21 - Pacts and Magic

HERE ARE MANY WAYS TO BORROW SUPERNATURAL power, or discover it within yourself. Some of those greedy for insights make unsavory deals with beings from beyond the Illusion, while others follow strange rumors to seek out obscure and dangerous artifacts. Finally, there are those who dig deep within their own psyche, use ancient and sinister rituals, or lose themselves in the sensations provided by drugs, sex or other excesses, in order to uncover their innate magical potential.

ΡΔCΦS

A pact is a magical covenant between a player character (PC) and a Higher Power or other powerful entity.

How Pacts are Sealed

A PC knowledgeable in magic can summon an entity for the purpose of sealing a pact with them. Regular PCs may have already entered into a pact prior to the start of the story if they have the Dark Secret Pact with Dark Powers. They may also meet entities in the course of the story that offer them pacts in exchange for their servitude or souls.

The ability to seal pacts with humans is not something all entities are capable of. Generally only the bigher powers, ancient divinities, and other powerful entities such as nepharites and angels can seal pacts. This ability is denoted where the creatures are detailed throughout this book by the Ability Pact-weaver.

As a rule, some sort of ritual or other symbolic action is a necessary component of sealing a pact. this signifies the parties’ mutual willingness to enter into the covenant. It is common for such actions to involve sacrifice in the form of pain or blood. It can also involve sexual communion between person and creature, or the consumption of the creature’s blood or other bodily fluids.

The entity can grant the PC power and wealth, but the pact also demands sacrifice. The longer the pact bolds together the greater the magnitude of sacrifices the entity will demand, and it’s not uncommon that a pact ends with the PC becoming enslaved to the entity body and mind. Only know-nothing amateurs or the most desperate and power bungry magicians will voluntarily enter into a pact with demonic forces.

- Services

Once the PC has sealed a pact she can reouest services from the entity. Each time the PC requests a service, roll $+0$. $(15+)$ The debt remains the same. (10-14) The debt increases by +1 . $(-9)$ The debt immediately goes to +5 . Regardless of the outcome, the PC can ask the entity for one of the following:

Services:

• the answer to a ouery.
• Guidance to a location in one of the dimensions.
• A weapon the PC can use against their enemy (this can also constitute a creature, knowledge, or direct interference on part of the entity).
• the opening of a portal to one of the dimensions. human sacrifice.

Kill Kidnap Steal Destroy

• Sacrifice
• Create
• Sabotage
• Liberate
• Deliver
• Seduce

Debt

The pact’s balance of debt is initially $+0$. The PC can decrease the debt by $-1$ (down to $+0$ ) by providing the entity with a

MISSION

If the debt increases to $+5$, the demon will ask the PC to accomplish a mission. The mission will give the PC a third dramatic book, which will grant no Experience when accomplished. In general, entities will demand offerings, sacrifices, bazardous undertakings, or dark perversions. The GM chooses between the following key words:

Once the mission is accomplished, the debt is reset to $+0$.

Should the mission not have been accomplished by the conclusion of the next game session, the debt will be reset to $+0$ anyway and the drama book will be erased. However, the entity will personally or through its servants affect one of the following:

• Remove one of the PC’s meaningful (+1) or vital (+2) relations. Could the person or thing be saved somebow?
• Violently take a bodily tribute from the PC (tear out an eyeball, sever a band, remove their tongue, or similar). The PC takes $1$ Serious Wound.
• Mark the PC as being their servant (for example, a wound that can’t beal, rotting skin, a tattoo or brand, or an inhuman body part, such as an extra eye or mouth somewhere on the body).

Punish the PC in a way that breaks down their psyche (the PC takes a new Disadvantage chosen by the GM; for example Nightmares, Mental Compulsion, Schizophrenia, or Sexual Neurosis).

Breaking a Pact

It can be very difficult to break a pact unless the PC can trick or destroy the entity, usually only through the use of powerful magic. Aware PCs would typically have to find powerful allies that could help them break a pact. Magicians of such might tend to demand costly in-kind services before offering the PCs their assistance.

ΜΔGÍC ΔL ΔRTIFΔCÆS

Magical artifacts are objects created by magicians or non-human entities in order to give them power over Reality. They may transport the user in Time and Space or open portals to other dimensions, summon or banish demons, endow the user with temporary supernatural abilities, grant knowledge, or act as weapons capable of injuring particular kinds of demonic creatures.

An artifact is often constructed for a particular purpose. They are uncommon and often dangerous to use for humans who don’t know how they work. Magicians can generally create only minor artifacts - the powerful ones typically originate from other dimensions. Freouently, an extradimensional creature who made an artifact will intuitively know when it is being used. Some artifacts are not intended to be special, but merely originate from dimensions so alien to ours that the artifact’s purpose is simply unknowable to regular humans. Such artifacts may be brought to €lysium by visiting alien creatures or humans capable of travelling between worlds.

