We've used the term "Eldritch Power" a lot. Lets talk about it.

General GTG Sentinel Comics Lore
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With the RPG Starter Guide now finally in our possession, the main rulebook coming around the corner, and out membership to these forums finally approved we though we might celebrate by hosting a discussion on one of our favorite topics: Magic

 

We view Magic in three ways. By its source,its execution, and its expression.

 

The source of magic is where you are getting your energy from. It could be from the Void, it could be from leylines, it could be from the spiritual essenece in all cognative beings that manifests itself in a harvestable form when brought to the surface by strong emotions since as fear or dread.

Protip: One of those sources is a lot easier to use even if you were not lucky enough to be born with attunment to a mystic realm.  The Cult of Gloom is an equal oppertunity employeer

The execution is how you wield the magic. You might use mathematical formula in an exacting ritual to channel the energy just so, a somewhat alchemical approach. You might use a premade relic designed to focus energy to achieve a single effect, like that wand of fireballs you picked up. You might sing, or chant, or dance. You might be just a paragon of will power that you need no outside assistance and can just think of the effect you want to have happen and make it happen.

Protip: If you are just starting out your career as a heroic magician, try that last method first. If it turns out it works for you its a lot easier and nothing bad has ever happened from someone trying to wield too much power without proper control.

The expression is the desired effect. animating a zombie, throwing a fireball, or enchanting a pin to curse someone.

Protip: While it is a perfectly valid expression of magic to heal someone, you will never get the recognition you deserve from idiots who would have died fighting that scion without you. If you are going to go this route we suggest trying to become a virtuosso of the Void.  If you are going to be playing second fiddle anyway you might as well get something out of it.

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I actually asked a question to the Letters Page--one that has notably gone unanswered--about the nature surrounding "sources of power" within the Multiverse.  I had figured that it would have been covered in the Fanatic/Apostate episodes or, barring that, the Blood Magic episode.

Thusfar, I've been breaking things down into a few categories:

Host/possession:  Stems from emotion-centric spirits residing in The Host dimension.  Execution and effects vary, based on the type of spirit being utilized.

Ley-line Magic:  Stems from manipulation of ley-lines which criss-cross the Multiverse.  Execution typically centers upon transmutation and nature-based effects.  Effects vary.

Sorcery:  Stems from manipulation of other-dimensional energy.  Execution typically manifests through the use of relics (Tome of Elder Magic, Amulet of the Elder Gods, etc.).  Effects center upon damage, banishment, summoning, healing.

Blood:  Stems from manipulation of life energy, typically through essential fluids.  Execution typically manifests through physical/arcane manipulation of blood, whether that of the caster or another.  Effects center upon damage, hindering foes, other deleterious effects.

Alchemy:  Stems from combination of a form of magic (confirmed forms include ley-line magic and blood magic) with scientific methodology.  Execution typically centers around creation of artifacts (i.e. philosopher's stone) and transmutation.  Effects center upon transmutation and elemental forces.

Void:  Stems from a manipulation of The Void.  Execution primarily centers around the use of musical intonation or other artistic performance/creativity.  Effects vary greatly.  Notable for not being easily combined with other arcane forms.

 

What have I missed?

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I think there are four types of magic in the SC world blood,natural,void and discord .They are arranged in a wheel so that each one has two neighbours and one opposite.For example the Scholar and lifeline both started as natural magicians , the Scholar went clockwise towards void and lifeline went anticlockwise towards blood .

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There are noted characters who fall outside of that wheel though.

Kismet's luck based magic might be connected to the realm of discord, but this was not mentioned in her episode.

Ra and the Eenead draw on their power from the relics of ancient beings, though where those beings got their power from is unknown.

Fanatic and Apostate are both able to produce magical effects without being connected to those four power sources.

And it has been stated that the emotions of people are a source of power for Gloomweaver. It could be that all emotional energy flows to the Realm of Discord, but this has not been stated.

To us, it seems more likely that magic can exsist in nearly countless forms, so that people have infinte design space in the RPG rather then it being limited to only a few.

