The Other-Lands: An Introduction

 Beyond the Gloaming Veil, Beyond the Wall of Sleep

Past your daydreams and nightmares, past your dreams so deep

Over the moon and half past Saturn, through the looking glass, straight on til morning

A land not of field and heat, particle and wave, matter and energy, but of Story and Song, Sigil and Symbol, Meaning and Message, Weal and Warning

Elsewhere lies these Lands-Another, For space and time do not rule these lands, merely brush against them flirtatiously.

 

    Readers are familiar with the waking world, and at least passingly aware of its physics, or nature. Perhaps not its depthful true nature, but of the natural patterns that govern its operations to some extent.

    There are Fields (Properties assigned to all points in space-time), Energy (Potential for work to be done) and Space-Time (The soft stage upon which the delicate dance occurs). Simply put, in the real world there are Properties, Event-Potential and Setting.

    There are also weird things, like how causality has a speed limit and things beyond the cosmic horizon functionally Do Not Exist to you.

    This isn't about that. Instead this is about another world.

     

The Treachery of Images, René Magritte, 1929

    Elsewhere

    Here there is no "here" in a contiguous connected way. Locations and even time are dreamlike and disconnected, requiring journeys through abstract Wilderness in order to reach. In order for things to make sense, one must first begin with a description of the fundamental Aspects of the world, as this is a world not of Field and Heat, but of Symbol and Metaphor.

• Glamour: Pure sense-data. The fundamental qualia that build the sensory experience of a thing. Appearance, shape, texture, smell, sound and yet stranger senses you may take for granted. This is what is closest to the objects of the Waking-World, and yet its not something of any true substance, hence the name.
• A dearth of this suggests a smaller, simpler or otherwise reduced sensibility. A total lack suggests no physical appearance or shape, and a fuzzier location.
• Something that is just Glamour is mere shape and appearance, little more than an illusion. 
• Shadow: Perception and Affect. If Glamour is the raw sense data, this is what it invokes. Dreadfulness, Beauty, Funniness, and so on. Subjective interpretations can of course exist, ones own Shadow picking up the slack and allowing one to perceive things as these things even if their own shadows are lacking, but it is considered rude to rely upon that.
• A dearth of this suggests an unremarkable or reduced affect, as well as a lack of ability to supply ones own affect. A total lack suggests no intrinsic affect, total conformity to the surrounding tone of things. This does not make you impossible to notice or target.
• Shadow by itself is pure affect, perhaps like a wandering mood, a storm of emotion or interpretation. 
• Wish: Drive and Desire. The quality of "realness" something can have. Most objects slowly adhere to the ambient Wish of their environment, much like how most objects slowly homogenize temperature and ultimately Heat. Most places in the Other-Lands do not have enough ambient Wish to properly sustain inhabitants, and so other actions are taken to harvest this. This is partially because wish is directed in many ways, and if one wants to take it they must misdirect it.
• A dearth of this suggests a dreamlike or dissociated quality or nature, while a total lack of this suggests a severance from the typical "reality" of the Other-Lands, now seen as possibly imaginary by even the fickle reality of the Folk (this is not an unrecoverable state...), though such things can still possess a passive kind of power to affect the world.
• Something that is Wish alone would be raw unfiltered reality, pure want and desire and drive, it is the other aspects that direct Wish to sustain itself and others.
• Personae: Self-concept and Identity. A story one tells oneself and the world about oneself. Qualities of Character and expressed facets of the self. It defines what you can Do in both concrete and abstract terms. Most objects hold simple Personae, but some objects hold stronger and more complex ones. Many things can even possess multiple...
• A dearth of this suggests a very basic or simplified personality, conforming more to some basic facts or descriptions than to a complex self. A total lack of this suggests no personality or identity is applied to something, it existing merely as an extension of some other thing, or as mere illusion.
• Personae alone is mere identity with nothing else. Title, self-concept with no history, fate or feeling. Pure "I Am" with no "You Are". 
• Wyrd: Fate and Chance. A story the world tells about oneself. A kind of narrative gravity well, or fuzzy non-local cloud of influence. Orchestrates synchronicity with respect to its target(s), usually the singular entity possessed of it. These interact in subtle and secret ways, orchestrating the narrative causation of the Other-Lands
• A dearth of this suggests one is more subject to the fortunes and fates of others than to their own, or suggests a very simple fortune with few moving parts. A total lack suggests one is swept up in the currents and wakes of others, with no fate or fortune of your own. A background character, essentially, but even more so.
• That which is Wyrd alone would be akin to pure fate or luck, a storm of events/causality that might wash over a place. Pure event-association. 
• Chronicle: History and Experience. Something between memory and actual personal timeline. The story that has been told, the prior pages. Gradually builds with time, naturally, as events transpire and are witnessed. All things are possessed of this, and they interact and entwine as events transpire between individuals.
• A dearth of this suggests little experience or history, while a total lack suggests a momentary, immediate existence. While this may be persistent, such a thing would seem to exist in one context only, with no history to speak of.
• Alone, Chronicle is only history, or story. Recorded events with no power of its own. 

Lacking these qualities is not a state that often lasts very long, barring strange structuring or quirks of the Other-Lands. If the void of an aspect is not filled by one imposed upon oneself, then their other aspects will often birth something to fill it. 

And some qualities that apply to all aspects to varying degrees based on context and perspective.

• Wildness: A subjective quality, different depending on the target. This defines how difficult it is to directly be affected by others or to directly affect ones own Aspects. Naturally high enough to be frustrating with respect to oneself and others. One should seek to tame ones own Wildness with respect to oneself, and embody extreme Wildness with respect to the world, while taming its Wildness in turn, if one seeks to affect and not be affected in turn.
• Sympathy: An interactive quality, expressing the integration of various aspects. At a baseline (two random objects), the only Sympathy they possess is the connections brought by Proximity, similarity, symbolic suggestion, Wyrd interaction and so on. Ones own aspects are naturally highly Sympathetic. One should seek to maximize ones own Sympathy if one wishes to remain a coherent whole, and this defense can be maintained through some degree of Wildness. All things are technically mildly Sympathetic to each other. Similarity, past contact and so on are all paths of Sympathy.
• Creativity: All aspects can birth one another to some extent. A Chronicle bereft of other aspects is merely a story, memory or history with no actual subject but such a thing can, if spread enough or potent enough, demand its subjects into being. Even a mere Glamour can slowly accrue Chronicle and so on as events transpire,
• Divisibility: Similarly, these aspects can split and sunder under their own weight, if their scope expands beyond their Potency. A vast Chronicle may fracture into many smaller ones, and an expansive Wyrd may catch or birth others into its influence.
• Potency: The weight or scope of these aspects. A Shadow cast by a mere pebble is tiny, barely a flicker of affect, while a Shadow cast by a legendary conqueror or by the stronghold it has built will be much greater indeed. The greater the Potency the more liable it is to Divide or Create other aspects. The Potency of Sympathetic aspects often slowly adjusts to accommodate each other, to a degree defined by the level of Sympathy. This quality is strongly tied to Wish, as said aspect acts as the fuel for the "reality" of things, but Potent aspects with little Wish exist.
• Proximity: Location, or rather, Distance but only in an abstract sense. Locations are dissociated to some extend, separated by an untamed Wilderness where Proximity begins to break. This is simply the quality of being "in", "adjacent", "around", "near", "far", "distant", "away" and so on. Somewhat subjective, it's merely the other-lands way of organizing the abstract fairy-tale geography. Quite possibly merely a function of Sympathy.