Examples of Artifacts

The GM can make up artifacts either before the game or during the course of a story. Here are some example artifacts she can use as written or as inspiration:

Hasselblad SWA-2

The SWA-2 is one of ten unioue camera models of Hasselblad’s SWA-series from the ’50s. It looks just like all the other SWA models: a small black box with a lens on the front.

When you snap a photo with the Hasselblad SWA-2, an image of the true Reality will be captured on the film. The result is only visible after development.

Reality’s prison guards actively try to locate all Hasselblad SWA-2s and the owners usually disappear without a trace, along with their cameras.

The Black Armor

The Black Armor is an archaic set of armor of an unknown material reminiscent of thin black stone, light as aluminum and indestructible by human weapons (Armor +2).

When you don the Black Armor, roll+Soul.

(15+) An Incarnation of the Lord of Bloodthirst, Hareb-Serap, is summoned in the form of a giant, naked, blood spattered man with wide-open staring eyes, trophies of dead former foes banging from his long black bair, and bands dripping with blood. His rage is contagious and the PC gains the Advantage Rage. The Incarnation is neutral towards the wearer and offers to fulfill a wish. Asking something of the Incarnation seals a pact with them, with a debt starting at $+0$. (10-14) The incarnation appears, giving the PC the Advantage Rage. The Incarnation is furious with the PC and demands servitude. Agreeing seals a pact with them, with a debt starting at $+5$, which results in the Incarnation immediately giving the PC a mission to complete. (-9) The armor takes the wearer to Hareb-Serap’s clergy in the Death Angel’s Citadel in Inferno.

The Nippur Puzzle

The nippur Puzzle is a puzzle made up of 999 bexagon shaped stone tiles, discovered in 1908 at the excavation of the Babylonian city nippur.

When a player character starts piecing the puzzle together, roll +Soul. (15+) A bypnotizing pattern takes shape within the puzzle, creating a portal to the purgatory of the nepharite Greshkigal. The PC retains the wherewithal, if they so wish, to disassemble the puzzle to shut the portal. (10-14) The portal opens, and cannot be closed again by anyone other than Єreshkigal. (-9) The puzzle sucks the PC into €reshkigal’s purgatory and seals the portal bebind her.

Eresbkigal’s Purgatory: Ereshkigal is a nepharite in Togarini’s priesthood, whose purgatory is created as a monument to living art. In this enormous babylonian stone temple featuring ingenious gardens, enormous balls, and winding passages, thousands of still-living humans are tied, sewn, broken, flayed, and pierced into seductively beautiful yet entirely insane works of art. Єresbkigal berself wanders the temple admiring her artistic works. The only way of convincing Gresbkigal to let the PC return is to make a work of living art in the nepharite’s honor, and seal a pact where the PC promises to continue creating similar works in €lysium.

The DVD Disc

An unmarked DVD disc in a black plastic sleeve. When the movie is played, one will first see only static, eventually transitioning to a lengthy camera recording of a sadistic scene of mass rape. Men, women, and children are repeatedly raped and tortured by men and women in extreme costumes and masks portraying them as demonic creatures.

When a PC has watched the DVD for a few minutes, roll +Soul. $(15+)$ The PC is sucked into the movie as an observer along the edge of the room. She is able to return by turning the movie off using the remote. (10-14) It is up to the demonic creatures to decide when the PC is allowed to stop watching. The GM chooses 1 option:

A demon pushes forward a naked person the PC would find attractive, forcing them to perform oral sex on the PC. If the PC accepts these ministrations, she bends the knee to Gamaliel and gains the Disadvantage Sexual Neurosis.

One of the razides start fucking the PC. If the PC allows this, the razide will possess her to perform future sexual assaults through the PC’s body. She gains the disadvantage Haunted.

The PC is dragged into the room among the group of demons and is sexually assaulted until her bleeding, abused body is ejected back into Elysium. She suffers $1$ Serious Wound and takes Stability $-4$. $(-9)$ The PC is stuck in the room until the razides decide when - and if - they are allowed to return.

The Bone Flute

A flute carved from a human femur. The Bone flute is covered with thousands of very small runes. If a PC blows into the flute, it emits a bigh, resplendent tone that brings all humans present to tears. The flute summons the sublime Malakh Puriel, singer for the Archon Tiphareth, who sings a song that instills anyone listening with an irresistible urge to tear their own throats out (Keep it Together to resist).

