Geomancy
Geomancy
Roll: Perception + Occult
Time: Varies
Cost: Normally none
Duration: Varies
Geomancy is the art of detecting and manipulating
Essence flows. While thaumaturges cannot work such great
feats as reshaping the very paths of dragon lines or raising and lowering
Demesnes without equally great public-works endeavors, they can, nonetheless,
make works of impressive subtlety and power, and a skilled geomancer with a
dedicated work crew can substantially improve the quality of life of his surroundings.
Geomancy is based on the study of how
Essence naturally flows, what materials or structures impede its progress and
how it can be diverted or manipulated to create eddies or currents. By
reshaping his surroundings, the geomancer can increase the flow of Essence in
an area, bringing bountiful harvests and good fortune. Conversely, he can
retard the flow of Essence in an area, cursing the inhabitants of an area with
blighted crops and disease.
Geomancy, especially when working on
large-scale projects, is remarkably labor and time intensive. While the Essence
of a home can be adjusted in some cases by moving around some furniture,
painting walls and hanging some chimes, shifting the edge flows of a dragon
line so they pass over a villages fields is quite another matter, involving reshaping
the very landscape.
With a successful Perception + Occult roll
made by his player and a few minutes of walking an area (no more than half an acre), the geomancer can ascertain how strong the flow of Essence
is in that area. One success grants some limited understanding of the power
level (high, low, moderate) and, possibly, an idea as to its aspect, if
its very powerfully aspected. Three successes allows the thaumaturge to get a
precise strength, aspect and direction. Five successes gives
the thaumaturge a good start toward a geomantic map
of the area.
The geomancer is able to draw up a precise
map of how Essence moves through an area, pinpointing places that are good (or
bad) for various tasks (animal husbandry, farming, raising families, sorcerous activities). Building this map requires hours or
days of work (figure four hours per half-acre of land surveyed), and it
requires a set of tools that costs Resources 2 to 3. The base difficulty for
this task is 1, but extremely detailed or complex surveys may range as high as
difficulty 3. Geomancy of this nature provides little effect in game terms it
merely tells people where to build, where possible Demesnes are and other minor
details. At best, scrupulously following a detailed survey might allow those
inhabiting and using the buildings built to its standard to reduce the severity
of a botch (so a botch with three 1s might be treated as if only a single 1 and
no successes were rolled).
The geomancer can work with an existing
home or other building, or work with an architect in designing a new home, to
help ensure good fortune. By determining where entrances and exits should be
located, the shape and size of windows, room layouts and decorations, the
geomancer can align the building to different aspects of Essence. This allows the
geomancer to grant a single lucky function to the inhabitants of the house.
The geomancer can expand his area of work
to alter the fortunes of an entire area up to one acre per success scored. This
can involve more than simple architecture and some minor landscaping. Depending
on the area, whole sections of the surrounding terrain may need to be reshaped
to inhibit, enhance or shift the flow of Essence in the area. This process
takes months sometimes years even with a skilled team of workers.
The geomancer is sufficiently skilled
to affect the flow of Essence in relatively subtle fashions. He can use a
single application of this Science to effect more than one form of luck on a
household. Alternately, he can fashion an area suitable for a laboratory. While
no match for a Manse, this space will provide 1 mote of Essence every two hours
for the inhabitant to use.