Seasons (DAM)

Seasons

Overview

The Pillars for Old Faith mysticism are the four Seasons of the year. A microcosm of life itself, the year is born, waxes, wanes and, finally, dies. This natural progression of genesis, growth and termination is the very essence of the Old Faith. Nature knows both the gentle caress of Spring and the harsh fury of Winter. So, too, must all witch-wise folk be open to Nature the provider and Nature the destroyer. All the spells of this faith fall under the symbolic purviews of the Seasons. Autumn, for ex ample, is a time of wisdom and maturity, Summer of passion and vibrancy.

Sample Foci: Blood, chanting, ordeals

Autumn (Powers of wisdom and fruition)

Despite setting the trees ablaze with shades of
red and gold, Autumn is the season that cools the
blood, beckoning farmer:; to their harvests and calling
beasts to prepare for che coming snows. It is the
time of age and wisdom, when that which is planned
comes to fruition. Likewise, as the leaf withers on the
branch, it is a time for conserving strength and fortifying against coming hardship. The dead grow close to the land of the living during this season, as the Earth itself prepares to die.

• • At this level of knowledge, the witch can detect the presence of maturity and ripeness in a thing, its readiness for harvest. It is possible to sense

wisdom in words or in a person (such as the telltale
ring of prophecy), or co perceive when a woman will
give birth to the child she carries. Likewise, one can
see when a thing is ready to begin its twillight time ,
whether that thing is an animal, an idea or an
institution.

• • • The priestess of the Old Faith can calm

extant emotions wtth her magic and can make simple
life (plants or insects, for example) or simple idea:s
(such as the blacksmtth's son's idle thoughts of
asking the sh epherd'::. daughter to marry him) mature
and, if appropriate, hear fruit. Also, he may
gather up her energies and guard herself against
mystic assaults directed at her pattern (adding successes
to Stamina for the purposes of soaking direct
pattern attacks).

• • • • With the power of Autumn, the keeper of the Living Faith can stymie change, slowing time(reducing a subject to one action for a number of turns equal to succe~ses rolled, for example) or the proliferation of ideas. The druid may sculpt the Earth, which draws its energy inward during this Season, controlling its shape and causing it to flow, at will. also, as this is a changing time, a mystic time, a time of crossing over, he can move into the Penumbra at crossroads and other between-places. He can protect living patterns, bolstering their powers to resist (adding one dot of Stamina per success).
• • • • • The witch may now strike at the life of                                                                                                 anorher directly with Autumn magics, just as                                                                                                      the farmer's scythe fells his grain and trees yield up their leaves in a fiery rain (inflicting one Health Level of   aggravated damage per success on a simple spell) Brashness may be transformed into patience and a foolmight be made to rethink his plans, forsaking them for a wiser course of action. Also, the witch may evolve nonliving things or concepts into their final form ( tuming ambition into a desire for conquest, a felled tree to dry timber or coal and iron into steel).
• • • • • • The witch may afflict the hody of a
  living being with age (two years per success) and can
  create wisdom and undersrnnding (adding one dot to
  Intelligence per success). She can simulatethe land's
  final sigh as it gives up its life to make way for Winter,
  creating failure in a venture (subtracting her successes
  on a simple spell from those scored by another,
  to a minimum of zero; if the subject's roll is magical,
  however, she must expend a point of both Willpower
  and Quintessence to do so). By summoning up the
  power of contemplation, the witch can contact the
  minds of others directly or can, with great effort,
  bring anew place of power into being (creating cray
  after an extended spell limited  to no more than 10
  rolls, one roll per day; every 10 successes equals one
  level of the new cray)
  Specialties: Contemplation, Creating Calm,
  Harvesting, Wisdom
  Sample Foci: Ashes from a quenched fire, fallen
  leaves, a lock of newly-ctr red or brown or golden
  hair, scythe, sheaf of wheat, soil, stones 

The time of renewal, rebirth and innocence,
Spring is the essence of youth, vitality and virility.
As the land shakes off tts icy mantle and green begins
to stir, at first showing through and then displacing
the white, the Earth reawakens. Birds unheard for
months cry out to the warming sun and the crcarures
of nature emerge from Winter dens, bringing with
them newborn progeny. It is a time of intuition and
impulse, of love and laughter. Spring rains wash
away the dreary shadow of the previous Jays and
infuse the soil with life-giving power.

