While evocations represent the everyday tools in the arsenal of the Fallen, miracles allow the demons to achieve effects that lie outside of the narrowly defined effects of these tools. However, this freedom has a price. In this later and fallen age, working literal miracles requires a large amount of Faith (see section The Cost of Wonder below).

There are seven different types of miracles the Fallen can accomplish, depending on their level of understanding of each body of Lore.

• Knowledge: Miracles of Knowledge allow the Fallen to sense, study, and perhaps speak with those things governed by a Lore. The Fallen might learn about the health of a target (with Lore of Awakening) or about the local geology (with Lore of the Earth).

• Domination: Miracles of Domination allow the Fallen to command and direct the things governed by the Lore. Water might be made to flow uphill (with Lore of the Storms), a pack of wild dogs might be commanded to hunt somewhere else (with Lore of the Beast).
• Protection: Miracles that make an aspect of creation more resistant, or shape it into a defensive shield around themselves or others, are Miracles of Protection. The Fallen might sustain a flame without any fuel (with Lore of Flame), or form a protective suit of armor from stone (with Lore of the Earth).

• Exaltation: At this level the Fallen is able to improve a facet of creation that falls within the purview of the Lore. Miracles that purify the air (with the Lore of the Winds) or heal a sick animal (with Lore of the Beast) are examples of Miracles of Exaltation.
• Alteration: This type of miracle encompasses effects that change the properties of objects, without changing their core essence. Examples of Miracles of Alteration include freezing water (with Lore of Storms) or turning deadly gamma radiation into harmless sunlight (with Lore of Light).

• Patterning: While Miracles of Alteration allow the Fallen to change the properties of an object or being, Miracles of Patterning allow them to transform them into something else entirely. Miracles of Patterning can turn a man into a tree (with Lore of the Flesh and Lore of the Wild), or turn pebbles into diamonds (with Lore of the Earth).

• Creation: The most powerful of all miracles, Miracles of Creation allow the Fallen to create something entirely new ex nihilo. A Miracle of Creation could make someone fall deeply in love with a stranger (with Lore of Longing) or give them a completely new fate (with Lore of Patterns).

The Lores are divine tools meant to improve and enrich creation, to increase knowledge and seek wisdom. But the War taught the Fallen that they can also be used to the opposite. Such a subverted miracle is called a Blasphemy. There are four types of Blasphemies:

• Subverted Miracles of Knowledge are Blasphemies of Occultation. There are two subtypes: On one hand, a Blasphemy of Occultation can hide something or someone under the purview of the respective lore. For example, it could make the heat and the light of a fire undetectable (with the Lore of Flame). Alternatively such a Blasphemy might hide something or something from phenomena under the lore’s purview, like e.g. making someone invisible to ghosts (with the Lore of the Spirit). A Fallen working a Blasphemy of Occultation gains one point of temporary Torment.
• Subverted Miracles of Exaltation become Blasphemies of Degradation. Such a Blasphemy takes something under the purview of the lore, and turns it into a worse version of itself. Such a Blasphemy might reduce the protection offered by armor (with Lore of the Forge), or weaken the Shroud (with Lore of the Realms). Direct attacks through a Blasphemy of Degradation inflict bashing damage. A demon working a Blasphemy of Degradation gains three points of temporary Torment.
• Subverted Miracles of Patterning become Blasphemies of Unraveling. Such a Blasphemy significantly impairs or damages the phenomena under the lore’s purview. The demon might give someone a heart attack (with the Lore of Awakening) or turn true love into a fleeting infatuation (with Lore of Longing). Direct attacks using Blasphemies of Unraveling cause legal damage. A demon working a Blasphemy of Unraveling gains four points of temporary Torment.
• Finally, a subverted Miracle of Creation is a Blasphemy of Obliteration. Just like a Miracle of Creation makes something from nothing, such a Blasphemy turns something into nothing. A ray of light might be snuffed out (with Lore of Light), and even souls might be unraveled (with Lore of the Spirit). Direct attacks using Blasphemies of Obliteration cause aggravated damage. A demon working a Blasphemy of Obliteration gains five points of temporary Torment.

Note that this only affects the direct effects of a miracle, and only relative to its primary purpose. A fire created next to a person will burn them, because that is the nature of fire. The Lore of Death will create death and end lives, because such is its purpose. Neither of these things will incur Torment.

