Sensitives
When a person is born sensitive, it means they have an innate, natural talent for sensing another person's magical ability. This does not mean that you know what flavor of magic they are, nor does it mean that you recognize what kind of magic either i.e., vampires and shifters. With human magic, it must be performed in front of you or you must touch the person in question. This sensing may come in the form of hair raising on the arms, goose bumps, hair standing up on the back of the neck, or another similar type of reaction that you may choose (with staff approval). When you are sensitive it must be clear in your background whether you know what the feeling is or not. We need to know if you have been taught anything, or if you are completely oblivious to what the feelings mean, another option is to be suppressing it.
The only special ability allowed to sensitives is Sensitive.
Healers
Although many Faithful, Summoners, and Sorcerers can heal folks, it is not unheard of for someone to just have a natural knack for the preternatural healing of folks.
The only special abilities allowed to healers are Healing and Sensitive.
Psychics
Psychics are those who have an innate psychic ability. Clairvoyance, Pyrokinesis, Telepathy, Telekinesis, etc.
Not all are quite as flashy as the Stupendous Yappi (Dial 1-800-555-YAPP)
SEE: Psychic Abilities
Sorcerers
Much like Animators and Psychics, one is either born with the knack for magic, or one isn't. Sometimes it lies dormant until one learns how to properly wrangle the arcane forces, other times it's a thing known for most of a person's life. The breadth and width of magical abilities range as far as one can imagine, from as powerful as demon summoning to as minor as luck charms.
Many folks confuse Sorcerers with Faithful, even Anita*. The first are folks with magical aptitude that they've had since birth. The second are folks who may've made pacts with "the great beyond" for powers. Much like in Harry Potter, a perfectly normal person has no access to odd preternatural magic unless they were born with the knack (or fall under the Faithful loophole).
Due to this width, one must work carefully with staff in the creation of a magical character, determining the powers and limits of the character by way of +cnotes and Magical Ability.
PLEASE NOTE: ICly it is highly illegal to use magic to kill someone, even if done in self-defense. And by 'highly illegal', we mean a mandatory death sentence. This doesn't mean you can't nor does it mean Staff is against the idea…it's just a warning that there may be IC consequences one won't care for if it's found out. SEE: RPIT
SEE: Sorcerer Abilities
* Please note, Anita refers to folks who've whistled up demons and spirits and cut deals with those aforementioned forces as "Sorcerers". Feel free to ICly call them that, but OOCly we call those folks Summoners and/or Faithful instead of Sorcerers.
Animators & Necromancers
An Animator is someone who can control their natural ability to raise the dead as Zombies. Through training, they have harvested their skills to make them profitable. They can raise the dead at will with a small magical ritual, involving a sacrifice (chicken, goat, etc). The larger the sacrifice, the older the zombie they can raise. They have the ability to sense the dead in the ground.
Animators are those born with the knack for raising the dead, but who have had to work to learn their craft. Necromancers are those who have almost no choice but to raise the dead. Both show an affinity for allowing ghosts to manifest (for better or for worse), and it is not unknown for someone with the animation knack to never get into the practice of raising zombies, and instead focusing their attentions towards working as a medium.
Necromancers reportedly have nearly complete control over all things dead or undead. Their Necromancy can be used for added Raising ability, attempts to wrestle other folks' zombies from the original raiser's control, and (at very high levels) can be used to usurp vampires. This last one isn't common at all, but that hardly prevents many vampires from seeing all Necromancers as a threat. Another downfall of Necromancy is the chance of accidental raising of zombies (often the first sign of someone being a Necromancer), as well as an added "level of attention" towards ghosts (SEE: Ghosts).
Two on-grid Animation firms are Chayim Animation and Eisegesis Inc. The former is a small local business, focusing specifically on zombie raising. The latter is a small chain, with at least six branches across the Midwest and New England, covering zombie raising, "ghost hunting", and dabbling in demonology.
SEE: Animator Abilities
Faithful
Faithful, Zealots, Faith-healers, Mambas, anyone with so much Faith in their Gods or God or Goddesses or Divine Spirit that their Pantheon favors them, and works miracles through them. This covers Christian Miracle Workers, Jewish Tzadikim, Demonologists, Hindi Paramahamsas, Vaudoun Houngans & Mambos, Buddhist Arhats, Santeria Olorishas, high-level Operating Thetans, and many others.
To be a Faithful you have to have at least Faith:15, and your Faith + Occult has to equal 30 or higher. e.g. You can have a Faithful at Faith :15 and Occult:15, or at Faith:30, but not at Occult:30.
Each Faithful can choose 1 (one) Patron. This is a really big massively powerful spirit that will always and forever be controlled by staff. They will +cnote this spirit, and what they do on a regular basis to appease this spirit and stay in it's good favor. e.g. Someone has taken Jesus as a patron because they are Christian, or perhaps a particular Patron Saint (for less diversity, but faster service). They appease Him by going to church every Sunday, singing hymns of praise in His name, and spreading His word. Or someone who is Vodoun takes Damballah as their patron. They appease him by keeping snakes, and feeding these snakes eggs.
Common Spirits
Aside from having a Patron all Faithful can summon common spirits of their Faith to help them with tasks that could not usually happen. These spirits have stats, skills, and abilities equal to the Faithful's (Faith + Occult) - 30. So someone with Faith:20 and Occult:20 can whistle up spirits with 10s in their attributes and skills and abilities ( (20+20)-30=10 ). And they can do things like help you set something on fire, or heal someone. When just whistling up a spirit, one generally doesn't need to go through staff.
