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--- setting:demon_rituals [2024/Sep/08 16:29]
zechstein
+++ setting:demon_rituals [2025/Sep/25 16:58] (current)
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 [[house_rules|Back to the House Rules Index]] \\
-^  **Subpages**  |||||
+^  **Subpages**  ||||||
-|  [[demon_house_rules|General]]  |  [[Pacts]]  |  [[Reaping Faith|Faith]]  |  [[Lores]]  |  **Rituals**  |
+|  [[demon_house_rules|General]]  |  [[Pacts]]  |  [[Reaping Faith|Faith]]  |  [[Lores]]  |  [[demon_miracles|Miracles]]  |  **Rituals**  |
 ====== Rituals ======
+Unless otherwise specified, these rules replace the rules presented in chapter six of the Demon Player’s Guide.
-Rituals are a concept introduced in **chapter six of the Demon Players Guide (page 177 onward).** They allow several demon to combine their Lores in order to achieve  specific effects that lie outside of their normal limitations. \\
+While miracles are spontaneous effects imposing the will of the Fallen on creation, a ritual is a codified, pre-defined effort. This gives a ritual several advantages over a miracle:
+  * A ritual is easier to cast. Instead of having to make all necessary considerations on the fly, the user can simply rely on a proven formula.
+  * Rituals are cheaper. A ritual is optimized during its creation, which allows it to do more with less Faith.
+  * Since the process of casting a ritual is predictable, it is possible to cast it collaboratively, allowing others to shoulder part of the strain and the cost.
-===== Learning Rituals =====
+===== Participants =====
-There are three options available to player characters to gain access to existing rituals:
+There are three different roles that participants in a ritual can have: ankida, mudu, and khauiki. No participant needs to know all bodies of Lore necessary for the ritual, but at least one person among the ankida and the mudu needs to know every required Lore at the required rank. A ritual always needs an ankida, all other roles are optional.
-==== The Ritual Knowledge Background ====
+==== The Ankida ====
-This background is described on page 179 of the Players Guide. It allows you to start the game already knowing certain rituals. Unlike most Backgrounds, Ritual Knowledge cannot be requested as a regular XP purchase. It is available for characters at creation, but during play it is only available as a special reward granted by the ST.
+The ankida is the leader of the ritual. He directs the efforts of all other participants. That means that all decisions about the ritual that are made at casting time are made by him. The player of the ankida makes the casting roll. If the ritual is cast from memory, he is the only person who needs to have learned it. At the time the ritual is performed, the ankida must possess at least one Faith point, even if he chooses not to contribute Faith to the ritual. He needs to contribute at least one of the necessary bodies of Lore. The ankida has to be Fallen.
-==== The Teachings of Others ====
+==== The Mudu ====
-The second way is to learn the ritual either from a teacher, a demon who knows the ritual and is willing to impart that knowledge, or from reliable written instructions. Instead of the series of dice rolls prescribed by the Demon Players Guide it is sufficient to simply secure a source of accurate instructions in order to gain justification for learning the ritual.
+The Mudu are subordinate participants in the ritual, who are directed by the ankida. Their primary purpose is to provide the necessary bodies of Lore that the ankida does not possess, but they may also contribute Faith to the effort. Even if they don’t contribute any Faith, every mudu needs to hold at least one point of temporary Faith at the time of the ritual. Like the ankida, the mudu have to be Fallen. However, it is possible for a demon trapped inside a demonic relic to play the part of mudu. In this case the ankida needs to hold the relic in question throughout the ritual.
-Learning rituals this way costs an amount of XP equal to the ritual's base cost, and is subject to the standard rules regarding learning times.
+==== The Khauiki ====
-==== Remembering ====
+Unlike the ankida and the mudu, the khauiki are not active participants. Instead they support the ritual by providing Faith. For this reason it is possible for humans to act as khauiki. A human khauiki can provide a number of Faith points equal to his Faith Potential to the ritual, at the cost of one point of Willpower per point of Faith offered.
-The third way is to remember a ritual which the character knew before their imprisonment in Hell. For this to be viable it has to be plausible that the character knew the ritual once upon a time. Certain rituals were only known to certain groups, so unless your character belonged to this group, they wouldn't know the ritual.
+Each participant of the ritual, regardless of their role, can freely decide how many points of Faith they are willing to offer. Should the total amount of Faith provided not be sufficient to cover the minimal costs, then the ritual automatically fails. Should the amount of Faith be more than what can be used, then the excess points of Faith are lost.
-Instead of the series of dice rolls prescribed by the Players Guide, the character has to enter a fugue to retrieve the desired information from their subconsciousness. This process is identical to the process outlined on page 65 and elsewhere in these house rules.
+===== Anatomy of a Ritual =====
-If the character succeeds their final Legacy roll they gain the regular reduction in XP costs. If the roll fails the character still gains justification to buy the ritual, but no cost reduction. If the roll botches the memories of the ritual are fragmented and unusable. Justification is not gained, and until they raise their Legacy rank, the character may not learn the ritual in question through this method.