• • The practitioner of the Old Faith can 

see the life in things and their potential. She can sense
the first stirring of an unborn child, feel the flesh
knitting in a healing wound (revealing how many
Health levels of damage remain in a subject), can
perceive the bond between young lovers, no matter
how well they try to conceal it. She sees the blossoming
of new ideas, friendships and possibilities.

• • • The mystic now discovers how to insinuate

the properties of Spring into himself and, in
a smaller way, others. He can mend his own hurts
(healing two I lealth Levels of bashing damage or
one lethal per success), make simple life (such as
plants and animals) to grow hale and strong, and
bring on wakefulness or the suggestion of fresh perspective.
By summoning up a child's wonder with
the first bloom of Spring, he can add one per success
to Awareness die pools on a simple spell.

• • • • The wind, element of motion and action,

comes to the witch's call. She can mend the
hurts of greater beasts, humans included (healing
them as per the capabilities conferred by the previous
level); can restore even terrible damage to her
own being (healing one Health Level of aggravated
damage per success); and can exert control over the
gentler emotions, such as love, compassion, appreciation
and friendliness. She can also impart
supernatural swifmess and grace (one dot of Dexterity
or Appearance per success) and is able to move
another to sudden action or impulsive behavior.

• • • • • The mystic gives birth to ideas that grow

and spread among ochers (implanting a thought or
concept that spreads with supernatural case, alacrity
and force). She can feed energy into others' spells,
fueling or expanding them (addling one success per
succes~ rolled to another person's spell that is cast at
char time). She may walk physically into the
otherworldly realms of the Fae and can erode the
stasis of the Gaunclct naturally, allowing tra~it
between multiple worlds (subtracting one from the
Gauntlet per success). The hurts ofothers, no matter
how grievous, can be undone (allowing the mage to
heal aggravated d.unage for other as he could for
herself with the previous level).

• • • • • • Life itself is in the witch's hands. She can

restore the souls of the recently dead to thetr bodies
(only those who died  within one minute per level of the
witch's Spontaneity score; the arisen person has one
Health Level and is barely conscious) and can create.
living beings (though they lack minds and souls, such
forms still possess instinct:,). Even the improbable may
be given genesis (oak trees in the desert, conversion to
the Old Ways in the Papal City, etc.), though such
changes are not likely to rake root and persist unless
they are tended and maintained by careful use of mystic
and mundane incentives.
Specialties: Creating New Ideas, Fair Folk, Healing,
Uncontrolled Change, Wind
Sample Foci: Breath and breathing, clear water,
herhs, incense, salves, saplings or other newly-bloomeJ
flowers or plants, sex or sensuality

Summer (Powers Of Fire And Passion)  

As the sun bums hot overhead, Summer is the season of passions. The blood courses with lust and the thrill of battle. Summer brings storm that rends the night sky with bright fire and batters the land with furious downpours. Choices are made swiftly, for there is always tomorrow. People are quick to take offense, chafed by the heat and the stillness of the daytime air. Summer magic is undertaken swiftly and with conviction, though it might lack wisdom. It is bold and strong, the most vigorous of Seasons. It is a time of fire and fury, a time saturated with the glorious vitality of the prime of life.

Rating	Description
1	The witch can see the fullness of things, their vigor and intensity. Strong passions, hot tempers and powerful beliefs are evident to her. She can detect things and people in their prime, and she knows sources of energy and activity (this also allows her to detect crays, talismans, and other concentrations of mystic power). Her perception allows her to sense when a thing is in or near its greatest possible state of readiness.
2	Now, the mystic can provoke aggression, action and motion (using subtle impulses to impel such brash responses onward). She may induce vitality (reducing Health Level penalties deriving from fatigue by one per success rolled) in herself or others. When moved to violence, her weapons grow strong with the power of Summer (inflicting lethal damage instead of bashing, in the event of fists or light blunt weapons, and adding extra dice of lethal damage to all successful attacks equal to successes scored on a simple spell). She can create ironclad (and angrily defended) convictions out of whimsies, can stir a docile beehive into a rage and can inspire a retiring scholar with the fervor of his youth.
3	Fire, the element of Summer, can be created and controlled by the wielder of this power (inflicting a Health Level or two of lethal damage). The fury of a druid who reaches this level of understanding is a terrible thing. Patterns or objects or living creatures can be directly assaulted, forcing them to adapt and grow strong or be destroyed (causing one Health Level of aggravated damage per success; this can be soaked with Willpower instead of Stamina). Discontent can be whipped up into mob violence, and a conservative priest might be made to throw sense and inhibition to the winds and embrace his deepest desires.
4	The witch acquires control over power and vitality on a conceptual level. She can rise up, bloody but unbowed, from blows that would fell trees (effectively adding an additional -2 Health Level per success for the duration of a conflict). She can assail the consciousness of another with raw aggression (inducing homicidal rage or some other manner of madness if the subject does not resist with a Willpower roll). She is able to attack the pattern of magic itself (dissolving even ongoing spells by reducing successes accrued in the casting on a one-for-one basis) and can sculpt raw Quintessence into ideals (giving them substance in the various Umbrae) or physical objects (such as conjuring a shield out of thin air). Storms answer her beck and call and lightning strikes from a clear sky when she wills it.
5	Summer's final lesson manifests in fantastic displays of power, bestowing upon the mystic the heart of a dragon. The witch's displeasure makes itself known in maelstroms of force, blistering heat, and raw elemental fury (inflicting two Health Levels of aggravated damage per success scored to all unfortunate enough to be caught within the radius of the effect). She can spark tempers that flare into wars or turn a passing fancy into a love affair that becomes legendary. Everything around her becomes strong and vital (adding one dot of Strength per success) or withers beneath the fangs, the fists, and the spells of those who are.