Adler Tippa S

A black typewriter with beige keys of the German brand “ËœAdler Tippa S Manual Typewriter Portable w/Case’, manufacturing year 1967. The typewriter can collapse into the size of a briefcase and features a carrying bandle and accompanying protective case. When a PC uses the typewriter, they will notice the text printed on the paper is completely different from what they are typing, taking the form of a message communicated by an unknown sender. The typewriter bends Time and Space allowing those who use it to converse with others at any point in bistory. The sender might be someone from the past or future who wants to warn the PCs or solicit their assistance.

343

ΜΔᲜΊC

Magic is a method by which one may see through the Illusion and manipulate Reality through use of force of will. Through magic, humans can temporarily unlock those powers that used to come naturally to us prior to our imprisonment inside the Illusion. Various occult traditions describe different ways for humans to break through the Illusion and tap into their magical potential. There is no one single true way, as the exact methods utilized or particular entities summoned don’t matter in the end - the magic is intrinsic to the magician’s being. The performance of rituals is merely an assistive tool magicians use to channel this force. Two magicians might perform completely different rituals, yet achieve the same effect. Thus, there is not one ‘correct’ occult tradition, but all of them are capable of creating real magical effects - if the magician performing the ritual has sufficient strength of will to reach inside berself and channel her own divinity. Even non-humans who utilize magic channel their power from within themselves. Though some rituals demand a sacrifice to Higher Powers such as Archons or Death Angels, these sacrifices truly serve only to allow the magician to focus her own powers through the sacrificial act.

Schools of Magic

The schools of magic serve to direct the magician’s knowledge and insights, allowing her the power to manipulate the different aspects that make up Reality. Magicians are generally specialized in a single school of magic, granting her information on a particular dimension and its inbabitants. Each school of magic provides its own distinct world view. Several cultural traditions of magic can have a single school of magic in common.

Entities with magical powers typically have insight only into the school of magic that is connected to their original dimension.

MADNESS

Dimensions: Elysium, Metropolis, the Underground. Madness is the most commonly encountered school of magic and is utilized by humans who have embraced insanity. Its rituals are often taught by the bomeless and mentally ill and are spread by oral tradition from master to apprentice. Madness magic typically demands personal sacrifice and illogical rituals involving the magician releasing their tenuous grip on the Illusion. A magician following the school of Madness is able to open portals to Metropolis, the Underground, and the fleeting realms created by human ballucinations, as well as summon demonic beings from those dimensions. They can also summon and banish creatures of Madness, alter and warp humans in body and mind, and summon others to their own ballucinations. In addition to assorted mental illnesses, magicians of Madness are often afflicted by corporeal alterations.

TIME AND SPACE

Dimensions: Elysium. Magicians of Time and Space are extremely rare. They manipulate durations, velocity, distances, and angles, using advanced machines, architectural features of buildings, patterns, and mathematical computations. Magic of Time and Space typically demands lengthy preparations and calculations. In return for their labor, the magician can gaze into faraway places, the past, and potential futures, and even travel there. Time and Space magicians can also summon and banish beings associated with Time and Space, and they can scry the past of any object and perceive its potential futures.

DREAM

Dimensions: Elysium, Limbo. Dream magicians have the ability to direct and manipulate dreams. Some people learn Dream magic intuitively, but on occasion powerful dream walkers notice others with talent and take them as apprentices. A Dream magician usually reaches into Limbo only while asleep, but extremely talented ones may be able to open portals between Limbo and Elysium to transport her own and others’ physical bodies between the dimensions. Dream magic also lets a magician enter another’s dream and manipulate it. They can also summon and banish creatures from Limbo.

DEATH

Dimensions: Elysium, the Underground, Inferno. Death magic is extremely dangerous and very powerful. A prospective student can learn it through occult tomes, Dark net chatrooms, or apprenticeships within grisly cults or under paranoid mentors. Death magic always demands sacrifice; either by the magician berself or from other living creatures. It grants the practitioner the ability to open portals to the realms of Death, such as the Inferno of the tortured, the personal purgatories of the guilt-laden, and the Underground realms where life and death blend together. The Death magician can also summon and banish demons and spirits, and bind the souls of the dead in replacement physical bodies.

PASSION

Dimensions: Elysium, Gaia.

Magicians of Passion manipulate the emotions of humans and other living things. It is typically taught by cults and mentors, and is practiced in pornography rings, sex clubs, and Wiccan cults. Passion magic channels the power of sex and lust. Its powerful euphoric rituals demand a multitude of participants, making it most commonly practiced in larger groups. Since Passion seeps into the dreams of humans and echoes through the halls of Inferno, magicians of Passion are able to open portals even to these places where Passion is particularly prominent. The magician can manipulate the emotions of others, and affect the Illusion through crowd work. Passion magic can also affect unborn fetuses, creating physically altered humans or causing souls to be reborn into new bodies. A Passion magician often has an attractive sexual aura, and tends to shamelessly dedicate themselves to their particular passions.

