Legend has it that once, many centuries (or maybe millenia) ago, humans and orcs lived in a golden age of magic. Magic was safe, and commonplace, giving rise to magicificent constructions and infrastructure that was arcane in nature, as opposed to the dark, sooty and lesser mechanological infrastructure that exists in Cassant and the surrounding areas today. Great Leagues and Federations of Wizards and Sorcerors both ruled the world and provided daily miracles to the inhabitants, who lived a life of luxury and ease.

One of the few names that survives from fragmentary texts written several hundreds of years later in languages that are practically forgotten is Golvon the God-king. Golvon was the leader of the largest league of wizards in the world, so the story goes, and secretly ruled no less than half a dozen nations from behind the scenes. Golvon was, depending on the source, either a good man who oversaw the well-being of millions of individuals, or a black-hearted tyrant who milked the people for his own benefit. But in all versions of the myth, he had a dark brother -- and elder brother -- named Bairre.

Bairre was quiet and introspective, without care for others or their concerns, but he was a supposedly brilliant wizard and arcane theorist who was constantly pushing the envelope in regards to magic in the hopes of attaining the power of the gods themselves. And Golvon, if he had any weakness at all, was jealous of his dark brother's brilliance, his influence and standing as a genius, and his ability to be completely detached from the world.

Bairre had embarked on a massive project with hundreds of other wizards, crafting a spell so powerful that it would change the course of history. Legends disagree on the nature of the spell -- some say if it worked it would have allowed mortals to be as the gods, immortal and all-powerful. Others hint at darker purposes, including turning all the world into a silent graveyard as a paeon to Bairre's dark beliefs. Still others claim other wondrous and terrible designs for Bairre's Great Wizardy, as it came to be known.

But Golvon, the God-king, the man who had anything he could want except the academic respect and brilliance of his brother, seethed in his heart at the Great Wizardry and determined that it must fail. Secretly, he went about to hundreds of the other wizards who were contributing to the massive conjuration, whispering, bribing or threatening them to make slight, subtle alterations to their component of the spell. For most, the subtle changes would benefit them directly, and if everyone else did as expected, the subtle changes would have had little effect on the grand design of the Great Wizardry.

But Golvon had influenced so many wizards that when the time came to activate the Great Wizardry, it raged out of control as it bore little resemblance to the carefully planned blueprint of Bairre. The miscast spell of hundreds (if not thousands) of the greatest wizards of the golden age of magic devastated the kingdoms and civilizations of the time, destroying millions of lives (including those of Bairre and Gorvon themselves) and radically altering the landscape as mountains were beat to nothing by the quaking earth, raging magical storms blew down entire forests, seas boiled away, and the world became unrecognizable.

The frightened and tattered remnants of the population struggled through a dark age that lasted a millenium, according to the legends, as civilization gradually rebuilt itself following the cataclysm of the Great Wizardry. Perhaps the most devastating damage done to the world was to its own magical energies, though. Since the catastrophe, the world's connections to its own arcane shell, the Realm of Magic, has been maimed and unable to heal. It is very difficult to tap into magical energy and control it for spellcasting now, and doing so carries the risk that strange and unnatural spirits from beyond will be drawn to the spellcaster. Many of these spirits are clearly demonic in nature, but even the best of them are mercurial, fey and uncaring about mortal lives. Dealing with such magic is also a clear path to eventual insanity, as the cries of agony of the world itself seem to echo in the minds of those who learn such magic, and the demonic entities that now hover outside the twisted and shattered shards of the world's once complete magical shell are always eager to drag the minds, bodies and souls of sorcerors screaming into their dark worlds. Because of this, all spellcasters use the d20 Call of Cthulhu rules for spellcasting (which is not open content) including Sanity loss for learning and casting spells, and possible ability damage (or even drain) for more powerful spells. There is no spell-casting class; any individual can learn spells if he or she so desires, although doing so is highly illegal, and one of the primary magnates of the Inquisition of Cassant is to put an end to any sorcerors and their ways before they become a threat to the safety of the region. In addition, the risk of establishing unwanted contact with a demonic entity, as detailed below, is a constant threat to those who cast spells.

