Transcendent Mastery

Rules

Performing the Ritual

Performing this ritual takes at least 2 minutes of roleplaying. This ritual targets a character, who must be present throughout. The target character must have the magician skill.

This ritual is an enchantment. A target may only be under one enchantment effect at a time.

Effects

The target gains the ability to cast all the spells known to Imperial magicians as if they knew them.

They also experience a series of powerful roleplaying effects:

• They feel full of exotic knowledge, as if the secrets of the universe were just on the tip of their tongue.
• They feel a strong urge to use their knew magical knowledge to solve all problems.
• They have a voracious appetite for new information, especially factual information.
• They feel buoyed up, as if they are filled to bursting with an invisible power. They feel as if at any moment, if they relax or lose control, they might rise off the ground or explode in a burst of radiant possibilities.

This can all be very distracting.

The effect lasts until the start of the next Profound Decisions Empire event.

Additional Targets

This ritual can affect additional characters from the same coven. Each additional character increases the magnitude by 20. Additional characters must have the magician skill and be present throughout.

Description

The rituals Illuminate the Higher Mind and Ascendance of the Highest Mind allow ritualists to share knowledge. This potent ritual goes one better - it draws magical knowledge out of nowhere and pours it into the mind of the target. Some magicians believe this is the cumulative knowledge of all the magicians of the Empire, or perhaps even the world; others claim that the knowledge is drawn from somewhere in the Day Realm, or from one or more Day Eternals - perhaps the Great Library of Phaleron or its attendants. The most disappointing element of the ritual, as many magicians have lamented, is that it does not enhance the number of spells they can cast. Magicians under the effect of Transcendant Mastery often develop an insatiable appetite for mana crystals to fuel their desire to cast as many incantations as possible.

This ritual is very expensive, and difficult to perform. The most common use is to allow one or more ritualists access to spells the coven do not know that are desperately valuable. A group of ritualists with no knowledge of spells such as heal or purify can gain access to those valuable incantations in desperate need. Likewise, a group of otherwise ineffectual scholar-librarians under threat can gain the entire suite of offensive spells in one swoop, provided they have access to enough crystals of mana.

Common Elements

The ritual involves the invocation of an outside agency. The target often wears a robe of fine silk, perhaps dyed with iridescent gloaming, and often dons a circlet or crown at the culmination to represent mastery of magic. Scrolls of incantations are commonly used, but any written material may serve as a conduit for the magical knowledge the coven seeks. A group of Urizen magicians might use mirrors and crystals to focus beams of light onto the target while invoking their own magic, while a coven of Freeborn or Imperial orc magicians may engage in a frenzied spinning dance with pounding music to try and elevate the target to a higher state of consciousness.

Invocations to legendary magicians and scholars, especially those who are exemplars or paragons are often included; the idea that the ritual draws on the collective knowledge of humanity is a powerful one. Highborn magisters are likely to try and encourage the target to access their previous lives in which they may have been magicians, while orcs will similarly call on the ancestors to fill a shaman with their power. Obviously, invocations of powerful Day Eternals are also common, as are the runes Aesh and Hirmok.