Sorcerers
Most mortals are content to let miracles remain the domain of the gods, their Scions, and the occasional Denizens who share the World with them. But Sorcerers are not most mortals. Craving power, these too-clever-by-half practitioners of hidden ways tamper with Fate and Legend, weaving spells to remake their lives, their World, their reality according to their own design. No few stray too far into spheres of influences jealously guarded by the divine, and no few are struck down for their hubris.
Yet power is not freely offered, not for these self-made masters of miracles. To be a Sorcerer is to mortgage your life upon the altar of magic. Those who start down such a path will rarely turn away from it, and the further down it they go, the less recognizable they become. There is, after all, no such thing as a free lunch — to do magic is to sacrifice your nature, your future, your identity, your freedom. Few can make such a choice, but then, to a Sorcerer, it’s no choice at all. Even before they took the first step, their resolve was unshakeable.
Sources of Power
As far as many Gods are concerned, Sorcerers are thieves: they take power that doesn’t rightfully belong to them and use it for ends that don’t further the goals of any Pantheon. While this impression isn’t exactly accurate — some Sorcerers are as devoted to the Gods as any Scion or mortal follower — the ways that Sorcerers feed their need for Legend can come across as greedy even to their close allies.
Every Sorcerer chooses one of four sources of power upon reaching Legend 1. The four sources are:
Invocation: By temporarily masquerading as a God through ritualized re-enactments of myth or bold declarations of authority, the Sorcerer siphons a fraction of the God’s Legend for his own use. The more power he tries to draw on at once, the more brazen his claims must be, and the more likely it is that the God will strike back to punish the theft.
Patronage: The Sorcerer strikes a bargain with otherworldly powers, whether recognized Gods or independent spirits. So long as she keeps her patron satisfied through sacrifices or by carrying out their wishes in The World, she has a steady source of Legend, but their demands will always expand to match the amount of power she desires.
Prohibition: By submitting to limits on her actions and how she can use her magic, the Sorcerer draws on some of the power of Fate itself. If she breaks her self-imposed rules, she loses her powers until she can make amends. As she grows more powerful, she must accept more prohibitions and become increasingly careful about how she acts.
Talisman: The Sorcerer uses a Relic as a battery of Legend. If he loses control of it, he also loses his magic until it is in his hands again. At higher tiers, a Sorcerer becomes so attuned to his talisman that damaging it can kill him, and the methods he must employ to sustain its powers grow increasingly costly.
Wonderful preview!
Does this book by any chance features a sample sorcerer?
I see many cool stories coming from this. I mean, there can be a sorcere which prohibition is “never lie”. A priestess/priest celibatary, and so on. A sorceror that got so powerful trhough Invocation that he became an Incarnation of his God. An archeologist that got powers after discovering a buried Relic (there are many super heroes with an origin like that).
Many potential in all of this. And this is just the preview. And yes, good idea extend “Sorceror” to “a mortal accessing (by whatever means) the power of a God”.