Casting spells, unfortunately, draws the eyes of a number of beings that live in the spiritual Realm of Magic -- and none of them are beings that you want to have notice you. When you cast a spell, you allow them access to you, if they can get through the window quickly enough to do anything. Simply roll a d20 for every time a character attempts to cast a spell. On a result of 1, they have attracted the attention of some demonic otherworldly presence. Roll a d12 to resolve the result, using the following table. Roll Result 1-3 Demons have struck at the caster's mind. Treat the caster as stunned for 1d4 rounds. 4-6 Demons have struck at the caster's mind with a more powerful attack. Treat the caster as paralyzed for 1d4 rounds. 7-8 Demons have attacked the caster physically from the magical realm. The caster takes 2d4 damage from the attack. 9 Powerful demons have been attracted to the caster's spell, and made an attack against the caster. The caster takes 2d8 damage. 10 A minor demon has been drawn out of the magical realm and into the physical realm (for our purposes here, a demon is any outsider or even any strange monster of evil bent, and minor means CR of up to 4.) This creature appears in adjacent to the caster, facing him, and will immediately attack the caster and/or any other creature in the area to which he has been summoned. 11 Having attracted the attention of a powerful demon, at attempt to draw the caster into the magical realm for immediate consumption is made. The caster must make a will save (DC 15 + spell level) or be drawn out of our world and killed immediately. If successful, the caster still takes 3d8 damage, but remains in the normal world. 12 A powerful demon (between CR 5-12 or so) is drawn into the world, and behaves pretty much the same way as it's lesser cousins might -- essentially attempting to kill as much as it can before it is slain and banished back to the magical realm.

Another side effect of the cataclysm is the torn residues of magical energy that thoroughly saturate some areas of the world. These magical "pockets" -- many of them hundreds of miles square -- have left changed landscapes, like the lands northeastward of Cassant which are perpetually enshrouded in darkness, for example. Many of the humans that live in such areas have also been twisted and mutated, thus resulting in the many bloodlines detailed in the races section of this website.

This scattered efluvia of magic has another side effect which researchers have learned to harness: it can be safely stored and used to power the steamworks and clockworks constructs called clanks and others that make the mechanological lifestyle of the region possible. This dark and gritty industrial replacement for the wonders of the age of magic have become fairly widespread, especially in places like Cassant.

Much more difficult to do, and potentially dangerous, this latent magical energy can also be harnessed into effects that are similar to spells, but which can only be safely harnessed through items such as scrolls. These are very rare and expensive, but these "false spells" can in fact be cast by one trained to do so, and without risk to the caster. This is because they are powered by magical energy that was already part of the physical world rather than tapping into the magical nature of the spirit world, as true spellcasters do.

Because of the mythology about magic, there is a fairly widespread distrust of even this non-spellcasting use of magic, but to a limited and highly restricted degree, it is legal in Cassant, and of course clanks and other mechanological creations are vital to the economy of the region.