 

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I might file both Kismet and Ra under "Sorcery"...though Kismet's talisman is the proverbial "magic feather", so that makes me question where her power actually comes from.

Fanatic and Apostate get their power from possession, so yeah--the wheel concept doesn't fit with them at all.

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Welcome to the Forums Cult of Gloom. Nice to have you here. I went to my local swamp to check you guys out, but I must have been there the wrong night. I just wanted to know about you and totally not to have a reason to talk to my favorite hero NightMist. . .

 

I agree with this. Magic is usually a label people give to strange things. In most games magic is poorly defined by nature. It just works. In this world, you Have unity who uses magic without knowing or trying. NightMist/Harpy who needs training, Biomancer/Hermetic which require research, and AA which is a form of expression. (I too want to know more about the Argent Artist).

Though it would be nice if they gave more information on a school of magic because I would eat that up.

 

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We've put some thought into a specific school of magic if you want to know how we're gonna work in our RPG canon

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Glad to have you, Cult of Gloom! I look forward to more discussion on this topic, although I think you've hit the nail on the head with this one. I am seriously considering this in the creation and abilities of my characters in the RPG. I've had probably 10 different ideas for RPG characters, and I'll be heavily incorporating magic in more than a few of them, so I appreciate this explanation.

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All right, the Cult of Gloom is finally here! :D

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My answer is yes, I might steal some of that for my game. Just mind you I enjoy my magic to still have magic in it

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These mystic ideas could be used for non-gloomweaver related groups as well, if you really want to make us sad.

In our canon, gloomweaver is worshipped by several groups, not all of whom might realize what they are doing. The common thread that they share is that the source of their eldritch power is from harvesting extreme emotions. A secondary aspect that many of the groups have in common is that they are not very percise with their magic. They harvest more energy then is needed for the desired effect, and the excess bleeds across realms and goes to Gloomweaver.

You could call this form of magic "Pathomancy" from the greek Pathos, if you want to sound all technical and fancy.

One example of Pathomancy comes from the form of a mystic biker gang, the Gloomraiders. The source of their energy from their own emotions,they execute this by whipping themselves into frenzies of rage, fear, or lust. They then express this gathered energy by giving themselves berserker strength and endurence. In extreme cases they may even continue to fight on after death, not noticing that they have reanimated themselves midcombat.

An example of a group who might not even release they are using pathomancy might be a group of high school bullies. The source of their magic comes from the emotions of those around them, they execute it by taunting and insulting and belittling their peers and they express the gathered energy by becoming more pretty, or more atheltic, or having better luck. They slowly drain the emotions from their victims, destroying there psyches to make themselves feel better.

In the case of a more tradional and organized branch of the cult, pathomancy tends to be executed in the form of rituals. Many of the lower ranks of the cult lack magical attunment, and are only able to be effective at the mystic arts when working togethor to preform rituals or using relics, potions, or other adds. These cultist's source of powers are varied. They gather from their own emotions, the emotions of others, and even the residue left over on the land itself from mass tradgies.

Special relics have been created that are designed to hold gathered eldritch energy for later use.

A more learned and naturally talented member of the cult would be able to use his enemies own emotions as a source of power. Taunting and cursing to bring up anger or fear and then using it on the fly for direct effects. A benefit of this is that you can create a feedback loop. You can use pathomancy to effect someones emotions, making a tiny bit of fear grow into panic, and then get even more power from that feeling.

Now, at this point, you might be asking yourself can't you use other "good" emotions and have pathomancy be a force for "justice?"

Yes, technically speaking, but it is much harder and less powerful. The two most primal emotions of a human being are fear and anger, fight and flight. They are the easiest to emotions to trigger and the most keenly felt. Its also really hard to throw a fireball made of happiness to melt someones face.

 

 

 

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I should hope you’ll be using it. Again, I really like what you’ve done with the harvesting of emotions idea, CoG. But one thing:

Wouldn’t that just increase your power?

 

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I feel like Christopher managed to make everyone curious there with just a single namedrop.

The Care Bears might beg to differ here.