+In principle rituals work like miracles. They fall into the same categories (Ritual of Knowledge, Protection, Exaltation, etc.), which require the same rank of the relevant bodies of Lore to cast. They employ the same difficulty scaling. The major difference is that some decisions about the effect are made when the ritual is first created instead of at casting time. In general the effect of the ritual, the category, the bodies of Lore required, and the range are determined when the ritual is created. The specific targets, duration, magnitude, scale, and casting time (insofar as they are not restricted by the effect) are determined at the time of casting.
-===== New Rituals =====
+==== Differences between Casting a Miracle and Casting a Ritual ====
-**Rituals can be created by player characters following the rules outlined on pages 180-182 of the Demon Players Guide.** Following is a description of all rituals created for the purpose of this game:
+  * A ritual always needs to have a sigil and an incantation. The form of both is determined during the creation of the ritual and cannot be changed. These elements still provide a reduction to the difficulty.
+  * The casting time of a ritual cannot be reduced to a single turn. The minimum time to cast a ritual is ten minutes.
+  * The base difficulty for casting a ritual is two plus rank. That means the base difficulty of a Ritual of Knowledge is three, for a Ritual of Creation it’s seven. Should the ritual have a different difficulty scaling (like rituals interacting with the Gauntlet or the Shroud) then the base difficulty is two points lower than the base difficulty of an equivalent miracle.
+  * A ritual can gain the advantage of prolonged duration or advanced scale without paying a point of Faith. The decision which of these is applied is made when the ritual is created.
+  * When a ritual is cast from memory (see below), the ankida may add his dots in the Lore he is contributing to the ritual to the casting roll. So if the ankida provides Lore of Fire to a ritual, he may roll Permanent Faith + Lore of Fire to cast. If the ankida provides more than one Lore, he can choose which of them to add to the casting roll.
-==== Namaru ====
+==== Cost of Rituals ====
-==== Asharu ====
+The Faith cost of a ritual is calculated in the same way as the cost of a miracle. However, a ritual gains the advantage of prolonged duration or advanced reach without additional cost (see above). Also, the base cost of a ritual is lower:
+^  Ritual  ^  Base Cost  ^
+|Ritual of Knowledge |  0  |
+|Ritual involving the ankida’s primary Lore |  0  |
+|Other Rituals |  1  |
+An additional cost advantage of rituals is that the cost of using multiple Lores is reduced by the number of mudu.
+==== Torment ====
+Like miracles, rituals can be turned towards a subversion of the divine purpose of the Lore. This creates blasphemous Rituals of Occlusion (rank 1), Degradation (rank 3), Unraveling (rank 4) and Obliteration (rank 5). Every time such a ritual is performed, all participants gain the same amount of temporary Torment as they would from casting the respective type of Blasphemy. Please note that creating or learning such a ritual (see below) does not incur Torment. Only actually casting it does.
+==== Delaying a Ritual ====
+The effect of a ritual can be delayed in the same way as the effect of a miracle, by increasing the difficulty by one. Please note that delayed rituals count towards the number of concurrent effects that can be maintained by the character.
+===== Creating new Rituals =====
+The creation of new rituals from scratch is an arduous process which can take weeks filled with theory-crafting, identifying and expunging flaws in the process, and of course optimizing the formulas. Fallen can create rituals alone or collaboratively.
+Steps for creating a ritual:
+  - Determine the effect the new ritual should have.
+  - The ST will decide which type of ritual (and therefore which rank) is necessary to achieve this effect, and identify the necessary bodies of Lore.
+  - In order to proceed the Fallen involved in the creation process need to possess all Lores necessary to cast the ritual at the required rank among them. However, no demon needs to know all the necessary Lore by themselves.
+  - Choose the range and all remaining parameters that are determined at creation time.
+  - The creation of the ritual takes one week per level of the ritual. There is no roll necessary. A single written copy of the ritual is created at the end of the creation process (although more can be created later). The medium of this copy needs to be provided by the authors. All demons involved in the creation process may immediately learn it at the usual cost.
+===== Records of Rituals =====
+A ritual is a thing of power, even in its written form. To record it requires materials that can withstand the strain. During the War the demons usually recorded their rituals by thoroughly magical means, like written on walls of pure light (see Tapestry of Light ritual) or encoded in the whispers of a perpetually blowing wind. However, in a pinch more prosaic means will also do. Rituals can only be recorded in the First Tongue. No mortal language has the vocabulary required.
+  * Recording a ritual on a magical material does not have any additional costs besides those for procuring the material itself. Casting a ritual from such a recording confers a bonus of two dice to the casting roll.
+  * Rituals can also be recorded on materials that have at least a durability of five and a structure of seven (e.g. engraved in a stone wall), at a cost of one point of Faith. Casting the ritual from such a recording does not confer any bonuses.
+===== Learning a Ritual =====
+Casting a ritual from memory is easier than casting it from a recording, since you can focus entirely on the process without constantly having to check your notes. Memorizing a ritual costs 1XP per rank of the ritual. As a general rule, demons can only memorize rituals in which they could serve as ankida, i.e. they need to know at least one of the relevant Lores at the required rank. There are three ways of learning:
+==== Learning from a Recording ====
+If the demon has access to a complete recording of the ritual then they can memorize the formula by studying these recordings for a number of days equal to the rank of the ritual. Studying a recording made on a magical material grants a reduction of twenty percent to the learning time (rounded up to the next full day).