Since it is not always immediately obvious which facet of creation is governed by which Lore, here a list of all Lores and what falls under their purview. Naturally some Lores have a certain amount of overlap. For example both the Lore of Humanity and the Lore of Radiance can be used to make someone obey an order, and both the Lore of Awakening and the Lore of Flesh are able to heal. So sometimes there are multiple plausible ways to achieve a given result. The Storyteller has the final say under which Lore(s) a given effect falls.

• Lore of the Fundament: Gravity, Electromagnetism. Movement, The Gauntlet
• Lore of Humanity: Language, Thought, Memory

• Lore of the Celestials: Faith, Lores, Angels, Demons
• Lore of Flame: Fire, Heat, Thermal Energy
• Lore of Radiance: Courage, Sovereignty, Supremacy

• Lore of Awakening: Blessings, Healing, Vigor, Life
• Lore of the Firmament: Sympathy, Scrying, Connections
• Lore of the Winds: Air, Gases

• Lore of the Earth: The Earth, Solid Matter
• Lore of Paths: Paths, Distance, Separation
• Lore of the Forge: Crafting, Machines, Processed Materials

• Lore of Patterns: Prophecy, Fate, Time
• Lore of Portals: Doors, Thresholds, Warding, Conjuration
• Lore of Light: Radiation, Light, Illusions

• Lore of Longing: Emotions, Desire, Sensations
• Lore of Storms: Weather, Water, Liquids
• Lore of Transfiguration: Metamorphosis, Change

• Lore of the Beast: Animals, Bacteria
• Lore of the Wild: Plants, Funghi, Wood
• Lore of the Flesh: Human Bodies, Evolution, Biochemistry

• Lore of Death: Death, Decay, Absence, Endings
• Lore of the Spirit: Spirits, Ghosts, Souls
• Lore of the Realms: The Shroud, The Underworld

Sometimes a character might want to bring forth an effect that lies in the purview of more than one Lore. For example, if you want to turn a rock into air then the starting material falls under the purview of the Lore of the Earth, while the result falls under the purview of the Lore of the Winds. To work such a miracle the demon would need to know all relevant bodies of Lore to a sufficient degree. So to turn a rock into air the demon would have to possess four ranks of both Lore of the Earth and Lore of the Winds, since this is a Miracle of Patterning.

Working a miracle that makes use of multiple bodies of Lore increases the cost of the miracle by one point of Faith for every Lore beyond the first.

The dice pool to work a miracle is equal to the caster’s permanent Faith rating, although a demon may ravage his thralls for bonus dice (see page 251 of the DTF core book). The base difficulty is equal to four plus the rank of Lore necessary to create this particular miracle. So the base difficulty for a Miracle of Knowledge is five, for a Miracle of Creation it is nine. This base difficulty is modified based on the specifics of the miracle.

Only a single success is usually necessary to successfully work a miracle. However, should the difficulty of the roll be increased beyond ten, then every additional increase in difficulty instead increases the target number of successes. Willpower cannot be used, but Faith may be expended to buy one automatic success per point spent this way.

Example: Working a miracle of Creation (base difficulty 9) that affects four subjects (+2 to difficulty, see below) would require two successes at difficulty 10 if no other modifiers apply.

Some miracles have instantaneous duration. A rock shaped into a statue will remain a statue, information gained from a Miracle of Knowledge will remain known to the user. But other effects will only persist for a certain amount of time before subsiding. Altered weather conditions will return to their natural state, a stone that had its weight increased hundredfold will return to being easy to lift.

As a rule of thumb, if the state created by the miracle can exist in nature then it is probably an instantaneous effect, but as always the ST has the final say. Effects that give permanent mechanical advantages to player characters have to be paid with XP as usual (see the house rules regarding the Lore of Flesh).

On certain occasions the player can choose whether he wants to work an instantaneous effect, or one with a duration. For example, a block of ice created as an instantaneous effect will thaw if exposed to heat. Ice created with a duration will stay frozen until the duration expires, regardless of the environment.

The duration of a non-instantaneous miracle is chosen at casting time, and it impacts the difficulty of the casting roll according to the following table:

Should the Fallen wish to create an effect with a longer duration, he can spend a point of Faith to create a miracle with prolonged duration. In this case the duration is determined with the following table:

There are two basic ranges at which a miracle can affect a target. Working a miracle that only affects the caster, or people and objects the caster touches, does not impact the difficulty. Extending the range to objects and people within the line of sight of the caster increases the difficulty by one.

In this context, “line of sight” means that light needs to be able to travel between the target and the caster without being impeded. So a person the caster can see through a telescope counts as within line of sight. A person the caster sees on TV does not, even if it’s a live transmission.