With Faith+Occult at 30, one can assume the spirits can actually do things even though their stats are all at 0; it's just that if there's any attempts of their stats versus someone (or something) else's stats, use '0' in the effective +compare. They're as useful as any ghost that one might have control over. If your Patron is St.Jude, you don't really need to dial up Jude (or staff) if you just want some common spirits to hoist you up a foot off the ground and make you glow a bit.
A given spirit can assist for as many poses as 1/5th of the Faithful's Faith (or until the requested deed is done, whichever comes first) and as many times a day as 1/10th of the Faithful's Faith — this means that, at the very least (Faith:15), a Faithful gets to do three funky poses, once or twice a day. To call more often per day (and/or more minutes/poses) prompts Drain on the Faithful on a 1-to-1 scale. If the Faithful has more Drain than their Faith, no spirits.
Long-Term Boons
One can try to barter a deal with these spirits for long-term boons, but the price may be steep, dire and/or unexpected (NOTE: This is when one should contact staff with +request if requesting a boon from spirits, along with possibly what your character will offer for the favor. Note though, the price might end up more than what you're offering).
When a Faithful wants to use a long-term boon from their Patron in-game they can work out the details with staff beforehand (covering what deal they've cut with their patron), or have staff around for the scene (if it's a new deal). Either they can do this via @mail/+Request, or they can have staff run a scene for them. Staff is encouraged to have them +roll/per Faith+Occult or Faith+Willpower, whichever makes sense for the situation. And then they must negotiate with their Patron, or give an offering that is appeasing to them, before they will do what the Faithful wants.
Oftentimes, the actions of "Faith tricks" by way of common spirits or Patrons' boons will leave a thin layer of dust/ash behind (known to some as "vibhuti"). Although this ash can be quite easily determined to be of preternatural origin (EG: an element-by-element analysis will turn up nothing, as if it didn't exist), it is equally as easily not noticed as potential evidence. A sensitive can often tell the victim of the tricks who the spirit is. The spirit may cooperate and give up the name of their master if the person asking has higher Occult + Theology + Faith than the master's Occult + Faith + Theology.
Example +Cnotes
Patron +Cnote
Approved by Lyle on date Wed Jun 04 02:31:28 2008
Nathaniel or Nathanael.
In Jewish legendary lore, Nathanael is the 6th created angel and one of the 12 angels of vengeance. He is lord over the element of fire. He is the angel who "burned the servants of Jair" in the contest between God and Baal, saving from fire the 7 men who would not sacrifice to the pagan deity. In Waite, Nathanael is the angels of the 6th hour, serving under Samil. He is also one of the 3 angels (with Ingethal and Zeruch) set over hidden things. A legend states that it was Nathaneal who was sent from Heaven by God to help the warrior Cerez defeat the Amorites.
To honor Nathanael on the sixth day of every week (saturday) she starts up a fire and keeps it burning for six hours, from midnight to six am. She attends the fire and does not do anything but tend to the fire.
Patron Benefits +Cnote (Long term Boons).
Approved by Lyle on date Wed Jun 04 02:31:37 2008
Amalia's patron is Nathaneal, an angel of fire. She calls on him by sacrificing a prayer written onto
parchment to a fire. When she does so she is granted the following benefits for the scene she has
called on him:
- A boost to her pyrokinetic powers equal to 1dFaith.
- A boost to her resistant to supernatural affects (IE: vampire/mage/psychic tricks) equal to 1dFaith.
Summoners
Summoning is one of the most dangerous of magics. Who knows what you summon? Will it really be that Ifrit you were trying to summon? Or will it be a Djinn who will pretend to give you what you want.
Summoners can summon: demons, monsters, spirits, ghosts. Because they all work the same way. They live in a different sort of existence. And when you pay attention to them you give them the power to manifest into this world. This is basically what summoning is. Paying attention to something long enough to bring it into this world.
After that it is a matter of knowing the spirit's "ban" for lack of a better term, to make it do what you want it to do. Most of the time it isn't actually what you think it is. Lesser spirit-creatures will only take a little bit from you and do your bidding, and then go back to their own world.
The stronger, the harder to summon, spirits are much more difficult to control and once summoned often kill the summoner when they break the hold of the summoner. And then cause havoc all over the city they were released into.
The system is roughly: At Occult:30+, one knows how to find and summon spirit-creatures. The things they can summon have stats and skills and limited abilities equal to the summoner's Occult - 30. This means the strongest any spirit-creature summoned without staff approval would be one with 20s in stats.
When the summoner has the spirit-creature manifested into this realm they then have to roll/per their Willpower + Faith to see if they manage to bend the spirit to their will. If this roll does not succeed they then must take a drain equal to their Occult - 30.
While summoners CAN summon more powerful spirit-creatures than their Occult - 30 this requires staff to approve the summoning. And the spirit is then in the control of staff, because it is not likely that the spirit will respect or obey the summoner, and the summoner may very well end up dead.
When summoning something more powerful, it is suggested the Summoner work up exactly what it is they are ICly asking for, and what they're offering the spirit(s) in return. After that, it's a matter of ICly repeating this deal to The Great Beyond in the hopes that something will answer (OOCly, it's waiting to see if staff goes for it) for generally at least a few days. Obviously, offers of "anything" tend to catch the spirits' eyes far more quickly, although the price they enact might not be something too pleasing (…cue ominous music…)