 So what does this all mean? What do the Other-Lands look like?

 

Fairy Tale, Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, 1909

A Sea of Story, A Forest of Dream

The Other-Lands are akin to a sea, but also akin to a forest in many ways. The Mortal World is like an island, yet one somehow nigh-impervious to the effects of the other place.

Within the mortal world the Other-Folk are all glamour and shadow, wish and identity, story and history. They lack the substance of the real world, though may still in turn affect the real world if their Wish be ludicrously potent. Most would find it easier to convince (or coerce) mortals into doing their bidding however.

The physics and metaphysics of how the Other-Lands and Waking-World interact are not so important on the waking side of the veil at the moment, however. Within the Other-Lands, it becomes somewhat complicated.

Proximity can be measured from the abstract locality of the Waking World. Most of the familiar features of the Other-Lands are, while not strictly close, are at least within the orbit of the Waking World.

The Aspects, particularly the Wish that sustain the Other-Folk, flow from the Mortal World into the regions of the Other-Lands "Adjacent" to it, and slowly radiate and flow outwards from there along naturalistic pathways. This can be thought of as the influence of the sun, as nutrients flowing from the surface of the ocean downwards or carried by a river... With some important differences of course.

Often these aspects flow on the winds, the rivers, or are carried by the migrations of beasts. Think of them as nutrients, sustaining (or rather shaping) the local Other-Lands 

"Depth" or Proximity can then be measured, in reference to the Waking World, with five (six?) broad ranges.

• Neighbor-Lands: Those lands adjacent to the Waking World, the Neighbors to the world as-is. The Other-Lands here will be very familiar, influenced as they are so directly by the Waking-World that the wildness of these places often corresponds instead to the waking worlds own patterns and symbols. Geographies and locales may line up quite well with the Waking-World, but places that correspond to places not often visited in the Waking World are less formed and so will often be the homes of much stranger things. It is said that the Mortals (Folk of the Waking-Lands) may cast "Reflections" (sometimes confusingly called "Shadows") here, Other-Folk versions of themselves who's entire personae, weird and chronicle are merely cast from their own histories, a strange double in the Other-Lands.
• Near-Lands: From the stranger places of the Neighboring-Lands, or from simply traveling a while away from the Waking-World, one can find those lands still caught in its orbit. These places often correspond to "Lost Continents" or "Legendary Places", seeing as they are influenced by the Waking World but not beholden to its geography. Avalon, Tír na nÓg, Atlantis, Mu, Laputa, Lemuria and so on may be real places here, inhabited by strange folk and stranger beasts.
• Frontier-Lands: The very edge of the Waking-Worlds direct influence. Here, Wish, Glamour, and Shadow all trickle from the Waking-World, or else gurgle up from some deeper realm of the Other-Lands. The influence of the Waking-World breaks down here, and the beings start to take on even stranger forms than the above realms. Impossible things can exist in the Neighbor-Lands (and many do!) but this is where they are often considered native to. Dragons and Giants of truly stupendous size and anatomy, Hecatoncheires, and other terribly, terribly mighty and strange beings may dwell here, yet this is not quite the lands of the truly foreign.
• Faraway-Lands: The bottomless depths, the vast and infinite wilds beyond the scope of the waking-world. With no bottom, no "sea floor", this place is truly a place of incomprehension. Beings that dream themselves, Archetypal Almost-Gods, Lands divorced utterly from possibility and typical human fantasy. These are lands of symbol and narrative, extracted fully, or arising totally independent of, the material subject itself. Symbols dreaming symbols, possibly unaware of the existence of the Waking-World itself. The lands here are often awake and aware, jealously consuming the Aspects they find, seeking to understand and spread. Here is where the phenomena of the Other-Lands are churned into a seething sea of potentiality, or else inhabit a silent almost abyssal stillness, conserving what they have...
• Distant-Lands: Perhaps there are other Waking-Worlds? Either other planets in the waking-world thus described, or other realities entirely, with their own radiating influence shaping some small region. Such places would be influenced by foreign stories, unbound to the conventions of earthly norms.
• Lands-Betwixt: Between established lands there are the roads and paths that connect them, like lands themselves but established only as go-betweens. These are often more dangerous than the lands themselves, unless patrolled or managed by other powers, as many things can be found wandering them that would love nothing more than to gobble up an unwary traveler. Deeper still, it may be only Wilderness, stalked by entities that feel more at home among the untamed and uncontrolled. From Wilderness, one can go just about anywhere, as proximity begins to break down, though one can still vaguely understand ones position with respect to Major Lands (or the Waking World).

Within the Other-Lands itself, it goes without saying that of course the settings themselves, the locations, are defined by the Aspects and the Qualities that describe them.

Hence locations possess Wyrds that may be imposed on inhabitants or visitors, Personae that may shape its character, Chronicles of their history and the histories they partook in, the Glamours and Shadows of their components and even of the location as a whole and of course the Wish that fuels this all, gives it reality and supports the Potency of this.

Remember: All things are described by the aspects and their qualities in the Other-Lands. 

 

Any Old Fairy Tale, Arthur Wilde Parsons, 1919

The Abstract Physics of Story...

... are best understood through storied examples.

Take a blade, hold it in your mind and understand it. Know it. Tell its story.

Its Glamour is that of a blade of whatever make desired, its Shadow may be many things. Dreadful, beautiful, inspiring, terrifying and so on. It all depends on the goal. Harvest these from the lands you find most amenable to such extraction, pull the Glamour of iron from the earth, and the Shadow of fear and dread from the dark itself. Take the physical objects and reshape them, either in your forge as expected, or sculpt them like a sculptor, or weave them like a garment.

Fill it with Wish and make it real, harvested from the materials you gathered, but it needs more than just that. It will be only set-dressing without more Wish. Find more.

Tell its story. Its Persona is one of a blade. A weapon that deals death, forged from metals drawn from the earth and given the explicit purpose to harm and kill. As you make it its Chronicle begins, a small thing for now but it will grow in time.

Give it a Wyrd, a fate, or it will grow one on its own. Weave something into it. You could tell it that its Wyrd is one of bloodshed, and that others near it find being wounded comes easily, accidentally even, but simply telling it this will instill only a flimsy Wyrd. You must harvest what you desire. Take it to old and dreadful battlefields in the Other-Lands and pull from them the Wyrds you desire.

Note how you cannot simply "Do things" with these. There must be some symbolic root to them. Some core action. Some justification. With time and knowledge these justifications can become as vague as "I willed it", but such things are the dominion of the Reigning-Folk (Kings, Magicians, High Fairies, Gods, Noble Djinni and so on). Additionally, this process can be different... Remember the divisibility of these aspects. One could make a blade (or anything really) an extension of ones own aspects... Albeit this confers the risks of being targeted through such objects via their Sympathy.

Things have inertia. This is true even of the Other-Lands, though it be an inertia of purpose and culture, rather than of motion or lack thereof. 

Another example.

You wish to slay someone, for insulting you or your lover or whatever other excuse you have. Really you probably just want to kill them for no single reason in particular.

When you strike them with your blade, the Glamour and Shadow twist at the targets own, creating images and impressions of Wounding and Weakening. These would be easy to dispel... Were the blade not possessed of a not-insignificant amount of Wish that it uses to stamp these wounds into the reality of the targets Glamour and Shadow. Were it insufficient, the wounds might only exist for a moment, or might not occur at all. Wish is force and reality as much as it is desire and Wishing for things to be some way.