To utilize scrolls to cast the simulacra of a spell, one must have ranks in the Use Magic Device skill, detailed in the SRD (and repeated here.) Those with the Magician occupation can take ranks in this skill. In addition, the following feat allows one to take ranks in this skill as a class skill. Use Device Proficiency This feat allows characters without the magician occupation to learn to use magical devices, such as scrolls. Benefit: Taking this feat allows the Character to take ranks in the Use Magic Device skill as if it were a class skill at every point in which the character levels, regardless of what class he takes levels in. Normal: The Use Magic Device skill is an exclusive skill that cannot be taken without the Magician occupation. Use Magic Device (Cha) Check: The character can use this skill to activate a magic scroll. This skill lets the character use a scroll as if the character had the spell ability or class features of another class, as if the character were a different race, or as if the character were a different alignment. Use Magic Device Task DC Decipher a spell scroll 25 + Spell Level Emulate spell ability 20 Emulate class feature 20 Emulate ability score See Text Emulate race 25 Activate blindly 25 When the character is attempting to activate a magic item using this skill, the character does so as a standard action. However, the checks the character makes to determine whether the character is successful at emulating the desired factors to successfully perform the activation are instant. They take no time by themselves and are included in the activate magic item standard action. If the character is using the check to emulate an alignment or some other quality in an ongoing manner, the character needs to make the relevant emulation checks once per hour. The character must consciously choose what to emulate. That is, the character has to know what the character is trying to emulate when the character makes an emulation check. Decipher a Spell Scroll: This works just like deciphering a written spell with the Spellcraft skill, except that the DC is 5 points higher. Emulate Spell Ability: This use of the skill allows the character to use a magic item as if the character had a particular spell on the character's class spell list. To cast a spell from a scroll, the character has to have a particular spell on the character's class spell list. By using the skill this way, the character can use such an item as if the character did have the spell on the character's class spell list. The character's effective caster level is the character's result minus 20. (It's okay to have a caster level of 0.) If the character's effective level is lower than the caster level, the character must roll to see if you use the scroll successfuly. This skill does not let the character cast the spell. It only lets the character cast it from a scroll as if the spell were on the character's class list. Note: If the character is casting it from a scroll, the character has to decipher it first. Emulate Class Feature: Sometimes the character needs to use a class feature to activate a magic item. The character's effective level in the emulated class equals the character's result minus 20. This skill does not let the character use the class feature of another class. It just lets the character activate magic items as if the character had the class feature. Emulate Ability Score: To cast a spell from a scroll, the character needs a high ability score in the appropriate ability (Intelligence for wizard spells, Wisdom for divine spells, and Charisma for sorcerer or bard spells). The character's effective ability score (appropriate to the class the character is emulating when the character tries to cast the spell from the scroll) is the character's result minus 15. If the character already has a high enough score in the appropriate ability, the character doesn't need to make this check. Emulate Race: Some magic items work only for certain races, or work better for those of certain races. The character can use such an item as if the character were a race of the character's choice. The character can emulate only one race at a time. Activate Blindly: Some magic items are activated by special words, thoughts, or actions. The character can activate such items as if the character were using the activation word, thought, or action even if the character is not and even if the character doesn't know it. The character does have to use something equivalent. The character has to speak, wave the item around, or otherwise attempt to get it to activate. The character gets a special +2 bonus if the character has activated the item at least once before. If the character fails by 10 or more, the character suffers a mishap. A mishap means that magical energy gets released but it doesn't do what the character wanted it to do. The GM determines the result of a mishap. The default mishaps are that the item affects the wrong target or that uncontrolled magical energy gets released, dealing 2d6 points of damage to the character. Note: This mishap is in addition to the chance for a mishap that the character normally runs when the character casts a spell from a scroll and the spell's caster level is higher than the character's level. Retry: Yes, but if the character ever rolls a natural 1 while attempting to activate an item and the character fails, then the character can't try to activate it again for a day. Special: The character cannot take 10 with this skill. Magic is too unpredictable for the character to use this skill reliably. If the character has 5 or more ranks in Spellcraft, the character gets a +2 synergy bonus on Use Magic Device checks related to scrolls. If the character has 5 or more ranks in Decipher Script, the character gets a +2 synergy bonus on Use Magic Device checks related to scrolls. These bonuses stack. In addition to making the Use Magic Device check to "cast a spell" from a scroll, characters also find that it is very draining and tiring to do so due to the intense concentration and exacting rituals required to make the scroll work. Scrolls are designed to be very safe to use in terms of Sanity (although that is not necessarily so true for scroll creation...) but they do cause d4-1 (i.e., 0-3) points of Constitution damage. For this reason, nobody tosses off scrolls carelessly or casually -- you can only use so many of them in a given day before you are literally too weak to do anything else. This Con damage recovers normally.

Spell scrolls should not be available on the general market, as they are very expensive and have a small potential market. As members of the Inquisition, the PCs probably have access to two or three for every mission they are assigned, and if they can find a manufacturer (or black market) they can also buy more as desired. What spells are available are determined by the GM, but they will generally be of levels 0-2 and are much more likely to be arcane instead of divine.