invoke (the Level × 2 Incantation Casting Penalty).
Arcane Talent
An innate arcane knack — a spell-like power possessed without formal training. Where an Arcane Incantation is studied and taught, an Arcane Talent is simply had: a natural facility for a particular arcane effect, invoked directly, and free of the incantation penalty.
Alchemy
The preparation of substances imbued with mystical potency — elixirs, powders, and other worked materials — through taught arcane recipes and procedures. An alchemical ability is the act of producing such a substance or effect, rather than casting a spell directly on the world.
Divination
The practice of obtaining hidden knowledge or foreknowledge by mystical means — reading signs, casting lots, scrying, or otherwise drawing aside the veil to foretell what is hidden or to come. Divination most often sits in the arcane tradition, but diviners appear among the divine and the spirit-touched as well. The Fate invocation — drawing on a character’s Fate mystery — is a form of Divination.