The Persona of the blade is that of A thing that Harms and Kills and thus, through this power its strikes attempt to impose the self-concept of being wounded upon the target, twisting its own Persona. The Wyrd of the blade is one that invites further bloodshed, and so while the wielder is also vulnerable to this aspect, the target is the one currently being struck and is suffering from greater effects than would otherwise be the case. The Wyrd does not actively contribute beyond this, but may (if phrased/structured in a specific way) "infect" the Wyrd of the subject.

All of this contributes to the final effect. The Chronicle of the target starts to contain having taken wounds. Recently in fact. If the blades own Chronicle were expansive, the Potency of that could contribute, but this is a new blade, and this is its first blood. The blades own Chronicle now remembers drinking this blood. A Sympathetic link forms, albeit one that is weak for now.

Note that these are all additive effects. Negative, for sure, but they are adding bad things to the aspects of the target. Nothing is being taken. This is important for the next part.

If you strike the target enough, the number of wounds may overwhelm them and they may die. This too is Additive. One that has died still persists! But their Chronicle now "ends" with their death, their Glamour and Shadow both express their deceased nature, their Persona now includes "Dead" in it, its a whole thing.

There are ways around this. Crafty Other-Folk will take on a Persona that includes I shall return to avenge myself, and restore myself to life within it. If their Persona is weak, then contradicting Personae will overpower the weaker ones. Sufficiently egotistical Other-Folk can thus simply ignore the effects imposed on them in some ways. Most instead have to work around such imposed restrictions. Haunting is popular.

Subtractively affecting something involves a process of separation. Sufficiently symbolically resonant actions fueled with enough Wish or by Potent enough other aspects can perhaps cut deeper, severing Sympathies and even twisting preexisting aspects in some way. Surgery of some kind is common, though the surgeon will start physically reaching deeper than the body should be (or else metaphorically cutting through into the actual aspects themselves). Poisons or medicines ingested in some way are another vector, since that can be seen as "taking it in" and that can be pushed further.

It is for these reasons that Other-Folk treat death more as an entertainment or inconvenience, though perhaps a very severe one if they are not particularly Potent. Killing is not a way to solve problems, and social norms are often very respected, seeing as the consequences of a misstep can last a very long time here.

Truly killing something of the Other-Lands may be impossible, but one can scatter and transform aspects. See baking berries into a pie to consume their Wishfulness. The go-to method of actual murder is a kind of metaphysical cannibalism, but thats only often seemingly permanent, and it does invite the consumed to attack from within, which can be an extreme problem. 

A rather fun example is that of Fashion. Other-Folk of all varieties are rather fond of fashion, as expectation, symbol and affect become far more important than the literal practical physical effect of an object. Everyone expects a Knight in Shining Armor to be crushed up and eaten by giants (barring exceptional specimens) but even a mighty Wyrm of the depths may be cowed by a truly outrageous fashion statement, possibly even blinded by the sheer Pizazz (woven from Shadow at the very least, and all aspects if one really wants to make an impact) radiating from the wearer.

Other-Folk in general are more separated by self-concept and mindset than by any actual separation. The term refers to human-like entities of the Other-Lands, and refers to such cultures as Fairies, Trolls, Djinni, Peri, Nymphs, Yaksha, and so on. Any mythological concept of "They are People but Strange" can fit.

If an Other-Fellow begins to identify more with another culture, or begins to form an identity independent of any culture, they will begin to change in accordance with their now nature.

The physics and metaphysics of the Other-Lands are built on story, myth, symbol and so on. So long as it remains consistent, anything may happen. Be it fitting enough, thee could catch the sun in a net (no guarantees its the same sun outside the Land you do it in however). But the Sun might just have some words for you, and the consequences of your actions could be very long-lasting indeed.

Of course, there is a fundamental limitation of inertia. The Wildness of things, the directed Wish and other aspects, their Potency all resist alteration both blatant and subtle. Hence the requirements of physical metaphors for the alterations to occur. As said above, something must be fitting, and must make sense but not real physical sense, story-sense.

 

"The Blue Cat", Pamela Coleman Smith, 1907

Phenomena

But of course, the Other-Lands are not some passive recipient of action. It is a realm of many entities, all acting with and against each other...

• Wyrdstorms: Narrative storms, fuzzy causal clouds that churn the Other-Lands with their passing. These include such things as the Wild Hunt (Which scoops up "hunters" and sets them the "hunted", everyone else), The Bacchanal (Which simply gathers as much as it can into some wild revelry, fracturing into smaller parties to replicate itself) and more.
• Reigning-Folk: Those folk potent enough they could tell a stone to move and it would do so, even if the stone was not really a thinking or feeling thing. Reigning-Folk are Kings, Magicians, Demigods, Priests, Noble-Djinni, and so on. Beings for whom a "fitting action" to change somethings aspects are simply "demanding it" or "willing it". Incredibly Potent and vast.
• Fisher-Kings: Reigning-Folk that have woven themselves so utterly into the fabric of a location that they now are functionally one and the same. The Fisher-King becomes akin to Leviathan, a literal embodiment of their kingdom, their kingdom an extension of their will. In this way, their moods, will and so on can and do shape the very lands directly to a much greater extent. Arthur Pendragon is Camelot, and Camelot is He.
•  Twinselves: Beings who weave their aspects so closely together that they become one "person", with two bodies and minds, or individuals that construct new Personae and other aspects until they can craft an entirely new body.
• Faction-Folk: At the most extreme level, the passive loyalty of a faction, its own Personae, Wyrd, and other aspects, creates a self-sustaining system. These then act almost as abstract "people", without imposing on the individual too much generally, since with broadness such as this comes difficulty with managing it. In this sense, the faction one belongs to is almost its own emergent "person". These "people" may then eventually become very literally people, as they birth true bodies for themselves. The Order of One is the only example known to be solely (or almost solely) composed of this singular personhood. Most others are much fuzzier, much less egomaniacal characters. Yes even the Corporations (mostly).
• Genius Loci: Intelligent locations with legends of their own. Living and thinking landscapes. They may manifest bodies, acting as Fisher-Kings, or may remain locations, or may switch as the need arises. Some are kind, some are predatory but all have some core character or motivation defined by Personae and Wyrd.
• Figments: Wish-deprived beings, occupying an abstract existence even more imaginary than the Other-Lands themselves. Manifesting as figures that emerge within ones musings and daydreams, they seek to consume Wish in order to gain a measure of reality to them. Difficult to bind, as their sheer lack of reality means they exist in a state almost akin to a superposition, existing only in a vague cloud of influential non-interaction, but this strength is balanced by the weakness of being easily dispelled or ignored. Not necessarily hostile or parasitic, some are willing to lend aid in exchange for Wish.
• Nightmares: Beings born of the fears and anxieties of mortals (and of the Other-Folk themselves). The outflow of fear-flavored Shadow pools in hidden places, and generate the aspects necessary to birth these beings. Nightmares can be Other-Folk, or Beasts, or Monstrosities of other varieties. Even Abstracts.
• Primordial Beasts: In the old days there were no stories beyond the simple narratives of hunter and hunted, seeking a nesting place, the kind of biographical narratives of life itself. But there was fear. And from these eldest fears, the most grand and ancient Nightmares were born, the Primordial Beasts. These beasts have evolved with time, fallen to each other and had inheritors be born. The modern ones embody apocalyptic fears and the horrendous alienation of modern society.
• Magic: The qualities and aspects of the Other-Lands generate behaviors consistent with magic. The metaphysics of the Other-Lands are certainly "magical" by some metrics, but more importantly the symbolism of magic holds weight. Witches, Wizards, Sorcerers and Magicians of all stripes 
• Paradigm Shifts: Sometimes a dramatic change in culture in the Waking-World emanates into the Other-Lands. When this occurs, entire lands can be reshaped in a short time. Sometimes, a paradigm itself is its own independent thing in the Other-Lands, that suddenly surges up and changes the lands. These can be temporary or permanent, and can form strata of deep history, Chronicles difficult to read or understand due to their complexity and vast scope...
• Abstracts: Things of the deep. Beyond the spaces more proximal to the waking world, there lie whole ecosystems divorced from the radiance the mortal world provides. The things that dwell therein lack standard forms and natures, being abstract collections of ideas and symbols divorced from context. Built off primal bases, they manifest strangely and incomprehensibly to most mortals. Things of this variety embody simple ideas and themes.