 

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We don't recall the episode of care bears where they melt someones face off, but then we've never seen care bares, so maybe there was an Indiana Jones crossover.

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Boy, you guys are the Cult of Gloom.

 

While I can agree that it might be harder to tap into positive feelings, there is something to be said about being around someone who is happy. I attract quite a few friends from my happy and cheerful disposition. Giving a buff to people around me, giving hope for the future and not everyone is a bad person.

I always have a Fey character ready for any RPG what using joy and happiness as weapons. It would use power much like Idealist. Creating forces from a place of joy. Just seeing that you are about to hurt people is probably mean you just never got a hug so a giant soft teddy bear would hug you tight. Or many a good tickle is what a mad scientist needs and summon feather to tickle. Something some levity is needs so forcing everyone to watch a comedy routine will cheer people up and open up why the bank robber is stealing and have a heart to heart. solve there issue without violence.

A fireball is not the only magic a person can do, just have to be creative.

Do you guys have thoughts on non-emotion based magic?

 

Side note: this feels a lot like the Host. I do think that these two things are different, just want to beat anyone else who thinks so. Also Love the Bully bit.

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Admittedly it's usually more like "forcibly change your mind to be more happy/cheerful"… which is actually kinda creepier in some ways if I stop to think about it really. Mind controlling people into being happier is still mind control, after all.

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I know completely love this idea of a bully in the Sentinels world who slowly drained the joy out of other people to increase their physical abilties. At first they did it by accident, feeling a heady rush when they made someone else miserable. Then, through comic book events, they realized what they could do and went to the extreme with it, forging themselves into a massive physical threat who gets more powerful the more people they ruin.

 

Bonus points, no reason for them to be stupid, so they went into a high-powered job like banking or big business, extending their reach from people they met into an entire office building of miserable souls who make others miserable by extension.

 

 

I'm not sure what to make of the Sentinels magic system just yet. Blood Magic seems relatively straightforward, same with Void Magic, but making "arcane" or "Dischord" magic different from void magic is tricky, and natural magic doesn't seem to be much different than those, and then you've got Unity who is using something else entirely it seems like.

 

But, I don't think there is really any hard and fast rules. Alchemy is the mixing of magic and science, and while you don't want to mix void magic with anything, why not mix natural and arcane magic along with blood magic? There is no reason to assume that a person couldn't do this and they could have some blood magic rituals but then when they fight they call on arcane forces from beyond. Plus, there seem to be a lot of heavy hitting individuals that we don't know about out in the cosmos and other planes, so we could have some pacts as well that could get intersting. Other people making scions?

 

 

Edit: I think a big thing comes with speed of power. Blood Magic is near instant power, either from hurting yourselves or others. Arcane Magic is mid speed power, lots of study and and lots of artifacts, plus you can be reckless and get a lot more power but it won't be stable. Natural magic is very slow, it takes a lot of time and patience to start accessing it, and you probably can't take risks like you can with Arcane to turn up the tap, but in the learning you tend to be more aware of what it is you are attempting to do. Void magic is special because only certain people can access it anyways.

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Hello cult of gloom. As the local eldritch entity on this forum I figured I'd stop by to say hello. Tell gloomweaver I say hi. Not much to add to this conversation right now but I'll be around. I can, however, confirm that fireballs of happiness do exist and are only hard to make because they're freaking overpowered. It's really creepy how you use the we pronoun, though. I mean, what are you a hive mind? I seriously doubt multiple cult of gloom members are on the same account at once. Though, given how you people are always playing around with "forbidden magics" you never know.

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This sort of magic being described reminds me greatly of the idea of "orgone" energy put forth by Charles Fort.  I've actually based a character in Cold Steel Wardens on this concept--one of my demo characters for next year's convention cycle effectively is able to drain targets of their blue orgone, causing despair, fear and unhappiness, then blast that energy out as a damaging attack.  

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It is one person acting as a spokes person speaking for the cult as a whole, like when you see a commercial like "we here at company X are doing our best to delight our customers."

I do, occasionally, us first person singular.