Difference between revisions of "Spell:Sworn Brother's Oath"

Latest revision as of 15:47, 15 April 2022

Source: Book of the Emerald Circle by Brian Hon/Limited Reagent

Cost: 10+m, 1wp

Circle: Emerald

Type: Simple (Dramatic Action)

Keywords: Counter-No

Duration: Indefinite

This spell binds a group of people together into a sworn brotherhood. The cost of this spell is five motes per participant. Its dramatic shaping action takes one hour per participant; the sorcerer need not be a participant, but can be if she wishes. All participants must be willing and cannot be coerced with magic. When the casting action is taken, all participants must vocalize an oath to each other, binding them into a brotherhood. This oath has the following effects:

● Loyalty: All members gain a sorcerously-charged Intimacy of loyalty to the brotherhood and everyone within it with an initial and maximum rating of (the member's Conviction + 5). This Intimacy does not count toward the normal Intimacy maximum. Resisting mental influence that opposes the Intimacy requires half the Willpower, rounded down, to a minimum of zero. Taking any action in opposition to this Intimacy, however, requires failing a Conviction roll or spending one Willpower. This makes the member automatically gain one Limit and reduces the strength of the Intimacy by one. If this Intimacy is eroded in any other way, it is immediately reasserted. Once it has been fully eroded, that member breaks his oath and is no longer under this spell's effect or part of the brotherhood. He also gains one automatic Limit for each other member of the brotherhood. This magical intimacy can be built like any other Intimacy.

● Devotion: All members increase their Stunts ratings as though it resonated with their Motivation if they involve devotion to the brotherhood or its members, such as directly aiding a brother or sister.

● Familiarity: All members can reflexively determine the bearing and distance to each others' location, if on the same Plane of Existence and not in a location immune to scrying (this counts as a Scrying effect). If a member of the brotherhood is in a different Plane of Existence, this effect will point the member toward the nearest entrance to the other plane. Furthermore, rolls to Read the Motivation (Exalted p. 131) of other members have their difficulty reduced by (the reader's own Compassion).

● Relation: All members of the brotherhood are considered blood relatives of one another for the purposes of determining the effects of Charms and the like. This is especially useful to Dragonblooded, hence they are the greatest practitioners of this spell.

A sorcerer cannot bind more than (Willpower) people together into a single brotherhood, and no person can be part of more than one. If this spell is cast on someone already in a brotherhood, she must immediately spend one Willpower per point the Intimacy of loyalty has left (and automatically gain an equal amount of Limit). This automatically breaks her previous oath, netting her an additional amount of automatic Limit equal to the number of members of her previous brotherhood. Few such oath-breakers don't immediately Limit Break. If a previously-bonded character cannot spend that much Willpower, she cannot participate in the spell. Adding new members to an already-existing brotherhood, however, merely involves recasting the spell upon all members of the brotherhood plus any new members. Previous members renew their oaths while new members state them for the first time.

Long-lasting brotherhoods can be unnerving to others, as the bonds between the members begin to permeate all aspects of their lives. The members of the brotherhood begin to act in disturbingly similar fashion. They do not lose their individual personalities, but unconscious habits, mannerisms, preferences and other traits blend and merge, giving the members an eerie sameness to their behavior.

This spell is widely used in the Realm, but Dynastic elders frown on those who would place loyalty to friends above loyalty to House.