John Bauer, 1911

 

Playing this game?

Id go with FKR or otherwise very mechanics-lite, using descriptive terms to establish how Potent a given aspect is, how that Potency is shared among sub-aspects and so on. Nothing super mathematical. This is a game I may actually outright reject the notion of using dice in cases of ambiguity, instead relying on the participants willingness to either back down or take on some harm to achieve something. Dying is temporary, or invites a transformation of game-play (one may choose to act as a ghost instead, for example, or as a memory that acts and behaves as itself).

Its almost definitionally more of a story game, grounded more in story logic than real logic, but still grounded. Just remember the causal requirements for affecting aspects, and get an impression of the underlying logic.

(All images from the Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.)

Tools of Kith and Kin

 I realized theres a major possibility that players of Kith and Kin wont know exactly whats available to them, tool and technology wise.

Now I could go over every lithic industry that would be available to them, with a note on who would use it. That was my original idea for this post! But there's a lot of those (which I knew, but it took me reviewing them again to realize just how many there are).

I could do it anyways, people sort of know what they're getting into when they agree to have me run a game, but even my energy runs thin going through all the various ways people made use of the world.

So instead im going to go over a handful of very very generalized categories of tools, and who would make use of them, organized by rough level of complexity.

Note that there is actually an inverse of expectations in some cases here. Someone from a settled agrarian society who is not a "toolmaker" will likely start out only understanding the basics of some lower-paleolithic tools. The tools one understands do not strictly correlate to the intellect one is capable of, but more reflect how specifically one understands they can alter their environment.

Rough time frame with regards to the real world is also given in parenthesis.

Images are all pulled from Wikipedia. Note that pretty much all the information here can also be found (in greater detail) on Wikipedia, but not everyone wants to scroll through three dozen pages of scientific jargon to figure out what sorts of tools they can make. To be quite honest, I'll mostly just let Player Characters make whatever tools they have the time and resources to make, but I might use this as a rough guide to determine what their fellows use/what techniques they might use for descriptive purposes.

 

The stick is probably being used to gauge the depth of the water.

Pre-Lithic (>3.3 MYA)

Natural objects, with minimal to no alteration. Sticks broken at an angle, splintered bone, or very basically fragmented rock (or simply rock that remains unaltered). The logic here is around immediate convenience, and the basic understanding that objects have properties that can be useful. Sharp things stab or cut. Rough things scrape. Heavy things break other things, and so on. 

These tools are some of the most basic tools available to anyone, and are only depended on by the painfully archaic and isolated, extremely sheltered, impatient or rushed, those animals that are intelligent enough to make use of altered objects, but lack the physical or cognitive capacity to alter these further and children.

Top Left: Oldowan chopper. Top Right: Acheulean Hand-Axe. The hut has been proposed to be middle paleolithic, but thats the latest possible time, and not everyone agrees with it.

Lower-Paleolithic (3.3 MYA-300k YBP)

The introduction of "flakes" and "cores", the former being the pieces chipped away from the later, which is the central mass of a stone. Time is taken to chip away from a rock to create a shape, and care is taken to make use of the shape. Additionally, flakes and cores are made use of when possible, though most seem to derive from convenience. Basic hammers, choppers, chisels, scrapers and awls appear here. Purely wooden spears would be utilized at this time, sharpened with scrapers or chisels.

Later tools include the handaxes, which lacked handles at this stage and would be held on the opposite side of the chopping edge. The construction of tools would include the use of bone, wood and other objects to alter in ways more specific to the purpose.

The lack of adhesive in this era would preclude the use of handled-tools. The hammers were essentially stones altered to make the striking end more useful to a specific purpose, the axes were sharp stones and so on. Wood was still used, due to its ease of alteration, but was not used in the same tool as stone, unless one contributed to the manufacture of the other.

The very basic control of fire is an element of this category of technologies. Basic hidework and tanning arises near the very end of this, and more advanced leatherworking arises in the next category.

These tools are largely used by isolated and archaic wildfolk, settled people who are unfamiliar with the construction of tools beyond the basics and others with an understanding that tools can be made over time.

 

Speculative reconstruction of Neanderthal Jewelry.

Middle-Paleolithic (300k-50k YBP)

More advanced still, preparation methods are developed. In the real world, this is when "behavioral modernity" starts to arise, art and spirituality, concerns beyond mere survival. In Kith and Kin, however, such things precede these industries.

The prepared core technique is a defining technology of the flake-built tools of this class. The stone is shaped into a form that serves to facilitate an easier extraction of a shaped flake, that then only requires minor touch-ups to render extremely effective. This technique is the bread and butter of this time. There are numerous techniques, but I have included a GIF of one technique to illustrate a somewhat hard to describe method.

Levallois Core Preparation, demonstrated. Thanks Wikipedia.

 Cores are still utilized in the expected way, generally for heavier duty tools, though the more advanced methods of flake production mean that more effective core-tools can likely be used.

Adhesives are discovered here. Such flakes and cores could then be affixed to a shaped shaft of wood, producing the most dangerous wildly used weapon of the entire world of Kith and Kin, the Spear. Handled axes and hammers are possible.

Fishing becomes a thing, thanks to spears and some nets. Long distance trade happens. The earliest seafaring also happens, likely hollowed logs carved into very basic boats, though later refinements are certain to happen.

Extensive use of clothing, likely by the Neanderthals/Broadfolk due to the colder climates they dwelled in, arises around this time.

[Sidebar] Researchers actually determined this by tracing the mutation rate of the human louse and comparing it to related organisms to determine when it would have speciated. Since it requires clothing to transfer between people, its rough range of speciation can give a rough area for when clothing was starting to become a Major Thing. This ends up around 170,000 years ago being when humans were definitively wearing clothes by, though earlier dates are almost certainly when it was first introduced. Given the climates and habitats then, the theory is that neanderthals actually invented clothing, and we merely adopted this technology once it became necessary. [End sidebar]

Control of fire becomes a widespread element of technology at this time, though very basic use of fire precedes this. This is likely to be the technology that grants anyone who vaguely understands it an advantage.

Every forager society in Kith and Kin uses this, except for the settled folk. In kith and kin it is largely mixed with upper-paleolithic technologies in a rather even way. The use of either depends on convenience, knowledge and what would work best at the time.

Top Left: "Lion Man" figure. Top Right: Flint knives. Bottom Middle: A flint core used to extract multiple knife blades.