The only way to target a person the caster cannot see with a miracle is by using a sympathetic connection, which requires adding the Lore of the Firmament to the miracle, with the usual caveats (see section Using Multiple Lores above). If the caster knows the target’s true name or has access to a sample of their body tissue (hair or nail clippings are sufficient) then the difficulty is the same as for line of sight. If the caster has access to a close personal possession or knows the target’s celestial name, then the difficulty is raised by one. If the caster merely knows the target’s mortal name then the difficulty is increased by two.

The magnitude of a miracle determines how powerful it is. This factor mainly matters to miracles that create a numerical or otherwise graded effect. If the miracle alters a numerical trait, then it needs to have a Magnitude equal to the number of dots added or subtracted. So a Miracle of Exaltation meant to increase a character’s Strength by three points would need magnitude three. miracles that add or remove merits or flaws need to have a magnitude equal to the point value of the merit or flaw. miracles that heal or directly inflict damage can heal or inflict up to one level of lethal or aggravated damage (Note: directly inflicting aggravated damage requires a High-Torment Miracle of Patterning). The final decision which magnitude is necessary for a given effect lies with the ST.

At base difficulty a miracle has a magnitude of one. Each level of magnitude beyond the first increases the difficulty of the miracle by one.

At its base difficulty, a miracle can affect one person, an object with a volume of one cubic yard, or an area of twenty square feet. Extending it beyond these limits increases the difficulty. Should more than one category of scale pertain to a miracle, then only apply the highest modifier.

Similar to the case of duration, the Fallen can choose to spend an additional point of Faith in order to create a miracle with extended scale. In this case the scale is determined by this table instead:

This scale can be extended downward. Every doubling of number of subjects, volume, or area increases the difficulty by one.

The base time to perform a ritual to work a miracle is ten minutes. Unlike Evocations, which are well-established and well-understood procedures for changing the universe, creating a miracle requires the Fallen to build the effect from scratch, which takes a lot more time. Subsequently, the more time the caster takes to make the calculations and check that everything is correct, the easier the act of working the miracle becomes. On the other hand, rushing a miracle makes it much harder to do.

Besides taking more time, there are also a number of other measures the Fallen can use to make working a miracle easier and more manageable. Please note the general rule that rolls can’t have a difficulty lower than their base difficulty minus three, and no roll can have a difficulty lower than three.

Changing the world comes with a price tag. In the beginning, when Faith seemed unlimited and God was footing the bill, the elohim were able to make sweeping changes to the new universe. But these days are long gone. In the modern age the Fallen find themselves much diminished, and have to fight for every iota of Faith from the apathetic masses of humanity. So the cost of creating miracles is now felt much more keenly.

Since miracles of Knowledge don’t change the state of the universe, they have a base cost of zero (However, in order to cast a ritual the Fallen needs to have at least one point of temporary Faith). All other types of miracles always require the expenditure of at least one point of Faith.

To this base cost add all other costs incurred through use of prolonged duration or advanced scale, use of multiple lores, extra points of Faith spent to lower the difficulty, etc. This price has to be paid before the casting roll is made. If the player fails to achieve the necessary number of successes, the Faith is lost.

A Nusku wishes to give his two thralls immunity to fire for the next day. This is a Miracle of Protection of the Lore of the Flame. The base difficulty for a Miracle of Protection is six, to which the player adds +1 to affect two targets, and +1 for a duration of one day. Since this is a prolonged duration, it raises the cost of the miracle by one. Since the Lore of Flames is the primary Lore of a Nusku, the cost of the miracle is two points of Faith, and casting it requires a Faith roll against difficulty eight. The Nusku has the option to reduce this difficulty further by adding more steps to the ritual, or paying additional points of Faith.

An Antu wants to create an enormous block of granite from nothing. Since this is an act of creation it requires a Miracle of Creation, and since it creates stone it requires the Lore of the Earth. The base difficulty of a Miracle of Creation is 9, and the base cost is 2, since the Lore of the Earth is not the caster’s primary Lore. Let’s assume that the volume of the block that is supposed to be created is 10.000 cubic yards. That means the miracle requires extended scale, increasing the cost by one point of Faith. Creating a volume of 10.000 cubic yards increases the difficulty by +9, for a total difficulty of 18.