+==== Learning from a Teacher ====
+A demon who has memorized a ritual can teach it to another if they wish. To impart the knowledge the teacher makes a Charisma + Instruction check at difficulty five or a Charisma + Expression check at difficulty seven. A single success is sufficient to impart the knowledge of the ritual, but each success beyond the first reduces the time it takes the student to learn the ritual by one day.
+==== Remembering ====
+The third way is to remember a ritual which the character knew before their imprisonment in Hell. For this to be viable it has to be plausible that the character knew the ritual once upon a time. Certain rituals were only known to certain groups, so unless your character belonged to this group, they wouldn't know the ritual.
+Instead of the series of dice rolls prescribed by the Players Guide, the character has to enter a fugue to retrieve the desired information from their subconsciousness. This process is identical to the process outlined on page 65 and elsewhere in these house rules.
+If the character succeeds their final Legacy roll they gain the regular reduction in XP costs. If the roll fails the character still gains justification to buy the ritual, but no cost reduction. If the roll botches the memories of the ritual are fragmented and unusable. Justification is not gained, and until they raise their Legacy rank, the character may not learn the ritual in question through this method.
-==== Annunaki ====
+===== The Ritual Knowledge background =====
-__**Create Byway**__\\
+This background can only be taken at character creation and allows the demon to start the game already knowing a number of rituals. Each dot of the background allows the demon to recall two ranks of rituals. So a demon with Ritual Knowledge 1 could have access to two Rituals of Knowledge (rank one) or a single Ritual of Domination or Protection (rank two). As always, demons can only know rituals in which they could serve as ankida.
-In their natural state, demons can easily slip between worlds and layers of creation. However, during the War it became necessary to move people and goods around which didn't have this ability. Using the expertise the Seventh House gained while carving out the Haven realm, the rebels developed this ritual to lay paths between worlds, creating ways into the Umbra. \\
-Paths into the Underworld itself are possible, but their creation was forbidden by decree of Azrael in favour of the more secure Haven Gates.\\
-**Primary Lore:** Lore of Paths •• \\
-**Secondary Lore:** Lore of Realms •• \\
-**Base Cost:** 8 \\
-**Restrictions:** The sigil has to be carved into solid ground. Concrete and other artificial material are acceptable, but soft soil is not. \\
-**Minimum Casting Time:** 16 Minutes \\
-**System:** Roll Wits + Cosmology. If the roll succeeds the path forms. It is visible to all observers, seemingly fading from view after a few yards as it crosses into other realms. It lasts for a number of days equal to the permanent Faith rating of the Ankida (or their Willpower if the Ankida is a human), but can be made permanent if the participants invest five additional points of Faith. \\
-In order to form the path the Ankida has to have some familiarity with the target realm, either from personal experience or through detailed descriptions. Alternatively, an object which has rested in the target realm for at least one year and one day can be used to aim the ritual. In this case the object has to be placed in the centre of the sigil. The only exception are paths that link a place in the material world with the corresponding location in the Penumbra, which can be created without any specific knowledge of the destination.\\
-Should the target realm be controlled by a spirit or other entity this ritual can only succeed if the ruling entity does not oppose the creation of the path.\\
-**Variations:** None
-==== Neberu ====
-__**Force Congruence**__\\
-Instead of simply observing fate, this ritual allows Fiends to actively create events of their choosing. The ritual manipulates any number of seemingly random occurrences in minor ways in order to create the desired outcome.\\
-**Primary Lore:** Lore of Patterns ••••\\
-**Secondary Lore:** Lore of the Fundament ••; Lore of Humanity ••\\
-**Base Cost:** 24 \\
-**Restrictions:** The ritual must be performed at night, under an open sky.\\
-**Minimum Casting Time:** 64 Minutes \\
-**System:** The Ankida needs to specify what they want to happen ("a car accident", "a protest rally," etc.), as well as a time and a place. Due to the way the ritual works it requires at least one full day to take effect, with a maximum equal to the Ankida's permanent Faith score in days.\\
-Roll Perception + Intuition. The difficulty depends on the probability that the requested event would occur naturally (a car crash on a busy street might be Difficulty 5, a car crash in a broom closet on the fourth floor of an office building might be Difficulty 10). The number of successes determines how precisely the specifications are followed: With one success the event will take place within one hour of the specified time, with two successes within five minutes, and at 3+ successes the deviation is under one minute.\\
-The ritual allows the Ankida to specify a type of event, but not the participants. The vagaries of free make it impossible to predict the behaviour of a single person to a sufficient degree. So "I want a slab of concrete to fall off a building and onto the busy street below" would be acceptable, "I want the slab of concrete to fall on my arch nemesis" is not.\\
-**Variations:** None
-==== Lammasu ====
+===== Published Rituals =====
-==== Rabisu ====
+For rules on adapting the published rituals to the new ruleset, see [[setting:list_of_rituals|here]].
-==== Halaku ====

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