Upper-Paleolithic (50k-12k YBP)

A greater understanding of the properties of natural materials allows for the use of flint and similar stones to produce fine blades, rather than the typical flakes. Previous advances are made use of liberally. Sharp points lead to the use of darts, harpoons, fishooks, eyed needles and indirectly to the existence of rope, rather than simple fiber cords.

Multiple fine blades might be extracted from a core. Adhesives improve in quality.

Even stone-carved oil lamps appear, the oil drawn from the flesh of hunted animals.

The first evidence of earthen ovens arises here, really just fire pits, but realistically cooking has been a thing for a long long time at this point.

The very oldest permanent settlements arise. Not farming communities, still foragers, just living in a single location for much longer.

Additionally this time carries the earliest signs of Australian Aboriginal culture in the real world. However the earliest theoretical evidence dips back into the middle paleolithic.

The dogpact is honored. This applies to the previous too, but here is when it was first enforced. Domestication is thus "A thing" for at least a single species.

Effectively any stone technology is theoretically available at this point, limited only by contextual need and available time and resources.

Figurative and symbolic art begins to arise in earnest in the real world, though these things have been around for quite some time in Kith and Kin.

Gold dust and fragments have been found in some sites, but this is difficult to assign any actual context to. It is possible it was utilized in some decorative capacity. As a softer metal, it would be less likely to survive weathering.

Once again, just about every forager culture knows this in kith and kin.

 

 

Mesolithic temporary settlement.

The Shigir Idol

Mesolithic (20k/15k-10k/5k YBP*)

Smaller fine tools begin to appear more than heavier flake tools of the prior eras. Large settlements begin to appear and more advanced weaving leads to the use of baskets and tighter-threaded clothing. The use of ceramics also appear at this time.

 

This is an interstitial period, and as such describes less overall change, and more lifestyle differences. Settled forager cultures, the earliest proto-pastoralists.

This is rare but present in some cultures. Weaving has spread far, but ceramics are more difficult to spread due to resources available. This is partially responsible for, and partially because of, the staggered timeline of Kith and Kin.

*Depending on the area irl.

Reconstructed Neolithic farmstead: Ireland

'Ain-Ghazal statues, oldest statues of this level of detail.

Reconstructed neolithic housing, Aşıklı Höyük

Neolithic (12k-4k YBP)

Large settlements thousands or even tens of thousands strong, many of which with social organizations that may or may not be hierarchical. Agricultural emergence leads to the necessity of tools to aid it. Wool and Linen may be available at this time, and definitely are in Kith and Kin, implied by some remnants that may be early spindle whorls and loom weights

Stone tools are mostly polished or ground down, rather than flaked.

Mud brick homes are constructed. Architecture was already a thing in mild amounts, but it becomes more important here.

Finer points and blades are possible with these methods, though in some cases the used material may still render it inferior to some paleolithic tools.

Food storage is a thing, but is imperfect. Sanitation differs. Social roles differ. Specialization becomes more viable. Everything changes for these people. Pottery arises. Proto-writing begins to emerge.

Bellows of some kind may develop and make the creation of copper tools possible. Mostly worked raw copper, hammered into the needed shape. Cast copper is the domain of an extremely small number of very small cultures at the moment.

The neolithic of kith and kin has begun and shattered in earnest several times. New settlements are often built on the foundations of old, or in some cases have some persistent cultural context that remains relevant.

These are available to the settled folk, and those in their immediate proximity, who have need to emulate some of the technologies with regards to clothing and lithic production. Though it is possible some other forager cultures could independantly arrive at some of the finer sewing methods, lithic production methods and so on. The staggered timeline makes all of this possible.

Weirdness

Of course, the timeline of Kith and Kin is far more "staggered". Technologies have been discovered, lost and rediscovered a few times over, and other species have had some cognitive capacities possibly exaggerated, though I would argue that in the real world other human species may have been more intelligent than we give them credit for generally speaking.

Magic means some things are possible that aren't irl (unless I have been hilariously misled about the nature of irl magical practices). Despite this magic is not going to be "industrialized" or a "technology" the way most other tools are in Kith and Kin. Magic in kith and kin isn't a science. Its this weird shit. A toolbox of rules and associations that can be exploited. Sure thats arguably the definition of a technology, but it requires a different mode of thought to properly understand.

And spirits of course. Spirits. The world is lousy with spirits. Its quite literally made of the damn things.

So whats available will be a little strange and not quite match up with the above. Thats fine. These already serve as extremely rough categories irl and dont reflect the more detailed understanding of material culture differences across space and time. This is just a rough guide.

Kith and Kin: Core Mechanics Redux

 

Second post that is an adapted PDF of my stone age game. None of this is fully prescriptive, especially the action resolution mechanic. Thats just my preferred

Core Mechanics

Action Resolution 

Under most circumstances you will not have to make a roll to perform an action. The GM (Genius Mundi, World-Soul) will rely on their understanding of how the world functions, your characters positive and negative traits to determine if you succeed or not.

However there are cases where there is an ambiguity in if success or failure is what would occur especially in person to person, or entity to entity circumstances.
In these circumstances roll 3d6.

If against another entity or active situation, then it also rolls a 3d6, possibly with advantages and disadvantages.

If against some passive object or circumstance (such as attempting to leap a gap), then this is rolled against a target number. If that number is exceeded, then it is a success, possibly with some additional benefit. If the target number exceeds the result, then it is a failure. If they exactly match, then a partial success, partial failure or some other ambiguous result may be the outcome.

In some cases multiple numbers can correspond to “matching”. In this case the target number is represented as a range of values, such as “9-12”. This means anything from 9-12 is a “match value.” This is usually the case for results with “degrees” of success. A 9-12 on foraging might bring an okay amount of food, but a 13 or higher will bring more.

If you have traits or skills that contribute to the action and they do not ensure success or simply allow the roll to occur at all, then you may gain dice of advantage.

This is represented by rolling additional dice, but only taking the highest 3 as your result. This biases the outcome by an increasing amount for each dice of advantage.

Disadvantage works the same, but you take the lowest three. Advantage and disadvantage cancel out, so if you have 2 dice of disadvantage and 3 of advantage, it is treated as you having only one dice of advantage.

Generally if you would have more than three dice of advantage that is probably a good sign you should simply succeed.

Similarly for disadvantage, more than three dice indicates the check should probably just be an automatic failure.

There are some cases where that might not be so, however, such as when two entities have significant advantage.

If the GM allows it, successes that have two results of six counted may be a greater success, and three even greater. Rolling higher than something by a certain multiple (i.e. rolling two or three times higher than required) may provide greater advantage.

If not using a target number, then range values can be used. Im fond of the following table, basically using the attribute bonus ranges from AD&D as a guide.

• 3: Worst result.
  
• 4-5: Worse result.
  
• 6-8: Bad result.
  
• 9-12: Average result.
  
• 13-15: Good result.
  
• 16-17: Better result.
  
• 18: Best result.

With context clarifying what qualifies under each range. "Average result" on foraging in a rain-forest might net decent amounts of food (result-8 meals worth perhaps?) while the same thing in a desert wont give anything. I use this as a guide for passive difficulty.

Any other modification to the action resolution system is not the baseline game, and is reflective of unique circumstances in the game world. Some things may flatly raise the size or amount of dice you roll in some circumstances, and some entities might be mighty enough to warrant such changes to their rolls. 

You may become one such entity, with time. 

 

Resource Management

Resource management can be difficult in some tabletop games. Thankfully, you are playing a game set in the ambiguously paleo-meso-neolithic era and will not be carrying around a backpack with 2 metric tonnes of resources.