Difficulties over ten mean that the caster instead needs additional successes, so a difficulty of 18 means that the caster has to achieve nine successes at difficulty ten to succeed at the check, which is unlikely. So the caster can attempt to mitigate the difficulty. Since the intended location of the stone is unlikely to be inside a bastion of a workshop the Antu can’t get bonuses from the location, but he can extend the casting time to three hours, use a sigil and an appropriate chant as well as symbolism. Through all of these measures he can reduce the difficulty by -7, for a new difficulty of 11. Better, but still unlikely. So he decides to invest two additional points of Faith to decrease the difficulty further. That means the difficulty of the evocation roll becomes nine again, but the total cost goes up to five points of Faith (base cost of two, plus one for extended scale, plus two to reduce the difficulty). Now the miracle has a chance of succeeding. If the Antu has even more Faith to invest he could reduce the difficulty further, to a minimum of six (base difficulty minus three). At that point the miracle would cost eight points of Faith.

While most Miracles of Knowledge provide information about the present, they can also see the present and future under certain conditions. In general every Lore is able to provide information about the past of things within the purview of said Lore. And the Lore of Patterns is able to follow the strands of fate into the past and future. Such miracles might require a heightened magnitude at the discretion of the ST, particularly if the miracle attempts to look particularly deep into the depths of time. A particular condition of Miracles of Knowledge providing post- or precognition is that the casting roll always has to be made in secret by the ST. If the roll botches then the beneficiary of the miracle will receive false and harmful information. Messing with time is a dangerous game.

The effects of miracles can be powerful, but they are usually not quick. To mitigate this weakness the Fallen have figured out how to include triggers into them. A delayed miracle is cast as normal, with all parameters including the target determined at casting time. The intended target also has to be in range at casting time. Modifying a miracle to include a trigger requires the caster to expend one point of Willpower in addition to the normal costs. The trigger can either be a specific time, or a specific set of conditions.

Please note that triggers can only be conditions that can be determined with normal human senses. So “the miracle should trigger when someone walks over this patch of ground” is acceptable, “the miracle should trigger when someone hostile to me walks over this patch of ground” isn’t, since the trigger can’t determine a person’s mental state.

If you want to define a trigger that is not within line of sight of the miracle’s target, the miracle needs to include the Lore of the Firmament. A demon is able to maintain a number of delayed miracles or rituals (see below) equal to their permanent Faith.

Working miracles that interact with the Gauntlet or the Shroud require the Lore of the Fundament or the Lore of the Realms, respectively. Commanding these barriers to open enough for one person to slip through is a Miracle of Domination, while creating a longer-lasting doorway is a Miracle of Creation that also requires the use of the Lore of Portals (in practice it will almost always be easier to simply employ the Evocations of the Lore of the Realms to pass through the Shroud, but it is included here for the sake of completeness).

However, since the barriers separating the Earth Realm from the Umbra and the Underworld aren’t of uniform thickness, the calculation for the difficulty of passing through them is slightly different than normal. Instead of adding a flat four to the rank of the miracle, instead add the local Gauntlet or Shroud rating. So passing through the Gauntlet in a place with a Gauntlet rating of five would require a Faith roll against difficulty seven (five plus two for a Miracle of Domination).

The ability to see the emotional aura of a being can be granted through a Miracle of Knowledge of the Lore of Longing. The miracle allows the beneficiary to perceive the auras of those around themselves until the duration of the effect elapses, but making sense of the often confusing swirl of colors is another matter entirely.

Reading the aura of a person requires studying the person’s aura for at least a few seconds. The player makes a Perception + Empathy roll, with the number of successes determining the amount of detail revealed. For the aura color chart please consult the relevant rule books (e.g. V20 Core book, page 136).

The act of creation requires a deep and intimate knowledge of their subject. To a large part this knowledge is implied in the bodies of lore themselves. A Rabisu might not necessarily know the names human scientists have given to the various proteins, or be able to explain the mechanisms of the human metabolism in terms that would make sense to a biologist, but he knows these things nonetheless. However, when it comes to human inventions and other things that didn’t exist yet in the days of the War, this knowledge comes to its limits.

This means that in order to affect things like complex machinery or chemical compounds of human design, the Storyteller might require a roll of Intelligence plus the appropriate ability (Crafts, Technology, Medicine, Science, etc.) for the demon to remember the necessary information. The difficulty depends on the complexity of the subject in question.

As the Demon: The Fallen core book describes on page 253, the presence of disbelieving mortals can make it harder for a demon to use their power. This increase in difficulty also applies to the working of miracles, with the same rules as for the use of evocations.