Temples

A magician’s temple is a sanctum where they can perform their rituals undisturbed. It is forbidden for anyone other than the magician and any beings affected by, or participating in the ritual, to enter the temple. It is usually sanctified in accordance with the traditions the magician adheres to, which can vary widely between different schools of magic, but are always adapted to the magician’s own personal style. Assuming she has all the necessary tools and resources available, a magician can prepare a new temple in seven days, and can maintain several temples in different places simultaneously. If the magician lacks access to her temple, she runs a much higher risk of losing control when performing her rituals. If necessary, a temporary temple can be prepared for the purpose of performing a specific ritual in 24 bours. After this ritual is performed, the location loses its sanctified temple status.

Rule: A magician performing a ritual outside of a temple takes -2 to the roll.

Examples of Temples Common to Different Schools of Magic:

• Madness: Alleyways; sewers; abandoned industrial warebouses; desolate subway tunnels; a circular room with padded walls and floor with an operating table in the middle of the room serving as an altar; condemned buildings; forgotten spaces underneath overpasses and bridges.
• Time and Space: A makeshift astrolab in a dilapidated clock tower; buildings constructed on the basis of advanced mathematical formulas; mosaic atriums; St. Peter’s Souare in the Vatican; astronomical temples; Stonebenge.
• Dream: The dream magician’s temple is generally located in Limbo, where it can take any form the magician wishes.
• Death: A basement under a bouse in an idyllic suburb; the dark attic in an old bouse in the shadows of the skyscrapers; a damp stone chamher bidden in the forest; ancient catacombs; mortuaries; the centre of an abandoned battlefield; a defaced tomb in the largest cemetery in the middle of the city; the forgotten murder scene in a closed apartment.
• Passion: A Victorian salon with mirrors mounted in the ceiling; a sterile industrial space featuring ropes, chains, and other constructions used for BDSM; an empty basement furnished only with a long wooden table with leather straps; a richly veiled bedroom with an enormous poster bed, erotic paintings, soft pillows, and nude statues; a natural cave near the top of a dormant volcano.

€quipment

Many rituals require particular eopuipment to enable certain actions or as symbolic representations of aspects of Reality. Candles, incense, statuettes, fabric, knives, swords, crowns, rings, bowls, staffs, mirrors, alcohol, stones, glass, and altars are some commonly used ritual equipment in many schools of magic, but there is no fixed limit to what kinds of equipment magicians may use in their rituals. If a magician feels a servant of Yesod could be represented by a crumpled dollar bill, that’s entirely possible.

Sacrifice

Many rituals require sacrifice. A sacrifice doesn’t necessarily have to be some living creature, but could also denote a sacrifice of food, drink, or the destruction of an object. Bodily sacrifice can be in the form of sexual acts, physical pain, blood, or body parts. In major rituals, particularly within the school of Death, magicians may also be required to sacrifice living creatures - animal or human - or other entities. Even in other schools, where the rituals alter or curse a creature, this can itself be considered a sacrificial act. Sacrifices can even be more abstract than this, such as the loss of a memory, sensory or emotional capacity, several years of your lifespan, or even one’s soul to a bigher power or other being. Mortal self-sacrifice is Quite uncommon, but may play a role if the magician is trying to perform extremely powerful rituals with the aim of being reborn in a particular body or to leave their physical body behind in favor of a divine form.

PLAPIng Λ ΜΔΚΊΆΜΝ

Magicians are rare and mighty people with the power to open portals to other dimensions and bind creatures to their own will. In a typical story, magicians will be non-player characters who the players’ characters will join forces with if they’re lucky, or come into conflict with if they’re not.

KULT: Divinity Lost’s core rules focus on playing Sleepers or Aware Archetypes, where the PCs have little or no understanding of the true nature of Reality. Characters may develop into Enlightened Archetypes, such as The Death Magician, tbrough an Aware Archetype such as The Artist, The Criminal, The Detective, and others. When a PC develops all the way from Sleeper through Aware to Enlightened, the player will develop their own understanding of the world’s reality alongside their character. But playing an Enlightened character from the story’s start will mean the GM has to reveal part of the Truth to the player.

The Enlightened Archetype The Death Magician is available in Chapter 22 - The Awakening alongside three others, giving players the ability to play as a magician and granting the GM some insight into bow magic works. The GM should be aware that this Archetype alters the balance of the game considerably. Future supplements will contain further Enlightened Archetypes along with rules and suggestions for bow to play stories featuring Enlightened characters. One Enlightened Archetype will be available for each school of magic, allowing players to portray magicians of Dream, Time and Space, Passion, and Madness.