Carrying resources is useful, and sometimes you will want to stockpile. For the most part however, you can forage for resources.

Fishing and hunting are similar.

You likely won't be able to stockpile massive amounts of resources, both due to spoilage and your mobile nature. Carrying around a week's worth of firewood is a Sisyphean effort.

Even so, certain skills will let you preserve certain resources (dried and salted/treated food for example). You will have limits to the amount you can carry and certain circumstances can cause spoilage (don't get the dried food wet unless you plan to spend time drying it after).

For every two kilos an animal weighs, you can gain one “meal” of food from it. Foraging and fishing will also bring in food, depending on the area. The less vegetation, the more you’ll have to rely on hunting, and vice versa. 

 

Resources

The actual resources you will need to keep track of are

• Useful Food (Each character needs at least a meal per day or they start to become hungry. Two meals a day will slowly reverse the effects of hunger, but some starvation ailments will be “permanent” until you can fully recover over time.)
• Fresh Water (Each character needs two proper full drinks per day or they start to dehydrate. One full proper drink a day will give small maluses but wont kill you.)
• Firewood (Indicated in hours of fire time. The more you put on the brighter it will burn, but this can burn through them faster.)
• Artisan Materials (clay, hide, fabric, fibers, adhesive, wood, flint, stone, bone etc)
• Medicinal Substances (Measured by effective dosage)
• Psychoactive substances (Measured by effective dosage. Minimal, Low, Powerful, Heroic and Extreme, for hallucinogens.)
• This is about every relevant resource, but others might be possible. Trade goods? Shiny stuff?

Time Management

There are four primary temporal scopes of play. The Gm keeps track of the moon (month), time of day, day in the moon, phase of the moon, season, time of day, and so on.

• Frantic Time: When something happens that requires immediate action. Time is measured in “rounds” (~3-6 second intervals). Characters can generally take two actions (movement, attacking, defending, whatever). This is combat, chases, etc.
• Exploration Time: When PCs are taking their time to explore an area, figure out what is around, forage, fish, and so on time is measured in “Exploration turns” of roughly 10 minutes. Thus, “Exploration actions” (like foraging) take more time to bear fruit (often literally).
• Travel Time: When PCs are traveling long (ish) distances, time is measured in “Hours” or “Travel Rounds”. Each hour there is a chance of something happening, a chance to recheck directions, and so on. These can be interrupted (something can happen in the middle, they can choose to explore a local area), but this is the rough idea.
• Downtime: Perhaps the PCs are choosing to prepare long term for something. To stockpile food, to spend a large time foraging to accrue large amounts of food. During downtime, time is measured in suns (days, 24 hours), moons (months, 30 suns), seasons (3-6 months depending on the environment) and cycles (years 12 months).

Note that years are measured as 12 months of 30 days, giving 360 days to a year. This is only notable in that the life expectancy of beings is a few more years over the course of a human lifespan, though is still the same amount of time. This is just to make sure natural cycles are a little bit easier to keep track of on the GM side.

 

Travel

Space and location is represented in “Zones”.

Zones are not biomes or biotypes. One forest will be split into multiple zones.
The exact spatial dimensions of the zones are not totally set in stone, but “Horizons” is the general measurement at this scale (roughly three miles or 4.8 kilometers in a given direction, the rough distance a horizon is away from an average observer on flat land, making a horizon six miles, ~9.6 kilometers, across).

Rather, the size and the difficulty of the zone is represented by “Travel time” and rough dimensions given in “Horizons”. Remember the average human walking speed is about 4.8 kilometers an hour, and a bit faster based on health. Terrain of course influences this.

Zones can have multiple points of interest scattered throughout them. These almost always have consistent locations. Distance between these points of interest is given in horizons, though characters can wander between them and find other points of interest.

 

Combat 

3d6 attack vs 3d6 evasion, blocking/parrying, etc. with modifications as described under action resolution.

Failure is a failure of the attack to connect, due to having been dodged, blocked, whatever.

A tie is that some consequence happens to both, a success in exchange for small consequence determined by the foe or they succeed with some complication described by you. Really depends.

A success is a hit. Damage is whatever a “hit” is for whatever weapon you use, and is descriptive. The defender gets to choose where they were hit.

Twice or more the defender's roll is a direct hit. Either you get to choose where or the defender chooses and the damage is even worse.

Thrice or more the defenders roll is a critical hit. Essentially both options of a direct hit happen, with increased effect the greater the difference.

The actual severity of the damage depends on the weapon and the defender. If it has a tough enough hide, a character of average strength may not be able to harm it (unless they strike a weak point, such as in the mouth).

Where and how you can hit depends on the weapon. Slashing and bludgeoning weapons struggle to target small weak points or exploit them. 

 

Damage and other Terrible Things

Damage, Illness, hunger, thirst, sleep deprivation and so on are all treated as localized status effects. They are descriptive, and their effects are based on eyeballing a real world-ish consequence of the effects at that particular location on the body.

They can of course be treated with the right medicines (or even magic).

Hunger causes a gradual subtraction of your rolls, and eventually reduces some positive traits semi-permanently if it's too long.

Thirst outright removes one of the dice from your action pool after each day, unless you have some trait that reduces it's effect on you. Once the pool runs out you die.

Sleep deprivation reduces all capabilities and acts as an altered state of mind.

These can all be represented by "clocks" if the GM wants, with "segments" filled per missed meal, drink, sleep session, illness/curse progression, would exacerbation etc. This isn't player facing however.

 

Altered States

Important to magic and mysticism are altered states of mind/consciousness.

These are split into roughly five ranges of effect, listed as follows with an example. Inspired largely by pariah and this system.

• Weak: A minimal effective dosage. Barely any effect besides some descriptive shift and possibly some very minor malus to regular functioning.
• “You feel like your emotions are being carried on a tide. You feel energetic, and the world seems more vibrant.”
• Moderate: A mild shift to perception and sensation. Generally the level you can feel “energies” and “tones” of spiritual presences. Definite but minor maluses.
• “Geometry twists and flows in the grass and dirt, shapes and angles forming and intersecting. The green of the grass and the brown of the dirt feel even more vibrant. Around the mysterious idol, the geometry seems densest and most active.”
• Powerful: A powerful shift. Generally allows perception of spirits and brief glimpses into the otherworlds. Major shift to all perceptions and sensations.
• “Colorful geometric forms twist and shift across your vision, obscuring your vision of the world. Colors flow and twist in accordance to principles you can only guess at. Before you, a towering bestial figure wearing a blank mask tilts it's head curiously.”
• Heroic: The required dose to fully shift your perspective to another realm for a time. What you take to go on spiritual/mystical adventures/”Trips”.
• “The tent blows away in an impossible wind, those who have not taken the sacred herb seem entirely unaware. The camp seems to disappear under the wind and flowing leaves. An impossibly titanic forest now stretches above you, branches and roots growing in geometric lattices. Things dance and sing through the branches impossibly far above. What will you do?”
• Extreme: A dangerous level for when you want to skip the journey and cut straight to the heart of a realm. Often has dangerous side effects even if the other levels don't.
• “A swirling maelstrom of transforming life. That is your entire reality, all you remember, all you perceive. You may be able to act, if only in a mental sense.”

Beyond Vancian Magic: Applied Arcana

 I was already planning to make a post about the "Arcana" of Kith and Kin, as a demonstration of how Arcana can be used to color the magic of a world and shape its structure. Then the blog carnival started and what do you know, its about non-vancian magic! Neat!