Sample Foci: Daggers or other bladed weapon, dance, fire, lust or wrath, physical contact (preferably skin-to-skin)

Specialties: Combat, Fire, inciting Wrath , Quintessence, Raw Force

Winter (Powers of death and despair)   

This is the dying time, when claws of frost scour the Earth, flaying man and beast alike and field and forest as well. Winter is the season that kills, when day is short and night stretches on. A thick blanket of white, like a grave shroud, is cast upon all things. It is a time of secrets, fear and separation. Folks gather close, around life-giving fires, huddling against the cold and the dark. Winter magic may be subtle, like the stillness of a frozen pond by night, or obvious, like a blizzard come to claim a heavy toll of the living. But always it is tinged by energies of death, dissolution, and finality.

Rating	Description
1	A bleak Second Sight comes to him who learns the rudiments of Winter's Gift. He sees death and the dying, feels the imminent ending of things and can sense the proximity of restless ghosts. Further, he knows when an idea or group is at its end, the point at which it must die. He sees things that exist between life and death (including vampires and other walking dead), waiting to fade completely or be reborn.
2	Apathy, fear and stillness can be created with this level of power. Thoughts die unspoken and inspiration dries up when Winter's wisdom is called upon (subtracting one success from an Intelligence or Wits roll per two successes, rounding down, scored on a simple spell). Feelings of isolation, lassitude, or boredom are spun at the mystic's command. She may speak with the dead, and a chill follows her when she summons it. Also, he may create silence or deepen shadows (adding one die per success to Stealth die pools).
3	The druid may control water, the element of Winter, in any of its forms, and can strike directly at the vitality of the living, seeking to snuff it out (inflicting one Health Level of lethal damage per success). He may create cold or darkness at will and can stride into the domain of the dead without giving up his spirit. Animated ephemeral ideals, such as emotion, can be lulled into a truly deathlike state (reducing an individual to an automaton of reason). Wakefulness can be transformed into slumber and hope turned to despair.
4	The mystic may compel the spirits of the dead, summoning them up to work her will (to control a lifeless corpse, however, she needs other magic). Even those restless shades who dwell in both worlds, such as vampires, are not free from her influence (though any intelligent undead beings may resist this compulsion with Willpower). he may rob almost any system of momentum and may render such systems unchanging unless later acted upon by outside forces. Power and sources of energy, including magical energy, may be rendered dormant (lulling ongoing spells or talismans into inaction for the duration specified by her number of successes).
5	Filled with the harsh and unfeeling power of Winter, the adherent to the Old Faith can kill with a glance (destroying the link between body and spirit and inflicting one Health Level of aggravated damage per success that can be soaked only with Willpower). His words quell even powerful and compelling ideas among large numbers of people. He can pull the viral force out of any unliving physical or mystical pattern, dissolving it instantly (any spells attacked in this way loses two successes per success scored in the casting of such a spell). When he wishes it, change ends and a pervasive lethargy sets in. He may naturally strengthen the Gauntlet against intrusion (raising the Gauntlet by one per two successes scored) and is a living symbol of fear, dread, and terrible, unnerving power.

Sample Foci: Altar, battering or bludgeoning implements, grave dirt, or bodily remains, sacrifice (animal or possibly human), water (especially snow or ice)

Specialties: Destroying Ideas, Souls, Stifling Physical Change, Water