If you're unfamiliar with my "Arcana" design philosophy of magic, here's a whole post explaining it. In short, "Diegetic Magic" is a good enough summary.

Idk what I'm supposed to do to get this to count for the carnival. Guess I'll just post it where most of those are.

General warning for some stuff that is typical to magic. Animal (and human) sacrifice, mental effects (mostly under the "possession" section) and discussions of sympathetic and similar magical connections that can agitate some elements of psychosis and OCD. Take care of yourself.

Kinds of Arcana

For the purposes of Kith and Kin I am going to split Arcana into three major classifications. This is not how arcana in general, that is "across games", work. This also isn't strictly a recognized in-universe split.

Also in-universe these will probably be called something along the lines of "Wisdoms" or "Magical Secrets". "Arcana" feels too "modern" a term.

Regardless, its a useful way to approach them from a design standpoint.

Root Arcana are some basic facts about the world. Core assumptions that build the rest of the magic system in this case. They are like the "laws of physics" or the "fundamental forces" of magic, or possibly more like "Themes."

Branch Arcana are any arcana that result from the former. They are learned or developed individually, and suggest at at least one Root Arcanum. These are examples of actual magical activity.

Leaf Arcana are specific, distinct magical things, rather than broader skills or consequences like Branch Arcana. Listed examples are more akin to game spells, though some powers are listed in the examples.

A Note on Consistency and Fairness, I generally will require 3d6 rolls for magical actions, with the ranges of 3, 4-5, 6-8, 9-12, 13-15, 16-17 and 18 corresponding to different levels of success. Context and skill with increase and decrease the number of d6s added, though only the top or bottom 3 will be counted. What is possible is thus a bit context-sensitive. Its more important that this system feels consistent and fair than it actually being those.

Root Arcana

There are five, listed and described in no particular order. Magical workings can be subtle or flashy. Subtler magic is easier and more common (and is more "real" in that it feels possibly coincidental or circumstantial) but flashier magic does exist.

Altered States: The cosmology of Kith and Kin is psycho-spiritual, and in order to tap into the intrinsic power held in the cosmos it is sometimes necessary to uproot oneself (even if temporarily) from some basic perceptions and assumptions. Thus, altered states of mind are (generally) necessary. These can naturally peel back the perceptions of the world to reveal the spiritual realms entwined with it, and that is one of the core benefits of these, but it is often necessary to dip into them in order to access truly flashy magic.

There are five rough levels of these for game purposes. Minimal (Minor, Tone-altering), Weak (Minor, Minuscule game effects, slight hallucinations), Powerful (moderate bonuses/maluses, flashes of other realms, can see spirits), Heroic (Entering other realms entirely) and Extreme (cutting straight to the heart of another realm).

The levels are a combination of Pariahs measurements, with the first two instead becoming three akin to this Altered States system.

Importantly, this means there is a certain level of subjectivity in the cosmology and metaphysics of Kith and Kin. Its not entirely "post-modern", but individual experiential phenomena are Important in a cosmological and metaphysical sense.

Spirits: Kith and Kin is animistic, but its also weird. Spirits have no true universals, other than that everything is technically a spirit (or multiple spirits) and that they are more beings of their own nature than anything else, obeying their own structure over any "physics." A spirit of the land can do "spirit of this land" things quite easily, especially within the space it occupies, but beyond that it might struggle. A free spirit on the other hand, may be capable of acting just about anywhere, but might be limited to some phenomena. Spirits (much like spiritual realms) are not limited in what they can be. They can be ghosts, elementals, animal souls, your own souls, dream characters, shadows, people from other realities, alien consciousnesses, animate concepts, stories that have taken on a life of their own, elements of personal subjective experiences and many more things.

Spirits can be called upon for magic (invoking them in a ritual), or targeted by it (as with summoning and binding). Generally they are limited by their nature and whatever cycles (if any) they follow. They are not omnipotent but they are potent. Magic users who mostly rely on spirits are something like paleolithic diplomat-priests, negotiating with spirits on behalf of their community (or just themself, as the case may be).

A detail that also applies to the next arcana, is spirits explain a sort of "inertia" the world(s) have. Subtler magic is easier because spirits (including ones own souls) resist changes from outside.

What they do can be subtle, flashy or anything in between. Depends on the character of the spirit really.

Souls: Your own spirits. At least five are widely recognized, those being the physical shell (body), the vital breath/blood/movement (life force), Free-Spirit (subtle body) and Waking-Spirit (the mind). These might have further subdivisions, or be classifiable, but as with other realms and spirits there is a certain subjectivity to this.

Your souls are part of you, so you have a certain level of assumed power over them. Your souls also generally explain any magical talents you might have. Prophetic visions, Ghost-Walking, natural tendency to slip into altered states/other realms... These can also often be described by naturally existing in a semi-altered-state at all times (or falling into them easily).

These can be a path to power. There might be a part of your soul that relates to simply "Magical power". It would be extremely weak at first if you have no talent for it (i.e. no Trait relating to it), and even then it wont be anywhere near extremely impressive. Twists to ones soul can also encode mystical powers, "spells" of a kind. These are less like "wizard spells" and more like "Things you can now do and train up in power."

These can also be affected by magic, of course. Most "curses" or "talents" are some twist or distortion to ones soul(s).

Esoteric And Exoteric Connections: Binding everything together are connections both obvious (Exoteric) and subtle (Esoteric). An Exoteric connection is simple. If A causes B then A and B are connected, much the same if B causes C. An obvious causal connection.

Similarly, physical contact is about the most obvious physical connection possible.

Esoteric connections consist of those less obvious connections via some subtle aspect of reality. Some basic examples are sympathetic (like affects like), correspondent (things look like what they are), contagious (once together always together), symbolic (the image is the thing, representation grants power), composition (the part can affect the whole) and so on.

These connections exist by default but can be protected against (often by using other connections). They weave into spirits and souls, thus summoning spirits requires objects, times, activities, locations and so on that are "linked" to them in some abstract way.

This is the principle that also allows you to call upon spirits to help with magic, and is why you cant just use any damn thing to do anything.

 

Sacrifice: The balancing principle. Put simply, "You get what you put in." This is the element that suggests the more time, blood, sweat, tears, lives and so on put into a work the stronger, broader, deeper and so on it will be. This doesn't mean you need sacrifice to do magic. A circle scratched in the earth with a prayer of protection (or a promise of protection) will hold some power, albeit only enough to protect against the most impotent spirits and/or animals. This is similar to altered states not strictly being "required", but helping a lot.

Some costs can be easier. Some souls beings have might have natural power or energy to expend, but this is not strictly default (except for some spirits perhaps).

This is less conservation of mass/energy and more conservation of "fairness". A "curse" or pain or a "trial" can be a cost. Sometimes the "Cost" is paid to some specific thing directly, such as a spirit, and sometimes it is simply fuel for the magic itself. This isn't thermodynamics we're talking about. Its magic.

Branch Arcana

Branch Arcana are constructed from the assumptions of the Root Arcana. There are infinitely many, but some examples in no particular order might be...

• Spiritual Sensitivity: Some individuals have a natural tendency to slip into altered states of mind, as a consequence of some spiritual sensitivity in their souls. This allows for ease of entering magical mindsets and seeing spirits. This will combine with other "talents".
• Soul Flight: Often when the natural altered state enters a "heroic" dose, it often allows for soul-flight rather than simply entering another realm, though that can still be a consequence.
• Divination: A skill. Using some mild spiritual sensitivity and possibly lower altered states to read subtle connections across space and time.
• Prophetic Visions: Altered states up to Heroic, with Heroic slipping fully into the vision. Can be drug-induced, or a consequence of spiritual sensitivity. Rely on subtle connections and altered states more severely.
  
• Bestial Communion: Subsisting off the entire body of an animal of moderate size (or a sufficient number of smaller, or portions of a larger that have the preserved ratios of tissue varieties) ritually, often in an altered state, one can take on the aspects of various beasts, birds and even crawling things like insects and worms.
• Therianthropy: Physical transformation into a beast or beast-hybrid. A curse, so "sticky" magic tied to the self and thus soul. Often done as punishment, but due to the dynamic nature of the soul it can twist and warp from a curse to simply a thing you can do. May be possession by an external spirit instead. 
• Summoning Spirits: Conjuring spirits requires reagents and actions, contexts really, related to the spirit. A bloody spirit of the moon for example might require the reflection of the moon and blood dissipating in water. Often an altered state of mind is required, to more properly tune oneself to alternate realms, and sacrifices to lure or draw their attention. Rarely, simply calling their name can be enough, if the relationship is deep enough.
• Realmwalking: The ability to bring ones physical body into spiritual realms is a rare capability indeed. One possibility is allowing some spirit to summon you, as you might summon them. This is rare, as few spirits want to summon something that combines impotence and capaciousness as well as a mortal does, and most mortals loathe to grant that kind of power over oneself, but it is done sometimes. Other methods involve altered states and similar kinds of magic to summoning. Im sure you can develop your own ideas at this point.
  
• Binding Spirits: Bindings require using some sorcerous method to restrict the available actions of a spirit. A basic example is a circle scratched in the dirt charged with some sacrifice, which restricts the movement of a spirit. The circle demarcates an interior and exterior and the sacrifice charges it with some power beyond simply time, effort and hope. Other forms of binding are possible.
• Living-Dead: Binding spirits to a corpse-vessel, granting the spirit control over the dead body. If bound properly, a loyal and possibly powerful servant can be gained. Weaker ones are easier to bind, obviously. Sometimes spirits will let themselves be bound to vessels to gain bodies.
• Possession: Often times spirits (and magic in general) cannot simply overwhelm the will and mind of a host, due to the spiritual inertia of ones own souls. The exceptions are particularly powerful spirits and magic, and contexts in which the will of the host is compromised, such as sleep or some altered states. Instead, warping emotions, sensations and memories are often required to shape the behavior of the host, but the host still has inertia and can often resist these.
• Hauntings: Possession often requires either extreme power or extreme subtlety, which most spirits cannot provide in the required amounts to actively impose themselves. Even the subtler manipulations require one to possess enough power to redirect the inertia of the hosts soul in some way. Thus, hauntings are often the preferred dominion of spirits and most will want to simply possess a dead or "vacant" body if possession is required. These cause effects to the host, but are more akin to things happening around them, such as poltergeist activity. Still, small changes to the host (such as bouts of pain, twitching or brief hallucinations) often occur.
  
• Curse-Dolls: A representation of someone, built from cloth and stick and charged with locks of hair, blood or even small bones taken from the target. If the link is extreme enough, it can act as a stand-in for the person themself. Subtle connections such as these are incredibly useful, and despite the name curse-dolls can be used in a way beneficial to the target.
• Magical Languages: Languages spoken not with the physical tongue, but with the subtle elements of ones soul. Often allow for communication with inhuman spirits (or folk who do not share a language) without an altered state. This consequentially allows one to communicate, and thus attempt to change their behavior. This is done very similarly to how one does with other people. Threats, bribes, offers and so on. Some examples are:
  
• Fur-Tongue: Mystic language of beasts with fur and fang.
  
• Scale-Tongue: Mystic language of the scaled creatures of the land. Includes landbound feathery things.
  
• Wing-Tongue: Mystic language of the things that fly and the winds they ride.
  
• Shell-Tongue: Mystic Language of things with hard exoskeletons.
  
• Water-Tongues: Mystic languages of the aquatic spirits and beasts that occupy them. Split into Rivertongue, Laketongue (Includes ponds), Seatongue (Includes near the surface of the oceans) and Oceantongue (primarily the vast lightless depths).
  
• Root-Whispers: The whispering language of the forests and all that compose them, including the fungal threads. If understood can be "heard" (smelled?) as a faint murmur if one head is close to the ground.
  
• Celestial-Thundering: Thundering language of celestial spirits, quite literally thunder. Dangerous to speak. Storms may provide some information, but are often just involving warcries.

 

 

Leaf Arcana

The provided examples are more akin to "spells" from other games. Think of them like dnd "cantrips" that can be trained to be stronger, more complex, and so on. They can also be enhanced by increasing whatever cost is built in to them. Other "Leaf Arcana" exist, but most of the ideas I had are more akin to these. Summoning and binding rituals for specific spirits would also be examples. The names are just for flavor. Most of these involve twists to ones souls allowing one to cast them naturally, but leaf arcana are not restricted to just "spells". Its just a name for any very specific magical thing one does.

• Fires of the Heavens: A gift given by (or stolen from) celestial spirits of the upper air. Heavenly fire is infused into the flesh. When called upon, one may unleash the pure power of lightning, and the thunderous after effects. The sorcerer is only mostly protected from the effects. The cost is that calling upon it may cause seizing, electrifying pain and burns, depending on the power.
• Dead Flesh Obeys Me: Casting off small parts of ones own souls to animate dead flesh with the mere motes of spiritual power one has birthed. Painful and exhausting, often involving sweating blood or layers of skin stripping away to fuel it. Crudely animates dead flesh for as long as one can withstand the pain and remain focused. More like disparate body parts clawing and flinging themselves around than anything sapient.
• My Own Breath, Commanded: Using ones own spirit to sieze control over ones breath, something which is already "under your power" and thus easier to control. Allows very mild control over the winds to begin with, honestly like a large number of people blowing fairly hard, but greater exhaustion and training can improve this. Requires one breath out if it blows away from you, and breathing in if it blows towards.
• My Pain Wounds You: Forcing a causal sympathetic connection to a target, and magically altering what actually carries between the two. Pain transformed into actual wounds. Can be made easier by suffering actual wounds in the casting.
• The Cold Touch of Death: Ritually allowing ones hand to become frostbitten, and binding deathly power to the dead flesh of the hand, magically preventing it from causing horrible infections and necrosis. The hands still functions as a hand, but is crude, numb and slow, unable to precisely move. Its touch carries the horrible chill of death and frost with it, to any who touch it, regardless of intent.
• My Dreams Laid Bare: Using ones power over their own dreams to project glamours of sensation, emotion and memory into the world. Flimsy and easy to "wake up from" at first. Effectively no cost, except for the focus required, but very very weak at first, requiring training to bring forth greater effects than prickles of sensation, bursts of intrusive emotion and subtle deja-vu.
  
• The Glory of Daylight: Minor celestial spirits of the daylight sky are bound to ones own souls, carrying a mere fragment of the suns brilliance. A bright aura of light springs forth from the sorcerer, carrying the mystical effects of daylight for a small area. Unfortunately, the temperature of the sorcerer will increase with each moment, faster the brighter the light. This will only stop and begin to reduce when it ends.
  

 

 

 Questions?

I welcome questions about this since they'll help me define this better and better, while keeping the magic system abstract enough to still "work" as magic rather than science.